The Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen speedrunning community is still alive and well. Just seven months ago, the record for the Elite 4 Round 2 speedrun category was broken, and the any% was broken just two months ago. However, it's been a long, long time since any significant time-saving methods were found.
That was until the two games hit the Nintendo Switch eShop, with millions jumping back into Pokemon's first two remakes. Now, completely by chance, one player has found a way to skip the Pokemon capture fanfare, saving precious seconds and altering the course of the game's speedrunning records.
If you've played an older Pokemon game, you'll know that when you capture a creature, you're greeted with a little ditty celebrating your achievement. Unfortunately for speedrunners, specifically in the Elite 4 Round 2 category, this is a nightmare.
This category requires players to defeat the second, stronger reincarnation of the Elite 4 from FireRed and LeafGreen, which comes with its own set of challenges. Usually, there's a significant amount of extra leveling up required, given the new power these trainers possess, and more pertinently, players need to obtain the National Pokedex by capturing 60 different species of Pokemon.
This...
