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Many sports have rules in place that bar you from taunting opponents or celebrating in a way that has the potential to make tempers flare. That apparently includes the world of competitive Pokémon Go, and we were treated to a controversy during a tournament in Florida where the player who won was disqualified over what seemed to be a pretty reasonable reaction to his victory.
It’s hard to believe it’s been close to a decade since Pokémom Go was unleashed upon an unsuspecting world it quickly took by storm. The fervor surrounding the augmented reality game has died down since reaching a fever pitch in the immediate wake of its release in July of 2016, but it still has a very dedicated base of approximately five million daily players.
Most of them are recreational users who get some steps in while engaging in their quest to catch ’em all, but there are also plenty of serious trainers who put a ton of time and effort into building a team they can enter in sanctioned competitions.
That includes a tournament that was recently held in Florida, which was marred by controversy after the judges overseeing it issued a ruling that led to the winner losing the title that their own opponent agreed he should have been allowed to keep.
A competitive Pokémon Go player was DQ’d over a very questionable “excessive celebration” ruling
I’ll admit I’m not intimately familiar with Pokémon Go competitions, and if you’re in the same boat, you should know they feature two players going head-to-head in battles where they’re permitted to pick from the six creatures they’ve assembled on their team.
A number of those clashes unfolded at the Orlando Regional Championships, which kicked off on April 3rd and wrapped up on the 5th.
The tournament culminated with the championship showdown between two Pokémon Go players known as “NiteTimeClasher” (real name Eric Wang) and “Firestar73” (Aaron Kaplan), the second of whom earned his spot in the title match by surviving a gauntlet through the losers’ bracket.
Kaplan headed into the best-of-five faceoff in search of his first tournament win after coming up short in his first ten tries, and it appeared he had clinched it by winning the fifth battle before ripping off his headset in relief and pumping his fists prior to shaking hands with his vanquished foe.
However, according to IGN, things took an unexpected turn a few hours after the match, as fans discovered Wang had been listed as the official winner after the judges seemingly determined Kaplan’s decision to throw down his headphones was an “unsportsmanlike” act that justified him being stripped of the title.
After a long loser’s bracket run, @Firestar73_ wins a decisive game 5 to win the Orlando Regional Championship. Allegedly this celebration was unsportsmanlike, resulting in a game loss and giving NTC The win. I’m at a loss for words, I feel so bad for firestar. pic.twitter.com/72l1RJO31v
— AXN (@ItsAXN) April 5, 2026
It appeared the ruling stemmed from one that had previously been issued during a physical TCG battle between Cerys Jones and Makani Tran, the latter of whom was dinged for throwing down his headseat and getting up from the table before he officially played what would have been the winning hand.
The outlet notes Wang expressed his disagreement with the decision on Discord while proclaiming “Firestar is the Orlando regional champion,” but it does not appear officials have changed the ruling.
Kaplan issued a statement asking his supporters to reach out to The Pokémon Company to express their displeasure and said he would be sharing more thoughts on the matter in an as-of-yet unreleased interview.