The Pokemon Company Is Making Pro Pokken Tournament Players Change Their Screen Names

A couple of devoted professional Pokken Tournament players have come up with some clever screen [...]

Pokken Tournament Top
(Photo: Nintendo)

A couple of devoted professional Pokken Tournament players have come up with some clever screen names to represent themselves, but The Pokemon Company is asking for some of them to be altered, one of the changes being made during a recent Pokken competition.

The most recent name in question that was asked to be changed wasn't offensive either; in fact, it was the player's way of paying respect to one of his favorites, Suicune. While competitive player Christian Patierno typically goes by the screen name of Suicune Master, his name was changed on-screen to the shortened version of Sui Master, and the commentators referred to him as such.

Speaking to Kotaku, Suicune Master says that his name was changed during the event because it contained the official name of a Pokemon, an explanation provided to him by employees who were present at the Community Effort Orlando tournament.

"I was first made aware of this policy right before I had to play my match on stream at CEO 2016," the player said. "They told me I had to change my tag, suggesting Sui Master or my real name, so I just picked Sui Master."

The restrictions put on the names come with a trade-off, though. The Pokemon Company has been supporting these types of bigger tournaments, so with their supervision, they've come up with a few rules in place to help govern the competitions.

While the name rule against including official Pokemon names hasn't been enforced at every competition, it has been seen at previous events, and the most recent CEO competition showed that the rule's enforcement was in full swing. As Suicune Master was shortened, another prominent player who was present at the event, Jacob "ThankSwalot" Waller, also had his name steered away from the poisonous Pokemon. His name became Thanks A Lot during the tournament, something that packs much less of a punch. ThankSwalot confirmed Suicune Master's statement that an employee gave him the same justification on why his name had to be changed.

Both players are taking the name changes in stride though, seeing how many players who follow Pokken Tournament's competitive scene will likely be able to recognize them anyways.

[via Kotaku]

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