Pokémon Unite: Uniting My Friendships

Dear Ty,

I don’t think you need to remind you of how much I love and appreciate you. The last couple years have been hard on us both, and despite it all we have found time and ways to keep each other company, from one hour calls talking about nothing, or watching shitty horror movies so I can overcome my childhood nightmares.

I took a chance at Pokémon Unite a couple months after release after reading Charles Huang’s piece on the game, and you insisting I would like it. You were very right, it’s the only game I play now. I was worried another MOBA was going to turn sour like my experience with League of Legends, but luckily enough that wasn’t the case this time around.

I’m not the biggest fan of Pokémon related games outside their usual turn based main games (looking at you Pokémon Cafe Mix and Pokémon Go), so I wasn’t in a rush to try Unite right away. However, Huang explained perfectly how one can feel after a game of League, and then elaborated how one doesn’t feel that way with Pokémon Unite, and it was just what I needed to finally try. No in-game chat system other than locators of where a player is going or retreating, a generous point system to keep you from losing rank quickly if you lose ranked games, 10 minute cap on battles, and cute little Pokémon characters- what’s not to love? It became my daily routine- taking my login rewards, raking in that in-game currency for adorable outfits, making careful decisions whether I buy Snorlax or Pikachu as my next silly little guy to play.

I’ve made it a habit to play by myself after LoL shenanigans as a way to avoid getting upset. You know I’m not very good at MOBA’s, or games in general, so I tend to feel insecure about the way I play if I’m in a round of anything with someone. So of course, to solve my problems is to just avoid it all together. However, I started getting the urge to play with friends, since playing games was really the only time I was free at the time. I wanted to incorporate it some way by getting some of that needed socializing.

I started playing some matches with you after getting a bit more confident in my Slowbro Defender role, and it was so much fun. We won some, we lost some, but we also followed up texting each other how the matches went with jokes, or recollecting on dumb moments other players had. Feeling good? After a MOBA? What an alien concept I was experiencing.

While I was enjoying playing MOBAs again, I started to become aware of how much I really missed you and the rest of my friends. With the pandemic, I can’t see them as consistently, and with different time zones in the US, it can be a little hard to find times where we can all get together for a movie to watch online. But Pokémon Unite having short games gave us time to play at any moment. Getting little invites from you when you’re free for a couple matches started to be the highlights to my busy days– especially when I was going through quarantine after moving again. There was a night you and I won about seven consecutive ranked games with our Talonflame and Cinderace combo. We kept yelling in our own group chat that wasn’t even in the game. I don’t even think I was ever that hyped in a match of League, it was such a thrilling feeling. But of course, because we are adults who have money to make, we would close out the game after a few matches- this made me miss you each time. 

Knowing I would have to leave the United States soon into an even later timezone, I was already sensitive over friend interactions changing and possibly losing them. I was so stuck in my thinking that me being in the United States was the only reason I had these great friends. I was convinced that if I took myself out it would mean you and others wouldn’t care about me anymore. I had all sorts of assumptions running laps in my head, it was nerve-wracking.

I know you and others would do their best to keep contact being time zones away, but with my world changing that worry just sat in the back of my head at all times. Getting that hour with you helped me gain more confidence and trust, making me feel that us existing as not friends was a silly thought to begin with. This bled through the rest of my friendships as well. I started playing more Pokémon Unite matches with other friends after my move, and even made new ones. I joined Pokémon Unite Facebook groups, would be invited into group chats with other active players of the same rank looking to team up, and now I talk to some almost every day. It brought me back to my start of LoL, but without the yelling over voice calls and having to be exposed to slurs or insults in chat.

Getting to still have nuggets of time with everyone after my move made me miss being around you and them so much more now that I couldn’t just easily book a couple hour flight and be where they are. I took the time I had with you for granted, and will be much more thankful next time I see you. But for now, I’m happy this Pokémon MOBA exists to give us friend time.

Let’s match up soon, I’ve learned the fat squirrel and have been demolishing everyone.