Pokemon Go: Team leaders reveled during panel

Thousands of Pokemon trainers saw the first glimpse of three new Pokemon Go characters during the last large panel at Comic-Con.

The three characters - Candela, Blanche and Spark - are the leaders of the three teams in the game.

Pokemon character reveal

At level 5, Pokemon Go players choose to join a team - Valor, Mystic or Instinct. While making that choice, the silhouettes of the team leaders were shown, but until Sunday, there was no official art.

Fans lined up for Hall H hoping to obtain a special Pokemon. So far, five of the 151 original Pokemon have yet to show up in the games. The locations of Articuno, Moltres, Zapdos, Mewtwo and Mew remain a mystery.

In the initial trailer of Pokemon Go, it showed an event where dozens of people collectively battled Mewtwo - the most powerful Pokemon in the original games.

The game currently does not have a collaborative battling feature, and the locations of the legendary Pokemon haven’t been released.

View the photo gallery: 7/24/16 Pokemon Go catches ‘em all at Comic-Con

At the panel, Chris Hardwick spoke with John Hanke, the founder of Niantic Labs. Niantic based Pokemon Go off of a similar augmented Reality game “Ingress.” Both of these games use location data to encourage people to visit parts of their community.

Both Hardwick and Hanke said that Pokemon Go has helped them find out more about their communities - the game showcases landmarks as “Pokestops” that provide items. In San Diego, many art installations, historical markers and other well-known areas are Pokestops.

While members of the audience asked more about the specifics of the game, Hanke said that those additions will come after the servers are up to snuff.

Since the game’s rollout on July 5, there has been difficulty in handling the sheer number of players. The game is still not active globally yet, as the rollout was delayed to make sure the servers could handle it.

Nationwide, the game has sent millions of people outside to capture Pokemon and battle for control of their neighborhoods.

Hanke admitted that his frustration in managing screen time was an inspiration for the game, but now things have changed:

“My son is begging his mom to go on a walk to hatch his eggs,” Hanke said.

View the Video Pokemon Go Player at Comic-Con

He also confirmed the existence of several “Easter eggs,” but hinted that more are still undiscovered.

Still, the success of the game has been helpful, saying that it was released at a very opportune time.

“There’s been a lot of dark stuff this year,” he said.

Source: DiscoverSD