Hi everyone,

Please excuse any errors in my English.

I am Arthur, french player living and competing in Mexico in the Pokemon VGC scene. I was attending the Pokemon VGC World Championship in San Francisco.

Now that I’m back home and off work, and the buzz around the finals has died down a bit, I want to speak up about a very serious incident that occurred on the night of August 29–30 in San Francisco. I want to raise awareness and prevent anyone else from going through the same thing.

Before I begin, I want to emphasize that no one should feel superior to anyone else, and no one has the right to violate another person's freedom, privacy, or personal integrity.

To get straight to the point: I was sexually assaulted by Alejandro Terrazas (For those who don't know him, he is the finalist of the 2025 Vancouver VGC Regional), someone I had considered a friend for two years, though we have different sexual orientations, we were cool with each other, or so I thought. I woke up around 1:00 AM to find his hand explicitly fondling my penis over my clothes. Jolted out of a deep sleep and realizing what was happening, I struck him and lashed out verbally. I had to pull myself out of shock before confronting him again; he claimed not to know what I was talking about, but his demeanor the next morning betrayed the guilt of having been caught. I should add that two nights prior, I had woken up in the middle of the night feeling a hand pull away instantly as I opened my eyes, though I was too groggy to be certain at the time. The fact that it happened again while I was fully conscious confirms to me that it was premeditated.

There wasn't much I could do that day, given that we were abroad and had my flight the same day; I also didn't want to act out of anger. I want to handle this matter as intelligently and maturely as possible—which is why I am writing this. Since we were also staying with EwokPadawan (the admin of the Mexican VGC community), I took the opportunity to tell him that very morning before leaving the hotel. As the group admin, I wanted him to know what happened so he could take appropriate measures to protect his community. As a matter of fact, I have also shared this in the mexican VGC community group chat after arriving home on monday and the decision was made for Alejandro to be kicked out of it.

You might be shocked or skeptical reading this, especially if you are a friend of Alejandro. But believe me, your shock pales in comparison to mine; I was his friend too, and he violated me without my consent while I was unconscious. I know that because I’m a man, people attach less importance to cases of sexual abuse—but you all have relatives, girlfriends, wives, sons, and daughters. So, just imagine the same thing happening to them and how you’d feel; maybe then you’ll realize how serious this was and how important it is for us as a community to prevent this kind of behavior.

So take care of yourselves, and be very careful about who you trust when traveling to tournaments.

Some of you might not give a damn—and those people should feel just as shitty as the abuser for tolerating it—but if sharing this helps even one person avoid going through the same thing, then it was worth telling the story.