UK VGC Champion Loses Title After Hotel Feces Incident

Update (Sunday, 10:00 AM): Ryu Shoji from our forums has a few more details about the incident. | Catching up on this week’s news with today’s news stories! Sorry for the delays – been busy with school.

The United Kingdom’s Video Game Championship took place last Saturday: Ruben Puig Lecegui was crowned winner of the Masters Division for his second year in a row. However, following the event, he was stripped of his title after allegations of hotel vandalism surfaced.

According to several eyewitness accounts, the night before his win, he and members of his team placed their own feces in the hallway of the hotel they and other Pokemon players were staying at. The police were called in to escort the players out of the hotel and they were forced to pay fines. The manager of Play! Pokemon, Dave Schwimmer, commented on the incident as follows:

The Pokemon Company International expects its players to maintain high standards of behaviour conducive to the family-friendly environment that we foster. The Pokemon Company International conducts full investigations into any matters where we believe that a player has failed to maintain these standards, and take appropriate action when necessary. In this case, we have found that unacceptable behaviour did take place, and have taken the appropriate steps in response.

The winner of the event is now listed as Ben Kyriakou, the original runner-up (the third and fourth place winners were also bumped up). There is also one less slot for the Masters Division compared to the other divisions since Lecegui’s slot was deleted. It is clear from this incident that TPCi does not take to such inappropriate behavior so lightly, whether at actual Pokemon events or not, and hopefully this will serve as a lesson to all players in the future.