The Korean Pokémon Association has permanently banned the 4 finalists of the South Korean “Pokémon Trainers Cup”. This also means that the players lose their ticket to participate in the World Championship, that is, the Pokémon World Championship.
Why were the players banned? The reason for the permanent ban is, according to the official Korean Pokémon website, that the players illegally altered their battle teams (pokemonkorea.co.kr).
According to “Nash,” one of the four banned players, they taught their Pokémon the move “Metronome” in protest – no other move (via Twitter).
When using Metronome, a random attack is chosen, whether or not the executing Pokémon knows it. Since the players’ Pokémon only mastered Metronome, the outcome of the matches was determined randomly. A tactical approach was not possible; everything depended on luck.
Why did the players protest? The players have been dissatisfied with the competition conditions in South Korea and other Asian countries for some time. In addition to suboptimal communication, according to DotEsports, the Best-of-One format is a heavily criticized issue.
While trainers in Europe and North America, for example, compete against each other three times (Best-of-Three) to determine who advances to the next round, players from some Asian associations are eliminated after just one match.
Nash, who was banned for his protest at the tournament in South Korea, also criticizes the competition conditions:
Our competition conditions were terrible this year. The organizers never talked to us and repeatedly made wrong formats/decisions.
Pokémon Esports athlete Nash via Twitter
We registered Metronome teams in protest for the streamed final but were all disqualified and excluded from the Day2 invitation to the Pokémon Worlds.
Wolfe “Wolfey” Glick, a well-known YouTuber and Pokémon World Champion of 2016, also shared his thoughts on the incident as an outsider (via Twitter).
Wolfey believes the protest could have been a turning point if the Korean Pokémon Association had listened to the feedback and improved the competition conditions. It seems to him like an attempt to discredit the attention of the protest.
Additionally, Wolfey thinks the Korean Pokémon Association needs more oversight “if they make decisions this way.”
The four Pokémon players are not the only ones reprimanded by Nintendo for modifying games:
