[X] My Assistant

[Zerxer]

From all of the staff here, we truly hope you're all having a safe and wonderful holiday season, making the most of what is possible as the global pandemic continues to cause us to pause most of our personal yearly traditions. To those who have been hit especially hard in any way, our hearts go out to you.

Normally when I make this post, I comment how I can't believe it's already December again and that I always feel like time is moving so fast by how frequently I have to do this. This year, however, hits far different. It feels like it's been ten years since last December, back when we were reflecting on the closing of the decade. So far this decade has been off to a very bumpy start.

It hasn't been ten years, though... It's only been one! You know what was ten years ago? The release of Pokémon Black & White, bringing with it the 5th generation of Pokémon and the Unova region.

It's interesting to look back at what the Pokémon franchise, and our site, were like then. Unova was the first new region to come after GPX launched in 2009. It was also the last set of games to not have a worldwide release date, having released in Japan in September 2010 and then not in North America until March 2011!

Because of this, we were able to start adding in the new Pokémon immediately as we were getting data from the Japanese release. We were very careful about spoilers for players in other regions who didn't want to immediately be exposed to the new Pokémon, so we had a setting to hide them site-wide, and we had a new section called the Dream World for obtaining them. We even came up with new vouchers – all of the "Plus" vouchers – with them being special in that they included 5th gen, while the original vouchers would never contain them. It's kind of funny looking back at that, because we use the Plus vouchers for everything now, including new Pokémon as they come out (thanks to worldwide releases), yet we still have those old vouchers lying around that only contain generations 1 thru 4. We even held a contest where the first 5 users to unlock some new achievements won a free copy of Black/White!

Sorry for the long story, I'm a really nostalgic person and am getting old. Let's get on with the event timeline!

The Hanukkah event

• Begins: Tuesday, December 8th at 11:55pm EST (site reset), which is tonight, two nights before Hanukkah begins.
• Ends: Sunday, December 20th at 11:55pm EST (site reset), which is two nights after Hanukkah ends.

This is always a favorite, so we're of course running our Hanukkah event. In the past we've given 1 Coin for every egg hatched that met that year's theme. Previous years have included: Fire-types (lighting of candles theme), Generation 1 Pokémon (a nostalgia theme), Generation 3 Pokémon (Pokémon GO theme), and Pokémon that were left out of the Galar region (missing from Sword and Shield).

This year, given everything I said earlier, we will be using Gen 5 Pokémon from Black and White. We're going to limit it to only Uncommon and Rare eggs from Unova.

Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott, Purrloin, Pansage, Pansear, Panpour, Munna, Drilbur, Audino, Throh, Sawk, Venipede, Cottonee, Petilil, Maractus, Dwebble, Sigilyph, Tirtouga, Archen, Zorua, Ducklett, Emolga, Foongus, Frillish, Alomomola, Klink, Tynamo, Elgyem, Axew, Cryogonal, Druddigon, Golett, Bouffalant, Rufflet, Vullaby, Deino, Larvesta

You'll receive 1 coin for every Pokémon egg you hatch from the above list. You'll also earn 20 coins for completing a daily Scavenger Hunt task, which begins at the same time, but only up until the Hanukkah event ends. These coins are completely separate from all other currencies on the site and are used to determine the prizes you win in the end (as well as for Spinning the Dreidel).

You may use these coins to Spin the Dreidel, which has 4 sides to it. Depending on the side that it lands on, the following will happen: you will lose the coins you played, you will double the coins you played, you will lose half the coins you played, or you will simply get back what you put in and be able to spin again without waiting.

You can only spin it once every 15 minutes (unless it lands on Shin). You can only play with the coins you've earned during the current day, rather than your full total.

We are reusing the old stats: coins (total, throughout all the days -- this will be reset to 0 for everyone before the event begins), coins today (the net amount you've earned today), and a stat for the most amount you earned in a day (this will still contain your previous results unless you beat your old record). Losing coins to the dreidel affects both your total coins and coins today stats.

The amount of coins you earn throughout the entire 12 days of Hanukkah will directly affect the prize(s) you receive when the event ends.

Some notes:

• We've made this event 12 days to match recent years.
• The Scavenger Hunt will begin on the 8th at reset as well, so the 20 Coins you earn per task completion will last through the entire Hanukkah event, with the Scavenger Hunt itself ending on the 25th at reset.
• Prize information relating to the Coins will be announced later, but will as always be similar to previous years. This means Scratch Cards and some vouchers for the members in the top tier of Coins collected. Again, top tier... it's a floating range and won't always be the same as previous years. It depends on overall site activity.
• The Lab will produce extra eggs of the above list of Pokémon during the Hanukkah event, the same as it does for SWSH Pokémon.
• For every Pokémon egg you hatch from the above list, you will earn 1 coin.
• For every Scavenger Hunt task you complete, you will earn 20 coins.
• If you participated in this event in past years, your historical dreidel spins will still show up on the Spin the Dreidel page -- this is simply an archive and has no bearing on the current 2020 event.

Scavenger Hunt
This month's Scavenger Hunt will also begin on Tuesday, December 8th at 11:55pm EST (site reset) and will end on Friday, December 25th at 11:55pm EST (site reset), but you'll only earn 20 coins for completing a task until the Hanukkah event ends (see above end date and time). So basically it'll run through and end on Christmas night.

Explorations
The two Christmas explorations, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and "Secret of Christmas", have been activated and will run through the end of the month.

Secret Santa Exchange
Deposits will be open sometime on Tuesday the 22nd and will last thru Friday the 25th, with the exchange itself happening after reset. I will post additional information around that time, but it'll work about the same as previous years.

New Year's Raffle
This will work the same as always: you'll have a day to be as active as possible, and for every 2021 points of Activity Score earned, you'll get one entry. We'll then distribute a certain number of prizes (be it a voucher for a new Pokémon, or something else ... tbd), and you'll have a chance to get one based on the number of entries you earned (you are not guaranteed a prize, regardless of how many entries you earned). More information will come as we near the end of the month.

Quick Update

I may end up moving the Scavenger Hunt dates so that it also begins tonight and ends sooner than the 31st.

12/8: Updated the Scavenger Hunt to begin tonight, the same as the Hanukkah event, and it'll end on Christmas night (site reset) on the 25th.

This post has been edited by Jen: Dec 8 2020, 07:54 PM

Reason for edit: Updated Scavenger Hunt dates