FanPost

Documenting the Pokémon Go Experience at Paul Brown Stadium

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Whether you’re currently trying to catch ‘em all or you’re a Johnny Lawrence protégé who likes to chase around aspiring Pokémasters in a skeleton costume, it’s tough to deny that Pokémon Go is the biggest thing on the planet right now. Bigger than the upcoming election, bigger than the Kimye/Taylor Swift feud, and certainly bigger than the nonexistent July sports scene.

Yea, it’s safe to say that Pokémon Go is all the rage right now and the fine folks here at Cincy Jungle were in search of a strapping young lad willing to sacrifice their pride and personal embarrassment to head out into the Jungle (1 Paul Brown Stadium, that is) and document the Pokémon Go experience there. I happily answered the call and put aside all fears of Pokémon Go being a gigantic government conspiracy to see what kind of digital creatures were lurking around the stadium during the slowest sports month of the year. Here’s what happened.

The following takes place between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Stepped on the scene lookin’ clean around 4:15. Note the orange and black color scheme of my avatar, paying homage to the Super XLI champion Cincinnati Bengals.

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Those blue markers AKA Pokéstops indicate that there is A TON of Pokémon Go action taking place at the stadium and around the immediate Downtown Cincinnati area. Probably because Niantic’s algorithm has done a great job of strategically placing said action in areas where there is a lot of foot traffic and businesses. Like the downtown area of a large city or a football stadium, for example.

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See that big red marker? That’s a Pokégym, which was the first stop on the agenda. Pokégyms are the only designated areas where you can train and battle all of the Pokémon you’ve caught to date. Unfortunately, they’re a lot like Dodgeball’s Globogym, in that only those deemed up to a certain level of fitness are allowed through the doors to train. In this case, your character has to be at least level 5 to enter the Pokégym so I was on the outside looking in. However my photographer/personal assistant/good friend Andrew was up to snuff so he was able to enter the gym and duke it out.

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In case you were wondering what a heated Pokémon battle looks like, this is it.

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Riveting stuff. He’s a Steelers fan, so it was relatively satisfying watching them take his Pokémon, his lunch money, and his girl.

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After that manhandling, we decided to play it cool and take a stroll around the stadium to see what else we could find. See those little rats with wings?

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That’s a Zubat. Everyone that plays hates Zubats because they’re EVERYWHERE and PBS was no exception.

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I caught a couple of Krabbys as well. Certainly no Moby Dick, but definitely a step up from those Zubats.

After casing the perimeter, we decided to hit the Pro Shop and see what was lurking around in there. The Pro Shop also doubles as a Pokéstop, so if you’re in the market for some fresh new Bengals gear as well as more Pokéballs, then the gift shop at 1 Paul Brown Stadium is the place for you.

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In between browsing for a new Bengals sideline bucket hat and Nike performance polo, I scored this little guy, Clefairy, which turned out to be the best catch of the day.

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Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get inside the actual stadium because I haven’t been signed to the Bengals 90 man roster yet. That was a bummer because it appeared as if there were a lot of Pokémon roaming around inside the confines of the main gates, so I guess I’ll have to wait a couple months before I can get inside and see what kind of damage can be done.

One of the cool features the creators of the Pokémon Go app offer is the ability for organizations and businesses to submit a request to turn their location into Pokégyms, Pokéstops, add more Pokémon to a specific location, etc. Not that an NFL organization needs help attracting more fans to their stadium, but having seen the smashing success that the new Pokémon Go game has had, I fully expect the Bengals to get in on some of that action. I’m sure there’s a large portion of the fan base out there that hopes the Bengals enhance the Pokémon Go fan experience in addition to delivering a 19-0, Super Bowl winning season beginning in September.

Big time thanks to @Rebecca_Toback and the @CincyJungle staff as well as @siegel_siegel for allowing this nerd odyssey to be possible and for helping me along the way.

Follow me @QuineTime for all Bengals and nonsense related tweets.

Happy hunting.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cincy Jungle's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan, which is as important as the views of Cincy Jungle's writers or editors.