Pokemon Go hits the Lowcountry, and Instinct (the yellow team) is taking charge
They gathered near the Coligny Beach Park splash pad Tuesday morning, in hopes of holding territory.
“Our team only has two people on it,” Colin Nesbitt, 16, visiting Hilton Head Island from Pittsburgh, said. “And we want to add ourselves to the list of defenders to make sure our team can hold it down.
“At least for a while.”
Nesbitt sat in the shade on a bench between friends Bryant Bauer, 17, and Michael Salapow, 17. The splash pad was dry at the moment — beachgoers carrying chairs, coolers and skimboards sauntered through it on their way to the boardwalk. The three teenagers seemed not to notice.
They had out their phones, the screens of which blazed with the images of “Pokemon Go.”
“Pokemon Go” is the hottest app of the moment. It’s estimated to have been downloaded more than 7.5 million times in its first five days, according to USA Today. The game is so popular that its servers have struggled to handle all the traffic. The iPhone version alone brings in $1.6 million a day, according to Forbes.
Nesbitt and his friends were hoping to hold the “gym” at the splash pad. Gyms are where trainers (the “Pokemon Go” app users) pit their Pokemon — cute but ferocious little monsters — against those of other trainers. The boys belong to Mystic, the blue team. It’s one of three teams; the others are Valor (red) and Instinct (yellow). Trainers can join teams when they reach Level 5 of play.
The boys had earlier seen one of their team’s gyms fall — Instinct had overtaken the spot at Coligny Beach Plaza. Indeed, the yellow team seemed to be the island’s most powerful on Tuesday.
Xavier Taylor, 14, of Hilton Head, lives on the north end of the island. Many of the top players play for Instinct, he said, and the stronger players, tend to play on the south end. Recently, he’s seen the yellow team gain more ground and start moving his way.
Coligny Plaza is a hotspot for “Pokemon Go” users.
“There’s gyms, there’s (Pokestops)” — places where you can collect accessories for your Pokemon — “there’s Pokemon,” Bauer said. “There’s everything you need at Coligny Plaza.”
“Definitely the go-to place,” Nesbitt said.
As the friends traveled south to the island from Pennsylvania, they played with the app. They’d log on at rest stops and restaurants, and they noticed the characteristics of the Pokemon changed along the way. More water-based creatures in the Carolinas, they said.
The game has helped them get out and see parts of the island they might otherwise have ignored, they said. And they don’t play it all day; they take a break from it to go to the beach. Mornings are prime-time playing opportunities, they said.
At the moment, they have no plans to try to retake the gym at Coligny Beach Plaza.
“Not right now,” Salapow said. “Because there are a lot of people there defending, and they’re very powerful.”
Cool place for a hot spot
The Frozen Moo in Coligny Beach Plaza is one place where “Pokemon Go” players congregate.
“They come because we’re right in between two (Pokestops), and we’ve got air conditioning and ice cream,” said ice-cream-scooper Jack Lloyd.
Lloyd and colleague Michael Fargione said they’ve been putting out “lures” — things that attract Pokemon — for the store. They had selfish intentions at first since they wanted to increase their own inventory of monsters. But they found the lures attracted customers.
Jack Daly, the Frozen Moo’s owner, said he’s having his “website guy” look into it.
It’s free marketing, he said, akin to the time Lloyd performed his water-bottle trick — he can chug and simultaneously smash a bottle of water in about three seconds.
It attracted 3,000 Snapchat views.
Not just for kids
Sgt. Alonso Chavarria, 24, serves at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.
He’d just finished a work shift Tuesday when he hit downtown Beaufort to hunt for Pokemon. The area near the waterfront is fertile ground, he said. He, his wife and their four children play the game together.
“I’ve always liked it since I was a little kid,” he said, adding that he appreciated the app because it made him feel nostalgic.
Chris Davis, 31, of Bluffton, just reached Level 5 on the game — that’s the level where you can join one of the teams and battle other trainers.
He and his wife have walked around Old Town Bluffton searching for Pokemon. Calhoun Street is a prominent spot, he said, with a couple of gyms and lots of Pokestops.
Davis recently joined the red team — Valor — near the Bluffton Cinemark. But the yellow team controls the gym in that location.
In the meantime, he’s gearing up for his first battle.
Wade Livingston: 843-706-8153, @WadeGLivingston
What is ‘Pokemon Go’?
It’s the hottest app — and it’s free — for iPhone and Android smartphones based on Nintendo’s Pokemon franchise.
You assume the role of a “trainer” in search of Pokemon, or little monsters.
Your job is to capture and build a stable of monsters and develop their skill sets — so they can eventually battle other monsters.
You capture Pokemon by using your smart phone to locate them. When you walk around an area, say Coligny Beach, the app will notify you when you’re close to a monster. Tap on the monster to engage and capture it with a Pokeball — a red-and-white container that functions as a monster mousetrap of sorts.
The captured Pokemon becomes part of your Pokedex, or stable.
Grow your stable, train and develop your Pokemon and visit Pokestops — points of interest, like places along Coligny Beach and stores in Coligny Plaza — to acquire extra gear and increase your level.
You start at Level 1. Once you reach Level 5, you can join a team — Instinct (yellow), Mystic (blue), Valor (red) — and begin battling in “gyms.”
Gyms are areas where trainers congregate to battle and attempt to hold territory. The longer a team holds a gym, the stronger that gym becomes.
So, if you see a bunch of people sitting on the benches surrounding the splash pad at Coligny Beach Park — and you see those people furiously flicking their thumbs up and down — you might be witnessing a battle.
This story was originally published July 12, 2016 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Pokemon Go hits the Lowcountry, and Instinct (the yellow team) is taking charge."