Ever wanted to travel as a Pokémon trainer, challenge the Gym Leaders, and duel the Champion? This is exactly what the “Gruga League” does once a year – as a fan event in the park.
What is the Gruga Liga? The “Gruga-Liga” is an event by fans for fans, which takes place once a year in the “Gruga-Park” in Essen. The idea is simple: Anyone who has always dreamed of experiencing the Pokémon world in real life should have the opportunity here.
All you need is a ticket, the current Pokémon game on the Switch, maybe a costume for the day, and most importantly, lots of enthusiasm. With the ticket you get a trainer pass and can then face the challenge in the park. Among other things, the event offers:
When is the Gruga league running? This year the event will take place on July 15th in the Gruga Park in Essen. Ticket sales started on March 25th. You can find more information about this on the Gruga-Liga website.
But what exactly is the Gruga league and how did it come about? We spoke to Maike and Jan from the team behind the Gruga-Liga.
Interview – What is the “Gruga League”?
Maike and Jan are among the longest-serving team members in the Gruga league. Maike has been there since the first event in 2014 and joined the organization a year later. Jan had his first Gruga Liga experience in 2016 and has been an official member of the organization since 2020.
How did the Gruga League come about?
In an interview, Maike and Jan report on the background of the event. This is how the Gruga league came about initially as a kind of counter-movement to prejudices against gamers: “We have two founders, Jacques and Flo, who got everything going back in 2014, under the motto ‘Get some fresh air'” , explains Maike.
If you remember it: Back then there were all these discussions with Gamescom that they were unwashed, fat people. We took that a little personally. We were fed up with those negative gaming stereotypes sticking to us.
So we thought: what if we bring Pokémon into real life for this purpose?
Maike on the beginnings of the league
At that time, the Gruga Park in Essen was identified as a possible location. However, the league did not start smoothly: “The very first Gruga league, 2014, that’s the ‘lost Gruga league’, and it had 9 participants,” remembers Maike: “There were no tickets then, the team was whole, very small. We were a group of friends who said we’re the gym leaders now. That was nothing more.”
But the team had fun and set themselves the goal of trying again the following year – with success: “This time we wanted to do it right, with social media presence and everything. And then, to our great surprise, we suddenly became very, very big,” says Maike.
In 2016, the hype surrounding Pokémon GO also played a role and reminded even more people of Pokémon: “We had a lot of inquiries very quickly, got bigger and bigger and actually planned smaller ones. In the meantime we have leveled off at 250 to 300 participants.”
In order to do justice to this, the Gruga-Liga needs a passionate team: The big crux is that we have to cover the event with volunteers and want to provide enough arena leaders for the participants. If we don’t make it, we can’t offer as many tickets.
Mike about the team
What is happening in the Gruga Liga?
The league takes place regularly and now attracts up to 300 enthusiastic participants to the Gruga Park every year (apart from a break during the pandemic). Many come in disguise, in a good mood, and aiming to spend a day enjoying life as a Pokémon trainer. But what exactly happens at the event?
In the beginning, the Gruga league started with the principle that incoming trainers could compete with the arena managers. Bring your team of Pokémon and do battle against the gym leaders, NPCs, and trainers in the park. In the end you met the top 4 and fought out the best coaches in the final tournament. But over the years, the concept has become more and more comprehensive.
“What has definitely changed are the tasks and quests that we offer,” explains Jan. “At some point ideas came up, such as not only testing combat power, but also knowledge. So every year I compete as the Riddler and try to challenge people with quizzes.”
And the Pokémon world also needs villains: “There were two participants in 2016, Maren and Goldi, who said from the start: This event needs a big, bad team, and they set it up. It’s now every year, always with a new concept,” explains Jan.
Maike still sees the competitive tournament as the highlight, but emphasizes: “We also offer options for non-competitive players. We added a story mode and different difficulty levels. For example, we make distinctions between competitive and casual players. We now have up to 4 levels of difficulty, which depend on how well-versed the players are in the game,” explains Maike.
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There is something for every type of player: from the pros who breed perfect teams to players who only play Pikachu because Pikachu is cool. After all, everyone has their favorite Pokémon.
There are even children’s tickets this time, for kids without the game: “They also get a trainer pass and can get a task from the arena leaders. They just ask questions like ‘what’s the coolest Pokemon’? Then the answer doesn’t matter, because of course that’s the coolest Pokemon, and then there’s a medal and they can participate without a console or a game.”
Lots of work on organization: “We are looking for gym leaders and NPCs”
How does the preparation of the Gruga-Liga look like?
It takes a lot of effort and support to get the event off the ground. Preparation usually begins in September of the previous year, but sometimes shortly after the last event: “We take the feedback from the last event and try to take it into account as much as possible when planning the next event,” explains Jan.
We are looking for gym leaders, but also NPCs who will challenge trainers in the park during the event. In addition, we are dependent on helpers, for example in the stage area or when taking care of the arena leaders and NPCs. And then there’s the top 4, the champ, and the bad team looking for new bullies.
Once the applications have been completed and the team is in place, the concrete preparations begin: “For example, I take care of the arena managers and cosplay aspects, Jan, for example, is the contact person for the NPCs,” explains Maike: “We plan and discuss with the arena managers: What does your arena look like, where should it be, what is your concept, how is it implemented?”
The battle teams also want to be prepared: “With the ‘Team Gameplay’, the Pokémon experts, we then plan what the teams look like, how they are bred so that everyone has everything by the date. We also have to make sure that we remain a child-friendly event and don’t inadvertently infringe copyrights,” says Maike.
Community makes the event
So everyone pulls together until the event takes place in summer. And even on site, the “Gruga-Liga” is characterized by cooperation and a team feeling – also among the participants, as Maike reports: “When we were a bit more established, we had an incredible rush for the tickets. We always start setting up the Gruga in the morning at 7 a.m. at the latest, tend to be earlier,” she recalls.
“We were still in the middle of construction, in a hurry, things came too late. We knew it would be a great, but also stressful day. But at that point there were already participants in the park.”
They then appeared in the middle of the construction:
Suddenly they were standing right there – well-behaved, in rank and file, in a super-long queue. Then a group of participants came and I was really busy. They then said: ‘We actually wanted to ask when you’re going to open. But we changed our minds and ask: Can we help?’
A crucial moment for Maike: “It was a moment I didn’t see coming. Although we declined, they then helped us, made and done. That made me very happy because it showed me once again that the Pokémon community is such an open, friendly community that wants events like this to take place. They want to help, they want to support,” she says happily. “That was the decisive moment for me when I realized: I’m doing this for someone, there are people who are looking forward to it.”
Would the event also be something for you? Tell us in the comments! Are you more into Pokémon GO? Then you should probably break loose and fight Team Rocket in the GO Rocket takeover.