The Pokemon Center May Have Finally Sorted Its Anti-Bot Protection Out Following Latest Prismatic Evolutions TCG Drop

Summary

• Pokemon TCG products have been difficult to obtain due to scalpers profiting.
• Recent drops saw long queues and errors on The Pokemon Center website, hindering average collectors.
• A recent drop of Prismatic Evolutions Elite Trainer Boxes had a much smoother process, indicating improved anti-bot protection.

The Pokemon Trading Card Game has been in a bad place for a while now. Earlier this year, I reported that cards were spiking in price and products were becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. It's only gotten worse since then.

With The Pokemon Company releasing more desirable products like the Prismatic Evolutions Super Premium Collection, things have become more profitable for scalpers, and therefore, they've been harder to get hold of for the average collector.

Pokemon TCG: The Best Prismatic Evolutions Products, Ranked

These are the best Prismatic Evolution products to prioritize.

Recent drops from the Black Bolt and White Flare, Destined Rivals, Journey Together, and Prismatic Evolutions expansions have seen hours-long queues, multiple errors, and hundreds of scalpers ruin the buying experience on The Pokemon Center website.

However, the tide could be turning. Last night, Pokemon dropped another wave of Prismatic Evolutions Elite Trainer Boxes, and the process was surprisingly smooth.

The Pokemon Company May Have Finally Figured Out The Pokemon Center's Anti-Bot Protection

I'm going to start with a personal anecdote. In previous drops, I've been at the front of the line, sat there for four (!) hours, and still not managed to get my hands on the product due to multiple errors. Last night was a very different experience. I didn't realise a queue was up until 45 minutes after the alerts had been doing the rounds. This would normally be fatal. Determined, though, I pressed pause on The Last of Us and trudged upstairs to my PC, expecting to spend my night staring at that damned Pikachu. That wasn't to be.

As I hunkered down, I picked up my phone and doomscrolled for a bit. After five minutes, I decided to look up, and to my surprise, the queue had already passed. I threw an ETB in my basket and checked it out with ease. The hardest part was navigating the anti-bot restrictions at the start, and I think The Pokemon Company may have finally got it right.

I spoke to dozens of other Pokemon TCG collectors on Discord, and they all faced similarly positive experiences. The sentiment also seems the same in online forums.

The Pokemon Company's crackdown may extend to existing orders placed by scalpers, too, with unconfirmed reports that those who placed multiple orders are having them canceled.

Pokemon itself isn't the only one cracking down on scalpers, either. After trouble in many of its stores, GameStop has officially confirmed that it is limiting Destined Rivals purchases to one unit per SKU per customer to "help ensure more fans receive the opportunity to access the latest expansion."

It seems like, finally, the hobby may start returning to normal, at least to some extent.

Pokemon TCG