Moistcr1tikal Calls Pokemon Unite the Most “Pay-To-Win” Game He's Ever Seen

Twitch streamer and YouTuber Charlie ‘MoistCr1TiKaL’ White is known for his love for Pokemon and he does not shy away from spending tens of thousands of dollars on the franchise’s trading cards. However, the new Pokemon Unite MOBA did not sit well with the content creator with MoistCr1TiKaL calling it the most pay-to-win game he's ever seen. He went on to explain in a video about how he managed to level up his items by paying money while he struggled to do so when playing without spending any money. He is not pleased with the game’s monetization system and it remains to be seen if any changes are made to the current in-game shop.

What Moistcr1tikal thinks about the current monetization model in Pokemon Unite

Pokemon Unite features an in-game store where you can buy cosmetics and Pokemon Licenses. Pokemon Licenses can also be purchased using in-game currency that players can earn from daily challenges and by completing the tutorial. All of this sounds normal when you compare it to other MOBAs like League of Legends. However, the one thing Moistcr1tikal takes issue with is the sale of item upgrades. While item upgrades can by unlocked by playing the game, he noticed that paying for these permanent upgrades is just much faster.

While in theory anyone who plays the game without spending any money can unlock all item upgrades eventually, it will take you significantly more time which can feel frustrating and unfair. MoistCr1TiKaL feels that it is a bad system because “you can actually just buy an extremely huge advantage over people who don’t pay. That’s crazy… this is legitimately pay-to-win.”

He explained his stance on the game talking about how he was able to upgrade an item just twice in eight hours of playtime but after spending about $100 on the game, he upgraded his items instantly and was able to steamroll through his opponents. He also sarcastically commented on how players can purchase only 50 of these upgrades at a time stating, "They need to think of the whales, like I imagine that a lot of whales here like me here are going to get really tired of doing this and just stop and they're actually going to play your game instead of pay for it."

It remains to be seen if the monetization system is changed over time by the developers. If the gap between the amount of time taken to grind out item upgrades and directly purchasing them is too high, it will feel unfair for players who spend little or no money on the game and inherently make it a pay-to-win game.