Community Day is a staple of Pokémon Go’s monthly event schedule and typically can’t be derailed by bugs because it features the same content every time with a few key changes. However, an ongoing bug with the game’s Showcase mechanic has fans questioning Niantic about maintenance again.
Starting back with the Wooper and Paldean Wooper Community Day on Nov. 5, players noticed that something was off with Showcase content when active PokéStops were asking players to show off their best Squirtle rather than the Water Fish Pokémon. This was explained away—by fans—as Niantic having issues coding in Showcases for Pokémon with multiple forms like Wooper, but that only lines up for that event. Squirtle has been popping up on and off instead of other featured Pokémon in Showcases for months outside of CDs too, and players have taken notice.
With Mareep Community Day Classic running on Nov. 25, Niantic officially confirmed that something is wrong by noting Showcases during the event will feature Squirtle and not the Electric-type Pokémon players will be catching. No further explanation was provided and there is still no note of this bug being fixed—and it is absent from the known issues page on Niantic’s support website.
This doesn’t come as a surprise to most avid Pokémon Go players as Showcases have been a messy subject since Niantic rolled them out in July. For some, this means that saving specific Mareep to put in Showcases was just a waste of time, leading to many swearing that they are “just done” even trying to utilize this broken feature. “With this, I’m just done. No more saving or storing, I’ll just put up whatever I catch when the showcase is activate [sic],” one user said.
While this won’t impact Community Day for most players, it does detract from the experience overall for anyone who wants to use Showcases. It also highlights a continued bug that Niantic is only just now acknowledging without talking about a fix at all. The only positive here is that it looks like you can’t use a Squirtle that has already won a recent Showcase in these, which should help new entrants win some rewards.
