Nov. 26, 2023

The Third Rotation - Pokemon GO PVP

Show Notes
Transcript

Pokemon GO PVP debut in December 2018. PVP introduced a new way for Pokemon Trainers to engage Pokemon GO. One of the most anticipated features since Pokemon GO's launch, PVP influenced many Pokemon Trainer's journeys with many of them choosing to go down the road to become professional Pokemon Battlers. In this episode, we hear experiences from past guests regarding PVP from when they first started playing, what they like about PVP, and how it has helped them find community with Pokemon GO.

Sources
Song 1: "Forged in Battle 45sloop" by MusicLFiles
Song 2: "Pokemon | Kanto Gym Leader Battle Remix" by jesterdist
Song 3: "Lightning Spirit Sounds - Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow - Gym Leader Remix" by TheNintendoCode
Song 4: "Tera Raid Battle - LOFI/Chill Remix - Pokemon Scarlet and Violet" by Spaceroast
Song 5: "Tera Raid - Pokemon Scarlet & Violet LoFi Music" by Sly Neon
Song 6: "Team Star Boss Battle - Pokemon Scarlet & Violet LoFi Music" by Sly Neon
Song 7: "Pokemon Diamond and Pearl - Pokemon League (Lofi Remix)" by GlitchxCity
Song 8: "Pokemon Black and White 2 - Route 19 Remix" by GlitchxCity
Song 9: "ELITE FOUR BATTLE REMIX - POKEMON OMEGA RUBY/ALPHA SAPPHIRE" by RetroSpecter
Song 10: "110 Friends Theme 'Friends Forever' - Pokemon X & Y Super Music Collection" by Video Game Music Resources

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Transcript

WEBVTT

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It's the drive of Pokemon.

00:00:13.284 --> 00:00:39.533
Think about it, you literally have to go to gyms to battle, to get badges and then go and battle the top four in the region on Victory Road and then battle the grand master at the end of it and battle the Mewtwo in order to catch it Do you understand like the whole process of it is to battle, even if you are a collector, how do you weaken a Pokemon?

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You have to battle a Pokemon with it.

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If two trainers eyes meet, they have to battle.

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These words, this lifestyle, lives and breathes among many Pokemon trainers.

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since you're looking at my eyes right now, does that mean you want to battle

00:00:56.488 --> 00:00:58.837
yes, yes, yes, of course.

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Ah, I'm, thank you.

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I'm Warrior.

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And to be honest, I think if PVP didn't come along when it did, I probably would not be playing right now.

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PVP probably came at the perfect time for me.

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I've always been a little bit competitive.

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Yeah, I ended up, getting really into it.

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After a few of the team leaders, just weren't as interested in PVP later on.

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I loved PVP so much, I became the person that held the PVP cups for a bit.

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I fell in love with it because I started playing it and I got the basic gist and then I started doing my own thing and I would make it to ace rank every season.

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And I would just plateau from there.

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And I was like, I want more, I need more, I wanna be better.

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So through the course of our podcast and like explorations through other things, I fell into the world of like the community of Pokemon Go, which was so much bigger and better than I had imagined.

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I've learned so much, which has made me a better battler and like made battling that much more fun for me.

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we had a community that did Pokemon GO PVP Battles with Silph.

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I remember seeing the Champion won the tournament 4-0.

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I was like,"oh, all I gotta do is just win four battles.

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I can do that." So hopped in, got destroyed by the Champion, my first tournament, and then came back the next month like,"no, I gotta beat you just to make sure I'm actually good enough for it." Ended up playing him twice that month and beat him both times, so it was like, ah, okay, well I'll stick with this, it's pretty fun.

00:02:29.223 --> 00:02:34.656
But yeah, so I just stuck with PVP since then, and that's one of the main reasons why I still play Pokemon GO.

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I really like the sort of a chess like strategy where you're making these split to second decisions in the moment and I just really like the strategy of that.

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So memorizing like all the different ways the 18 types interacts like that by itself is a big endeavor.

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And then, you know, learning like how when you swap in, that takes one turn of time and then you have to count for that in your charge move timing, like all the little detailed mechanics, I think are just really interesting and a fun challenge to try and get better at.

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I am so competitive.

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I am competitive to a fault.

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I love competition, so that is definitely something for Pokemon Go PVP that drew me in.

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I did enjoy battling in gyms.

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and so in many ways, that is how, I was able to enjoy the game.

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I was so into gyms.

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I need to be on the top.

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I needed to have, the largest Dragonite.

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I needed to prestige them, I needed to have them all gold before anyone else.

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when that became a feature.

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but yeah, PVP, when it, changed to being more than just battling in gyms, it was like, okay, this is it, this is the real end game.

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This is What everything I've been doing works towards now I get to see how powerful my Pokemon can be

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I might be the adrenaline.

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I've always been a competitor in many different sports and even other video games as well.

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I think that's the part of me that really loves PVP.

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and because there was a ranking system that went along with it that I didn't know in the beginning, but finding out how to rank up and get these different poses.

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No, I wanted that.

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I'll be honest with I wanted those poses.

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I wanted to be able to say that I achieved the highest rank in the game.

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And so that gave me a thrill.

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The more competitive I got, the more I wanted to do PVP.

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In the heat of competition, Pokemon and Pokemon trainers battle alongside each other to discover who is the battle battler.

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To find out who will be the best like no one ever was.

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But for Pokemon Go, this part of the game remained absent from the game for two years.

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Debuting in 2018, the idea of battling finally arrived in Pokemon Go, creating a new wave of battlers and a new way to battle.

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again, I had friends that, were definitely big into the game and they were getting into the PVP aspect cuz they did have some more of that, uh, history of, battles in Pokemon, this is what we do with our Pokemon.

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They started getting into it with the Silph Arena and there was a tournament coming up locally.

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So I looked into it and tried to figure out, what some good stuff to use that I have or like a quick maybe go out and find and build up.

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And it was actually through that, that I started doing some of what I do now with the writing where I'd lay out a bunch of things like on paper like, okay, I've got these and this is good against this and this would plug this hole.

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And just in putting some of my initial teams together, started coming up with some of my, analytical style that kind of continues today.

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Then I saw that there was like a battle feature where you could battle other people and I started learning about that, learned about Silph, and I tried a Silph tournament.

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This is like December, 2019, and I got last place dead last.

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I didn't win a single battle.

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But I loved it.

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I thought it was awesome and, I was like,"Man, I wanna learn more about this."

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So my local group used to host these PVP meetups.

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Once a month we would do a practice cup where we would just practice and then a ranked cup, and we would just meet up at like a local restaurant.

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So at first I had no interest in it at what so ever.

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And then it was Twilight Cup of Silph and my locals hosted the meetup and I missed it cuz I had no interest.

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But I drove by and saw that they were laughing and having fun and joking.

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So next month I was like, I'm gonna try this." And I showed up to their little meetups and I had a blast.

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I lost really bad because I didn't know a thing I was doing and I was using like 1300 CP Pokemon because I didn't have no dust whatsoever.

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But I enjoyed it.

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When I came back to Pokemon Go, at the moment there was a basic PVP system.

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I used to just have friendly battles with some of my friends like we would have some battles, we would like have fun, we would use anything we wanted.

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Unlike main series games, which are really time consuming, like one battle takes like maybe 10 minutes, 15 minutes, this was a really short, way to like, you know, like live a dream, which is to have your own Pokemon battle.

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I think it was just an extension of that

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It wasn't until December of 2018, it was a cold, cold day in the warehouse and I clicked on my game and it activated and there was a battle and I went and I battled I don't know who.

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I battled anybody who had the game, cuz I think at that point I had been, involved for like the last six months and I was like dealing with like all these guys in my warehouse.

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I was like, Hey, you want a battle?

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Hey you want a battle?

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I was like, I gotta battle everybody and so I was like trying to find anything.

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And then I found Silph and there was like mentions of the Boulder Cup.

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I built a team of six, and then people were bringing double scarves and double med's, and I was like, huh, I really need to read the rules then I guess because this company isn't paying attention or something, the hell man!

00:07:38.867 --> 00:07:45.161
we go to Go Fest and that was, I believe, the first time that they had a battle arena set up at Go Fest.

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And if you won, you would move on to the next little stage and you'd kind of work your way up the bracket.

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And so all of us joined not really knowing, again, despite our little bit of self experience, not really knowing what we were doing and I think everybody else in the family, including my mother-in-law, got, knocked out in the first round, but the girls had great fun with it.

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I had figured out through some research on the road as we drove to Chicago that Medicham, and Azumarill and Venusaur make up quite a good core.

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So I just played something very basic and played it reasonably well and managed to get up to the finals of my bracket.

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For whatever reason, that was just such a little exciting experience that was unexpected.

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Obviously there was a ton about go fest that we loved, but that experience kind of stood out to me and if I'm honest, that's probably what locked me in.

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As lucky as that break was that I didn't run into some killer battler in the first round or whatever, it just sparked it.

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And from that point on, I was all in on doing the Silph tournaments.

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So I've always just liked numbers and stuff, So PVP was very numbery and learning all that stuff was just a lot of fun.

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I got really into typings, I didn't really care about typings that much.

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.But with PVP you gotta know what's neutral, you gotta know what's resisted.

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So like that extra challenge and depth of the game really I think what drew me in to getting really into PVP.

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And I also tried Silph Tournaments and I remember like having, making flashcards to learn typings, like I had that girlfriend quiz me cause I was trying to learn all the typings that, I don't think anything prepared you for that unless you were playing competitively prior, you didn't really need to know a lot of that stuff, so I got really into it, so I was like, I gotta learn, I gotta be good at this.

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I've always appreciated the thing about PVP, that it makes a lot more of the Pokemon Go world exciting.

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before Go Battle League came out, there was the Silph Arena.

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I was actually at a poker game and, uh, a friend of mine who also played the game said,"oh, you going to this PVP tournament.

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And I'm like, what PVP tournament?

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And he shows me this poster that the guy running it had knocked up and I decided to give it a go and absolutely loved it and played in every cup since then.

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And so I was doing that since the beginning.

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then of course a year later, go Battle League comes out,

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I have a vivid memory of the night that PVP dropped, just having a couple friends in the living room and being frustrated that all the moves that I thought were gonna be good were, were no good at all.

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the actual local PVP community, had a really strong and hypercompetitive gyming community that the day that PVP started, they just all came together and immediately decided,"Hey, we're, we're gonna be serious about this.

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We're gonna run two tournaments every month.

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We're gonna have one that's like a trophy event.

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We're gonna have prizes." to have that many other people interested and to know that I could come and compete against them every month and, do better and better and eventually win one of the events.

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That kind of changed everything for me.

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The battlers were the community and that's, really what got me hooked back on the game again was knowing that was gonna be a thing that was here to stay.

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I also just really loved when the Silph arena first dropped.

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It was so much fun, we had a little test tournament at a friend's house and.

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we all got together and ordered pizza and just tried playing a tournament.

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PVP I think is one of the best ways to bring people together.

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We just invited a bunch of people that we knew to a friend's house, and we were like, Hey, let's try it, let's try this thing, let's see how it works.

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And then we opened it up to the bigger community.

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and that was really, really fun.

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We held it in a more central location that more people could access, but we just wanted to see like, how do you do a tournament?

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How does this work?

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What's gonna happen?

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so we, we did a little test run and it was, it was a really good time.

00:11:34.803 --> 00:11:45.025
I loved Pokemon to the point where I loved making my own Pokeballs out of like either a tennis ball, and I colored on it with permanent marker and aluminum foil, just so I could throw it up in the air, like to the sun, like how Ash did in the first movie.

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That's always like an iconic moment for me because seeing the Pokemon battles, even like growing up was just always so inspiring to me and then watching Gen One through Gen four like at the time was like really, it was like one of my lifelines.

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Just because hearing the music, seeing the characters and every story about like friendship and growth and training with your friends and everything, just becoming stronger and being a better person.

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Once 2019 rolled around and These teasing of trainer battles like I remember seeing the first picture was of the battlefield and suddenly seeing the exclamation point, like how we see in the main series games, just like above their head as if a trainer's challenging another trainer to do a battle.

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I freaked out, I was like, oh my God, this is finally it.

00:12:24.778 --> 00:12:30.600
We finally get to use the Pokemon that we've caught and powered up for Pokemon battles and this is what we've wanted in Pokemon Go for so long.

00:12:30.898 --> 00:12:33.447
just having that aspect be implemented into the game.

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I was like, I'm like, this is probably not to be cliche, but it's like my calling because if we're able to do this with our augmented reality game with other people, I'll have so much fun with this.

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I was like this has so much potential, like I wonder what it's gonna change into and then Go, battle League came along and that's where everything took off, right?

00:12:49.390 --> 00:12:55.070
it's fulfilling to me because it's like my childhood dream to become a Pokemon trainer, a Pokemon master, or like at least one of the best.

00:12:55.373 --> 00:12:56.038
And

00:12:56.105 --> 00:13:00.208
PVP was really interesting to me, the Sinister Cup was my first tournament.

00:13:00.527 --> 00:13:14.049
it's my Favorite aspect of the game, and, really love what it does in terms of building community, and the game itself is really fulfilling to me has really been enjoyable, and the game becoming a larger part of my life is actually something I've, really enjoyed.

00:13:14.347 --> 00:13:18.937
PvP added and having the community element, it just was great.

00:13:19.241 --> 00:13:20.081
Never looked back.

00:13:20.091 --> 00:13:21.032
Was so into it.

00:13:21.032 --> 00:13:23.432
Said, when's the next tournament that I can drive to?

00:13:23.461 --> 00:13:23.761
Like,

00:13:23.761 --> 00:13:30.476
You know, it's kind of silly, but when I first played the games, you know, like Pokemon Red, my favorite thing to do was battle.

00:13:30.779 --> 00:13:35.330
So every single person I could find to battle, all the gym leaders, I absolutely loved it.

00:13:35.629 --> 00:13:47.094
And then it took several years for PVP to come out and when it first came out, one of my best friends really got into it and I kind of just tried it for myself and I actually really enjoyed it.

00:13:47.397 --> 00:13:51.022
I signed up for my first like in-person event locally.

00:13:51.318 --> 00:13:55.528
it was just like at a shopping mall and I was, I was so nervous.

00:13:55.804 --> 00:14:05.225
I just wanted to do well and I absolutely loved it and I posted on Twitter, and got so much support from the community, which was so surprising to me.

00:14:05.522 --> 00:14:13.292
You know, my locals have always, been really kind, but with like the PVP space, I just was not expecting a reaction like that.

00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:32.048
The fact that like the PVP world, people are just so incredibly kind and supportive and that's why I've always Wanted to be a part of that kind of community, so that as well, made me want to make PVP like a focus and just continually get better at it and I kind of have just been doing PVP ever since.

00:14:32.654 --> 00:14:34.144
The journey will be long.

00:14:34.452 --> 00:14:36.023
The battles will be fierce.

00:14:36.333 --> 00:14:45.043
However, a passion burns inside every Pokémon Trainer who takes up the challenge to be the best like no one ever was.

00:14:45.648 --> 00:14:48.307
And when these Pokémon Trainers come together...

00:14:48.913 --> 00:14:57.325
I think the biggest surprise to me has been seeing the drive and passion people can have for this game.

00:14:57.629 --> 00:15:04.316
I remember one of the first continental championships for the Silph Arena, they had a room packed out with hundreds of people.

00:15:04.616 --> 00:15:14.732
It went on so long that the venue had to kick them all out cuz of licensing issues and so the final battles were filmed on people's, like phones and shared to the internet.

00:15:14.732 --> 00:15:16.052
So that's how underground it was, right?

00:15:16.352 --> 00:15:23.504
But I also remember hearing there was some kind of development manager for Pokemon Go in attendance there.

00:15:23.807 --> 00:15:40.977
And they saw in that moment the passion that these hundreds of people had for this game and that's what gave them this idea to create, uh, competitive system with their, with pvp to make it more than just an extra fun little thing that you could do on the side with your friends.

00:15:41.280 --> 00:15:43.441
Oh my God, that'd be amazing.

00:15:43.738 --> 00:15:45.177
I think it's possible.

00:15:45.474 --> 00:15:49.203
I think it's definitely possible for female to become the first champion in Worlds.

00:15:49.524 --> 00:15:52.884
It doesn't have to be me, it could be Cindy, it could be Khaleesi it could be anybody.

00:15:53.183 --> 00:15:55.533
I think it's possible and, and I'd love to see it.

00:15:55.821 --> 00:15:57.740
it's just incredibly gratifying, right?

00:15:58.046 --> 00:16:09.578
Certainly as she's grown as a battler, it was just really neat to see her grow in the ways that all competitors do and then, you know, have a chance to show herself or prove herself on the big stage.

00:16:09.876 --> 00:16:16.917
It's almost hard to put into words just how proud you are as a parent to see your kids succeed and what they're passionate about and continues to.

00:16:17.216 --> 00:16:21.559
If anything, it has drawn our family's excitement levels up even more for the game.

00:16:21.874 --> 00:16:33.768
Man, just having, that community in the corner and then fishonAHeater, sort of the captain of the ship, so to speak, he runs lots of streams where he'll break down the next meta that's coming up along with, LylesJeff.

00:16:34.067 --> 00:16:38.447
There's just a whole range of folks and we're getting new people in all the time.

00:16:38.748 --> 00:16:45.587
That's something that Fish really wants to champion is creating this sense of support and community, no matter what level you're at.

00:16:45.893 --> 00:16:47.596
I'm a hyper-competitive person.

00:16:47.899 --> 00:16:48.450
I'm like, look.

00:16:48.450 --> 00:16:49.822
Welcome to pogo ic.

00:16:49.822 --> 00:16:51.352
My name is Taco Dog.

00:16:51.652 --> 00:16:53.361
I am a tournament organizer.

00:16:53.664 --> 00:16:57.922
the first thing a lot of people tell me they're like, Hey Taco, I'm not that good at PV P.

00:16:57.922 --> 00:16:59.422
Should I still come to this tournament?

00:16:59.724 --> 00:17:01.633
And I said, yeah, dude, absolutely.

00:17:01.937 --> 00:17:03.139
Do you like to meet new people?

00:17:03.139 --> 00:17:03.740
Yes.

00:17:04.038 --> 00:17:06.167
Do you like to make new friends?

00:17:06.167 --> 00:17:06.678
Yes.

00:17:06.980 --> 00:17:10.616
Then you should really come to one of these tournaments and they're like, oh, I don't have a car.

00:17:10.924 --> 00:17:15.954
And I said, my wife's asleep, I will steal her car and I'll come pick you up to to this thing.

00:17:16.253 --> 00:17:27.657
I will take you to the tournament myself and I'll take you back just so that you can have that experience and at the end of the day, a lot of people, when it was their first tournament, the first thing they always said is, taco, I had a wonderful time.

00:17:27.961 --> 00:17:30.392
I'm super happy that I came out to one of these things.

00:17:30.696 --> 00:17:31.957
When is the next tournament?

00:17:32.241 --> 00:17:37.971
Ah, man, I hope people who play me don't listen to this, but I can't even lie, man.

00:17:38.021 --> 00:17:40.902
I am a fan of the game, so I was starstruck.

00:17:41.199 --> 00:17:47.965
being able to compete in a tournament with some of the best players in the world, I was really like a kid in the candy store.

00:17:47.965 --> 00:17:50.266
wow, like I'm competing with you all.

00:17:50.276 --> 00:17:53.736
this is great like I never imagined being able to do such a thing.

00:17:54.036 --> 00:17:55.105
it was really fun.

00:17:55.226 --> 00:18:06.061
it was scary because I'm playing against players who have done this season after season after season where I'm really just getting to this level of competition.

00:18:06.358 --> 00:18:12.959
And so there was that seniority I felt of them, that I was like, wow, I don't want to get paired against this person.

00:18:13.048 --> 00:18:13.989
I don't know how good.

00:18:15.739 --> 00:18:20.548
But once the matches are scheduled and it's time to play, it's like, all right, all that's out the window.

00:18:20.548 --> 00:18:21.749
nah, it's go time.

00:18:21.749 --> 00:18:22.278
let's do.

00:18:23.502 --> 00:18:36.730
When I started PVPoke, it was from the perspective of this is a fun game I play with my friends and PVPoke was just an extension of that fun.

00:18:36.740 --> 00:18:46.061
It was, hey, my fellow local players, let's check out this thing I made and, let's play some tournaments and, I'll see how I can make it better.

00:18:46.362 --> 00:18:57.172
And as time has gone on, I'd say that mindset of it's just something I do for fun with friends has stayed the same in my mind.

00:18:57.492 --> 00:19:04.298
The environment and the scale might be different, but, getting to meet everyone and shake hands and say hi and.

00:19:04.394 --> 00:19:15.304
do trades and such and do in person battles was just so thrilling and the same exact experience that I had when I first started playing and building PvPoke.

00:19:15.601 --> 00:19:24.696
for me, it's still just a fun project that I do for friends and with friends and it's been really awesome to have everyone's encouragement and support along the way.

00:19:25.284 --> 00:19:29.634
My name is David Hernandez, and this is As the Pokeball Turns.