Twitch Plays Pokémon: Chronicling Epic Maddening Adventure so Far - Part 3

After 16 days seven hours 45 minutes and 30 seconds, Twitch finally beat Pokémon Red – knocking out their rival's Blastoise and becoming Pokémon League Champion.

It was a feat many thought would have been impossible, and something that will become internet legend. It was cool, it was fun and it was very, very silly.

I wrote up the first and second parts of their epic, sprawling tale of madness and I intend to finish what I started. As the dedicated community enter day two of playing follow-up game Pokémon Crystal - here's how the masses defeated a classic – and the one incredible moment that made their story legendary.

As we left it, Pokémon trainer Red was heading to Cinnabar Island having decided to go the scenic route to avoid using a PC to withdraw a Pokémon that could use cut. After surviving "Bloody Sunday" in which they released numerous Pokémon, they were about to resurrect their Lord Helix.

Ever since an early part of the game, Twitch had been carrying around the Helix Fossil – which on Cinnabar Island can be used to resurrect a prehistoric Pokémon called Onamyte. As you'll know having read parts 1 and 2 the users came to hail the fossil a deity of the weird pseudo-religion that enveloped the game.

Making their way to the laboratory they handed over the fossil and eventually returned to find the resurrection had been a success. The only problem was their Onamyte had been sent to the dreaded PC.

Their battle with the PC was less bloody than the day prior. Pokémon were released, but no one important, and soon they had one hell of a team at their disposal. Before they could tackle the gym they needed to navigate the island's Pokémon Mansion – which took them into Day 13.

Having obtained the Secret Key they were able to enter the gym of fire type trainer Blaine, who they defeated thanks to three of their team having the water-type move Surf.

One gym remained, the biggest challenge of which wouldn't be its leader Giovanni, or even the puzzle that led to him. See, there's a ledge just beneath the gym meaning one wrong downward movement would send them over the ledge and set them back a good half an hour.

It took most of the day but soon Giovanni, and eventually their Rival Blue, was defeated. Now came the greatest challenge of the entire game – Victory Road.

The road to Victory Road involves traversing a path with another ledge close by which would send them back to the beginning. Any failure along Victory Road (which is a multi-storied cave area) would send them back to the beginning. Worse still, as they approached it they realised that if they did black out they would be sent all the way back to Cinnabar Island.

Which is exactly what happened... twice. Eventually, after 30 hours and some of the most infuriating moments of the game (that boulder puzzle, god damn!) they completed Victory Road and entered the Pokémon League.

Defeating the Elite Four, and then their rival a final time, was going to take a fair few attempts. And indeed it took seventeen.

With each attempt however the team grew stronger, and on their fifth attempt they came very close – finally defeating the Elite Four for the first time only to lose to Blue in the final battle. How it went down was pretty amazing.

Lance, the final Elite Four member, is notoriously the most difficult fight in the game. He uses very powerful dragon types, and it was Red's least powerful Pokémon defeated him.

It came down to Lance's Dragonite versus All Terrain Venomoth. Probably the most amazing part of the entire TPP run - a level 36 Venomoth which many thought was useless and wanted removed from the team – up against a level 62 Dragonite. A twenty six level difference.

Of course the victory was actually down to the original game's programming, meaning the Dragonite only used a single move against ATV that didn't deal damage. There's an element of randomness to it, so the Dragonite could have wiped ATV out at any moment, but the winged beast held on and slowly but surely defeated its foe and took Lance down.

The highlight of the entire TPP run? Perhaps. Of course the next fight ended very quickly and they had to try again, but it was worth it for the little underdog story that unfolded with 100,000 people looking on.

On attempt 17 they finally beat the game, with Pidgeot going down in the battle and Zapdos taking the reins. It came down to Zapdos versus Blastoise, and you can watch the whole battle below.

16 days, 7 hours, 45 minutes and 30 seconds is all it took for thousands upon thousands of players to inch their way through a game of Pokémon. It was quite an amazing achievement, if of course a total waste of time. As wastes of time go however, it wasn't half bad.

One Reddit user by the name of ahainen made this gif, likening Red to Jim Carrey's character in the Truman Show. It's quite a fitting end...