Abstract:
Donghun Youm, a player who won the 2023 Pokémon Milwaukee VGC Regional Championship, recently tweeted to share his bizarre experience while participating in the Baltimore Regional Championship. During the competition, a contestant next to him emitted a strong odor. The pungent smell caused him to have a strong physiological reaction and made him vomit. His friends who were participating in the competition were also affected by the smell and could not concentrate on the game. The group complained to the referee on this matter.
Donghun Youm did not disclose the identity of the players involved, nor did he disclose the referee's subsequent handling. His post mainly called on players participating in offline events to pay attention to personal hygiene. He later clarified that the players involved were participants in the VGC electronic game project, not the card project.
The incident spread rapidly on overseas social platforms, triggering a large number of discussions and memes among players. Many players thought of Pokémon with stinky characteristics such as Pokémon "Stinky Mud" and "Double Bomb Gas", and joked that this was a real-life version of the smell interference tactic.
Similar hygiene problems are no longer an isolated case in board games and offline e-sports arenas. Previously, professional player Cosmos of "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" encountered body odor problems in the arena and needed to temporarily find deodorizing products. There have also been cases in "Yu-Gi-Oh" offline competitions where players left the venue early because they could not bear the smell, and some event organizers even suspended local events due to players' hygiene-related issues.
Offline events require players to sit and compete in a confined space for a long time, and personal hygiene has also become an important factor affecting the opponent's game experience. Many netizens called on event organizers to consider adding relevant entry reminders.
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