Lured Up & The Pokémon Professor Network

🍎NY STATE OF GRIND 3🍎 . Join Ken & Adam from the Lured Up Podcast for an all day grind through Manhattan during Day One of GO Fest: Global! Can you hit our goals? . ⏱️ Sat, 7/11, 10am-7pm 📍 Bryant Park, NYC ℹ️ luredup.com #Pokemon #PokemonGO #PokemonGOFest2026

@PokeProfNet Don't stop (Don't stop), don't stop the beat I can't stop (Can't stop), can't stop the beat I won't stop (Won't stop), won't stop the beat, and go

No rest for the weary! Can’t stop, won’t stop! #PokemonGO

There’s a horde of people at this shopping center in Austin, apparently here because there’s a “Mega Mewtwo” on Pokémon Go… These are mostly grown adults.

The difference in how we think is that the things you call barriers are literally the way this game creates difficulty. It is unlike difficulty in any other type of game because it has a community element which other games do not. It’s harder to play with a bunch of randos (even in person) than it is to play with a well oiled and cohesive community. Playing in Red Bank today, Mewtwo’s shields melted away in seconds without a second thought. Playing in NY yesterday, even though I had a pool of thousands of players to Raid with, but it was way more difficult and a whole lot more frustrating. (Local) Community play is the way.

You’re not wrong and that is the beauty of a local community. Where you and I will continue to have a fundamental agreement, Ken, is on the last point. No issue with difficult games… we grew up with generally harder games than most kids do today! But PoGO creates artificial barriers seemingly just for the sake of having them. They’re not a true challenge, they’re just… there. Extra walls to climb, not to create a grand sense of accomplishment when you’re done, but just to create the need for more raiders, more items they create just to feed into these artificial barriers, more things to slow you down. It doesn’t feel like an accomplishment. It doesn’t have that thrill of victory that I think they want to create with large groups. It just feels like an endless cycle that keeps stretching just enough out of reach to keep you spending more time, money, and grinding just for the sake of doing it. It’s exhausting without ever feeling like you’ve “made it”, like it was worth it. It’s FOMO and it’s stifling until you finally break free and just enjoy the game YOU want to and don’t worry about chasing the dangling carrot all the time. I’ve come to terms with that, but that doesn’t mean I won’t continue to point out that it is, in my continuing opinion, a bad and — yes — LAZY system.

I see a LOT of people frustrated by players who aren’t bringing the right Pokemon to these Mega Mewtwo battles, and unfortunately some of it is getting really nasty. 😔 Don’t hate the players. Hate the stupid, lazy mechanic & unnecessary hoops we’ve been forced to jump through.

@labellamundo5 Episode 400 is out on all platforms! We recorded it from our hotel room in NYC!

@PokeProfNet Keeping quiet is interesting… was looking forward to your thoughts. At least you guys seriously play.. some of these 100 flexers are crazy

Lured Up will be recording shortly and will address a lot of the emotions, negativity, and misinformation going around about the 10th Anniversary Event. If there is anything specific you would like us to cover, drop it below. #LuredUp #PokemonGO #PokemonGO10

@stockfished I didn’t want to insufferably hurt your eyes by forcing them to read additional words. By the way, screed is such an awesome word. Kudos for getting it in.

@PokeProfNet Now you’re trying that fake breezy shtick right after writing a long-ass screed on “drawing the line” 😂

Interesting controversy in Pokemon Go: The game has been out for ten years and is celebrating its tenth anniversary. To celebrate, they had a lavish event in Times Square last night, where the game took over all the screens and participants could battle the legendary Pokemon Mewtwo in the game. This echoed a cinematic trailer released with the game’s launch in 2016 that had never previously been possible in the actual game. BUT, the event was restricted to a group of 2000 streamers, “community ambassadors” and invited guests who were given tickets that activated the event in their game. If you showed up to Times Square without an invitation, there was nothing there. The Mewtwo the special influencers got had perfect stats and a special background that nobody else can get. This weekend, Mega Mewtwo is releasing worldwide, and Niantic/Scopely, the publisher of the game, expected the millions of players to watch a livestream where a bunch of Twitch streamers attended a spectacular party everyone else was not invited to and were gifted powerful in-game characters, and then they expect all those players to pay money this weekend to buy raid passes to hunt for a perfect Mewtwo. The community is furious. If Niantic/Scopely had expected this to be received positively, they radically miscalculated. Their mistake, which a lot of companies make, is that they believed people like influencers, and enjoy watching influencers receive free stuff as they promote products. In fact, most people HATE influencers, and they especially hate it when these leeches get free stuff.

What you are mentioning doesn’t upset me at all. For one, I understand why other people couldn’t be at Times Square, as the space was at capacity and all streets remained open. So before anything goes any further, it doesn’t take a lot of understanding to realize that you can’t put people where they don’t fit. This wasn’t the New Year’s Eve ball drop. I also understand that this was a promotional event that was not open to the public, which is different for Pokémon GO. I firmly believe that the approximately 150 creators/press/devs and 1,500 Trainers, made up of Community Ambassadors and their core community members, had strong reason to be there. They were the lifeblood of the Northeast IRL Community. An event like this reminds us that this game is about people. The people there have given to the game, not demanded things from it. It’s also a bummer to see beloved creators in the space catching strays from someone with a keyboard that can’t control their emotions and online behavior. I joked last week that the people online that were bent out of shape over Mystic7 presenting at Global would simply move on to something different next week… and here we are. If everything is special, nothing is.

@PokeProfNet @DanFriedman81 What an incredibly out of touch take lol. Why does the idea of other people at Time Square being allowed to participate upset you? Odd.

The hype was crazy! What an incredible event and surprise. Core memory unlocked! #Pokemon #PokemonGO10

@HubertFJass Lane, catching strays Lolol

@PokeProfNet I knew thumbs had nerves but I didn't know they had feelings

@labellamundo5 Not this time simply because we have limited ability to stream from the hotel!

@PokeProfNet Not on YouTube?

🍎LURED UP 400 LIVE🍎 We will be going live in a few minutes on Instagram for Lured Up episode 400! This episode has been 10 years in the making! Thank you to everyone that has supported us over the last decade! Here's to 10 more! #LuredUp #PokemonGO #PokemonGO10

@MBlueflame I choose….. Bootlicker!

@PokeProfNet @DanFriedman81 A small group of 2000 got an experience literally unavailable to the fan base, for a 10th anniversary representing the community. I really can't understand how you'd support this unless your a bootlicker, or got to attend and scared Niantic won't invite you for future events.

@stockfished All good, dude!

@PokeProfNet @DanFriedman81 Well I had no opinion on pokego influencers before this but this comment has changed that! You sound insufferable.

Very well said and I thank you for articulating it like this, it absolutely helps me understand where you’re coming from. I saw plenty of the “OMG look at this” type posts but I’ve seen none that came off with the intention to make anyone else feel bad. That is however, you’re right to determine on your own. I think it was simply a Trainer in the heat of the most exciting gameplay moment of their life. I also think a lot of the posts you are seeing may not be coming from the @100 creators there, but from the community members that don’t have brands or even any marketing prowess. I’m confident that the majority of creators will flesh out their content to include more than just a screenshot and OMG moment. But definitely thanks for explaining your perspective so well!

I'm not upset that creators got to attend the event. Good for them—they were invited, and I hope they had an amazing time. What rubbed me the wrong way was what happened afterwards. Some of the posts didn't feel like sharing an incredible experience with the community. They felt like showing off an unobtainable reward. Just posting a hundo Mewtwo with an ultra-exclusive background and captions like, "Holy ****, look what I just caught!" comes across as more of a flex than community content.. To me, a community-focused creator would share the whole experience.. the atmosphere, the people, the event itself... not make the rarest reward the entire focus. That's the difference. I'm not upset they got it. I'm disappointed by how some chose to present it. And for that, they get an unfollow from me..

え？思ったより燃えてるんやなぁ 100背景付きミュウツーは そりゃ欲しいけど、何十万もかけて日本から行くかと言われれば行かない インフルエンサーたちのこれまでの 貢献への感謝という意味なら 全然不満はないかなぁ なんなら旅費出してあげてよ とすら思うw

@HubertFJass GASP! MY FEELINGS!

@PokeProfNet @DanFriedman81 "People don’t hate influencers" Said by the wannabe influencers

So by that logic, one’s merit and impact on the community, brand, and marketing of this game should be based on how many hours they play and not their impression share, engagement, conversion rate and social impact. Your perspective would have Joe Blow turning a lot of hours in the game and having zero marketability vs your quote-unquote influencer that has a high marketability regardless of hours played. Joe Blow sounds like a hardcore Trainer but a poor marketing investment to me. Joe Blow’s path to attending a promotional event like this would be to improve to develop his community. 1,500+ people (the vast majority) that attended this event do not create content, but were on a guest list curated by their local Community Ambassadors due to their impact on the game and community. In either case (influencer or community leader), hours played or dollars spent have zero to do with why people were invited.

@PokeProfNet @DanFriedman81 Joe Blow also plays this game a shit ton, more than 70% of these "influencers", but unfortunately for Joe Blow he doesn't run a yt/twitch channel 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

@Teezkut So confused why people get upset at this. Should we be mad at your employer for paying you for your work?

@yukimarkw Some of them did get their travel covered...soooo...

@TheFischerJ All good! We had limited resources in the hotel room so we called an audible!

@PokeProfNet Damn I’m a baboon for reading past everything and just assumed twitch. This was me waiting on twitch

@Moshpit37 Let’s GO!!!!!

@PokeProfNet @JT_Valor @CPuens

Finally checking this off my wishlist: Shiny 98% Groudon, with the special background no less! Been trying for a good shiny Groudon for years with lucky trades, never got anything above a 93%… was considering using my Golden Bottle Cap on one… so I had to max this out and fully build it with double legacy moves immediately. Maxed out the Primal level too. So happy to get this!!!