Pokemon VGC pro permanently banned from official events

Alex Soto, popularly known as 'Len', is one of the biggest Spanish Pokemon VGC players. Unfortunately, his run with Pokemon VGC came to an end on February 14 with a permanent ban from Play! Pokemon events.

In a post on X, the player revealed that he received a permanent ban and will not be allowed in any official Play Pokemon competitions due to one of his earlier statements.

Reasoning for ban

This came after Soto made some online threats. In his previous statement, Soto said, “If I were banned again from any Pokemon, I would bomb TPCI”. He revealed that it was only meant to be a joke, as was a fairly common Spanish “meme”.

He then apologized, saying the joke came out wrong. Furthermore, he said that without context, it could easily be interpreted as an actual threat for those who do not know the meme.

“Secondly, I would like to emphasize that I am aware that the tweet was not correct and that as a professional player, I should have shown exemplary behaviour,” he further added. Several other players like Guillermo Kasty, Alex Gomez and Eduardo Cunha and many fans have stood up in his support. Soto has a huge presence in the VGC community with very positive fan opinion towards him.

They say that while his statement cannot be overlooked completely, a permanent ban was too harsh a punishment for a joke. A temporary ban with a warning should be the ideal thing to do here. Soto also said that he is doing his best to resolve the current situation. He is deeply dedicated to playing Pokemon VGC and asks for forgiveness from all the people he offended.

“If this situation is not resolved, unfortunately, I will have to stop playing Pokemon VGC, so I will not be able to attend any events that take place from today onwards, including the Hawaii World Cup which I was very excited to attend,” he said.