Organizers at EVO 2022, this year’s biggest fighting game tournament, have announced that LeBron James is banned from the tournament. At least, the version of the famous basketball player in the 2D platformer fighting game MultiVersus; not the actual real sports athlete.

In addition to this cartoon version of the four-time NBA championship winner, Iron Giant and other characters released after the start of MultiVersus’ open beta will not be allowed in the EVO 2022 MultiVersus Open Beta tournament. This is subject to change at the sole discretion of Warner Bros. and developer Player First Games. The ban is due to the listed characters being recent and not thoroughly played and tested publicly, meaning they could have exploits not even the developers would know about. Banning brand-new characters in a fighting game, especially when they’re out a few days before a big tournament, is common practice to ensure fairness.

Of course, the headline has spawned a lot of people on Twitter bemused at the fact that the basketball star is banned from a fighting game tournament.

it's kinda hilarious to see the sentence "Lebron James is banned for EVO"

— Susie – Multiversus Leaks (@multiversusie) August 4, 2022

I can't belive LeBron James is banned from Evo

— Kybosh @ Peak Fiction (@Kybosh42) August 4, 2022

I thought you meant the irl LeBron James was banned from going to Evo, I was confused for a second

— PeteSauce The AwsomeSauce (@PeteSauceToon) August 4, 2022

OK, now I absolutely want to see the real LeBron James go to EVO, enter the MultiVersus tournament, & cause mass confusion. https://t.co/J8KZ9aDY9b

— George J. Horvath (@LandofObscusion) August 4, 2022

So is Lebron James banned at EVO just as a character or like if Lebron just wants to watch a tournament live he can't get in?

— GuiNRedS – Red Star (@guinreds) August 4, 2022

You know what’s not funny for many? MultiVersus’ open beta still being blocked in Malaysia, Singapore, The Philippines, and the rest of Southeast Asia. If you want to watch the MultiVersus tournament sans Lebron James, head to our EVO 2022 feature.