Following the recent controversial decision at the Pokémon Orlando Regionals to strip Firestar73 of his regionals win, due to what was labelled as “unsportmanslike behaviour”, Play! Pokémon have finally issued a statement.
Here is the statement in full:
At the recent Pokémon Orlando Regionals, two instances of penalties being issued during streamed matches have created questions within the community about celebrations. Play! Pokémon has reviewed each instance, and we would like to provide more information.
In the first instance, during the Pokémon TCG Swiss Round 13 match, the tournament headphones were removed and were thrown onto the table on top of cards and damage counters, putting the TCG game state in disarray before additional game actions could be taken to complete the game. A Match Loss was issued for the disruption to the game state and not playing out the final sequence to finish the game.
In the second instance, during the Pokémon GO Grand Finals, we would like to share some information which may not be known to the broader community. Prior to the final game incident, during game one of the bracket reset series, a player was issued a Warning for the action of hitting and shaking the table during gameplay. Actions such as these can have a negative impact on the experience of participants and disturb the match in progress. Then, during game five, this same player’s behavior continued to be disruptive, including shaking the table to the point that there was a disruption to the broadcast experience. These repeated infractions resulted in a penalty that was escalated to Game Loss.
We will uphold the decisions made by the Judges at this event. Pokémon Judges are committed to bringing the best possible experience to our players by preserving the competitive integrity of our events. Without them and their commitment to Play! Pokémon, we would not be able to hold events, and it is our expectation that they are treated with the same respect as all people in the community.
In the moment of a win, emotions are high, and we recognize that these emotions can lead to energetic reactions celebrating a win. We want to support this authentic, positive reaction, and not discourage this excitement. Celebrations are not an issue, but actions that disrupt or can negatively impact competitive integrity can be.
We will continue to listen to the community of players and our Judges on how best to evolve our tournament system, rules, and how penalties are enforced.
The Play! Pokémon Team
Firestar73 has responded to this statement on X, stating “The “incident” you are now, for the first time, claiming was the basis of the decision did not affect the gameplay at all, yet decided the whole tournament. Section 2.1 requires a “clear explanation of any infraction and its penalty” and I was never given this as the basis at all”.
Makani, the Pokémon TCG player mentioned in the statement, has also added that “This community statement is not accurate. TWO separate head judges told me I was given a match loss for “throwing” my headset down and being “dangerous” Not a single judge told me I was given a game loss for disrupting the board. I didn’t even get to get a chance to appeal the ruling because your judges didn’t even tell me what the rule ruling was how is that okay?”.
Professor Rex, who was a judge for Play! Pokémon tournaments, questioned the ruling in the official Pokémon Professor Discord. Judges are not supposed to discuss or question the rulings, and as a result he has now been removed from the Discord and appears to have been stripped of his title as a Pokémon Professor.
The community response is still largely very unhappy with the decision, and the statement overall. Many are confused about the various rules mentioned given that both the players involved in the situations have made statements that contradict the rulings they were allegedly given.
Going forward it appears that this ruling means celebrations must be muted, taking off headsets or disrupting the game area post-game can and will be penalised, so players competing need to keep this in mind.
