GGFan

***GGFan***, previously known as ***thegreatestgamefan***, and several other monikers, is a MotherTuber and member of the *Mother* community who has collaborated with MonkeyNess and been praised by him. He is best known by the *Mother* community for his challenge runs of Mother 3. He is additionally a competitive Pokemon player, particularly in the RBY category, known in that community for his impact on speedrunning the series and winning many tournaments as well as inciting controversy on certain websites.

#### Personal Info

He has been active online since the early 2000s on sites such as GameFAQs, Pokemon Perfect, and his own websites. He has said he got into the Pokemon series in 1999, after a friend lent him their copy of Pokemon Blue Version in school, instantly getting hooked. Through 2002, GGFan became obsessed with the series and learned about competitive play. GGFan formally began playing competitively in April 2002. In an "ask me anything" session on his Discord server in 2019, GGFan expressed regrets about not focusing on his education in high school, and having put himself "at an immediate disadvantage" after completing it.

##### Contributions to *Mother 3* Community

GGFan has been credited for discovering several unused sprites in Mother 3, most notably several unused animations of Flint in post-timeskip chapters, and Kumatora's earlier GBA design.

##### Impact on Pokemon Speedrunning

GGFan is considered by many to be one of "the grandfathers" of Pokemon speedruns, in 2005 posting a GameFAQs walkthrough explaining his route for Pokemon Blue Version, which he had beaten in 3 hours and 7 minutes. This FAQ post spread to Speed Demos Archive, contemporarily the most major speedrunning site, and is considered one of the foundational building-blocks of Pokemon speedrunning in the West. Since then, the route has been heavily refined, and the current world record for the game sits at around 1 hour and 45 minutes.

##### Trolling and Controversies

GGFan was embroiled in many flamewars on the GameFAQs Pokemon message boards from 2002 to 2005, as he had the persona of an arrogant and narcissistic villain who thought he was better than everyone else. In an interview on the "Rogue Nation" discord server in 2022, GGFan said that he did this to "satirize the landscape" of the competitive community, which was "toxic and elitist." In addition, he admitted to creating dozens of alternate accounts which would worship him and call him the greatest ever. After winning his first tournament, the "Tourney of Stuff" (TOS), GGFan declared his victory the "dawn of the GGFan era" and became one of the top players in the community while being despised by the veterans for his behavior as well as satirizing them.

##### *The Alternative*

In 2005, GGFan created The Alternative, which was the first competitive community dedicated to gen 1 (Red/Blue/Yellow). GGFan said he did this because gen 3 (Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald) was the current gen and, as a result, interest in gen 1 had dwindled. The Alternative was the first community to feature analyses for every fully evolved Pokemon as well as a competitive circuit in which monthly tournaments were organized. The Alternative folded in 2008, as GGFan did not have the time to invest fully in running his own site along with juggling his tournament schedule in the German circuit.

***Pokemonexperte and Pokefans***

In 2006, GGFan made his debut on Pokemonexperte, which was the largest competitive community at the time with over 10,000 members. He won its inaugural RBY tournament as well as a few other tours en route to winning the "2007 Meisterschaft," which was an annual "tournament of champions" in which only the top ranked players were eligible to enter. GGFan won the tournament with an overall 21-14 record, playing eight different players across five metagames: RBY OU, GSC OU, ADV OU, ADV UU, and ADV 202. After leaving Pokemonexperte in 2007, GGFan primarily played on Pokefans, which was even larger and had a more developed tournament circuit. In 2008, GGFan won the "Triple Crown" for winning an RBY, GSC, and ADV tournament on the same calendar year. In his four years spent playing in the tournament circuit, GGFan was one of the top 8 ranked players on the leaderboard and among the top 4 in tournamnet victories. GGFan left the German circuit in 2010 but made a comeback in 2013, winning an RBY tournament called the "4ChordsCup," where he had what is considered by some one of the greatest games ever played in the semi finals.

***RBY2K10***

In 2010, GGFan joined the controversial RBY2K10 forum, winning its inaugural RBY tournament as well as the "RBY2K10 Revival Tournament" in 2013, which was actually the community's last tournament. It featured many of the highest ranked players on the Pokemon Online RBY Ladder, making it a big and prestigious event.

***Pokemon Online***

At the end of 2012, Pokemon Online had implemented RBY as well as a ladder, which GGFan competed regularly on. In 2013 he reached #1 with the highest recorded GXE in the ladder's history, peaking with a score of 1450+. He was able to do this thanks largely to his "FriendlyMie" team, which featured a lead Starmie with Blizzard/Psychic/Thunder Wave/Recover and "BeamGore" (an Exeggutor with Hyper Beam). At one point, he held the #1, #2, and #3 spots on the RBY OU ladder at the same time. GGFan's FriendlyMie team would be referenced by numerous sites such as Smogon, where one player acknowledged that he couldn't top the ladder "until GGFan had finally decayed."

In 2016, GGFan won Pokemon Online's "Supreme RBY OU Tournament." However, as he was banned from the site's forum because he was banned from Smogon's, GGFan entered unter an alternate account called "StudMuffin." As a result, the entire tournament was restarted. In 2018, GGFan's seven-year ban from Pokemon Online's forum was lifted due to several players wanting him to participate in the Pokemon Online Champions League. He was recruited by the Milan Bisharps and defeated Troller in the finals to win it for his team.

***Pokemon Perfect***

In 2013, GGFan made his debut on Pokemon Perfect, which he described as "the epicenter of old-gen play" in previous interviews. He was a consistent force in its tournament circuit, where he won over 350 tour games and was the #2 ranked player on the site's leaderboard from 2015 to 2018. He is most well known for his rivalries with other top players such as marcoasd and especially Peasounay, against whom he had several memorable bouts in big tournaments. In 2017, GGFan won the Pokemon Perfect World Championship, making him one of only two players to have won both a World Championship and a Global Championship on Smogon.

**Smogon**

GGFan was banned from Smogon in 2005 due to the feud he had with the site's founders that resulted from his many flamewars on GameFAQs. Ten years later, he entered the site's first Global Championship under an alt called "Year13" and lost just one game en route to making it among the final 9 entrants. After his opponent in the fifth round refused to play the second game after losing the first, the tournament host decided to DQ GGFan instead of his opponent on the grounds of "ban bypass," a decision that resulted in a lot of criticism over Smogon enforcing a 10-year-old ban. On Pokemon Perfect, GGFan hosted his own version of the tournament and won it, leading him to declare himself the winner of the first Global Championship.

At the very end of 2017, GGFan's ban, which was now almost 13 years old, was finally lifted due to petitioning from many prominent players on the site who wanted GGFan to play in the Smogon Premiere League. Thus, he was unbanned just hours before the signup period had concluded. His entry post received the most "likes" for a first post in the forum's history. GGFan played for the Stark Sharks and finished with a 12-8 record, managing to win six games in a row against the #1, #2, and #3 ranked players in the process. In week 3, Smogon's tournament staff attempted to sabotage his set against Peasounay, but he won regardless in what is considered one of the greatest comeback wins in the tour's history.

At the end of the year, GGFan was once again banned for using a racial slur, though the manner in which he used the slur was clearly not offensive. This led to a big debate. The Smogon perspective is that GGFan constantly broke rules and insulted people throughout his time on Smogon, but a moderator revealed that GGFan did not have a single infraction prior to his ban. In an interview, GGFan speculated that he was banned for becoming too popular, citing a loss post that was inexplicably deleted as evidence.

***The GGFan Experience***

In 2019, GGFan launched his personal discord along with a website, "The GGFan Experience," in which he held interviews with many of his peers and shared resources such as ladder teams and the Critical Hit rate for every single Pokemon. A few players on Smogon noted that GGFan's interviews were of great value and interest to them. In the aforementioned interviews, a few players said that they admired GGFan for his longevity.

***The Global Pokemon Federation***

In 2020, GGFan launched "The Global Pokemon Federation," which was his first competitive community since The Alternative. It hosted many tournaments from gens 1 through 6 and was a spiritual successor to Pokemon Perfect. From August 2020 to February 2021, GGFan played in his own tournament scene regularly, winning two RBY tournaments and an ADV tournament. He disbanded it in the middle of 2021 due to becoming dissociated from the game and did not want to cater to his playerbase, many of whom he felt were "Smogon sheep that cast aspersions behind his back for no legitimate reason" as he had treated them fairly. GGFan revealed that his vision was to pay his tournament staff, but admitted it was one of the dumbest ideas he ever had.

In March 2022, GGFan defeated Quarante8 in the finals of the last GPF tournament, managing to win a tournament 20 years after he had started playing competitive Pokemon.

***Bull Arena***

At the end of 2021, Ebola, who was the owner of Smogon's RBY discord server, was banned. All of Ebola's staff members and many of his most loyal members immediately left the server the moment he was banned, as they could not accept or even talk to him for being banned from Smogon. Smogon's staff demanded Ebola to relinquish the server to them; instead, he gave it to GGFan to spite Smogon. GGFan rebranded the server as "Bull Arena," but has not hosted any tournaments to this date. In fact, after his last tournament set against Quarante8, GGFan has seemingly disappeared, leaving no traces behind. GGFan recently revealed in his personal discord server that "life has been great albeit busy" and that "he is making up for lost time" by doing other things instead.

***Legacy in the Pokemon world***

GGFan is, overall, one of the most polarizing figures in the history of competitive Pokemon. On Smogon, he is despised and dismissed as a cheater who never won anything outside tournaments he created in which the only participants were himself and his dozens of alternate accounts. However, outside Smogon he is revered by many players for his accolades in the independent scene, numerous contributions to gen 1, and his writings. To this day, Smogon still makes an effort to villify GGFan by sharing threads written about him and making videos about him in an effort to portray him as a cheater and troll. GGFan has not responded to any of the criticisms

##### Writing

In February 2016, GGFan published his first book *"The First Villain: A Look Back at the GameFAQs Era, 2002-2005"* on Amazon and Lulu as a free e-book, as well as a paperback copy on Amazon, detailing his GameFAQs years. He has expressed an interest on writing a follow-up on his years on the site Netbattle, but is yet to do so.

#### YouTube Career

##### YouTube Videos and Mother Challenge Runs (2008-2010)

From 2006 to 2010, GGFan regularly uploaded challenge runs of Mother 3 and some of EarthBound. In this time, he was also credited for discovering Flint's unused train-dodging animation and Kumatora's unused alternate appearance.

##### Pokemon and Hiatuses (2013-2021)

After 2010, GGFan would disappear from YouTube until mid-2013, when he'd return with videos of him doing competitive matches in the browser game Pokemon Showdown exclusively through 2021.

##### GGFan Plays (2019)

In 2019, a channel called **GGFan Plays** was created on YouTube, and as of this time only features one incomplete Pokemon Blue challenge run, the "50BP challenge." Though not confirmed to be GGFan or not, the possibility of someone impersonating him is small, and the video descriptions write in a voice very similar to GGFan's.

##### Return to Mother 3 (2021-present)

After an 11-year hiatus, GGFan returned to Mother 3 challenge runs in mid-2021, continuing to coin several original runs.

##### Collaborations with MonkeyNess (2022-Present)

In mid-2022, MonkeyNess did a series where he did a boss-rush of Mother 3 only with Salsa, a challenge originated by GGFan. Monkey ave credit to GGFan repeatedly, and encouraged others to check out his channel. GGFan discovered Monkey's challenge run, and the two briefly conversed in the comment section and added each other on Discord. In July 2022, MonkeyNess and GGFan collaborated for the first time, where GGFan supplied some footage for the *Mother 3 Bonus Video,* later also contributing footage to *Mother 3 - Unused Content*.

**Collaborations with MonkeyNess**
with just Lucas and Boney
 Mother 3 Bonus Video
 Mother 3 - Unused Content
 The psychology of Claus - a MOTHER 3 analysis

#### Mother 3 Challenge Runs

A list of GGFan's completed Mother 3 challenge run series.

* Solo Flint
* Low Level + No Equipment
* Solo Claus
* Level 1
* Solo Flint + Hard Mode
* Level 1 + Hard Mode
* Low Level + No Healing
* Low Level + Solop Flint + Power Smash Only
* Solo Salsa + Low Level
* Character Class Challenge **(custom)**