If Team Rocket-occupied Pokéstops are the bane of your life, you might want to steer clear of Pokémon GO this coming Sunday.
Team Rocket has been the thorn in the paw of Pokémon trainers for more than 20 years. Whether it be in the video games, TV series, movies, or even trading cards, Team Rocket has had a presence. A presence that extends well beyond Jessie, James, Meowth, and Giovanni too, as has been demonstrated via Pokémon GO recently.
Earlier this year, Team Rocket landed on the app for the very first time. They did so in the form of grunts, who seasoned Pokémon players will be all too familiar with from almost every iteration of the franchise's games. Team Rocket's grunts have been using tainted shadow Pokémon to take over and occupy Pokéstops. Trainers have been tasked with defeating these grunts in order to restore the Pokéstop and rescue the shadow Pokémon.
Defeating the grunts rewards trainers with Mysterious Components. Collect enough Mysterious Components and a trainer can assemble a Rocket Radar. Rocket Radars allow players to see all of the nearby Pokéstops occupied by grunts. As helpful as that can be, for a couple of hours on Sunday, November 24, 2019, players won't need one. That's because every single Pokéstop will be taken over by a grunt.
Niantic posted information about the event on Pokémon GO's official site. Not only will trainers get the chance to do battle with as many Team Rocket grunts as they desire, but there will be special field research tasks to complete as part of the event. Defeating enough Grunts will lead trainers to Team Rocket leaders, and the ultimate aim is to beat as many of them as possible in the allotted time.
The window in which we will have the opportunity to do so is a pretty small one. Just two hours, and it differs depending on your timezone. Clearly, Team Rocket's grunts will be traveling elsewhere licking their wounds as time passes. Every single Pokéstop will be occupied by a grunt between 11 am and 1 pm this coming Sunday, regardless of timezone. For tips on how to defeat Team Rocket leaders, we'd recommend turning on Pokémon GO's push notifications ahead of the event.
Source: Pokémon GO