Over the summer, Leah Sero would occasionally go on night walks around the city with her friends, seeing many other people also roaming about all looking for the same thing: Pokemon. These walks inspired her to make the theme of the first Point Park After Dark event of the fall 2016 semester, Pokemon After Dark.

“I would be out and see people looking for Pokemon, The Point is a big hype spot for Pokemon,” said Sero, a sophomore sports, arts and entertainment management major and pioneer series coordinator or the Campus Activities Board (CAB).

Pokemon After Dark will be held Sept. 10 in the Student Center Gym from 8-10 p.m. Point Park After Dark is a monthly event hosted by CAB that has a different theme every month, along with different kinds of activities which are planned out by Sero and CAB’s  Pioneer Series committee.

“The goal of Point Park After Dark is to give the students a safe alternative for a Saturday night, and to have the Student Center utilized more,” senior business major with a focus in marketing and CAB Vice President of Marketing Eva Smith, said.

Pokemon After Dark will be held in the Student Center gym, where there will be TVs set up with retro gaming systems such as a GameCube and Wii and current systems such as the Xbox and Wii U. Aside from video games to play, Sero said that they are also raffling off the hat that the character Ash wears in the Pokemon cartoon.

Sero said she was not much of a Pokemon fan until Pokemon Go was released over the summer but thought that a night of gaming would be a good way to begin the Pioneer Series. She said she thinks freshmen will appreciate the atmosphere the most.

“It’s going to be a more laid back event. Freshman Frenzy was so much for them, so it’s kind of aimed at them,” Sero said.

Pokemon Go, which is a free mobile gaming application, was released to download over the summer, and has since been downloaded more than 100 million times, according to the application page on the Google Play Store.

The virtual reality app lets users look at a map on their phone to find real-world locations of Pokemon, which they then go to in order to catch it and add it to their collection. In addition to the creatures, the game also features Pokestops, in-game checkpoints, where players can stock up on items, and gyms, where players can take challenges and gain achievements.

Junior counseling psychology major Hannah Hepler said she has always been a fan of Pokemon, playing every game in the series since it first began. She said she appreciates the new aspects Pokemon Go brings to the table.

“It’s such an active game, you could go out for a short walk that ends up turning into hours,” Hepler said. “It’s sort of like a little kid’s dream to go out and catch Pokemon in real life. I really like how it brings them to life.”

Sero said she was surprised to find how much Pokemon merchandise existed.

“I had no idea there were so many Pokemon games,” Sero said, explaining the process of getting ready for the gaming night.

Like all Point Park After Dark events, the club will provide food, snacks and beverages in the Student Center. Hepler expressed interest at the idea of playing the old games.

“It’s really rewarding to just go back and play the old games and remember playing them for the first time,” Hepler said.