One Pokémon player is going viral for using an extremely suspicious Legendary Pokémon live on stream during the Bologna Special Event this weekend. Their subsequent disappearance after the match has led some to believe they have been disqualified.
Pokemon VGC Tournament Organizers Caught Using Hacked Pokemon
During the Swiss round five of the Bologna Special Event in Italy, the astute Pokémon Scarlet and Violet VGC fans noticed something very odd about one of the 'mons used in the stream match between Joseph Pulkowski and Alessio Fuscà. While discussing his next move, Pulkowski took a moment to check his Terapagos summary page, where the Original Trainer (OT) was listed as "FreeMons.Org."
It's common knowledge in the Pokémon community that OTs with website names are huge red flags for hacking. This is often seen with hacked Shiny or Legendary Pokémon from a random Surprise Trade. Even if you weren't aware of it, FreeMons.Org just sounds like a sketchy place to quickly obtain illegitimate 'mons without having to catch, breed, or train them yourself. After all, no one would ever name their character after a website unless they were just trolling, as one player pointed out.
While it’s possible that Pulkowski was simply trolling the stream by using a legitimate Terapagos from a real player named FreeMons.Org, that seems unlikely. According to data from RK9 Labs, Pulkowski dropped out of the event immediately following his Swiss round five stream match. It’s unclear whether the player dropped out voluntarily or was disqualified, but the timing of his departure is consistent with a possible disqualification.