I found the video while scrolling through my old uploads. The thumbnail was simple—Perry looking ready, me grinning at the camera, and text reading: "DEFEATING THE ELITE FOUR & CHAMPION WALLACE - Full Team Playthrough."
4.8 million views. It was still one of my most-watched videos.
I clicked on it, and immediately I was back in my room from two years ago. Everything was simpler then. The pressure was different. I was just trying to finish what I started.
The video opened with me in my room, camera set up properly.
"Alright everyone, welcome back to Perry the Mudkip. If you've been following this series, you know what today is. We've beaten eight gym leaders. We've trained our team through Victory Road. Now comes the real test—the Elite Four and Champion Wallace. Five trainers stand between us and the Hall of Fame."
Past-Ryan looked focused but not stressed.
"Let me show you the team that's going to do this."
"Perry the Swampert. Level 53. Water and Ground typing. Our leader. Knows Surf, Earthquake, Ice Beam, and Muddy Water. Perry's been the core of this team from the beginning."
Perry appeared on screen, his evolved form massive and solid.
"Fungi the Breloom. Level 51. Fighting and Grass typing. Mach Punch for priority, Sky Uppercut for coverage, Giga Drain to heal himself, and Spore to put things to sleep. Fungi's the clutch player."
Fungi came next, muscular and ready.
"Shadow the Mightyena. Level 49. Dark-type. Our type specialist. Crunch is his main move, with Bite, Swagger, and Scary Face in his arsenal. Shadow handles what the rest of us can't."
Shadow appeared, sleek and dark.
"Radar the Crobat. Level 53. Flying and Poison typing. The fastest on the team. Wing Attack, Confuse Ray, Poison Fang, and Swift. Radar's our disruptor—he messes with opponents' heads."
Radar came up, his purple wings spread.
"Larry the Linoone. Level 50. Normal-type. Our utility Pokémon. Cut, Strength, Rock Smash, Surf. Everyone calls Larry useless. You know what? Larry's never fainted. Not once. That matters."
But just for this Elite Four run, we went to the Move Deleter to clear Larry's HM moves and gave him a special moveset: Belly Drum, Protect, Return, and Sunny Day.
Larry appeared, looking exactly as reliable as expected.
"And Medicham. Level 50. Fighting and Psychic typing. A last-minute Victory Road catch to help against Ice-types. Its moveset is Ice Punch, Brick Break, High Jump Kick, and Zen Headbutt."
"This is the team. Six Pokémon.. Let's go."
The Elite Four chamber opened up. Sidney stood waiting, confident, her Dark-type team arranged behind her.
"Sidney. First Elite Four member. Dark specialist. Her team is Mightyena, Cacturne, Shiftry, Crawdaunt, and Absol. All level 46 to 49. Dark-types have decent offense and defense, but they're not overwhelming. The key is having solid type coverage."
Mightyena came out first. Level 46. Dark-type, physical attacker.
Perry was sent in immediately.
"Mightyena is a physical attacker. It's going to hit hard with moves like Crunch. But Perry's bulk should let him survive and respond with Earthquake."
Perry used Earthquake. Solid damage against Mightyena.
Mightyena used Crunch back. It hit Perry but Perry's Special Defense held.
Perry's second Earthquake. Mightyena fainted.
"One down. Easy opening."
Cacturne came next. Grass and Dark type. Level 46.
"Cacturne adds Grass-typing, which is interesting. But Perry's Ice Beam hits Grass-types super-effectively."
Perry used Ice Beam. Super-effective. Cacturne took significant damage.
Cacturne used a Grass move back. It did heavy damage, and Perry's HP dropped into the red.
Perry's Ice Beam again. Cacturne fainted.
"Two down."
Shiftry was Sidney's third. Grass and Dark type. Level 48.
Perry was still in.
Perry used Ice Beam. Super-effective against Grass.
Shiftry survived with moderate health. It used a move back that hit Perry.
Past-Ryan considered: "Shiftry is faster than Cacturne. Perry might need help with this one."
Perry fainted
But Medicham with the Ice Punch got the revenge Kill.
Crawdaunt came next. Water and Dark type. Level 48.
Medicham used Brick Break. Super-effective damage against Water/Dark.
Crawdaunt used a Water move back ,
Medicham used Brick Break again. Crawdaunt's Fainted.
Absol was Sidney's final Pokémon. Pure Dark-type. Level 49.
We switched to Shadow.
Crunch against Dark-type does regular damage, but that's fine.
Shadow used Crunch. Absol took damage.
Absol used a physical move back. Shadow took damage.
Shadow's second Crunch. Absol fainted.
"And that's Sidney. Five Pokémon down."
I used the potions and revives to get ready for the next fight .
Phoebe's chamber had a spooky atmosphere. She stood waiting, her Ghost-type team behind her.
"Phoebe. Ghost specialist. Her team is Duskull, Banette, Banette again, Sableye, and another Duskull. Levels 48 to 51. Ghost-types are tricky because Normal moves don't affect them. But Dark moves? Dark moves hit Ghosts super-effectively."
I rotated the team to get Shadow up.
Perfect matchup.
Duskull came out first. Level 48. Ghost-type, defensive.
Shadow used Crunch. Super-effective. Duskull took heavy damage.
Duskull used Shadow Ball back. Regular damage against Dark.
Shadow's second Crunch. Duskull fainted.
"One hit with the second attack. Shadow's perfect for this."
Banette came next. Level 49. Ghost-type.
Shadow used Crunch. Super-effective. Banette took heavy damage.
Banette used Shadow Ball. Shadow tanked it.
Shadow's second Crunch. Banette fainted.
"Two down."
Another Banette appeared. Level 49 as well.
"Same Pokémon, same matchup."
Shadow used Crunch. Super-effective. Banette fainted in two hits again.
"Three down."
Sableye was Phoebe's fourth. Dark and Ghost type. Level 50.
Shadow used Crunch. It hit but not as hard because Dark moves against Dark-type aren't super-effective.
Sableye used Shadow Ball. Regular damage against Dark.
Shadow's second Crunch. Sableye fainted.
"Four down."
The final Duskull was Level 51. Higher than the first one.
"Last Pokémon. Shadow's still going strong."
Shadow used Crunch. Super-effective. Duskull took heavy damage.
Duskull used Shadow Ball. Shadow survived.
Shadow's second Crunch. Duskull fainted.
"And that's Phoebe. Five Pokémon down. Shadow with an incredible performance—five straight Crunch knockouts."
I again healed most of my pokemon and kept Perry in lead.
Glacia's chamber was covered in frost and ice formations. She stood waiting, her Ice-type team arranged before her.
"Glacia. Ice specialist. Her team is Glalie, Sealeo, Glalie again, Sealeo again, and Walrein. Levels 50 to 53. Ice-types are defensively strong. They hit hard with special moves.. But we have not one but two bros who can beat them up"
Glalie appeared first. Level 50. Pure Ice-type.
"Glalie is a special attacker. Ice Beam is going to hit hard. But Perry resists nothing particularly well against Ice attacks."
Perry used Earthquake. Super-effective against Ice-type? No, Earthquake is Ground-type. It does regular damage to Ice.
Wait, Past-Ryan corrected himself on the video.
Perry used Surf instead which did neutral damage .
Glalie took heavy damage and used Ice Beam back.
Perry took serious damage but held.
Perry's second Surf. Glalie fainted.
"Okay, so Surf works better here."
Sealeo came next. Ice and Water type. Level 50.
"Sealeo is Water and Ice."
Past-Ryan decided to change the lead and sent out Medicham.
Medicham went on a rampage and Beat Sealeo , her Second Glalie and her second Seleao who was level 52 only against Walrein
Past-Ryan tried High Jump Kick through Medicham which missed and then Walrein took it out .
Brellom was able to do the Revenge Kill with two mach punches
After again healing up all pokemon
Drake's chamber had dragon statues and draconic atmosphere. He stood waiting, his Dragon-type team behind him.
"Drake. Dragon specialist. His team is Shelgon, Altaria, Kingdra, Flygon, and Salamence. Levels 52 to 55. Dragons are strong statistically. High Special Attack, solid Speed. But they share a weakness: Ice-type moves."
Perry came in to start this time .
Shelgon appeared first. Pure Dragon-type. Level 52.
"Shelgon is going to hit hard. Dragon-type moves do decent damage to everything."
Perry used Ice Beam. Super-effective against Dragon.
It went down.
Altaria came in next and was faster so it used dragon claw which injured swampert
Swampert used Ice Beam to take out Altaria as well.
Drake next sent Kingdra who used Ice Beam to end Swampert
Past-Ryan next sent medicham
Medicham used Ice Punch to revenge kill Kingdra
Drake next sent flygon
But Medicham with its Quad Effective Ice punch beat Flygon as well
Finally Drake sent Salamence who next used dragon claw to take out Medicham
Past-Ryan sent Crobat whose poison damage with Poison Fang did well to chip away and Beat Salamence .
We were facing the champ and i had a strategy to really beat him
Wallace - Champion
The final chamber. Wallace stood waiting, his water Pokémon arranged formally before him.
"Wallace. The Champion. His team is Wailord, Tentacruel, Whiscash, Ludicolo, Gyarados, and his ace, Milotic. Six Pokémon. All Water-type"
He Started with Wailord and Past-Ryan started out with Larry , yes the GOAT himself
Larry used Sunny Day and Wailord used Rain Dance
Larry used Sunny Day again, and Wailord used Water Spout, which took about 60% of Larry's health. It didn't do as much as it could have, because the rain was already replaced by the sun.
Larry used Belly Drum and Wailord used rain Dance trying to setup for itself and for its rain abusing team, but larry had just used its trump card to get +4 attack. At cost of half its health.
Larry had held a sitrus berry the brought back Larry to yellow health from red post the belly drum use .
Larry used protect and Wailord used Double edge which was blocked .
Larry used Return which took out wailord in one shot
The people who had watched it in live stream went nuts for this move
Next came up Tentacruel the rain was still up
Larry used Protect and tentacruel used hydro pump which was blocked
Larry used Return again to one shot the tentacruel , the chat went nuts and some one wrote he might do it
Next came Ludicolo, but Larry used another Return immediately, one-shotting it as well.
Next came in Whiscash the rain stopped , but not Larry who again oneshot Whiscash
Larry was on a rampage the chat was shouting its name
Next came in Gyarados whose intimidate lowered Larry's attack but not enough to prevent its bloodbath
Larry immediately used Return again to oneshot Gyarados
Wallace sent out Milotic
While Past-Ryan thought to bring back Perry as it would be iconic , but he decided against it , Larry earned this and it would be a bigger hit
Milotic was slower than Larry, and one last Return one-shot it and won us the game.
The footage cut to the Hall of Fame. All Six Pokémon walked in together,
Perry the Swampert. Water and Ground.
Fungi the Breloom. Fighting and Grass.
Shadow the Mightyena. Dark-type.
Radar the Crobat. Flying and Poison.
Larry the Linoone. Normal-type.
Medicham the Lucky, Fighting and Psychic type
Past-Ryan's voice was quiet and reflective:
"Six Pokémon. Eight gym leaders. The entire Elite Four. The Champion. That's what a real team accomplishment looks like. Perry was the core, but he couldn't have done it without Fungi's priority, Shadow's type coverage, Radar's guaranteed hits, or Larry's bloodbath."
A pause.
"This series is over now. Perry the Mudkip is complete. Hall of Fame achieved. Thanks for watching the entire journey. I'll see you in the next one."
The video faded to black.
I closed the video and sat in my room, quiet except for the city sounds outside.
Two years. Everything was different. I was different. But watching Past-Ryan finish that run with his full team—making it to the end, all of them together—it reminded me what mattered.
Not perfect stats. Not flashy moments. Just six Pokémon showing up, doing their part, and trusting each other.
My phone buzzed. Mitchell: "Court Thursday at 3. L's in. You good?"
Me: "Yeah. I'm ready."
Mitchell wanted me to watch him actually lawyer someone in court. I closed the laptop and got ready for bed. Not thinking about views or trends. Just thinking about showing up.
That was enough.
[Status Screen: No Change]
Mikhail Tal – Intermediate (3,500 / 25,000)
Kazuma Satou – Advanced (8,500 / 25,000)
Patrick Jane – Intermediate (4,650 / 30,000)
A team of Six created a champion. Together.