Web Video / Twitch Plays Pokémon: The Gauntlet

New season, new-ish run.

^Source"The Gauntlet; Six years - Six regions" by raiik

"Welp bois guess we're doing reboot lore this run"

— Discussion thread for Twitch Plays Pokémon: The Gauntlet

Twitch Plays Pokémon (TPP) is a series of social experiments in which commands representing buttons on an original Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS (up, down, left, right, A, B, X, Y, L, R, start, and select) are entered into a chat on Twitch, and then translated into a game of Pokémon via an IRC bot. In short, hundreds of people are fighting over a controller. Throughout its life, Twitch Plays Pokémon has spawned hilarious characters, memorable moments, and even a few religions.

Twitch Plays Pokémon: The Gauntlet, officially stylized as 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕲𝖆𝖚𝖓𝖙𝖑𝖊𝖙, encompasses the first six runs of Season 7, marking the sixth anniversary of Twitch Plays Pokémon. It consists in a succession of six games that were played during Season 1, namely Pokémon Red, Pokémon Crystal, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon Platinum, Pokémon Black 2, and Pokémon X. The ROM files played are identical to the ones from the first season, including the Crystal 251 hack of Crystal and the Blaze Black 2 hack of Black 2; some additional quirks are however added through external scripts, such as encountering previously released Pokémon or adding some new Legacy Boss Battles. During each game, a timer at the bottom of the screen indicates how the Gauntlet run compares to the original.

• Gauntlet Red began on February 12th, 2020 and concluded on February 19th, 2020, with RED entering the Hall of Fame on February 18th, 2020 (beating the original run by 10 days, 15 hours and 25 minutes).
• Gauntlet Crystal began on February 23rd, 2020 and concluded on March 3rd, 2020, with Dᴾk entering the Hall of Fame on February 29th, 2020 (beating the original run by 4 days, 2 hours and 17 minutes) and defeating the final boss on March 2nd, 2020 (beating the original run by 5 days, 2 hours and 31 minutes).
• Gauntlet Emerald began on March 7th, 2020 and concluded on March 18th, 2020, with n entering the Hall of Fame on March 16th, 2020 (beating the original run by 11 days, 18 hours and 9 minutes).
• Gauntlet Platinum began on March 28th, 2020 and concluded on April 5th, 2020, with .iecbw entering the Hall of Fame on April 3rd, 2020 (beating the original run by 11 days, 15 hours and 35 minutes).
• Gauntlet Black 2 began on April 12th, 2020 and concluded on April 27th, 2020, with ♀♀R entering the Hall of Fame on April 21st, 2020 (beating the original run by 7 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes) and defeating the final boss on April 27th, 2020 (beating the original run by 4 days, 2 hours and 43 minutes).
• Gauntlet X began on May 3rd, 2020 and concluded on May 10th, 2020, with Etr entering the Hall of Fame on May 7th, 2020 (beating the original run by 1 day, 9 hours and 14 minutes).

Intermissions games are run in-between each run of The Gauntlet, most notably "Roulettes" that hop randomly between an entire library of games from a specific console, with players able to vote to either stay on the current game or switch to the next one. Longer intermissions were also featured, including a revisit of Touhoumon; tropes for the latter are listed on the original run page.

See also here, here, here, here, here,and here for the archived status of the run, or here for live updates.

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Twitch Plays Pokémon: The Gauntlet provides examples of:

• 100% Completion: By the end of Gauntlet X, and with the help of online trading, the Pokédex was successfully completed, with all 721 Pokémon registered as caught.
• A Lesson Learned Too Well: The released Charmeleon from Gauntlet Red was encountered as a wild encounter in Gauntlet Emerald, confirming for the chat that released Pokémon could appear in later games of The Gauntlet. With this newfound knowledge in mind, some of the chat came to the conclusion that they should release as many Pokémon as possible, in order to catch them again in later games.
  • It's worth noting that this would not have worked. Firstly, releasing a Pokémon only made it available in the wild if it had actually spent time in the party. Secondly, Pokémon that had entered the Hall of Fame were excluded from the list of Pokémon able to be re-encountered. Last but not least, this was a moot point anyway, as not only did a Pokémon only need to be left in the PC to be able to be re-encountered in later games of The Gauntlet, but the dev team lacked time to re-implement the feature after Gauntlet Emerald.
• Ascended Meme: The chat is no stranger to the "Printer Error 2" screen that appears when attempting to use the Game Boy Printer, which have been a minor running gag of previous Generation II runs; in Gauntlet Crystal however, the printer actually works.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Abcmddnn the Mankey and FG the Fearow were team members that got released during Gauntlet Red, but were later found in the wild and caught again, although they did not return to the team. Charmeleon, the starter from that run, was also encountered several times in Cinnabar Mansion after its release, but attempts to catch it again were unsuccessful.
  • Charmeleon appeared once again in the wild on several occasions during Gauntlet Emerald, this time on Victory Road.
  • Six Pokémon from Gauntlet Emerald (A the Zigzagoon, ODDISH the Oddish, BBUbbbdw the Marill, AAATTTT the Groudon, EEY the Spheal, and SZ the Lileep) were captured inside the Pal Park during Gauntlet Platinum.
  • AAABBHM and her team from Twitch Plays Touhoumon came back during a special revisit intermission between Gauntlet Emerald and Gauntlet Platinum, this time venturing through the post-game region of Johto.
• The Cameo: The Marill plush that had been seen through the QR Scanner of both Twitch Plays Pokémon Ultra Sun and Twitch Plays Pokémon Randomized Ultra Moon made a quick appearance through the Game Boy Printer function.
• Exact Words: The developers assured that the ROMs used for The Gauntlet were the exact same that were used during Season 1, and had not been modified in any way. This is true... but while the ROM files are the same, there are external Lua scripts running that dynamically influence the contents of the games.
  • It's worth noting that this statement was actually made false later, as including the Previous Player-Character Cameo in Gauntlet Black 2 and Gauntlet X had to indeed be done by modifying the ROMs rather than through external scripts.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • According to the Voices, "MMDfll", the name of the Whiscash from Gauntlet Emerald, stands for "Miku Miku Dance for lesbian lives".
  • The starter from Gauntlet Platinum was renamed to "BFG", earning it the nickname of "Big Fucking Grotle", and later "Big Fucking Ground-type".
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: The Roulette intermissions notably featured ROMs for all foreign versions of Pokémon games, leading to several short-lived adventures in Japanese, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.
• History Repeats:
  • Gauntlet Red had a lot of similarities with the original run. The Host was named RED, and his rival was named BLUE. RED chose Charmander as his starting Pokémon, but released it after evolving it into a Charmeleon. He also caught an early game bird Pokémon which became the powerhouse of the team and picked the Helix Fossil in Mt. Moon, although the former ended up boxed then released, and the latter was eventually deposited inside the PC.
  • Gauntlet Emerald, the sixth main run to take place in Hoenn, is the fifth one in which the female character was picked, with Omega Ruby still remaining the sole exception so far; not to mention, said female character was also technically picked during Flora Sky, which took place in the Flora region, and Metronome Sapphire, which was a side-game. Most notably though, Torchic was chosen as a starter again, as it had been in all previous Hoenn-based main runs, meaning that perfect streak is still not broken.
• Inherently Funny Words: When asked about how he greets people, ♀♀R answered "SEX😃". As a result, when walking through Join Avenue, every single person was shouting "SEX😃" at him to greet him.
• Logic Bomb: After online trading was activated for Gauntlet X, some players who managed to get their hands on some of Etr's Pokémon hacked their own game to make clones of them and send them to other players, before sending back either the original or a copy to Etr. As a result, Etr at some point ended up with two exact copies of Moth the Mothim, which thus both had the same internal ID. The unforeseen consequence was that, when one ended up in the party while the other stayed in the PC, the bot tasked with reporting stream events was utterly unable to comprehend why the same Pokémon was reported as being present both in the party and in the PC at the same time, causing it to report it being deposited and withdrawn on a loop for 45 minutes, about 3.5 times per minute.
  StreamFeed: 6d 16h 36m We deposited Moth (Mothim) in the PC!
  StreamFeed: 6d 16h 36m We retrieve Moth (Mothim) from the PC! We deposited Moth (Mothim) in the PC!
  StreamFeed: 6d 16h 37m We withdraw Moth (Mothim) from the PC! We deposited Moth (Mothim) in the PC!
  StreamFeed: 6d 16h 37m We retrieve Moth (Mothim) from the PC! We deposited Moth (Mothim) in the PC!
  StreamFeed: 6d 16h 37m We withdraw Moth (Mothim) from the PC! We put Moth (Mothim) in the PC!
  StreamFeed: 6d 16h 38m We retrieve Moth (Mothim) from the PC! Deposited Moth (Mothim) in the PC!
• Mythology Gag:
  • Towards the end of Gauntlet X, the chat entered "I'MB DEPPRESD" as the PSS profile message, as a reference to the Trainer Card quote of Twitch Plays Pokémon Volt White, which was "I am DEPRESSED!".
  • One of the features of TPP is that whenever a Pokémon is captured, five random people in the chat earn a "badge" of the corresponding Pokémon. When Meloetta was captured in Gauntlet Black 2, the message "[User] won a #648 Meloetta badge!" was displayed not once, but ten times per person who earned it, with Meloetta's cry playing each time. This was done in reference to an incident that occurred during Twitch Plays Pokémon Burning Red, where one user used the "Noisemaker" item to spam Meloetta's cry for 20 minutes straight.
  • During the 3DS intermission between Gauntlet Black 2 and Gauntlet X, using the 3DS camera allowed the chat to see various scenes set up by the stream operator, which were flourishing with references to TPP.
    • Among the various plushes and figures that come and go on camera are two that reference popular intermission games, namely the goose◊ from Untitled Goose Game, and the Prince◊ from Katamari Damacy. Plushes of Mimikyu and Meloetta can also be spotted from time to time, possibly respectively referencing the Sun run (in which all color disappeared during the Mimikyu battle) and Burning Red run (in which Meloetta's cry was spammed for about twenty minutes). Right after The Gauntlet ended, another look through the camera revealed a plush of MissingNo.◊, referencing the one caught during Gauntlet Red.
    • In the background are various items referencing TPP history, such as an amiibo of Detective Pikachu (which was played as an intermission between Randomized Y and Flora Sky), a cartridge of Pokémon Pinball (a permanent betting game on the bottom-left corner of the stream), a PokéWalker (possibly a reference to the Storm Silver run, in which it was used to rescue an Eevee and a Slowking from release). A printer from which came out a roll of pictures taken during Gauntlet Crystal and the GameCube seen on the "Please Stand By" screen of Pokémon XG were also present on occasion.
• Never Grew Up: dfuucck, the Ducklett from Gauntlet X, held an Everstone all the way to the Hall of Fame, preventing it from evolving. It later reached Lv. 100 without evolving, making it permanently impossible for it to ever evolve.
• Old Save Bonus:
  • Pokédex completion carried over from one game of The Gauntlet to the next. Gauntlet Black 2 was the exception, with Professor Juniper showing up at the PWT to explain that Bianca had mistakenly given the Pokédex with The Gauntlet data to ♀♀R's rival instead; the data was properly transfered after beating the previous Hosts of The Gauntlet.
  • Visiting the Pal Park in Gauntlet Platinum allowed the Voices to catch six Pokémon of their choosing from the Gauntlet Emerald run: A (Zigzagoon), ODDISH (Oddish), BBUbbbdw (Marill), AAATTTT (Groudon), EEY (Spheal), and SZ (Lileep). Unlike when the Pal Park was visited during Storm Silver however, no other Pokémon were brought back, since Platinum has a 24 hours cooldown between imports from Gen III games.
• One-Letter Name : The Host from Gauntlet Emerald was simply named "n", prompting many jokes regarding the similarly-named antagonist N from Pokémon Black and White.
• Permadeath: Subverted. For the first time in TPP history, there is a slim chance of previously-released Pokémon being encountered into the wild during the first three games of The Gauntlet.
• Plot Armor:
  • The entire team of Gauntlet Emerald was given Mail to hold to prevent their release, although A OJT the Camerupt had its Mail removed on several occasions during PC wars.
  • Likewise, the Gauntlet Platinum team was protected from release by holding Mail, but also by having Seals on their Poké Balls.
  • The Gauntlet Black 2 team was similarly protected from release by Mail, although it failed to save some party members, such as Sigilyph, which had its Mail removed before being deposited in the PC, and Tropius, which had the same thing happen and was later released.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo:
  • The Trainer House of Gauntlet Crystal featured multiple Trainers from previous runs, which changed every time it was entered. Trainers faced were KAY from Burning Red (although due to a few programming oversights, he initially only used three Pokémon instead of six, then used Lance's team instead of his own), ((( from Dual Red & Blue (who used both his team and XXWWNNᴾk's team), AJDNNW from Crystal, EVAN from Crystal Anniversary, and RED from Gauntlet Red.
  • The battle on top of Mt. Silver in Gauntlet Crystal had Dᴾk successively face both RED from Gauntlet Red and RED from the original Red, although the levels of their respective teams were buffed to match the ones from the original game.
  • The Pokémon World Tournament in Gauntlet Black 2 featured four battles in a row against RED from Gauntlet Red, Dᴾk from Gauntlet Crystal, n from Gauntlet Emerald, and .iecbw from Gauntlet Platinum. All of their Pokémon boosted to Lv. 100, and losing to one of them meant having to start over from the first battle.
  • After beating the four hosts from The Gauntlet, the original PWT from Twitch Plays Pokémon Black 2 was unlocked, once again featuring GMYC from Black, aoooo from HeartGold, nqpppnl from Platinum, A from FireRed, A from Emerald, AJDNNW from Crystal, and RED from Red. Unlike the Hosts from The Gauntlet, their Pokémon were not boosted to Lv. 100, but were still 3 levels higher than they were in the original Black 2 thanks to Challenge Mode being active.
  • During the Elite 4 rematch in Gauntlet X, each member had a team from on of the previous runs of The Gauntlet. Wikstrom had the team from Gauntlet Red, Siebold had the one from Gauntlet Crystal, Malva used the one from Gauntlet Emerald, Drasna got the one from Gauntlet Platinum, and finally Diantha used the Gauntlet Black 2 team.
  • After wifi was activated for Gauntlet X, some people challenged Etr using the save data from previous runs. This allowed her to battle against ♀266 from Randomized Y, a user using an exact copy of the .iecbw's team Gauntlet Platinum, and the same user later using an exact copy of d's team from Twitch Plays Pokémon X.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: During the postgame of Gauntlet Red, the script that prevented invalid Pokémon from appearing was disabled, allowing a Lv. 132 Mewtwo and a Lv. 146 MissingNo. to be caught. Upon leveling up, they reverted back to Lv. 100.
• Ret-Gone: A Lv. 23 Skorupi was lost when the emulator crashed on Day 3 of Gauntlet Black 2.
• Running Gag: Several characters ended up named as variations of "ASS" throughout The Gauntlet: "ASSSSSSSSS" the MissingNo. from Gauntlet Red, "AAAASSSSSS" the Igglybuff and "AAAS" the Marill from Gauntlet Crystal, and "ASS" the main character from Car Battler Joe during GBA Roulette.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the portal to the Distortion World opened and Cynthia told .iecbw that they had to enter it to chase Cyrus, .iecbw instead immediately ran away and left Spear Pillar. Later, when both of them went down the depths of the Distortion World and Cynthia went ahead to confront Cyrus and Giratina, .iecbw decided to go back to the upper levels instead of following her.
• Stealth Pun: The defeat quote of n in the Gauntlet Black 2 PWT was "UP", which "n" is an alternate command for (short for "north").
• Unfortunate Item Swap: Pokédex completion was not carried over from Gauntlet Platinum to Gauntlet Black 2. Professor Juniper showed up at the PWT, and explained that this was due to Bianca mistakenly swapping the Pokédex intended for ♀♀R and his rival.
• Video Game Caring Potential: The very last day of Gauntlet X happened to be on Mother's Day, so the chat ended the run by going back home and having Etr talk with her mother.

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♀ N♀ OH APPP PPQQ!

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