The Pokémon North American International has wrapped up after a humid and intense weekend in New Orleans. But not everything went smoothly for every player. Two top TCG players saw themselves disqualified on Day 2 and the community is torn on whether it was deserved or not.
The first player to be accused of cheating was Noah Sakadjian, who was disqualified from NAIC on Day 2. At the time, he had an incredible 8-1-1 run but was eliminated following his stream appearance after judges felt he was stacking. Stacking is when you purposefully place certain cards on top when you are shuffling, an attempt to get the cards you need seemingly at random.
This was heavily debated in the Pokémon TCG community, with some feeling frustrated at all of the cheating in the game as of late while others felt he was not stacking at all. In fact, some players even slowed down the clip of him shuffling to prove his innocence. Unfortunately for Sakadjian, this slowed down clip only made players more suspicious of him — a lot of TCG fans noted that it looked as though he was only placing certain cards on top "blatantly."
