‘False hope’: The Pokémon Company slammed after huge miscommunication with Worlds invitees

The Pokémon Company is in hot water after a miscommunication crushed one World Championships invitee’s dreams of attending the biggest international event of the year.

On Aug. 6, South African Pokémon TCG player Josh Lillie posted on X (formerly Twitter), explaining his current situation regarding the World Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii next week (Aug. 16 to 18). According to the pro’s statement, Lillie was told by Play! Pokémon back in June that he’d earned a Travel Award to help pay for travel expenses to attend. This came as a surprise considering any qualified South African competitors were supposed to be excluded from receiving Travel Awards.

The TCG player said he submitted multiple support tickets to Play! Pokémon for clarification on the conflicting information. While waiting for a response, he’d applied for a U.S. visa and hired a travel agent. Fast-forward to August, Lillie still received no response from Play! Pokémon—but a fellow South African competitor did eventually get an email from the company.

In the email, Play! Pokémon admitted it was a mistake on its end to send Travel Award forms to the South African players and confirmed those awards would not be provided for their travels to Hawaii. As Lillie mentioned, he was relying on the Travel Award and would not have otherwise been able to afford the trip. This turn of events has left the TCG player devastated by being denied his “lifelong dream of being able to compete at the [World] championships.”

“I am very disappointed with @playpokemon for making such a massive mistake that [could have] impacted my life in such a positive way,” Lillie stated on social media. “[It] gave false hope to someone as young as myself that his dreams would be fulfilled.”

Now, the South African competitor and others in the card game community want The Pokémon Company to take accountability for the whole miscommunication. “A company as big as @playpokemon shouldn’t make mistakes like this,” TCG content creator Dom Ritchie chimed in. “They should 100 percent be honoring what you’ve been told especially after waiting so long to correct it,” another commented.

With the World Championships set to begin next week, on Aug. 16, The Pokémon Company is running out of time to respond to Lillie and backlash from the community. In the meantime, the TCG player says he’s “heavily considering” opening a GoFundMe to help pay for all the travel expenses. After all, a lot is at stake at Worlds.