One Pokemon TCG World Champion has been accused of cheating while they participated in the Portland Regional Championships, but not all fans are convinced it was on purpose.
During the live battle between Kelley and Hugar, commentators got word that “Vance accidentally put aPower Tabletback in his deck,” which could not have been be recovered by Mew’s Psychic Leap. After a discussion, the judges then deliberated between themselves before awarding Hugar the match.
World Champion’s illegal blunder
Sharing thefootage on X, Pokemon TCG World invitee Brennan W noticed Kelly’s odd behavior after putting Power Tablet back in his deck along with Mew. He reveals that Kelley “begins to look nervous” after making the mistake, forcing the player to “want to give Vance the benefit of the doubt.” However, they also dub it as “unbelievable” proving just how split the community really is.
In this part of Vance’s game it looks like he puts a power tablet back in with his Mew and begins to look nervous afterward.Want to give Vance the benefit of the doubt but this is just unbelievableDon’t see anything on twitter about this yetpic.twitter.com/3JgWhV2pT1
Pokemon TCG fans were not impressed with the incident, with one fan commenting “Damn dude straight cheated on stream and didn’t get DQ’d that’s crazy”.
Nevertheless, some players jumped to Kelley’s defense explaining how they “talked with Vance at the airport. He said he was just playing too fast because there was not a lot of time left. Made a mistake.”
Given the high stakes and speed expected from players, the mistake was seen by many as a “sloppy mistake but understandable”.
No solidified verdict has been given by the judges or the players themselves, so it’s all down to the fans to decipher if they think Vance was cheating or just made a grave error that cost him the match.
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Andrés G. D. Vélez was a Pokémon reporter at Dexerto, covering the Trading Card Game, mainline games, Pokemon Go, and the wider fandom. Before joining the company, Andrés freelanced as a content writer and digital marketer.
