Pokemon Go Is Giving Out Legendary Pokemon as Battle League Rewards

Pokemon Go is rewarding players who win in their Battle League with an encounter with Thundurus, the newest Legendary Pokemon to be added to this game. Pokemon Go players were surprised to discover that they now have a chance of encountering Thundurus as a reward for winning 2 or more battles in the GO Battle League, the official ranked PvP league of the game. Niantic confirmed that Thundurus was added as a potential encounter for winning 4 battles (in the free track of rewards) or 2 battles (in the premium track of rewards) after players discovered the change on Reddit. This isn't a guaranteed encounter - players can also encounter Pokemon like Snivy, Tepig, Oshawott, Deino, Scraggy, Shieldon, or Larvitar as a reward as well.

The move is a bit of a surprise, given how zealously Pokemon Go has protected access to Legendary Pokemon. Usually, players have to team up and play in raids to get a Legendary Pokemon encounter, especially when it comes to newer Legendary Pokemon. Although some older Legendary Pokemon have been given away as rewards for completing Field Research, Pokemon Go eventually moved away from that as well, replacing them with Legendary Pokemon.

Not only is this a good incentive for players to battle in the GO Battle League, it also offers rural players who struggle getting a group together to raid a chance to catch Legendary Pokemon at the same time as urban players. While rural players are still at a disadvantage, they won't be entirely outclassed when it comes to getting those new powerful Pokemon that can shape the metagame. Of course, Niantic still makes money off of this change, especially as it's a lot harder to pick up 4 wins to get the encounter reward in the Ultra League and Master League. I know a lot of players will spend a Premium Raid Pass so they only need 2 wins to get that encounter reward.

Thundurus will be available as a Go Battle League reward until "further notice," so get battling if you want to pick up this Legendary Pokemon for your collection.