PokéVew - Source of All Info Related to Pokemon

Pokemon Center has been making Pokemon drops pretty regularly these last few weeks - usually spanning once or twice a week. Although, that doesn't come without challenges. Bots continue to overrun the queue and get through without many issues, as a lot of these bot providers continue to try their best with engineering any prevention updates Pokemon Center throws their way. However, this past Friday, something rather interesting happened... Pokemon Center queue had gone up a few times during the day, causing many people to rush to the site in the hopes of securing whatever drop was happening. As the minutes past, it became obvious nothing was dropping and rather a false alarm? I mean, it can happen! A lot of these monitor bots these Pokemon restock servers implement tend to look out for backend changes that happen to the site, alerting people of the queue going up. 

The track record for that has been pretty impressive, but this past Friday, nothing came of it. What was interesting, however, was the extra captchas and Imperva security measures being implemented, which was not seen before. It appears the Pokemon Center website was actively trying these measures out live to see how bots may interact with it. At the same time, numerous Pokemon fans were lining up in this virtual line in the hopes of scoring whatever drop would happen but they were faced with a litany of network errors when trying to solve these captchas. Some were even met with error 15 and 17 messages which are notorious for blocking individuals from accessing the site from their IP address. 

It didn't take long for Pokemon Center to revert back to their old system. It became rather apparent during this event that they were implementing new security measures to fight against the waves of bots that are so prevalent within the Pokemon TCG scene. What I am personally afraid of is that it won't take long for these bot providers to find a way to bypass these new security measures (if they do go live). 

As someone who has no knowledge of cybersecurity or bot preventions on websites, I am curious to see how the Pokemon Center website and all these other retail websites continue to fight against bots. When the big Destined Rivals drop happened on Walmart a couple weeks ago, many people were able to cop because the bot providers (like Stellar and Prizm) were not anticipating this new queue system. Similarly, many people were able to purchase the Black Bolt and White Flare ETBs when they were live on Pokemon Center. The stock lasted approximately 5 hours.

Now I'm no expert, but I do wonder whether Pokemon Center will tackle this bot issue by restricting a certain quantity to each address. I mean, they are already doing this where if you try to purchase more than the limit, then you're simply met with a red banner, preventing you from moving forward with the purchase. Considering bots don't have to wait in the queue, restricting to address makes the most logical sense to fight against them. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if these bot providers have a workaround ready for that. But what do I know? I'm simply the Webmaster of Pokevew! :P

Either way, curious to see what happens for this next Pokemon Center drop which I anticipate will happen this upcoming week. Guess we'll see...

Earlier today, the Pokemon Center dropped the Destined Rivals ETB, Booster Boxes, and Booster Bundle items. As expected, the queue system went up and was instantly inundated with folks trying to secure the PC exclusive Destined Rivals ETB. Here is my personal experience...

I woke up early and my friend showed me the new ETB artwork. I was under the impression that there would be no drop until later this week. Considering the PC preorder drops tend to occur on Thursdays and Fridays, I would have assumed the same would happen this week, so I didn't pay too much attention. I almost decided to fall back asleep, but then I heard people mentioning a potential drop today. So upon hearing  that, I decided to stay up a bit longer, and I am glad I did! Shortly after, I saw the queue system notifications going off, so I decided to jump on the Pokemon Center website immediately. I was trying to queue up from my phone and PC, hoping to get in from one of those locations. It took around 15 minutes before I was in the website on my phone. I quickly navigated around, but was unable to find the Destined Rivals product. I went from New Releases, TCG section, and just aimlessly wandering about, trying to find it. Then I clicked the product link from a Discord server and was able to find the ETB. I quickly made my order and upon a few error messages here and there, it went through! 

This time, the Pokemon Center website only allowed a limit of 1 per person. I tried to make another order to test this out but was promptly hit with an error message. I then proceeded to find the Booster Boxes and Booster Bundles for this set, but had no luck. Even after using the direct product links, I was hit with "No Product Found" Pikachu message. I eventually refreshed enough times to where the product went live but it was too late... It was unavailable. However, some people managed to secure both items! I guess it came down to luck...

Eventually, the Pokemon Center website logged me out and sent an "Oops something went wrong" message, which I started to assume I had spent too long on the website, and was pushed back out into the queue. 

I saw many folks error out, get sent back into queue when trying to make their order, or hit with a refresh AS they were waiting in queue. Plagued by a lot these issues, the Pokemon Center queue system continues to highlight how it is from perfect. To only way to secure any exclusive product ready to drop is to hit the queue almost immediately when it goes live, otherwise, chances remain low.

My personal experience today was decent. I mean, I managed to secure the PC exclusive ETB for Destined Rivals but many people shared their tumultuous experience today with facing errors and many other issues. 

I truly hope Pokemon Center improves this process, but I also realize that with 2 million+ people waiting in queue (most probably being bots), it will inundate the servers and cause slow down, glitches, and just wild experiences.

Let's hope we there will be another restock soon to give those that were unable to secure another chance. 

Recently, the Pokemon TCG Pocket app account announced its future update plans within a post on Twitter. This brief statement gets us ready for upcoming content within the coming months. While it didn't go into specific details, we can infer that November, December, and January will be jam-packed with events and packs. The app has been receiving regular updates every couple of weeks to highlight various features, whether it is the wonder pick, solo battling against AI, or solo battles against other players. So we can assume these features will be the focus for future events, in addition to the upcoming trading feature. I'm sure we will receive the A2 packs very soon, too. 

The statement reads as follows:

"To all of you playing Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket,

The Pokemon Center website has been updated, showcasing a new item release: Lapras Pearlescent Pop! Vinyl Figure by Funko

This item was released in collaboration by Funko and is priced at $14.99. It showcases a Lapras figure with a pearlescent effect. Pretty eye popping! (See what I did there? :P)

The Pokemon Center website has updated, showcasing new releases:

The Pokemon Center website has just updated to showcase the Pokemon Halloween decoration items for the 2024 year! Known as "POKÉWEEN," there are various figures, garden items, kitchen items, clothes, posters, puzzles, and mugs showcased on the website. 

Below are pictures of a few items showcased: