March 15, 2023

TRAINER'S EYE #29 - "Swampert's Way To Have A Good Day" ft. MJGettit

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by MJGettit, a prominent member of the Pokemon GO community and a writer for FSPN.

MJGettit shares his passion for Pokemon GO and how it led him to become involved in the competitive scene, particularly in PVP and Factions through the Silph Arena. He discusses his experiences as a writer for FSPN, sharing his knowledge and love for the game with others.

As an African-American content creator, MJGettit offers his perspective on diversity and representation within the Pokemon GO community. He talks about the challenges African-American content creators face within the Pokemon Go community.

Trainer's Eye is a series where the stories are real and people still play this game. From PVP to Shiny Hunting, each person's Pokemon GO journey is unique and we dive into each journey here on As The Pokeball Turns!

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Connect with MJGettit: Twitter | Articles

Send us a text

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Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com

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Chapters

00:44 - Introduction

03:51 - Interview with MjGettit

55:51 - Thank You For Listening! :)

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.569
My name is David Hernandez and you're listening to As The Pokeball Turns.

00:00:44.006 --> 00:00:53.627
Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we interview people around the community on how their Pokemon Go journey started, where it has been and where it is currently going.

00:00:53.929 --> 00:00:55.070
Let's turn the clocks back.

00:00:55.369 --> 00:01:03.259
You're sitting down in front of the TV inserting your cartridges into a Game Boy, Nintendo PlayStation, whatever game system was popular back in the nineties.

00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:13.909
Right next to you is a giant bag of cheese puffs and a bowl of M&Ms with a few cans of Barq's red cream soda because, god damn, how much you wish you still had that metabolism.

00:01:14.197 --> 00:01:22.079
You turn on the game to load up your favorite Pokemon game with your favorite six Pokemon each knowing attack moves because screw non attacking moves, right?

00:01:22.379 --> 00:01:31.799
And these are not only your six favorites, but they're also your best six with your Ace, your starter Pokemon, the one you send in when things go bad.

00:01:32.096 --> 00:01:38.902
It may know four moves of the same type, but nobody in the game has ever been able to take it down despite all the odds against it.

00:01:39.204 --> 00:01:45.030
After catching the legendary Mewtwo, you are now a legendary trainer In this eight megabyte plastic frame.

00:01:45.334 --> 00:01:50.134
You exchange stories of your triumphs with your friend at school who has the exact same story.

00:01:50.433 --> 00:01:54.063
Well, they chose the inferior starter, but you aren't judging.

00:01:54.367 --> 00:01:58.983
But wait, if your friend has the same story, then who is really the Pokemon champion?

00:01:59.287 --> 00:02:01.662
Who is the better player between you two?

00:02:01.959 --> 00:02:04.978
What about other people who have completed the game?

00:02:05.275 --> 00:02:07.614
Welcome to the beginning of eSports.

00:02:07.912 --> 00:02:10.389
Well, not necessarily eSports.

00:02:10.689 --> 00:02:12.610
Well, not necessarily.

00:02:12.909 --> 00:02:19.766
ESports date back to 1958 with the game called Tennis for Two that allowed two people to play against each other.

00:02:20.067 --> 00:02:22.896
It is considered by many to be the birth of eSports.

00:02:23.204 --> 00:02:34.944
However, the first tournament wouldn't happen until 1972 at Stanford University at an event called Intergalactic Space War Olympics, where 24 players competed in a tournament to be crowned Champion.

00:02:35.245 --> 00:02:41.395
Nowadays, many people, both young and old, chase the dream to become professional eSport athletes.

00:02:41.694 --> 00:02:53.699
Just like any major event, there are also writers and journalists observing, analyzing, documenting, and providing their opinion on the landscape or quote unquote meta of the game in a form of sports writing.

00:02:53.998 --> 00:03:01.829
Sports writing is of course, a form of creative, non-fiction or journalism that covers sports athletes or any other sport related issues.

00:03:02.134 --> 00:03:04.685
Sports writers are caught between two worlds.

00:03:04.991 --> 00:03:10.162
One where they have a pulse on the sports league they cover, and the other with the general public and fans.

00:03:10.461 --> 00:03:20.368
Because of this paradox, sports writers can range from at best analytical individuals providing information to at worst, passionate fans using broad strokes for providing entertainment.

00:03:20.671 --> 00:03:35.212
It's no different when it comes to Pokemon Go, especially in factions, where there are teams, free agents, and even different leagues competing to rise to the top as the PVP community continues to try to establish itself as an eSport on the Pokemon circuit.

00:03:35.522 --> 00:03:43.637
My guest shares insight into factions and what it's like to cover it, as well as his journey into becoming a writer for FSPN all started.

00:03:43.937 --> 00:03:47.877
From Dayton, Ohio, he is a member of the Dubs for Cheap Faction.

00:03:48.173 --> 00:03:51.169
Here's his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go.

00:03:51.473 --> 00:04:01.860
This is MJGettit! Today I'm joined by a fellow sports guru who also agrees that Popovich is the best NBA coach of all time MJGettit.

00:04:02.163 --> 00:04:03.604
MJ, welcome to the show.

00:04:03.604 --> 00:04:12.888
Ah, thanks for having me and yep, Popovich is the greatest coach of all time, I don't care what people are saying about him right now, I don't care what people think about the Spurs right now, cuz I don't even know if they're tanking.

00:04:13.185 --> 00:04:18.134
And if we happen to get the first round pick again and we, Tim Duncan, this whole thing all over again, I'm perfectly fine with that.

00:04:18.737 --> 00:04:24.214
I'd love to talk more NBA with you, but unfortunately I'm a Pokemon Go podcast, so we'll say that for another podcast for another day.

00:04:24.517 --> 00:04:32.874
Obviously you're an FSPN writer and you've covered factions, but before that you had to start in Pokemon Go somewhere, so I gotta ask, when did you first start playing Pokemon GO?

00:04:32.874 --> 00:04:33.221
Ooh.

00:04:33.221 --> 00:04:35.435
I'd say the first day, June, what was it?

00:04:35.435 --> 00:04:38.286
June 5th, June 6th, 2016.

00:04:38.586 --> 00:04:40.865
That was the very first time I picked up Pokemon Go.

00:04:40.865 --> 00:04:50.298
I played it for like two and a half, three weeks, put it down for two months and then came back to it because I got bored and then just kind of stuck with it ever since then.

00:04:50.603 --> 00:05:00.709
I remember when raids first came out, that's what really brought back into my interest to Pokemon Go to play, that then that got stale; then PVP came around and I was like, oh, this is just nothing but tap, tap, tap.

00:05:00.709 --> 00:05:08.333
I don't need to like really worry about it." And then here in Dayton, Ohio, we had a community that did Pokemon GO PVP Battles with Silph.

00:05:08.636 --> 00:05:11.495
I remember seeing the Champion won the tournament 4-0.

00:05:11.516 --> 00:05:13.406
I was like,"oh, all I gotta do is just win four battles.

00:05:13.706 --> 00:05:31.088
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.

00:05:31.689 --> 00:05:37.509
Was the PVP more because you were just competitive and you wanted beat him or did you actually start getting more interested in PVP by playing it?

00:05:38.108 --> 00:05:51.759
It was both a competitive thing and also just kind of me hoping I didn't miss out on the next big Pokemon thing cuz growing up, I loved Pokemon, but my, parents, they were kind of, not kind of, they were against it.

00:05:52.064 --> 00:05:58.303
So it was like, I will miss out on VGC back when it first started and like Nugget Bridge.

00:05:58.603 --> 00:06:05.444
I think it was about round gen six, so 20 14, 20 15, I started like really trying to get into it, but I was so far behind.

00:06:05.449 --> 00:06:06.076
I was like, you know what?

00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:08.459
Let me just stick to Smogon ladder.

00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:12.600
Then saw PVP popped up, I was like, look, I'm not gonna miss this train again.

00:06:12.903 --> 00:06:17.286
I didn't really take Poken seriously and I really didn't feel like doing trading card game.

00:06:17.586 --> 00:06:21.437
So like, all right, let me just try this PVP thing out, see how good I actually am.

00:06:21.735 --> 00:06:27.166
But yeah, so I just stuck with PVP since then, and that's one of the main reasons why I still play Pokemon GO.

00:06:27.764 --> 00:06:29.766
What about VGC do you feel like it's too late?

00:06:30.069 --> 00:06:33.189
is it just too much of a start learning curve for you to get to or?

00:06:33.189 --> 00:06:36.250
Not so much a learning curve, just kind of time and effort.

00:06:36.553 --> 00:06:48.574
I know now gen nine, they've made it so much easier to just hop into VGC like the mints that you gotta get to change the Pokemons natures all the items you get, there're like readily accessible at the start of the game now.

00:06:48.872 --> 00:07:07.406
But like back then, gen four was a slog, I remember just trying to EV train Palkia and going face off like against 60 different Golducks to get the special tech ev yields with the power lens on and that took forever and it didn't help that Gen four games were notoriously slow.

00:07:07.708 --> 00:07:16.654
Just never really got around to VGC, didn't really have time to travel, didn't have the money to travel, and I also felt like I didn't have my parents support if I wanted to travel to some of these Pokemon tournaments.

00:07:17.257 --> 00:07:19.867
What is it about Pokemon that your parents were against?

00:07:19.867 --> 00:07:41.367
Oh, you know how it was when it first came out, Christians were like,"it's the devil." And I was like,"it's not the devil." And then I take my mom to the first Pokemon movie and Mewtwo goes and creates all these clones and kills Ash, so it's like,"oh yeah, this kind of hurts my argument" as a seven, eight year old boy trying to convince my parents like, Hey, it's not all that bad.

00:07:41.367 --> 00:07:43.406
And they're like,"well, it has a control on you.

00:07:43.706 --> 00:07:55.050
You never wanna put it down." I'm like, but this is how I'm learning how to read and do my math properly, like, you know, like, what, second grader, can actually effectively tell you the synonym for enemy is foe?

00:07:55.346 --> 00:07:58.553
Pokemon is doing some good here! They weren't having it.

00:07:58.853 --> 00:08:12.891
It was like,"okay, so I can't convince you about this." Now that I've grown up, my mom, she does try to ask about it, but I do get asked like by my friends, like, if I ever had to go to a world championship for anything Pokemon related, would I take my parents?

00:08:12.891 --> 00:08:24.166
And the the good son in me wants to say,"yeah." The person that grew up with them was like, no, because they're not gonna understand anything, they're gonna have a little bit of a funk, maybe.

00:08:24.463 --> 00:08:32.586
Like my dad, I might take just because if I get into some stuff, I know he got my back a little bit and we'll know the laws just enough to stay outta jail.

00:08:32.884 --> 00:08:46.811
But like, nah, growing up just deep into the Christian part and then as they got older and realized, like I was actually still playing it, I think they kind of softened their stance, but every now and then I can just see it as like, eh, they ain't, they're not too happy about that.

00:08:47.421 --> 00:08:49.971
With your experience with Pokemon, do you have a favorite Pokemon at all?

00:08:49.971 --> 00:08:50.441
Swampert!

00:08:51.037 --> 00:08:52.631
Oh wow, you answered that pretty quick.

00:08:52.631 --> 00:08:55.620
Oh yeah! Swampert, like, Gen One's was Red, Blue, and Yellow.

00:08:55.620 --> 00:09:06.020
I liked Graveler and Golem, I liked Zapdos, and then I wanna say Articuno at one point was one of my favorites, but like those Pokemon, I didn't have that much of attachment to.

00:09:06.323 --> 00:09:16.369
Then Gen two came along and I was like, I really love Ampharos because it made the game so much easier, that I was so upset that when I got Pokemon Crystal Ampharos couldn't be in the game.

00:09:16.668 --> 00:09:24.243
So I was like, Nope, let me go find one of my friends, I need a Mareep so I can have Ampharos in this game, I'm not playing a Gen two game without Ampharos.

00:09:24.543 --> 00:09:31.658
So then Gen three came along and Ruby and Sapphire to me, they're one of my least favorite games in the series.

00:09:31.955 --> 00:09:37.368
But I love it so much just because of how well Swampert runs through everything.

00:09:37.663 --> 00:09:41.038
Roxanne, Brawly, Flannery, and Watson.

00:09:41.337 --> 00:09:45.020
Kind of struggle with Norman, but two Slaking, of course you're gonna struggle.

00:09:45.418 --> 00:10:00.977
Winona puts up a little bit of a fight and then after that Swamperts just off to the races running through everything like by the time I get done with the game, my Swampert is the highest level Pokemon, and I'm kind of having to catch myself like,"oh, Swampert is at level 70" and my next highest Pokemon is Swellow at 62.

00:10:01.278 --> 00:10:12.658
I'm not used to doing that, which must mean I really love this Pokemon and then I went on in the post games for both Ruby and Emerald, running up some battle tower streaks and doing well on the battle frontier with it and Skarmory.

00:10:12.957 --> 00:10:16.567
Yeah, the Swampert-Skaromy core was popular before PVP.

00:10:16.884 --> 00:10:19.774
Look, it just happened to translate well into PVP.

00:10:20.073 --> 00:10:26.653
So since then Swampert has been like my favorite, although Tinkaton is really making a run for that spot right now.

00:10:26.712 --> 00:10:27.253
Oh my God.

00:10:27.253 --> 00:10:27.462
Yeah.

00:10:27.462 --> 00:10:28.513
That's such a good Pokemon.

00:10:28.903 --> 00:10:32.952
In this house we stand Tinkaton! On Twitter, we stand Tinkaton.

00:10:32.972 --> 00:10:37.416
I don't care what the VGC players say about how it can't really beat Corviknight.

00:10:37.712 --> 00:10:52.916
We love the fact that Tinkatink just has little mallet and looks cute, we love the fact that Tinkatuff makes its mallet out of Bisharp and Pawniard shards, and then Tinkaton just goes and hunts Corviknight like a Steel-Fairy type that's not Mawile, that hunts all the big bad steel types.

00:10:53.212 --> 00:10:54.052
What's not to like?

00:10:54.052 --> 00:10:56.388
Exactly! And has a big giant hammer to boot.

00:10:56.388 --> 00:10:56.748
Right?

00:10:57.048 --> 00:10:57.378
Fuck it.

00:10:57.378 --> 00:10:58.697
We gigaton hammer over here.

00:11:00.888 --> 00:11:12.379
I have that on my team and when I first saw it, I didn't think too much of it, cause I caught the Middle Evolution, I didn't see Tinkatink at first, but I caught the Middle Evolution and I love that one, then it evolved like,"oh my gosh, this is such the best Pokemon ever!"

00:11:13.025 --> 00:11:23.321
I feel like with Tinkaton, it's like I can get where some people might bulk against this, but I feel like it's one of the best Pokemon Pokemon to come out since probably Volcorona.

00:11:23.923 --> 00:11:26.383
Well, so obviously you said you're from Dayton, Ohio, right?

00:11:26.686 --> 00:11:30.566
What was it like to play Pokemon Go over there like where do people go over Community Day or for raids?

00:11:31.186 --> 00:11:43.936
Riverscape, so like downtown, we have like a river that flows through downtown in, I wanna say 1913, there was this great flood that happened in Dayton, Ohio to the point where like the entire city was underwater.

00:11:44.243 --> 00:11:56.133
So like they built a dam and I wanna say around, 2000, 2003, one of those two years, they made this park downtown, where you can just walk and ride your bike and also be by the water.

00:11:56.428 --> 00:12:01.019
And it's high enough to where even if the water was to rise up again, it would never like flood the park.

00:12:01.318 --> 00:12:03.818
There's a park behind the library that you can play in.

00:12:04.115 --> 00:12:06.725
Nobody really does, unless it's a good community day.

00:12:07.028 --> 00:12:22.861
For me personally, I do downtown just because there's a lot of stops, rare spawns seem to always pop up in two specific locations and there are two spots downtown where if I just stand still, I can get like six kilometers without doing anything.

00:12:23.158 --> 00:12:32.726
So, if I'm like, four kilometers short of my adventure sync, just go to this one spot, stay there five or six minutes, and let the GPS take me everywhere and I'll get it that easily.

00:12:33.029 --> 00:12:40.289
For raid hour, we just like go to either Riverscape Deeds Park, start there and do all those as quickly as we possibly can.

00:12:40.592 --> 00:12:52.082
And then like there's another part of town like in Kettering, this place called Delco Park that everybody also likes to go to cause it's a big enough park to where you can hit all the stops and catch all Pokemon while you're doing the raids.

00:12:52.397 --> 00:13:03.052
Prior to Covid, we did have like a raid train going in 2017 and the guy who used to run it, he would start off at like, I wanna say seven o'clock in the morning.

00:13:03.355 --> 00:13:24.585
He would just go until one or 2:00 PM and was like,"Hey, we're starting here at Delco Park, we're gonna be traveling on this side of town, this side of town, if a bunch happening downtown, we'll go there, but we're mostly staying on the east side of town of like Kettering, Oakwood, maybe a little bit of the edge of Beaver Creek, which thankfully we didn't do too much of.

00:13:24.884 --> 00:13:27.615
And he'd be like, if you see something, call it out.

00:13:27.918 --> 00:13:30.227
If you miss a raid, just meet us at the next one.

00:13:30.532 --> 00:13:34.947
And he would have like a guy who had a map that would let you know where all the raids are.

00:13:35.245 --> 00:13:56.682
So like for two and a half years, he was the leader of it, we had some people take over for him when he couldn't do it, but then he had to move to like take care of his mom and kind of died off because nobody else could like keep up the pace that he did and then we'd have newer players come in and try to dictate how things were supposed to be as to where it was like, oh, okay, so you can do it how you wanna do it, we're gonna keep doing it this way.

00:13:56.989 --> 00:14:12.488
So it died off for a time being there, it is starting to come back now, but it's not like anything, what it used to be back in 2017, 2018, at its peak, especially since some of the legendaries aren't really worth going after for a PVP or PVE type of thing.

00:14:13.091 --> 00:14:13.780
Especially for y'all.

00:14:13.780 --> 00:14:16.120
I'd imagine wintertime gets kind of cold up there.

00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:20.835
Woo! Okay, so let me tell you about the weather we're about to have.

00:14:20.835 --> 00:14:23.985
Please tell me, cause I'm from Texas, so I really am foreign to this idea.

00:14:23.985 --> 00:14:27.510
Oh, I'm gonna say this with a lot of disdain towards you now.

00:14:27.816 --> 00:14:33.725
I think the high is going to be all of two degrees with a wind chill of negative 12.

00:14:34.029 --> 00:14:43.417
So I'm prepping I'll go to work but we're not doing anything, I'm not moving, I'm staying still, I'm trying to conserve all the heat I possibly have in my body.

00:14:43.417 --> 00:14:48.643
Well, I was actually gonna be surprised cause I was gonna expect you to tell me like you're gonna go out and play Pokemon, go in shorts and a shirt.

00:14:48.643 --> 00:14:55.575
Look, teenage me, when I was actually really active in sports and was like young and dumb, yeah I'd have did that.

00:14:55.871 --> 00:15:03.549
Even early twenties me when I was at the height of like peak anger, MJ and defiant MJ might have did that.

00:15:03.854 --> 00:15:12.583
30 year old with like swollen ankles still recovering from like sinus infections and intestine infections from the past couple of weeks?

00:15:12.583 --> 00:15:22.557
Nah, I'm gonna stay in my house, probably go out and spin one Pokestop, if the roads are slick enough, might go for a little bit of a joy ride, see if I can still make a ice donut and then come back home.

00:15:23.153 --> 00:15:26.874
So if it makes you feel better, the one time we actually got negatives here we got negative zero.

00:15:26.874 --> 00:15:28.796
That doesn't make me feel better.

00:15:28.796 --> 00:15:32.583
It does cause our thermostats were so confused on how cold it got over here in Texas.

00:15:32.583 --> 00:15:33.333
Oh, hope.

00:15:33.333 --> 00:15:34.354
Oh, wow.

00:15:34.783 --> 00:15:35.403
Negative zero.

00:15:35.403 --> 00:15:38.990
We get zero at least seven times during the winter.

00:15:39.288 --> 00:15:41.807
The cold is actually better if there's snow.

00:15:42.107 --> 00:15:49.240
If there's no snow and it's just cold and the wind's blowing, and then of course downtown next to that river, that makes it even worse.

00:15:49.846 --> 00:15:52.547
So let's keep a moving before we become the Weather Channel.

00:15:52.842 --> 00:15:55.133
Obviously you've got interested in PVP.

00:15:55.453 --> 00:15:57.163
So tell me about how you first got involved.

00:15:57.163 --> 00:16:01.094
I know you were trying to beat the Champion, but was it like through the self road or was it through GBL?

00:16:01.690 --> 00:16:02.659
It was through Silph.

00:16:03.116 --> 00:16:07.047
My first full season of Silph the only cup I missed was Boulder.

00:16:07.350 --> 00:16:08.940
I hopped in during Twilight.

00:16:09.244 --> 00:16:15.234
I ran Toxicroak, Azumarill, and I wanna say Venomoth was on my team before Venomoth got good.

00:16:15.537 --> 00:16:26.596
But then I came in with Clefable and if you don't know Clefable in February of 2019 did not have charm, so it had Zen Headbutt and Charge Beam.

00:16:26.894 --> 00:16:43.562
And me thinking not Pokemon Go PVP ideas, I'm thinking like regular Pokemon type matchups, I'm thinking,"oh, okay, Zen Headbutt in a meta full of poisons, that should do well against like the Toxicroak that should do well against Venusaur." Nope! It got destroyed.

00:16:43.865 --> 00:16:50.075
I went two and two, Every time I brought, I was like, you know what, lemme just stick to Toxicroak, Venomoth, the Azumarill, and Skuntank over here.

00:16:50.375 --> 00:17:00.798
They'll carry me throughout the rest of this tournament." At the end of the tournament, I looked at the Champion cuz he really destroyed me and I was like, all right, I'm going to get better and then the next month I'm going to beat you.

00:17:01.105 --> 00:17:04.428
And he was like, okay, I, I look forward to it cuz at that point he was 8-0.

00:17:04.428 --> 00:17:04.941
Oh wow.

00:17:04.941 --> 00:17:05.661
He's undefeated.

00:17:05.661 --> 00:17:09.230
Yeah, he's running through everybody like it's, nobody's really putting up a challenge.

00:17:09.230 --> 00:17:10.730
I'm like, okay, I'm, I'm going to change that.

00:17:11.030 --> 00:17:13.461
The competitive fire in me just kind of lit right there.

00:17:13.461 --> 00:17:14.961
It was like, yeah, okay, so I can do this.

00:17:15.300 --> 00:17:19.141
Tempest comes around and I kind of have an affinity for Steelix.

00:17:19.441 --> 00:17:24.317
So like I came with Steelix, Tropius, I found somebody with a Tropius, traded for that.

00:17:24.617 --> 00:17:29.028
It's not a good Tropius, so glad that Go Fest gave me some good ones now.

00:17:29.330 --> 00:17:40.221
Anyway, it was, the third round in Fairborne and I got matched up with him again, now at this point I'm 2-0 in the Fairborne tournament he's 2-0, we get matched up and the Fairborne people know how good he is too.

00:17:40.518 --> 00:17:43.317
So I win the first game and I'm feeling real good.

00:17:43.621 --> 00:17:48.285
He comes back the second game and just takes all the confidence out of me.

00:17:48.585 --> 00:17:49.837
And I'm like, Ugh, okay.

00:17:49.843 --> 00:17:51.637
So I did well enough to win game one.

00:17:51.637 --> 00:17:53.317
I gotta do well enough to win game three.

00:17:53.617 --> 00:17:58.897
And I'm looking at his team and I'm like, he done revealed on his Lanturn that he had spark at the time.

00:17:59.203 --> 00:18:05.253
So I'm like, all right, I'm going to go with Steelix and if I call the Hydro Pump before he hits it, I win this battle.

00:18:05.554 --> 00:18:07.263
I think I still have the battle on my phone too.

00:18:07.567 --> 00:18:15.606
I held onto that just kind of remind me like how good I can be so that like later on down the road when other things happen, I was like, yeah, no, I've been knew I could do this.

00:18:15.903 --> 00:18:24.314
So like my Steelix catches everything his Lanturn throws, it farms down his own Altaria and then I think my Altaria comes in and finish off his Skarmory.

00:18:24.609 --> 00:18:27.789
So I win that and then beat the next guy and I'm like, okay, cool.

00:18:27.789 --> 00:18:32.819
I'm won a tournament, so like Dayton's was the next week and I was like, okay, well why not go for a perfect month?

00:18:33.116 --> 00:18:33.866
Swept that.

00:18:34.170 --> 00:18:36.009
Was like, yay, I'm good.

00:18:36.307 --> 00:18:41.886
Found out Cincinnati was starting to have some tournaments too, so I was like, okay, kingdom, I'll go down there and try to do well.

00:18:42.190 --> 00:18:47.859
Again got tore up down there, so like, okay, I gotta keep going to Cincinnati until I actually win a tournament.

00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:55.047
I think the first tournament I won in Cincinnati was Jungle, yeah, jungle was the first one I won in Cincinnati.

00:18:55.351 --> 00:19:05.250
So then at that point I was like, okay, you know what, I've won in Fairborne, I've won in Dayton, I've won in Cincinnati, let's try to go around the state if I can to see where all I can win.

00:19:05.554 --> 00:19:13.894
So my next goal was Columbus and I knew right there, like, okay, this is gonna take a long time before I win anything in Columbus.

00:19:13.894 --> 00:19:15.034
They were just on a different level?

00:19:15.034 --> 00:19:16.054
Oh my God.

00:19:16.054 --> 00:19:16.894
Were they ever.

00:19:17.193 --> 00:19:23.763
I was used to battling like some tough competition, but like Columbus had their own people, had the Fitzy family getting into it.

00:19:24.059 --> 00:19:28.244
So it's like we kind of all started getting good together at the same time.

00:19:28.541 --> 00:19:37.132
Speedy actually started the whole all Ohio servers so that like everybody who was good in PVP and loved PVP in Ohio we all would get together and do tournaments.

00:19:37.420 --> 00:19:40.579
But yeah, I would say like that's when I started PVP.

00:19:40.903 --> 00:19:52.084
I've won a Silph regional championship in 2020, and I actually, to this day, I still can't believe that I won any Pokemon tournament, any like, high level Pokemon tournament with...

00:19:52.084 --> 00:19:52.584
why is that?

00:19:52.584 --> 00:19:53.119
Meganium.

00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:53.470
No, no, no.

00:19:53.470 --> 00:19:54.579
I can believe that I won.

00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:56.799
It's just I can't believe that I won with Meganium.

00:19:57.099 --> 00:20:05.339
In Pokemon Go PVP specifically, it's the only area in all the Pokemon franchise where Meganium is somewhat good.

00:20:05.644 --> 00:20:07.054
Everywhere else it sucks.

00:20:07.054 --> 00:20:07.773
Unfortunately.

00:20:07.773 --> 00:20:13.624
So this happens and it just so happens at the last game of the 2020 Southwest Ohio Regional Championships.

00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:34.953
I led Alolan Marowak into Hypno, got both the shields, called the bait wrong, so I had to switch out into my Meganium onto that Hypno to catch Shadow Ball and as it's happening, I'm just sitting here watching Meganium take out the Registeel, take out Hypno and then the last Pokemon my opponent had was Azumarill and almost take that thing out.

00:20:34.959 --> 00:20:42.720
And I'm just sitting here the entire way, like I am winning a championship in Pokemon with Meganium.

00:20:43.019 --> 00:20:54.099
Nobody who grew up with me in Pokemon, nobody who I know growing up in Pokemon, will believe that Meganium is the reason why I won a championship.

00:20:54.403 --> 00:21:01.173
So I posted on Facebook, I'm like, Hey, I'm regional champion, it's 2020, like everybody's locked in, so everybody's seen it.

00:21:01.470 --> 00:21:06.569
A couple of my friends watched the video that also played Pokemon, they're looking at me like, wait a minute, you won with Meganium?

00:21:06.874 --> 00:21:15.596
Like, yeah, it worked like, okay, I can understand you winning with Lapras, Lapras was good, I can understand Alolan Marowak, even though it doesn't have Thick Club in Pokemon Go.

00:21:15.896 --> 00:21:18.223
Everybody was fine with Azumarill and Toxicroak.

00:21:18.519 --> 00:21:21.079
It was just Meganium was the joke.

00:21:21.380 --> 00:21:28.201
We're laughing I won with it like it dominated game three and it's like the only time wherever put on my cape for Meganium.

00:21:28.805 --> 00:21:38.545
Well, it's also like the forgotten stepchild from the Johto starters, cuz everybody loves Typhlosion, everybody loves Feraligatr because of Totodile from the anime series, and Meganium hardly anybody liked.

00:21:38.545 --> 00:21:39.721
That's cause mcg sucked.

00:21:39.721 --> 00:21:40.682
Oh, you're hurting my heart.

00:21:40.686 --> 00:21:41.491
But yes, you're right.

00:21:41.491 --> 00:21:42.001
Unfortunately.

00:21:42.152 --> 00:21:42.751
Oh my God.

00:21:42.751 --> 00:21:48.332
Please tell me I'm not on another podcast where somebody likes Meganium as a starter.

00:21:48.934 --> 00:21:50.855
Do you want the honest truth or creative lie?

00:21:50.855 --> 00:21:52.085
Uh, gimme the honest truth.

00:21:52.085 --> 00:21:54.244
Yes, Meganium is actually my favorite from Johto.

00:21:54.959 --> 00:21:57.538
From the Johto for the Starters, it's not my favorite starter of all time.

00:21:57.835 --> 00:22:01.709
Out of the three, that was my favorite, that's the one I always chose whenever I played Pokemon Gold.

00:22:01.709 --> 00:22:03.628
Okay, so let's, let's break this down here now.

00:22:03.659 --> 00:22:04.259
So we got...

00:22:04.648 --> 00:22:08.759
before we even get Faulkner, we got the Sprout towel with the poison types running around

00:22:09.009 --> 00:22:10.209
Bellsprouts, yep and Gastly.

00:22:10.229 --> 00:22:12.868
We got Falkner with Pidgey and Pidgeotto.

00:22:13.169 --> 00:22:16.511
We got Bugsy with Scyther and the Poison Sting Kakuna.

00:22:16.815 --> 00:22:19.224
We got Whitney, who's a problem for everybody, so I don't,

00:22:19.224 --> 00:22:22.501
No, Whitney is actually easier if you started with Chikorita, could actually take the hits.

00:22:22.501 --> 00:22:23.372
Yeah, that's true.

00:22:23.971 --> 00:22:25.586
Now I did a struggle with Morty though.

00:22:25.586 --> 00:22:26.007
Oh yeah.

00:22:26.116 --> 00:22:26.678
Oh, oh yeah.

00:22:26.682 --> 00:22:28.227
We we're going to hop back on this.

00:22:28.227 --> 00:22:29.636
Morty, gets run through.

00:22:29.940 --> 00:22:34.109
Chuck, it can serve some purpose there just because Poliwrath is part water.

00:22:34.413 --> 00:22:46.773
Then you have Jasmine with steel types, which kind of offset because the electric in grounds don't really do too well against the grasses, but Meganium's attacks are so piss poor that it makes Magnemite's defenses look good.

00:22:47.074 --> 00:22:50.534
Okay, you get Pryce, at that point in time, he's not even the real gym leader.

00:22:50.834 --> 00:23:00.374
Then you got the whole middle game of Johto where you're facing nothing but Houndours and Golbats and Weezing and Arbok.

00:23:00.374 --> 00:23:02.084
All the team rocket stuff.

00:23:02.384 --> 00:23:19.402
Then to cap all that off, you got Claire and her Dragonairs and Kingdra like just Meganium, no! Like J look gold, silver, crystal, I was Typhlosion but I could also play with Feraligatr just because I want to use Dragon dance on a water type that wasn't Gyarados.

00:23:19.701 --> 00:23:23.338
But to this day, just not Meganium, competitively, no.

00:23:23.634 --> 00:23:25.375
Play through Wise, no.

00:23:25.679 --> 00:23:30.906
Chikorita, Bayleef, Meganium, nope, not until Pokemon GO PVP, just never looked their way.

00:23:31.507 --> 00:23:36.727
It just took you a while to be able to understand its prowess, so it took you a while but you finally got there.

00:23:36.727 --> 00:23:37.656
Yeah, it took what?

00:23:37.960 --> 00:23:47.440
Half second turns and a hundred energy and even then, it's a good grass type, but there's still grass types that you could use that are better, that serve a better purpose than it.

00:23:48.084 --> 00:23:57.990
But none of those helped you win a regional! So obviously you're familiar with the Pokemon franchise, so what stuff would you like to see taken from Pokemon Battle scene and put into P V P?

00:23:58.589 --> 00:24:18.833
One of my favorite types, like ground types are my favorite types of Pokemon, but I also really love electric types and I think for like the electric type Pokemon in PVP, most of them getting Wild Charge or Thunderbolt is like a nice trade off, but they're like the type that always gets forgotten because most of the electric types are really fast in the main series game.

00:24:19.130 --> 00:24:32.228
So it's like you're trying to translate that over into P V P and it's like, okay, well in order to do that, they either have to have Thundershock or Volt Switch as a fast move and then Wild Charge or Thunderbolt as like their charge move.

00:24:32.528 --> 00:24:37.278
Yeah, Zap Cannon's good, but the best Zap Cannon user is a steel type in PVP.

00:24:37.577 --> 00:24:47.482
But like Electric types, I think in PVP could use, I wouldn't say a buff, but just there has to be something that can be done to make them a little bit more prevalent.

00:24:47.786 --> 00:24:55.976
So I think like electric types and to a lesser extent probably fire and bug types get like the short end of the stick for PVP.

00:24:56.278 --> 00:25:06.163
I think because some of their charge moves activate so quickly, that's like Niantic and Pokemon Go trying to say, okay, but we're giving them quicker access to all the charge moves.

00:25:06.163 --> 00:25:11.203
It's like, all right, that's cool, but they kinda need something a little extra.

00:25:11.500 --> 00:25:31.869
I like how with Ampharos, they did give it another quick charge move in Brutal Swing, which kind of helps against some of the grasses in particular Trevenant, but at the same time it's like Thunder Punch, I guess that's like a good move for it cuz it is the quickest charge move of the Electric type moves that can learn, but just, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, and Ice Punch to me have always looked like moves that could be buffed.

00:25:32.173 --> 00:25:47.490
And I get why you can't really buff Ice punch because then Medicham's going to abuse it and then everybody's going to get outraged and be like,"oh no, we gotta stop Medicham!" It's like,"well you know, in order to stop that they're probably gotta do something that's gonna make one of the other big five like crazy strong for no real reason," so...

00:25:47.490 --> 00:25:47.670
mm-hmm.

00:25:47.910 --> 00:26:00.080
let's just kinda roll with this, I feel like we can all live with Medicham having a powered up ice punch, if that means, for example, Primeape, who has a sky high attack but also has access to ice Punch, can do something with it or Galarian Mr.

00:26:00.080 --> 00:26:08.000
Mime can do something with Ice Punch or Jynx, who rarely sees any love anywhere in Pokemon, gets some type of buff to it.

00:26:08.605 --> 00:26:16.867
So since we're on the topic of diversifying the meta, we've been going through the regionals that have been taking place and usually it's been around a lot of the same Pokemon we've been seeing.

00:26:17.167 --> 00:26:23.621
In your opinion, do you feel a meta is better when it's the same Pokemon or when there's more Pokemon to choose from?

00:26:24.218 --> 00:26:39.381
Okay, so I wanna start by saying to everybody that thinks that this meta for the Pokemon regionals is stale and needs more diversity, I do agree with you, but I also just wanna point out: Gen six, Big six.

00:26:39.678 --> 00:26:44.968
If you don't know about that, go talk to a VGC player and they'll tell you about it.

00:26:45.268 --> 00:26:51.724
And it's like, hey, our meta is not really that diverse, but it's so much more fluid than that meta.

00:26:52.020 --> 00:27:02.520
If Pokemon Go PVP ever gets to a meta where it's just the same six Pokemon over and over again and even if you bring something to counter that, no, it's not going to work, then we got a problem.

00:27:02.821 --> 00:27:12.781
I can understand the frustration between seeing Medicham, Galarian Stunfisk, Trevenant, I can understand the frustration be between seeing all that, but like you can still play around that.

00:27:13.079 --> 00:27:22.205
But like in PVP, there's always gonna be like some loophole you can exploit like the cores are there to be broken and I think as a PVP community, you gotta like try to find it

00:27:22.805 --> 00:27:28.005
So you are part of a Dubz 4 Cheap factions and I wanna know, how did that first start?

00:27:28.607 --> 00:27:32.845
So when factions were, brought up, C-Dub reached out to me.

00:27:33.148 --> 00:27:38.594
He was trying to start up this server called The Underground, and he reached out to me and said,"Hey, you were pretty cool to battle.

00:27:38.897 --> 00:27:41.298
Seem to have like some good conversations while we were battling.

00:27:41.748 --> 00:27:50.423
I want you to be like a part of this server and also be an admin." Now I'm a lurker in Discord servers, like you don't see me talk much.

00:27:50.721 --> 00:27:55.132
I'll pop up every once in a while to be like, Hey, I'm alive," and then go right back to hiding.

00:27:55.132 --> 00:27:56.991
I was gonna say, are you like Randy Ordon with the RKO?

00:27:56.991 --> 00:28:00.808
Pretty much, yeah, with hints of the undertaker just lurking in the shadows.

00:28:01.112 --> 00:28:03.105
So it's like he hit me up about that.

00:28:03.402 --> 00:28:10.979
We brought up the underground server to what it is now, and that's really more so him than it is me, I'm just there to be the dark eye watching everything.

00:28:11.276 --> 00:28:14.875
And if I see something pop off that really needs an attention, I'll say something.

00:28:15.172 --> 00:28:20.635
But we start up the underground server, then factions starts happening and starts becoming a thing.

00:28:20.939 --> 00:28:26.001
At first I thought I was going to be a part of Ohio Nation because like all Ohio team.

00:28:26.001 --> 00:28:40.648
And I'm like, okay, well it'd be cool but then I'm also thinking to myself I'm in the Ohio Nation server, some of our best battlers don't want to return, and I'm thinking to myself like, as much as I would like to be on this team, I also kind of want to compete and beat you guys as well.

00:28:40.946 --> 00:28:51.836
Faction start up and C Dub reaches out to me and says,"Hey, I wanna start a faction for the underground called Dubs for Cheap." and I'm like, okay, well I'm on board, you're the first person to reach out to me, you get my services.

00:28:52.136 --> 00:28:55.527
As we're building up the team, we're like, okay, well who else do we wanna put on a team?

00:28:55.531 --> 00:28:57.926
And we're thinking we want some like really strong trainers.

00:28:58.223 --> 00:29:07.846
And I'm like, well, if we're gonna be an underground server, like we could probably pick up some people that we know that we battled against in the underground and make that work as long as we possibly can.

00:29:08.142 --> 00:29:16.834
So it's like we built up this whole team for people in the underground that we battled with each other and it was like, all right, well this is what we're gonna work with We're gonna go out here and try to make a name for ourself.

00:29:17.130 --> 00:29:21.630
First pre-season cycle, we go three and two, we win our first three and then lose our next two.

00:29:21.934 --> 00:29:25.505
Second pre-season cycle, we win our first two, lose our next three.

00:29:25.808 --> 00:29:44.526
So now we're like, okay, we're five and five and we're thinking when tiers announced like,"oh, okay, five and five we're good enough to start off in bronze." Nope, we starting to open and we were kind of irked about that because we saw, at the start of it, Team Flareon, started in bronze and we remember playing them and we remember beating them down.

00:29:44.823 --> 00:29:48.769
So it was kind of like, wait, they shouldn't be in bronze, we should be in bronze.

00:29:48.769 --> 00:29:51.586
You felt like you were forgotten about basically, or looked over?

00:29:51.586 --> 00:29:52.756
I don't think it was looked over.

00:29:52.756 --> 00:30:03.689
It was this is the part where you realize just exactly how much scoring in factions mattered and that's when we were like, okay, we can't play around with some of our opponents anymore, if we're better than them, we gotta stomp them out.

00:30:03.990 --> 00:30:11.026
So now we're carrying that burden along that we feel like we're being disrespected by like some of the teams in bronze that got there that aren't doing well.

00:30:11.328 --> 00:30:17.538
So they're like, okay, now we're just gonna win out and get to bronze and once we get to bronze, we're gonna win bronze, and then everything that happens after that is gravy.

00:30:17.837 --> 00:30:20.597
So we went out in open, we go six and one.

00:30:20.901 --> 00:30:32.901
We get to bronze and we start off two and two, we develop some more rivalries, but we're all huddled together, still thinking we can still get outta bronze, but most importantly we can still beat TexasPVP.

00:30:33.201 --> 00:30:39.038
So then about six comes along, we are in fifth place at the time and TexasPVP is second.

00:30:39.336 --> 00:30:41.479
if we win, we're swapping places with them.

00:30:41.778 --> 00:30:43.949
If we lose, we're probably getting relegated.

00:30:44.429 --> 00:30:46.348
So again, comes down nine, nine.

00:30:46.354 --> 00:30:52.375
DJ's last one the battle, and he gets his revenge this time around, he gets the three zero and it helps us get promoted to silver.

00:30:52.673 --> 00:30:56.873
And since then we've been, well in silver, we won that tier.

00:30:57.173 --> 00:31:04.133
We got to platinum, did okay, had a little bit of a struggle mid-cycle, so it's like, all right, well now we're down in gold.

00:31:04.446 --> 00:31:07.930
Some members have moved on to start up a new faction called Subzero.

00:31:08.229 --> 00:31:11.517
C dub is now with wing attack, but he still sticks around to help us out.

00:31:11.817 --> 00:31:19.616
We still have some of the core members from that original duff sheep on the squad, but we're looking to still improve and add more players that want to hop on if they feel like it.

00:31:20.213 --> 00:31:23.663
What is it about factions that's enhanced your experience for PVP?

00:31:23.663 --> 00:31:24.413
The team setting.

00:31:24.711 --> 00:31:34.605
In some cases, when it comes to like the PVP side of things, in a regular setting, in a regular tournament setting, you're just thinking by yourself, you're probably thinking, okay, well I got this, this, this, this.

00:31:34.902 --> 00:31:39.179
I know how I wanna play with this Pokemon, I know how I wanna play with this Pokemon, I'll play it this way.

00:31:39.479 --> 00:31:52.471
In factions, you got like six to nine other different people commenting, scrimming with you, being like, oh, hey, I know you like to use this Pokemon, but how about you sub it out for this Pokemon, it'll do you a lot better?

00:31:52.771 --> 00:32:10.838
Or in most cases, I'm the person on the team where I come up with crazy move sets and I know like, on my team, I'm the one that does it and like, it's a joke every once in a while where it's like, yeah, if you got a problem with moves, just go talk to MJ, he'll he'll come up with something crazy that sounds stupid, but then ends up working.

00:32:11.137 --> 00:32:31.453
But like in factions, you just have this team building exercise to where if you think a Pokemon's not gonna work, you take it to the team and be like,"Hey, I know this Pokemon is meta, but I don't think it's gonna work for my team, or I don't think it's gonna work for my play style." And it's like, okay, I can see why you think it wouldn't work, but like if you've been losing without using this Pokemon, let's go ahead and try to learn how to use this Pokemon.

00:32:31.757 --> 00:32:43.890
So like for factions, having the different brain power and like ideas floating around that helps in it makes it different from regular PVP tournament style setting where where's just yourself and you're stuck on a move set.

00:32:44.487 --> 00:32:48.987
So obviously you write for factions, you write the weekly analysis of how the matches went.

00:32:49.286 --> 00:32:50.546
How did that first start for you?

00:32:51.148 --> 00:33:11.128
So when factions first started, it was a fun experience and then like, I wanna say around week two of the pre-season, seeing all the big names get attention, you know, you got Stadium Elite, you got some great battlers on Chicago, Marylanders were starting to get like worldwide known, and SoCal Swablu, it was like, okay, they're cool, I like them.

00:33:11.432 --> 00:33:14.642
They've like destroyed me on occasion, some of'em I've destroyed back.

00:33:14.942 --> 00:33:24.076
Alright, I like seeing how you guys play when you play each other, but there's also some other teams and there's also some players on some other teams where they could probably use some love too.

00:33:24.375 --> 00:33:44.941
And on top of that, it was during the time when I'm like, everybody seems to want to be treated like a sports star, everybody wants to be treated like a celebrity, everybody wants to be like these athletes, it's like,"okay, well since people think that, let me see how this goes in Pokemon where now I can highlight you and give you some love, so like I think the match that made me think about this was Stadium Elite versus Hoosier Daddies.

00:33:45.237 --> 00:33:49.336
And I remember seeing that and I was like, huh, you know, everybody on Stadium Elite's good.

00:33:49.646 --> 00:33:51.951
So I was like, okay, well I know how some of these guys are.

00:33:52.255 --> 00:34:06.902
It'll be a good test for Stadium Elite to see, like if they can stomp out some, above average to really good talent and it'd be good for Hoosier Daddies if like they can at least dent the aura of Stadium Elite, so like, okay, that would be a good match to talk about.

00:34:06.902 --> 00:34:08.851
So then I like go through the list.

00:34:09.155 --> 00:34:11.585
I remember making a tweet about it and I was just passive.

00:34:11.764 --> 00:34:13.144
I was like being, the one thing.

00:34:13.144 --> 00:34:14.885
I absolutely hate being passive aggressive.

00:34:14.885 --> 00:34:15.545
I was like, you know what?

00:34:15.844 --> 00:34:27.144
Somebody should write about or make this into a sports thing, it's like we already got the team aspect of it, somebody should do this, that's just me trying to put the idea out there, pass off the buck and be like, Hey you, somebody do this.

00:34:27.445 --> 00:34:32.125
That tweet gained so much traction to where people were like, Hey, well that sounds like a good idea.

00:34:32.125 --> 00:34:33.835
That sounded like something you should, that sounded something you should do.

00:34:34.132 --> 00:34:42.958
And I'm sitting here like, somebody can take this and run with it, somebody, not me, somebody, not me, somebody, not me.

00:34:43.259 --> 00:34:45.518
Nobody was taking the bait, so I was like, you know what?

00:34:45.818 --> 00:34:48.579
Growing up in school, I hated writing.

00:34:48.882 --> 00:34:52.869
Not so much that I wasn't good at it, it is just, I was a math person.

00:34:53.172 --> 00:34:55.101
I didn't want to explain myself.

00:34:55.101 --> 00:35:00.445
I hated the detail and explaining, I'd always get good grades in writing, it'd just be like last minute stuff.

00:35:00.748 --> 00:35:07.414
So like the first article, not even the first article, the first like writeup I ever did, I posted on Silph A rena page.

00:35:07.719 --> 00:35:10.748
It was like, okay, well here's the battles I think will be cool to watch.

00:35:11.048 --> 00:35:19.762
Here's some upsets that are worth going at and, I, early on, I'd always pick on like the big name teams or like the higher up undefeated teams and be like, Hey, you're on upset alert.

00:35:20.059 --> 00:35:31.211
This will be fun to watch, let's see how you do if somebody would say like,"oh I think you could be upset." And that then led to a little rivalry with me and SoCal Swablu Gold cause they were usually the ones I always said, got the upset alerts.

00:35:31.509 --> 00:35:37.983
Then like Silph reached out to me and was like,"Hey, we want to add this to our website, we can do something with this." I'm like,"okay, cool.

00:35:37.983 --> 00:35:49.333
I can do something for you guys like every week on this." And then that just ballooned into like the EMEA, APAC, and Latin America all wanting to be like,"Hey, North America got this.

00:35:49.333 --> 00:35:59.684
Why can't we have this?" So like, okay, so now they have their thing and it is just grown as something a lot bigger there to where I'm still kind of stunned that it got that big.

00:35:59.983 --> 00:36:04.128
But then I'm cocky and arrogant as all get out.

00:36:04.431 --> 00:36:06.592
I say this to people and people don't think I'm serious when I say this.

00:36:06.894 --> 00:36:10.985
I take insults and criticism a lot better than I take compliments.

00:36:11.298 --> 00:36:15.858
You insult me, I got jokes or I might have like something to come off the top rope with you.

00:36:16.159 --> 00:36:17.148
You wanna criticize me?

00:36:17.148 --> 00:36:17.815
All right, cool.

00:36:18.112 --> 00:36:25.882
I'll look at it objectively and be like, all right, maybe I need to do this, or maybe I need to do this and then if I feel like the criticism is bullshit, I'll say it's bullshit and keep pushing with it.

00:36:26.181 --> 00:36:30.141
Compliments be like, oh man, I love your writing so much, it just, we look forward to seeing it.

00:36:30.342 --> 00:36:32.242
I'm like, oh, thank you.

00:36:32.351 --> 00:36:33.231
Uh, uh.

00:36:33.237 --> 00:36:34.041
It's like, can you hate me?

00:36:34.047 --> 00:36:35.242
I'm trying to make you hate me.

00:36:35.242 --> 00:36:46.851
Like, I don't mind you liking me, but just know me personally, compliments have never worked out for me, it's like, people will compliment like if I wear something nice, they'd be like, oh, you look nice.

00:36:47.155 --> 00:36:48.989
First words out my mouth, like, have you seen me?

00:36:48.989 --> 00:36:49.949
I know I look good.

00:36:49.949 --> 00:36:50.759
This is me stepping out.

00:36:50.759 --> 00:36:52.619
Then I gotta remind myself like, most people don't know me.

00:36:52.619 --> 00:36:53.398
I'm like, oh, wait.

00:36:53.398 --> 00:36:53.699
Yeah.

00:36:53.728 --> 00:36:54.059
Okay.

00:36:54.088 --> 00:36:54.599
Thank you.

00:36:54.599 --> 00:36:55.079
Thank you.

00:36:55.376 --> 00:37:20.382
But yeah, it started with just me trying to make it like more sportsy, put a little more sports spin on to it, highlights some lesser known battlers who probably won't get the attention that like the bigger ups will, the ones that are doing well like I remember all throughout season one of North America factions, Al Murphy, who was Space Coast battlers and then ended up being on the Orlando faction he had an astounding winning record.

00:37:20.679 --> 00:37:25.778
Like it was so good that I didn't notice it until cycle two and I was like, okay, let me keep an eye on this.

00:37:26.081 --> 00:37:36.972
I'm not gonna say anything about it because like that's happening in qualifiers and open, so like, okay, it's not as impressive as say, JaysFan winning 85% of his battles in platinum tier.

00:37:37.268 --> 00:37:47.456
But at the same time, I'm pretty sure there's a faction higher up than Space Coast battles that would love to have a guy who's batting 90% winning average on their team.

00:37:47.755 --> 00:38:10.081
I kind of want to highlight some of the lesson knowns or some of the, people who are really good, just haven't gotten that notice to the point where now I think some of the lower factions are having a problem, like, oh, all the big name factions are stealing our players, they're poaching our players." I'm like, ah, that's kind the price of success sometimes if you're not doing well and that person wants another challenge, I can kind of understand them wanting to go to a higher tier to see how good they are.

00:38:10.081 --> 00:38:10.512
Oh yeah.

00:38:10.815 --> 00:38:12.865
I mean, you see it all the time in, sports leagues.

00:38:13.168 --> 00:38:16.648
You saw it all the time like when LeBron left for Miami Heat and he got all the criticism.

00:38:16.952 --> 00:38:22.021
You saw it when Kevin Garnet left the T Wolves cause they couldn't get a championship around him like that's pretty common in sports.

00:38:22.021 --> 00:38:27.217
Yeah and then sometimes it's also like just you can plateau and you have to know when you plateaued on a team.

00:38:27.518 --> 00:38:41.498
It's all kind of starting to become more sports like to where some of the best battlers on bad teams are moving up to like some good to very good teams to test their mettle, probably just use for cycling and go back or become like a hired gun like Trent is for everybody.

00:38:42.094 --> 00:38:45.005
Do you take any inspiration like from sports writers at all?

00:38:45.010 --> 00:38:48.835
Because when I read your stuff it does sounds like I'm reading something from like ESPN almost.

00:38:49.431 --> 00:38:52.885
Most of that is me like it's just me putting some personality into it.

00:38:53.184 --> 00:39:05.664
But however I do, Bomani Jones is one of the people like I started listening to him around 20 11, 2012, cuz since I was 14, I've been the on again off again janitor.

00:39:05.965 --> 00:39:17.025
But between the years of 2010 and 20 18, I was full-time janitor, start at probably four o'clock in the afternoon, be done at seven o'clock in the morning.

00:39:17.327 --> 00:39:19.902
I'd always try to have some sports radio on listening to it.

00:39:20.233 --> 00:39:27.132
So like Bamani Jones was one that I really gravitated to, black guy talking on TV and talking on radio that's not Stephen A.

00:39:27.132 --> 00:39:32.503
Smith, so it's like, okay, I can deal with this and then on top of that, he throws some of his personality into it.

00:39:32.802 --> 00:39:48.233
He kind of lets you feel like you know him if you get to listen to him some more, while also like using his smarts to like navigate some of the tricky stuff in sports to where he can talk about it and like if you get offended by it, you're probably not listening right or you're probably listening with your own biases.

00:39:48.530 --> 00:40:02.635
So like I took some of what he does and I wanna say a little bit of Shannon Sharpe as well, throw that in there like that's more so when it comes time to make predictions or if I gotta talk about a team and put some like personality behind it to keep people invested.

00:40:02.635 --> 00:40:03.385
It's like, all right, cool.

00:40:03.682 --> 00:40:12.079
Then just amplify my personality on top of that like, I'm relatively quietish, but if you get me talking, you can't get me to shut up at times.

00:40:12.376 --> 00:40:15.376
It's like I'm trying to add all that while making it my own.

00:40:15.679 --> 00:40:24.713
But those two in particular, like two people I take like some inspiration from and then Ta-Nehisi Coates, every once in a while I'll dip a little bit of that in there.

00:40:25.010 --> 00:40:35.932
I take all like the knowledge and the verbiage that I've learned and try to like make it to where you can understand it, you can feel me while I'm writing about this, but you also know exactly what I'm doing.

00:40:36.532 --> 00:40:41.806
You've been following factions for so long and a lot of people hope that factions becomes an eSports someday.

00:40:42.106 --> 00:40:48.826
From your standpoint with you covering factions for so long, what are some barriers do you see that factions has to overcome to get to that point?

00:40:49.431 --> 00:41:04.056
So I went on another podcast we had this conversation about open tier and like how usually around week five or six, somebody from the North American Open Tier, always complaining about how oh is there some way we can fix the system?

00:41:04.056 --> 00:41:24.708