The new battle was a flop and users spent the entire day trying to log in, only to be disconnected. While Niantic staff tried to contain the situation, the long, hot day ended with a lot of disappointed fans. Few were able to catch monsters before the game crashed, and many people were not able to get past the loading screen. The event was all about catching Pokémon, so there weren't other activities available to attendees. Niantic has paused future events as a result of the Chicago festival failure. In an update to players, they are refunding tickets (if you bought them directly from Niantic for the $20 price - if you got them from a scalper then no refund for you), $100 in Pokécoins, and auto-delivery of the first legendary Pokémon Articuno. It doesn't make up for the travel costs many endured to get there, but it's a start.
A lawsuit with 20 attendees has been filed against Niantic. They are not satisfied with the response from the game developer and are seeking further damages to recoup the loss from travel expenses. Chicago-based attorney Thomas Zimmerman is representing the group: “The issue is, what was promised, what was the incentive that people relied on and the representations that people relied on to buy a ticket and make travel plans and fly to Chicago to participate in this festival, would they have done that had they known that that was not going to be lived up to and they weren’t going to get the experience that was represented?” They are only seeking compensation for the money spent on travel and hotels, and nothing more. At least they are not trying to milk the situation for more then it's worth.
Needless to say, Niantic will be reeling from this event for a while and continue work on server stability before trying again.
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