One of the biggest competitive Pokémon players has announced he’s stepping back from in-person tournaments, partially because of fans getting too aggressive.
Wolfe Glick is one of the biggest personalities in the competitive Pokémon gaming scene, having won the video game 2016 World Championship and, more recently, the 2025 European Internationals.
Beyond his career as a professional player, the 29-year-old also regularly covers the Pokémon scene on his YouTube channel, which has amassed over two million subscribers.
However, Glick’s future as a professional player has been brought into question following his latest video, where he announced a step back from in-person tournaments for the foreseeable future.
In the video, titled Moving Forward, Glick said: ‘I am not certain how much longer I’ll be attending in-person tournaments. I guess what I will say about that is, it is entirely possible I will never compete in, or attend, another World Championships again.’
Glick goes on to break down the reasons why in the 30-minute clip, highlighting how this year’s Pokémon World Championships in Anaheim, California was his ‘least favourite Worlds ever’, partially because of fans sexually assaulting him when taking photos.
The YouTuber said he was ‘groped’ at five of the seven tournaments he attended during the 2025 season, from September 2024 until August 2025.
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‘Fans when taking pictures with me, put their hands on me sexually and non-consensually during the act of taking photos,’ said Glick, age 29. ‘I don’t like that this is happening. And I also think to most reasonable people, that this is not normal behaviour, like most people do not grope other people.
‘I don’t know why it’s happening so much to me in particular, but the fact remains that it is.’
Glick, however, describes this issue as being ‘relatively low’ on the reasons why he doesn’t want to attend tournaments anymore, ‘primarily because it only happens once or twice at most events’.
The other issues stem from other interactions with fans and stress. He cites a recurring neck pain specifically, which has been exacerbated by fans grabbing him, in a non-sexual way, to get his attention.
‘I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing it in a vacuum, but at scale, and especially when there are other things going on, it can become quite distracting and problematic,’ he added.
Glick states these two issues ‘got so bad’ at this year’s Pokémon World Championships that he felt that he had ‘no choice but to leave the venue’ on the last day, to watch the final from his hotel room.
When combined with the stress he feels around competing, Glick states tournaments have become ‘less and less fun to attend’.
‘Even though at a Pokémon tournament most people see me as a YouTuber, or an influencer, or whatever you want to call me, I’m there to compete,’ he added. I’m not there to do fan interaction.
‘I’m not there to be like, ‘hey guys it’s me the YouTuber’. I go to tournaments because I love competing. And while I also enjoy meeting fans, it’s not my primary reason for being there.’
To clarify his original comments, Glick says he will not attend another tournament in person for at least the next four months, including the Toronto Regional Championships, which he won last year.
‘I realise that these issues have made it rather difficult for me to attend events and feel good,’ he added. ‘And I think that this is a time where, I would rather take a break now when I still have the choice, rather than be forced to take a break later.’
By not attending these events, it’s very unlikely he’ll qualify for next year’s Pokémon World Championships. Even if he does however, Glicke states it is ‘very likely that I will not attend’ depending on how the rest of the season goes.
This isn’t the only case of a popular content creator being harassed at an event. Just recently, streamer Emiru was assaulted at TwitchCon. As a result, and after complaints about insufficient security, Emiru said she would not be attending the event again.
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