Report suggests that roughly 50% of Pokémon VGC 2023 teams were hacked
Gotta Hack 'em all?
We previously reported that The Pokémon Company has been becoming more strict with hacked Pokémon in the competitive scene and that doesn’t seem like it’s goign to change anytime soon. As a new report from Kurt, the creator of popular hacking tool PKHeX, shows that almost 50% of VGC 2023 rental teams contained hacked Pokémon.
According to the data roughly 17% of World Championships teams had hacked Pokémon on them, possibly even the 2023 champ Shohei Kimura.
To be clear, just because these Pokémon were hacked does not mean they were stronger than competitors. More often than not players hack Pokémon to save the time of grinding and raising the Pokémon themselves.
Some will even trade with someone else to build teams and are left unaware if the Pokémon they received was built legally or not.
If you want a full breakdown of the data we highly suggest checking out Kurt’s thread above.
About jmaldonado
A recently graduated creative writer hoping to work his way into the greater gaming sphere.
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joshua220
8M agoThe trading thing was something that I was curious about when this was brought up on the podcast. How can a player know if the Pokemon they traded for was illegally obtained?
golfdude
8M agoif the game shows that the pokemon was acquired via a trade, im sure the pokemon company didnt punish them, as the receiving player would have no idea of its validity, although their trade system should have caught them to begin with before making it that far... if pokemon home can id invalid mons and block transfer, theres no reason why their in game trade system cant..
smasher89
8M agonot suprised, at early sun and moon i was browsing twitch and saw someone streamed the very early vgc so popped in, apparently a judge for VGC/TCG and he basicly promoted hacking, stopped watching as i learned that, its just sad they dont go much harder against hackers since it gives such a unfair (early)game advantage. It also makes people hack too many similar teams and stops people from experimenting at all when they can just copy what won the first tournament.
hawk
8M agoThe numbers in that chart are erroneous for China. 89% of their Pokemon were hacked.
Years ago in -- I think Pokemon Black -- I decided to go through the whole process of creating a competition-worthy Pokemon for the first time. I remember hatching dozens of eggs, using held items to boost stats, and checking IVs with online IV checkers. And I remember going out to hunt specific enemies to get just the right EVs. It was hard work, but that's what made it rewarding.
I don't have a lot of sympathy for hacking. It doesn't sound like these newer games have made it any harder to train your Pokemon, so it just seems like people are being lazy.
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