Summary
- Surprising turn of events at Pokemon TCG World Championships as Fernando Cifuentes clinches the title over favored players in controversial match.
- Ian Robb's unsportsmanlike conduct leads to retroactive game loss, propelling Cifuentes to victory despite previous elimination from tournament.
- Cifuentes' win showcases skill and determination in face of controversy, highlighting growth of competitive Pokemon community over the years.
This year’s Pokemon TCG World Championships, hosted last weekend in Honolulu, Hawaii, featured two major storylines. First was Jesse Parker, who swept the competition during the Swiss rounds and went on to achꦓieve an incredible 12-0 win streak, entering the Top 8 as the undefeated number one seed. Second was Ian Robb, a lifelong player who’d competed at the last Pokemon WCS hosted in Hawaii 12 years ago, finishing in second place in the Junior Division. After winning both of their Top Eight matches, Parker and Robb were scheduled to play against each꧒ other in the Top Four - a showdown that would see one storyline end in defeat, and the other move onto the grand finals for a shot at ultimate glory.
Unbelievably, neither player ended up playing in the grand finals, and the winner of the final match - 2024’s Pokemon World Champion - was Fernando Cifuentes, the player who was eliminated from the tournament in the Top Eight by꧟ Ian Robb. This shocking turn of events was the result of a penalty incurred by Robb after his match against Cifuentes when Robb, having just 2-0’d Cifuentes’ much-maligned Iron꧂ Thorns ex deck, turned towards the audience and .
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The judges ruled it unsportsmanlike conduct, which comes with the penalty of an automatic game loss. Despite winning the match, Robb was eliminated from the tournament in the Top Eight, allowing Cifuentes to move on, defeat Parker in the Top Four, and go on to defeat Seinosuke Shiokawa in the Grand Finals, becoming this year's surprise Pokemon World Champion.
As judge calls go, this may be one of the most controversial in TCG his🍌tory. Every aspect of the ruling has been scrutinized, from the ruling itself (the distinction between is very much open to judge interpretation) to the actual intention of Robb’s gesture.
Some have argued that Robb was making the gesture for rolling dice to communicate his ‘high roll’ in the match, i.e., drawing the optimum cards. He could also have been making a dice roll gesture to deride Cifuentes’ deck, which relies on coin-flip strategy (Crushing Hammer) which takes the form of a dice roll. In a statement provided to TheGamer, TPCi only says, “Ian Robb has been issued a match loss for unsportsmanlike conduct.” No matter what he meant by the gesture, it's hard to deny what it looked like on stream in front of tens of thousands of fans.
Pro Pokemon TCG player and content creator and that R𝕴obb admitted to him that the gesture was a “BM” (bad manners)🍸.
What’s most controversial, of course, is the ruling itself. Rather than disqualify Robb or give him a game loss for his upcoming To𝓀p Four match against Parker, the꧙ judges decided instead to give him a retroactive game loss, effectively reversing the outcome and giving Cifuentes the ability to move forward top the Top Four instead, despite having already been eliminated from the tournament.
It’s difficult to understand how a decision to rev𝓀erse the outcome of Robb and Cifuentes’ match protects the integrity of the tournament more than giving Parker a free win in the Top Four, which has led to speculation that TPCi was prioritizing its need for programing (as the both Top Four matches were scheduled to play out in full on the official Pokemon WCS stream) rather than the integrity of the tournament. We’ve reached out to TPCi for comment on whether or not programming was a consideration in the ruling, but have not yet received 🥀a response.
It’s hard not to imagine what could have been. Robb had an incredible comeback story in the making as he climbed his way back to the Hawaiian finals for the second time, while Parker was on a historic 13-0 win streak going into the Top Four, setting himself up to be an undefeated World Champion. The two were destined to face off, but instead, Cifuentes was given a second chance and made the most of it. His Iron Thorns ex deck, a somewhat-memey control deck th🌟at locks down the opponent’s Pokemon’s abilities and slowly drains their resources until they have no way to win, ended up being an incredibly potent counter to Parker’s Maraidon deck. All things considered, it’s easy to understand why people feel like the integrity of the tournament was compromised by this ruling.
There’s no taking away from Cifuentes' win, however. Whether you disagree with the judge’s ruling or have strong feelings about the Iron Thorns ex deck (you’re not alone), the fact remains that Cifuentes bested his opponents and earned his top prize. If you watched his nail-biting match against Shiokawa in the finals, there’s no doubt that Cifuentes is an incredibly skilled player who deserves his champion title. Some have suggested that Cifuentes should have forfeited to Parker, but any true competitor would take the opportunities they’ve been given and make the most of it, and that’s exactly what Cifuentes did.
Much like last year’s Pokemon World Championship, where VGC players caught with hacked Pokemon were banned from competing, it seems like TPCi wanted to make an example of Robb. Being back in Hawaii after 12 years was a good reminder of how far competitive 🍰Pokemon has come. In 2012, Pokemon Worlds featured just a few dozen competitors and was hosted at the Hilton Resort. This year’s event saw more than 14,000 attendees from over 50 countri﷽es filling up the Hawaii convention center.
Pokemon TCG is a massive game with hundreds of thousands of eyes on it, and inappropriate behavior, even something as seemingly innocent as a lewd hand gesture, simply can’t be tolerated. This was a lesson that the competitive Pokemon community won’t soon forget. And, as heartbreaking as an outcome as this must be for Robb, he’d already waited 12 years to finish his story in Hawaii; now no one in the entire Pokemon TCG community has moꦡre to prove than him.
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