Competitive 'Pokémon' Players Spam 'Metronome' As A Protest, Get Banned From Tournament

A fascinating situation is unfolding in Korea, where four competitive Pokémon players were recently disqualified from a tournament for the "crime" of spamming the move "Metronome" in the finals.

"Metronome," as Pokémon players know, is a quirky move that lets a Pokémon randomly do one of the hundreds of moves available in the game, making it hardly viable in a competitive setting.

Yet Korean players Nash, Sangyoon, Mija and Betango agreed to walk into the finals of The Pokémon Trainers Cup spamming only Metronome, eschewing traditional competitive Pokémon strategy. They were disqualified for the stunt, resulting in losing their spot at Day 2 of the World Championships later this year, which they would have secured had they played the finals normally.

According to Nash, the Metronome Finals was done in protest of the way Korea was running competitive Pokémon tournaments.

As Nash tells it, the Korean competitive Pokémon scene was fed up with poor communication and tournament formatting from The Pokémon Company. Among the key issues was the employment of a best-of-1 format, which many players understandably felt was not necessarily a fair system, especially in a game like Pokémon in which chance-based mechanics like Critical Hits and One-Hit KO moves could help an ostensibly weaker opponent luck their way to victory, resulting in an unfair representation of the country's talent on the world stage.

ChienX2_VGC added that The Pokémon Company held a policy where if a player disconnected in an online match, the match would have to be replayed. Multiple players purportedly intentionally disconnected when their match appeared lost, resulting in hours of one match being played over and over again.

High-profile VGC player Wolfey delved into the entire controversy in a 30-minute video on his YouTube channel, covering more of the technical aspects that drove Korean Pokémon players' frustrations.

The stunt gave the disqualified Korean players the attention they wanted, and as a result, players in other regions are offering the group their support, while others have been inspired by the idea and are proceeding with Metronome-only tournaments.

As far as protests on the big stage go, the Metronome-only finals have appeared to do more good than, say, a Bayonetta gun showdown.