The current competition scene in Pokémon Sword & Shield is having an issue - a big one.
Some players have discovered an exploit that allows them to cheat in online battles and cause huge problems for their opponents in the process.
As discovered by some players and posted on ResetEra, the exploit pertains to the Nintendo Switch console itself. Specifically, players are pressing the power button on their consoles at the right moment after losing an online battle, thus tricking their game into not calculating the score and basically not making the battle count. To make matters even worse however, the player who isn't even performing the exploit will not get their victory points. In other words, the battle does not count - the loser doesn't lose any points, and the winner doesn't earn any points.
The whole situation is a massive waste of time because the battle does not register at all, and as more players find out about the exploit, the higher the chances of it being used in the near future become. As for players who put in a significant amount of time and effort crafting a proper Pokémon team for online battles, this can be seen as especially annoying because their efforts are producing minimal results.
This disconnection trick isn't exactly new when it comes to games that have a competitive aspect. Quitting the game at the right moment, whether it is completely shutting down the console or disconnecting oneself from the internet, has been a known exploit for many years across a variety of games. Some players take losses too seriously and because of that, do not want that loss to register on their record. As such, them finding various methods to not make the game register the loss can't be seen as too surprising.
On the bright side, online competitions for Pokémon Sword & Shield are taken pretty seriously, so it's fair to say that Game Freak will find a solution to the problem. In the meantime, it would be best to completely avoid online battles in order to not deal with the exploit and the people who abuse it.
Source: Destructoid, ResetEra