By Thais Leon-Miller
Staff Intern
Plant City Parks and Recreation has put together a new weekly Pokémon league for players of the card game, the online game or users of the Pokémon GO smartphone app.
Around town it’s not hard not to notice children, families and adults congregating in parks and around shops while staring down at their cell phones. They’re playing the popular app, which launched this summer.
Plant City Recreation and Parks Supervisor Maggie Morona noticed them too. The Planteen Recreation Center, where she works, is home to three Poké Stops, areas where Pokémon GO players can collect electronic gear for their gameplay. The center is within walking distance to seven more Poké Stops.
“We wanted to put some structure around some of the Pokémon GO stuff that was happening in the city,” Morona said. “When the game first came out, we were in the middle of summer camp season, and we had a lot of traffic from people coming to the location.”
It made things difficult for the campers who had to share space with people walking through while they were participating in programs. The game’s popularity inspired Morona to create a space for both so there was no overlap.
Because there were Poké Stops outside of the building as well, Morona made maps of all of them and began taking some of the players out together. She said it was not only more fun as a group, it also added a level of safety.
“We don’t want people going into restricted areas or trespassing on people’s lawns,” she said. “We also provide safety in numbers. People can play together as a group.”
Pokémon GO makes up only one part of the league. The original trading card game started in Japan in 1996, and it has managed to
spread worldwide. Players attach cards to their favorite Pokémon character cards to up their strength, defense or hit points (how many times they can be hit before losing a battle).
While Pokémon GO and the Pokémon video game requires players to “catch” Pokémon by tossing a red and white PokéBall at them, card players collect different cards by purchasing expansion packs. This gives them the ability to build up their favorite Pokémon and evolve them into stronger creatures, which they can play against opponents to win battles.
OFFICIALLY SANCTIONED
Morona said she didn’t know much about any of the games, but the kids who came by to hunt for the creatures were more than happy to teach her. That is how she came up with the idea to create an official league. Not only did she register with the Pokémon Company, it ran a background check on her before it officially sanction her league.
Being sanctioned by the company has its perks: the company provide various prizes for league members, and once a group is strong enough it can apply to be part of larger tournaments, where the prizes grow exponentially.
“Both of them, the card game and video game, they have a national competition,” Morona said. “The good thing for us is that if we give them a safe place to play and they get good, they can get into competition play. They offer scholarships to kids. It’s a big deal.”
This year’s world first place winner walked away with the top prize of $25,000 in cash, and that was the first of 32 cash payouts for the competition. Among other prizes were scholarships and travel certificates.
Until the Plant City league gets to that point, the weekly $2 league fee goes to supplement Wi-Fi costs and prizes for Pokémon GO players, as the Pokémon Company doesn’t sanction the app yet.
Morona is looking for a few more volunteers to help teach younger children how to play all versions of the game. She is also working on creating hats and T-shirts for the league.
For more information or to volunteer, call Maggie Morona at (813) 659-4256.