The battle day with Marill did not go as planned in Pokémon GO. Players faced major problems participating and collecting rewards. Niantic is planning a replacement event.
What is it about? On Sunday, April 12, an event centered around the small Pokémon Marill took place in Pokémon GO. It started at 11:00 AM. The battle day lasted for three hours and ended at 2:00 PM. During the event time, trainers had greater chances of encountering Marill and the shiny version of this Pokémon.
Server issues and bugs marred the event experience. “Error retrieving battle rewards” and similar problems became widespread. Players expressed their frustrations.
Developer Niantic responds to the issues
What does Niantic say? Niantic’s support account posted two important tweets on April 12. The first one was at the time when the event was in full swing. The developers write (via Twitter):
“Trainers, there is a bug that causes trainers to receive an error message when trying to collect the battle rewards of the battle day with Marill. Restarting your app should fix this issue and allow you to collect the rewards. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
This is what Niantic is planning now: In the evening of April 12, Niantic tweeted the next message, this time about a replacement event:
“Trainers, we are aware of server issues that affected the EMEA region during the battle day with Marill. Please wait for an announcement regarding a compensation event.” The EMEA region refers to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
In the near future, Niantic plans to announce when a compensation event will start and the details for it. Whether this will start with the same bonuses as the recent Marill battle day remains unclear. Another community day is also likely planned for April.
Why is this important? Some users on Twitter write that they had major problems:
- “Finally! Thank you for bringing us a compensation event. For me, the event was completely unplayable for 2 hours and 50 minutes due to the reward glitch. I hope this doesn’t happen again. It was completely unfair for me and the others affected by this event” (via Twitter @HannahsArts)
- “Same problems in the USA. Restarted, reinstalled, can’t collect anything [the rewards]. Big problem” (via Twitter @CJSeess)
Now trainers are eagerly waiting for an announcement from Niantic for the replacement event. In the meantime, you can check out the details about the smoke event. This is also reportedly in planning at Niantic and is intended to be ideal for playing from home.
