Pokemon World Championships TCG Player Disqualified

Highlights

• A competitor at the 2024 Pokemon TCG World Championships was disqualified after a video of them cheating went viral.
• The player is shown secretly taking a card from their discard pile and adding it back to their hand, giving them an unfair advantage during the match.
• Despite the cheating scandal, The Pokemon Company gave fans reasons to be excited with “special news” said to be coming during the tournament’s conclusion.

A competitor at the ongoing 2024 Pokemon TCG World Championships was disqualified after footage surfaced showing the player cheating during one of their tournament matches. Alongside the global phenomenon of the video games in the long-running monster-catching franchise, the trading card game has seen equally astounding success throughout its life. Pokemon cards have become a hot commodity among fans and collectors, with some Pokemon cards selling for thousands of dollars. However, for many players, the game’s competitive scene serves as a highlight.

While the Pokemon TCG has a wealth of collectors looking to secure the game’s rarest cards, many players prefer the competitive side of the game. The ongoing 2024 Pokemon TCG Championships features the best Pokemon TCG players from around the globe, all conglomerating in Honolulu to see who will reign as world champion. Sunday’s final day will feature the championship matches across the game’s three “divisions” of play with the Junior, Senior, and Master finals. However, one player saw their tournament run come to an early end.

As reported by Dexerto, a video taken from the event showing a player cheating in one of their tournament matches has gone viral. The footage shows a match between competitors Luke Parkes and Carlos Eduardo Ruiz, where Ruiz can be seen taking a card from his discard pile and hiding it on his lap. The card would later be added to his hand, granting an unfair advantage to Ruiz during the Pokemon TCG match. Other users would later report that Ruiz had been disqualified from the tournament during a different match, though a reason for the DQ was not publicly known.

Pokemon TCG Player Caught Cheating at World Championships

The controversy behind the cheating scandal was not the only factor in many fans’ outrage about the incident online. During the match, Ruiz appears to be using a mat given to “Pokemon Professors,” a program run by The Pokemon Company to ensure fair play and proper adherence to the rules. Many fans called for Ruiz to receive a lifetime ban from Pokemon TCG tournaments, with a Mexican gaming organization associated with Ruiz also severing ties following the incident.

The scandal comes as a dark spot on a tournament that is expected to end with big news for the Pokemon franchise. The Pokemon Company recently announced that it will be revealing “special news” during the 2024 Pokemon World Championships on Sunday. Many have speculated that the studio may finally give fans a closer look at the upcoming Pokemon: Legends Z-A, while last year’s event revealed new Pokemon for Scarlet and Violet and Pokemon Unite. Fans should have plenty of reason to be excited about the conclusion of Pokemon‘s biggest competitive event of the year.