Pokemon TCG veteran says he was banned for life after calling out judge

GamingPokemonbyZackerie FairfaxPublished: Oct 16, 2026, 20:09Add as a preferred source on GoogleFollow on Google News

Pokemon TCG player Alessandro “iCaterpie” Cremascoli says he has been permanently banned after publicly complaining that a judge treated him unfairly.

The Italian competitor is a two-time national champion who has spent decades playing competitively. He remained active this season, with tournament database Limitless recording a ninth-place finish at September’s Frankfurt Regional Championships.

Cremascoli announced the reported ban on October 16, saying he had been preparing to travel to Nice. The French city’s Regional Championships take place on October 17 and 18.

iCaterpie says he deleted complaint six hours later

In his statement on X, Cremascoli alleged that some people working for The Pokemon Company International had targeted him for the past decade.

He said another incident at the latest World Championships prompted him to complain publicly, but he deleted the post six hours later. Cremascoli attributed his permanent ban to that complaint.

“I dedicated 25 years of my life to this game,” he wrote.

He described spending that time teaching players across Italy and building the community, before claiming the company had failed to notify him about the ban.

“I’m devastated. Pokemon is literally my life. I can’t stop crying.”

Card game creator JenTCG added context in a separate post, saying Cremascoli’s earlier complaint had identified a specific judge by name and accused them of unfair treatment.

JenTCG suggested that callout appeared to explain the sanction, while acknowledging in a follow-up that there could be additional context they were missing.

Cremascoli’s announcement did not include a disciplinary notice explaining the reported ban. The claim that his complaint caused it therefore remains his account.