Pokemon GO followers are outraged by the “embarrassing” choice to disqualify the winner of this yr’s Orlando Regional Championship following an allegedly unsportsmanlike celebration.
Firestar73 stood up, shortly eliminated his headphones, and celebrated his victory by pumping his fist within the air. He then crosses over to his opponent, nitetimeclasher, the place the 2 amicably shake fingers. See the second for your self within the embedded video beneath.
Nevertheless, inside hours of Firestar’s victory, it was revealed that it was Nighttime Crusher who had been awarded the victory as an alternative, leaving followers watching on-line shocked and since then calling for the choice to be reversed. Many individuals have been sharing the contact type on the Pokémon Firm’s web site, the place followers are inspired to specific their emotions.
Here’s a stay close-up of the headphones touching the desk. This have to be a call made by the upper ups to “carry consistency” to the decision based mostly on the incident that occurred the day earlier than (video of that’s right here…) pic.twitter.com/S3tzpgtWtW
— True Inferno at Orlando Regionals! (@TruInfernoPoGo) April 6, 2026
“It is a actually embarrassing verdict,” IPissExcellentThrows wrote on TheSilphRoad, a prime Pokémon GO fan reddit. “It is so egregious that you could’t assist however leap to the conclusion that it is corruption…This must be reversed. I really feel dangerous for the deserving winner, however I additionally really feel dangerous for anybody who may need some bizarre hate for one thing they did not do.”
“He was stripped of the win for taking his headphones off and fist pumping? I am not even going right here, however that is insane,” rainbowbrite517 added. “Then everybody shook fingers and bowed to one another. It is loopy.”
The Pokémon Firm has not publicly commented on this choice, contemplating precisely why this response counted as a disqualification, or acknowledged the rising unfavourable suggestions on-line about this whole incident. videogameaddicted has contacted the corporate for extra particulars.
Nighttime Crusher, who’s now Orlando’s official regional champion, has not commented publicly on social media and is believed to be obligated to just accept the victory per event guidelines. Nevertheless, unconfirmed screenshots obtained from Discord present the participant privately acknowledging that “Firestar is the Orlando Regional Champion” in response to constructive reactions from different followers.
As for Firestar himself, the disqualified athlete launched a brief message thanking followers for his or her assist, and promised {that a} full rationalization of his facet of the story would observe. “Hey everybody. I am very grateful for the assist proven to me,” Firestar wrote on Twitter/X. “I plan to current my expertise in a direct interview, so I’ll hyperlink to it as soon as it’s revealed. For now, please use the assist hyperlink even should you disagree with the decision. I really like you,<3>”
Some followers have famous a earlier disqualification on the identical occasion, albeit inside a Pokémon TCG match, the place a successful participant was disqualified for all of a sudden eradicating his headphones. Nevertheless, as others have talked about, this choice in all probability additionally took into consideration the participant standing up earlier than the tip of the flip, reasonably than after finishing a successful transfer, i.e. when the win is clear.
Nonetheless, not less than this time a Pokemon participant wasn’t disqualified for allegedly splashing poop, as was reported at an official UK event in 2012.
Tom Phillips is videogameaddicted’s information editor. You may contact Tom at tom_phillips@videogameaddicted.com or discover him on Bluesky. @tomphillipseg.bsky.social