Trainers complain about ‘unplayable’ lag in GO Battle League

The battling continues in Pokemon Go’s GO Battle League but for some, it isn’t even worth taking part in.

We’re now into the mid-point of GO Battle League Season 3 yet the problem of lag remains. The reason for the lag hasn’t been revealed, at least in any official capacity,  so trainers are left to wonder whether it will be resolved soon.

Lag isn’t the only issue that has hit GO Battle League though, as a couple of months ago a huge exploit with the PvP mode was found. Thankfully, it appears this problem has been resolved.

Nevertheless, lag still persists. Unless you’ve experienced it, you may think it is something you can just play through. Well, unfortunately, it isn’t. This is because due to the nature of PvP where every move can count, even a slight bit of lag can cost you the match.

Lag is a two-way street

Some trainers are even reporting their opponent having two to three extra Fast Moves due to the lag. While annoying, it should be noted that for a lot of players this is likely a two-way street whereby they benefit from additional Fast Moves on occasion.

“Trying to play at the moment and it’s a nightmare. The person who has least lag wins,” one player shared on Reddit. This sentiment is echoed throughout the Pokemon Go community.

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However, one trainer did have a slightly more balanced view of the situation: “Lag will affect everyone unless it’s your connection. I found it bad tonight but definitely was affecting both players.”

This where the issue is compounded. Trainers will naturally point to the times lag cost them rather than when it helped them. It results in a community feeling like they’ve been wronged by the lag where in reality, it has just made the winning trainer a bit more random.

Have Niantic responded?

Niantic haven’t responded directly to the lag issue. They do sporadically perform maintenance on the GO Battle League servers though, but we don’t know if this relates directly to this problem.

One particular issue is being investigated, however: “Pokemon in Trainer Battles do not always resume combat simultaneously after Charged Attacks. One Pokemon may resume combat after the other, resulting in lost turns.”

Twitter user, @ThoTechtical, asked for clarification on this investigation to which Niantic responded: We’re investigating this and will let you know when we’ll have a fix for this.

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The lag may be on-going for a little while yet but the upside is that Niantic are investigating at least part of the problem. We’d have thought they will be very aware of the issue as a whole.