I went to Pokemon GO Fest and didn’t catch a single Pokemon

The first real time Pokemon GO event in Chicago ended in a chorus of boos.

The best part of Pokemon GO Fest was the people that went.

I had to chance to spend four hours attending Pokemon GO‘s first real-life event in Chicago’s Grant Park. I walked away with no new Pokemon, no new Eggs and a phone running on the last dregs of its battery. But I also left with full admiration for the dedicated people that came from all over the country — some even came from out of the country — for a chance to be part of this mobile game’s historic event.

Niantic has plenty of work to do if it wants to make Pokemon GO events successful in the future, that much is clear. And while Pokemon GO Fest opened and ended in discontent, not everything was terrible in between.

Here are some major takeaways from Pokemon GO Fest:

1. Pokemon GO is a game for adults

Pokemon GO‘s target demographic isn’t kids, like some might think. It’s young to middle-aged adults who spent their childhood enraptured with their Game Boys, lovingly leveling up their Charmander or Squirtle with no bigger life goal than to beat the Elite Four and become the greatest Pokemon trainer of all time. It has absolutely and successfully capitalized on our nostalgia.

The ratio between kids and adults at Pokemon GO Fest was heavily skewed toward adult. I saw a handful of families at the event, where each kid had a phone in hand, but the parents were playing just as hard. I also saw families where the parents were deep into the game, but the kid wasn’t. That poor child was literally just there because he had to be.

So if anyone tries to tell you that Pokemon GO is for kids, you can tell them with full confidence that it’s definitely not.

2. Rare Pokemon did make an appearance, as promised

One of the selling points of Pokemon GO Fest was that players would have a chance to catch rarely seen Pokemon and for those that were able to get past the connectivity issues, it was true.

Wild Heracross and even Unown were available to catch at Grant Park. Raid Bosses included the likes of Snorlax, Lapras and Tyranitar. Outside of the rare ones, Pokemon appeared in hoards within the confines of the event.

In fact, there was so much activity happening within the boundaries of Pokemon GO Fest that my app literally couldn’t handle it. In the rare moments when the game fully loaded on my phone, it would crash in seconds.

3. Future legendary Pokemon may very well include Mew and Mewtwo

At the Pokemon GO Fest main stage, the big screen periodically played Pokemon GO related videos. One of those videos discussed how to be successful during Raid Battles, with a specific focus on how to handle legendary Raid Bosses.

The video broke down which Pokemon abilities were most effective against the likes of Articuno, Moltres and Zapados, the three legendary birds of Kanto. By now, it’s no surprise that these three legendaries will soon be available in the game.

What I found most interesting was what came later in the video. The narrator decided to breakdown the weaknesses of none other than Mew and Mewtwo, because it was “worth mentioning.” That phrasing seems to suggest that these two legends among the legendaries will soon also be in Pokemon GO.

4. Connectivity was a huge issue and AT&T’s service was one of the worst

I elected to wait until the afternoon to head to Pokemon GO Fest, so I only heard about its terrible start second hand. According to Kotaku, lines to get into the event ran hours long, and then once inside, festival attendees were unable to even load up the game. When Niantic CEO John Hanke appeared on the Pokemon GO Fest main stage to address these issues, he was met roundly with boos. Players also at one point chanted, “We can’t play! We can’t play!”

By the time I arrived, I fully anticipated a difficult several hours with Pokemon GO. To my utter dismay, my connectivity was so terrible that I spent my entire first hour there attempting to get past the load screen, continuously walking to areas of the event that seemed the least populated.

It was when I made it past the loading screen when I truly discovered just how hopeless my situation was. Seconds after the Pokemon GO map fully loaded, including all PokeStops and gyms, my game would crash. No matter how many times I tried to open the game, it would crash. I would barely have time to spin a PokeStop before the game shut down.

My fiancé also had connectivity issues and intermittent crashes, but he was at least be able to play in stretches at a time. Our difference was in providers. He has Verizon and I have AT&T, notoriously bad in situations where large groups of people are attempting to use cell service.

And this is how I came to not catch a single Pokemon at an event I paid to be at for that express purpose. I wasn’t the only one who felt this pain.

Conclusion: AT&T is garbage.

5. Pokemon GO Fest’s big “mystery challenge” ended up being nothing

All of the information leading up to Pokemon GO Fest told attendees that if players around the world were able to catch enough Pokemon, a “mystery challenge” would be unlocked for players in Grant Park to take on for the last hour of the event.

At 6 p.m., the appointed time for the challenge to start, people started to gather at the main stage where announcements had been previously made during the event. By 6:30 p.m., there was still no announcement and no change in any of the Pokemon GO Fest gyms.

Finally at 6:32 p.m., a spokesperson came onstage. She talked about how much players had accomplished over the course of the day, told us the event would continue for another 30 more minutes … and then thanked us for attending. That was it.

No mention of a mystery challenge. Not even an explanation of why there was no mystery challenge. Just a thank you.

Perhaps the excitement that was supposed to accompany the mystery challenge had already passed. A few hours prior to this, an announcement had been made that all attendees would be receiving the legendary Pokemon Lugia as part of Niantic’s way of making it up to its disappointed festival goers. That same announcement also mentioned that Articuno would be released next.

Since we already knew we were getting Lugia, did Niantic feel that was enough to forgo the mystery challenge? Or was it that players around the world and at the festival were unable to meet the requirements to unlock the challenge at all?

Whatever it was, it wasn’t explained to those of us who stuck around. And so Pokemon GO Fest came to an end with another round of boos, the same way it began.

6. Pokemon GO does bring people together

Despite all of the hiccups, it’s hard to deny that Niantic has created something special in Pokemon GO.

It’s easy to watch the advertisements for Pokemon GO and scoff at the picture those videos paint: People rushing to catch a rare Pokemon, or complete strangers banding together in one big happy group to take down a Raid Boss.

But those things actually happened at Pokemon GO Fest. At one point, my fiancé spotted an odd looking Pokemon silhouette on his nearby radar. “Oh my god, that’s an Unown!” I exclaimed.

“An Unown? Where?” A passerby had overheard what I had said. We looked at the map and attempted to figure out what direction to head together.

All over the venue, interactions like this were happening. Strangers were asking each other what their favorite Pokemon was, and trading Pokemon locations. Some were calling out locations of rare Pokemon to anyone within earshot. “A Tyranitar raid!” a man yelled at one point, gesturing people over with his hands. Instantly, hoards of players rushed to his location.

The magic of Pokemon GO truly shines in these moments, and they really haven’t happened since the game first released. It’s easy to see, then, why Niantic wants to make real world events a continual element of Pokemon GO. Even though the fervor for the game has died down from where it was a year ago, the player base is still strong and still passionate. And from a business perspective, there is still tons of money for Niantic to make.

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However, Niantic won’t be able to make that money if future events are as unorganized and ill prepared as Pokemon GO Fest. As is it, Niantic went the classy route by stating that they would be issuing full refunds to festival attendees as well as giving them $100 worth of in-game currency. The bottom line is this — fans with this much dedication deserve better. We trust Niantic has heard us loud and clear.