April Fools' Day 2017

April 1, 2017 was an April Fools' Day that fell on a Saturday. In the Pokémon fandom, some websites pulled hoaxes on gullible fans.

Hoaxes

The Pokémon Company

MaChamps by Pokémon

• The Pokémon Company International posted on Facebook and Twitter that Machamp would star in a new underwear modeling campaign called "MaChamps by Pokémon".

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  Pose 1

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  Pose 2

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  Pose 3

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  Pose 4

Fansites

Bulbagarden

The Team Skull skin

• The Bulbagarden forums had its sections replaced with Team Skull–themed sections and an enforced forum skin featuring Team Skull. The staff also assumed identities of either Team Skull, the Aether Foundation (referred to as Aether FUNdation), or other Pokémon Sun and Moon characters.

Other fansites

• Marriland announced Pokémon Star, and announced Alolan Dragonair, Dodrio, Jynx, and Alakazam with accompanying pictures on all but Alakazam.
• PokéMothim revealed lots of information about Pokémon Stars, coming from a Chinese leaker, including new Trial Captains, kahunas, and regional forms, and a trip to the Sevii Islands.
• Pokémon Central Wiki posted news from "a reliable source" that Magikarp had been given a Z-Crystal called "MAGIKARPIUM Z" and a new move called "Splash Ultrasupercritico" (translated as Ultra Super Critical Splash) which one hit KO's the opponent and a random Pokémon not on the field, the news article ended with "ALL HAIL MAGIKARP!". They also featured Magikarp on their home page and changed its color to orange instead of their usual blue.
• Bisafans posted that they are opening a Bisafans leisure park called BisaLand at the end of the year, which will feature restaurants, hotels, rides and Bisafans-shops at a reasonable price. But since the roller coaster developers and architects have cancelled the project they are reaching out to their fans to send in suggestions on how the park should look like.
• 52Poké Wiki posted news from the "official website" that the sequel to Detective Pikachu, Great Detective Pikachu ~DELUXE~, will be releasing worldwide in late 2017 on the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch. The game will include all content from the original game, also featuring over 60 Pokémon, including those from Pokémon Sun and Moon.
• Reddit's /r/pokemon, /r/pokemongo, and /r/thesliphroad all featured events.
  • /r/pokemon was taken over by Team Skull with the admins turning into various members of the organization.
  • /r/pokemongo allowed for posts that would normally go outside of the bounds of the subreddit.
  • /r/thesliphroad was taken over by Team Rocket, along with the Global Nest Atlas. Users were allowed to take part in an Alternate Reality Game to take back control of the subreddit which ended with a battle against Giovanni with Mewtwo.
• The Cave of Dragonflies created a Generation VII version of the Zodiac feature, a page that assigns a Pokémon species to every day of the year, except this Zodiac did the same for Trainer classes and characters from the Generation VII games. The tone was more comical than the normal Zodiac. This "Alolan Zodiac" can still be accessed and used.

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  Magikarp news

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  BisaLand

Aesthetic changes

• Filb.de added a new skin onto their site which caused the screen to change color in a loop from their usual blue to green then orange, red, purple, dark blue and back to their original color. Music also played immediately when entering the site and miscellaneous sounds, the "music" stops after a while. A Meowth replaced Greenchu and pressing it plays new music.

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  Filb miscolored skin

Other

• NIWA announced that "Due to some recent disagreements with Nintendo, NIWA has officially decided to become SIWA - the Sony Independent Wiki Alliance!". Some of its members changed name to popular franchises from Sony and even changed Bulbapedia to Invizipedia about Invizimals.

References

This article is a part of Project Fandom, a Bulbapedia Project that aims to write comprehensive articles on every aspect of the Pokémon Fandom.