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Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
Challenge The Orange League 2.0 ROUND 1 (Deadline 12/20)
- Thread starter Hulavuta
- Start date
- Status
Just tagging everyone who posted and was interested in competing. Remember, the deadline is tonight, so get your final submissions in!
Does a separate GameBoy, a Link Cable and a copy of, say, Pokémon Yellow with a lvl. 100 Persian knowing Pay Day count as an "external device"? After all, the OP doesn't specify "no trading"...
Then again, getting those four items ready within 18 hours... good luck. Better check all your drawers! Remember that the Persian you raised back in '98 probably is deleted now, due to battery limitations. The battery can be replaced, however. If you can do that within an hour, you'd have 16 hours of grinding.
Then again, getting those four items ready within 18 hours... good luck. Better check all your drawers! Remember that the Persian you raised back in '98 probably is deleted now, due to battery limitations. The battery can be replaced, however. If you can do that within an hour, you'd have 16 hours of grinding.
I've been having technical difficulties with VBA so i won't be competing. Still, good luck to the rest of you.
This is exactly why GameFreak have the disobedience mechanic for high-level traded Pokemon.
I think it would be best to not allow that thing (Trading Persian), since it involves an external device (A second Game Boy, a different game, link cable)...
Besides, odds are if you decide to do that, you would be lucky to do much at all because of disobediences, etc. 200 Poké per battle is not that much either.
That said I did submit my final score a couple of days ago.
Besides, odds are if you decide to do that, you would be lucky to do much at all because of disobediences, etc. 200 Poké per battle is not that much either.
That said I did submit my final score a couple of days ago.
OKAY EVERYBODY HERE WE GO HERE ARE THE SCORES YES
In 5th place we have Recec, who gave it a nice try but was not even close. Sorry! His final score was 16286.
In 4th place we have DHR-107, with 24656. Hey, at least he's not last!
In 3rd we have Its_A_Random, who scored 32995.
In 2nd we have the person I wanted to win, but sadly he is only 2nd. Mekkah clocks in at 47565. Better luck next time!
And finally, in 1st place, we haveLayell with 99999999999
Just kidding, the 1st place winner was Jimera0, who just barely beat Mekkah by around a thousand or so points, scoring 48530.
Congratulations to Jimera0! Make sure to talk to Stellar and pick up your new banner :P
I'll be leaving this thread open so that people can discuss if they'd like to at this point. Congratulations again to Jimera, and thank you for everyone else who entered! See you all next time!
That is all.
In 5th place we have Recec, who gave it a nice try but was not even close. Sorry! His final score was 16286.
In 4th place we have DHR-107, with 24656. Hey, at least he's not last!
In 3rd we have Its_A_Random, who scored 32995.
In 2nd we have the person I wanted to win, but sadly he is only 2nd. Mekkah clocks in at 47565. Better luck next time!
And finally, in 1st place, we have
Just kidding, the 1st place winner was Jimera0, who just barely beat Mekkah by around a thousand or so points, scoring 48530.
Congratulations to Jimera0! Make sure to talk to Stellar and pick up your new banner :P
I'll be leaving this thread open so that people can discuss if they'd like to at this point. Congratulations again to Jimera, and thank you for everyone else who entered! See you all next time!
That is all.
I'd just like to defend myself and mention that I have never ever played gen 1 before, and I had more or less given up when people were talking about getting to Lt. Surge, whereas I had only just beaten Gary at Nugget Bridge.
Regardless, congratulations to everyone.
EDIT 2: There was no edit 1, what are you talking about?
Regardless, congratulations to everyone.
EDIT 2: There was no edit 1, what are you talking about?
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HA HA! I did it! I honestly didn't expect to win 1st place with my score. I actually considered doing another run, I bet I could have improved it by about 1000 pokedollars (or w/e they're called). I'm kind of glad I didn't because apparently that would have been a waste of time XD.
For those of you wondering how I managed it, the trick was to hit as many high value targets as you could as quickly as you could. This meant taking a lot of detours you wouldn't take on a normal speedrun in order to pick up valuable items and battle trainers that give a lot of money. I made sure to look up where ALL the items are all the way up to Lt.Surge and aimed to hit everything over 1000 poke, as well as anything else easily accessible. Items, even low value ones, usually take far less time to get than it takes to battle a trainer, so I didn't pass up many items that could be sold for money. Since the vast majority of trainers in the early game don't give enough money to be worth the time to fight, the trainers I fought were pretty much limited to ones I absolutely had to and Gentlemen on the S.S.Anne. I didn't actually decided not to go to Lt.Surge, and saved a minute or two by not catching a cut slave. Instead I calculated that I could get significantly more money fighting trainers and collecting items on the S.S. Anne than I could going through Lt. Surge's gym, so I focused on there, staying on board the S.S. Anne as long as I dared before I dashed back to the Pokemart in Vermilion to sell my item stockpile. I actually ended up with a minute or so left over after I sold my items, so I quickly went and battled a gambler on Route 11, which gained me the extra 1200 that put me ahead of Mekkah.
So yeah, it all came down to a last second decision not to stop at 0:58 minutes and try to squeeze out one last battle :P. Cleary Mekkah hit on the same idea I did but I just happened to execute it slightly better (likely due to pure luck, that's how speedruns work sometimes lol). That's why I did 4 full runs to get my final score (well as well as scouting out exactly what I could do in the allotted time and the exact locations of the stuff I needed).
But yeah, I knew that trying to go for distance wouldn't work because I knew I could only just beat Lt. Surge in under an hour thanks to the X & Y giveaway contest, and I quickly realized that I wouldn't get far enough to get anything valuable enough to justify skipping valuable items like the HP Up in Mt. Moon. Honestly I was surprised I was able to get as far into the S.S. Anne as I did with the detours I took.
For those of you wondering how I managed it, the trick was to hit as many high value targets as you could as quickly as you could. This meant taking a lot of detours you wouldn't take on a normal speedrun in order to pick up valuable items and battle trainers that give a lot of money. I made sure to look up where ALL the items are all the way up to Lt.Surge and aimed to hit everything over 1000 poke, as well as anything else easily accessible. Items, even low value ones, usually take far less time to get than it takes to battle a trainer, so I didn't pass up many items that could be sold for money. Since the vast majority of trainers in the early game don't give enough money to be worth the time to fight, the trainers I fought were pretty much limited to ones I absolutely had to and Gentlemen on the S.S.Anne. I didn't actually decided not to go to Lt.Surge, and saved a minute or two by not catching a cut slave. Instead I calculated that I could get significantly more money fighting trainers and collecting items on the S.S. Anne than I could going through Lt. Surge's gym, so I focused on there, staying on board the S.S. Anne as long as I dared before I dashed back to the Pokemart in Vermilion to sell my item stockpile. I actually ended up with a minute or so left over after I sold my items, so I quickly went and battled a gambler on Route 11, which gained me the extra 1200 that put me ahead of Mekkah.
So yeah, it all came down to a last second decision not to stop at 0:58 minutes and try to squeeze out one last battle :P. Cleary Mekkah hit on the same idea I did but I just happened to execute it slightly better (likely due to pure luck, that's how speedruns work sometimes lol). That's why I did 4 full runs to get my final score (well as well as scouting out exactly what I could do in the allotted time and the exact locations of the stuff I needed).
But yeah, I knew that trying to go for distance wouldn't work because I knew I could only just beat Lt. Surge in under an hour thanks to the X & Y giveaway contest, and I quickly realized that I wouldn't get far enough to get anything valuable enough to justify skipping valuable items like the HP Up in Mt. Moon. Honestly I was surprised I was able to get as far into the S.S. Anne as I did with the detours I took.
Them Gentlemen will be the death of me... Also my horrible luck with Mt Moon & the RNG...
Anyway, I went for a more speedy route & aimed for the HP Up on Route 2. Basically I followed the standard speed-run route all the way to Mt. Moon (stocking up on a couple of Poké Balls, Potions, & Antidotes), before making deviations at Mt. Moon. First to get the Water Gun TM, next to get the HP Up at the end of the first ladder, then continuing as normal, getting Mega Punch, etc. I also caught a Paras along the way because it was necessary for the strat. At Cerulean, I followed the standard route (getting Whirlwind & selling), before beating Misty & teaching Bubblebeam. I then went up Nugget Bridge, got the Nugget, TM45 (I forget what it contains), then zipping to Bill (Deviating to beat a trainer to get Seismic Toss). Following that, I beat the Rocket with Dig (To sell), then zip-lined along the main route. At this point it was like 6-7 minutes to go so I needed to hurry on a lot. I beat the rival, got Cut to teach to Paras, then rushed out, waiting for S.S. Anne to part, then buying a Repel to rush through Diglett's Cave (no wilds), get the HP Up on Route 2, & selling in Viridian before calling it at the 59 minute mark.
If my luck was not so terrible (I can recall 17 wild encounters on Mt. Moon) I would have beaten a couple of Gentlemen, but... >_>
Grats Jimera0, you deserved it in the end (either you or Mekkah), but yeah. Gentlemen >>>>>>>>>>> Getting a HP Up on Route 2.
It was a second attempt, my submission.
Anyway, I went for a more speedy route & aimed for the HP Up on Route 2. Basically I followed the standard speed-run route all the way to Mt. Moon (stocking up on a couple of Poké Balls, Potions, & Antidotes), before making deviations at Mt. Moon. First to get the Water Gun TM, next to get the HP Up at the end of the first ladder, then continuing as normal, getting Mega Punch, etc. I also caught a Paras along the way because it was necessary for the strat. At Cerulean, I followed the standard route (getting Whirlwind & selling), before beating Misty & teaching Bubblebeam. I then went up Nugget Bridge, got the Nugget, TM45 (I forget what it contains), then zipping to Bill (Deviating to beat a trainer to get Seismic Toss). Following that, I beat the Rocket with Dig (To sell), then zip-lined along the main route. At this point it was like 6-7 minutes to go so I needed to hurry on a lot. I beat the rival, got Cut to teach to Paras, then rushed out, waiting for S.S. Anne to part, then buying a Repel to rush through Diglett's Cave (no wilds), get the HP Up on Route 2, & selling in Viridian before calling it at the 59 minute mark.
If my luck was not so terrible (I can recall 17 wild encounters on Mt. Moon) I would have beaten a couple of Gentlemen, but... >_>
Grats Jimera0, you deserved it in the end (either you or Mekkah), but yeah. Gentlemen >>>>>>>>>>> Getting a HP Up on Route 2.
It was a second attempt, my submission.
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Congrats on winning, Jim. My idea was pretty much the same, except I already planned not to beat Surge from the start. I actually fought all four Gamblers on route 11, so that wasn't what put you ahead of me. In fact, I have no idea what did. I know my Misty fight went pretty badly, though.
I picked up a bunch of free Potions (PC, Viridian Mart guy, Cut bush in Viridian, two in Viridian Forest) and bought three more in Cerulean, and I had to use all but one of them at some point, most of them vs Misty's Starmie because I missed a bunch of Mega Punches. The extra time that took (in addition to other random timewasting) prevented me from selling the Hyper Potion and the Escape Rope I found east of Vermillion, but that only would have gotten me about $875. Had I had to use 1-2 less Potion, I guess I would've been fine.
I picked up a bunch of free Potions (PC, Viridian Mart guy, Cut bush in Viridian, two in Viridian Forest) and bought three more in Cerulean, and I had to use all but one of them at some point, most of them vs Misty's Starmie because I missed a bunch of Mega Punches. The extra time that took (in addition to other random timewasting) prevented me from selling the Hyper Potion and the Escape Rope I found east of Vermillion, but that only would have gotten me about $875. Had I had to use 1-2 less Potion, I guess I would've been fine.
Sounds like Mekkah and Jimera0 both had pretty optimal routes and in the end it came down to luck, which (sadly) is an ever-present factor in Pokemon speedruns and other similar challenges. I would have thought maybe catching Bellsprout might have been worth it since it can be a Cut Slave and is helpful versus Misty, but relying on finding it quickly is probably undesirable. (I am used to watching tool-assisted speedruns, where relying on luck isn't an issue because you can be as lucky as you want just by rerecording until you get a desired result.)
Yeah I know Meowth would have been a waste of time, I only posted suggesting it because I was already 99% sure in my own mind I wouldn't be helping anybody :p Meowth requires catching, costing both time and money; Pay Day is miserably weak, lengthening battles, and it also has the "Coins scattered everywhere" and "[Name] picked up [amount of money]" messages; it doesn't even learn Pay Day until level 17; and the amount of money you get from it is not very great.
Still, I am fairly certain that if this is ever done for either RSE or HGSS, then Zigzagoon/Sentret WILL be useful. Pickup is too good to pass up, and neither are bad HM slaves either.
Yeah I know Meowth would have been a waste of time, I only posted suggesting it because I was already 99% sure in my own mind I wouldn't be helping anybody :p Meowth requires catching, costing both time and money; Pay Day is miserably weak, lengthening battles, and it also has the "Coins scattered everywhere" and "[Name] picked up [amount of money]" messages; it doesn't even learn Pay Day until level 17; and the amount of money you get from it is not very great.
Still, I am fairly certain that if this is ever done for either RSE or HGSS, then Zigzagoon/Sentret WILL be useful. Pickup is too good to pass up, and neither are bad HM slaves either.
Sorry I missed out this time but a big gratz to jimera and all who entered
Doing this in a game where Pickup exists would just be a terrible idea, for obvious reasons. Gen 2 would also be weird.
I "tried" Meowth on stream after I got my screenshot. Finding a L16 one (the highest possible) is super rare, catching it costs money and is luck-based. Just training it to L17 costs like 6-7 battles. Or if you want you can use a $2400 Rare Candy which takes around 71 Pay Days to pay off, and then you need 6 more to pay for the Poke Ball.
I "tried" Meowth on stream after I got my screenshot. Finding a L16 one (the highest possible) is super rare, catching it costs money and is luck-based. Just training it to L17 costs like 6-7 battles. Or if you want you can use a $2400 Rare Candy which takes around 71 Pay Days to pay off, and then you need 6 more to pay for the Poke Ball.
I honestly didn't expect to win this since I'm a somewhat amateur speedrunner (though Blue is by far my best speedrunning game). I fully expected Mekkah or one of the other speedrunners around the board to beat me, but only Mekkah entered and it sounds like I out-lucked him XD.
Though it seems we did make some majorly different decision towards the end. I took the route that IAR described up until Vermillion which is when him, Mekkah and I started to diverge. Rather than go to route 11 I focused on getting items/gentlemen on the S.S. Anne. There's a max potion in the first room of the lower deck of the S.S. Anne I picked up, and I also picked up a Rare Candy in one of the rooms with a Gentlemen and the Bodyslam TM. I fought two trainers I should have passed up (one of them by accident and one of them because I didn't realize there were Gamblers on Route 11 until literally the last minute and ended up fighting a Youngster to boost my score in the last two minutes). Had I fought Gamblers instead I could have upped my money by another 2000 or so.
Those potions definitely made a big difference though Mekkah. I didn't buy ANY potions for any of my runs. In fact, I made sure not to ever go to a Pokemart until the very end in order to save time and money. All the potions I used were the free ones you can pick up early on, and I had better luck and/or battled better so I think I still had 1 left over when I sold my stuff. That totals to like a 1050 difference between me and Mekkah just based on potions, which is enough to make up the difference between our scores!
Mekkah, I don't know if you did this or not but something I found really helpful against Misty is using Tail Whip against each of her Pokemon once before going in to attack. This reduces the number of Mega Punches you need to use and thereby reduces the number of chances you have to miss with it. I also used Tail whip against a number of other Pokemon throughout the run in order to minimize the chance of Tackle misses and sometimes just flat out reduce the number of turns a battle took. All in all Tail Whip is unexpectedly useful for speedrunning in Blue lol.
Though it seems we did make some majorly different decision towards the end. I took the route that IAR described up until Vermillion which is when him, Mekkah and I started to diverge. Rather than go to route 11 I focused on getting items/gentlemen on the S.S. Anne. There's a max potion in the first room of the lower deck of the S.S. Anne I picked up, and I also picked up a Rare Candy in one of the rooms with a Gentlemen and the Bodyslam TM. I fought two trainers I should have passed up (one of them by accident and one of them because I didn't realize there were Gamblers on Route 11 until literally the last minute and ended up fighting a Youngster to boost my score in the last two minutes). Had I fought Gamblers instead I could have upped my money by another 2000 or so.
Those potions definitely made a big difference though Mekkah. I didn't buy ANY potions for any of my runs. In fact, I made sure not to ever go to a Pokemart until the very end in order to save time and money. All the potions I used were the free ones you can pick up early on, and I had better luck and/or battled better so I think I still had 1 left over when I sold my stuff. That totals to like a 1050 difference between me and Mekkah just based on potions, which is enough to make up the difference between our scores!
Mekkah, I don't know if you did this or not but something I found really helpful against Misty is using Tail Whip against each of her Pokemon once before going in to attack. This reduces the number of Mega Punches you need to use and thereby reduces the number of chances you have to miss with it. I also used Tail whip against a number of other Pokemon throughout the run in order to minimize the chance of Tackle misses and sometimes just flat out reduce the number of turns a battle took. All in all Tail Whip is unexpectedly useful for speedrunning in Blue lol.
I did the SS Anne as well, didn't get the Body Slam TM though. I don't even remember where it is off the top of my head. I did get Max Potion, Rare Candy, Great Ball, and like three Gentlemen (Growlithe dude, Nidoran dude, and the guy in the Rare Candy room).
FYI I went Vermillion, SS Anne, Gambler route, in that order. I sold all my junk between SS Anne and Gambler route since I didn't think I had enough time left to go back and forth after beating all four of those guys.
I'm fully aware of the use of the use of Tail Whip. I use it once on Staryu, twice on Starmie (well, three times because the (BAN ME PLEASE) used an X-Defend) and a bunch of other times. So I guess I just got crit more and missed more vs Misty. I had to buy Potions because I only had one left when I was in Cerulean, and I really just wanted to finish a run. Especially since I was G+ing at the time.
tl;dr fuk misty, gg
FYI I went Vermillion, SS Anne, Gambler route, in that order. I sold all my junk between SS Anne and Gambler route since I didn't think I had enough time left to go back and forth after beating all four of those guys.
I'm fully aware of the use of the use of Tail Whip. I use it once on Staryu, twice on Starmie (well, three times because the (BAN ME PLEASE) used an X-Defend) and a bunch of other times. So I guess I just got crit more and missed more vs Misty. I had to buy Potions because I only had one left when I was in Cerulean, and I really just wanted to finish a run. Especially since I was G+ing at the time.
tl;dr fuk misty, gg
Alright, Hulavuta is going to be inactive for a couple weeks due to some irl stuff, so I'll be hosting the next round. I'll have a new topic for Round 2 up on Monday (Dec. 30th) with a brand new challenge, which is to be announced. I'll also get a leaderboard/archive topic set up to be a permanent sticky. I'm also going to start using the old Orange League account, which will be used for future topics and the like by both me and Hula.
So don't worry, the OL isn't going anywhere! See you all on Monday!
So don't worry, the OL isn't going anywhere! See you all on Monday!
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