Pokemon Go devs respond to “unintentional” Fast Catch ban wave

Pokemon Go devs have announced that a mysterious wave of bans was ‘not intentional’ and that they ‘will address this issue soon’ after players using the ‘Fast Catch’ trick were blocked from the game.

Pokemon Go has been rolling out a lot of content lately, with the launch of the Fashion Week event and the last month of the Adventures Abound season. But also, there has been a lot of friction between players and Niantic, mostly due to the unfair ban sprees, counter-intuitive measures from the devs, and unpopular or broken features.

Pokemon Go devs have responded to several users complaining about an unfair ban and said that this ban wave was ‘unintentional’ and is related to the use of the Fast Catch Trick. Several affected Pokemon Go players have taken to social media to complain about the interruption of the service.

ℹ️ Random “ban” wave ℹ️

Loads of Trainers have woken up to a temporary ban on their accounts on 15th November.
There’s absolute no reason given by Niantic, however there’s a theory the ban lasts for 24 hours because the Trainers have “checked too many Pokémon”

wtf. pic.twitter.com/mMpMpIqW4x

— PoGOCentral (@pogo_central) November 15, 2023

However, as confirmed by outlets like PoGOCentral and PokemonGoHub, the latest ban wave was not intentional, and players should be regaining control of their accounts by November 16th. One of the theories circling around points to the cause of this ban spree as an error in the security system of the game.

It was confirmed, though, that the ban spree was due to users using the Fast Catch Trick and catching large amounts of Pokemon in a short period. The company already expressed that the use of said ‘catch technique’ was not a viable cause for a ban, and will address this soon.

Could you imagine the time, energy and money @NianticLabs spent on trying to catch cheaters, if it was put towards bettering the game. It would be a even better game and less problems like this @MichaelSteranka

— Jason Cardinal (@JasonCardinal9) November 15, 2023

Users have taken it to X (formerly Twitter) and other social media platforms to complain about Niantic’s zeal regarding the control of its player base, which is mostly affecting legal players just trying to have fun.

We will keep you informed if Niantic launches an official communication, or compensation regarding the interruption of the service.

In the meantime, if you are looking forward to catching Cobalion, here’s the current Raid Schedule to mark the dates on your calendar. And here’s the Schedule for Spotlight Hours, so you don’t miss any chance to farm your favorite Pokemon.