And on the 11th day, the lord of 'Twitch Plays Pokémon' was brought back to life.
After collecting six badges, after countless fan art tributes, after accidentally releasing over 12 Pokémon in a single day, after getting through any trees and ledges that stood in the way, and after successfully navigating the treacherous Safari Zone, thousands of players on 'Twitch Plays Pokemon' did it: they revived the Helix fossil by using the Pokémon lab in Cinnabar Island. It's amazing.
This development is significant because, funnily enough, a 'religion' of sorts formed around 'Twitch Plays Pokemon'—having thousands of players try to control a single character often meant that players found themselves accidentally delving into a menu that held a fossil. Players constructed a narrative around the mistake: Red, the main character must be looking to the Helix fossil for guidance, right? That's why players consult it so much, for guidance.
And because of that fixation, the Helix fossil started being regarded as a holy deity by players—a force so important that the real point of the game, some joked, was not to beat the Elite Four and beat the game, but rather to take the fossil to Cinnabar Island and turn it into a fossil Pokemon called "Omanyte" (pictured above). In doing so, players would show their devotion to the chaos that makes Twitch Plays Pokemon so special, since the Helix fossil is the god of anarchy...or something like that.
Now that 'Twitch Plays Pokemon' has revived the Helix fossil, the team line-up looks like this:
(Image via the Google doc that monitors progress on 'Twitch Plays Pokemon')
Here's what this looks like in-game:
(Side-note: isn't AAAAAAAA going into battle kind of the best thing?)
Omanyte is the only Pokemon that doesn't have a doofy nickname, which is appropriate, really. Omanyte's revival, along with the acquisition of powerful 'mon like Zapdos, means that players on Twitch have a pretty formidable team. The Pigeot alone is leveled high enough that it can destroy most opponents, and Zapdos is a "legendary"—which means its pretty powerful. Eventually, the Omanyte will evolve into an Omastar.
As of this writing, Twitch players are trying to acquire the "secret key"—an item which will allow them to face Blaine, the gym leader of Cinnabar Island. From there, players will need to acquire one last badge before being able to head into Victory Road—the grueling final portion of the game before the Elite Four. Whether or not they'll be able to do all of this remains to be seen—but somehow, they've made it this far, right? I wouldn't underestimate what Twitch players can accomplish, given enough time. We'll keep you updated on progress.
You can watch the livestream here, if you're curious:
Bets on how long until someone accidentally releases Lord Helix?
UPDATE: if you missed the special moment in which the Helix fossil was revived in the stream, you can watch it here—it's a shame we can't see the chat at the time, because you gotta imagine that everyone lost their shit the second Omanyte was obtained.
And you can watch them take the Omanyte out of the PC here, after the 11 days, 10 hours and 35 minutes mark (it's the time noted at the top of the video).