Pokemon GO players aren’t fucking around when it comes to being the very best – some trainers will even head out into the ocean to beat a gym.
The AR mobile game sees you tracking down Pokemon in the real world, with points of interest and landmarks on the map turned into Pokemon gyms.
One such gym exists in Wellington, New Zealand, and can be found by a fountain – which unfortunately for humans lies slap-bang in the middle of a large body of water.
There's a gym IN THE OCEAN. WHO'S BRIGHT IDEA WAS THAT? #PokemonGO #Wellington pic.twitter.com/kBh7yKK6K2
— Libby Greatnews (@MrsGreatnews) July 10, 2016
Nevertheless, two plucky trainers used their Pokemon-based resolve and made their way into the harbour by kayak to take control of the gym.
I’m loving Pokemon GO, but I can barely motivate myself to head down the street to battle my local gym – these guys are what I aspire to be one day.
Two people, in a kayak. Staring at their phones. #PokemonGO is getting serious pic.twitter.com/HH4WgCUhAZ
— CREATENEWS NAYDN (@mrgreatnews) July 10, 2016
They're still going. ? #PokemonGO #Wellington pic.twitter.com/kNlwIcPkSx
— Libby Greatnews (@MrsGreatnews) July 10, 2016
Mashable Australia discovered that these champions, named Kelsey Thomson and Lizzy Eden (both Team Blue), actually rented the kayak from another Pokémon Go player, who was on Team Yellow.
Unfortunately, Team Yellow soon reclaimed the elusive fountain gym, as Thomson said:
Team Yellow has a boat. One of them owns a boat, so that’s not fair.
Yeah, we kayaked out to the fountain to claim this gym for #teamblue #pokemongo pic.twitter.com/vKyWMK4bsN
— kels; (@Kelchup) July 10, 2016
So there’s one unforeseen upswing of Pokemon GO – boat rental is likely to see a sharp increase as trainers take to the high seas to do battle. Who could’ve guessed?
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.