The Guiness World Record holder’s favourite Pokémon was deleted.
Niantic have restored the Pokémon GO account of prominent player Fleeceking after his account was hacked yesterday.
Fleeceking is one of the most popular Pokémon GO players. He holds a Guinness World Record for being the first ever Pokémon GO player to hit Level 50 in the game.
Fleeceking's Pokémon GO account hacked
A video emerged online on Wednesday, March 13 showing footage from Fleeceking's Pokémon GO account. In the video, which was clearly his account, the hacker deleted a 100% IV, best buddy, shiny Mareep.
But, why was this Pokémon targeted for deletion? While you might not think this Pokémon carries mush significance, to Fleeceking it does.
This particular Mareep was Fleecekings favourite Pokémon. Therefore, deleting it was a major insult to one of the most popular Pokémon GO players.
The hacker, using the name 'MasterWarlord01' openly taunted both Fleeceking and Niantic. The video was posted with the message, "Why be a king when you can be a god. Niantic you servers are sh*t #PokemonGo."
Supposedly, Fleeceking's account was hacked via Niantic themselves. It was suggested on social media that the hacker was able to use their support channels to pretend to own the account. Submitting falsified evidence to tell support they lost access to their account and asking for the details to be changed.
This is unconfirmed however, but if there is some sort of exploit, we might see future hacking incidents in person.
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Niantic restore Fleeceking's account
However, Niantic have been able to take action to restore the account. Fleeceking announced his hacked account had been returned to him.
While he hasn't been able to share the details of how his account was hacked or exactly how it was fixed it is a positive step that it has been resolved.
We do know that the iconic 'shundo' Mareep has also been restored. Fleeceking can be seen in game with his buddy restored. Niantic publicly restoring a deleted Pokémon might increase calls for more help in the future.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest esports news and more Pokémon GO updates.