Welcome to Vol. 3 issue 43 of Johto Times. For those of you who picked up Pokémon Legends: Z-A last week, we hope you’ve been enjoying it! This week, we are sharing an interview with a Pokémon community called Lake Valor, which opened its doors in 2012. We’ve also got a recap of the latest Pokémon news.

We now have a message board! It has been lovely meeting so many Johto Times readers and friends from across our social media channels in one place, discussing all kinds of topics relating to our newsletter and the Pokémon series. We hope more of you will consider registering and joining us!

Check out the Johto Times Community Forum

Pokémon Legends Z-A players can get a Ralts and Gardevoirite stone until February 28th, 2026

POKÉMON LEGENDS Z-A

• Players who purchase Pokémon Legends: Z-A before February 28th, 2026, can obtain a Ralts holding a Gardevoirite stone. Simply navigate to the in-game Mystery Gift feature, and choose "Get via Internet".

Source: Pokémon

POKÉMON TCG POCKET

• A new expansion is coming to Pokémon TCG Pocket in the form of Mega Rising, which launches on October 29th, 2025. Three booster packs featuring Mega Gyarados, Mega Blaziken, and Mega Altaria (which are also ex cards within the set) will include many new Mega Pokémon ex cards, such as Mega Pinsir ex, and Mega Absol ex.

Source: Pokémon

Feature: Interview with Lake Valor

Lake Valor is a project which began in 2012 as a conventional Pokémon website and evolved into a community where people could discuss the franchise and obtain Pokémon via a gamification feature called the “Catcher”. Several members of the team’s mod crew (Jeydis, Wizard, BZRich64, and Vigilance) have contributed to this interview, with Jeydis representing the overall views of the team on most questions.

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A selection of logos and banners from Lake Valor’s history, between 2012 and 2025

It’s great to be conducting this interview with you, Jeydis! Can you please introduce yourself and tell me about your website and the team you represent?

Jeydis:

Hello, everyone; I am known as Jeydis in most places online. I have been playing Pokémon since my great-aunt got me Blue for Christmas in 1998 – old as dirt in internet years. I like to think of myself as a caretaker for my online communities. I am representing the Mod Crew of the Lake Valor community for which I am one of three admins. If you see a blue name on the boards, that's one of my crewmates!

Lake Valor’s layout (February 2013)

Lake Valor as it is established today was launched on November 21st, 2012. Its history dates back further than that, when it was a traditional fansite with a forum. While I respect you’re not the original owner, what can you tell us about the earliest days of the community?

Vigilance:

Lake Valor started as a Pokémon community back in 2012. At the time, while we didn't have a lot of users, the core focus was still Pokémon games, art, and community interaction. During that era, forums were still pretty popular and the initial founder had run some previous iterations of Pokémon communities so it was more a matter of bringing existing users over and continuing to build the community. As mentioned, the forum went beyond just Pokémon content and included stuff like fun forum games (e.g. one word posts to create a story, counting games, etc.) and art and design (signature making, art requests, etc.), which really helped bring in a diverse crowd of people with the common interest of Pokémon. I believe somewhere around that time, "PokePoints" were introduced, which was the official fake currency of the community, gained through posting and other achievements and incorporated in the forums through a currency tracking system. Members loved this as it allowed them to buy and sell artwork which drove up their motivation to remain active. We also had "adoptables" which was the precursor to the "Catcher" (more on that later) where a really great artist on the site designed square artwork of Pokémon that you could use PokePoints to adopt from the shop.

I believe releases were limited and, if memory serves me right, you could trade them, so that was a fun element of our community! In June of 2017, the idea of a Pokémon Go-style "Catcher" was thought up by the co-founders, and after some development work, [it] launched that summer. Fun Fact, the month of the Catcher release was the most PokePoints ever spent collectively in LV's history. Poke Balls were not cheap! Around that time, the Summer Scramble concept was first launched as well, [which is] a way to keep members engaged during the off-school months with some friendly competition (and banter)! Since then, the core concept of the community hasn't changed much – new Pokémon have entered the Catcher, new events have been hosted, new members and staff have come and gone, and we even added our Discord server, but overall the idea remains the same… a fun and chill place where Pokémon enthusiasts can hang out!

Lake Valor’s forum (February 2015)

Today’s Lake Valor is a community forum with a Pokémon Catcher mechanic where visitors can catch, train, and evolve Pokémon as they engage with users on the forum. Themed events take place on special occasions, such as Valentine’s Day, April Fools, and Halloween. Tell us more about how it all works!

Jeydis:

Well, the Crew and I wanted to bring a little life to the forums and we expanded upon some of the old lore of the site to make themed events for everyone. We have been doing so for every year since, with different formats and rewards, but the core remains: to have fun with the other members of the community.

In February we always get a visit from Lovebird, our local Decidueye regional form. He creates and delivers lovely Valentine’s cards from members to other members throughout the month and encourages everyone to reach out to friends and celebrate their time together.

April brings a much more chaotic being to the forums: Trickster, a being of absolute chaos that coalesced out of a pool where every meme, YouTube Poop and random internet thought collects. We rein him in, but sometimes he does take over parts of the site a bit and we need the members' help to put him back in his place.

October 1st marks the start of Oktoberfest, where we put up decorations and tell spooky stories around the digital campfire. There are a number of solo events during that time for people to join in on the fun and earn some medals for their profile.

We also try to have some sort of event for Christmas when possible, usually just a low-stress thing like a raffle or art contest.

Lake Valor’s forum (September 2015)

One of Lake Valor's big events is the Summer Scramble, where teams compete for points. Users can express their interest and be assigned to a team, where they can take part in activities such as playing games, creating artwork and fanfiction, and posting on the forum to accumulate as many points as possible. What is the history behind these events?

Vigilance:

I touched on this briefly but the overarching goal was to give members something to look forward to and participate in when school was out in the summer. In 2017, we launched the first iteration of Summer Scramble and the idea was simple – you divide users into themed teams, give them a separate space to hang out, and have them compete. Looking back at the Scramble archives, the first Scramble had a postfest (who can have the most posts in a set amount of time), Pokémon battles (text-based using your Catcher Pokémon), roleplay[ing] games, writing contests, signature design contests, trivia quizzes, and more. That summer, we had about 20 people per team across three teams and the theme was the Lake Legends (Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie). The winners (Valor with a 27 point victory over second place) received some special perks and the chance to catch Shiny Pokémon in the Catcher. It was a super fun time and our members loved it which led it to be a recurring theme every summer!

Jeydis:

Though I am not familiar with the very beginnings of the Scramble, I have been a moderator for a few of them now. I actually led a team for one back when I was a member, and that was one of the factors that led me to become a moderator afterwards. The Scramble is our busiest month, where the mods and admins create the most events for people to join. It's a month-long celebration of the Lake Valor community, summer, and Pokémon as a whole.

Lake Valor’s forum (May 2017)

Lake Valor is home to nearly 6,700 members at the time of writing. How would you describe your community?

Jeydis:

A safe space for people of all walks of life to discuss, create and support each other. Pokémon is our rallying banner to that effect but there are many members that have not played Pokémon in ages but they still want to hang out and chat with folks about video games and media at large.

We don't have the numbers of yesteryear, but we really enjoy our community and support each other through everything. In a world led by the cold hand of social media, I think there is something beautiful in that.

Lake Valor’s forum (August 2025)

Keeping and maintaining a forum can be tricky, as users come and go, and especially during a time where social media dominates. Aside from events, what is the team doing to bring in new users and encourage existing ones to keep returning?

Jeydis:

We advertise the forums through our Bluesky and soon hopefully a YouTube channel. We have also joined forces with other Pokémon communities to support each other through social media. The mods and admins also promote the forums on other platforms, when permitted of course, so you may have seen us in other gaming Discord communities. The server tag on Discord helps bring people as well.

Lake Valor’s forum, themed for Halloween in October 2025

What have been some of your personal highlights of the community in its thirteen years (and counting) online?

Vigilance:

Too many to list! At the start it was great seeing people come together and just meme around (we had a chat window in our forum as a precursor to Discord lol). Movie nights were super popular at the time too. Seeing the reaction to the Catcher dropping was a big highlight because it was great to see the community enjoy something we spent so much time building. The first Scramble was super memorable because it was tricky to organize and orchestrate but the members loving it made it worth it. I'll also never forget our first few patron donations ($100 tier) which showed how much our community was willing to support us as a forum. It was special to see people "grow up" with the forums too. So many members became better artists, better writers, better jokesters. You had people enter [during] high school who are now in college [or have] even graduated. I know seeing this evolution and growth is what kept the staff team involved and energized. Ultimately, the people are what made Lake Valor what it was, and despite many changes in the 13 years of its existence, that is still the case.

Jeydis:

I have very fond memories of various events as both a member and a staff member. Summer Scrambles are my favorite, of course, [as] the spirit of competition helped drive me when I was a member. That led me to doing some activities which I had not touched in ages like digital art, mixed media collages and shiny hunting. What drives me as a member of staff now is getting messages from our members mentioning how much they love our community and feel supported by their fellow members; that brings a shine to my day like nothing else.

Lake Valor’s long history online is an amazing achievement you should all be very proud of! In your opinion, what is the future for the community?

Jeydis:

We are working on a few projects, including an infrastructure upgrade, a YouTube channel, and some other secrets I won't divulge just yet.

I like to ask our guests if there are any Pokémon-related items and merchandise they have which mean something to them. Does the team have anything they would like to share of their own?

A photograph of Jeydis’s special Pokémon items! They include 3D printed Bulbasaur and Lapras figures and a Kyogre figure from a close friend

Jeydis:

The Bulbasaur and Lapras were found during a geocaching activity around my city. I took part in it even though I was going through a rough patch at the time, and it got me active and cheered me up. The Kyogre is a gift from a close online friend before they passed.

A photograph of BZRich64’s plush Pikachu toy

BZRich64:

I've had this little guy for as long as I can remember. Apparently he was given to me by someone but I have no idea who. All I know is that he's one of my oldest and most cherished stuffed animals.

A photograph of Wizard’s vast Pokémon video game collection, featuring many cool titles

Wizard:

I don't have much in terms of merch, but I do have a nice little collection of physical games.

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! Do you have any final comments you would like to make?

Jeydis:

Thank you for taking the time to get to know our little corner of the 'net! I hope your readers enjoyed this look into an older online community and now know that there are still some safe and fun harbors out there on the big ocean that is the internet.

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A huge thank you to Jeydis and the rest of the team for their contributions to our interview! We wish them, and Lake Valor, all the very best for the future!

Interview conducted on: August 28th, 2025
Interview published on: October 23rd, 2025