Go Tour in LA may still be fun
Trending
Pokemon Go Tour is returning in February to celebrate the Alola region from the seventh generation of the Pokemon video game series, Pokemon Sun and Moon and Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, which are the first main series games to postdate Pokemon Go.
Two in-person events will take place from Friday, Feb. 19 to Sunday, Feb. 21 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and Los Angeles, California.
Many, including myself, speculated last year's Kalos Tour would likely be the last year Los Angeles would host the in-person Go Tour for a while. Since the Alola region consists of a group of islands inspired by Hawaii, it would've made a lot of sense to have the Alola Tour there. But for whatever reason, it wasn't meant to be, and we're heading back to Los Angeles for the fourth consecutive year.
If I end up going, this would be my third Go Tour in Los Angeles; I didn't attend the Sinnoh Tour in February 2024. I started working for the Mirror full-time in November 2023 and didn't really have the means to travel at that point in my life.
I actually caught shiny Jirachi, which debuted as part of the Hoenn Tour in 2023, on my birthday of that year, which was the Saturday before my first day of work at the Mirror. Jirachi is considered the wish Pokemon, and since people only get one encounter with it and my wish was always to work for the Mirror, I used my first gold bottle cap on mine to make it a birthday shundo -- a shiny with perfect IVs.
The Unova Tour in 2025 was sentimental because it was my first time flying for an in-person event, and I did that by myself in the nation's second-largest city. It was during that event, I first met my friend, Alexa, at a V-shaped tree in the northern end of Brookside Golf Course, near the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena.
For the Kalos Tour earlier this year, we met at that exact spot to do a lucky trade, swapping XXL shiny Grookey with the same height.
Later that night, Alexa went on to catch a shundo Dragonite during the first-ever Mega Night, which was this fun evening event they had after the park experience with a DJ and nonstop raids. During the first raid of the global Kalos Tour, I caught a shundo Dragonite at Penn State Altoona, which made for another special moment in my Pokemon Go career, as I became shundo twins with my friend.
Needless to say, I have a lot of special memories with the Go Tour event, and next year's Alola Tour will likely be no different. If I end up returning to Los Angeles, I'll go alongside my local friends from Altoona. If they don't go, I'm not going, so a lot is up in the air at this point.
The save-the-date blog post for Alola Tour says the game's developers are "ready to have another ultra fun year" with us, with the word "ultra" italicized, which suggests -- but does not confirm -- the debut of ultra Necrozma in Pokemon Go.
They did the same thing last year when they said they were "mega excited" about the Kalos Tour, which saw the debut of Mega Victreebel and Mega Malamar instead of Mega Zygarde or Mega Mewtwo, which ended up releasing during this year's Go Fest.
Ultra could just refer to the 11 ultra beasts -- Nihilego, Buzzwole, Pheromosa, Xurkitree, Celesteela, Kartana, Guzzlord, Poipole, Naganadel, Stakataka and Blacephalon -- all of which are part of the Alola region.
More details about the event will be announced in Pokemon Go's next season, which will begin in December and likely run through the start of March. For anyone who's new to the game, they'll likely put the tickets on sale and make a vague announcement about some of the Alola Pokemon that'll be featured.
Anything big, such as the potential debut of Ultra Necrozma, likely won't be announced until as early as the week before the event, so don't get discouraged when they make their initial announcement and it seems lackluster.
Mega Dragonite, which was last year's big surprise, literally debuted during Mega Night, which was a lot of fun and hopefully returns in some fashion as some kind of "Ultra Night" experience.
As always, a worldwide adventure will also take place the weekend of Feb. 27 and 28, so trainers can participate in the global finale of this year's Go Tour from wherever they are.
Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520 and mchurella@altoonamirror.com