Why Chatot Is Banned In Competitive Pokemon

thegamer.com:

Some Pokemon are too powerful to be contained. As you’re exploring the RPGs, that’s usually Latias breaking out of your last Poke Ball or a shiny Abra teleporting to safety before you even get a chance to battle it properly. In the competitive scene, however, this manifests in bans.

Pokemon are banned for myriad reasons. Mega Rayquaza is too damn strong. Smeargle is banned purely because it can legitimately learn Dark Void, and Darkrai’s signature move is broken at a competitive level, rendering fights pointless as well as boring. Darkrai is obviously banned too. Caterpie was once banned because it knew String Shot, a move that could freeze the game at that point. But Chatot is neither incredibly powerful, nor can it learn a game breaking move. It can learn Chatter, though.

Related: Leak Culture Is Ruining Pokemon

Chatot’s ban stems all the way back to Diamond & Pearl, the games in which it was introduced. It came with its own mechanic, intended to show off the features of the Nintendo DS. If you used Chatter as a field move, you could use the DS’ microphone to record your own audio, which would play in battle when Chatot used the move. The louder you screamed, the higher the chance of Chatter confusing your opponent. I bet the parents loved that one.

This came with obvious problems. The noise that Chatter played was distorted, but with no way to review the audio Chatot had to be banned in online play in case someone had recorded inappropriate language. Chatter was banned for two generations, but the removal of the move’s signature ability meant that the Pokemon was allowed to be used online again. As an added bonus, Chatter is guaranteed to confuse your opponent, making it an incredibly annoying move to come up against.