Pokémon Rivals

Pokémon Rivals
Franchise	Pokémon
Played by	Rick Desilets John Selig C/J Haley Geoff Hook
Featuring	Nick Bebel Ian Selig Felice Lopez Dustin Deren Meg Zaremba Ben Mooney Carolyn Walcott Heather Bagdoian Sarah Fischer Jason Yee RetroTrigger Lindsay Gibbons Dave Lopez Cat Arthur Anthony Peter Worrest
Original run	April 16, 2012 – present
No. of parts	8
No. of games	13
No. of episodes	1464
Episode length	2–276 minutes
Playlist shelf	link

Pokémon Rivals is a series of LPs created by The D-Pad in 2012, focusing on the Pokémon franchise. It takes the form of a series of competitive Nuzlocke challenges fought between two members of the channel, using a modified ruleset referred to as "Padlocke". The majority of Padlockes have featured Rick and John as the two players. A subseries entitled Pokémon Rivals: Sibling Rivaly instead featured Geoff and Dave. Rick and John's series of Padlockes was initially planned to cover every pair of main series games in the franchise. The format stopped being applied to new non-remake releases from Pokémon Sword and Shield onward, due to the mechanics of the modern games being less suited to Nuzlocke rules. Padlockes for the remaining earlier games that have not yet been played are still planned. The series debuted on April 16, 2012.

The schedule for Rick and John's Pokémon Rivals consists of uploads every weekday, generally between 15 and 20 minutes in length. Each pair of games is played in alternating segments. If multiple Rivals projects are active at the same time, one episode of each of them is released per day. Sibling Rivalry is instead streamed live twice a week on the dpadfm Twitch account and uploaded to YouTube later. As of March 19, 2024, 13 games (12 official Pokémon games and one fan game) have been played as part of the project across eight Padlockes, and a total of 1464 episodes have been released.

Rules

Pokémon Rivals uses a slightly modified version of the basic Nuzlocke rules.

• A player may only catch the first Pokémon they encounter in each area. In games where Pokémon are visible in the overworld, they are allowed to choose which one to fight first. If the first encounter is knocked out, they are not allowed to catch any other Pokémon on that route. An exception to this rule is made for Pikachu vs. Eevee, where additional Pokémon can be caught, but cannot be used in battle and must be sent to Professor Oak immediately.
  • No duplicates are allowed. If a player encounters a Pokémon in the same evolutionary line as one they already own, it is not considered an eligible catch and they are allowed to catch the next Pokémon they encounter in the area.
  • Pokémon gifted by NPCs, event Pokémon, or unique Pokémon that are "on the map" are allowed to be caught and used in addition to the eligible catch for that area.
  • Breeding is not allowed under any circumstances, except for the winner to obtain an Egg to send to the next Padlocke.
  • Trading with other players is not allowed under any circumstances, except for when it is necessary to evolve a Pokémon, in which case it must be traded back to its original player immediately afterward. Whether in-game trades are allowed or not allowed has been an inconsistently applied rule across the series.
  • Mystery Gifts and in-game features such as Pokémon-Amie and Pokémon Refresh may not be used.
  • Any shiny Pokémon can be caught, but must be boxed permanently if they are not an eligible catch.
• If a Pokémon faints, it is considered to be dead and must be released or stored in a Box permanently.
• Every Pokémon obtained must be nicknamed at the earliest possible opportunity.

The competitive side of the series makes use of a unique ruleset called "Padlocke". The Padlocke rules are as follows.

• The first player will begin by playing until the first major battle of their chosen game. In most games "major battles" are determined to be Gym Leaders and the Elite Four, but in Sun vs. Moon, Trials and Grand Trials are used instead.
• After completing the battle, they will immediately stop. The other player will begin their own game, and continue until they have reached the same point as the first player.
• Immediately following this, the two players will have a competitive battle using the exact teams they had upon beating the Gym/Trial. Altering teams in any way is not allowed. The battle is an exhibition match, so Nuzlocke rules do not apply, and any Pokémon that faint in the battle are not considered to have died.
• The winner of the exhibition match will move forward , becoming the first to play the next segment of their game, until the next major battle.
• The loser of the exhibition match will play the next segment afterwards, giving them a slight advantage for the next match, as they can plan their strategy around the team their opponent finished their segment with.
• This process continues until both players have completed their games. The player who wins the most exhibition matches is crowned the overall winner of the Padlocke. In the event of both players having an equal number of wins, a tiebreaker match is held to determine the overall winner.
• The winner of the Padlocke continues their Nuzlocke into the postgame, while the loser does not. Initially, the winner may bring an single Egg from one of their dead Pokémon into the next Padlocke.

Some of these rules did not initially exist, and were added over time as the series progressed. They are current as of Pikachu vs. Eevee.

Contents

#	Title	Games	Gen	Platform	Year	Player	Score	Start date	End date	Eps	Length	Invid. link	Comb. link
0	FireRed vs. LeafGreen	Pokémon FireRed Version	III	GBA	2004	Rick	N/A	April 16, 2012	April 16, 2022	106	32:32:45	playlist	playlist
		Pokémon LeafGreen Version				John	N/A	December 2, 2014	May 22, 2015	95	26:06:22	playlist
1	X vs. Y	Pokémon X	VI	3DS	2013	Rick	2	May 12, 2014	November 26, 2015	80	30:53:37	playlist	playlist
		Pokémon Y				John	7	May 19, 2014	November 26, 2015	96	36:18:32	playlist
		Pokémon Z				C/J	0	November 5, 2014		1	00:58:08	video
2	Omega Ruby vs. Alpha Sapphire	Pokémon Omega Ruby	VI	3DS	2014	John	5	November 24, 2014	August 15, 2015	97	37:27:57	playlist	playlist
		Pokémon Alpha Sapphire				Rick	4	December 2, 2014	June 19, 2015	76	28:04:42	playlist
3	Insurgence	Pokémon Insurgence	VI	PC	2017	John	0	June 23, 2015	July 9, 2015	14	03:47:48	playlist	playlist
						Rick	0	July 14, 2015	January 20, 2016	138	45:53:22	playlist
4	Sun vs. Moon	Pokémon Sun	VII	3DS	2016	John	8	November 21, 2016	December 25, 2021	159	51:38:22	playlist	playlist
		Pokémon Moon				Rick	4	December 19, 2016	November 17, 2017	138	43:33:26	playlist
5	Pikachu vs. Eevee	Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!	VII	NS	2018	John	5	November 19, 2018	July 9, 2021	135	45:31:12	playlist	playlist
		Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee!				Rick	4	November 28, 2018	May 11, 2021	123	38:23:23	playlist
6	Brilliant Diamond vs. Shining Pearl	Pokémon Brilliant Diamond	VIII	NS	2021	Rick	6	December 14, 2021	ongoing	129	41:58:52	playlist	playlist
		Pokémon Shining Pearl				John	2	November 23, 2021	ongoing	90	27:51:15	playlist

Sibling Rivalry

#	Title	Games	Gen	Platform	Year	Player	Score	Start date	End date	Eps	Length	Invid. link	Comb. link
1	X vs. Y	Pokémon X	VI	3DS	2013	Geoff	4	August 30, 2023	ongoing	28	73:58:57	playlist	playlist
		Pokémon Y				Dave	4	August 31, 2023	ongoing	19	58:17:07	playlist

Episodes

For a list of all videos uploaded as part of Pokémon Rivals, see List of Pokémon Rivals episodes.