On Oct. 15, VGC player Brian Collins made a post on Twitter sharing two of the Pokémon in his championship team: an Armarouge called ‘Linguini’ and a Gallade sharing the name of another ‘mon, ‘Ceruledge’. This was Collins making a little joke with his team, but he’d made a big error.
Unbeknownst to the rising player, it is illegal to name one Pokémon after another. This meant not just losing a team member for the rest of the event, but also forcing an early automatic loss onto Collins.
He took it in his stride, even amused to have lost both his team member and game over the rule. “They took away my Gallade and gave me a game loss for the nickname. Hope all the rule sharks in my replies are happy. They stay trying to keep psyspam teams down”, he tweeted.
Not only did he find light in the situation, but even with the loss, Collins made it into the top cut with just five Pokémon to his name. Fans have celebrated his performance as a “flex” thanks to reaching the top without a full team.
Collins expressed excitement to face his friend and rival Raghav Malaviya in his first top eight battle. Their teams had interesting dynamics between each other with Collins’ Trick Room setup facing off against Malaviya’s bulky monsters, but Malaviya took the win with a 2-1 victory. Collins is still thrilled to celebrate his run in the tournament as well as celebrate that of Malaviya.
Anything can happen during the months of the VGC, but fans are unlikely to forget about a man losing a Pokémon from his team to a nickname and still making it to the end, finishing 7th place overall in the Sacramento regionals with a team of five.
View the match with Malaviya, time-stamped here.
