Notifications are only sending when events are cleared, not when created

I am trying to setup email notification for events. I have read and followed the page on how to set up triggers and notifications.
However, when I try to create an event to test a trigger, the event does not trigger. Rather, when I acknowledge and close an event I get an email saying that it is closed.

My test trigger is:
Device production state -- equals -- production
severity -- is greater than or equal to -- error
device groups -- contains -- /RemoteVPN

my notification has the trigger added, is enabled has a 0 second delay and 0 second repeat. I am a subscriber. The content is default. I have tried checking and unchecking send clear. I don't know what else could be the problem.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!