They're actually not hacking. Players have learned to manipulate the random number generator involved in creating shinies. Computers cannot create truly random numbers. That means your IVs, shinies, nature, etc. aren't actually random. They are all based off the time on your DS. By working backwards and reverse engineering this process, you can manipulate what you get by changing the time on your DS and then waiting a certain amount of frames to get a desired result.
The thing is, with this, people seem to do shiny Pokemon by default. And as a result of that + cloning, it seems shiny Pokemon are a lot more common than regular Pokemon. It sucks because shiny Pokemon are usually pretty ugly and players who don't know about the RNG and how it works usually think you're hacking -- causing a poorer experience for them as well as more disconnections. However, a lot of players just get Pokemon from people who enjoy breeding so that means they usually just take the shiny. After all, it can feel impolite to ask the person to do more work for you and get you a non-shiny one when a shiny is already available and does the same thing (This is exactly why I currently use a shiny Ferrothorn even though it looks like someone pissed on it).
As for your Snorlax, keep in mind that when a spread move hits your opponent and there are two Pokemon standing on their side of the field, it only hits for 75% power. That means the Earthquake had 75 Base Power and no STAB. Even with a Ground Gem and the Terrakion having 0 investment in its defenses, you cannot OHKO it:
252+ Atk Ground Gem Snorlax Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Terrakion: 136-162 (81.92 - 97.59%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (via Honkalculator)
The disconnections are the worst part. Some people just won't let you take the win and Nintendo can't even tell who did it -_- It's ridiculous. I've been lucky to get few disconnectors but others aren't so lucky. The matchmaking is also terrible. I've been ranked over 1800 and received opponents below 1300 before. Also, that rank is just your Elo. There are over 25,000 players who'll enter the rankings so I'd say at least 30,000 are playing.
By the way, some of your favourites are very god. Togekiss and Ludicolo are two favourites of many for use (I use Togekiss on my team!). Honchkrow could be workable and one of my friends built a cool team around Drifblim last year. Snorlax I really would love to make work but not sure on him. Requires the proper support!
That's bullshit. Don't blame your inactivity in competitive play due to a "lack of imagination." That's disingenuous to the creative players who do take part. It's especially a crappy thing to say considering you don't possess an ounce of the skill or creativity these players have.
I just published an article one of our players wrote on his team built around Rampardos. His loss in our tournament was to Wolfe, ranked 2nd in the world, using a team involving strategies with Delcatty, Gengar + Haunter, Gothitelle, and Disable Kingdra. He himself took 2nd at the World Championships using Exeggutor and brought to light how useful Skill Swap is. We also have players like Huy who uses things like this Ash team built around Pikachu and other Ash 'mons, the Choice Specs Gyarados team he took 9th in the World with (and revised version based on Skill Swap), and Shedinja which he used in an International Friendly against Japan and Korea.
Yes, the best Pokemon are undeniably Cresselia, Metagross, Thundurus, etc -- especially after Ray took the World Championships with them last year. And even then, his 2011 team showed the world the uses of Gothitelle and the Thundurus build that players use today.
These players are incredible strategists and though I really hope you've moved on from your days of saying "switching is cheap," I don't you're the right person to judge these players. If the metagame is stale, take advantage of it.
Misleading to say that it's not "trackable" and therefore unbanned. That -- with the line before it -- implies some sort of software touching the game and that is not the case.
The official word from Pokemon was that this was completely legal just as EV training specific stats and any other part of the game that is hidden to the user is.
These will definitely have fewer competitive players, yes.
Chansey and Blissey learn Skill Swap which is a great move on them. Did they by chance use that at some point in the match to take Magic Guard from a Reuniclus or Clefable or something like that? I've played in at least 500 battles over about a half dozen of these tournaments since 2011 and I've never played a hacked team. Well some were probably hacked but I've never played an illegal team.
