This year's Pokémon World Championship tournament saw organisers disqualify multiple pros using hacked Pokémon teams, sparking debate across the community.

Using hacked Pokémon is technically against the rules, but players haven't always been caught. However, at this year's tournament in Yokohama, Japan, the rules were seemingly tightened and many players who travelled across the world were disqualified.

As a result, the community has been debating whether using hacked teams is an acceptable method of saving time, or if it's against the spirit of the monster training games.

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Players have used homebrew programmes like PKHeX to create specific Pokémon with exact stats. These don't have a competitive advantage over Pokémon you could legitimately find or train - it's just done to save time.

The alternative would be to either breed and train Pokémon from whichever game yourself, or trade with someone else who's done that. This is considered the 'proper' way to play the games, but requires hundreds of hours of gaming and money to own the games themselves.

Brady Smith was one such player disqualified from the tournament, who shared his experience on social media.

"Should have gotten the 'mons myself," he said. "I tried trading for the 'mons with a reputable trader, but the 'mons didn't pass."

He added: "I guess like the weirdest part in all of this is that they waited til the WCS to start upping their game. I wish it was consistent throughout all the season, but at least we now have this consistently established."

I guess like the weirdest part in all of this is that they waited til the WCS to start upping their game. I wish it was consistent throughout all the season, but at least we now have this consistently established. They are finally not messing around, get your mons legit,…

— Brady Smith - VGC Corner (@vgccorner) August 11, 2023To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings

Roberto Parente was another disqualified player. "So many effort put in this season for literally nothing, cancelling the open less than 1 month before worlds + this new hack check last minute way its no sense," he said. "We spend money for this, we need RESPECT."

Got disqualified from worlds last round on 4-2, I cannot stop crying.So many effort put in this season for literally nothing, cancelling the open less than 1 month before worlds + this new hack check last minute way its no sense.We spend money for this, we need RESPECT.

— Roberto Parente (@TrainerRobVGC) August 11, 2023To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings

On the flipside, YouTuber Verlisify has - somewhat gleefully - collated posts from disqualified players in a playlist of videos to highlight the major issue of hacked Pokémon.

Verlisify's take against what he sees as cheating is shared by others on social media too.

The Pokémon Company is yet to publicly comment on disqualified players from the tournament.

Where do you stand on the hacking debate?

In other Pokémon news, two expansions are on the way for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, with The Teal Mask releasing on 13th September.

However, fans have continued to complain about the poor visual quality of the games, which has not seemingly been improved for the DLC.