I’ve done some more digging and the VGC DQs are happening in greater numbers due to TPCi doing storage box checks in addition to Battle Box checks (as opposed to only the latter being done) and hack checks seeing if any Pokémon that require a Home flag actually have ‘em.
So basically the bans are due to people not being smart about the PC storage and competitors using “Home-transferred” Pokémon that were actually injected into SV directly.
Some people are also considering not competing this coming season because of the harsher hack checks. There's only one way to describe the emotions I'm feeling in regards to that and it's in the form of this JonTron reaction...
The ending ceremony takes place in about 5 minutes, we'll see if anything new pops up then.
EDIT: Unite news appeared to be a recap of what was already revealed, TCG news revealed Paradox 'mons functioning in a similar manner to Team Plasma Pokémon (with Scarlet Paradox 'mons being labeled as Past Pokemon and Violet Paradox 'mons being labeled a Future Pokémon) coming in Paradox Rift and the return of ACE SPEC cards next year. Main game news included revealing that you can catch past starter Pokémon in The Indigo Disk, more information about Raging Bolt/Iron Crown, and teasing a new Tera Type that's more than likely associated with Terapagos. And finally next year's World Championships will be held in Honolulu people.
And yes, people are pointing out the irony/tone-deafness of announcing this after the recent Maui wildfires. They also immediately announced that they'll be donating 200k to a Maui wildfire relief fund seconds after posting the location announcement on Twitter.
I was thinking of getting a lost origin booster box and ETB but will just hold off.
I did see obsidian flames but thought it was out already because of how many people got cards early. Charizard cards feel like a forced meme with how many con artists of all stripes and actual money launderers flock to them and didn’t care for the Charmander on the ETB.
Those early cards were from prereleases, so they were sold early in the technical sense.
As far as people not caring about he Charmander ETB it's in part due to Obsidian Flames being a doo-doo set in terms of competitive viability and somewhat mediocre in terms of collectability. You're better off waiting for 151 when it's released in September or Paradox Rift which drops in November.
The Pokémon World Championship finished up the last of the VGC matches, and here are the winners for their games and respective divisions:
UNITE: Luminosity Gaming (US)
GO: ItsAXN (US)
TCG:
Juniors: Shao Tong Yen (TW)
Seniors: Gabriel Fernandez (BR)
Masters: Vance Kelley (US)
The TCG matches were all very exciting to see, even though I don't know a thing about the TCG.
VGC:
Juniors: Sora Ebisawa (JP)
Seniors: Tomoya Ogawa (JP)
Masters: Shohei Kimura (JP)
And Japan clean sweeps all three VGC divisions, in dominating fashion, and in their home country too.
Congratulations to our winners!
The TCG deck that won Masters was Mew VMAX (a deck I genuinely thought wouldn't do well at Worlds), Seniors was won by Lugia VSTAR (with an Archeops as the winner's Active Pokemon too, but the win was obtained via smart scooping), while Juniors was one by Lost Box (a deck that's really annoying but requires a lot of smart plays to do well with it
and to counter it).