Hacked Pokemon have been an issue plaguing the franchise since the early days of the franchise, and The Pokemon Company has decided to take some harsh action to discourage this at this year’s Pokemon World Championships.

Several pro players have come forward on Twitter to report that they have been disqualified from at the tournament due to using hacked Pokemon. To add further clarification, these hacked Pokemon have tournament legal stats, movesets, and characteristics, but were generated in-game using hacking tools instead of being trained through regular gameplay. The Pokemon Company evidently considers Pokemon created this way as illegitimate, and grounds for disqualification regardless.

Although the issue seems like a clear cut case of disqualifying players for breaking the rules, this move has been widely criticized by many competitive Pokemon fans. The practice of “genning” legal Pokemon is not uncommon in the game’s competitive scene. Many players see it as a means to save time on competitive training, or to save money from having to buy multiple games just to get specific Pokemon. The convenience of genning Pokemon is such that it continues to this day, despite the games introducing faster methods for raising competitively ready Pokemon.

The stricter methods adopted by the Pokemon Company this year could have something to do with the Pokemon World Championships taking place in Japan. Under Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act, modifying game data can be considered illegal and grounds for arrest. Disqualifying players so dramatically may be an attempt by the Pokemon Company to avoid getting in trouble, as well as show that they strongly condemn the use of hacked Pokemon in an official capacity.

Aspiring competitive Pokemon players may wish to take care to only use Pokemon obtained from legitimate gameplay on their teams, lest these stricter measures become the norm for official tournaments moving forward.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.