The competitive Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield community dealt with a confusing and alarming situation today, after several notable members of the community called attention to what appeared to be a major glitch. The glitch hit Thursday morning, effectively banning all Master Ball-tier competitors from playing Ranked Battles in Pokemon Sword and Shield. 10 hours later and the issue has been resolved, but the question as to what exactly happened (and if it can happen again) remains pressing.
Early Thursday morning competitive Pokemon player Sejun, the 2014 Pokemon World Champion, saying on Twitter that "players who already reached Mater Ball Tier before maintenance are now all banned from playing Ranked Battles?" Master Ball being the highest possible rank in Pokemon Sword and Shield's current Ranked Battles. It was later clarified that Master Ball-tier players simply couldn't access Ranked Battles. There was no information provided to the player and they could still play non-ranked games online.
The reason for players panicking over the glitch is easy to understand. In order to reach Master Ball tier in Ranked Battles, players have to win a high number of battles. It's not just challenging, but also quite time-consuming. Some players have said they spent hundreds of hours reaching Master Ball. The glitch first seemed like a ban, but players worried that even if it was fixed their progress would be stripped.
While Nintendo and Game Freak haven't commented regarding what the glitch was, a better picture of the situation has now been drawn. The glitch occurred after maintenance for Pokemon Sword and Shield. It's now known that the maintenance made a change to the Master Ball tier. Speculation says that this new Master Ball tier was made to be an entirely different group, so those in the previous Master Ball tier were simply erased from the ladder.
All's well that ends well, as it appears all Master Ball tier Pokemon Sword and Shield players are once again able to participate in Ranked Battles. 10 hours without being able to battle isn't too rough to deal with. The extra stress of believing you've been banned from ranked play for Pokemon Sword and Shield is a bit excessive. Game Freak will hopefully ensure that similar bugs don't manage to make it to the full game in the future, especially with Pokemon Sword and Shield's first real competition starting tomorrow.
Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield are available now exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
Source: ResetEra