Among the hustle and bustle of daily classes on the CSU Long Beach campus you may notice a rare catch – a niche community of students staring down at their phones with a shared conquest to capture legendary Pokémon.
The weekend of Oct. 28 marked a rare reason for CSULB’s Pokémon Go community to congregate: Shadow Lugia.
The Legendary Pokémon has made its return in special raids, which requires groups of five to 20 players to take it down with their own monsters.
Once defeated, players have a chance to capture it, with high hopes to obtain a shiny: a rare, different colored variant of a Pokémon.
Freshman computer science major, Robby McCaffrey, came to campus on Saturday with this exact hope in mind. McCaffrey had taken a large break from the app and began playing again since his start at CSULB.
“I was just kind of bored, so I opened it and realized this campus was really good for Pokémon Go with all the Pokéstops and Gyms,” McCaffrey said. “And there’s an active community.”
Pokémon Go requires the player to walk long distances to capture Pokémon and visit landmarks to obtain items.
The Beach’s campus is suitable for gameplay, which has drawn a community of students, alumni and locals to visit the campus to further their Pokémon completion goals.
McCaffrey reached the goal he set out today, and captured a Shadow Shiny Lugia.
Jaime Uriostegui, a student obtaining their teaching credential at The Beach, tackled this same goal with a group of friends he had met on campus because of Pokémon Go.
Uriostegui found his way into the community through another player, Angie Brulc, a CSULB alumni who graduated this fall with a physics degree.
“I remember I was walking around, trying to do a raid, and I saw them sitting on a bench,” Uriostegui said. “They introduced me to the Discord where we all talk.”
Brulc herself has been a consistent player since the app’s launch and said she enjoys the app because it allows her to meet new people and gets her out moving.
“Everyone’s really friendly. They wait for you to do raids, which not everyone does,” Brulc said.
Samuel Lee, a transfer student and computer science major, is also an active member of the Discord server. Lee, Brulc, Uriostegui and other players utilize it to communicate, show off their best catches, organize trades and plan meetups.
Lee found the community when he was on campus one day catching Pokémon and received an invite to the server from a large group of players. Since then, he’s been an active member.
“I really like our community on campus. I’ve made some unexpected friends as well,” Lee said.
Pokémon GO hosts special events quite often, with an upcoming raid day on Nov. 11 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. featuring Mega Garchomp.
If you are a player interested in teaming up with CSULB’s Pokemon Go community, you can join the Discord here.