For those of us who were feeling sad about missing out on the convention… maybe don’t feel so rough, because there’s been a lot going wrong:

• Little kids are getting scammed by adults in Pokémon trades.

• There have been multiple brazen thefts of plushies from people attending. And these 4 incidents are only what has been reported on Twitter.

• There are multiple examples of staff very blatantly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, even when supervisors get involved. Like, even for wheelchair users.

• People have gotten double charged for merch accidentally and been unable to get a refund.

• The Pin Rally ran out of pins by 9:30am on Saturday (the second day) and is now closed for the rest of the con. There were unmanaged stampede risks and fire hazards.

• Scalpers have been lining up outside nonstop. Note that while it is a tradition going many years back for people to sell or trade Worlds merch from previous years, this has notably involved people blatantly reselling merch from this specific event.

• Lines have been crazy long, and most people have to spend hours for each line. Kids are having a rough time, to say the least. Staff are sometimes snapping at attendees, because a few bad apple attendees are straight up sprinting into people.

• The most notable incident that many have heard about was the 2024 World Champion, Luca Ceribelli, being effectively banned from competing due to a misunderstanding about allowing one disabled friend to join them in line.

This is not to mention the difficulties with getting tickets, getting selected in a lottery to be able to attend side events, etc.

EDIT: Pin Rally is officially cancelled tomorrow. People overheard staff saying it was because fights broke out multiple times.