"A trainer and his first 5 star raid."

#PokemonGO: Hello!I was originally going to post a thread about my experiences coming back to Pokémon Go at the end of September after not playing since 2016, I wanted to include this story too however and it ran so long I figured it should be its own post. Sorry about the wall of text, I think it might be super effective against certain types.So raiding has been a rollercoaster so far. It stuck out, obviously, logging in that gyms were sporting eggs and pokemon and all of that variety, excitedly I did raid a couple of 1 stars and took down one or two 2 stars. I kept seeing Mewtwo's pop up though, I wanted him so damn badly but not another soul save me were at any raids. I live in the second largest city of Sweden, even so we've got a population of about 1 million, and the pokemon scene doesn't seem exactly vibrant. It started to become annoying seeing all these Mewtwos so close, yet unreachably far away.So I was in London this week for work Wed/Thursday and stayed the weekend to do touristy things. I was on doing the typical stuff, Madame Tussaudes and what not, at this point I'd just been by Big Ben and had my sights set on Buckingham. At this point my phone vibrates and there's a Mewtwo raid starting in 10 minutes around the corner. I ignore it out of habit, but as I keep walking there's a horde of people noses deep down their phones walking in the opposite direction, some thirty people at least. I don't register at first thinking this is a tourbus or the likes, but I overhear pokémon talk. It clicks and I take a U-turn and follow the stream.I'm feeling a little anxious at this point, hell I was out of my element both as a tourist, a closeted pokemon go player, and having absolutely no idea how group raiding worked. As we get there people start organizing, like a hypeman on a beach in the mediterranian there's people shouting "Instinct over here! All Valor gather up! Mystic come here". I stand to the side waiting the last 30 seconds before the egg hatches, in no time at all the lobby fills up, it's me and some 8-10 mystic and instict people each, and that's when I hear a man yell out in the thickest glaswegian accent I've ever heard."Oi, Who's the lost Valor lad who cannae find his own group? We've got one man who didn' get in"Hello, I'm lost Valor lad.So this 30's father with two children in tow who'd been the one rallying Valor says "Alright whoever's in their lobby please leave them to it, we have our own lobby starting after they're in." A bit timidly I approach and explain that I've never done a raid other than solo before, and am feeling a little lost. This man, let's call him James, is a saint. He asks if I want help setting a team up to beat Mewtwo to which I happly accept, promptly followed by him being extatic over my 3 Gengars from 2016, I can't remember why but for some reason they were much better than Gengars you get these days. So i'm in a second lobby now, watching that timer go down. At this point i'm chatting with James and his kids, and the group of people he's there with, turns out they're 10 or so regulars who go around doing raids together, even called themselves the Pokétrotters.So the battle has begun, that 60,000 CP being slowly chipped away as I'm again a little ashamed sending in Nidokings and what-not standing side-by-side with Lugias, Ho-ohs and all manners of legendaries. We're a little over halfway done when the Mystic and Instinct team are going batshit crazy, There's a wave of exclamations like "Oh my god perfect!"- "Shit man it's 100%". Now this didn't mean anything to me (outside of a perfect Mewtwo sounding very good), but from the reactions of the people around me this mewtwo was a big deal. James quickly says it's as good as it gets, weatherboost and perfect stats. I'm thrilled.So he goes down, and i'm starting to get clammy hands. I've got 9 balls to work with, my first Mewtwo ever in front of me. I throw the first one, great curveball, break. Whiff the two next. At this point i'm looking towards James to see if he'd do the throw for me, but he was overly occupied comforting his little girl who didn't catch hers. So I go for an excellent throw, misjudge the circle and get a flat hit, that ball is wobbling like all hell and then "caught". Not since my first raid boss kill in World of Warcraft 12 years ago has a game given me such an adrenaline kick and sense of relief. With 5 balls to spare, a shit throw and amazing luck I found myself with my first Mewtwo, and first 5 raid completed. I was proper out of it!Afterwards people began to disperse to which James asked what my plans were now, I said i'd probably resume falling into every tourist trap London has to offer, to which he said him and the gang would continue to hit up raids for the next few hours if I wanted to come, didn't take me a second to say yes.So we spent the day strolling about and chatting whilst doing another 4 or 5 mewtwos, they also helped me with a Marrowak, Houndoom, Absol and Tyrannitar raid to fill out my pokedex, by the end of it we all had dinner together and I thanked them for bringing me along, James youngest even offered to trade me her Moltres since I didn't have one. I said that's very nice of her but I think Moltres would like to stay with her, I asked for a Weedle instead, and gave her one of my Gengars in return, I gave her sister and James the other two.So, after being certain I would never be able to get my hands on a Mewtwo I chance upon this amazing group of people who proper tourguided me both in Pokémon and in London, and now i'm considering at least monthly trips to England to raid with these fellows again.James and the Pokétrotters, if any of you read this you're outright amazing, and thank you for an unforgettable friday. via /r/pokemongo https://ift.tt/2CJ6eQB