[Coda]

Originally Posted by Yokuutsu

So? It shouldn't be enough to lag battles in game. That's a problem. You don't need account information to punch an AI enemy in the face.

You DO need realtime battle information to prevent cheating, though. The Pokemon Go client does very little work in and of itself. It sends information to the server about where you are and what you're trying to do, and the rest of the game is done server-side. Otherwise, someone could cheat by TELLING the server that they won the gym battle when it was over.