A famous Pokémon GO player has recently had his account suspended by Niantic for breaking the rules of the popular mobile game. According to Nintendo Soup, Singapore-based player Brandon Tan has made a name for himself by becoming the best Pokémon GO trainer in the world. As committed to the cause as he is, it appears he's also been caught out for violating the game's terms of service.
The player has reportedly been selling Pokémon online for as much as $400 and is also in possession of more than five Pokémon GO accounts. Tan allegedly became an easy target for Niantic when he made all of this information publicly available online. This includes promotion of his “Mewtwo service” via Twitter - offering to trade the rare Pokémon for a high price to his 26,000 followers.
A few days prior to his suspension, Tan tweeted about how he had completed 485 Mewtwo raids this week - participating in an average of 69 raids a day from 6:00 am through to 9:30 pm. It’s basically a full-time job, making it even more surprising he would publicly violate the rules and put himself at risk like this.
What do you think about it? When you're the very best, should you be allowed to violate the terms of service in a game? Are you glad Niantic has made an example of such a well-known player? Tell us below.
[source nintendosoup.com]
Comments 87
Maybe he’ll get a life now.
Be an Honest gamer.
Play fair, everyone happy.
Companies have every right to put rules on a service they provide. He violated those rules. He got punished.
He got caught because he made himself glaringly obvious. Niantic turns a blind eye to thousands of people with alternate accounts because it makes them extra money, but when someone like this is basically saying to the world "look at me violate their terms of service" they can't really not notice...
@justin233 Wow, are you gonna call him a dork too? Maybe a square? Didn't realize it was still 1999. Do people still say "get a life"?
Pokemon Go to jail
@Heavyarms55 ,
I think dork and square may be a tad retro,but "get a life" is still used in the modern arena.
But why do you care what he calls him?
@Heavyarms55 Don't be square, play fair. Get a life, dork.
@Anti-Matter That's the problem - there are people out there who aren't happy unless they're gaming the system or doing shady things to get ahead. Something the world is going to have to address in time...
Aw snap, I guess he, like, should have at least been more subtle about breaking the rules.
@johnvboy Honestly, mostly just curiosity. I haven't heard someone say "get a life" in a long time. lol
@Heavyarms55 Get a life... Here you heard quite a few times in this comment section
@Heavyarms55 Well I’m an early 90’s kid so it’s been in my vocabulary since it was ‘rad’ to say. I was honestly ticked off about something else and stupidly vented my frustration here of all places. My apologies.
The amount of time this guy put into PoGo does make you wonder, though.
@justin233
Get a life Justin 😅
Serves you right.
Grab a tissue to wipe those bubbles of snot 🤧
@The_Mysteron No, you get a life. 😆
Tragic some would say
The people that pay him to allow him to do this as a “full time” job are the idiots in the story.
People will always do things to try and make money out of nothing. Human nature.
Why people would pay vast sums of money for things in this game is beyond me.
His threat of “finding a new game” is hilarious.
Like Pokemon couldn’t survive if he did.
It's not nice to laugh at someone's misfortune but HA Ha ha. Some of these Youtubers/bloggers whatever you want to call them (I have a few choice words) believe they are better than the games they play and need bringing down a peg or two. Even his tweet seemed like a threat that himself and his followers would not come back to the game. I'm sure Niantic are quaking in their boots.
@justin233 You said that he should "Get a life", I believe the people who pay him real world money for rare characters should also be included in that statement.
I saw some kind of youtube documentary on this guy. Dude is seriously dedicated to the game. They mentioned nothing of the side stuff mentioned in this article though. lol
@Stocksy You beat me to it. Totally agree with all your points.
@justin233 It's cool dude. Hope whatever else was bothering you gets worked out!
Sometimes these top players really hype the game for the developer. These players are devoted and have a lot of subscribers, this is also where developers gets it feedback from. So suspending 1 top player might result thousands of other players to boycott the game.
It must be depressing for fans of the game that one of the top players resorted to shady stuff like this.
Well Pokemon Go is fading away meaning only shady people still play it.
@justin233 I know you are, but what am I? 😄
@justin233 Wow thats the second day in a row I see someone use the word "rad". I felt so old when others had no idea what it meant xD
Yeah him finding another game isn't going to happen is it, unless he can find another one to make hue profits from.
@LetsGoSwitch Quite the opposite. It's been getting more popular ever since the social elements were added. Ironically, if the friends and trading hadn't been added, he wouldn't have been able to do this.
Everyone should get a life at nintendolife!
What fools would pay $400 for a Mewtwo?
This is part of the reason why I gave up on PoGO and Ingress - either too many cheaters, or the insane lengths people go to to spoil other people's enjoyment. Hope Niantic crack down on multiple account users & spoofers.
@justin233 haha coming from the guy who spends his time reading about how this guy lives...
Why are people so d**b....
@Incarta Wait, THEY ADDED TRADING? I didn't know... I'm off to go PokeHunting then...
@Shugo WOW. I think I've been looking on the wrong websites. Wikipedia's failed me again XD
@sikthvash Why do people care if someone uses multiple accounts? I utterly hate cheating in PvP games, but Go doesn't really count as one. So when someone uses duplicate accounts, while they're taking an easy way out it doesn't really affect others. So again, I don't see the point of caring if they do so.
For the record, I don't play Go, and I'm not defending this because I'm a cheater. I'm also not completely aware of everything that goes with the game, so I may be overlooking something.
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
If the guy can get a 14 hour night of sleep he needs to find something more productive to do with his life.
He played the game and got the sledgehammer erm I mean ban hammer.
Well at least he doesn't sound surprised about it. He must have got a 7-Day warning before the 30-day suspension.
Some people would play the victim card in this type of situation and blame the game, glad he didn't take that road.
He probably made enough money off trading to set himself up for the next couple of years, I'm sure he's not too broken up about it.
@thesilverbrick To be honest, the 14 hour sleep was what stood out as most surprising to me, as well. I’m lucky to grab 7, but would feel horrible if I got 14 haha
eh? maybe he should have taken donations.
I mean if i trade with someone who uses social media i'd at least offer a cup of coffee for making a trip if they weren't close by
@hakjie11 he broke the rules lol glad he got caught
Im glad company's are doing this they need to do the same with online leader boards
@justin233 perhaps you should find one that isn't so critical of others having fun, even if this one cheated.
1) I honestly couldn't care less
2) Nobody cares that some dude got his account suspended. "omg #1 player got his account suspended... Big deal... Bla bla bla"
3) He knew the rules, he broke them, game over.
@mince0 Hey, you are here too, d**ba**.
@Dontbejeff I can be critical of some lowlife cheater if I want.
@Rafx He played the game and got rules broken while playing the game. He got what he deserved. Crime doesn't pay.
@RadioShadow apparently some idiots do
they are just upset they are losing out on screwing people out of some more money
He can start playing Niantic's new spinoff: Pokemon NO.
Could I ask what the rules being broken by this person are?
I don't play Pokémon Go so I'm not sure if you're not supposed to have multiple accounts or trading for real money or whatever.
I feel like the only one who is more concerned about the fact this dude is sleeping for 14 hours and less about the fact he's cheating. Is he a real-life Snorlax?
I was completely unaware that players were ranked at all. How? And why?
Is it common to sleep for 14 hours? 8 hours is the most i have ever done.
"A famous Pokémon GO player..." No.
If I slept 14 hours, my spine would turn into concrete, and I would get around like a mummy walking through a waist deep bog.
@DreamerAbe86 Firstly, awesome profile pic ^_^
Back in the day, the multiple accounts meant you could basically farm and train the toughest Pokemon and defend a gym by yourself. Coupled with spoofing they could go anywhere in the world meaning people who played it fairly would be at a distinct disadvantage. Same goes for Ingress, except with multiple accounts meant multiple inventories and you could stock up and share items across all accounts. They may have leveled the playing field now, but it's too little too late.
Selling rare Pokémon for money? Did we find the real world Team Rocket???
@Heavyarms55,
Fair enough fella
There is a guy in my neighborhood who has about 6 different accounts. Now, selling rare Pokemon for money, that is just being a jerk.
Good. Here's to hoping Niantic gets even MORE proactive on those violating its ToS. Don't click "agree and accept" unless you actually intend to.
Pokémon GOsh! ...Who’da thunk this could happen!?
I wonder what he'll do for money now.
@Heavyarms55 - Nope, it’s 2018 and when someone is doing something wrong they should STILL BE CALLED OUT FOR IT! End of discussion.
The app is rubbish and to see folks waste their time on it is baffling.
Being a team rocket, eventually you will lose.
Imagine being so crap that you cheat in a pointless mobile game just to make a measly $400
@DreamerAbe86 It absolutely effects others. I've had a gym stolen out from under me and a friend by a guy who was running 4 accounts by himself. That sucks, and I'm glad to see anyone with multiple accounts getting punished.
@thesilverbrick @HobbitGamer Some of us have thyroid issues. They need a lot more sleep. We don't know about him.
In before the announcement of the new Pokémon GO Mewtwo service.
@nitake92 Trading in-game assets for real money has always been against the rules for online gaming from the very beginning. It's deeply frowned upon no matter the game and for very good reasons. It may even be illegal in some countries.
It's also why some forms of DLC like loot boxes and microtransactions are so unpopular, since they're essentially authorized versions of the same practice by the developers themselves.
As for the 14 hours of sleep, that's not too uncommon if you've just pulled an all-nighter or have otherwise been operating on very little sleep over the previous few days.
That being said, if this guy got a real job instead of spending all his time working towards unethical sales practices, then maybe he could get on a normal sleep schedule.
@sikthvash Thanks.
And gotcha. I didn't think about the gym aspect, but yeah, that makes sense. Nothing worse than playing by the rules and some douchebag taking your place on something. I understand now.
@JediKadabra Yeah, I see now why that would be infuriating.
@thesilverbrick Don't judge him! But I do happen to agree, 14 hours of sleep sounds weird.
I have no idea if you can catch a Mewtwo every raid you do since i have not played Pokemon Go in a very long time. But if he managed to sell all of those for 400$ he made nearly 200k. Not bad.
I'm still amazed by the fact that there are people who take games like Pokémon GO or even the 3DS games and make a living by selling pokemon online. And even people who live off of playing games and streaming it online or live off of Smash Bros or Fortnite tournaments. Meanwhile there's those of us who went to university to get a "good job" and are barely making ends meat. Something just not right about this.
@subpopz
What kind of god complex are you talking about? He violated the terms of service, got banned and he' s ok with it.
He has a pretty good attitude towards it imo.
As for his services, no, it isn' t the right thing to do and it hurts the game slightly.
But when people are literary throwing money at him for playing the game he was playing anyway it' s really hard to turn it down.
I believe that almost anyone that isn' t affiliated with Niantic/Nintendo would make the same decision.
Multi-accounting is pretty common amongst active players, the only ‘harm’ may be that you can take over gyms of your ‘own’ team. Yet you may also help your friends of the other teams. But selling assets and accounts has always been an awkward thing to do.
I suspect he’s banned for selling assets, which is rightly so.
This bum looks like he never worked a day in his life
@Heavyarms55
Yes, they do say "get a life"
Welp, as Han Solo put it, Don't get cocky!' and that he did. Showboated, flashed his antics to the world, and got canned for it. No pity, feel nothing for him but a well deserved temp ban hammer which is lucky it wasn't just a termination.
"A famous pokemon go player" Lolz. What has this world become...
@subpopz You are definitely right subpopz, but on the other hand you don't see developers complaining when these top players spend a fortune of their own money into the game and indirectly convince other followers to spend thousands or millions into the game. All these top players have provided free marketing/sales boost on a daily/weekly basis to these games so they do deserve to influence their own followers. It's like watching world cup and your favorite team is out, you probably will watch less of it or stop watching even though you still like soccer.
He does look evil!
Why on earth would anyone pay for a Pokemon that EVERYONE has access to by actually playing the game!?! And $400 at that!
This comment is to respond to comment 17.. They said is he really that big of a deal? In Singapore, he is a star!!! There are alot of players there over level 40 and it is because of him and his encouragement of players to excel in the game and make it number 1 in their life.. It isn't any different than Famous Chess players or Scrabble players... If it is your passion, you devote your life to it.. I don't think they should have put him on suspension because they have his contact information and they should have just asked him to limit himself to one account.. The company had other options to handle the situation... alot of players have more than one account... I don't.. I only have one account but I do play on several accounts because there are three pokemon players that live in my house and when I run out of balls well I use there phones and play on their accounts because they got like 100 balls in their backpack.. They spin pokestops but don't catch pokemon... that is how they play.. they only go after rare pokemon.. so I use their balls and catch pokemon and then just transfer them to the professor.. but technically is that cheating or breaking their rules because I am playing on more than one account... I have been playing Farmville for like 6 years and have several accounts, is that breaking the rules.. This player spends a large amount of money buying raid passes.. So the purpose of the game is to make money... they just shot themselves in the foot... a raid pass cost 100 Pokecoins.. that is 99 cents in real money to buy the Pokecoins... he does 69 raids a day.. that is 68 dollars that the company makes on him playing 68 ×30 is $2,040 a month that he spends in just buying raid passes.. that isn't talking about the money he spends on balls and revives and potions, ect... if he has lets say 4 accounts then he is spending around $8,160 a month on Pokemon Go raid passes... that isn't even talking about the 20 to 40 people on his team... who also have multiple accounts and play almost as much as he does.. Even if his team isn't suspended, they will be affected by this so the company is probably losing around $163,200. By doing this.. does the company not have accountants working for them or is the company so rich that they can throw away 163 thousand dollars?? This is my opinion... sorry if you don't agree... Pokemon was his passion, don't make fun of someone's passion... because it is a game... Tennis is a game, too.. I guess we have to stop the Wimbledon Tennis tournament and make fun of the players because they have dedicated their life to a game... oh, I mean sport!! I think the only think this man is guilty of is having too much passion for the game... I know a Apex player that is very passionate about his playing... Apex is his life... Pokemon is this mans life.. stop saying "Get a life"... He had a life dedicated to Pokemon... just like fans of soccer or football... fans of wrestling... are you going to tell them all to " get a life " ????...
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