“I’m not sure if I’m the first but I’m definitely one of the first.”
Ahmed Ali is likely to be the first UK Pokémon Go player to have caught all 145 Pokémon Go monsters.
Ahmed, who is a 23 year-old from Newham in London achieved the total catch by locating the American-only bull Tauros monster when he was studying in New York and finally, capturing Muk in Canary Wharf.
Although Ali is not the first person in the world who has caught all 145 Pokémon Go monsters, he is awaiting confirmation from the Pokémon Go company to be the first from the UK. Talking about his claim, he said:
“I’m not sure if I’m the first but I’m definitely one of the first.”
Ali caught all the Pokémon Go monsters in just two weeks, while he is waiting to start his first job in September, after graduating from Queen Mary University.
Ali says his parents were not exactly happy with him playing the game:
“My parents were not happy. My dad thought I was wasting my time. I was like, ‘I’m doing lots of walking!'” he said.
He on the other hand, has totally enjoyed it:
“I have a lot of free time because I start work in September.”
“A lot of my friends were the same, so we had a lot of company and fun.
“There’s so much strategy involved, there’s a lot of calculations. Maths definitely comes in useful.”
The game which has proven to get people outdoors and even giving the fitness tracker Fitbit a challenge, got Ahmed travelling to reach his quest. The New York trip was most likely his most enjoyable experience.
“We went to Central Park and it was just amazing because it was full of crowds playing Pokémon,” said Ali.
Other catches by Ali included finding Asia and Australasia rarities in eggs by lots of walking and finding the European-exclusive monster Mr. Mime in Canary Wharf.
After playing and completing the game, Ahmed now seems to have lost his drive to carry on playing:
“Honestly I was so drained at that point that it was just a release. Since then I have lost my motivation and haven’t really played,” he says.
Pokémon Go is a craze that has hooked many parts of the world with players on the augmented reality game for hours, so it’s likely there will be more UK players who are victorious like Ahmed Ali.