Pokémon Crystal AI Tournament - Scientifically Ranking the Pokémon Crystal Trainers

I ran a tournament of all the NPC trainers from Pokémon Crystal using their parties and AI from the original game, then ranked them based on their results.
Some links that may be of interest to you:
My Twitter (as long as that site continues to exist...): / pimanrules
The code for this project: github.com/jsettlem/elo_world...
Half-hearted instructions for running the code: github.com/jsettlem/elo_world...
@DJMykah , who all the music in this video is from: djmykah.com/
Credits for various Creative Commons things used in this video: github.com/jsettlem/elo_world...
Convenient timestamps:
0:00 - Intro
1:03 - How the AI works
11:12 - Implementing the battle system
12:32 - What is a disassembly?
14:37 - The exciting world of swapping memory addresses
19:11 - Battle mosaic
19:57 - Running the battles
21:40 - Trainer card summary
23:20 - Tournament results
44:38 - Top 16 tournament
59:32 - The Grand Finals
1:01:49 - The Hall of Fame
1:11:27 - Trainers in game order
1:12:24 - Outro
Corrections:
48:08 - I showed the wrong trainer card on screen here. This did not affect the tournament itself, and it's corrected in the next round.

[@lefthandedscout9923]

Red's "Greatest Victory: VS Red. Worst Defeat: VS Red" is one of the coldest fucking lines I've ever seen from a scientific project

[@wellhellothere8993]

Same with many of the S Ranks like Lance and Gary they all have themselves as their greatest loss and greatest win due to the nature of the double round robin style

[@ludgerkres.1437]

I can't believe you missed Janine's greatest win being her father, and Koga's greatest loss being his daughter.

[@SquattingxBear]

That's dope, I didnt notice that either!

[@jchadwick4918]

Heartwarming.

[@joaquinmtz1027]

Biggest loss, not only Elo-related but emotional as well

[@Yeah_itsJohn]

​@@joaquinmtz1027 emo-rating

[@BynineStudio]

i wonder how she won? i looked at their teams and they're really similar, but with Janine's team at lower levels and swapping out Forretress for another Weezing. maybe because she relies less on toxic?

[@MrGeorgeFlorcus]

Over 600,000 battles, and Red never lost a single one. This means that, canonically, in the Gen 1 games, Red actually did it. He actually, literally, became the very best, like NO ONE ever was.

[@kjoeyb.]

Well it’s largely due to level inflation lmfao

[@WildCharger]

@@kjoeyb. dun matter why, the point is it’s true

[@kjoeyb.]

@@WildCharger at level 100 each Pokémon ev trained blue is arguably stronger as his Pokémon have the same BST or higher than all of red’s it matters a lot.

[@kjoeyb.]

@@WildCharger atop of this, the majority of blues Pokémon are considered high tier in smog on single battle format, whereas the majority of reds team aside from espeon is considered uu and below. Blues team is just stronger if the playing field is leveled and both had unlimited time to maximize their teams stats.

[@kjoeyb.]

@@WildCharger while red does have the single best Pokémon in snorlax on his team, blues team has counter play in Rhydon resisting, eggy sleeping or exploding (which halves defense in gen 2), or alakazam encore locking

[@someguy7582]

If you're wondering how Janine vs. Koga went down: Janine's Crobat nearly swept through Koga's entire team before falling to Koga's opposing Crobat, his last Pokemon. She then sent out Weezing and used Explosion to win the battle. It wasn't even close.

[@hiimemily]

That's cold-blooded. Her dad should be proud.

[@MrMcMuggel]

thanks for the battlereport guy7582

[@spindash64]

Alakazam: “I looked into the future, and saw 600,000 possible universes” Blue: “in how many do we win?” Alakazam: _“…none”_

[@Smalltummywonderful]

Sad, dark, but true! Blue never had a chance to beat Red!

[@femkeyt2635]

Haha, this was my first thought too.

[@OdaSwifteye]

Imagine how brutal that would be. You can't beat your longtime rival. Not even in the alternative universes where he's a jar of jam or something.

[@cryochick9044]

I'm honestly tempted to go through and see if it's possible for Blue to not algorithmically but mathematically. Make each blue attack be 100 each red attack be 85, and just see if the math says blue can win without red missing everything

[@gavros9636]

@@cryochick9044 Theoretically if Blue hits all his attacks, gets max damage on each attack, red misses all attacks with >100 accuracy and red gets the minimum damage from each attack... maybe, just maybe, but I'd have to run the damage calculations to be sure of that... the damage spread isn't that wide really. The big problem is that this is effectively a 6v5, it's as if Red leads with Pikachu intentionally because in gen 1 Blue always led with Pidgeot.

[@TooMuchDad]

Younger Joey is ranked #151, a subtle nod to him being grown in a lab to be the strongest trainer in the universe, just like Mewtwo

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

(Un)fortunately, the creature was born with arrogance, and doesn't act to maximize its potential, instead insisting on winning with Youngster Joey.

[@ratchael9376]

Except Mewtwo isn't even #151

[@Kriae]

If anything it's hinting at him having a mutated clone somewhere

[@altreon3608]

​@@aprinnyonbreak1290 he's still just a kid, just wait for ace trainer joey 🙏

[@ryanrzjr]

SPOILERS But honestly its very poetic that Blue bullies the entire Johto region, defeats Silver after mocking him with those fury swipes and as he walks away, smug in his victory, he meets his rival from all those years ago who goes on to humiliate him.

[@kotzpenner]

He actually killed more of Red’s Pokémon than I expected.

[@LucianDevine]

@@kotzpenner For sure. Def went better than I expected. I did not expected him to get past the Espeon. Then I saw the Snorlax, and I was like...Oh...yeah...

[@Lunaraia]

@@LucianDevine To be fair, if he hadn't roared, the leech seed would have gotten him past Snorlax. Although that would just mean Blastoise would show up and that would be it.

[@LucianDevine]

@@Lunaraia Maybe maybe not. He likely would have exhausted all of his non Roar PP and had to Roar.

[@fntthesmth423]

I kinda gotta wonder if Red started to feel uncomfortable around the 300k battles mark. Like, Blue goes to start their 600kth battle Red: .........look, are you sure-- Blue: Oh don't _you_ fucking start!! Red: ......¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@TaismoFanBoy]

7:30 the overly complicated arrow for "don't use this move" is hilarious

[@michael_betts]

Imagine if the AI did use thief. You'd lose a leftovers permanently.

[@fntthesmth423]

You can really feel the tedium of him having to sit down at his computer and make all those graphs lol

[@Az.Or.]

Blue's Rhydon trolling Silver's Alakazam with fury attack, before deciding he's had enough messing around and using earthquake is the most Blue thing I've ever seen.

[@shadowtitanx3962]

There’s a reason people nickname him funny things. Cus, Blue is an ass.

[@skorupigo5544]

fr

[@riccardomosena4162]

and also the most human thing xD

[@sirswagabadha4896]

Dude's climbing into the finals and still wants to play with his food

[@justsomeone2303]

​@@sirswagabadha4896and then got destroyed by his completely silent rival lmao

[@DJEevee257]

We need a level 50 only version now, we'll see how Red does if he can't have his level advantage

[@frogthejam2472]

He still has good type coverage, he would probably be at least top 16

[@minion2225]

i feel like this is a must for these videos, aside from a handful of trainers there's really nothing surprising about how this goes with the in-game levels

[@andrewbrown9981]

Red has the best pokemon in Gen 2 snorlax

[@vampire_catgirl]

I'm very interested in this

[@Kozmic_CL]

@@minion2225 It's interesting in terms of analysis, plus the previous video had some crazy matchups thanks to silly AI oversights. I think if he were to do a lvl 50 version it should be only with the important trainers. There's really no point in making a bunch of rattatas and sentrets with tackle only artificially leveled up to lvl 50 imo.

[@PhysicsGamer]

This really does put Red into perspective. He's gotten so good that he cannot lose to _literally_ anyone in his world, if he's trying. He must have gotten bored. And unlike us, he can't escape to a different video game.

[@a-s-greig]

Unless--

[@Medlek]

​@@a-s-greigoh no

[@kjoeyb.]

Well, he does win solely by level inflation lmfao

[@requiem6465]

​@@kjoeyb.Still the sentiment remains. He took 0 Ls

[@TwilightFlower9]

well he does escape to gen 7 eventually lol

[@Dstorm20xx]

I love how the Swimmer Nikki battle stays running even as the other battles get replaced as the list moves up.

[@albireothestarthebacklight2990]

Those Seel, Seel, Seel and Dewgong really know Rest, huh?

[@maskofthedragon]

The tournament ending with a Snorlax bullying the opponent is the most Gen 2 thing ever

[@gladoseon4117]

There’s a reason that not only it’s number one in OU, but in Ubers as well

[@electrifiedbathbomb7383]

Having red and blue duke it out in literal purgatory was kinda a bittersweet end of their rivalry

[@hellboy19991]

has the same power as vegeta admitting goku is stronger

[@m4rcyonstation93]

pikachu i’ve come to bargain

[@Draezeth]

Purgatory has a way out. This was the inferno.

[@jersont.3339]

​@@Draezethit was more of a limbo until he didn't accept he was weaker than red he would never get out of there

[@kitsuneprincess4637]

These are easily the best subtitles I've ever seen in a video. Incredibly accurate text, very comfortable timings, blanking when talking is over for long enough, short blanking between repeated phrases to denote the repetition, and most of all, THE SUBTITLES ARE ACTUALLY MOVED OUT OF THE WAY OF IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON-SCREEN. And for a video that's over an hour long, no less! As a person who has audio processing issues who relies pretty heavily on subtitles, but who can also hear well enough to often notice tiny inaccuracies in transcription, this was an absolute delight. Thank you so much for putting so much effort into a part of the video most people will never see. It means the absolute world to me to see efforts like this being made, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. And on top of all of this, actually shouting out enbies and not treating it as a joke? What more could I ever ask for? Absolutely love these videos, can't wait to see what you put out next! Hopefully a level-equalized version of this like you did with Gen I? Whatever it is, I look forward to it!

[@fntthesmth423]

Good subtitles are SO hard to find--thank you for reminding me that they're there and that they're so good! I specifically care a lot about subtitles and even for me its hard to really NOTICE when they're that good because they just seamlessly convey what's going on so perfectly

[@solsystem1342]

Heck yeah, love me some accessibility and inclusivity❤ I don't have any disabilities related to hearing but, my retention of the information still goes up with more sources of information since dissociation can screw with my brain's connection to my senses as well as my thoughts😅 Can't tell you how often subtitles in a video game for voice barks have saved me. Honestly the option is just good for everyone.

[@mizusenshi8172]

It's crazy that in over 600,000 battles between Blue and Red, Blue never won one time, but I think the level difference is probably just too great. Also just the fact that Snorlax is such a tank and can heal with Rest. Smart AI indeed.

[@Robbie_Haruna]

Red's team isn't even particularly great, the AI just can't deal with that huge level difference.

[@phoenixvance6642]

I wonder if a situation could be engineered where blue always crits, gets max damage, and causes hax if possible, and red always misses, never causes hax, and rolls min damage if possible, if that would result in red losing. Most of the moves red has are 100 accuracy, which is a big issue, unfortunately

[@nicholasmartin6526]

@@MHruskamusic Basicly a worst case scenario for Red.For example everytime a confused pokemon attacks Red it works but every time one attacks Blue it hurts itself. Same for para and max turns possible for sleep/freeze.

[@astracrits4633]

@@MHruskamusic Basically, hax is when everything that can go wrong for you *does.* Every Ice Beam freezes you, every Headbutt flinches you, every move with a chance to miss *always* misses, paralyzed or confused Pokemon can ever act. Obviously it's not just limited to that, but those are pretty common examples.

[@furiouscorgi6614]

​@@MHruskamusicrandomness. In this context, Red will have negative luck. Flinches are constant, crits are hit, etcetera

[@twoqueersplay]

The sheer poetry of Koga's worst loss being to his own daughter

[@axl256gamesx7]

It's actually beautiful A father defeated by his daughter, i think most people would be proud being in that situation

[@VorseRaiderStrike]

@@axl256gamesx7 But also in a vacuum absolutely hilarious that he took a promotion, got replaced in his original station by his daughter, and then got his ass whooped by her

[@ZorotheGallade]

"Dad stop blowing up your Pokémon on turn one" "Haha explosion go brrrr"

[@violetstarsign]

Honorable mention to Claire vs Lance in the first round of the finals. Actually canon.

[@ZorotheGallade]

@@violetstarsign The Dragon Masters only use Hyper Beam because it's the best move, no reason to ever use anything else

[@onekoff8480]

I find it pretty symbolic that Blue being a "Ground gym leader", despite having a very diverse team with strong pokemon, has the greatest success with Rhydon.

[@Justpassingby204]

Earthquake is such a good move

[@windhelmguard5295]

@@Justpassingby204 the quake-slide combo is a staple on pretty much every pokemon that can learn these two moves to this day, being basically the physical equivalent to bolt-beam

[@dragonstar9125]

@@windhelmguard5295 More quake-Stone edge, but yeah ground/rock is a killer combo

[@windhelmguard5295]

@@dragonstar9125 i rarely see people using stone-miss though

[@dragonstar9125]

@@windhelmguard5295 Play Pokemon showdown for about a week or so and it'll be pretty clear I might also be thinking of exclusively higher tiered mons like Garchomp and Groudon since I tend to only play higher tiers in modern Pokemon generations, but even in VGC people used edge over slide since it hits wayyy more damage thresholds

[@shapstuh]

I don’t even wanna imagine the after effects file, that slide ranking animation is really cool

[@pimanrules]

I refuse to pay for Creative Cloud, it's Blender 🙂

[@bmac4]

​@@pimanrulesGigachad

[@mds_main]

@@pimanrules If I may, ever thought of using a vertical slide instead of an horizontal one? For better visibility of the cards.

[@techngamin]

​@@pimanrulesbased

[@StewMain6]

Youngster Joey’s improvement is actually quite impressive. If he chose a Pokémon other than Raticate, he might actually have become a Pokémon ace trainer

[@hiimemily]

If he bothered to catch even one more Pokémon, he'd be Cooltrainer level by the last rematch. Unfortunately, he insists on using just the single Raticate.

[@dotwarner17]

He couldn't find any other pokemon to be a worthy teammate to that top percentage Rattata.

[@imkingnoobuwu4326]

I mean he coulda have 3 pokemon, rattacate, butterfree and pidgot

[@imkingnoobuwu4326]

If he got more. Oh god he could genuinely bw elite 4 level With adding nido king, golem and beedrill alongside his raticate. Pidiot and butter free.. that would tuen him into elite 4 material

[@restinpeacetechno5291]

blasphemy

[@Curleyconcon]

Hearing Red's theme slowly build as you talked about fighting stronger opponents was actually hype as hell, let alone the fact that this somehow ended with Red vs. Blue.

[@lucasgreer1736]

Misty's performance against lance was impressive Also I had no idea that joey got hyper beam eventually his ratatta truly became top %

[@ghetoknight7801]

Yeah misty clutching against I cant remember and barely losing against lance was a highlight ngm

[@ryanamburgy2791]

@@ghetoknight7801lance still had his Charizard. It wasn’t that close

[@denismcdonald1454]

@@ryanamburgy2791 if Misty had even 1 more pokemon she probably would've won. Pretty cool that Misty of all people could hold her own against Lance. I'd be curious how well her HGSS rematch team would do against Lance.

[@ryanamburgy2791]

@@denismcdonald1454 maybe. She DID mostly do well due to the back to back confusions on the first two dragonites though

[@Jack-sy6di]

was so hype. Really wanted Misty to win

[@bradleywhite886]

The "no signal" using the unknowns was a great touch

[@onadaTotihotiH]

I actually didn't know that Gen 2 had rematches scaling beyond the first one, learning that Joey has 5 versions is honestly kinda mindblowing

[@Apfeljunge666]

I love that Hiker Anthony is just up there with all the gym leaders and the rival, terrorizing players with the best of them.

[@happychristian1173]

Random fact: in an early rematch with hiker Anthony he has a level 18 Machamp. Rematch him later and his Machamp becomes a higher level machoke

[@axl256gamesx7]

​@@happychristian1173machoke: oh, i de-evolved

[@happychristian1173]

@@axl256gamesx7 I said I wanted bigger FOREarms, not four arms!

[@_Vengeance_]

This proves Youngster Joey's Rattata is in the top percentage of Rattata, since it beat Youngster Mikey's Rattata who is identical in level + moveset, but also a Pidgey on top of that. Truly, what a beast of a Rattata that is.

[@thattimestampguy]

2:04 10 AI Move Selection-Routines • Basic 2:29 (aka “don’t spam status moves after they take affect”) • Setup 2:44 (aka “prepare for battle before attacking” • Types 2:52 (aka “choose super-effective moves”) • Offensive 3:21 (aka “Keep damaging the opponent”) • Opportunist 3:27 (aka “adjust strategy during the battle to maximize chance of victory.”) • Aggressive 3:33 (aka “do most damage every turn.”) • Cautious 3:43 (aka setting up a status move and then attacking) • Status 3:52 (aka choosing not to use moves which do not effect the opponent) • Risky 3:56 (aka “Go for The KO”) • Smart 4:09 (aka “think then respond accordingly”) *Implementing The Battle System* 11:12 12:36 The Disassembly Process of Video Game Code. 14:38 Meaningful Memory Addresses. 19:07 “Close enough, that’s good enough for me.” *The Pokemon Battle Tournament - How it was created* 19:12 *The Tournament Results* 21:41 23:25 F-Tier: Bug Catcher Don. 24:00 F-Tier: Youngster Joey 26:28 D+ Beauty Girls 27:22 C-: Youngster Joey 28:40 C: Youngster Joey’s Raticate 31:44 B-: Youngster Joey 32:20 B-: Smart Gym Leader Whitney 35:45 B: Lea & Pia 36:46 B+: Hiker Tim’s EXPLOSIVE 🧨 Team 37:21 B+: Youngster Joey’s Best Raticate 39:15 B+: Nikki’s 3 Seels 🦭 🦭 🦭& Dewgong 41:10 A-: The Karate Master 42:12 A-: Gym Leader Jasmine *The Top 27, aka The A+ Trainers of Pokemon Crystal* 43:37 A+: The 27th Best 44:05 A+: Brock, Kanto Region’s Pewter City Gym Leader *The Sweet 16-Single Elimination Bracket* 44:44 Who of the Top 16 will win The Top 16 Tournament? 49:28 Lance vs Clair 53:10 Round 2, The Quarterfinals 57:36 The Semifinals 59:37 Rival ??? vs Leader Blue 1:02:06 Congratulations to The Pokémon Crystal Champion. 🏆 1:03:44 S+ Crystal Champion vs Legendary Trainer Red 🏆 1:07:19 The Great Red 1:08:56 The Blue-Red 637,788 Battles. 1:09:47 Red is The S++ Super Final Boss Champion of Champions. 1:12:00 Thanks and Shout Out

[@dustin202]

Good

[@CorynFields]

From hooking me up to the AI explanation, to making me giggle with each "HUH"'s Pokémon for the rival trainer, to the amazing editing and visuals, I cannot express enough how much I love this video, and all the effort that was put on it Also, gosh, the trainers swapping to the right on the BPM of the song ! Pure audiovisual candy XD

[@MangusMangoman]

Damn, Karen Vs Bruno was such a hype fight. Wasn't expecting that at all

[@anlev11]

I was really expecting Karen to win

[@ernestomarcos0103]

@@anlev11 Bruno's Machamp is too strong so she only really had a shot if Gengar was still alive/Champ was weakened before Houndoom came in. Alas, Vileplume dying to Hitmonlee (and Murkrow lacking Flying STAB) meant that wasn't going to happen.

[@danacwsf]

The one suggestion I would have for future iterations of this (especially if you do a L50 only version), would be to have a badge case in the trainer result cards, and give them a badge if they get one win against a gym leader. Since the goal of human trainers is to get to the E4 and beat the champion, it only makes sense to quickly display where this trainers are not just on raw strength, but in their road to the E4. Does the rival get ahead in medals, or behind? How many medals do gym leaders actually have?

[@lefthandedscout9923]

That's actually a really cool idea

[@HighPriestFuneral]

This is a fantastic idea.

[@baofleurence7650]

I like this idea.

[@mrboerger1620]

Thats fucking fantastic it would be like a power scale for the trainer characters. We'd get to actually see where most trainers stop.

[@appelofdoom8211]

Maybe also give tyem a ribbon or something if they somehow manage to beat an elite four member

[@thegamerdude5610]

2:20 , the shift from "That would be stupid" to "The first routine is called "Basic"", genuinley made me laugh out loud for the first time this week, and after a rough day. Thank you

[@adamussutekh9434]

Joey’s top battle being in 151st place, which is also the number of Pokémon from the 1st generation while using a Pokémon from Gen 1, is almost poetic.

[@Winter_Fan_01]

The human brain is trully designed to find patterns and correlations

[@adamussutekh9434]

@@Winter_Fan_01 you might even say it’s among the human brain’s most interesting abilities

[@dovesr0478]

It's actually wild that Blue never won a single time in 600K+ battles. Like it totally makes sense, especially considering that it's basically a 5v6 because Pidgeot will get obliterated by Pikachu every time, but I really expected at least one god run among all those battles. Would be interested to know how close Blue came to winning during his best fight.

[@shadowtitanx3962]

Blue would need TAS levels of luck to even have a shot of beating Red.

[@MikeTheEntei]

​@@shadowtitanx3962There's a rom hack of Pokemon Crystal where you can steal your opponents' Pokemon, and I basically needed to use a combination of Blue's and Lance's team to beat Red, and even then it took me over five hours, and I was so obsessed with winning that I hadn't even noticed my stream crashed after about two hours of trying, so I had to beat him AGAIN

[@shadowtitanx3962]

@@MikeTheEntei Ah yes. The Smallant vid. Though, he used TMs. This vid does not use TMs/HMs.

[@the_beans_man1524]

You guys know the myth about Sisyphus? The guy who pushes a big rock up a hill only for it to fall back down? I bet Blue feels like Sisyphus. Actually, this has inspired me to make a meme. I shall(might) return.

[@Kozmic_CL]

Just nitpicking here, but since Thunder can fail I assume there were a couple thousands of times where Pidgeot managed to use Whirlwind and maybe a couple dozens of times where he miraculously managed to defeat Pikachu by sheer luck. edit: i said pidgeotto lol

[@Ether199]

It is a little unfortunate to see Cooltrainer Reena glossed over despite being the highest ranked generic trainer, but it's a minor point in the grand scheme of things. Excellent video.

[@Kamilohbk]

He glossed over her as she's a rematch-able trainer

[@PineappleLiar]

Reena for Gym Leader 2023

[@handanyldzhan9232]

Well, that explains why she's quite the sore loser. She's just not used to losing.

[@foggy8298]

You are a lesbian.

[@SquattingxBear]

Justice 4 Cooltrainer Reena!

[@Z4gle]

The way you set up the pan of blue to red with the music having begun to swell up long before....gave me goosebumps. Well done! Great video!

[@rjbourgeois5490]

Saw the ending fight coming from a mile away. "Hey, I heard you became champion again while i was away, Blue. Strongest trainer in the world and all that, right?" *PTSD ensues* "Well, guess what? Your old rival is back!" Bruno and Misty's performance was top notch, but i wasnt expecting youngster Joey to do so well.

[@hongqipiao]

Poor Blue, if game logic made sense he'd be on Red's level...

[@Patterrz]

I've been excited for this since the last video in the series. No one makes anything like this on KZbin and the editing just makes me think "wait, how did he do that?"

[@danmanproking2179]

I’ve watched both of the gen 1 vids 3 times each, and me just randomly seeing this in my recommended made me super excited. Also hi patterrz :)

[@BluePhoenix_]

The closest thing i could find was the ai tournaments that PokeDad makes.

[@BoltTheEmolga]

Pls tell me you’re making a react

[@auraaz1090]

im waiting for that react

[@someguy7582]

The editing style reminds me of Jon Bois' Secret Base sports videos

[@frickinfrick8488]

I love that you not only fully captioned this video but placed the captions so they aren’t covering important info. You’re really committed to every last detail!

[@JaharNarishma]

I didn't know that moving cc was possible. I turned them off in order for them to not cover anything. I normally like subtitles, but KZbin use the black background and cover a huge chunk of the visuals.

[@aceae4210]

@@JaharNarishma something you can do to make that a little better is that you can change the visuals of the subtitles including the background transparency the settings I usually do is no background opacity (0%) and have the text have a drop shadow but youtube isn't the best at remembering these settings (they direct you to your google page to edit the settings globaly but then no settings exist on that page)

[@aetherarcanist4819]

I'll second this, CCs are very helpful for longer videos like this!

[@Theoreticaly]

Christ, I can't even imagine how much work not just the programming was, but also the recording and EDITING of this video. Incredible job.

[@conza1989]

I mean, the editing is so impressive on it's own... The zooming and huge fields of battles, it's art on it's own never mind the amazing maths and coding, seriously.

[@circularnectarine1439]

After all this time, it’s back Can’t wait to see how Youngster Joey does, I bet he wins the tournament

[@Arkouchie]

After all, his rattata is in the top percent of all rattata

[@bradlauk1419]

Top. Rats.

[@wakkablockablaw6025]

No, but he won our hearts. Truly, he is the people's champion.

[@Ryann9]

Spoiler alert: At the end of the video, Youngster Joey fights Red over 600 thousand times and won every single battle.

[@clarkdave]

Youngster Joey is at 31:46 and 37:31

[@joaosampaio5387]

Youngster Joey is truly a pokémon master. He purposely went for rank 151.

[@a-s-greig]

Top percentage.

[@ohhellwhereami2574]

151 same no for mew, ancestors to every pokemon same applies to his top percentage rattata this where IV system even began

[@Sunrek]

That Red reveal was perfect. Perfectly timed to the music, beautiful cinematography, i literally cried

[@mistergrool3941]

"you cried during the pokemon ranking youtube video?" -charlie from smiling friends

[@aaronbone9957]

This is genuinely one of, if not the most impressive KZbin video I've ever seen. Maybe I'm too much of a newbie at CS still, but I'm trying to imagine just how many hours went not only into the lengthy simulations, but also in the impeccably edited video. I am in awe!!!

[@deltatin2758]

Wait they'll use accuracy lowering moves if you use rollout/fury cutter, thats actually kind of cool

[@dundee6402]

Gen 2 trainer AI is fascinating. I noticed that the higher trainers know to switch on the last round of perish song to avoid a faint.

[@fntthesmth423]

A couple details I particularly loved: the consistency of referring to Silver as "Rival _Heuh??"_ and the fact that the trainer cards are always flipped to the beat of the background music!

[@YoloYester94]

Ah yes, my favorite Pokémon trainer, rival heuh?

[@Andrew-ke3qh]

The level of editing detail and visual quality in this video and its predecessor is absolutely unreal. Thanks for some of the best long-form KZbin content thus far.

[@michaelcarlton1484]

Honestly this video, the game itself, and the manga really do a great job at showing how cracked some of these teams are. These trainers must be extremely proud of their Pokémon.

[@KingWafl]

I just want to say thank you so much for running this tournament! I've spent countless hours being excited for this and creating predictions this past year. Also, I want to thank you for making your code super easy to follow and use! I have never coded in Python before in my life, but I was able to figure out how to run custom battles, and, if anyone reading this is interested, plan to make compilations of interesting battles from the hash ID's from this video, as well as custom double elimination tournaments of collections of trainers using completely new battles in the coming weeks and months as well (not trying to self promote, just want to help the super fans like myself enjoy more fun!)

[@Oliver-wv4bd]

It's fine man you donated $100 you can self promo all you want 🤣

[@geoffkannenberg6167]

Lol yeah, I agree. Promo away, my guy. Very tasteful approach and obviously you support the channel and aren’t just some leech

[@MutohMech]

Most wholesome comment

[@TheCryogoose]

Wth? Never seen the fire type comment. Does this mean there are other types of comments while we are the normal type? Gotta catch em all 😂.

[@Mernom]

​@@TheCryogooseit's like superchats, but in the comment section.

[@TheSpecialPsycho]

As someone who never had mystery gift or friends growing up, Cal being top 16 does me good. And the fact he contested against Elite 4 members was even better.

[@SquattingxBear]

This guy gets it!

[@miimiiandco.8721]

Its really cool how much effort they put into the "Smart" AI.

[@HACSSuperbMiner]

44:45 Love how Koga’s worst loss is against his daughter 😂

[@wishfulwaffle4801]

The description of how the AI gives me new respect for difficulty hacks where the AI is hyper intelligent. EDIT: OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS, THX SO MUCH FOR 500 LIKES!!! ♥️♥️♥️♥️ I'M GOING TO EXTREMELY OVERHYPE THIS BECAUSE I HAVE NO INTERNAL SENSE OF VALIDATION AND BASE ALL OF MY SELF WORTH IN THE OPINION OF STRANGERS!!

[@calamorta]

Same thing here. So many stuff I wouldn't even think of if I had to try to boost the AI.

[@serenolopez-darwin1975]

Those hyper-intelligent AIs just cheat (by checking what you do first, since the player needs to enter commands). It's prohibitively hard to make an AI that plays pokemon optimally against a human player, there is too much state information, hidden information, and randomness for most game-engine techniques like reinforcement learning, deep learning, MCTS, minimax, etc. Most AI like FutureSight and such struggle to even reach the proficiency of a mid-level pokemon showdown ladder player, and they only need to learn one team, not the hundreds in a romhack. There have been some papers also investigating making a better performing competitive pokemon bot, but all have failed.

[@Aaa-vp6ug]

@@serenolopez-darwin1975what about the one made by The Third Build?

[@handanyldzhan9232]

@@serenolopez-darwin1975 They also switch more often though, and wouldn't make mistakes like Clair not using electric moves against Gyarados, or Red's Pikachu not using Charm against Rhydon (it would be a reasonable guess for the AI to think Rhydon would have strong rock and ground moves at that point). Just check out Radical Red. I once tried using Earthquake against a Ground-weak pokemon of Giovanni's, but he switched to Honchkrow (sometimes he doesn't to make it fair or to surprise you, so not cheating per se, just prediction).

[@serenolopez-darwin1975]

@@Aaa-vp6ug The one made by The Third Build is FutureSight, which I mentioned. It only got to a max showdown rating of 1630.

[@raptors11111]

Damn you had me big time at the end thinking Blue finally won after ~600k attempts. I was pumped to see the ridiculous amount of good luck he had to get to finally win. Great video man this was top notch

[@tomc.5704]

It's definitely possible. I don't even think you'd need to RNG manipulate the perfect battle. Savestates should be enough. We saw what Leech Seed did to Snorlax. If Arcanine always crit, I'm sure it would get the KO. And then land heavy damage on Venusaur with flamethrower. Venusaur's faster, does its AI ever use Sunny Day? That should seal the deal if it does. Don't get me wrong, it's unlikely -- even in that dream scenario, Blastoise comes out, outspeeds, and uses Surf. But maybe Blastoise sets up Rain Dance then misses Whirlpool. Or maybe Blastoise goes for Blizzard against Blue's Exeguctor and miss. Charizard might go for Fire Spin and miss. I don't know how crazy it would have to get. But it doesn't need to be the perfect battle. Some of those losses probably came within 1% chance of winning.

[@twarnold14]

1:07:50 You remember that scene in the first Yugioh movie where Kaiba has a simulation play him vs Yugi countless times trying to find some way that he can win?

[@dawsono]

I don’t usually comment on KZbin videos but I can’t help myself here. This is one of the most beautifully put together videos I’ve ever seen on this platform. The premise is excellent but the execution and editing went far beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined. Top, top tier. Great work!

[@calamorta]

1:08:00 this was a huge "you can't beat the system, kid" moment. I had an existential crisis once he started to talk about how many times they fought.

[@person_guy3505]

The red fight is truly a ridiculous gap to overcome. I wonder if he would've actually been beatable in HGSS? The gym leaders DO have rematch teams there, which aren't quite at Red's level, but I think the pokemon they use are better. I also would assume that gen 4 would be significantly harder to run this kind of tournament for, not only because of the more advanced battle system and more obfuscated source code, but also because of the blisteringly slow pace of gen 4 battles, so I'm not expecting that anytime soon. Great video though! These are always a treat to see.

[@welshlout3400]

Blue and Lance specifically get rematch teams averaging around level 70, so I do think they would have a fairer shot against Red in HGSS

[@kurtisvandermiller4507]

​@@welshlout3400yeah but red also gets higher levels his pokemon hit level 88! And he also has a different team and better moves and ai. Reds a monster in terms of AI up there with Cynthia. I don't think even with rematch teams lance and blue would win. The difference in team composition is just to much.

[@kenniky]

You should consider using the Bradley-Terry estimation model for player strengths, rather than Elo - it grants the same data (probability of a player winning a match against another player) but is order agnostic. The Wikipedia page on it has a well defined algorithm for calculating that is decently fast.

[@js739]

Having Blue and Red fight their way through every possible Battle Tower trainer would be a great follow-up video. Same with the future generations.

[@irrenoid]

I can't believe Misty nearly pulled out the win against Lance in the top 16 tournament! Absolutely nailbiting; I love watching these videos, so much time and effort went into them and I hope you keep making them in the future! (Gen 3 will likely be an absolute treat!)

[@stever1705]

She wound up fourth in the Masters 128 project another KZbinr did before losing to Steven

[@ryanamburgy2791]

@@stever1705vid?

[@stever1705]

@@ryanamburgy2791 kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3OYcmxnr9R6d9k

[@stever1705]

@@ryanamburgy2791 kzbin.info/www/bejne/omGrfoCNg5eap5Y

[@littlegeek5159]

6:57 ah yes, the best move to lock an opponent into: Aeroblast Blue's worst loss was to...Leader Blue That's pretty impressive actually, to have a 100% non-mirror winrate. edit: I am aware of Red, I finished the video after making this comment

[@B3Band]

It's not 100%. He lost to Red. It's just not his "worst" loss because Red is ranked higher than Blue. and not his best win, because...well, he never won.

[@jaybeans981]

Doesn’t Aeroblast only have 5 PP? An Encore could make them Struggle.

[@littlegeek5159]

@@B3Band At the point I added that to the comment, he hadn't mentioned Red and I assumed he was excluded because he was too op or something

[@hellboy19991]

That just means he has not lost to anyone with lower ELO than himself.

[@Hyperneosonic97]

Red, Blue and Lance never lost to a trainer with a lower Elo than themselves (read: Red never lost to anybody but himself, Blue only lost to Red and himself, and Lance only lost to Red, Blue and himself). It should be noted that this was just in the Round Robin section, though.

[@PlutopianSociety]

It made me really happy that you committed to using they/them for Eusine the apparently nb icon

[@linkmastr001]

I've rewatched this a few times already, and it is quite enjoyable. Honestly, the editing blows me away so much!

[@rmtsapphire0]

I like that Janine's greatest win is Koga. She surpassed her father but is still a gym leader while he is the elite 4

[@OdaSwifteye]

Seniority rules.

[@seiromem5708]

Each of the Top 16 battles seems like a good puzzle to figure out how to win as the underdog as a player VS AI, especially Sabrina VS Koga; if only the Pokemon that are helpless against the powerful Alakazam weren't the only ones left to take it on at the end if only Forretress has exploded on it, etc.

[@bulbaa2241]

Usually it just came down to who had the higher levels and better type matchups. (Will lost due to lower levels, karen lost due to type advantage)

[@theSato]

Pleaseeee run these with a level lock so as to compare their teams and AI and not the point in the game you meet them at! I'd be so excited for it

[@marhawkman303]

Well as we see in the Misty vs Lance fight... it's not just levels that's an issue in fairness. Lance won only because he had more pokemon.

[@picklerobertson5807]

This video… the flowchart animations, the subtitle placements, the way you show recordings of the battles up top while ranking them. Absolutely incredible.

[@MODGAMINYT]

I guess you could say the only reason blue lost is because Red was "on another level" It would of been interesting to see an outcome where you made their levels comparable, red has high 80 lvl pokes, blue has 50-60's if the level gap wasn't there could blue actually beat red and how many times

[@briandavis9888]

On the other hand, with pikachu no longer being Red’s highest level Pokémon, it would free up his item slots too. In any case, Blue’s team is good in Gen 2, but Red has an even better layout with his

[@MODGAMINYT]

@@briandavis9888 true but I'd love to see the percentage of how many times blue won back his title from red as in the games technically you play as red, blue gets to champion first, you beat blue and take his champion title from him but how many times could he win it back before he resorted to accepting red was better or not

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Mmmm If they shuffled their team order, Blue might have a chance under those circumstances. The fact is, even if they were fairly levelled, Red takes Pidgeot immediately, then Rhydon gets spent beating Pikachu then losing to whatever, when Rhydon is almost absolutely necessary to beat Snorlax. Or. Pidgeot truly is just the weakest link that Blue's team crumbles around. If he didn't lead with it it could be helpful.

[@GeorgisTrying]

It cannot be understated that the editing in this is an absolute phenom. You're a beast at presentation, and while the subject itself is interesting, your delivery is what makes this KZbin royalty

[@spriddlez]

This is absolutely incredible. The amount of work you put in.. staggering. Well done!

[@SienAppelsien]

This is so much fun, both informative and entertaining. I love the editing when you go through the rankings, the way the cards move past on the rhythm of the music is incredibly statisfying

[@Seloliva1015]

The level of editing and effort that goes into this videos will forever amaze me

[@MidnyteSketch]

With the commentary on exactly how these trainers' strategies played out for them, along with the very fitting Red moment, this felt like watching the anime or an animated special. A great story of 2 regions coming together for one big tournament, and trainer's personalities managing to shine through the code as they clash. Amazing job all around.

[@forrest8482]

The production value and editing in this video is wild. Really great job- I enjoyed every second of it.

[@reubenbailey7491]

The editing on this is absolutely glorious, the beat dropping on the background music when you decided to explain all the ai patterns absolutely killed me!

[@mythicsword8169]

That ending isnt what i expected but its so crazy

[@imaginaryboy2000]

Blue's only chance was a meteor strike taking out Red, but unfortunately, it wasn't gen 3 and therefore there were no meteors to use.

[@PokesportsPod]

The most impressive videos are ones that leave me asking "How the heck was this edited?!". Very nice job, Piman.

[@johnnyby1089]

This might be the greatest production quality and content on youtube. Well done.

[@thekiss2083]

Man, that Blue fake-out was SCREAMING for a call-back to the ending of RBY. "You are the Champion!....or you WOULD have been, except your rival got here minutes ago...."

[@VegaMK2]

I think Blue would actually clown Red on even levels, his team is better composed overall, but it's a little hard to say. It's interesting how there's such a distinct, clear 1st and 2nd place here, Blue never lost to anyone other than Red, and Red never lost, truly fitting.

[@B3Band]

Red lost...to Red

[@KingTwelveSixteen]

The third place Lance also never lost to anyone but himself, Red, and Blue.

[@VegaMK2]

@@KingTwelveSixteen In bracket he lost to Silver, so he's clearly not untouchable.

[@fruity2]

Yeah, it's great stuff. It feels like a battle of mindsets with the composition of the teams, too. Blue's team is optimized and well rounded, while red's is just, strong and the levels speak for themselves. makes the last stretch of this video feel like an anime lol

[@VegaMK2]

@@fruity2 Lance is really champion because Blue allows it and Red fucked off lmao

[@Ratsos12]

Thank you for making enjoyable content. Love the energy, statistics, and humor.

[@Ddoublechin]

This series is so amazing good work piman

[@SpaceElvisInc]

it might take a while but I can't wait to see when you hit gen 5 and do the PWT

[@anlev11]

Its ironic that Koga's wrost loss was agaist his daughter Janine 😂

[@jacobgiron96]

Wow, I literally rewatched the gen 1 videos last week, I wasn't expected this video to come up soon, I'm going to enjoy it like a kid

[@ryanprjgamingchannel9437]

24:40 the way he pronounced "???" made me laugh, but it's also probably the closest thing we can pronounce names that are question marks without actually saying "question marks" in any form

[@afish2281]

The B2/W2 ranking is going to be insane if you can make your system work on DS games

[@Silver_Sonic_23]

Ohohoho! It is finally here, after ten thousand years! I wonder where Red will rank. If it’s based on levels, he will crush everybody. If everyone is level 50 again, things might be a bit fairer and he might even lose some battles.

[@423adriana]

yeahhhh he was #0

[@Dudeman23rd]

THE MAN IS BACK Can't wait to see what hell you put yourself through to pull this off for us.

[@chaosspork]

Hey man, I had watched our original Red/Blue video when it first came out, but I'm only catching this now. I just wanted to say, I really appreciate all the work you put in. This is amazing, and I'm so glad you decided to share it. Thank you so much.

[@smaza2]

your content is a bi-annual highlight. excellent concept, excellent execution, excellent visuals, and somehow, you made a 1h 13m video where the only thing that happens is you simulate computers playing pokemon battles engaging the entire way through. thank you for putting in all this hard work this was a treat!

[@Vegas242]

23:50 Bug Catcher Don's Greatest Win was against Youngster Joey! Honestly that's worth something in my book 😆

[@happythanos6632]

This video is so high effort the animation , editing,the explanations, man i love it. Please make an Ai battle of the Champions Red,Steven,Cynthia,Blue,Alder i would love tto see it

[@ninaadadhvaryu1603]

I was just recommended a few similar videos that did AI tournaments and it was incredibility frustrating when they just skipped over the AI completely. I felt those videos missed what is truly interesting about this exercise and I felt them to find yours and see if there had been an update from the the Red/Blue videos I enjoyed so much. Complex long winding discussions of systems is what I AM HERE FOR thank you.

[@peebly9254]

Absolute herculean effort, amazing video editing, greatest video I've seen all year. Take a bow sir.

[@danielcm4237]

omg I was rooting for Misty in her match against Lance haha, She almost did it

[@cftvdata]

This is crazy, man. Kudos for all the work you put into this!

[@Ryouski]

Man, I've been excited for this video to come out! Well worth the wait! Can't wait for gen 3! ;)