Competitive Pokemon VGC player Brady Smith has been disqualified from the 2023 World Championships due to having modified Pokemon on his team.
The 2023 Pokemon World Championships are taking place in Yokohama, Japan, where players have gathered together to play Scarlet & Violet, the TCG, Pokemon Unite, and Pokemon Go.
Day 1 of the event has passed, and one VGC player has already been hit with a disqualification from the event.
Brady Smith was disqualified from Worlds 2023 due to having modified Pokemon on his team, which he says he thought were legit.
Pokemon VGC player warns others to verify team
After just two rounds on Day 1 of the event, Brady Smith took to Twitter to share the news with his followers and says that he got his team from a “reputable trader.”
“DQ’d at 2-0. I should have gotten my mons myself! Half my team was modified/genned. I didn’t have Legends of Arceus to get the Lando and I didn’t have my copy of Sword/Shield to get Urshifu,” he said.
“I tried trading for the mons with a reputable trader, but the mons didn’t pass.”
The official rules state that the use of external devices to modify Pokemon is “expressly forbidden” and may result in a disqualification as Brady received.
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DQ’d at 2-0. Should have gotten my mons myself!Half my team was modified/gennedI didn’t have Legends of Arceus to get the LandoAnd I didn’t have my copy of Sword/Shield to get UrshifuI tried trading for the mons with a reputable trader, but the mons didn’t passHere’s…
— Brady Smith – VGC Corner (@vgccorner) August 11, 2023
Brady also shared his thoughts on the situation, warning others to make sure their Pokemon team is legit before entering a competition with it.
“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, y’all!,” he said.
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, 2023
His tweet thread has been viewed over 300k times in the hours since it was posted, and many others have taken to the replies.
“Well it was avoidable like you said, the game is going to become a lot fairer to those who don’t use gen mons,” one user replied.
Another said: “It’s really unfortunate the person you traded with didn’t have legitimate guys. Idk whether you knew you were getting genned stuff beforehand or not but that’s a terrible way to go regardless.”
Keep an eye on our Pokemon section for more coverage of the event as well as the various things happening across each of the games.