It’s no wonder that with millions of fans worldwide and after 26 years of history,Pokemongames are not only successful on their own accord but also end up generating plenty of content for the many people that make this their career avenue, such as Duwiol. Matt, Duwiol’s real name, is a YouTuber and content creator who madePokemongamesmuch more than his hobby. Always with that itch that he never managed to scratch until he finally decided to become a full-time content creator, Duwiol found his path to success after he started experimenting with social media, particularly with TikTok.
In an interview with Game Rant, Duwiol explained that content creation had always been a recurring dream of his, and at various points in his life, he decided to give it a go. He first started by recording YouTube videos about a variety of obscure indie games, which didn’t help him get the views he hoped for, which also meant that community engagement was low, if present at all. That’s where creatingPokemoncontent helped, and that’s why Duwiol started making short TikTok videos where he battled random people and later started hisPokemonmarathon.
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How Pokemon Battles and Playthroughs Helped Duwiol Grow
While Duwiol’s passion has always been making videos on YouTube, TikTok is where he initially landed once he decided to do content creation on the side while teaching English as his main job. Unbeknownst to him, TikTok was the perfect platform for a specific type of video that Duwiol decided to put out, which consisted ofcommunityPokemonbattleswith critters selected at random thanks to an Instagram filter. That’s when he realized he could do it, and further down the line he finally started making YouTube videos again, starting with a marathon ofPokemongames all the way from Gen 1 through the most recent entries,Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
There was a moment when I started using a filter off of Instagram where it would randomly select six Pokemon for me, and I would challenge the people watching my videos in 6v6 battles. It went really well. I went from getting a few views to getting thousands.
The main appeal of the TikTok approach was that community members realized that they could directly challenge Duwiol after he battled a kid with random Pokemon when they asked. This went on to be a prolific, viral series for Matt, who also started using the Pokemon randomizer filter to make type-specific teams that would be perfect forrecreating PokemonGyms, like in the games. Duwiol not only grew in popularity after this, but he also started building an ever-growing community that would engage with his videos, suggest ideas, and more.
Duwiol’s videos started picking up on YouTube as well, where he is making a long-form series of playthroughs that go fromPokemon RedandBlueall the way to Gen 9, even though he did end up playingScarlet and Violetbetween Gen 4 and Gen 5 due to the release schedule. Still, this allowed him to rediscover nostalgia-fueled memories and make more accurate evaluations of the various mainline titles in his adulthood. Interestingly, Duwiol found that Gen 1 was much easier for him now than it was when he first played it as a kid, partially spoiling his view of it.
One thing that I didn’t plan for, but it’s ended up happening is that the last time I played a lot of these games I was a kid, so I’m going in with nostalgic viewpoints on these games, and they’re being shattered. I went into Pokemon Red thinking “I love this game, it was so difficult,” but I beat it with no issues and I thought “Oh, this is not as hard as I remembered.”
On the other hand, his playthrough ofPokemon BlackandWhitemade him appreciate how smooth the Gen 5 games were, which sticks out like a sore thumb compared to theperformance issues ofPokemon Scarlet and Violet. ThePokemonmarathon also allows Duwiol to engage with his community even more, as he regularly holds polls about what sort of Pokemon he should add to his team, for example.
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