Team Go Rocket finally return to Pokemon Go after game-breaking glitch

Team Go Rocket are finally back in Pokemon Go after being temporarily removed from the mobile game for over two weeks.

A Pokemon Go update in April brought the popular mobile game to a halt when the latest patch caused a flurry of bugs from missing maps to Team Go Rocket NPCs freezing players’ screens.

The problem became so bad that Niantic had to remove the villainous group altogether. For two weeks, there were no signs as to when the problem would be fixed – until April 22.

Niantic / The Pokemon Company

Team Go Rocket were disabled from the game for days.

Team Go Rocket are finally back in Pokemon Go

After two long weeks, the villainous group finally made their return to Pokemon Go. Players had become frustrated at their absence, especially those who needed to encounter them to level up.

“Trainers, the issue affecting Team GO Rocket battles has been resolved, and Team GO Rocket can again be encountered in game,” Niantic Support tweeted on April 22. “Thanks for your patience.”

• Read More: Go community wants “anti-consumer” features to change

Just hours before, eagle-eyed fans noticed that the developer had made an update to their website. On the known issues page, they addressed the villainous group’s absence from the game. “Sometimes, when a Trainer initiates a battle with Team Go Rocket, the game will freeze and become unresponsive. This issue has been mitigated by removing Team Go Rocket encounters temporarily until this can be resolved,” the blog post read. “Issue status: Fixed in an upcoming update.”

To make up for the team’s absence, Shadow Zapdos will return once again and will be available through Giovanni encounters from June 1 at 12AM until June 17 at 12AM local time.

• Read More: Pokemon Go players frustrated by Team Go Rocket bug

Many Pokemon Go players theorized that the fix wouldn’t be implemented for another 10-20 days due to the last update going live just a couple of days prior, so the return of Team Go Rocket so soon is a welcome but unexpected one.