According to a Kotaku report, a Girl Power team competitor, identified as Eliza Barbera, has indicted a judge identified as Travis Madaris for alleged harassment and inappropriate behavior at the Pokémon Vancouver event. According to Barbera, Madaris approached the group to ask for a photo and later for dinner on March 12. During the interaction, Madaris reportedly began by talking about transgender inclusion, but the conversation reportedly deteriorated when he began telling team members why they weren’t passing off as female.
As Barbera explained in a Twitlonger post: “This included how the online trans community is too crazy so it makes all trans people look bad, how trans people have to wear pronoun pins at events if they don’t want to. that they get the wrong gender and, finally, go one by one to all of us pointing out why we don’t pretend to be women”.
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Barbera added that Madaris allegedly talked about mixing alcohol with Valium and Oxycontin that he had already consumed. However, Barbera assures that they managed to leave the place without Madaris. However, according to the competitor, he appeared at the team table half an hour later.
Girl Power reported the incident to the tournament organizers, who “permanently banned” him, as, according to several tweets shared in the aftermath of the incident, Madaris had already been accused of inappropriate behavior in the past. Barbera also noted in her TwitLonger that Madaris told them he had been “banned from qualifying for the weekend.” A Pokémon League participant added that some of Madaris’ behavior has apparently led to him being “fired” from various leagues.
Kotaku indicated that it has reached out to Madaris and Girl Power for comment, but has not heard back from either by press time.
