A professional Pokémon player is going viral after begging his fellow competitors to keep up with their personal hygiene, claiming he literally threw up at an event due to someone’s stench.
Texas-based Pokémon VGC regional champion Donghun Youm says he lost his lunch at the 2026 Baltimore Regional Championships thanks to a super smelly player.
Youm wrote about his experience in a viral post on Twitter/X, where he begged players to “please take care of [their] personal hygiene.”
Youm said someone at the competition smelled so foul that he literally threw up because of it, and his friends were unable to concentrate on their own matches due to the putrid stench.
“I’ve had an incident at Baltimore regionals where I had to throw up due to a nearby player’s stench,” he said. “My friends and I couldn’t focus that round due to how putrid the smell was, and we even told a judge due to it. Like, c’mon man….”
Youm’s post has kicked off a heated discourse about players’ hygiene at competitions, as well as no end of jokes and memes about certain Pokémon attacks that rely on smell to deal damage or inflict adverse status effects. (The ability ‘Stench’ was most popular, as it has a 10% chance of making your opponent flinch when hit by a damaging move.)
Please take care of your personal hygiene.
I’ve had an incident @ Baltimore regionals where I had to throw up due to a nearby player’s stench. My friends and I couldn’t focus that round due to how putrid the smell was and we even told a judge due to it. Like c’mon man….— Donghun Youm (@PlaymakerYoum) September 27, 2026
“[Washing] should be a requirement to attend an event,” one commenter replied. “People who smell bad should be kicked out.”
“If you can afford a Nintendo Switch, you can afford a $3 stick of deodorant dude,” another said.
This is far from the first time the subject of hygiene has come up regarding in-person gaming events; in June, a card shop in Oregon suspended its Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments after receiving bad reviews and multiple complaints of smelly patrons.
The shop pointed to Konami’s own tournament guidelines, which stipulate that everyone at a Yu-Gi-Oh competition, not just players, must be “clean and wear clean clothing,” or risk being “penalized.”
Pokémon boasts similar rules; the official Play! Pokemon Tournament Rules Handbook includes a section regarding hygiene, which reads, “Individuals are also required to maintain a socially acceptable level of hygiene during the event. Depending on the attire or level of hygiene, the Tournament Organizer may allow for a tournament participant to change or update their personal hygiene and attire and return to the venue.
“If a participant refuses to comply with tournament staff’s requests, this is grounds for removal from the tournament and venue, and the participant must relinquish their badge to tournament staff.”
It’s unclear if the stinky player who caused Youm to throw up was penalized. Either way, the incident has sparked renewed calls from community members for their fellow players to keep themselves clean and fresh at competitions to avoid unpleasant situations like this one.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.