For attempting to use the move Metronome in protest, four members of Team Korea’s competitive Pokemon VGC team were disqualified from the Korean Pokemon Trainers Cup. Many competitive Pokemon players worldwide are working hard to compete and secure a top rank in advance of the massive competition because the 2023 Pokemon World Championship event is just around the corner.
But strict guidelines must be followed to participate in tournaments, and these guidelines and conditions can occasionally change depending on the region. Since they all intended to deploy Pokemon that understood the move Metronome as a form of protest during the live broadcast, a team of four players was disqualified from the Korean Pokemon Trainers Cup.
Nationals disqualification for the Korean Pokemon VGC squad
Nash, a VGC player, and squad Korea manager stated on Twitter that, on June 3, 2023, he and his squad of three players received an email disqualifying them from the Korean Pokemon Trainers Cup Finals. The group was getting ready for the Trainers Cup Final Round, which will be webcast live, according to Nash. First through fourth place, standings would be determined by the match, but the professional VGC player claimed that “not much was on the line” because “we were already locked for [Pokemon Worlds] Day 2.”
Nash participated in a Metronome battle with his teammates Blue, Sangyoon, and Mija during the Finals. For those unaware, the Metronome move picks a random move from almost every move in the series and uses it against the opponent.
Naturally, this adds chaos and enjoyment to the conflicts, but because the battle structure is purely random, a good amount of strategy is lost. As a protest, the crew decided to have this Metronome battle. Nash referred to global events that did planning and taking part in IRL events practically impossible for four years and said, “…like other Asian regions, Korea has been having a rather suffering year.” Many Korean players were irritated by the annoying problems that plagued the recent events in which they were permitted to compete, including best-of-one formats and poor organization and communication from organizers and TPCi.
Unfortunately for Team Korea, the tournament administrators did not appreciate the objection, and on June 3, 2023, before the Finals, they sent out an email disqualifying all four players. The explanation given for the disqualification, according to Nash, was that “all locked-in Pokemon had learned one specific move,” presumably Metronome.
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