Pokémon GO has taken Australia (and the world) by storm over the last month, with thousands upon thousands flocking to the game; which is the creation of Niantic in collaboration with the Pokémon Company.
In keeping with the realities of the Pokémon universe, game developers created an augmented reality whereby different Pokémon can be found in different areas – and predictably, users need to travel around a bit if they truly wanna catch ’em all.
Highly populated areas tend to have more and better Pokémon and also tend to have more densely located Pokéstops. One of the most bizarre things to come from the game was the location of three overlapping Pokéstops in a children’s park within the Sydney suburb of Rhodes – a place that quickly developed a reputation as one of the must-see spots for trainers.
3 minutes into my FIRST Rhodes trip I followed the mob to this Lapras. Believe the Hype. #PokemonGO pic.twitter.com/OfUZrrIdJ9
— Jamaica dela Cruz (@jamaicadelacruz) July 31, 2016
Hundreds of trainers have been hitting up Peg Patterson Park in Rhodes since Pokémon GO launched almost a month ago, causing chaos in the streets due to the traffic, keeping residents of the area awake until the early hours of the morning, and leaving huge amounts of rubbish everywhere.
Huge crowds of ‘zombie-like’ #PokemonGO players block streets in Sydney https://t.co/Gc1aIeU0lO https://t.co/8vyFqnVxgZ
— The Daily Rupert (@TheMurdochTimes) July 27, 2016
The local Canada Bay Council has been encouraging residents to petition Niantic to remove the three overlapping Pokéstops from the park and in the latest update to the game the creators seem to have caved to the pressure. As you can see below, the update – which deleted several users accounts and also saw the removal of proximity tracking – removed the three stops in question entirely.
The latest Pokemon Go update removed *all three* Pokestops from this park. 🙁 Congrats @NianticLabs, Rhodes no longer officially exists
RIP— Infernal Monkey (@infernal_monkey) August 1, 2016
Not to be deterred, trainers have already announced the next Sydney hotspot to be Paul Keating Park in Bankstown. Whether the hype will follow on from Rhodes is anyone’s guess, but Bankstown residents should certainly keep their wits about them.
Bankstown is the new Rhodes. It’s happening. #PokemonGO
— Yas (@heyyas) July 31, 2016
Check out this Rhodes tribute video, featuring a band playing a jazzed up version of the in-game Pokémon music.
