Greenlit: Competitive Pokemon News: Tournament Scandals

[Aurora]

There are probably better ideas for titles out there, but whatever. Maybe this could be a series, so maybe the next time something is suspect tested or a suspect test ends, an article could be written about it.

Anyway, to the point: recently my home of yore, Smogon, has been rocked by tournament scandals, the most recent one involving ghosting. For those of you who don't know what ghosting is, imagine you're engaged in a Pokemon battle, but instead of making your own decisions you have a group of people telling you what to do every turn. Think of 'ghostwriting', where, in the publication process of a book, John Snow might write the novel but John Summer is credited as the author.

The most significant tournament where this occurred was the 2015 Official Smogon Tournament, where the Tournament Director and Administrator in charge of it, Bloo, entered under an alternate account and got to the finals by:

• bracket rigging
• abusing friendships with the opponents of the alternate account to get the exact teams they would be using off them
• creating perfect counterteams that ensured the alternate account would effortlessly win every match

This wasn't exactly 'ghosting', but it was still pretty huge on the tournament scene. The most recent big tournament where ghosting occurred was the Smogon Grand Slam, where:

• the winner of the tournament was found to have been ghosted
• the tournament bracket was redone
• not only did the original loser lose AGAIN in the second iteration of the tournament, but the winner of the second final was ALSO ghosted

Several policy changes have since been enacted to deter things like this from happening again.

Since the information surrounding these incidents is visible to anyone who visits the Smogon forums - even those without an account - I see no issue with covering these. Furthermore, I think I could write a fairly good piece on these incidents since I am an active member of and attuned with the Smogon community.

Thoughts?

 

[gimmepie]

I like the idea of covering the more political (for want of a better term) side of competitive battling and raising awareness of how big a problem ghosting can be. So +1 from me (just try not to bother Smogon xD).

 

[Charlie Brown]

not only did the original loser lose AGAIN in the second iteration of the tournament, but the winner of the second final was ALSO ghosted

Out of interest, does that mean the winner of the second final was the one cheating (ghosting), or their opponent was the one ghosting? Just confused about the terminology.

Regardless, giving this another +1 so it's officially approved! I think it'd be super interesting to read about.

 

[antemortem]

Out of interest, does that mean the winner of the second final was the one cheating (ghosting), or their opponent was the one ghosting? Just confused about the terminology.

The winner of the second final was ghosted by someone else, therefore they were the one cheating. To be ghosted is to have someone or a group of people make suggestions as to the next move in a battle, or to directly tell the player what to do. Ultimately, this behavior results in the winner not being "the best player" because they were unable to win without outside help, hence why Smogon takes such a careful, judicial approach toward it.