Pokemon Go's Next Legendary Revealed, And It's A Fan Favorite

[Update] Legendary Pokemon Articuno and Lugia are available in Raid Battles everywhere now. Pokemon Go developer Niantic has also made a number of rewards available to players until Monday, July 24, at 5:00 PM PDT as a "thanks to the Trainers around the world who banded together to catch millions of Pokemon during the Challenge Windows." The rewards include the following:

• Double Stardust
• Double Candy
• Double XP
• Increased Pokemon encounters
• Reduced hatching distance
• Reduced buddy distance

[Original story continues below]

Legendary Pokemon Articuno will be added to Pokemon Go, following the success of Team Mystic at Pokemon Go Fest. You can watch the announcement of Articuno's arrival in the video below.

During the event players were tasked with teaming up to defeat a Legendary monster that showed up at Grant Park in Chicago, where Pokemon Go Fest is being held. Team Mystic proved to be victorious and, as a result, the flying ice type from the Kanto region will make its way to game in the future.

During Pokemon Go Fest it was also confirmed that Lugia, another Legendary, will be activated in Raid Battles within the next 48 hours; Articuno's arrival will follow Lugia's. Another Legendary, Ho-oh, is also expected in the future.

Although Team Mystic won here, Zapdos, which is tied to Team Instinct, and Moltres, which is represented by Team Valor, will also make it into the game in the future. Niantic hasn't said when, however.

Those that attended Pokemon Go Fest found themselves unable to actually play the game due to a combination of server and network issues. To make up for this, Pokemon Go developer Niantic has said it will offer full ticket refunds to all that attended the fan event, as well as $100 in PokeCoins, among other gifts.

"Today at Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago, technical issues created problems for a large number of players attending the event," Niantic said in an official statement. "From everyone at Niantic, we apologize to all of the Trainers who came out to Pokemon Go Fest today. Although we were able to solve many of the technical issues, we were not able to offer every attendee a great experience."

It went on to detail how it will compensate attendees:

• All registered attendees will soon receive an email with instructions on how to receive a full refund for the cost of their ticket. These instructions will be sent to the email addresses associated with your Pokemon Go account.
• All registered attendees will receive $100 in PokeCoins in their Pokemon GO account.
• Special Pokemon, Eggs, and check-in PokeStops appearing during Pokemon Go Fest have had their range increased to a two mile radius surrounding Grant Park through Monday morning, July 24. These Pokemon and Eggs will only be visible to Pokemon Go Fest attendees who validated the QR code they received when they entered Pokemon Go Fest. Attendees who were unable to validate their QR code during the event can do so through the special PokeStops through Monday morning.
• All registered attendees will have the Legendary Pokemon, Lugia, added to their account

Ahead of Pokemon Go Fest, a new update for the game was rolled out. This includes some bug fixes along with some refinements and new features, including the ability to give berries to a Pokemon you've left at a Gym without actually visiting it.

In Japan, Pokemon Go players can now purchase an official ring accessory. It's a handheld trinket that is designed to be a different way of holding the Pokemon Go Plus device. As of yet, Niantic has not confirmed whether the ring will be available outside of Japan, but previous accessories such as the Pokemon Go Plus was available in multiple territories.