There’s a person in my local Pokemon Go community that complains — loudly and annoyingly — whenever people split into teams for raids. She doesn’t understand why people take the time to set up private raids based on teams. The reasons have been explained to her multiple times by multiple people. Hopefully, you don’t have to suffer similar idiocy in your Pokemon Go community…but just in case you do, here’s some explanation ammo.
It’s All About Bonus Balls
After a successful raid, bonus premiere balls are awarded (partially discussed here). There are three ways to acquire bonus balls. The team that controls the gym gets extra balls. Players that inflict the most damage on a raid boss gets extra balls. And the team that does the most damage gets extra balls. The bonus balls can be anywhere from one to three, depending on the percentage of damage dealt to the raid boss.
Bonus balls are especially essential for catching legendary pokemon. (Legendaries are difficult to capture by design.) Let’s look at Rayquaza, for example. Using a straight throw that just makes contact gives you less than a two-percent chance of catching. The catch rate only gets as high as a shade over 12 percent when using a golden raspberry and throwing an excellent curveball.
Looking at those numbers, the chances of catching a Rayquaza are small. You can give yourself more chances of catching it — and other legendary pokemon with similarly low catch rates — by splitting into teams during raids. If there are six Team Mystic players and six Team Valor trainers at a raid, it would be wasteful for them to raid as a group of 12. By splitting into two raid groups based on teams, each trainer will get more precious chances to catch rare pokemon.
Finding the Right Raid Partners
As a Team Intinct trainer, it was tough when raids first started in Pokemon Go. Most of the players I met were on Team Mystic or Team Valor. As I got to meet more people in the local community, I found some fantastic Team Instinct trainers. There’s a core group that’s an absolute pleasure to raid with. They’re all high level, they have great pokemon, and they have a strong understanding of the Pokemon Go metagame. (i.e. They don’t do stupid things, like fighting Latios with a Lugia.) Raiding with these types of trainers makes battles easier and ensures that all of us get more chances at catching legendary pokemon.
Now just in case you play with an overly loud and whiny trainer in your community, here’s the tl;dr response of why you should split into teams for raids — you get more bonus balls ergo more chances at catching rare pokemon. (This response can be yelled and ended with “stupid!” or “idiot!” for maximum effect.)