This year's marathon will feature Nuzlocke runs of unspecified Pokémon games ranging from the first generation to third generation. While the marathon will implicitly be a group undertaking, two randomly selected among the TSG team will be designated as Rocket members, whose goal will be to ensure the runs fail without their fellow players or viewers discovering them. The latter will be able to vote to find the saboteurs, with Pokémon related prizes being available to win.
TheSpeedGamers were established in 2008 and since then have raised over $920,000 for various charities through their marathons. Founded out of Arlington, Texas by Britt and Chase LaRiviere, its original concept was a source of gaming reviews that eventually turned into an idea to run themed marathons with a speedrunning focus, completing games or objectives within games (such as full Pokédex completion) as quickly as possible. They have been holding Pokémon events since December 2008, with most Pokémon-themed events taking place in that month since then. TheSpeedGamers typically encourage donations towards St. Jude in their Pokémon marathons through a range of gameplay, commentary, contests, and prize incentives. It's expected that viewers donating to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for this marathon will be able to give Pokémon nicknames, and request ornament drawings for the stream tree, amongst other interaction incentives. Throughout the marathon, viewers will also be able to chat directly with the team by the Twitch Chat or through social media networks, such as Twitter or Discord.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital seeks to treat and defeat childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases, and aims to advance cures and means of prevention for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of St. Jude founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion, or a family’s ability to pay.
As usual for these events, Bulbagarden will be embedding the charity stream on Bulbapedia and in the sidebar on the Bulbagarden forums during the event. For more information, event updates, and announcements, you can follow TheSpeedGamers team on Twitter at @TheSpeedGamers, join their official Discord server, and visit their official website, tsg.tv. More information on this event is expected to be released when it is closer to the start of the marathon, and we'll of course also be posting details of future events here on Bulbagarden as they're announced.
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