Trainers, Niantic has officially acknowledged that distribution mechanism used in the recent wave of EX Raid invites (Feb 21 invitation date) was incorrect and that it executed an older version of the distribution code base:
“Trainers, the most recent EX Raid Battle invitations were not as wide-reaching as we had hoped. We discovered an error that executed an older version of code, which did not include the fixes we’d previously introduced. We’re sorry for the confusion, and we will make sure that the next round of EX Raid Battles appropriately executes the improved code.” – source Pokemon GO Facebook
Niantic made an unprecedented step towards better player communication, as the company has never before publicly acknowledged an issue with their EX invitation mechanisms. The GO Hub team did observe a tangible change in the way recent raid activity was treated, but at a time we were unable to detect any other changes.
We’re curious to see how the next wave of EX raid invitations will look like, as up to now, the hit or miss feeling of every cycle was daunting and frustrating for the majority of the player base.
If you don’t remember, the following fixes were shared by Niantic in a recent blog post (“An Update on EX Raid Battle Invitations”, Feb 7 2018):
- Trainers with a higher level Gym Badge are now even more likely to receive an invitation for an EX Raid Battle at that location.
- Trainers who complete more Raid Battles (at any location) the week before EX Raid Battle invitations are sent will now have a greater chance of being selected.
Niantic has shared a Tweet about this, re-directing players to a Facebook post:
A note on our most recent EX Raid Battle invitations: https://t.co/0Hsn5tDM4N
— Pokémon GO (@PokemonGoApp) February 23, 2018
Apparently, these will be completely put in place with the next wave. The date of the next wave is unknown as of the time of this publication.
