Korean Players Disqualified for using Metronome

The top performing Korean players have been disqualified from the World Championships for using Metronome

[@nicolle2126]

using only Metronome was a meaningful way of saying "with the way you guys fumbled this tournament, we might as well just have relied on luck and not our skills"

[@hanszimmer2412]

Even though the use of metronome was a very good way to represent the whole mess of preeliminaries, it was a huge risk for these 4 players to ridicule such a huge company. If TPC would have seen fit, the consequences could have been much worse for these 4 players.

[@AB-ee5tb]

Our *genned pokemon 😂😂😂

[@IsabellaCV]

​@@AB-ee5tbah yeah, because you can gen pokemon anytime you see fit within a tournament. Super smart

[@TrixterTheFemboy]

@@AB-ee5tb What?

[@M1sterE321]

​@@hanszimmer2412 Why? There was never any ban on using Metronome.

[@deckzonetcg8907]

Wolfey needs to hold a Metronome only tournament in solidarity.

[@jasonkeith2832]

It would be fun, but he probably couldn't do it without risking his future in competitive pokemon.

[@scooter9537]

@@jasonkeith2832 i think wolfey brings way more brand value to comp pokemon then anyone else but also its tpc so they are the stupidest mfs in gaming

[@MightyRicardoWarrior]

I will do the metronome only battles,I will just have to get a lot of Pokémon who can learn metronome

[@inactivechristine]

hosting this on april fools day would be amazing lol

[@professorannefaire7233]

​@@noinfo1018 Dunkey could have said the same thing for Riot and he was permabanned

[@Prince_Echo]

man it sure would be a shame if more players started using metronome teams to protest against the ways tpc divisions manage their awful systems.

[@nb_oovanboi7750]

imagine the whole worlds just became a metronome battle

[@SERMareep2007]

​@@nb_oovanboi7750 That would be goofy af but tbh i would love to see that

[@Defaultnoobisme]

@@nb_oovanboi7750 there should actually be like a fun tournament where people just use metronome

[@El_Kanto]

⁠@@DefaultnoobismePeople (including Wolfe) have actually already done that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYO1fZWchcShhZY

[@scoutbane1651]

@@Defaultnoobisme There already has been lol wolfey did one in gen 8. Or at least participated I dont really remember tbh

[@skrawvgc]

The most disgusting thing about this whole issue is that TPC Korea cited inappropriate conduct or images as why these players were disqualified. That is the sort of thing that can come back in a background check or a google search down the line, and could genuinely cause loss of opportunity for the players in the future. It feels very intentional that, at a glance, a person could misunderstand what happened as genuine wrong doing by the players

[@psyxypher3881]

Yeah that's just life. Happens in anything remotely political all the time.

[@newp0rt]

yeah they made sure to make it sound as worse as possible. inappropriate conduct and harm to other players sounds SO SO SO much worse than "picked metronome because of bad ruling" lmao i honestly HATE this. i hate it so much. such scum behavior.

[@soundaholixx]

The word for that is Corruption.

[@IShallAdvokeTheEighths]

@@newp0rt i agree

[@SnoFitzroy]

@@newp0rt *as BAD as possible "worse" is a comparison word

[@mara7033]

It would have been extremely embarrassing for TPC if their grand finals was a protest metronome battle. Big respect for the players.

[@autobotstarscream765]

Only embarrassing for them if they're killjoy control freaks! If it was run by people who love the game, they would applaud the absolute basedness. #NoFunAllowed #WhyDidTPCdoThis

[@orangeaurora]

that they had to cancel the finals means that their protest was a success, despite them losing their spot at worlds. if i was in their position where i beat the same 4-5 players 2 times in a row with best of 1 closed teamsheet, and THAT qualified me for worlds, i honestly wouldnt even mind. at least one of those 4 probably thought they didnt even earn a worlds spot considering how dog the original qualifiers were

[@darkmetal2412]

As a spectator it would've been so fun to watch through. It's not everyday you get to see gimmicky team in the finals. At least as far as I remember

[@Muhahahahaz]

@@autobotstarscream765exactly! Can you imagine how many people (who wouldn’t otherwise care) would tune in just to watch the Metronome spam? 😂 They take themselves way too seriously, and literally just cut off their nose to spite their face

[@iandean1112]

Reminds me of the "Free Melee" when Splatoon players wouldn't let it die to where they had to cancel the tourney

[@MechanicalRabbits]

As a musician I was really confused at first until I remembered that Metronome is not only a device to keep a steady tempo but also a Pokemon move.

[@Pablo360able]

It's also a battle item that nobody uses even on gimmick sets.

[@gyroninjamodder]

since the thumbnail and title were not pokemon related I thought people were using metronomes to time inputs for combos in some fighting game

[@JDLong006]

​@@Pablo360ableI mean if Fury Cutter was 100% accurate...

[@1stCallipostle]

​@@Pablo360ableI feel like it's seen usage on a couple mons over time, but that might just be in singles

[@Pablo360able]

@@1stCallipostle yeah I think mons that already want to spam one attacking move like Fury Cutter do it but that strategy is so transparent that it's rare to begin with

[@NashVGC]

Thank you Wolfe, for shedding light on the issue. The informations you've discussed are all true and even the assumptions you've made were right. Other asian regions like Singapore and HK are also suffering from their respective terrible circuit this year, and I believe players deserve better. Let's hope this is the start of much better to come.

[@batata2818]

We all hope with you!!!

[@ave_maria323]

Hope so too tbh

[@parasgupta8411]

As an fellow asian player i feel you man

[@logan8708]

❤

[@El_Kanto]

You guys are awesome! I would've never heard of the state of things over in Korea if you hadn't taken this risk, so I'm glad this is gaining traction. Let's hope your protest leads to a positive change for the community.

[@austinfletchermusic]

Okay, so: - Pokemon Korea runs an awful event and says thats going to be the format next year - Finalists all lock in Metronome-only - They are disqualified and the reason is obfuscated as long as possible, then they say "Don't protest us!" Sounds like Pokemon Korea is, uh, pretty awful. They have the power, but they're about the worst choice to wield it. Hopefully their leadership is chastised by TPC for this, as opposed to shutting down further event

[@dislexyc]

Looking at how riot Korea is, I'm not hopeful at all

[@ergonomics_of_flatulence]

this is such a shitshow I expected kespa to be involved

[@3ftninja132]

Yep, sounds like Korea. Hypocrisy upon dictatorship.

[@erikbell1723]

Korea takes saving face very seriously, so this probably won’t help them much

[@OpiumBets]

we go to the same college

[@Hawlucha77]

It would be more fun to see Metronome in worlds than Regieleki clicking Electroweb

[@ave_maria323]

Agreed

[@bluebaron6811]

Or Flutter Mane tapping Moonblast.

[@danielbarnes1241]

Based

[@jadesnail-fd1oo]

​@Hunter dude they were joking

[@bluebaron6811]

@Hunter hey, I love seeing weird shit win. Like when that one guy brought an Empoleon to worlds and won.

[@queerboy8370]

The fear of backlash, not progress, is a very real one, but I think that the global community supporting those incredibly brave players is huge for preventing that. It's harder for TPCK to just punish that handful of players and sweep it all under the rug with hundreds of thousands of eyes from all over the world on them.

[@xaropevic7918]

They did worse and the game still selled millions as if all was under the rug...

[@sammydray5919]

​@@xaropevic7918 I agree with your sentiments regarding the game but this situation is quite a bit different my guy

[@dd7896]

I think the issue with that is that, while it's thousands of eyes from all over the world on them, those eyes don't matter. Pokemon tournaments are a loss of money, that's for certain. If 100.000 people stop buying Pokemon products, because VGC tournaments stop, that's what? 6 Million every year for 100.000 copies of a game sold at 60$? Do tournaments in general cost 6 Million a year? I could easily see it being higher, but I have no idea. Companies don't care about feelings or their image, they care about how much players feelings and the image of the company affect the amount of profit that can be generated. If somebody who gets paid to determine how much money is being generated through tournaments, marketing and similar decides that a certain marketing strategy, e.g. VGC tournaments, is not creating any profit, or even loss, they will stop using that marketing strategy. Yes the VGC community is large, but is it large enough to matter for a company that sells over 10 million copies of a game within three days of releasing it? I too believe that it's a bit of an irrational fear, since I believe TPC wants to keep marketing a competitive side to their family friendly video game, to keep the goal of being "the very best", but I don't believe that straight up unfairly cancelling VGC tournaments, DQing players for awful reasons and ignoring any kind of criticism would hurt the pockets of TPC very much. People are still gonna buy the new Pokemon game. The community who knows about these things is already small compared to the entire online community. And the part of the community who would stop supporting TPC by buying their products is only a fraction of the people who know about it. I hope changes happen, especially because I hope that somebody inside TPC and TPCK sees these things happen and finds them unjust and awful. But I don't believe the amount of publicity these things will get will be large enough to truly matter. That being said, let's hope I'm wrong about that part.

[@xaropevic7918]

@@dd7896 And I doubt that ALL vgc community would stop buying it, even when there is an embargo, especially when it is made by a community on their own, rarely it will be massive, and pokémon was already a proof of that since a long time

[@ArtisChronicles]

​@@xaropevic7918 True they probably wouldn't all stop since it could mean they have a chance in the spotlight. Though it would make VGC an even bigger loss than it already is. At the end of the day it doesn't matter much.

[@Vincentoist]

It's insane that the pokemon co can run a tournament with prizes, disqualify a winner after a stage, and then refuse to explain why. Seems borderline illegal for them to not be transparent.

[@hanszimmer2412]

Sadly its the common way actually. Big companies like TPC can pretty much do everything regarding their tournaments and rules even without much communication.

[@daphenomenalz4100]

It's a japanese company, the companies there aren't transparent at all lmao

[@DharmaPunk111]

Corporations doing something illegal? They make the laws, nothing they do is illegal. Sad but true.

[@hanszimmer2412]

They make the laws and rules and players accept them ;)

[@Robotmudkip99]

@@hanszimmer2412 I don’t think this is a good example of that as the other players protested against it .

[@Glory2Snowstar]

Nintendo when they walk into a piano recital (there are too many metronomes)

[@brianwalsh1339]

I dunno if Nintendo is to blame for this one tbh

[@TopOfAllWorlds]

Nintendo isn't even the sole owner of TPC, let alone TPC Korea. The Pokemon Company is owned by Creatures Inc., Game Freak, and Nintendo. The Pokemon Company (TPC for short) then owns it's subsidiarys TPC International, TPC Korea, etc.. In short you *not only* are blaming one company of three that have ownership of TPC. You are blaming one that is *twice removed* from this situation. This is the sorta the equivalent of blaming Microsoft for Doom's Developers screwing over Mick Gordan but even worse.

[@Jagowire]

03

[@Jagowire]

​@@brianwalsh1339 2

[@TheOnlyBootlegger]

you don't use a met at your recital

[@MJK-mz9ps]

The general consensus(in Korean pokemon communities I am a part of that is, I'm Korean btw) is that the pokemon company korea ruined the tournament by rolling out a shitty format. The competition was an online best of 1 with closed team sheet, which is bad in several ways. 1. Some players took advantage of the relative anonymity that comes with an online tournament. They used multiple accounts/identities to fix matches or get more shots at getting top cut. The pokemon company says not to do this but they do not enforce this like at all. Either because they can't or won't, both situations are pretty bad in different ways rip. This isn't necessarily the company's fault but is still infuriating since this could have been prevented with in person tournaments. I think the fact that there are in person tournaments for the TCG as well as various pop up store events makes the lack of in person tournaments for vgc more pronounced, which makes people more angry(sure makes me angry). 2. Bo1 no team sheet is as wolfey says incredibly luck oriented. Also they technically fixed the issue where you fight the same player over and over again but due to the relatively low number of players(150), if you play as soon as you finish a game there was a not 0 chance of playing the same player again. 3. As with most of the world, the pokemon ip really got a boost during covid. This sparked a huge number of new pokemon related merch to be released in Korea and the TCG was so popular that products were sold out in seconds online. Even a child could see that the pokemon company was raking in money in Korea in recent years. The fact that this tournament was so buggy and so low effort made players think that the company didn't care about the players/consumers at all and only cared about making money

[@geoffbannister8373]

Could you please inform me of a decent community of Korean Pokemon players online? I've been in Korea for 3 years but haven't really engaged with the netizens. Looking to practice my Korean and maybe trade some 'mons :-)

[@candyneige6609]

I imagine that the Pokémon Company Korea is run by someone related to Kim Jong-Un.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

​@@candyneige6609 wrong Korea

[@candyneige6609]

@@theapexsurvivor9538 Actually, it's the correct one.

[@SeisoYabai]

​@@candyneige6609What are you smoking and can I have some??

[@sovest555]

The funny thing is that I am sure that a surprise Metronome format would actually have made the finals pretty unique. Too bad sticks had to be up asses.

[@autobotstarscream765]

Some Pokémon are beasts with Metronome, TPCK are just Mega Ultra _Haters._ #WhyDidTPCdoThis #MakePokemonGreatAgain #NoFunAllowed

[@luckywee4648]

Like you said, its really brave IMO. having a shot to be the best Pokemon player and to win a great tournament, but choosing to use that chance to bring up a problem is really awesome

[@autobotstarscream765]

#WhyDidTPCdoThis

[@JayceCH.]

No, the brave part is that it risks losing official sponsored VGC events for Korea.

[@martymartin5302]

It’s actually worse than Wolfey has made it seem. 5 days later, an article states that all the protesting players ended up getting perma-banned from the TPCK circuit. They can’t play in Korea anymore. Another reason said that there was collusion between the players and that hacked Pokémon were being used. You (Wolfey) even get a mention in the article for a tweet about TPCK not listening and essentially saying to players “shut up or face the consequences”. I do hope the disqualified players can somehow end up playing again, most likely in a different circuit as to avoid this cluster 🦆 of a format.

[@dekusi1857]

i'm giggling at "cluster duck"

[@epictoast]

clusterduck

[@billyshane1]

Pokémon better not mess up French nationals. We’d be looking at more than a metronome protest, that’s for sure - Definitely gonna see full guillotine teams

[@dogwalker1896]

Lmao

[@SERMareep2007]

Now this is a funny joke

[@brettluicana6814]

Might call it the Pokémon renaissance

[@Arcavi0us]

Dude full guillotine/OHKO teams would be crazy for France

[@shinigamimiroku3723]

DEWIT

[@matthewmcfarland3102]

I think scrapping the finals and banning the champs creates more publicity on how badly you messed up rather than just having finals with all Metronome.

[@raitarotube]

The point about VGC being a "Marketing Expense" I completely agree with, same with TCG/Go etc.. Nintendo / TPC are notorious for not responding to any form of criticism and they just stay silent and ride it out. They don't feel like a game company anymore. It's all just run by lawyers and bean counters... There's no soul left in Pokemon.

[@Lambeaux0]

Yeah. At a certain point I feel like higher ups at Nintendo and investors are going to HAVE to step in since in a bigger picture, Pokemon has probably one of the least healthy public relations images of a franchise even close to this scale, between delays, quality of product, and just general badness in pretty much every aspect of the franchise. It may still be a while but at a certain point your business starts losing value as customers fade off, the connection to the brand fades, and you open up room for competitors. You don't want to lose your biggest cash cow because of mismanagement and laziness and I think Pokemon has been going down that path for years now.

[@Arcavi0us]

To be fair, Nintendo has little to do with the pokemon company nowadays. Official tournaments for VCG are purely ran by TPC, same with anything related to PTCG

[@tomwantshelp]

Nintendo is one third of the Pokémon Company…

[@hunbi1875]

It's crazy how moronic you are. You put the issues you have with the legal team on people who have nothing to do with said legal team. The companies aren't "run by lawyers." You nonce. Nevermind the fact that this issue has basically nothing to with Nintendo. It's a small part of TPC

[@Ryodraco]

If they've been known for poor public relations all along, then I would say it's not an issue of them losing "soul," rather it's a long existing problem that has become more obvious over time.

[@hucklebucklin]

Good on the players for their solidarity with Blue (was that his name?). Disqualifying a player without a reason given is an awful way to treat someone, let alone one of the top Korean players. I respect them for taking a stand together, rather than trying to make a gain from another player being disqualified without a reason.

[@matthewbreen1951]

Blue is the reason the one player specifically chose a BLUE Florges, FYI.

[@carquest3748]

Using only metronome is using randomness to determine the result of the battle, this is very clearly against the rules

[@JACpotatos]

​@@carquest3748how?

[@carquest3748]

@@JACpotatos rule 5.4.43 says you aren't allowed to determine the match by random means. If you and your opponent only use metronome, the only factor is luck and not skill.

[@JACpotatos]

@@carquest3748 tbh.... There's very little skill involved in Pokemon anyways with all the RNG. The most important part is just making a team. Even with metronome, your team is going to play a fairly big role.

[@Efeverscente]

I'm only referencing TPCi as "Big Pikachu" from now on.

[@benrinehart7776]

I’m surprised TPCK is digging in their heels on a system that is so obviously bad. I would hope this leads to a change in both the leadership of TPCK, and the tournament format/organization in TPCK and TPCJ

[@dislexyc]

Won't happen, riot Korea is equally brain dead

[@kiwi40238]

You think they care?

[@mjdxp5688]

When I clicked on this video, I wasn't sure if they were disqualified for the move, the item, or a real life Metronome

[@thomasgerhart4333]

Now I want to see pro players showing up to the tournaments with real life Metronomes instead of Pokemon Plushies as the next stage of the protest.

[@drunkshinx]

@@thomasgerhart4333thats a great idea, imagine grand finals and both players pull out a metronome

[@fangjiunnewe3634]

I actually heard about the issues with the Japan tournament from Taiwanese players who also faced the same issues and were unhappy as well. All 3 tournaments used the same format with the same bugs and caused a lot of unnecessary hassle. TPC Taiwan also sent out in person event invites 3 days prior to the actual event, which led to many people not even seeing the email in time to respond or prepare let alone travel. Now hearing about the issues in Korea too it seems that TPC subsidiaries in Pacific Asia are really mismanaged and disrespectful towards players and dismissive of their concerns, which is really disappointing and saddening.

[@froakieguy1116]

Huge respect for taking this as seriously as you have

[@Thirtyleven]

I understand that this is serious but calling TPC "Big Pikachu" is very funny

[@Amoeba.]

The Korean equivalent of 'Metronome' is '손가락 흔들기', which means 'Finger Swinging'. Y'all know which finger did we swing.

[@JuggernautVX]

Thanks for raising this issue, really appreciate it. I am a new SEA VGC player who got into VGC in S/V because of content creators such as you, and managed to make it through the preliminary rounds. However, so much is left to be desired of the qualification format. An online event + BO1 + single elimination means all the prep work done can simply be undone very quickly due to poor RNG, poor matchups and not necessarily by skill. Also, being purely online means should you exit early, there's really nothing else to do e.g. interact with other like-minded ppl, enjoy the atmosphere etc. And if TPC really wants to grow the Asia VGC community, I think getting like minded people from across Asia to interact with each other in-person will really go a long way in achieving this goal. Given how terrible the format is, plus the tournament was actually in conflict with my real-life commitments, it was an easy decision for me to withdraw prior to the tournament on Saturday. I just hope this incident do shine a light on how inferior the qualification format is for Asian VGC players, and hope there is an improvement to the format post-Yokohama. (i.e. in-person events across Asia)!

[@wyattakatsuki891022]

Same here~ I'm from Malaysia and was qualified for the Malaysia Regional Championship on 3rd June, went through the preliminaries at Top 16. However, I was shocked to note that its BO1 + Single Elimination + closed team sheet for such big official event for Malaysians. To make things worse, I woke up very early morning (7am) in order to go to a location that has better and stable internet connection, so that I would not have to worry about disconnection shenanigan, just because the organizer said that the briefing would start at 9am and the tournament at 10am. However, the 1st round of the tournament keep delaying and I'm only able to start 1st round at 12pm, which is ridiculous and unbelievable. And waiting while doing nothing during those 5 hours is mentally exhausting to me, which in the end I lose the 1st round. Seeing all these Korea & Taiwan VGC bullshits that could be avoided if TPC had done their job properly, while in Malaysia there's no sign or lack of support over Korean or VGC fellow players really make my passion towards VGC and competitive tournament spiraling down fast

[@MarkTheShadow]

Yeah even in PH that best of 1 single elimination shit really shows how they underestimate SEA. But they don't even know, we are only held back by the lack of pokemon events in SEA, but if we get the same treatment as the other countries, we already have a world champion in SEA by now.

[@jayemar527]

I have several Korean friends, and they have all expressed their anger about this situation to me. I like to think pokemon really cares about their community a lot and wouldn't do something like this, this is certainly the most extreme thing I've ever seen. If it's something that just Nintendo would do, that makes more sense. But it being just Game Freak without any Nintendo interference doesn't feel right.

[@derekschmidt9436]

You talk so fast!

[@wunderpuma4453]

I think you severally overestimate how much gamefreak cares about their community. Legends of Arceus still looks like its 2015 game even though it came out in 2022 lol

[@themonsoon117]

@@wunderpuma4453 2015? More like 2004.

[@arozin6773]

@@wunderpuma4453 GTA 5 Came out in 2013, so try 2005.

[@serpentmaster1323]

@@wunderpuma4453 I agree with your first sentence, but the second sentence in my opinion doesn’t support it. You’re acting like a more significant portion of a game’s value is its graphics than it really is, and no game proves this better than S/V wich in some markets still hold the fastest selling switch title over tears of the kingdom. And you assert that game freak not putting their all into this particular element is indicative of how much they care about their audience when that’s far from the most likely cause of the issue->rushing a brand new gameplay format out by a hard deadline. So you really invalidated your own comment, at least for me.

[@IAmPhos548]

If TPC care so much about their brand image, they NEED to learn from this past year. Buggy and unfinished game, multiple on-stream issues with the game, and now the whole Asian Circuit is busted because of the game's issues and the response has been either awful or a mixed bag. I wouldn't be surprised if more protests happen, especially if more issues arise AND Worlds just happens to be in Japan this year, creating the perfect opportunity to make the Korean, Japanese, and other Asian player's feelings known, without a doubt, to Big Pika.

[@tatri292]

Combined with the sudden change in regulation, I have a feeling this is the most controversies they'll have in a long time. If this doesn't spark changes nothing will. On that note an eastern company having better NA support might be a new one.

[@CommanderWiggins]

This is a serious situation but Big Pika is so funny to me, I'm going to start calling TPC Big Pika.

[@brandonchia499]

Meanwhile in SEA we are having bo1 online single elimination tournament. On top of that, we were given last minute announcement regarding the application and the format of the event via email,(the last email was sent at 9pm before the tour and we were required to reply before 12am), which caused multiple players to miss out the registration. Not to mention the responses from their side regarding the format were also inconsistent .Some players were told that the format will be conducted in OTS but in fact it was CTS, causing such disadvantages in teambuilding. It's a shame that that's the ONLY chance we have to qualify for World

[@wyattakatsuki891022]

Same here~ I'm from Malaysia and was qualified for the Malaysia Regional Championship on 3rd June, went through the preliminaries at Top 16. However, I was shocked to note that its BO1 + Single Elimination + closed team sheet for such big official event for Malaysians. To make things worse, I woke up very early morning (7am) in order to go to a location that has better and stable internet connection, so that I would not have to worry about disconnection shenanigan, just because the organizer said that the briefing would start at 9am and the tournament at 10am. However, the 1st round of the tournament keep delaying and I'm only able to start 1st round at 12pm, which is ridiculous and unbelievable. And waiting while doing nothing during those 5 hours is mentally exhausting to me, which in the end I lose the 1st round. Seeing all these Korea & Taiwan VGC bullshits that could be avoided if TPC had done their job properly, while in Malaysia there's no sign or lack of support over Korean or VGC fellow players really make my passion towards VGC and competitive tournament spiraling down fast

[@brandonchia499]

@@wyattakatsuki891022 Yeap if you are not capable of hosting a tournament just hand it back to TPCI, I'm pretty sure the players will be more willing to pay for a overpriced entry and travelling fees than a shitty structure and management.

[@Pepesmall]

Wtf a 3 hours window to sign up? Most people would sleep straight through that.

[@risel56]

*Plot twist:* There was no intro because Wolfey uses Metronome to generate his intros and it decided to give him the equivalent of Splash today.

[@ohzenn]

If one person in a group is being persecuted, then I feel like solidarity is the move. Can't be scared of the offending party's reaction.

[@BiohazardScott]

The Pokémon Company Korea: *disrespect players* Players: *disrespect it back* The Pokémon Company Korea: *Surprised Pikachu Face*

[@Muhahahahaz]

Lmao, that’s perfect 😂

[@ghostriposte2977]

“Harmful to other players or offensive images.” Oh so tpc just made it 2000x harder for these players to get jobs that looks HORRIBLE to an interviewer.

[@morgandavies9776]

I was a player in the tcg many many moons ago (circa 2008-2012). One of the big reasons that Pokémon held and still holds such a prominent spot in my heart and life is how the player base is so supportive and most of the time very healthy. Seeing things like this protest makes me very happy, because even the top players are still fighting to try to enjoy the game, even with pretty major stakes. Players acting like this is why competitive Pokémon is such a major deal and why it is continuing to grow. I hope that the community is and continues to be as welcoming and positive as I remember it being all those years ago.

[@blumwashere]

disqualified for using an intentional game mechanic in an intentional way is wild

[@Rawrmuffin0]

Wolfe please hold a tournament with metronome only Pokémon and invite these players to participate!!

[@localnekonia6830]

Go to Korea and find them for him

[@VenoMantis]

@@localnekonia6830 on it, boss

[@LeMisterRai]

The disconnection issue is absurd. I played in the Philippine qualifiers and I had experienced disconnections, both from me due to my bad internet and the opponent. The disconnection would either count it as my loss or not count it at all, never favorable to me, which is annoying. I've had like 2 out of those 10 games where I was winning and the game disconnected, leading to a no-win count.

[@parkershaw3753]

Maybe we as fans should look for more ways to include Metronome into more of our continued complaints with Pokémon as a whole. As Wolfe said, Metronome is a classy way to protest, and I'd argue it's very fitting for most issues we face. The concept of Metronome is fun! But more often than not it results in unfavorable or arguably neutral (at best) results. Metronome is one thing when it's an occasional tactic. But when all you have is the unreliability inherent to Metronome, it can get extremely frustrating incredibly quick. It just doesn't work if you don't take some time approach Pokémon in a different way. It can't be the primary way you engage with Pokémon. There's so many other fantastic ways to enjoy Pokémon, but many of them are more-or-less impossible if you insist on Metronome as the key experience. Replace "Metronome" with "having core Pokémon games come out quickly" and I think that mostly lines up with the experience of many Pokémon fans. How many people have said Game Freak needs to take an extra year or two so they can breathe? Even from a more financial angle, a lot of the key components of Pokémon's success (like, say, the actual creature designs) come directly from the people there, so it's important to not suffocate them. Returning to the original point, if we as fans are able to make Metronome a symbol of our discontents, I believe we could make good use of it. Clefairy was one of the original candidates to be Pokémon's mascot, so surely TPC would recognize the significance if we were to make it the face of disgruntled older fans, tired of the increasing number of ways Metronome can conjure up trouble.

[@Pepesmall]

They don't care they are getting paid regardless

[@Arcavi0us]

Coming from an Australian PTCG player, I really hope it gets better for you guys playing over in Japan & Korea. Had the pleasure of meeting some great people at OCE Internationals this year so hoping you guys see some improvement

[@Karsow2054]

“Real YouTubists, talk about ethics, of using luck moves as a viable stra-te-gy”

[@NerdySatyr]

Sentences you can hear

[@sharalakid]

​@@NerdySatyrlol

[@abarette_]

@@NerdySatyr "eel ducts" I can fucking hear it

[@sharalakid]

Wolfe: doesn't make an intro Karsow: "fine, I'll do it myself"

[@autobotstarscream765]

Prankster Mixed Attacker Grimmsnarl with Screens + Spirit Break + Metronome is a legit omnicoverage offensive support Paladin of a Pokémon.

[@groffy25]

Wolfe, your videos are amazing. I find competitive battle strategy and your Pokémon knowledge so interesting but I never have battled competitively and have no idea of rules. You are by FAR the best KZbinr explaining competitive battling. You could talk about white paint and make it something I learn from. Thanks for the awesome content that actually brings value to the viewer!

[@aldrichunfaithful3589]

if tpc refuses to hold events or treat players with respect because people call them out for their mistakes, or if they refuse to fix a broken system that they've chosen to have responsibility for, tell all the korean players to come play showdown because smogon actually care about their players and do everything they can to create an accessible platform for people all over the world to enjoy playing competitive pokemon together

[@autobotstarscream765]

It's getting to the point where the only way to save Pokémon may be to pirate/emulate and hack all Pokémon games. Kotaku had it backwards, buy Zelda and Metroid Dread while saving your money for them by pirating all of Pokémon's games and boycotting official purchases of (at least) the main series. 🏴‍☠️ #WhyDidTPCdoThis #MakePokemonGreatAgain #EmulateAllPokemonGames

[@martonyomchale342]

This comment has to be a joke. Showdown isn't legit, and why would anyone play a format where over a dozen Pokemon are banned from use. Rapid Strike Urshifu is a problem? Like get real.

[@autobotstarscream765]

@martonyomchale342 This is what Smogonites actually believe, also that Weather (especially Rain) is OP, so ofc a Rain sweeper that breaks all anti-sweep defenses with Rain-boosted multi-hits got banned.

[@martonyomchale342]

@@autobotstarscream765 No. I'm a mono-Water player. I've used Rapid Strike Urshifu since gen 8. Soft set for Jolly female and everything. I need two turns of set up with bulk up to sweep and sometimes I got walled. And then you have Pokemon that are special sweepers and outspeed. Those are the breaks. Even with Swords Dance and TailBlaze I can still be swept, or outspeed. Those are the breaks. I don't call for Amongus, Rillaboom, or Regieleki to be banned because they stop my mono water team. I just say those are the breaks and adapt.

[@autobotstarscream765]

@martonyomchale342 Mono-Water is different from a normal Rain team though, I feel like monotype is more skillful in general whereas normal Rain is gonna do stuff like use the Amoonguss to stall with the help of the Rain mitigating one of its weaknesses.

[@soulknight6644]

In the South East Asia tournaments, it’s even worse because of how TPC does their online tournaments. People can literally cheat their way because of the Disconnection rule in which if an opponent disconnects, they can play the game again until a 2nd disconnect or sth like that, it’s so bad that despite players providing evidence of opponent’s disconnecting on purpose, TPC still allows them to play…

[@gubbemon]

“If sejun park says you messed up, you messed up.” Y’all already know that’s true.

[@mariogorgees3489]

To be fair it's always the Korean branch of Game companies that tend to have the worst response to any mess-ups on their end, not stereotyping but they tend to prove their own track records having a zero tolerance policy towards players who speak out against unfavorable actions that would negatively impact the community as a whole. That's just my two cents on it seeing what happening now and what has already happened in the years prior.

[@MarkTheShadow]

Yeah they do have that track record now that I think about it 🤣

[@Mwolf55]

Glad to see probably the biggest name in vgc bringing some attention to this. I woulda loved to see the metronome cup though

[@codyssmith73]

They literally wagged a finger at Pokémon Company Korea 😂

[@JayceCH.]

Not surprised about the disqualification, too but Id say the protest successfully got out there as a result.

[@cowsaymoomoo]

“How I reached rank 1 using Metronome” would be an absolute banger video

[@watsonwrote]

This sounds like a bad situation all around. Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the devs and tournament organizers who allowed the build to pass QA and who proceeded with the tournament despite the setup not working correctly. Thanks for covering the situation, especially for those of us that don't follow the scene on social media.

[@Robin93k]

Devs have absolutely no responsibility in such companies! If the manager says, RELEASE NOW, any dev either pushes the current version to live, or is fired, and his replacements first job is to push the current version live, never even hearing or knowing why the last dev didn't push it live immediately... If Devs have the right to be responsible, they'll push back the release until they're done, regardless of what promises the mamager made with no plan.

[@grubfriend]

Singapore has also had issues over the past weekend, I've heard similar stories from SEA friends about people abusing disconnects to rig matches. It's really depressing honestly, we deserve so much better :(

[@derp3161]

as a wise man once said, "nobody hates nintendo fans more than nintendo"

[@g.williams2047]

Another wise man said “It’s always right to pirate Nintendo games”

[@SERMareep2007]

Nintendo didnt do anything here

[@Gettenhart]

​@@SERMareep2007it literally says on dq reasons"[...] That Nintendo Co ltd finds inappropriate" how delusional can nintendrones be

[@mimipeahes5848]

@@Gettenhart you’re literally just wrong. It’s pokemon company korea. the people shutting down your emulators are literally hours away and dont have fucking anything to do with vgc. They just share stock. This is basic knowledge.

[@유-k6f]

17:10 it's ok Wolfey, you can say Verlisify

[@andrewmclaughlin6210]

A funny thing I found about it being metronome was basically it saying "no no no." With how the finger moves from side to side lol.

[@anthonyhotspot7890]

Bonus wolfie content id my favorite content because its usually just how it is, straight up facts and thoughts. I hope TPC steps up their game, in VGC ruling AND game development.

[@surtrgaming1730]

Thanks Wolfey. I might not have gotten away with the exact info I wanted (what about the move was illegal), but I still came out with some understanding of the situation.

[@hayleeh18]

I wasn’t aware the divisions of The Pokémon Company operated so differently from one another. I had assumed that on a global scale the standards and rules of tournaments would be the same, especially with Worlds itself being held under The Pokémon Company International’s rules. I wonder if that’s why Worlds has never been held in Japan until this year? In any case I’m really proud of those players. Risking everything to stand up for their competitor because they knew it wasn’t right. I hope the bylaws of tournaments get changed so there can be no disqualification without an explanation. Otherwise they could DQ people for nothing, or to make sure their favorite to win (presumably for advertising reasons) gets the champion title.

[@user-kh7zf]

It's not really a surprise that those divisions operate independently. In Yu-Gi-Oh (Konami-owned), they not only have different standards and formats for tournaments, they have separate release schedules for new sets, and most importantly separate banlists between the TCG (International) and OCG (Japan, Korea, some other parts of East Asia). And that's not a difference of a card or two, it's an entirely different philosophy of game balance. And apparently their World Championship uses a third special banlist that basically becomes some weird mix of both official banlists.

[@GiuseppeGaetanoSabatelli]

The players were only top 4 because of luck on that ladder, based on that description of how it was run. Having only Metronome for the final bracket is actually the most accurate way to determine the winner.

[@Super_Top_Secret_Area]

This type of protesting really needs to happen during Worlds for TPC to care. I have to admit that Metronome's animation being used as the closest thing to a middle finger is very clever, but they could take it a step further and there are many things they could use to protest. Justified ability on all Pokémon + useless moves. Especially Lucario, since it gets Justified and Metronome. Having something like Helping Hand or Uproar as the only move. Also, any Pokémon that cannot learn Metronome, can still hold the Metronome item. Having just one move, that is also counterproductive, such as Heal Pulse. Fun strategies such as Funbro could get their chance to shine here. Trick or Switcheroo as the only move, while holding the Metronome item.

[@stevenschmidt3753]

Lol I love how you explain things. It's basically the same way i do to try to get people to understand and you nail that bro!! Please keep pumping out content all your stuff is a totally hit in my opinion!!!!?

[@matejlieskovsky9625]

Hearing "the pachirisu world champion" makes me wonder what would happen if every world champion got one pokemon as a honorary title. :-D

[@xaropevic7918]

That would be very cool ngl

[@franciscodelico]

As someone who got recommended this video at random, I think it'd be a good idea to, in some way, shape or form, actually mention whatever game you're talking about. It's not mentioned in the title, the intro to the video, or even the description of the video. Someone not familiar with your channel and/or the situation at hand is left in the dark (like me) for long enough to disengage with the video and leave, not knowing what's happening. With a title and description like that, maybe one can assume it's LoL we're talking about, or CS:GO. I think there's never an indication this is the Pokemon World Championships, which ironically I think would attract more attention (which is always good), because a lot of people might wonder how a metronome would be grounds for DQ in a Pokemon game? Anyway, thank you for the video. This is really interesting and fucked up to equal degrees, and I'm glad people are shining a light on it.

[@nuke_hazard18_23]

Im sad this was cancelled. Metronome only Korean world finals sounds like a circus😂

[@goonrock789]

Amazing how they call protesting offensive and not completely tanking the tournament offensive

[@ggplatinum16]

This is what happened in a summary -IRL tournaments cancelled in favor of (uncompetitive) Bo1 online matches -Players complain, TPC tells them to piss off -Qualifiers are unplayable due to horrific glitches in the actual game -TPC rescinds earned placements -Players complain, TPC tells them to piss off -Replacement ladder keeps uncompetitive rulesets (best of 1, no tera preview, when the rest of the world gets best of 3 with tera preview) and is cheesed with alt accounts due to lack of screening and low reqs -Players complain, TPC tells them to piss off -All four day 2 players agree to only teach all of their Pokemon Metronome, to protest how poorly organized Korean VGC is -All players are disqualified and Trainer's Cup is cancelled

[@marcosservin7024]

I was not aware of this. Thank you Wolfe for sharing g this information with your subscribers. Hopefully things get better 🤞🏽

[@imSethy]

BonusWolfe is peak vibes

[@Mimiyan_or_Pikapikafan]

Thanks for making this video to inform all of us that don't use Twitter and only learn news like this from KZbin

[@brockoffnetjetszz6699]

Alternate title: Pokémon players in Korea wag their finger at the Pokémon Korea company

[@lukes9192]

It's funny to me that they were concerned about their brand image over this. There are probably two types of people: people who are way too far down the rabbit hole to just give up on pokemon over a player protest, and people who never would have heard of this lol. And of the people who care about this, the response only makes their brand look worse than the protest. If these tournaments exist to get people invested in Pokemon, an image of a community supported by a company that listens and maximizes enjoyment would be the way to do it. "Our consumers disagree with what we made for them, so we silenced them" isn't a mantra that makes me want to invest in a brand lol

[@goodmusicofthegoodkind]

Love these vids, takes me back to sword & shield era

[@notmyname687]

It's sad how long it took me to even figure out what game this is all about.

[@kaotic300]

metronome battles are fun to watch

[@cob4808]

Other than Japan and Korea, other Asia region did not have it going well neither, nearly every announcement TPC made were so late that we dont have enough time to register, some confirming email is even all gibberish, nobody knows what is TPC doing...

[@krinofrost8027]

as someone who is just getting into competitive I respect it and I hope things change

[@randomhuman3883]

I'm a band nerd and thought some Korean band got disqualified in a competition for having a metronome in their ear while they performed and I was so confused.

[@_KyleR]

you should have put this on the main channel to spread more awareness, great video otherwise

[@HyperLuigi37]

I’ve only just started this video, but with how fumbled it sounds, looking back, it seems like 2023 was just a cursed year for competitive given all that happened at actual Worlds

[@Solaris802]

y'know what Wolfe, at least you went out of your way and put in the effort to state all the facts and details, unlike a certain other poketuber

[@autobotstarscream765]

I wish that wolf and this one could bury the hatchet (somewhere _besides_ in Wolfe's back) and stand together on this one. 🐺 #WhyDidTPCdoThis #NoFunAllowed #MakePokemonGreatAgain

[@DisastrousIntentionally]

Wolf has beef with somebody?

[@autobotstarscream765]

@@DisastrousIntentionally Is this sarcasm, or have you never heard of Verlis and his campaign to destroy Wolfe? 🐺

[@DisastrousIntentionally]

​@@autobotstarscream765 Oh, see now I remember. That shit was so deep in my brain, I genuinely didn't know what you were talking about lol Verlis still exists huh? I honestly thought they all but disappeared.

[@autobotstarscream765]

@Intentional Disaster He didn't die out, discussing him or acknowledging that he ever existed was just banned from most PokéTube and competitive Pokémon discussions. As in "do not mention Verlis for any reason or you get a public warning, then a mute, and eventually banned if you keep doing it" is a literal rule of multiple streaming channels and Discord servers.

[@FlyToTheRain]

MandJTV should bring back his metronome only tournament after this to help raise awareness

[@Gohka]

Honestly the thing that pisses me off most is that we lost out on seeing a hilarious tournament where everyone just uses Metronome lol. I think it was risky of TPC to disqualify them for protesting though. I remember when Blitzchung (the Hearthstone player from Hong Kong) had his winnings taken away from him and was banned because he protested against China's abuse of Hong Kong during a tournament. That caused, probably one of the biggest boycotts a game company has ever seen. I don't know the exact numbers but I'm pretty sure thousands if not tens of thousands of people stopped playing Blizzard games, they lost tons of WoW subs including Mark Kern who was once a team leader for Blizzard on World of Warcraft, cancelled his subscription to his own game. They had staff at Blizzard HQ walk out in protest. Brian Kibler refused to cast the Hearthstone Grandmasters Tournament, as well as many other casters. Mitsubishi even cancelled their e-sports sponsorship to Blizzard. This happened almost 4 years ago and Blizzard back-tracked most of their decisions within a week yet I'm pretty sure Blizzard STILL hasn't recovered from it.

[@JayceCH.]

Blizzard's had an actual sex scandal exposed out here and they still are doing better than ever from that. Lets be real here surprised pikachu face pfp.

[@Gohka]

@@JayceCH. Better than ever? I'm not sure about that. Better than the height of WoW's popularity? Better than before they got bought out by another company? Better than when they actually had an e-sports scene? I mean come on, there are 7 games on my Blizzard launcher and aside from OW2 and the small handful of people I know still playing WoW I don't know anyone who plays SC2 or D3 or even Hearthstone any more.

[@coteaux]

Pro business tip: if a company is easily purchasable when it otherwise hasn't hasn't its not doing well. ​@@JayceCH.

[@S7E_Siriel-Privat]

25:13 I don't think TPC can just stop the tournaments, as those are what keeps the core player base engaged in the long run. No tournaments = no competitive scene = no promotional content = no casual interest. Even if they keep the merchandise sales as high as they are, they'll loose a lot of customers in the worst way (aka, pissing them off so hard they'll never return), and seeing how the anime is doing, they really can't afford that.

[@hanszimmer2412]

you overestimate the power or numbers of the core playerbase or competitive scene. In every video game, the competitive scene is generally a very small minoritiy and an insignificant part of the size and revenue of the company itself.

[@scoutbane1651]

@@hanszimmer2412 You underestimate the power competitive scenes have on any activity. You think the sports we have would be nearly as popular if they didn't have massive casual followings for the competitive scene? I'm talking about everything from basketball with the NBA to League with its LCS. The interest in competitive scenes even from casual players is absolutely what drives a lot of sales lol

[@hanszimmer2412]

@@scoutbane1651 First off, you definitely make a mistake there comparing competitive video games to classic sports. The number of competitive players plus the people interested in the competitive scene is a very small part of any video games size and revenue. The gain from tournaments and associated competitive players and the following advertisement is not even 1% of TPC. Professional esport athletes or popular gamers get banned and disqualified left and right across many different video games without much repercussion for the companies itself. And concerning classic sports: even FIFA could demand the ban of Christiano Ronaldo without batting an eye if they see fit, because it would have zero impact in the end.

[@scoutbane1651]

​@@hanszimmer2412 Don't move the goalposts. You said the entire competitive scene is insignificant to the sale and size of the company. That's the point I'm disputing. I never said banning these players will make an effect on their size, but cancelling the entire competitive sphere abso-fucking-lutely would and you're just delusional if you think otherwise honestly. Even just Wolfe has 1 million subs. A single competitive player, talking about competitive. You think that doesn't affect sales or player retention? Lmfao. Obviously the two fuel each other.

[@cin2110]

​​​@@hanszimmer2412 so why would company spend money and run the scene all around the globe mind you if it was useless smartass they don't want to waste money they want to make money

[@ramzikawa734]

I really really appreciate this perspective. So often we get into a discourse of whether some collective action is fundamentally moral or immoral and then you have to be either for protesting or anti-protesting ever. But actions don’t happen in a vacuum. We should be able to have a conversation on the viability of some action and whether it’s a sensible use of our time, not just whether or not it’s acceptable. I’m obviously talking about things a little bit larger in scope than a Pokémon tournament, but it’s still refreshing to hear you say it. They were in the right regardless of whether it was or was not an effective idea.

[@waterierStone]

They should have all included metronome in their moves along with 3 other normal moves. That way they might have gotten in and then just agreed to only pick metronome during the tournament.

[@Celtic_Mav]

They should make a 1 pokemon tournament with metronome only and everyone is on shedninja

[@sworntothelight]

Seems like the korean pokemon company is just compounding their issues further and further rather than just stepping up and dealing with their initial shortcomings, i just feel bad for the players who have lost opportunities when they did nothing wrong. Also i feel like people would've been stoked to see an all metronome masters round, i know i would tune in to see how the best players in my region use crazy strategies, just seems like a loss all around.

[@diegomo1413]

Not being into the competitive Pokémon scene at all, I had no idea until 2:39 that this had anything to do with Pokémon and the move Metronome and only clicked on this video to see how Korean players (of some unknown game) got disqualified for the use of an actual metronome, a device used for keeping tempo by producing an audible click at regular intervals 😶

[@shinytoblerown5008]

This whole situation is a perfect example of why the idea of the "perfect protestor" is nonexistent. Just as Wolfey said, the finalists could have loudly protested in more meaningful ways that would have drawn more negative publicity to TPC, but instead chose to protest "appropriately," more tongue-in-cheek than genuine protest. But Nintendo decides what is appropriate, and so an appropriate protest cannot happen. Three months later these four players have a lifetime ban from competitive Pokemon, no apology from the company, and have not enacted meaningful change in the Korean competitive scene. Whatever brief awareness the community had of their sacrifice has been snuffed out by Nintendo's assertions that they were hacking. I see this as a lesson that if you are going to protest in a scenario where even the mildest form of protesting will be met with the most severe punishment, then the point of your protest should be as disruptive as possible to the status quo. Otherwise you will be quietly swept away, your cause will be left nowhere, and if you're lucky you might at least be acknowledged for protesting "appropriately."

[@digitalduken9973]

Players used Taunt. It's Super Effective.

[@ManyTanks1]

Honestly the only backlash these players I’ve seen get, is from Kurt (the guy who made PkHex) going “lul look at all these illegal mons” and it only serves to make me laugh. Good on the players for protesting in smooth way

[@ludi489]

My dude made the hacking tool and is complaining when people use it like it isn’t his fault in the first place.

[@Kryssy128]

A random person gets recommended this video. They come into it, thinking 'wtf is metronome. wtf is this tournament?' You don't tell them a damn thing.

[@alfiesmullet1311]

If there are teams or movesets that are against the rules the devs should have built in a way to prevent them from being locked in

[@thenewyorkhip-hopspot5485]

That would have been the coolest top 4 ever😂. Glad u spoke up on this!!!

[@gonzalotorneralonso417]

I really wish one day there is a chain of protests for better quality pokemon products and events. Because i can see they are rushing the games as much as possible just to maximize profits. Just because they are known and have some sales volume guaranteed doesn't mean we don't deserve some minimum quality (we are seeing a ton of glitches)

[@Posceceo]

Reading the Title I was very confsed why those Players would bring a (physical) Metronome, and why that would be considered a Problem.

[@mattcawley6833]

I think a metronome battle can appeal to all pokemon fans. Considering this tournament was just about granting different accommodations for the world championship, this is a major overreaction. While it was a protest I'm delighted by how these players went "this is bull so let's have fun and leave it to chance". Next time just add 3 moves that do nothing like growl and don't use them. Proud of the Korean qualifiers, I hope this leads to some positive change.

[@SnoFitzroy]

I love the humility of Wolfy's hypothetical involving losing to the viewer. i'm sitting here like "sir I don't think I'd ever be able to beat you, I use Furret"

[@chrisholder8906]

Wolfe hair on absolute point