What was supposed to be a big Gigantamax weekend for Pokemon Go players has turned out to be a disaster for some after many Pokemon fans were greeted by unexpected warnings and bans on Saturday. Before the Gigantamax events could get underway, Pokemon Go players were receiving notices that they’d been using unauthorized third-party programs or had violated the rules in some other ways. Some Pokemon Go players were fortunate enough to get away with just a “warning” even if they said it was an error anyway, but those less lucky have been banned entirely thus making them miss the Gigtantamax weekend.
The Pokemon Go warnings about supposed unauthorized activity started showing up on Saturday when players were making Gigantamax preparations. One player posted a screenshot of their notice on Reddit that said they’d been issued a seven-day strike during which time their account would be monitored. If they messed up again, they’d risk a ban.
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“We have detected activity on your account that indicates you are using modified client software or unauthorized third-party software in violation of our Terms of Service,” the notice said. “This is the first Strike against your account. It will last for approximately 7 more days. We strongly encourage you to stop this activity. Any further transgressions will result in an account suspension.”
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The player said that they didn’t do anything to warrant this strike which is usually what people say when they’re at risk of losing access to Pokemon Go, but in this case (and in many others today), these do appear to be false warnings. Many other players within the Pokemon Go subreddit corroborated reports like these to say that they also had been issued warnings, and in some cases, were banned outright.
“I was in the middle of a raid few hours ago when my account got suspended,” one Pokemon Go player said. “I have been playing since day 1, never [cheated], don’t even know how to cheat in this game. I have appealed but haven’t heard anything back. 30 days for no reason.”
While one would expect that the top Pokemon Go post in the subreddit for the day would be about Gigantamax Venusaur, Gigantamax Charizard, and Gigantamax Blastoise, the post is instead about this false ban issue. Pretty much everyone is saying the same thing there — they didn’t do anything wrong, and Niantic isn’t helping much outside of sending canned responses urging players to play by the rules. Nobody knows why they’re getting banned or if these bans will stick, but many players are getting hit with 30-day bans. If those aren’t reversed, that means that the affected Pokemon Go players will miss out no only on the Gigantamax events but also on the Halloween events that are getting underway as well.
Past Pokemon Go events have rarely been without issue, and in most cases when something goes terribly awry, events can be rescheduled or players can be issued some form of compensation to make up for lost time. Once the Gigantamax weekend concludes, it wouldn’t be surprising to see something similar happen in regards to all these bans.