Three top VGC players, including 2024 world champion Luca Ceribelli, say they were “banned” from the 2026 Pokemon World Championships after security confiscated their passes over a Pokemon Center line dispute.
Ceribelli, Ruben Gianzini, and Luca Lussignoli had all qualified to compete at Worlds in San Francisco. Each player also appears on the official event roster with a team successfully submitted.
The tournament is being held from August 28 to August 30 and marks the first Pokemon World Championships where VGC battles are being played through Pokemon Champions.
Ceribelli previously won the Masters Division at the 2024 Pokemon World Championships, but the dispute prevented him from pursuing a second title.
Security reportedly promised replacement passes
In a statement shared through his X account, Ceribelli explained that the incident began when he and Lussignoli allowed Gianzini to join them in the Pokemon Center line.
Ceribelli said Gianzini has a documented disability that makes crowded spaces severely uncomfortable and had not received the accommodation he had been given at previous events.
The former champion admitted that allowing him into the line was a “fault of ours” and did not dispute security’s decision to bar the group from entering the Pokemon Center.
According to Ceribelli, the larger problem began when security confiscated their event passes to ensure they could not return to the store. He alleges they were repeatedly assured that the passes could be reprinted before competition began the following day.
However, when the players attempted to obtain replacements, they were reportedly told that passes confiscated by staff could not be reprinted.
Ceribelli said this ended up “effectively turning the decision into a ban from the event itself,” as none of the three could enter the venue without their passes.
Lussignoli also shared the statement, describing it as an explanation of their alleged “ban from the venue.”
Ceribelli said on-site staff subsequently told the group that nothing could be done to return or replace their passes. He described losing the opportunity to compete at Worlds as “soul crushing” and questioned whether he would feel able to compete again following the incident.
It remains unclear whether venue security, Pokemon Center staff, or The Pokemon Company made the final decision preventing the players from entering. The Pokemon Company has not publicly responded to the trio’s account at the time of writing.
