Overall, the "cup" events in Pokemon GO have been well-received by the community due to their unique limitations and rules. For example, Pokemon GO's Catch Cup further incentivized players of Pokemon GO Fest events, allowing them to use Pokemon they caught in the events to compete against others who did the same.
However, the same cannot be said for one of Pokemon GO's June 2022 events known as the Fossil Cup. Now, based on the name alone, many would assume that the event's rules would simply allow only fossil Pokemon to participate, and thus players would have quite the limited and well-balanced roster regardless of their choices.
However, instead the only rule for Pokemon inclusions in the event is that they have one type out of Rock, Water, and Steel. This means that not only are Pokemon that aren't fossils allowed into the event, but also they can be pretty much any type so long as they hold one of the required three types. This means that the Pokemon GO Adventure Week 2022 fossil Pokemon will likely see little to no inclusion in the event because of the Water and Steel-type Pokemon that will evidently be brought.
A fan on Reddit created a meme that perfectly encapsulates the issues of allowing non-fossil Pokemon into the cup as well as allowing two types that are super effective against Rock. The meme specifically calls out one of Pokemon GO's previous raid bosses Registeel, who is a very strong Steel-type in the game. Because of its strong defenses and its super effective attacks against Rock-types, it would surely dominate any fossil Pokemon it faces.
The same goes for Water-type Pokemon, who also sport a super effective typing versus Rock-types. According to other Reddit users, Pokemon GO's Water/Ground-type Swampert was also an easy choice for the event due to being a counter to both Rock and Steel-types. Again, while this would normally be a smart, strategic decision for players to make, along with Registeel it overshadowed the theme and point of the event: to use fossil Pokemon. Thus, the community is bashing Niantic for these rule choices since players that try to use a full team of fossil Pokemon will likely lose to more powerful matchups.
Though this event was ruined in the eyes of many players, hopefully Niantic will learn from the mistake and make the next Fossil Cup a fossil-only event. Though this could also lead to a different problem with players picking only the best Pokemon for their team, at the very least it will be a fun, thematic event that puts fossil Pokemon at the forefront rather than an afterthought.
Pokemon GO is available for iOS and Android devices.
