INDIGO PLATEAU — An independent investigation has confirmed that high-level administrators at the Pokémon League conspired to suppress research that showed Pokémon battling could lead to long-term neurological trauma.
“It is clear that the league intentionally directed internal teams not to pursue research that could hurt the popularity of their sport,” said Pallet Town’s Professor Oak at a press conference. “They also had a chilling effect on independent scientists by threatening legal action and offering bribes, both direct and indirect. My colleague Professor Kukui recently finished a paper showing that successive critical hits have a compounding effect on a Pokémon’s cognitive ability. Then the league approached him with an offer to expand into Alola. That paper was never published.”
Pokémon League representatives deny the report’s claims.
“The health of our trainers’ Pokémon is and always has been our primary concern,” said Charles Goodshow, head of the league’s competition committee. “Why do you think we set up all those Pokémon centers around the world? Do you think it’s cheap to support a vast network of free healthcare facilities that instantly heal all of a Pokémon’s physical wounds so that they can get right back into the fight? Of course it isn’t, but it’s a price we’re willing to pay so that the show can go on.”
Many trainers across the world were both unsurprised and unconcerned with the findings in the report.
“It seems pretty obvious to me that some of these moves would have lasting effects,” said Ethan Silver, a champion trainer from the Johto region. “Even things like Headbutt would clearly be a concussion risk, and that’s to say nothing of moves where Pokémon wield immense elemental powers as though they were gods. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, though. These creatures may be shortening their lives, but they’re trading that for a chance to be immortalized in the Pokémon League Hall of Fame. That seems worth the risk to me.”
At press time, newly released television ratings for the Pokémon League showed that the report had no effect on viewership.
