Players set police on trainers in Pokémon GO after he attacked their Gym

In Pokémon GO, battles break out regularly around the virtual arenas. According to a coach, one such fight escalated completely when players called the police about it.

What are these arena battles? In Pokémon GO there are arenas, as known from the anime. However, the arenas in the mobile game work a little differently. You can find them in interesting places in the real world, such as churches or places steeped in history. One of the three teams can hold such an arena and the other two teams can attack it.

Such acquisitions are often associated with frustration. As one coach’s story shows, players tend to escalate.

2 cars stopped him from driving away

That happened: on reddit user darthmaclean writes in a thread that he attacked a yellow arena that was defended by a few players. The defenders are said to have called the police and also reported darthmaclean’s name in-game. Now he also has to change his nickname.

The user explains that around 10:00 p.m. he was in a park with his truck in a parking lot when he fought the arena. He plays in Canada. Another car with several people was parked nearby, apparently in which the Yellow Team defenders were sitting.

He was probably quite surprised when the police showed up. “I don’t know what they must have said to make me two [Polizei-]Stop cars leaving.” But the trainer believes the callers must have “said something terrible about him” after the way the police cars sped toward his truck.

While he was being blocked by the police, the other car drove away. He received no statement from the police officers as to why they were checking him.

The player believes that the coaches of the other team wanted to punish him with the police and reports of his name for daring to attack their arena. They must have been vengeful.

The consequences: The user did not reveal how the conversation with the police ended. However, the reports of his player name resulted in him having to change his name in Pokémon GO. He received an email from Niantic explaining that his username has been reset and he now needs to choose a new one.

Players on reddit suspect his old name was actually offensive. But his player name was “JesusEh,” explains darthmaclean. He’s had the name since the game was released in 2016. Niantic may have intervened here because religious players can feel bothered by it.

A run-in between Pokémon GO players and the police can also end with an apology. A neighbor rushed the police to trainers, then apologized extra sweetly.