A Pokemon TCG champion who made it to the Grand Final of a regional championships match ended up having to forfeit due to a simple mistake. Thankfully, not everything about the story is upsetting, as the Pokemon TCG player will still move on to the Pokemon World Championships.
Pokemon TCG matches are fun, and plenty of players participate in them all over the world. However, official tournament matches for Pokemon TCG can be an entirely different matter. These tournaments can include many matches spanning hours of the day, and have very strict rules, like requiring any dice used to be six-sided with rounded corners. Unfortunately, one such rule ended up leading to this particular match ending in disaster for one competitor.
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Pokemon TCG Regional Championships Ends Due to Small Mistake
During the second and final day of the Pokemon Pittsburgh Regional Championships, one of the two final competitors ended up dropping out due to having an incorrect number of cards in his Pokemon TCG deck. Competitors Abaan Ahmed and Liam Halliburton went face-to-face in the Grand Final, but the problems began when the judges paused the match to do a deck recount. They then discovered that instead of the mandatory 60 cards, Ahmed only had 59 in his deck.
It would seem that the problem began during Ahmed's prior match, where he was playing against Calvin Connor. After winning the match, Ahmed took his headset off, and in his excitement, knocked his Munkidori card onto Connor's side. The two competitors had been using the same deck, so as Connor was cleaning up, he picked it up, believing it was one of his own cards. It seems Ahmed then went on to use the same deck without checking it in the Grand Final. Tournament rules require players to use exactly 60 cards in their deck. Rather than protesting, Ahmed forfeited the match, with the regional title going to his competitor Halliburton.
Thankfully, it's not all bad news. Although Ahmed failed to secure the win at the Pittsburg Regional, his prior wins have already secured him a spot in the upcoming Pokemon TCG World Championship, which will be held in August 2026, in San Francisco, California. Chances are that Ahmed will be more cautious about the cards in his deck going forward. If nothing else, at least this moment transpired prior to him participating in the World Championship, where getting so far only to lose due to an accidental technicality likely would have been devastating.
- Franchise
- Pokemon
- Original Release Date
- October 20, 1996