Pokemon Go Shuts Down GO Battle League Due to Exploit

Pokemon Go has temporarily shut down its Go Battle League to deal with a major exploit. Last night, Pokemon Go announced that its Go Battle League would be shut down for an indeterminite amount of time to fix an unknown exploit that some players have used to advance to the top of the board. Although it’s unclear exactly what caused the exploit, several players have pointed out that a trainer with the username “JesusG1310” rose to the top of GO Battle League’s leaderboard despite playing far less battles than other elite trainers. Several videos of the player’s battle showed him somehow gaining extra energy during a Charge Move attack, thus gaining a competitive advantage.

In a statement posted on its webpage, Pokemon Go noted that it had a “zero tolerance” policy for cheating, which is why they shut down the entire Go Battle League while resolving the exploit. They also noted that, while they wouldn’t share additional details about individual cheating investigations, they were working to mitigate the issue to restore integrity to the GO Battle League to allow everyone equal footing once again. Once the exploit is fixed, Pokemon Go would re-open its GO Battle League for all trainers.

It’s a bit of a surprise that Pokemon Go would shut down its entire GO Battle League system, but it does show a serious commitment to giving everyone an equal opportunity. Pokemon Go has come down harshly on trainers in the past, so we’re expecting that those using the exploit are about to be in for some harsh punishment.