Getting off topic. Remember, you're supposed to be attacking me.
Pokepop, I respect you a lot as both a judge and an admin, but a comment like that is the EXACT same attitude that Gino took when he was accused of stealing the Macbook. It didn't win him any kindness and it won't win you any either, just saying. I'll acknowledge you might be privy to information I don't have on this manner, but as a leader in this community, you should strive act as an example. Just saying.
But on topic of "Gino Gate" as the online community has been calling it.
Please note the following is based solely on how I perceive things:
Gino is not victimless. Whether he actually committed crimes or not is irrelevant. He became an extremely well-known and popular player. By winning nationals, he became one of the "faces" of Pokémon. He brought with it the "Gino attitude" and the "Gino Reputation."
Now I have never met or interacted with Gino, even online. However I can say that for the nine years I've been involved with Pokémon, especially about 5-6 years ago when the internet really exploded in the Pokémon community, Gino has always been a name associated with either "fanboys" or "haters." What I mean by this is that there were ALWAYS two very polarizing groups. The people who called Gino a "mentor, friend, good person, role-model, and good player" and the people who called Gino a "lying, cheating, bully, thief, 'cancer on the game.' Gino for better or for worse loved the attention, so he fed both groups and both groups grew. Nothing about this is bad. Everyone wants to be "acknowledged" and even negative acknowledgment is acknowledgment. However, I digress, the point is, Gino has always been a polarizing figure-head in the Pokémon community, he was even featured on some gaming site and in a gaming magazine article at one point (correct me if I'm wrong on that.)
Gino attracted negative attention at both the Nationals he won and the following Worlds. He was accused of things from cheating to stealing. Once again the polarized groups massively supported and attacked him respectfully. Gino took it all in stride and seemingly loved the attention. This is Gino's nature. There have been several of these "Gino events" throughout the history of the game. Most of these have been typical "poke drama" and dead within a month. The Vancouver incident however was different.
The Vancouver incident is no different than any other "Gino Event" on its own. It's general he said - she said. One outside factor made this extremely different however. Jason K. Jason, the three time World Champion is just as famous as Gino and has just about as much of a fan-base. However Jason has no "bad-boy" reputation. His word against Gino's non-word (as Gino never directly refuted [to my knowledge] that he ever stole the laptop.) Gino continued his "bad-boy, I don't care" attitude as he has done in the past. Jason raised an "internet army." Everyone who ever had a gripe with Gino, or knew someone who had a gripe with Gino, or heard stories about Gino stepped up to give their 2 cents.
I don't know if Gino did any of the stuff he was ever accused of, past or present. I've seen the evidence and I have my theories, but they're not important, because I think that the prevailing issue is Gino's attitude and reputation.
Pokémon has had a lot of problems with Champions, well-known, and/or famous players getting into trouble. Gino, Pablo, Martin, the Spanish VGC poop guys, Con Le, the Lesage brothers and Canadian National Champions, just to name a few instances. I had a theory originally that they did not outright ban Gino after the Vancouver incident because they were embarrassed by all the trouble they had been having with "power players" as we might call them. However I think that this incident pushed Gino's reputation from the online community into the more casual community. The online community rarely get "parent mad." If Gino's reputation was beginning to worry parents who don't interact with the online community as much as the "young people" do then perhaps that was the tipping point.
I think Gino was banned because he was becoming a PR disaster. Whether it's right or not is irrelevant. Whether he cheated or not is irrelevant. When a company removes someone from their events in an unconventional way such as this, it is usually because they are perceived to be a "threat," to their audience, money, or image. Thus I think Gino was banned because he had become a threat to TPCi's image.
Please note that my statements were made from an unbiased view. I do not support or condone Gino's actions that I do not express any opinion if he committed or not. Like-wise I do not support or condone any actions that TPCi may have done. This is simply a theory on why the events unfolded as they have given the evidence we have.
