Wolfe “WolfeyVGC” Glick is without doubt one of the most prolific aggressive Pokémon gamers within the area. He’s received the official World Championship match, competed in a number of occasions around the globe, and has amassed thousands and thousands of followers on his YouTube channel the place he talks about aggressive Pokémon and the occasions he attends. Nonetheless, Glick says in a prolonged new video that he’ll doubtless step away from in-person occasions due to harassment from followers. The professional participant says he’s needed to cope with followers groping him throughout footage and pushing boundaries like touching him with out consent. He says this meant leaving this 12 months’s Worlds match early as a result of he wasn’t capable of watch the occasion in peace after he’d been eradicated and that the stress he feels from these occasions has now began to outweigh his enjoyment of competing within the tournaments themselves.
Glick additionally says he needs to be there primarily to compete, however the fan interactions have begun overtaking his personal time on the exhibits and even, in some circumstances, prevented him from attending to the matches on time. Past that, Glick says that he doesn’t need to make a video for this 12 months’s Worlds match as a result of it could make him “relive” the occasion and all of the dangerous recollections he has related to it. For now, he’ll be taking time without work from in-person occasions, which might have an effect on whether or not or not he qualifies for 2026’s World Championship.
“Even when I do qualify for the World Championships this 12 months, it is extremely doubtless that I cannot attend,” Glick says within the video. “It’s gonna rely on how the remainder of the season and the way the remainder of these occasions go. However what I’ll say is that I don’t need to have one other Worlds just like the one I simply had. I’d reasonably not attend than take the danger as a result of I believe that if I don’t attend Worlds there’s an opportunity I might come again sooner or later. I believe if I’ve yet another Worlds like this one, I don’t assume I’m coming again.”
Glick says that these “parasocial” interactions have been each an issue in-person and on-line. The professional claims that whereas he isn’t above criticism, the “vitriol” from some has grow to be so prevalent that he’s not snug interacting with followers or critics on-line, and that the undesirable consideration has included sexual harassment in on-line messages too.
“I assume what I’m attempting to say is that I really feel like I’ve grow to be extra of an emblem and fewer of an individual,” he continues. “There may be a variety of duty and I’m very privileged to be in that place, however on the similar time, I wish to be an individual. Generally I wish to be Wolfe and never WolfeyVGC.”
For now, Glick will likely be taking social media breaks, doing fewer movies, and even taking part in Pokémon Legends: Z-A in solitude reasonably than on stream. He indicators off the video saying that he nonetheless needs to create content material about aggressive Pokémon, however that he’ll should take time to reevaluate his strategy after these “dehumanizing” experiences. However he isn’t absolutely strolling away and says he nonetheless needs to make modifications to enhance his relationship with the aggressive Pokémon area.
“I at all times figured that if I finished competing it could be as a result of competitors stopped being enjoyable for me; like I misplaced the love of the sport or possibly I wasn’t capable of sustain with a brand new guard and it was actually onerous for me to by no means win. […] The factor I’ll say about this that’s optimistic is that I’m nonetheless having enjoyable. I nonetheless love competing and I’m nonetheless having a blast. If I might simply do the competitors a part of tournaments and never all the things else, that will be nice for me. […] As a result of it’s nonetheless enjoyable for me, I’ve motivation to attempt to sort things.” He says he’s nonetheless trying into arranging meet-and-greets the place followers can chat with him in-person, however isn’t but certain what kind these will take transferring ahead. “I want that I might do extra,” Glick says. “I want there was extra of me to provide. I actually have tried for therefore onerous for therefore a few years to be the individual individuals see me as, as this image, as this type of unshakable bastion within the scene, however I’m solely human, and I believe pretending that I’m not is just not doing me otherwise you any favors.”
