The Pokemon Company is cracking down on players who are abusing an exploit recently found in Pokemon Shield and Sword competitive play.

The exploit allows players to turn off their Switch at just the right time after losing a match, resulting in them not losing any competitive points or lowering their rank. This is made worse by the fact that the winner in these matches would not receive any points for their victory.

【えぐい】切断しても負けにならない方法
勝負に負けた！が出たあとしゅいんってなるとこで電源ボタンを押して切断したら反映されない。
5回ためして5回ともさがりませんでした。【ランクマッチ崩壊】 pic.twitter.com/rNzGdYld02
— 攻め意識 (@Ka_Cr_He) March 30, 2020

According to a translation by Kotaku, the Pokemon Company officially acknowledged the cheating in a post on its website.

“Currently, we are checking whether some players have been purposefully cutting their internet connections during battle stadium ranking battles and internet-based competitions to manipulate their results,” says the Pokemon Company blog post.

Going forward, those who use this exploit will be excluded from future ranking battles, live battles, or internet competitions. The company may even suspend the user from online Pokemon Sword and Shield content, temporarily or permanently.

Unfortunately, it comes down to threats of bans and consequences from the company in order to make people stop. If the crackdown fails to force players to abandon the exploit and fight fairly, Nintendo will have to step in and patch the exploit out completely. The Pokemon Company certainly has time now with the Pokemon World Championships 2020 being cancelled.