Team Instinct Taking Over
I live in Houston. I'm with team Valor. My area used to be controlled by team Mystic and there were large patches of team Valor gyms in the outskirts, where I put my Pokemons. I went vacation during the spring break in mid march. When I came home around 3/20/2017, all the gyms in my home area had changed to yellow. Now, it's getting worse. The Instinct team are expanding to the outskirts. I had a Snorlax who had been in the gym for almost 3 months just got kicked out. I drove on the streets in that area today, all gyms were yellow. I couldn't help thinking what has changed since a month ago. I knew it was the time Niantic sent out warnings to lot of trainers but it couldn't explain the sudden shift of power.
Anyway, I'll have to drive further to find the gyms where my Pokemons can stay.
Hope someone here can come out a logical explanation to this situation.
Thanks!
Answers
Lol, okay then! I never said they don't (trust me, I know they do). In fact, I've heard (whether it's true or not I can't prove it, just what I've heard) that valor has the most spoofers for different reasons. But you also said instinct players don't complain about spoofing (and trust me, I know they do).
Same thing has been happening in my area (Upper Midwest, USA). Mystic has always been the dominant team, with Valor holding a large minority of gyms, and Instinct having a very small presence. Recently, an enclave with five level 10 Valor gyms, which were basically untouched all winter long, suddenly became all level 10 Instinct gyms overnight.
I don't see how anyone can blame you. I am no longer able to play the game in a way that fits into my work/life balance. The thing that I love most about this game was that I could be competitive, while still working long hours. I play when I run outdoors. It always fit in to my life very well. Now it does not.
Did I say that? I've actually reported a spoofer on my team (someone took care of him tho, while Niantic did nothing.) I just think it's funny that the second you aren't dominating you guys are so discouraged. You act like the minority team can't be discouraged when they have been beaten into the ground, legit or not. The reality is all the teams have cheaters and cheaters affect everyone, especially the minority teams that don't have the numbers in the first place.
I actually asked if you were implying that. And also, when you start off a comment with "awww you poor guys", it's hard to take you're comment lightly. I was never crying or said anything about being discouraged. I could imagine you might take a comment the same way if someone talked to you like a whiney baby when you weren't whining to begin with, but I don't know you and can't say you for sure would. But any way, I respect you for reporting a spoofer on your same team!! I have as well, twice. And same thing, Niantic did nothing about them. I also agree that all teams have cheaters, of course
I'll back off. Obviously it is a sensitive topic. All I ask is that you consider how hard it has been for the minority team for the entirety of this game. I have been on the minority team in my area and it has been a rough path. For months we were beaten down and then after grinding and grinding, we were able to establish some territory of about 20 gyms. Those stood until Niantic decided to make it twice as easy to tear down gyms, and twice as hard to prestige them. All of the gyms fell and wouldn't go up over level 5. I quit playing after that. Fast forward 2 months, I started playing again. I made a couple friends, both on opposing teams and I was shocked to learn how much respect I had in the area, and how much of an impact I had. Gyms literally flipped back to yellow when I started playing again and have stayed that way.
I am very fortunate that spoofing hasn't been as big of a problem in my area as in others. Obviously it happens, but nothing like some of the stories I have heard on here. My biggest problems actually comes from people on my team. Shaving is becoming an issue because there simply are not enough gyms to go around (that stay yellow.) I have never been the kind of person to put the highest cp pokemon in a gym, rather my best defender. I'm being shaved out of gyms that I helped establish. That is really frustrating. I actually have good relationships with the other teams...
Dang bro, you do sound like you'd be a great teammate! Especially cuz you stick good defenders in (rhydons and their double-double weaknesses are everywhere here in my biome lol) and not just the highest cp's. I'm sorry to hear how rough it's been for you man! I'm glad you're back and playing (can never have enough fair players!) again. You would've been some fun and welcome fair competition in my hood cuz I'm a big gym guy here! Which is probably why I've hated spoofers more than most others.. One of my good friends who's an even higher level than me doesn't really gym that much, so spoofing hasn't bothered him as much as a result.
It's very cool that you've made some good relationships through this game. I think it's probably the coolest thing about this augmented reality interactive game. In fact, I've made some great friends from playing this game. At least when it's all said and done, instinct will have the strongest legendary bird, so that's maybe some "silver ligning"? I wish the best for you and you're future gyming endeavors!
Rural areas (like midwest) will be hit hard by spoofers, lack of competition compared to their home areas they are running from so that they can easily keep gyms. I don't have too much experience with spoofers, but I've been the victim of 3am level 10 gym turnovers that left me suspicious of a few accounts. I take all gyms back within 24 hours if not out of town to send a clear message.
What I'm seeing here is a lot of people upset that their gyms that have held for far too long are now in the hands of another team. Everyone is quick to point the finger at spoofers. The reality is people have noticed your gyms sitting there growing stagnant. There are groups that organize and look for gyms that could possibly be an expansion of their territory. The end result is a new dominant color in your area, if the group can do a solid job of maintaining the gyms.
Don't insult me man. I am suspicious of the fact that I, for example, live far from Chicago and have been battling the gyms around here constantly and then all of the sudden, out of now where, this level 40 instinct player with a Chicago specific name starts showing up in all these gyms, along with other high level players with names I've never seen before (along with a few of the instinct players I saw here and there before hand too, of course. And I'm not implying those are spoofers to be clear). Yeah, sure it's a possibility that it's just a "coincidence" and maybe they just never battled gyms before or whatever, but it's also just as likely (if not more) that they're spoofing with how much it's taken off as of late because they know Niantic isn't doing anything about it. "When the cats away, the mice will play".
It definitely isn't intended to be an insult. Just an observation. You said it yourself, you were on vacation when the gyms changed. You were in fact not there to see how that happened. Just sharing my thoughts here, being Instinct and hitting gyms not in my area with 10 or more people every weekend. We get called spoofers a lot yet no one who calls us that is actually at the gyms while we take them down. It's all after the fact and easy to assume the worst.
I think people are over-quick to blame spoofers. I took 3 gyms in a row yesterday and at each place i was right there doing my thing and yet the disaffected players who saw their gym being taken down cried Spoofer Spoofer without so much as a glance 20m away from them. Sigh.
People just see what they want to see and don't see what they don't want to see.
By the way, I'm not saying that spoofing doesn't exist or that the recent takeover of certain gyms by Instinct are 100 percent spoofer free.... my comments are merely to highlight that there could be legit reasons for the gym changeovers that can be explained without resort to claiming spoofing.
The official release in my country was delayed. What I noticed in my region is that Instinct players have an average higher level, some even bordering 40, while the other teams' most active players are around 30~34. This is a bit strange to me because I have seen and talked to plenty of players in the best spots and most of them (like, 85%) were from Valor and Mystic. And I honestly don’t think it’s a case of quality x quantity.
Valor now are the ones having a hard time since most of their prominent players, even cheaters, already gave up playing.
That's another point I didn't want to mention. Instinct has higher quality players and pokemon. At least in my area the two highest Level players are instinct. I am second highest(LV39) the valor and mystic players who use to compete with me in gyms are still Level 30 to 32. Now they avoid taking down my gyms like a plague
