It’s no surprise that fans of Pokémon enjoy getting together and battling each other in virtual environments… after all, games are often more fun when played with friends! One direct result of this has been the rise of Pokémon tournaments around the globe, so that trainers are able to show off the skills of their best creatures.
Sadly, with great competition comes great cheaters. Modified Pokémon have popped up at tournaments—users have been able to use smartphone applications to hack the DS game being used, making the device think it’s the server. This actually allows that “server” to then distribute overpowered Pokémon to a particular player.
And now it’s being directly addressed by The Pokémon Company, which issued a statement of its own about the problem. Translated on NeoGAF, the statement mentions how the saved game on the hacked cartridge may be harmed by the hacking process, and if anyone is caught using “illegal Pokémon” at a tournament, they’ll receive automatic disqualification and will be banned from participating in future events.
Making the matter even worse is the possibility that the hacker’s cheat has the possibility of corrupting the save file of the trainer being played against, and according to The Pokémon Company, they’re unable to restore this file.
Cheating in such a way (or any way, really) is contrary to the heart of the Pokémon series, so there is hope that this official recognition of the problem and statement against it will help to stem the tide of cheating in tournaments around the world.
