Archived Sticky: Is the GameStop Celebi 02271 still Legit?

[Sabresite]

edit:

The understanding is that Nintendo/Game Freak screwed up, and both Celebi are viewed as Legit from their standpoint.

 

Original post:

We have found out recently that the GameStop Celebi that was on the Nintendo Distribution ROM with the Johto Beasts will NEVER be distributed. Would you still consider it legit? Please explain your thoughts!

I keep thinking to myself, what if someone at GameStop advanced the date on the Demo NDS Lite to distribute the Celebi to kids who asked for it early? Is that kid's celebi now NOT LEGIT because Nintendo screwed up?

[randomspot555]

If we're talking about how to host it, I think just putting an asterik by the GAMESTP Celebi wondercard and say "This was found on the same distro cart as the GAMESTP Johto Beasts, but the Celebi that was ultimately distributed came from a different cart with a new OT/ID#"

[Sabresite]

I already took care of that in terms of hosting it. I am challenging everyone's perception of what they consider to be legit vs illegal.

[trance]

There would definitely be people who may have obtained it in advance, so could it be considered legit at the time?

[Tsujin]

Well I say that it isn't Legit. My reason for that would be because it was still never officially released by Nintendo even though it did come from them. I don't consider Celebi's that people got early because the employee changed the date Legit either. My way of looking at it is that it was possibly meant to be distributed but for unknown reasons it was not. And without the leaked distribution rom or without prompting an employee to change the date on the distribution cart then nobody would have ever recieved a Gamestp Celebi. Plus the amount of people that even did get the Celebi early because of an employee is so miniscule. I haven't heard of anybody saying themselves that they did this. And with the leaked distribution rom anybody could easily edit their own Gamestp Celebi to make it seem like they got it early from a Gamestop employee. So all in all I say no that the Celebi is not Legit.

[Guested]

Well, it was out there. It is POSSIBLE that some people obtained it the way that has been mentioned here.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's illegal or illegitimate, but I would say that ACTUAL Gamestop Celebis obtained ACTUALLY at a Gamestop are going to be extremely rare.

[Kaphotics]

My vote is No. They can be legal, but not legitimate.

Nintendo never intended for them to be distributed before the date on the ROM, and mailed out a new ROM to distribute the WIN2011 even before the GAMESTP one was to be distributed.

"What if a GameStop never received the second cart?"

Just as unlikely as them never receiving the first.

People who work at GameStop or had friends who do could have changed the machine date (according to the information on the ROM dates), but this was of course not intended by Nintendo. Not authorized = "Semi-Legit", like hacking in the Azure Flute. Sure it's possible to get one, but you have to do what normally is not possible.

[Guest]

I'm gonna say that I think they're legal, but not legit.

Nintendo never intended them to be available, but it was possible to obtain them without cheating.

(You should add a "I consider them legal, but not legit" choice in the poll.)

[sabocan]

well since nintendo made that celebi and it works well for zorua i say it is fine it's still nintendo's product =)

[Sabresite]

i did not include a "legal" because legal is a construct based on "blind" legality checking. MEANING you REALLY DON'T know the history of the pokemon (who cought it, and whether or not they were physically at the event). These pokemon lay in this grey area of, maybe or maybe not. This is not an issue of maybe or maybe not.

In my example, I am taking the assumption that a kid went to Gamestop, and either by asking, or by an error in the date of the demo NDS lite, the kid acquired the celebi. The kid did NOT receive it from the wondercard on our site, the leaked rom, or another method (hypergts, etc).

I am tending toward what Guested says. If you can prove that it was acquired ingest (with good faith, and without illegal means), then it should be legit. Otherwise its illegal. There are some traders who use the same protocol when deciding if ANY event pokemon is legit.

Some traders will ONLY collect pokemon that they can PROVE originated from a person who was at the event.

[jawsisra]

well my brother did get 1 of the celebi from gamestop. he asked the guy about the changing of the dates. the guy say he could do it but he wanted to be paid to do it.

My brother paid $30 to get the celebi and is now clonning it and giving it out to people that want it. I went and got the legit Celebi but I noticed one thing

my pokemon peral could not get it. when I asked my brother he told me he used my pearl to get the first celebi. I noticed even after I deleated the wonder card it still would not let me have the legit celebi

I think we should say its a Semi Legit

Its ok to trade to people that want it but that people need to understand they can not use it in battle that way its ok to trade but not battle with

[Nigoli]

This is just another reason why people would prefer the original Japanese Events.

I'm happy I've made that choice long ago before this train wreck. :bidoof:

[Tsujin]

So if this is passed as Legit as it looks like it's going to will it apply to ALL Gamestp Celebi or only the ones that people got from Gamestop employees that changed the dates in order to download it early?

Edited February 25, 2011 by Tsujin

[trance]

well my brother did get 1 of the celebi from gamestop. he asked the guy about the changing of the dates. the guy say he could do it but he wanted to be paid to do it.

My brother paid $30 to get the celebi and is now clonning it and giving it out to people that want it.

Even more reason to say that it could possibly be legit, if it was (although under unusual circumstance) made available in the store.

As far as some people are concerned, it's as simple as going to Gamestop and getting a Celebi.

[JasonBurrows]

My Celebi has an ID of 13000, will that still work for unlocking Zorua?

[Acanto]

It's a rare possibility, but I think we cannot exclude the fact that someone obtained the WonderCard from GameStop employees, even though it wasn't meant to be distributed.

Of course, there's no way to prove whether a GAMESTP Celebi has been physically obtained or not (except for obvious hacks); but we cannot exclude a priori the good faith of who claims to have obtained one, only because we know there are very few legitimate ones out there.

[Kaphotics]

Just gonna restate my point that Nintendo never intended for it to be released, nor would it have been known about if the cart was not leaked (even for the date info). If Nintendo never intended for it to be obtained (with the new distro cart), it shouldn't be legitimate. At best it should be 'semi-legitimate' like the Azure Flute Arceus.

This definition has been the standard for liek, ever. According to the great Tsanth:

'Legal' has been split into two (more refined) sections, with Semi-Legit taking up the 'shortcuts' region and is thus more pure than Legal. Changing the distro DS date is definitely a shortcut. Sure this card can exist, just like an Azure Flute Arceus. If you or someone(thing) else outsteps the bounds to get you something that would never be normally obtainable, it's not 'legit'.

As a humorous aside, Darksteal co. says the Celebi's were not officially distributed ==> Not legit! (lulz)

Other (sets of) people chiming in: we are pretty pro-hack here, so our own definitions may be skewed compared to everyone else

1 2 3 4

Flame away

[Acanto]

Just gonna restate my point that Nintendo never intended for it to be released, nor would it have been known about if the cart was not leaked (even for the date info). If Nintendo never intended for it to be obtained (with the new distro cart), it shouldn't be legitimate. At best it should be 'semi-legitimate' like the Azure Flute Arceus.

The GameStop Celebi issue is different from the Hall of Origin Arceus issue. It's true that Nintendo didn't intend to make both of them available; but while you can obtain a Hall of Origin Arceus only through game enhancement devices/tools (PokéSav, Action Replay, etc.), it's possible that someone, in good faith, went to GameStop, asked for the Celebi and got it on its cartridge, not knowing that he shouldn't had been able to obtain it.

The difference is in the 'will' of who has obtained one of those Event Pokémon. To obtain a Hall of Origin Arceus, someone has to intentionally edit his save file, in some way, to make happen something that is not normally possible, thus altering the legitimacy of this whole process. On the other hand, someone who has no knowledge of game enhancement devices, or is against their use, could have gone to GameStop and obtained a GAMESTP Celebi; why shouldn't he believe in the legitimacy of the Pokémon he obtained? It's true that, to make him have that Pokémon, the date on the DS used for the distribution had to be changed, but it's plausible he wasn't aware of it (if he's in good faith, of course).

I'm talking about a very rare case, but its rarity doesn't make it impossible.

[Twig]

I would say so, Nintendo created the event with the intent to distribute it. The reason it was leaked was because Nintendo already shipped the distrubtion cards to Gamestop.

[Tsujin]

Someone getting it in good faith most likely wouldn't even know to ask for the Celebi. By the time it was even officially announced Gamestop stores most likely had the WIN2011 Distro Carts already. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if they had the WIN2011 Carts before the B/W Mall Tour started seeing as we got the Distro Rom so long ago. They could've replace them by the middle to end of January making anyone who asked for them in good faith getting a WIN2011 Celebi. This is all speculation though of course. However what if all events were distributed through Wifi? There would be no question of good faith. You would either have to hack it in ahead of time or get events whenever Nintendo distibuted it and whatever Nintendo decided to distribute. So even if you knew about a Gamestp Celebi and they distributed a WIN2011 that's what you got. There would be no leaks to question legitamacy so anybody having a Gmestp Celebi would've hacked it if that was the case.

[Kaphotics]

All GameStops participating got an email regarding the new distribution cart in mid January, and got the carts by the end of January. They knew about the new cartridge a month before the GAMESTP was set to distribute, and had the WIN2011 carts before the Mall Tour.

The GameStop Celebi issue is different from the Hall of Origin Arceus issue. It's true that Nintendo didn't intend to make both of them available; but while you can obtain a Hall of Origin Arceus only through game enhancement devices/tools (PokéSav, Action Replay, etc.), it's possible that someone, in good faith, went to GameStop, asked for the Celebi and got it on its cartridge, not knowing that he shouldn't had been able to obtain it.

The difference is in the 'will' of who has obtained one of those Event Pokémon. To obtain a Hall of Origin Arceus, someone has to intentionally edit his save file, in some way, to make happen something that is not normally possible, thus altering the legitimacy of this whole process. On the other hand, someone who has no knowledge of game enhancement devices, or is against their use, could have gone to GameStop and obtained a GAMESTP Celebi; why shouldn't he believe in the legitimacy of the Pokémon he obtained? It's true that, to make him have that Pokémon, the date on the DS used for the distribution had to be changed, but it's plausible he wasn't aware of it (if he's in good faith, of course).

I'm talking about a very rare case, but its rarity doesn't make it impossible.

The thing is, Nintendo never intended for the Distribution DS's date to be changed, so it was never intended to be released after they changed plans. Someone had to force the Distro Cart to distribute the Celebi, by toying with the date. Which means 'cheating the system' was necessary to make it distribute in the first place. They aren't authorized to change the date on the DS in the first place!

[jawsisra]

I emailed TPCI last night asking them why do they concider it a hack or legit Pokemon. and how will it be ruled in upcoming Tournaments like the Video Game Nationals. Once I get a replay I will post the email here and see what they say they might supprize us and say that they are going to count it as a legit Pokemon after all. and then again they might just cal lit a hack what ever they say I would say we should honor then.

[Kaphotics]

You probably won't get a response ;P

[aquaguy34]

My Celebi has an ID of 13000, will that still work for unlocking Zorua?

I don't think ANY event celebi for the 4th gen has that ID so you probably got it from the 3rd gen and due to that you cannot use it.

[Tsujin]

No, there isn't any Celebi with that ID no. So unless he got it wrong then his Celebi is hacked.