Pokémon TCG community rally behind disqualified player after pronoun mishap

A Pokémon player has been left shaken up after getting disqualified and kicked out of the Charlotte Pokémon TCG regional over an alleged miscommunication.

Makani Tran recently took to Twitter to share their experience at the Charlotte Regionals over the weekend, getting very emotional about what had taken place. According to his TwitLonger, Tran felt wrongly disqualified from the tournament due to a judge allegedly mistaking his nervousness for offensive behavior.

Tran was set to compete on stream against one of America's best players, Alex Schemanske, a pretty nerve-wracking situation for a younger player. Like previous regionals, judges asked for each players' pronouns so they could include them on screen and also have the commentators properly identify them.

According to Tran, he nervously fumbled over his pronouns, starting to laugh after he forgot the word "his." When asked to confirm his pronouns just before the stream began, Tran repeated "he and him," laughing again out of nervousness.

"The little laugh at the end was because I was trying not to be awkward and because I was just stating the exact thing Alex had just stated and it was kind of silly to me in that scenario," he wrote.

The judge, however, appeared to think Tran was mocking the use of pronouns. They apparently told Tran that they go by "they" and told him "not to be a jerk about it." Pretty soon into the match, Tran and Schemanske were pulled off the stage and informed that another pair would be on stream instead.

Tran thought it was a deck error at first but soon found out it was because of his previous behavior while saying his pronouns. Tran stated that he stayed calm and tried to explain what he had actually meant, but the head judge then informed him that he had been disqualified.

After reading his emotional TwitLonger, where Tran admitted to bawling his eyes out over the uncomfortable and disheartening situation, many Pokémon players came forward in his defense.

This includes Schemanske himself, who had witnessed most of what had went down. He stated that Tran shouldn't have been disqualified but also stated that the judge may have viewed the interaction differently.

"Remember, y'all. This isn't an excuse to attack inclusivity [and] people's identity," he added.

One player asked Schemanske if Tran's behavior could have truly come off as offensive. He responded that his tone and speech patterns could have been seen as offensive but, knowing Tran, Schemanske said that he knew the young player didn't mean any harm and had no "malicious intent."

Meanwhile, Tran admitted that the situation left him shaken up to the extent where he revisited past suicidal feelings. At the time, he felt everything had been "stolen" from him and wrote that he didn't feel listened to at all.

Tran wrote: "The way I was treated made me feel so upset and treated so unfairly that I was nearly running into the middle of the road and getting ran over. I wanted it all to be over, I was just done with everything there was no point of anything for me. My dream of winning a regional with my own deck with my deck I had put so much time and work into, was just taken from me. I missed school I lost hundreds of dollars traveled across the country for what? Nothing, it was all for nothing. I'm being completely honest with everyone when I say have never been this upset in my entire life."

While it's still unclear what happened exactly between Tran and the judge, the handling of the situation is what has had many Pokémon players frustrated. This is not the first time that the staff at a regional has been called out for being inconsistent in their treatment of players.

From improperly dealing with players with disabilities to being accused of transphobic behavior, Pokémon TCG players are calling on the Pokémon Company to acknowledge the ongoing problems with judges and other staff at regionals.