5 adorable, totally hard-core 'Pokémon Go' players we met at Comic-Con

SAN DIEGO -- The Poképocalypse many predicted for Comic-Con didn't materialize -- after all, this is the one place where there's enough going on around you that's more interesting than catching digital monsters.

But there be monsters -- and hunters aplenty.

The extremely high concentration of nerds people swarming San Diego made for some great hunting, as everyone knows that people breed Poke stops, and Poke stops breed Pokémon.

Since the craze didn't start until a couple of weeks before Comic-Con, there weren't a ton of Poké cosplayers. But Mashable found a handful (we only failed to catch one, a guy who went whizzing by on a skateboard) and they were mostly adorable, of course.

A few of those were quite advanced. Meet a few of the most hardcore Pokémon Go players of Comic-Con:

Kim Campbell and her son Levi (pictured, above)

Levi is all of 4 years old, so mom is doing most of the hunting (she could've used some in-real-life Poke balls to catch Levi, who kept trying to run away while we spoke).

She said the rarest thing she'd caught in San Diego was a Magikarp -- no surprise here, but most folks reported that water Pokemon were more common than back home because we were near the ocean.

"He was fun! I caught him over by Joe's Crab Shack," she said.

Christy and John Wilkerson

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The married couple from nearby said they like to hunt Pokémon at night by the beach where they live. Their rarest find at Comic-Con: a Ninetails. "It was pretty exciting," Christy said. "I haven't been playing that much since I've been here, but I did get an Aerodactyl."

John says he's been a Pokémon fan since he was a kid -- "I used to take out people's trash for 25 cents a bag so I could get the cards" -- but now she's the one who's more into it.

"My husband and I have been looking for a game we could play together for years that was co-op, and not be fighting against each other," she said. "And we finally found this and we've been playing it every night when I get off work."

She's already at Level 22, and plays for Team Mystic.

"We watch all the cartoons together now, too."

Stephanie Loh and Steven Vandervelden

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The Bay Area couple was here for Comic-Con more than Pokémon, but they've had some luck.

"Most of the stuff that I've caught is pretty common, but if I really like the Pokémon I try to get all the evolutions. I really like Eevees," said Loh, a Level 11.

Like most, they said water Pokémon were what they were finding the most of.

"I think it's just more common because there's a lot more Poke stops than where we're from. Like 20 times more."

Landon Piceno

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We caught 11-year-old Landon Piceno of San Diego hunting for Pokémon while standing in line for an activation. He said he's pretty obsessed -- only a Level 7, but just getting started -- and was focusing as much on the game as he was on his Comic-Con surroundings.

"There's lots more here than at home," he said. "I guess I'm focusing on both."

Jamie Alexander and Tyler Bradbury

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Don't be fooled by Tyler Bradbury's awesome Nicolas Cage shirt -- he's hunting, too. The two had just arrived from Los Angeles when we took this picture, and were on their way to the convention center to hunt.

"I just got a Persian, though," Alexander said.

"From what I've been reading online, there's a way higher concentration," she added. "There's a lot more stops, and that makes it easier to level up."