One year ago, the then 17-year-old Makani Tran made headlines worldwide in the gaming scene. He had flown 4 hours to a tournament in the trading card game Pokémon, but was disqualified for laughing when asked about his preferred pronouns.
That was the news back then: We reported the bizarre incident on MeinMMO on March 31, 2023:
- The 17-year-old Makani Tran had qualified for the regional championships in the trading card game Pokémon.
- He had to fly 4 hours to Charlotte to compete against other trainers. The flight and hotel cost the young man $800. For the student, that was a lot of money. Until then, he hadn’t earned a cent with Pokémon.
- The tournament was going well for him, so the excitement was even greater when he was excluded from the tournament. And for a reason that many found incomprehensible.
Pokémon is a serious competition:
The young man was nervous and couldn’t think of a darned pronoun
Why was he disqualified? During the tournament, the referee asked him which pronouns he preferred to be addressed with so that he could be referred to with the pronouns of his choice during a live-streamed game.
But the young player said: “Uh, he or him or um …” – he simply couldn’t think of the third pronoun “his.” He stood there and ultimately laughed nervously.
The referee took the laughter the wrong way. The referee said he preferred the gender-neutral pronouns “They/them” himself, and that Makani shouldn’t be a jerk for that.
17-year-old disqualified for violating inclusion rules
Shortly thereafter, Makani Tran was asked again about the incident, regarding what he had answered and the tone in which he had spoken.
Ultimately, he was excluded from the tournament by the head referee for violating “the inclusion rules.”
The player was completely devastated by the news. He insisted he had done nothing wrong, now wasted the big opportunity, and lost a lot of money. But the referee remained firm.
Makani was out.
Young trainer drawn into a culture war
What waves did this cause? The story made quite an impact in the USA and was picked up by national news outlets.
Especially for the conservative press, such as Fox News, this story was a goldmine. The mention of preferred pronouns is a contentious issue for many in the USA.
Makani Tran himself found the whirlwind too much. He felt uncomfortable being drawn into the “culture war” in the USA.
5 times more donations than desired
How is the young man doing today? The whole uproar had something good for Makani Tran. Through a “GoFundMe“, 339 donations came in to reimburse the young man for his travel expenses. The goal was to raise $1,500, but a total of $7,602 was raised for Makani Tran: There were some donations over $100. Two anonymous donors even contributed $500 to the cause.
Thus, the trip was at least a financial success in hindsight.
The first prize money in Pokémon has now also arrived
The Pokémon career also took off. In January 2024, he participated in two tournaments that offered prize money (via liquipedia):
- At the Regional Championships in Portland, he finished 5th-8th and earned $3,000.
- At the tournament in Charlotte, where he had been so shamefully disqualified a year earlier, he placed 9th-16th and won $2,000.
The tournaments then proceeded as Makani Tran had wished, without any national headlines. It was all about Pokémon.
More stories from eSports: What happened to the 15-year-old whose mother took him out of school so he would have more time for Fortnite?
