Competitive Pokémon was PAY TO WIN

[@superhoodie14]

There's something morbidly funny about playing through a jrpg about pokemon being turned into emotionless killing machines and saving them through the power of love twice over, just to then teach said living creatures to commit sepuku.

[@ZeBanded]

​@@gabrielmirukaj7091Kid named return:

[@christopherballero866]

I do find it ironic also it's ironic that in SV u constantly beat up wild Pokemon in order to get materials in order to make TMs

[@Purlypurlington]

Lmfaooooo

[@autobotstarscream765]

​@Christopher Ballero That's not irony, that's just breaking a few eggs to make a sandwich. 😋

[@IYPITWL]

Pokemon Go is the same way. Catching mons so we can grind them into candy which we then feed back to them. Basically forced cannibalism while in captivity.

[@ochuspin]

It’s actually insane how people had to go through this kind of process years ago to create a team in gen 3

[@imablisy]

yes

[@Happyfoam-lw3yt]

Lol, we didn't dude. I bought a GameShark specifically to make teams with perfect EV/IV's and natures. Competitive Pokemon is like competitive bodybuilding. If you think anyone in the room is clean, you're either very stupid or deliberately naive.

[@imablisy]

@@Happyfoam-lw3yt the winner of this event and the person I interviewed didn’t cheat lol

[@Happyfoam-lw3yt]

@@imablisy yeah, neither do professional bodybuilders. What did you expect them to say exactly? Look dude, the fact of the matter is that "cheating" is a fast and loose term. People view RNG manipulation as cheating, people view item duping as cheating, people view overclocking as cheating, etc, etc. The whole "I got this because I put in the hours and you didn't, therefore you're Pokemon are illegitimate" thing is just plain stupid. The bottom line is that putting in those kinds of hours to grind out a nonexistent bunch of code is, well, a waste of time when much simpler methods exist, even WITH the newer generations quality of life improvements. Like I have a family AND friends AAAAAAAAAND I happen to enjoy playing Pokemon competitively. Is my fun illegitimate because I don't have the time for that kind of grind? Like would buying a Pokemon card for your deck online instead of getting it from random packs be "cheating" too? The entire argument only makes sense if you DON'T think about it. The end result is that the Pokemon produced through grinding and the one produced through code manipulation will be IDENTICAL. The only difference being between the two, only one of those people had the time to waste to spend a hundred hours grinding out a SINGLE team instead of doing literally anything else.

[@imablisy]

@@Happyfoam-lw3yt My point has always been that the grind is unacceptable even in modern games lol. You shouldn’t be cheating because it gives an advantage to those who played by the rules, but that doesn’t mean this shouldn’t change.

[@AllergyPuppy]

Ayy, I played in this tournament as a child when it came to my city. I arrived too late to play in juniors, so my mom told me to lie and say I was 13 to play in seniors. I had no idea what I was doing, but through pure chance I made it one round because I got matched up versus a guy who also had no idea what he was doing. Then got destroyed next round of course. Won a tshirt and a Pokémon emerald strategy guide. I don’t think either of those would’ve helped me figure out how to actually make a viable team.

[@imablisy]

That's awesome lol!

[@MDLuffy1234YT]

​@@imablisy 8:31 I just realized that you used almost the exact same set of games that Minh did, except with Ruby instead of Box.

[@nickharperpkmn]

Thanks for featuring me, Blisy! Although I know the level 100 grind is rough here, I honestly never realized completing the team would take quite this long. I had been acquiring pieces of mine - whether they be the Pokémon, items, etc. - for nearly 3 years before the Miami qualifier, so I didn't have the same "condensed" experience that you had. I also learned a few new tricks watching this. I never thought of money as a barrier to entry for Gen 3, but I feel you proved your point about that. As for my interview, sorry if I stumbled over my own words a bit. Sometimes it's hard to speak with clarity about things that happened 17 years ago!

[@imablisy]

No your interview was great! I really only cut it down for pacing lol(we talked a lot). I’ll be releasing the full one in a few weeks cuz some of the stories were too interesting.

[@nickharperpkmn]

@@imablisy Thanks! And yeah I remember you enjoying some of those when we spoke.

[@QAQISH650]

Fun fact, the move tutors in fire red and leaf green are the old gen 1 tms, while in emerald the move tutors teach old gen 2 tms

[@thetreyceratops]

Oooh, I knew the FRLG tutors were the Gen 1 TMs, but I didn’t know the Emerald ones were Gen 2 TMs

[@spencerdennis3148]

This video made me realize something about Pokémon game design… becoming a competitive Pokémon player essentially requires you to interact with most if not all of the features the dev team built into the game. While it’s annoying and time consuming, I think it’s a cool and interesting design choice

[@imablisy]

Yea same in g4

[@thefrenchbastard1646]

it's not a désign choice^^ they did not désign there game to be played competitively period

[@lakerfan2874]

​@thefrenchbastard1646 Of course not. Their whole idea was to capture and collect, except the RPG element gives them the battling formula to make the game into a competitive environment. The issue here is that it's simply not pay to win. I mean, why get into competitions while only playing Showdown, and the official tournaments require you to play through an entire Pokemon game to then level up said Pokemon, and make them competitively viable to even battle in a tournament, meaning you'll need to purchase the current system and said current game. What is pay to win are the items like the Gold Bottle Caps and the regular Bottle Caps and the vitamins. If you don't feel like breeding and hatching eggs, that is. Plus, it's mainly the ever changing meta that's truly forcing the pay wall. I've only half committed into competitive battling because of the meta changes making teams I make obsolete with some banning. For me, I was happy that the Gen 4 remakes were announced, since we were gonna go back to a time of the Gen 4 meta. Then everything just stayed on Sword and Shield once BDSP got released. I just beaten Brilliant Diamond while beating Shining Pearl last year. The victory was cheesy since I had more than enough Max Potions to keep my Sturdy Magnezone alive to beat Garchomp with Flash Cannon. I'm not sure why I never thought about that strategy before, but I'm happy I did. I even beat Pokemon Silver's Elite Four with a very underleveled team with Lugia as my ace.

[@ich3730]

Its really obvious these games were never intended to have a competitive scene

[@spencerdennis3148]

@@ich3730 Maybe design "Choice" was the wrong phrasing. I just find it to be interesting design generally. Intentional or not I think it's interesting that in a way you have to become a "pokemon master" irl in order to legitimately compete at a high level.

[@gra281]

reminds me of how impractical actually obtaining pokemon used on smogon can be. very fascinating seeing such an extreme case of absurd grinding for teams in an official format

[@imablisy]

I wanna do a smogon team eventually, it'll be very funny.

[@GameFreakuser]

​@im a blisy ._. Using a Gen 7 team which required a move on a specific Pokémon that is only possible on Gen 3 would bring it to peak ridiculousness. Add some event-only moves into the mix to really spice it up.

[@preyingshark4878]

@@imablisy Wish Blissey is my favorite "legit players are never getting this shit" staple lol

[@GameFreakuser]

​@@preyingshark4878 Nonsense. Plenty of people have been to the NYC event for it and made sure to get one with perfect IVs and a Bold nature.

[@N12015]

​@@imablisy Is just literally just login in and select moves. It takes like 20 minutes and that's mostly due to doubt... Oh wait, you're talking about a LEGIT Smogon team. I suggest you to take gen 8 for extra masochism factor, ideally one with Blissey, because gen 9 is just anything you find on Scarlet and Violet which is roughly the same as with VGC but with more grinding, but gen 8 has so many steps is honestly ridiculous.

[@AbsolBlogsPokemon]

This was such a good watch!!!! I love how your research led you to recovering all the info about that team, and your overall breakdown of the Gen 3 RNG was one of the most concise explanations I've heard of it from anyone so far. What I really love about this series is your attention to just how optimized every little part of the process is - I always learn a new better way to grind for something from them. The Latios EV training method with the Exp Share to prevent it from leveling up was one of my favorite parts (I'm not too familiar with gold symbol speedruns, so this was totally new to me). Also loved the little level 100 gauntlet homage!! Pickup grinding in R/S is so much fun

[@imablisy]

Thanks absol! Hearing such kind words from someone who’s content inspires me is so encouraging!

[@neithermannormachine]

Absol-flavoured Mountain Dew when?

[@UnknownVir]

It was a pleasant surprise seeing the homage, love both your content ^^

[@MovieSimpClips]

HEYYYY! Love seeing you around these random pokemon videos! Keep up the amazing work man,you are a treasure to the entire pokemon community

[@ScottMtc]

Thanks for the shoutout. I only briefly mentioned how difficult it was to get battle ready Pokémon in my video, it's nice to see an in-depth look at how long it would actually take, even with RNG manipulation.

[@imablisy]

Your video was awesome! I watched the entire video more than once scouring for info.

[@amoran2011]

This brings back memories! I actually competed in the 2006 Journey Across America Tour. I was 13 at the time and it was the final day of the first round at the Pokémon Center in NYC. Took the train in from CT actually. I used Fire Red and the four I used were Rayquaza, Mewtwo, Charizard, and Zapdos. Didn’t EV train, had no idea what that was back then. I lost round 1 on time out. I decided to not use recover on Mewtwo against a Lugia and I had less HP remaining when the timer ran out. The prize for the qualifier was a special black Game Boy Micro with a silver Pikachu inlayed in the faceplate. Winners of the first round got a Pokémon XD skin for their GameCubes and everyone competing got a special keychain. I had that for years, but it fell off my lanyard in high school.

[@amoran2011]

Btw, the first round “qualifier” was an online quiz about the games and franchise in general 😂

[@The_Mister_E]

Was it the same skin one would get for pre-ordering the game?

[@amoran2011]

@@The_Mister_E That was the one with Shadow Lugia and the game logo, right? If so, then yes lol

[@The_Mister_E]

@@amoran2011 And all the other birds on the sides.

[@ChenzoCenteen]

That's actually crazy, I lived in CT with family back then but would travel every weekend back to NY (where I was originally from) just to go play against all the older kids who were practicing in the Pokemon Center. I remember them bringing up my natures and things like that and I had no idea about all the details like they did, all I knew was I beat everyone my own age but I was getting rekt by them for some reason - learned so dam much and had so much fun. Small world to hear about someone making the same travels in the same places around the same time lol

[@SavageBernie]

I competed in the Journey Across America event in Atlanta Georgia. I didn't win, I didn't even place, but as a 11 year old kid it was an amazing experience that I was worried was lost to time. It made me so happy to see your references and research. I know that wasn't the point of this video, but thank you for that

[@Steeldragon493]

I'm just obsessed with the fact the fucking Hulk Hogan is at that pokemon tournament

[@imablisy]

BODY SLAM, THAT'S THE BEST MOVE!

[@DuskLegend]

@Pantsmonster v6 how about you get the HELL outta here

[@bigbeast103]

Then their parents should be monitoring them closer

[@bigbeast103]

Then their parents should be monitoring them closer

[@RinaShinomiyaVal]

​@pantsmonsterv6shut up 😂

[@Soulcypher17]

I was there for that tournament!! I've never seen footage for this tournament!! It was awesome!!

[@imablisy]

Nick has the full match on his channel.

[@Real-Pot]

The VS Seeker farm for money was known back then, it's actually crazy seeing someone talk about it in present time. But I don't think anyone really talked about the Ditto trick as I never considered training EVs that way. Either way, the RNG manip is massive. I could only imagine sizing the time of my team builds as a kid down this fast. Great video and solid nostalgia of team building back in gen 3.

[@imablisy]

I didn't use the VS Seeker since it's slower than match call, which definitely was not well understood until the decomp was finished tbh.

[@InazumaDash]

The introduction of this in gen 3 made me feel really stupid and sad but now I know it wasn't my fault. It's sooo easy now. Always fascinating to break open the older games tho. If the gen 3 games get added to Nintendo Online I'll finally give RNG a real go since you can't easily hack the game without modding.

[@miltymilt]

Just recently learned about Absol so the Level 100 Gauntlet reference was pretty good, great video!

[@imablisy]

Glad you liked it

[@TheCanadianWifier]

This is incredible work, especially all the digging back to an old tournament that's nearly lost to time!

[@imablisy]

I do like to dig

[@cariboowho]

fun fact: the cost to get into competitive pokémon battling in gen 3 is approximately the same as the ps3 was on launch, inflation adjusted

[@rn4013]

I love Pokemon but that'd probably be better use of your money at that time. I feel like you'd have more fun with a PS3 too

[@christopherballero866]

Just felt it should be stated that 104 hours is 4.5 days straight without doing anything else. Colosseum and XD were also not as easy to find at the time nor were link cables.

[@ArtisChronicles]

I truly had no idea how lucky I got in that regard.

[@-pinky.]

counter vs boom is pretty funny in gen 3 doubles, since, when a mon faints in those games, you switch something in to replace the fainted mon mid-turn (like, before the turn ends/before every other attack goes off)

[@gregorymirabella1423]

now imagine making a team in gen 9 and your save data corrupts. because that's an actual issue going on after the recent update.

[@BlazingDiancie]

AFAIK, it can happen when first pairing a GO account with SV.

[@imablisy]

good thing gen 3 has no glitches

[@carucath97]

That is genuinely scary to think, someone could win a regional but then their team gets wiped from existence

[@michaelvandevusse3728]

​@@carucath97dude like yeah that shits fucked some people might lose some valuable mons like people are going to be pissed

[@micah0000]

Can I thank you for this comment? Cause I genuinely did not know it was a thing until now. I read about it, and it is pretty terrifying. I hope they will figure out what is causing it and fix it soon.

[@Treecake1]

Scott''s Video is so clutch. I respect his work and passion for it. Not only doing this insane detailed video but also subtitle it and provides all the sources. He deserves so much more attention, he totally could've left the video how it is, but all this extra work... just so clutch for you. Mad probs to Scott, the hero.

[@imablisy]

Legend!

[@frankfort332]

The fact this is infinitely closer to a 100% ideal run than before RNG manipulations were a thing, I feel terrible for the people that had to do this soft resetting for something useable, and Citadark Isle must've been annoying as hell in XD.

[@vanesslifeygo]

To be fair, their opponents also suffered from non-ideal IVs, which balanced things out just slightly

[@imablisy]

Hey everyone, just want to provide a pinned post with resources and thanks here. www.youtube.com/@ScottMtc - ScottMtCs youtube channel. Provided many of the sources I used, and has an excellent video on the JAA Meta. web.archive.org/web/20210621211026/pastebin.com/7aVLngX7 - ScottMtCs pastebin. web.archive.org/web/20061122121932/www.pokemonelite2000.com/event_partyofthedecade5.html Pokemon Elite 2000s text transcript of the final battle. pastebin.com/XSuk7yzA - Mihns nationals warstory. www.youtube.com/@nickharperpkmn2064 - Misdreavus / Nick Harpers youtube channel, where full video of the finals can be found. UPDATE: Mihn has reached out to me, and confirmed he did not use PokeRus, the Emerald Clone Glitch, and had no one to trade with. So all testing was done solo.

[@F00LSG0LD215]

This is the kinda content you could made golden if you could of found even a little old footage of Any ONE of these gen3 events. Then overlay that with interviews people who went. Maybe a re-creation of the national champ's win plus a edited up version of what your doing at the end maybe even faux recreate the whole "tourney" or a gen3 only tourney with same rules across multiple poke'tubers.. I think many people would LOVE a retelling of the pokemon's FIRST national champs from each Generation!! I remember even Gen1 did some a national circuit too. It came to the mall you played 2 other contestants either level 100 which you had to get too or if you had low level pokemon were auto set to level 50. Everything but MEW was okay. Once you beat two other contestants you faced down a "gym leaders" like event heads if you beat them you got a gift mew and a book with two Gym badges on it. IF you traveled around to other Malls and gained all 8 badges you gain an entry into to national Tourney IN NYC to play to become the FIRST national pokemon MASTER in USA... I always wondered what happened to that did it bare a real competition

[@tbolt__]

I took a look at the transcripts of the final battles, and noticed that in the 12 and under section, one of the participants was Aziz Al-Yami, aka Hax$. I knew that he used to be a Pokémon TCG competitor, but I didn't know that he was also super competitive in the video games as well!

[@Zaros96]

Is there any way that you can show the duplication glitch in ruby and sapphire or was it footage from emerald?

[@imablisy]

@@Zaros96 I’ve got a video on my channel about it. It’s only in Japanese RS

[@Zaros96]

@@imablisy Thanks

[@francescaparent6052]

I really love how this video is organised into sections; such a simple thing that improves the video a lot! And of course, that whole research segment in the beginning... I didn't expect finding the info in the first place to be such an odyssey! I appreciate your dedication! :D

[@sweatyburger]

i’ve rewatched this 4 times now, it’s so good and informational. you’re killing it

[@JoeSmith-db4rq]

The one thing I want to highlight that this video doesn’t get too involved with is team changes. “My Mewtwo was good, but it kept getting outsped… I want to keep it *exactly the same* but Timid instead of Modest”. Whelp, there goes another play through of FireRed, full play through of XD for Explosion, and all of the associated RNG manip and training needed for it (and probably even needing to get pokerus again). It’s a tiny change that would force you to spend HOURS on it. And in gen 9? Just spend 20k on a mint and BOOM you’re done. It was super hard to test teams without doing all of these ridiculous steps too and it would be so demoralizing to realize something wasn’t good once you spent ages getting it. Definitely glad to have some improvements now :)

[@JunkWarrior797]

Nowdays you can even learn egg moves with an ítem. Thank Arceus you can build your team in 7 days at max now (or even a day sometimes )

[@imablisy]

yeah it's crazy!

[@dark12ain]

Arceus is the best in series

[@naomiseadragon2676]

Damn, the amount of time and real world money it took to get pokemon for competitive play in gen 3 is insane! Thanks again for shining a light on this; this was a very well made video that shows that GF really didn't think about the ease of playablility when it came to designing competitive teams. I'm so glad that things got better over time! The RNG manupulation was really cool to see to; who knew you could get really good pokemon this way!

[@MediumDSpeaks]

My brother was the 1st winner at the 1st stop in Miami, FL, and I the 1st runner up in the under 12 class of the JAA. We went together to New York, suddenly both 12 and fighting the adults. My brother lost in the first round to an "online winner" which is pathetic because while tournament contestants won a literal official tournament in person, all it required to be an online winner was to be the first and fastest in your area to complete a Pokémon quiz on their official website a couple months before the New York trip. Also, we both received almost one of a kind Gameboy Micros with Pikachus on the back that as far as I can tell we're only sold in Japan, and ours were in English, so must have only been given to winners and runners up, meaning we had some of the rarest Pokémon merch in history. I lost mine, borrowed his, and then lost that one as well.

[@Ddddddddddd381]

WOW based on the length I thought it was a livestream. Blisy the 🐐

[@imablisy]

nope, full video!!!

[@Nephyyy]

Fantastic video! Thanks for all your time and effort!

[@imablisy]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@celestialsylveon6453]

As a kid I stumbled upon to the Emerald rematch system slightly by discovering going in and out of Victory Road can make Wally want to rematch, that's how I used to grind to level 100 back then. The Battle Pike being the easiest checks out it's the only silver medal I got back then!

[@Haydunn]

GOAT video. The level of effort that goes into this truly blew my mind

[@imablisy]

Thank you Haydunn. I hope you liked Hulk Hogan.

[@Phoenixesse]

I’ve been watching your team builder videos ever since you came out with that third one, and all of them just get better and better. I love how this one was also sort of formatted like a documentary, and all of the detail you put in to researching such an early tournament. Especially with not as much information to go off of because of how far back it was. The amount of time and effort for especially this team is crazy, and I can’t say enough how incredible that is to sink all of that in, on top of making a super entertaining video with fun editing. Not only that, but the interview, and again, the research is so impressive and great content. I hope you had just as much fun making the video as I had watching! Hoping the best for your channel, it really is such a hidden gem that I wish more people knew of!

[@themudkipmando4125]

These are getting better and better each time, keep up the great work.

[@imablisy]

Thanks mando

[@Kobazco]

Not done with the vid yet, but just wanna say I love all the inclusions of the game's decomps for showing how the code works :) as someone who works with the decomp a lot nowadays its really neat to see all this included.

[@imablisy]

the decomp tells the truth

[@shadowtheimpure]

Ah, the "Toxic Stall Shuckle". A setup that coined the phrase "Don't fuckle with the Shuckle".

[@driftwood42]

This is perfect timing for me. I'm starting over in emerald and want to finally beat the battle frontier for the first time. I decided to play on emulator just so I could specifically see the IVs without having to manually check each time. I also needed to figure out how breeding worked in that game too. So thank you for doing all this work. Edit: LOL I just got to the part where you discuss your feelings on the battle frontier.

[@imablisy]

fuck the frontier i will never get all the golds again lol

[@PrinceDinoboy]

​​@@imablisy Same, but specifically the Battle Pyramid. Screw that place. Even with save states and speedup it's a nightmare. 70 was way too many floors and that facility specifically was just infuriating and not fun.

[@leroux2343]

Yeah, I’m sold. Subbed and wanna see more. Amazing work and dedication went into just one challenge: A monumental one at that. Loved all of it.

[@taoulous4265]

Been going through some of your videos and gotta say you make really good content. Quality is good and even for someone who has no idea about most of the stuff you talk about it feels very easy to follow. Keep up the good work man.

[@imablisy]

Thanks I appreciate it.

[@MasterQuestMaster]

2:28 lol Ryan Trahan is here, probably because of his Penny Series which is a journey across America with only 1 penny.

[@jaren12072]

0:18 I had to rewind the video like 12 times because I kept focusing on Hulk Hogan and not hearing what you said.

[@jellal5547]

Back when "DLC" and "Paywalls" existed before they were even called as such

[@imablisy]

yeah they just sold you more games LOL

[@BlazingDiancie]

At the very least, they didnt lock pokemon behind DLC. People with the DLC can still trade you pokemon from DLC areas.

[@Hydrocannon]

@@imablisy Even then, you couldn't even fully enjoy them, as E-reader cards and related in-game mechanics and wireless distribution required content were still locked even if you bought all the games!

[@TWLSpark]

People cry when they see the word DLC in Pokemon nowadays, but honestly, I think it's the lesser of the two evils compared to the aggressive monetization scheme of gen 3. I shudder to think how would gen 9 would look like if they were still doing the same stuff they did back then.

[@lucamibel]

Your dedication to this series is amazing!!!

[@alexanderdejesus4986]

I loved the Absol lvl 100 Gauntlet call out, I realized what was happening immediately

[@thedude7319]

I always found it weird pro pokeplayers knew so much about the game, no wonder. damn they got phd with all that grinding

[@Snubbybill]

55:30 I cracked up here XD I hope Matt watches these, your Competitive team building and his Lv 100 Gauntlet and "Movie" videos are some of my favorites on youtube.

[@imablisy]

Thanks!

[@ElvencloudYT]

As someone who does RNG manipulation in card games - your timing is very well done. At least in my RNG, I can find seed windows with multiple backups - double frame perfect with LONG waits? You have some skill, my dude.

[@imablisy]

this is very nice to read, good comment thank you

[@Nico_rod23]

I remember a while ago I mentioned in one of your videos the idea of doing a competitive team on gen 3, and I’m so excited to see how the process went! Also mad respect for actually doing it, raising anything competitive in gen 3 is so daunting, amazing video! 🙌🏼🙌🏼

[@imablisy]

Thanks

[@adam667time]

Is that hulk hogan? at 54:35 ????

[@danielmoody4925]

The absolblogspokemon reference was perfect! Great videos as ever keep it up!

[@imablisy]

Thanks! Love his videos.

[@exoburrit0]

the absolblogs reference was absolutely goated

[@imablisy]

I like his videos they are good

[@ItsAnGoose]

Incredible effort put in to this vid! Sometimes I consider having a crack at the old Emerald Frontier but then I remember how agonising it is building these teams in gen 3 😭

[@nelsondaily]

Dang, what a journey to just get one team. Respect!

[@theSato]

I've become addicted to your videos man. I hope you keep making them and feel free to branch out to other pokemon or competitive game content, hope you arent feeling trapped to these team rebuilding videos

[@imablisy]

I am not, I like making them. They are a good routine for me, but aprils video is definitely going to be different.

[@WipZedKay]

Having seen the process of doing this legitimately in your previous videos about older generations, yeah I think I would also modify my save/pokemon to skip the team building part… I don’t blame people for doing it after having seen what a slog it can be!

[@miguelzurita3216]

Any competive game, sport, competition can be, it doesnt excuse cheating. Should Pokemon have easier ways to build competive teams, yes they should. Just like everyone else Im so confused why they removed the features from SM and SS that made made team building easier, and reaplaced them with other ways that made it easier. GF should have just been adding features on to features.

[@WipZedKay]

I wouldn't necessarily call modded Pokémon or saves cheating. All you're ''cheating'' is faster methods to acquire them. If they have legit natures, abilities, EVs and IVs then they're normal Pokémon acquired through alternative means. The skill of competitive comes from understand the turn based gameplay and your experience and knowledge about it, not from spending hundreds of hours to complete ONE team that might not even like! Look at CS:GO or DOTA 2. Every gun and hero is available to your from the start. Your mastery comes from the gameplay, not spending time unlocking the tools to achieve it.

[@robertharris6092]

​@@miguelzurita3216 increasing accesability to a competition that doesnt give an advantage during the competition is always moraly correct.

[@miguelzurita3216]

@@WipZedKay comparing a shooter to Pokemon is like comparing an apple to an orange, cheating in Pokemon is still wrong, but i wont defend GF for making their games so grindy, I hate that aspect of Pokemon.

[@floracoffea]

Oh, what a blast from the past, I participated in this as a kiddo! It was uh… definitely one of the first times I realized I was not particularly well off. I only had two Gen 3 games at the time and couldn’t even really afford Internet so I just went by my guidebook and got slammed soooo hard lol. There are entire aspects of the game, even fairly mundane things like EVs/IVs, that worked in the background that were wholly inaccessible to me that some nice older kids/teens there explained to me. Weirdly validating in retrospect, so thank you! :)

[@imablisy]

Awesome!

[@ArtisChronicles]

The only times I contracted pokerus outside of cheating was once in Crystal and once in Shield. Extremely lucky and I didn't know I had it until I visited the pokecenter.

[@frownyclowny6955]

Ah, another video based around my special interest centering on a topic that I didn’t even know existed. Quality content.

[@carrotkid1]

Im a big fan of your pure dedication, I found this channel 6 months ago and made me bust out my old ds with white on it, thanks man!

[@imablisy]

Welcome aboard!

[@munchrai6396]

Loved this video. The variety and depth put on display here has an impressive amount of breadth, which must've been a real pain to cover this many bases just to compare all the different possible methods one could use to build a team like this. Loved the segment on held item/moveset acceptance at 53:50. If a strategy works, it shouldn't be looked down upon as long as it's within the rules of play. While I do agree that being forced to play a game multiple times just to get multiple copies of a move is ridiculous I also really like the existence of game exclusive moves because they give said games some extra value and act as an extra benefit for owning the game. That being said, it is entirely understandable to not allow these moves in later generations especially considering how hard they would be to find nowadays. As long as I'm still allowed to transfer the Pokemon into the latest gen unchanged, I am perfectly content with not being able to use it in ranked battles. Pokemon with moves from XD or the 3DS Virtual console are stuff that you just cannot get anymore and that makes them incredibly fun to show off in the newest games and it would absolutely suck if we could no longer keep transferable moves throughout the generations

[@imablisy]

The benefit for owning the game should be playing the game. Exclusive moves and mons within a generation is unacceptable full stop.

[@scraps7624]

Trying to complete a living dex in this gen is a pain, I can't even begon to imagine completing a competitive team

[@imablisy]

good thing I imagined it for you

[@DieAlteistwiederda]

Very true. I never even completed the dex in this gen I can't imagine going for something like this. I'm not strong enough to deal with that much grinding which is probably why competitive battles were never really my thing

[@thevenom2731]

​@@DieAlteistwiederda I completed the dex in Emerald about a year ago. I used the cloning glitch to get a bunch of rare candies and bypass the grind.

[@shinycollector]

“For reasons unknown to both man and god” Im weak 💀 Incredible video as always! You really have the balance of information and entertainment down!

[@imablisy]

I appreciate that :)

[@pondr3225]

Excellent video as always, Blisy. This was quite eye opening, especially on how broken Emerald is in general. Like, Jesus, not just the RNG but the battle factory, too? There has to be a 'Pokemon Bug Fixed Emerald' romhack somewhere

[@imablisy]

Pokeemerald decomp has options for all the bug fixes

[@CdnMoose3482]

Thank you for this amazing video Blisy! Gen 3 is by far my favourite and watching you crack it open with RNG to produce an OG tournament winning team was a real treat! Watching your videos over the years has inspired me to RNG manip in gen 3 and I've built up my own little collection of 4, 5 and 6 IV shinies which I'm pretty proud of.

[@imablisy]

That’s awesome!

[@AndrewH1994]

now if only we could get a SINGLE pokemon game each generation, and it could let you make a few key choices where you select one pokemon, the other becomes unobtainable for the rest of that playthrough, then there would still be reasons to trade with people, it would add more benefit to Pokemon home, and allow people to only need 1 pokemon game and home to get every pokemon. that, and gen 9 still needs a way to reset EVs like in gen 8’s first DLC… I’ll never know why neither game included that in THE BASE GAME! I just want comp pokemon to be easily accessible for people who WANT to go to tournaments, and not just the online battling where renting a team is quickest pick up and play option. maybe allow rented teams that conform to the format to be allowed at tournaments? IDK, I don’t have a perfect solution, but making these tournaments easier to prepare for is the crucial first step into having a more inclusive scene

[@KopperNeoman]

Modern politics has fucking ruined me, I read "inclusive scene" and immediately thought you were trying to exclude people who didn't conform. Honestly, the top VGCers will always cheat. They're cheaters. Even if you put a battle sim mode into the game and ran VGCs with it, they'd still try and cheat.

[@DarthFhenix55]

4:47 A Snorlax nicknamed Empanada is something I never thought I would see.

[@imablisy]

Y

[@WingedEspeon]

And remember, this time is a small fraction of the time it would have taken if you were to soft reset and compromise. And IIRC remember there were no RNG search tools for fire red/leaf green at the time.

[@jacquelineking5783]

Yeah it is an interesting video but he actually isn't quite giving the authentic experience of someone back then because of the RNG manipulation. I don't blame him because yeah that seems like it would be hell.

[@ryguy-qh2qk]

This guy really defines “it’s the journey that counts, not the destination” 😂

[@yommmrr]

Love these videos. I wish there was 100 generations because I'd watch you build a team for each of them.

[@elNatoo]

The AbsolBlogs segment was so good lmao

[@imablisy]

thank you

[@michael_betts]

On the macho brace vs exp share. When I made pokemon for my 100% battle frontier I would use macho on the lead and 5 exp shares on the rest of the party (traded from all the games I had to beat for full Pokedex)

[@TheGamemonkey505]

I'm so excited to watch this. Been looking forward to it for weeks

[@imablisy]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@ShinyGBZ]

Can't believe you're still doing these teambuilding challenges! I got exhausted just WATCHING the Gen 5 one, but Gen 3 has definitely blown things out of proportion lol! I don't know if you'd ever re-try a Gen 5 teambuild, but from what I hear the RNG in B2W2 is a bit harder and more inconsistent than vanilla black and white, and I'm curious to see how much longer it would take in B2W2!

[@ShadowKaiserin]

FINALLY GEN 3! 😀I know it takes forever, and I know you had a terrible time of it, but there's something oddly charming about the first generation that resembles our modern competitive landscape. I fully admit, I'm biased as hell towards this generation, just because I enjoy the atmosphere so much that I don't mind the time it takes to get decent Pokémon. Maybe that's why competitive battling never stuck with me, I enjoyed building the teams and getting them battle ready more than I enjoyed actually battling other people.

[@imablisy]

I had a fun time until I had to level up

[@dse763]

After what was basically "journey into the distortion world", next step will gen 2 and gen 1 ... which will be funny considering those two are quite different in the stats department. Also, I don't know which team you will try to mimic for those two.

[@The_Mister_E]

Unfortunately Gen 2 has a variable that can't be manipulated, but Blisy has a video manipulating the generation of a Zapdos using a list of movements before encountering. I have no idea if it works for random encounters though.

[@sunnywaffles]

This is so fun. And now i know you stream on YT you got a viewer. Your style of video and absolvlog is that real YT feel

[@imablisy]

Thanks!

[@yupekosi]

You deserve way, WAY more views for the amount of effort you put into these team building videos

[@imablisy]

I'm trying lol

[@ruie.34]

I had the biggest smile on my face hearing the level 100 gauntlet intro play

[@mjoulnir8950]

Damn this video is insane. I’ve always been interested in competitive Pokémon, however I was only truly able to get into it in S/V. I too have noticed that breeding and egg moves have been made insanely easy, which is nice, but it’s amazing to see the lengths the past trainers had to go to get their teams ready. Great video, earned a sub from me👍🏾

[@imablisy]

Thank you

[@redcoat6698]

Good vid ✌🏻 I laughed at the rare candy duping at the end lol

[@minutosdesapercibidosesp-e4508]

Man i thought you would just talk about it and explain all these mechanics which would already require a LOT of work (i know because i'm also a pokenerd who already knew a lot of these) but i never expected you to be up to the task, i sure am not! Respects for you and for Enchilada

[@imablisy]

Thank you

[@Leto85]

Very interesting stuff. Pokémon seems very pay to win this way.

[@imablisy]

it's messed up

[@kirby-magolor]

Man you need more recognition the things you do are really cool and show the evolution of competitive pokemon

[@The_Mister_E]

Honestly, it blows my mind how you got that pokerus. Here's hoping a setup gets found some day! Probably similar odds to getting a GBA-PC USB link cable that works like the GBA-GCN cable...

[@KopperNeoman]

IIRC, the latency of USB has engineering issues for that.

[@The_Mister_E]

@@KopperNeoman From what I've read, getting the data to the computer is possible, but getting the data out of it in a timely manner is not. Here's hoping we get direct data streaming over USB some day.

[@pacifierjunkee6016]

Excellent video. Gen 3 has my favorite aesthetic and adventures (Kanto & Hoenn), so I've spent more time here than the other gens. Despite how frustrating the breeding process and Frontier can be, I find myself enjoying them once I'm satisfied with a team I bred, trained and won with. Also, super neat to learn about the ditto ev training exploit and the Frontier gambler. Didn't know about those. Probably just added another 100 hours to my Emerald save. heh

[@PaigeLTS05]

The RNG manipulation for Groudon and Rayquaza reminds me of Dragon Quest 9 and the grotto chest timers. If you remember grotto chest timers, you know...

[@KopperNeoman]

That game not having full online multiplayer hurts even worse. LAN only is better than nothing, but all I can play with is myself these days.

[@Lobotomistmankyeh]

as someone who never played competitive pokemon at all until downloading pokemon showdown about a year ago..... this is why

[@studi3249]

Competive pokemon is expensive but I also think that one factor that can be overlooked is having friends that have other games to get viable pokemon/ having ds as well to trade etc

[@armyofninjas9055]

Real pokemon trainers don't have friends. We have 2 consoles and multiple game copies.

[@ListerMean]

There's something time-capsule-y about this video in seeing Leonheart's I'm Done video when you were researching. Full little intersection there haha

[@aporue5893]

the two words that take the joy out of pokemon games:''competitive play''

[@sultanofswing44]

I like to imagine misdrievous was just sitting there waiting patiently for an hour for the interview to start.

[@Legendary-st9of]

Replaying XD twice just for 2 self destruct tm's💀

[@imablisy]

VERY COOL

[@Hydrocannon]

You have to finish Emerald and it's Hoenn Dex THRICE to get all 3 Johto starters, then another 3 save files split between FR & LG to get all 3 Johto legendary roamers. Or complete Mount Battle in XD 3 times for all 3 johto starters knowing elemental hyper beams (and an egg move).

[@imablisy]

@@Hydrocannon You can get all 3 in colo

[@Hydrocannon]

@@imablisy I mean, yeah? But not everybody had a GC, Colo, XD & GC GBA link cable.

[@RN-xt1ds]

This was...monumental my man! I'm speechless... Keep it up the good work!!!

[@imablisy]

thanks it fucked me up

[@chavaspada]

One thing you didn't mention (or I missed it) is that when EV training on Gen III you have to be careful to just go to 252 instead of 255 (which was the limit) because if you maxed out your IVs to 255 you're essentially throwing away those 3 extra IVs.

[@RA109E]

What amazes me is that back in those days Info on competitive teams, Pokémon and movesets was so hard to come by. I remember when I was a kid looking through forums and looking to see what was out there. It was truly a different time to what it is now, nowadays all the info on the games is out on launch day.

[@lordfungus12]

i had no idea ditto also copied the given EVs of the pokemon it transformed into... now thats some obscure trivia. love seeing your RNG manips in action too theyre like magic tricks

[@65mustangfan4]

Holy crap man I was watching this and the quality is so good I just assumed u had lime 300k subs till u asked everyone to hit the button, good luck with you're goal ik you're gonna smash through it

[@vertquino2882]

insane how this used to be what it took to train mons pre gen 6. nowadays its so easy

[@imablisy]

Yep