Two weeks after a professional player’s tournament victory in Pokémon GO was taken away due to seemingly “incorrect” celebration, Pokémon has released a statement: He did not celebrate incorrectly, but was disqualified for another reason.
Why was the professional’s victory revoked? At the Pokémon GO Regional Championships in Orlando, the actual winner of the final match, Firestar73, had his victory revoked due to “unsportsmanlike behavior.” Without further explanation from the judges, the player, other colleagues, and the community suspected that he had placed his headset down too hard, but did not see this as a sufficient reason.
After Firestar73 issued his own statement, the Play! Pokémon team also commented on the official website about the incident. It can be inferred from their statement that his celebration had nothing to do with the decision, but rather a wobbly table.
“So nobody is happy, great!”
How did a wobbly table lead to disqualification? In the statement from Play! Pokémon, it is mentioned that “a player” (referring to Firestar73) was already warned during the finals of Pokémon GO before the last match. During the first game of the knockout round, he received a warning for “banging on the table and shaking it” during the game.
The Reddit user matt2312 took a closer look at the recording on YouTube and found the moment at 7:20:30 as a possible time.
According to Play! Pokémon, such actions negatively affect the participants’ gaming experience and disturb the flow of the game, which is why the first warning was issued.
During the fifth and final match, he continued this behavior, which allegedly even affected the broadcast. For this reason, the violations led to a penalty that ultimately escalated to a game loss.
Here, too, matt2312 mentions a possible time in the video, namely at 7:39:10.
Play! Pokémon concludes in their statement:
We will respect the referees’ decisions at this event. The Pokémon referees are committed to providing our players with the best possible experience by maintaining the competitive integrity of our events. Without them and their dedication to Play! Pokémon, we wouldn’t be able to hold events, and we expect them to be treated with the same respect as all other community members.
In the moment of victory, emotions run high, and we are aware that these emotions can lead to lively reactions to celebrate a win. We want to support this authentic, positive reaction and not dampen that enthusiasm. Celebrating is not the problem, but actions that disturb or negatively affect competitive integrity can be.
We will continue to listen to the player community and our referees to best develop our tournament system, rules, and enforcement of penalties.
Play! Pokémon on community.pokemon.com
How does the community react to this statement? The community on Reddit is not satisfied with a wobbly table being the reason for the eventual game loss. They can not only not comprehend why the team needed two weeks to explain the decision. Furthermore, the outcome, where no one involved leaves this drama satisfied, is simply disappointing.
- “The slightest wobble in the history of table wobbling. Really disappointing,” writes h_ll_w.
- “I am a confessed PVP hater, but uh, tapping on the phone is a game mechanic, and they don’t expect the table to wobble?” wonders deadtoddler420.
- “This is the worst – now we have an angry community, a player who should have won but didn’t, and a winner who has achieved a worthless victory. So nobody is happy, great!” summarizes axolotlpaw.
The judges’ decision at the time not only confused and disappointed Firestar73 and the community, but also the actual second-placed player, who accordingly moved up in the tournament: Player lost his tournament victory in Pokémon GO because he celebrated incorrectly, even his opponent is on his side
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