Alternate

From Blaseball Wiki

Alternate is a Player Modification, first seen in the Season β4 Elections. It is the signature modification of the Mage Umpire.

Effects

When a player gains the Alternate modification, their attributes which calculate star rating are completely randomized, along with their Fate number. Modifications, allergy status, and Soul will remain unchanged.

History

In Beta

Season 4 Decree

In Season β4, one of the Decree options was called Alternate Reality, which had the description: Randomize the stats of one hitter and one pitcher on every team. This Decree ended up being one of the Decrees won in Season β4, activating with the following message:

  • Alternate Reality passed with 52,343 votes and 23% of all decree votes.
    • The Alternates are called.
    • They take their places.
    • Reverberations build...

One batter and one pitcher on every team at the time was given the Alternate modification, and their stats were completely randomized. The following players were Alternated in this fashion:

Team Pitcher Batter
Baltimore Crabs Oliver Notarobot Joshua Watson
Boston Flowers Dunn Keyes Inez Owens
Breckenridge Jazz Hands Campos Arias Kathy Mathews
Canada Moist Talkers Jenkins Good Jesús Koch
Charleston Shoe Thieves Snyder Briggs Stu Trololol
Chicago Firefighters Justice Spoon Edric Tosser
Dallas Steaks Leach Herman Sebastian Telephone
Hades Tigers Yazmin Mason Moody Cookbook
Hawai'i Fridays Stevenson Heat Terrell Bradley
Hellmouth Sunbeams Eugenia Bickle Igneus Delacruz
Houston Spies Math Velazquez Collins Melon
Kansas City Breath Mints Oscar Vaughan Rodriguez Internet
Mexico City Wild Wings Burke Gonzales Ronan Combs
Miami Dale Rivers Clembons Jasmine Washington
New York Millennials Fynn Doyle Wesley Dudley
Philly Pies Betsy Trombone Kennedy Cena
San Francisco Lovers Parker Meng Kichiro Guerra
Seattle Garages Ron Monstera Malik Destiny
Unlimited Tacos Sexton Wheerer Vito Kravitz
Yellowstone Magic Yeong-Ho Garcia Alyssa Harrell

Discipline Era

Further Blessings were offered throughout the Expansion Era to alternate players: Collect Call in Season β6, which Alternated the Dallas Steaks' least-Idolized player, Leach Herman; and Party Line in Seasons 6 and 8, which duplicated Evelton McBlase and Mooney Doctor and added their Alternates, Evelton McBlase II and Mooney Doctor II, to the Houston Spies' and Kansas City Breath Mints' rosters respectively.

Wills

In the Expansion Era, Wills were offered to the fans for the first time as a new way to boost and affect their Team. Two Wills offered during the Era involved the Alternate modification:

Alternate, with the description "Call in an Alternate for a Player on your Team." was offered from Seasons 12-14. The following teams filed the Will: In Season β12, the Yellowstone Magic, alternating Cory Twelve; and the Dallas Steaks, alternating Gallup Crueller. In Season β13, only the Atlantis Georgias filed the Will, alternating Flattery McKinley, and no teams chose the Will in in Season β14.

From Season β15 onward, Alternate Trust replaced the Alternate Will, claiming it would "Call in an Alternate for a Player on your Team, with a mystery Benefit." These "benefits" were a range of permanent player Modifications.

In Season β15, three players received the Parasite Modification in addition to being Alternated: Elwin McGhee, of the Tokyo Lift; Yong Wright, of the Mexico City Wild Wings; and Baldwin Breadwinner, of the Hawai'i Fridays.

In Season β16, three more players were targeted by Alternate Trust, this time receiving the Careful Modification: PolkaDot Patterson, Socks Maybe, and Elijah Valenzuela of the Dallas Steaks, Chicago Firefighters, and Breckenridge Jazz Hands respectively.

The Modification which would've been given to Alternate Trusted players in Season 17 is unknown, as no teams filed the Alternate Trust Will.

In Season β18, the Alternate Trust Will was visually associated with the Reader and gave players the Negative Modification, with the exception of Justice Spoon who was already Negative from the Season 18 Reading and gained the Undertaker Modification instead. In addition to Justice Spoon, Yrjö Kerfuffle of the Houston Spies, Kelvin Andante of the Core Mechanics, Erin Jesaulenko of the Georgias, Greer Lott of the Canada Moist Talkers, Jessica Telephone of the Lift, Ren Hunter of the Charleston Shoe Thieves, Scarlet Caster of the Wild Wings, Brisket Friendo of the Seattle Garages, and Anathema Elemefayo of the New York Millennials were Alternated this season.

Season β19's recipients of the Alternate Trust Will (Jaylen Hotdogfingers of the Boston Flowers, Caleb Novak of the Miami Dale, Socks Maybe (again) of the Firefighters, Amos Melon of the Moist Talkers, and Peanut Holloway of the Philly Pies) also received the Negative modification.

Expansion Era Blessings

During the Expansion Era, there were multiple Blessings that allowed Teams to Alternate multiple players on their team at once. The following Blessings involved the Alternate modification:

Blessing Description Season(s) Offered Winning Team Notes
On Deck Call the Alternate for all Players in your Shadows. Season β17 Chicago Firefighters List of Alternated players. The Alternation of Lance Serotonin also revealed that Attractors could be refreshed via alternation, losing their Attractor modification.
Shots in the Dark Call the Negative Alternates (maintaining Star count) for 5 random Players in your Team's Shadows. Season β20 Atlantis Georgias Alternated Neerie McCloud, Xandra Yolk, Jon Tumblehome, Clementine Steeplechase, and Steals Chark.
Couldn't Hurt Call the Negative Alternates (maintaining Star count) for the 2 worst Players on your Team's Active Roster. Season β20 Hades Tigers Alternated Hiroto Wilcox and Randy Castillo.
Lineup Alternate Trust Call the Negative Alternates (maintaining Star count) for 3 random Players in your Team's Lineup. Season β21, Season β22 Seattle Garages, Charleston Shoe Thieves List of Alternated players
Rotation Alternate Trust Call the Negative Alternates (maintaining Star count) for 2 random Players in your Team's Rotation. Season β21, Season β22 Hades Tigers, Hawai'i Fridays List of Alternated players
Handful Alternate Trust Call the Negative Alternates (maintaining Star count) for 5 random Players on your Team's Active Roster. Season β21, Season β22 Core Mechanics, Baltimore Crabs List of Alternated players
Shadows Alternate Trust Call the Negative Alternates (maintaining Star count) for your entire Team's Shadows. Season β21, Season β22 Yellowstone Magic, Hawai'i Fridays List of Alternated players
Alternate Bust A random Ego-Boosted Player on your Team gets their Negative Alternate called (maintaining Stars) and they lose 1 Ego. Season β22 Hawai'i Fridays Don Mitchell received this blessing, reducing their Ego from  Ego++ to  Ego+.

Coronation Era

Players can be alternated in Solar Eclipse (Red) weather, if targeted by the Mage Umpire. Players on teams with the Entangled modification cannot be alternated in this way.

Trivia

  • Players can also theoretically be Alternated if they return from Elsewhere while Entangled. As only one player has ever had the Entangled modification, and said modification was due to an Item Moved off the player, this has never been seen in-game.
  • Starting in Season β18, Alternates were reworked so that if a freshly Alternated Player had fewer Stars than before they were Alternated, their Player Attributes would be boosted until the amount of Stars after their Alternation were the same or higher than as before.
    • This created a quirk where an Alternate's Patheticism — like other stats — would be boosted in an attempt to 'improve' them, despite higher levels of Patheticism — unlike other stats — lowering a Player's Star total. This was especially prevalent in Alternates with previously high Star totals. As the number of boosts an Alternate received was dependent on the difference between their pre- and post-reroll Stars value, Players with higher initial Star totals required a larger number of boosts, resulting in greater chances of Patheticism and Tragicness reaching their maximum. This is often referred to by Fans as the Path Bug, although it has not been confirmed by The Game Band whether it is a bug or intentional.
COMMUNITY REPORTS
The remainder of this article contains lore created collaboratively by the Blaseball community.

Interpretations

The process of Alternation is poorly understood, the churning of reality around each Alternation event offering researchers naught but tantalising glimpses and maddening seeds as to its exact nature. One such instance has been detailed here by by a Wiki archivist.
If you would like to see a list of all archival notes, or add additional information; please click Rumor Registry. If you would like to edit this entry, click Entry-95.226.
This system is based on the Interdimensional Rumor Mill, which can be read about at Interdimensional Rumor Mill.

Alternate Reality Pairs

During Season 4's Alternate Reality decree, many pairs of players were drawn from the same alternate universe as each other. Commonly cited examples of these pairs include Edric Tosser and Justice Spoon of the Chicago Firefighters coming from the Deerfield Firestarters, Parker Meng and Kichiro Guerra of the San Francisco Lovers coming from the San Francisco "Tough" Lovers, and Igneus Delacruz and Eugenia Bickle of the Hellmouth Sunbeams coming from the Moab Starlights.

Previous theorists have suggested that specific teams are closely associated with specific "mirrorverse" counterparts, often involving teams from the same region but with reversed thematics. But why are they often from teams with opposing emotional resonance, and not merely opposing literal themes? In this essay I will

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