"True teamwork to take down a Rayquaza"

#PokemonGO: As many of us are aware, lots of trainers who haven't been active since the months following launch in 2016 have recently been returning to Pokémon GO. The various features that have been added over the past two and a half years are enticing and the game has really come a long way.I am a physics teacher at a public school in the US and my AP physics class is filled with students who have recently rediscovered their old accounts. Myself, I've been playing fairly consistently since launch. That said, my cell phone is an old iPhone 5, so I've not been able to play on my device for about a year. I stick to using my wife's phone, which is newer than mine. Well yesterday, I had a great experience with my AP students.They've been talking a lot about PoGO over the past few weeks and even reported back to me on some attempts at Dialga raids they've done together after school hours. They mostly have accounts at levels in the low to mid twenties and are utterly destroyed when they attempt tier 5 raids. It's all very silly. But yesterday there happened to be a Rayquaza raid at a gym accessible from campus. It was ending right when school was dismissed so there was no hope of getting there before it ended. They asked if I would take them over to do the raid.Because it was the last day before spring break and we had finished all the material we'd needed to cover this quarter, we weren't doing anything new in class. Still, I was reluctant. So I challenged them to present their best teams. If it seemed likely that they would be able to win, I'd escort them to the raid. Soon there were eight different devices on my front desk, most with highest leveled mon's around 2000cp. There was one mid-thirties account with some pretty decent counters, but the rest were merely selecting their highest cp Pokémon regardless of typing.The owner of the mid-thirties account and I agreed that we'd really need at least one more higher level account if there was any chance at taking down a Rayquaza. That's when a student who hasn't gotten back into the game offered to let me use his phone. With the help of another student's mobile hotspot, he quickly downloaded the app and I was able to sign in.Off we went as a class. When we got to the raid I expected a lobby of nine, but it had thirteen! Four other students who hadn't shown me a team had decided to participate too. It happened to be an Outrage Rayquaza so we got pounded pretty good once the battle started, but we were able to take it down in the end with about twenty seconds to spare.For some students this was their first ever raid. They ran through their premiere balls very quickly. Others were more careful and managed to catch it. One student had a critical catch on the first throw.Even though not everyone caught it, there was a palpable sense of accomplishment in the group as we returned to my classroom. What a way for a class to bond together! I don't know how long these students will continue playing, but I really think Niantic must be doing something right to have been able to draw these players back.TL;DR: My AP physics class and I took down a Rayquaza together the day before spring break mostly with returning players who are coming back to the game after two and a half years. via /r/pokemongo https://ift.tt/2JiQWGy