April 26, 2023

TRAINER'S EYE #35 - "The Ditto, The Myth, The Legend" ft. PVPSteve

In this Pokemon interview, my guest PVPSteve, who is a well-known player in Pokemon GO and a leading player in the competitive scene, shares his journey into Pokemon GO and experience with Pokemon.

During our conversation, PVPSteve shared his involvement with Silph Arena, a community-driven organization that hosts tournaments and events for Pokemon GO players around the world. The Silph Arena debut alongside Pokemon GO PVP around December of 2018. Before Go Battle League or Play Pokemon, the Silph Arena was a vital lifeline for Trainers to be introduced into PVP.

Finally, PVPSteve shared his experience attending Safari Zone Singapore, a massive Pokemon GO event that attracted thousands of players from around the world. He talked about meeting people and his hopes for someday attending a GoFest.

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 PVPSteve: Youtube | Twitch | Discord | Twitter

Send us a text

Support the show

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

Join Our Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt

Chapters

02:30 - Introduction

03:47 - Interview with PVPSteve

42:39 - Thank You For Listening! :)

Transcript

WEBVTT

00:00:04.230 --> 00:00:04.589
Hey!

00:00:05.190 --> 00:00:06.209
Oh crap.

00:00:06.269 --> 00:00:06.990
You scared me.

00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:09.269
Boss is gonna catch you.

00:00:09.269 --> 00:00:09.960
We're not working.

00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:12.240
He's not gonna catch me.

00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:14.339
I'm staying aware of my surroundings!

00:00:14.970 --> 00:00:15.000
Uhhuh.

00:00:15.449 --> 00:00:16.289
I really am.

00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:18.760
What are you listening to anyway?

00:00:19.100 --> 00:00:21.000
I'm listening to a podcast actually.

00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:21.899
Oh yeah?

00:00:22.050 --> 00:00:23.129
What kind of podcast?

00:00:23.879 --> 00:00:25.469
It's a Pokemon Go podcast.

00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:27.980
It's called As The Pokeball Turns!

00:00:28.469 --> 00:00:29.600
Pokemon GO?

00:00:30.250 --> 00:00:31.364
People still play that game.

00:00:32.204 --> 00:00:32.984
Oh yeah.

00:00:33.494 --> 00:00:34.215
A lot of people do.

00:00:35.145 --> 00:00:37.784
We even have a PVP tournament this Friday at Torchy's.

00:00:38.234 --> 00:00:39.195
You should come check it out.

00:00:39.854 --> 00:00:41.744
They finally added battling.

00:00:41.774 --> 00:00:42.465
Took them what?

00:00:42.465 --> 00:00:43.454
Seven years?

00:00:43.875 --> 00:00:45.524
You should honestly download the game again.

00:00:45.884 --> 00:00:50.895
It's way different from when it first started and while at it, you should listen to the podcast.

00:00:51.015 --> 00:00:51.494
Why?

00:00:51.494 --> 00:00:52.304
So I can get fired?

00:00:52.304 --> 00:00:53.414
Like you will be soon.

00:00:53.865 --> 00:00:54.524
Whatever.

00:00:57.314 --> 00:00:58.005
Pokemon Go.

00:00:58.005 --> 00:00:58.244
Huh?

00:01:00.674 --> 00:01:05.385
As the poke ball turns,

00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:57.243
Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns! Where the stories are real and people still play this game.

00:01:57.540 --> 00:02:01.980
The Silph Arena made its debut alongside PVP around December of 2018.

00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:11.030
Before Go Battle League, and even the play Pokemon Circuit, the Silph Arena provided ways for communities to experience and participate in both PVP and organized play.

00:02:11.326 --> 00:02:22.026
Every month a new meta was introduced to players that allowed them to learn new Pokemon, develop team building, and introduce many to the show six, pick three format that is used in the play Pokemon circuit today.

00:02:22.324 --> 00:02:30.757
For many season battlers, the Silph Arena was a way they learned many mechanics in pvp such as energy management, farming, safe switches, and many others.

00:02:31.060 --> 00:02:38.349
Keep in mind, this is before the influx of content that is available through YouTube podcast, Twitch, or even coaching sessions today.

00:02:38.646 --> 00:02:44.046
A lot of what was learned was through experiencing and sharing knowledge through Reddit and within your local community.

00:02:44.343 --> 00:02:50.349
Nowadays, most content creators cover Go Battle League or whatever Cup Metas Pokemon Go introduces.

00:02:50.650 --> 00:02:55.030
But there remains a select few who still cover Silph Arena's monthly cups.

00:02:55.332 --> 00:02:59.923
My guest is one of those creators with a passion for what Silph Arena can offer to the community.

00:03:00.227 --> 00:03:04.986
From New Castle Australia, here's his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go.

00:03:05.282 --> 00:03:25.111
This is PVPSteve! Today I'm joined by the one and only PVPSteve! Steve, welcome to the show.

00:03:26.972 --> 00:03:28.141
So happy to be here.

00:03:28.322 --> 00:03:29.192
I was like, oh, man.

00:03:29.192 --> 00:03:30.752
Is he gonna set a new world record here?

00:03:30.872 --> 00:03:32.581
my longest Steve ever?

00:03:32.852 --> 00:03:33.002
Uh,

00:03:33.872 --> 00:03:35.651
I think I got all the ease in your name.

00:03:35.651 --> 00:03:36.491
I'm not too sure.

00:03:36.762 --> 00:03:39.222
I think you're the first person to ever pronounce it correctly.

00:03:39.521 --> 00:03:40.236
so thank you for that.

00:03:40.836 --> 00:03:41.376
All right.

00:03:41.376 --> 00:03:41.645
All right.

00:03:41.651 --> 00:03:43.385
I'm hitting all the points today, guys.

00:03:43.925 --> 00:03:48.246
Well, Steve, welcome to the show and I'm looking forward to just hearing how you got into Pokemon Go.

00:03:48.246 --> 00:03:50.286
So let's start with how we always start with every guest.

00:03:50.496 --> 00:03:52.325
When did you first start playing Pokemon Go?

00:03:52.866 --> 00:03:55.866
I was pretty late to the game, so back in 2016.

00:03:55.925 --> 00:03:57.455
Now I guess I should lay the context.

00:03:57.461 --> 00:03:58.866
I've always been a big Pokemon fan.

00:03:59.045 --> 00:04:02.735
You know, I, I think my first video game ever was Pokemon Leaf Green.

00:04:02.772 --> 00:04:07.475
I'm a pretty youthful figure, so I think I would've been like four or five or something, when I picked up Leaf Green.

00:04:07.746 --> 00:04:10.445
ever since then I've been a pretty solid Pokemon fanboy.

00:04:10.776 --> 00:04:15.966
granted, I'll admit, I'd kind of stopped playing the main series games after about gen four.

00:04:16.026 --> 00:04:18.995
I think Gen four was the last one that I really went hardcore into.

00:04:19.353 --> 00:04:27.464
And so when Pokemon Go was released in 2016, I obviously really wanted to play, but my phone was unfortunately, an ancient relic that could not run the game.

00:04:27.644 --> 00:04:30.375
So I just had to watch as everyone around me was playing.

00:04:30.637 --> 00:04:32.468
I remember I went to, I call it soccer.

00:04:32.497 --> 00:04:35.540
I think that football is the technical term in Australia.

00:04:35.540 --> 00:04:36.439
but I'm a soccer man.

00:04:36.649 --> 00:04:42.980
So when I went to soccer training one time and everyone just stopped doing soccer training for a bit just to play Pokemon Go for a bit.

00:04:42.980 --> 00:04:46.430
I think it was very early, so it must have been like a Pikachu, which people are still looking for.

00:04:46.430 --> 00:04:47.839
It was like, oh, there's a Pikachu over there.

00:04:47.990 --> 00:04:59.480
So the entire team just went over there and I was just like,"oh man, wish I could get in on that." Fast forward a couple years later, 2018, I finally had a phone that could run the darn thing and so off we went, could finally sort of join in the fun.

00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:04.141
I think I was spurred into it, because I saw a friend from high school playing the game and I was like, hey.

00:05:04.170 --> 00:05:05.341
Yeah, that's still going.

00:05:05.341 --> 00:05:10.416
I'll give that a go." So finally downloaded, got into it and said, I think that was about like September, 2018.

00:05:10.416 --> 00:05:12.487
So well behind the curve for the most part.

00:05:12.637 --> 00:05:12.913
But,

00:05:12.913 --> 00:05:25.723
That must have sucked not being able to play Pokemon Go right When it came out, like did you have any like bitter feelings seeing people play while you just had a watch and, you know, that meme where, uh, squid we're seeing outside in SpongeBob and they're just walking outside?

00:05:25.723 --> 00:05:26.353
Was that you?

00:05:26.697 --> 00:05:33.504
Oh, look, I think bitter painted a bit too negative a light, but I was definitely Squidward hanging out at that window, just wishing I had big part of the fun.

00:05:33.803 --> 00:05:37.684
I think I was still in high school, when it released and so we went on some, snow trip.

00:05:38.021 --> 00:05:47.841
As you can imagine, Australia, not a whole lot of snow around the country, so from my city, we had to travel hours to the nearest place that gets any snow and that was like a big trip to go and finally see snow.

00:05:48.290 --> 00:06:06.624
On that bus trip as we'd sort of make stops for the toilet and whatnot, everyone was like catching all these Pokemons and I think that was the the biggest point where I was like, this is like the perfect opportunity to be playing, everyone's doing it, and I was quite literally like looking at the bus window, like, yeah, that that could be me, but I got there in the end.

00:06:07.526 --> 00:06:12.444
Well you said you were a huge fan of Pokemon, so you started with Leaf Green and you said you stopped after Gen four?

00:06:13.158 --> 00:06:15.108
Yeah, so that covers like a full two generations.

00:06:15.738 --> 00:06:16.309
Right, right.

00:06:16.309 --> 00:06:18.348
And then you didn't pick it back up until Pokemon Go, I assume?

00:06:18.348 --> 00:06:18.769
Yeah.

00:06:18.769 --> 00:06:32.744
I think that I touched Pokemon X, but it wasn't a significant, you know, I definitely didn't play as significantly as other games and I think I ended up passing it on to my brother who purchased my whatever DS it was I Oh, cause it was three Ds days.

00:06:32.894 --> 00:06:33.684
Yeah, 3DS.

00:06:33.704 --> 00:06:33.973
Yeah.

00:06:33.973 --> 00:06:39.204
I've passed that on to him alongside the game and then Pokemon Go was the first proper return to Pokemon.

00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:40.401
What about now?

00:06:40.490 --> 00:06:43.730
Have you gone back into the main series now or are you just primarily still Pokemon go?

00:06:44.334 --> 00:07:03.536
So, I've really wanted to like so badly, but I've, I've sort of decided that I've put so much time into Pokemon Go as it is into, you know, Pokemon Go and PVP and making YouTube videos here or there that it's kind of like, I've decided that I might come around to it later, but for now it probably just doesn't fit in.

00:07:03.841 --> 00:07:09.901
Every time a new Pokemon came, comes out from let's go, I've been like, oh, this could be the time to jump in, this could be it.

00:07:10.201 --> 00:07:12.391
But then it just, doesn't end up coming, coming around.

00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:14.641
But I'm pretty confident that I'll get there someday.

00:07:14.880 --> 00:07:27.744
But for now, I'm pretty content with just Pokemon Go and I do a bit of Pokemon Showdown, which doesn't count as any sort of proper game, but that's just a little bit of fun on the side that you can pop up and do a little bit of a pretend VGC battle.

00:07:28.084 --> 00:07:29.754
Do you have a favorite Pokemon at all then?

00:07:30.353 --> 00:07:38.588
Oh, see, I'm a, pretty classic guy even though I didn't start in the actual generation one, I started in a remake of a Generation One game, so I'm still a gen one slave.

00:07:38.869 --> 00:07:40.038
I do love my ditto.

00:07:40.098 --> 00:07:42.528
I think Ditto is probably like my first favorite game.

00:07:42.528 --> 00:07:42.588
Wow.

00:07:43.069 --> 00:07:43.278
Yeah.

00:07:43.278 --> 00:07:44.149
Of all time.

00:07:44.358 --> 00:07:49.908
And you know, it obviously has the cheat answer of, oh, well, if Charizard is your favorite Pokemon that Ditto could, we could recover Charizard.

00:07:50.389 --> 00:07:53.478
Uh, so really isn't ditto better cuz it can be everything else.

00:07:53.776 --> 00:08:01.495
But I just always, I think I like the gimmick Pokemon because another one that I like is Shedinja because it's got that gimmick, if it can only be damaged by super effective moves.

00:08:01.735 --> 00:08:03.355
unfortunately it didn't come to go, but yes,

00:08:03.771 --> 00:08:10.742
Yes, well, both of those Pokemon have that one thing in common where you aren't able to use them in PVP, they're like on the very short ban list.

00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:13.199
I thought that might have been a third, but maybe it is just the two.

00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:13.949
is there a third one?

00:08:14.250 --> 00:08:18.892
I know, Ditto, you couldn't do it, and I knew Shedinja, I mean, well, could you use Shedinja, but it just dies?

00:08:19.487 --> 00:08:23.596
Well you can use it in like gym battles and stuff, but I think in PVP, I think it's banned.

00:08:23.677 --> 00:08:25.237
I think you can't actually pick it.

00:08:25.747 --> 00:08:26.137
Wow.

00:08:26.137 --> 00:08:27.906
Even if you just do it against friends?

00:08:27.997 --> 00:08:28.416
Yeah.

00:08:28.416 --> 00:08:29.737
It's just unpickable.

00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:33.940
I don't think anyone's, you know, waiting to be able to use Shedinja in PVP anyway.

00:08:33.940 --> 00:08:36.190
Oh! I am, I'm please make it workable.

00:08:36.190 --> 00:08:38.549
I would love to use Shedinja!

00:08:39.279 --> 00:08:41.049
It would be truly awesome.

00:08:41.049 --> 00:08:41.600
It would be.

00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:41.870
It would.

00:08:42.019 --> 00:08:42.710
Now, I think.

00:08:42.710 --> 00:08:46.820
Ditto the way it is is that really every Pokemon's your favorite because ditto can be anything.

00:08:47.164 --> 00:08:49.445
So really you're just saying you love all pokemon.

00:08:49.715 --> 00:08:50.945
I'm such a Pokemon lover.

00:08:54.365 --> 00:08:56.615
It's the classic, you know, I can't pick a favorite.

00:08:56.615 --> 00:08:57.695
They're all my favorites.

00:08:57.695 --> 00:08:58.534
There you go! There you go!

00:08:58.835 --> 00:08:59.705
I don't have a favorite child.

00:09:01.371 --> 00:09:04.322
Well, so you come back in 2018, cuz you finally had a working phone.

00:09:04.371 --> 00:09:06.731
So how did you approach the game before PVP?

00:09:07.336 --> 00:09:18.514
I was very much you know, I guess the perfect casual in terms of I was just looking at shadows, I was picking up to fill up my Pokedex, I was going for big cp cause I assumed that was most important.

00:09:18.825 --> 00:09:21.735
I was still figuring out what nice, great,and excellent throws were.

00:09:21.794 --> 00:09:27.975
I have these like vivid memory of having no clue what was going on because like some of the circles were green, some of'em were red.

00:09:28.125 --> 00:09:34.254
It would say like excellent when the circle was really small, but then it was also to like tell nice when you got it in the circle and it was big.

00:09:34.315 --> 00:09:40.195
And then sometimes you hit small and you hit outside of that main middle circle, and I was just so confused, it was baffling to me.

00:09:40.644 --> 00:09:52.147
So I was just figuring out the ropes, And very much like, you say before pvp, but PVP was released in December, so I only had like three months to actually get that pre PVP gameplay going.

00:09:52.147 --> 00:10:03.104
And it really was just the sort of early days, love of the game, catch Pokemon, evolve Pokemon to fill that, Pokedex, get enough candy, walk Magikarp for kilometers and kilometers, walked for ages for that Magikarp.

00:10:03.354 --> 00:10:06.785
I've still got that Magikarp didn't end up evolving him, just used it for the candy.

00:10:07.131 --> 00:10:15.639
And to be honest, I think if PVP didn't come along when it did, I probably would not be playing right now like, what, five years later or four and a half years later.

00:10:15.649 --> 00:10:16.009
Really?

00:10:16.009 --> 00:10:18.818
I think really PVP probably came at the perfect time for me.

00:10:19.416 --> 00:10:22.000
What was it about PVP that I guess got you hooked in?

00:10:22.691 --> 00:10:30.671
I think, well, I've always been a little bit competitive, not super competitive, you know, I'm no, I'm, no try hard, I've never been going for top of the leaderboards or anything like that.

00:10:30.671 --> 00:10:34.067
Have you ever trash talked somebody like just face cussed them out?

00:10:34.067 --> 00:10:35.357
I, I don't think I could.

00:10:35.357 --> 00:10:36.582
I don't think it's in my nature.

00:10:36.712 --> 00:10:37.802
I would just hide in the corner.

00:10:37.993 --> 00:10:42.596
I'll privately be like, yeah, and then I'll type in and I'll type in politely.

00:10:42.596 --> 00:10:44.426
Gigi's well played, right?

00:10:45.596 --> 00:10:47.365
There's a lot said in those ggs.

00:10:47.926 --> 00:10:51.863
Yeah, look, there's a lot of subtext here that, uh, I'm not sure comes across in text.

00:10:52.102 --> 00:10:56.962
You know, sometimes I'll do it on stream or something and then I'll be like, then, then you can tell.

00:10:57.263 --> 00:10:59.363
but yeah, otherwise pretty reserved.

00:10:59.666 --> 00:11:06.556
But I think it's just, so much more of a connected experience because when I first started playing, I, I didn't really know anyone around.

00:11:06.615 --> 00:11:11.056
There was a discord and I started to kind of meet people, but not really.

00:11:11.296 --> 00:11:19.926
It was just a very fleeting, attender thing like, you know, someone posted a raid and I'd sort of rock up and everyone else seemed to already know each other from playing for the last two and a bit years.

00:11:20.255 --> 00:11:25.916
and I was kind of like, okay, I see that there is some sort of social element to this game, but I'm not quite getting in there.

00:11:26.216 --> 00:11:32.804
And I think it was actually, it was in that first three months, before PVP because I live in Newcastle, which happens to be the same city as ZoeTwoDots.

00:11:33.105 --> 00:11:38.455
At the time, I went to some raid that Zoe was at and she had a switch cuz it was, you know, let's go time.

00:11:38.460 --> 00:11:42.865
So she was giving out Meltans and I was like, yes, I can finally get Meltan in my game.

00:11:42.865 --> 00:11:55.524
I can finally get Melmetal going!" So got that and then we all sort of talked for about 30 minutes and that was like my sort of proper introduction to the community which definitely helps some longevity even if PVP didn't come around.

00:11:55.827 --> 00:12:00.904
But with Covid coming around, that community as far as Raiding is long gone, but that's another conversation.

00:12:01.504 --> 00:12:03.865
Right, Now, you said you live in New Castle, right?

00:12:04.075 --> 00:12:04.914
Yes, yes.

00:12:04.914 --> 00:12:06.835
What is it like playing Pokemon Go in that area?

00:12:06.835 --> 00:12:08.004
What is it like to be there?

00:12:08.605 --> 00:12:16.225
So Sydney is the sort of, you know, it's two hours away and it's the hardcore grind spot, like hardcore, hardcore, you know, FleeceKing going up and down there.

00:12:16.520 --> 00:12:24.620
Spoofers are there all the time in every single raid,you can just minimax everything and Newcastle definitely has some spots that are like the hard ground spots.

00:12:24.705 --> 00:12:33.211
The Foreshore, is this famous walk that actually is Zoe featured in her video that she did on Trainer Tips' Channel, like years and years and years ago.

00:12:33.260 --> 00:12:38.091
She sort of gave a little bit of a tour of the New Castle scene and that was one of the big grind spots.

00:12:38.389 --> 00:12:47.741
And I think that back before remote raids and such, before Covid, the community was pretty strong like there was a lot of raids going on, there were bunch of discord channels for the different regions.

00:12:47.951 --> 00:12:56.981
The Newcastle Discord stretches a bit further than, you know, a bit of a local area cuz it, like, there's a lot of rural communities that are kind of like close-ish, you know, an hour away.

00:12:57.302 --> 00:13:00.721
And so that all just sort of got locked up into the Newcastle Discord.

00:13:01.029 --> 00:13:06.085
And so it was really good whenever you posted a Raid up, you could almost be certain that you're gonna get some people to come round.

00:13:06.085 --> 00:13:08.485
But, post Covid, it's a much more quieter scene.

00:13:08.791 --> 00:13:14.398
there's not as many get togethers and whatnot cuz pre covid there was also like this big, Christmas meetup that was going on.

00:13:14.702 --> 00:13:21.081
I sort of like, was just ready to go after sort of properly meeting everyone at the end of November in that raid.

00:13:21.378 --> 00:13:27.278
I was like, okay, I'll come along to this and I think it was like a couple of days after PVP was released.

00:13:27.577 --> 00:13:34.544
That was sort of the introduction to everyone in the Newcastle scene to PVP, so there was kind of like this, off the book, open Great League.

00:13:34.664 --> 00:13:40.095
It was actually go battle league style battles, just blind, no teams or anything, just pick three, and run it at each other.

00:13:40.421 --> 00:13:43.587
And I'll tell you right now, I sucked so bad.

00:13:44.082 --> 00:13:52.404
I was like, I was using, I think I was using Ente and I had a Gengar hanging around, all single moved, all probably the completely incorrect moves.

00:13:52.705 --> 00:13:59.138
But it was a good time and it sort of got us going and started off, I mean, on a pretty good footing to head into Silph Arena in January.

00:13:59.740 --> 00:14:02.441
is that how you, started getting involved in the self arena cups at that point?

00:14:02.446 --> 00:14:05.110
You just started going, attending'em when they started taking place?

00:14:05.591 --> 00:14:13.503
Yeah, so I mean, following that December one, which is a bit of a success, January came around with the first ever Boulder Cup and unfortunately, I was a little bit devastated.

00:14:13.562 --> 00:14:14.763
The first one that was held.

00:14:14.763 --> 00:14:15.543
I couldn't attend.

00:14:15.543 --> 00:14:25.706
I was busy that weekend, couldn't come around, but because there were enough people that sort of came that first one, they were like,"oh, let's host a second one." And the second one happened to be like really close to my house like within a kilometer.

00:14:25.826 --> 00:14:27.326
Like I could walk there, easy stuff.

00:14:27.503 --> 00:14:32.785
And I was like, all right, I can finally get involved, go in, and, you know, I was looking up infographics and whatnot.

00:14:33.085 --> 00:14:36.325
There wasn't really any details or anything, So it was kind of running in blind.

00:14:36.629 --> 00:14:42.841
it was interesting, to be honest, because no one else knew what they were doing, I ended up doing all right like, I think I finished two, one.

00:14:43.046 --> 00:14:51.975
There were only eight of us there and there was only two people there that knew how to play PVP properly, one of them certainly won with their double scam re Strat that was allowed back then.

00:14:52.272 --> 00:14:55.294
But, I was definitely just a lucky fish back then, I think.

00:14:55.898 --> 00:15:03.998
Well, so what's interesting is that right when Kingdom Cup came around, that's when you started doing content creation, or you kind of started doing, you would show your battles and then you would do a voiceover, right?

00:15:03.998 --> 00:15:05.317
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right.

00:15:05.619 --> 00:15:12.114
So, my history with video games tends to be that I'll pick it up, really suck, and then I'll be really good, really quick.

00:15:12.418 --> 00:15:17.413
But I'll plateau and everyone else will as they're sort of on the slower trajectory just surpassed me by far.

00:15:17.711 --> 00:15:22.057
And that's sort of how it happens in Silph Arena as well cuz Twilight Cup came around.

00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:25.053
I attended, I didn't have anyone to practice with.

00:15:25.357 --> 00:15:30.890
There was a, game press infographic about the Twilight Cup in February and I just like picked a Pokemon from each of the slots.

00:15:31.193 --> 00:15:39.421
And there were only five sort of slots on their graphic, so I picked one of them and went,"oh, I guess I'm done," and just like threw in a random Spiritomb as a sixth pick that didn't matter at all.

00:15:39.717 --> 00:15:41.774
And I ended up sweeping that tournament, 4-0.

00:15:42.077 --> 00:15:47.427
That definitely was the moment that like the competitive switch in my mind like sparked and went, okay, we are playing this properly now.

00:15:47.607 --> 00:15:55.587
Uh, we we're doing this thing and then, and then Tempest Cup came around and I, I won one of those, kingdom Cup came around.

00:15:55.888 --> 00:16:09.630
It was probably after the Tempest Cup win that I was kind of like, Okay, I feel, you know, I'm not gonna have imposter syndrome about putting out some content here or there." because I didn't have people to practice with, it really was the case that I was relying on other people's content.

00:16:09.932 --> 00:16:13.820
So I was relying on Purple Kyogre, who was, showcasing his battles at the time.

00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:16.456
I was really relying on the game press infographics.

00:16:16.753 --> 00:16:27.822
And so that sort of pushed me to kind of go like, I want to provide that level of help to someone else that was also in my position that also didn't have people to practice with and it just purely relying on internet.

00:16:28.120 --> 00:16:36.177
In those early days, like there was not a lot of content, so you could very easily watch the entire amount of, Tempest Cup content and then be done.

00:16:36.477 --> 00:16:40.998
There was a bit of a, a lacking, so I gave it a go, I recorded some battles, I did some commentary.

00:16:41.294 --> 00:16:50.445
I go back and watch that first one sometimes, and it is just the most awkward thing like that, that kid recording those battles is so uncomfortable recording his own voice.

00:16:50.745 --> 00:16:58.976
I remember I was like sitting in a chair, I've got my laptop on some books on a pool table and just like recording straight into the laptop microphone.

00:16:59.274 --> 00:17:02.419
Look, it was pretty rubbish quality, but it gave a starting point.

00:17:02.419 --> 00:17:07.980
You know, the most important thing, and I tell this to, you know, when people ask sort of how to get involved making videos and stuff.

00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:12.410
The most important start point is that you are gonna suck it first, but just do it anyway.

00:17:13.339 --> 00:17:16.039
Like it's going to be some atrocious content.

00:17:16.339 --> 00:17:23.451
But, you'll learn lessons along the way and you get the benefit of picking up those lessons early when there's not very many people watching your content.

00:17:24.362 --> 00:17:26.088
That's the, what's the word I'm looking for?

00:17:26.088 --> 00:17:27.739
It's the rite of passage-

00:17:27.769 --> 00:17:28.219
Yeah!

00:17:28.223 --> 00:17:29.689
Every content creator.

00:17:29.991 --> 00:17:34.089
You get to hear how bad you suck the first couple times every single time.

00:17:34.089 --> 00:17:37.423
Yeah, and then like you watch one today and it's like, oh, the confidence is there.

00:17:37.733 --> 00:17:38.843
You figured everything out.

00:17:39.143 --> 00:17:45.653
You a lot more comfortable in recording and doing all the rest of it, speaking, you know, way that's gonna be, you know, imprinted on the internet forever.

00:17:45.949 --> 00:17:46.712
It comes quick!

00:17:47.310 --> 00:17:51.046
So you kept going over the Silph Arena you branch off more nowadays besides Silph, right?

00:17:51.046 --> 00:17:57.135
Yeah, I always held the feeling that you should make the content that you actually want to see, that you enjoy making.

00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:02.539
And for me, Silph Arena has always been way more enjoyable than Go Battle League.

00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:06.740
I guess there's a lot more frequent meta updates, there's a new meta every month.

00:18:07.042 --> 00:18:12.678
It's a lot more personal, so you're actually batting real people, you're talking to them, whether it be in person or through messages.

00:18:12.978 --> 00:18:15.678
So for me, Silph Arena has always been the big thing.

00:18:15.978 --> 00:18:26.820
When Go Battle League was introduced, that was obviously the point for everyone with a brain that they would stop making Silph Arena content and they would start making Go Battle League content because the audience is so much wider.

00:18:27.125 --> 00:18:31.144
You could just see the views absolutely skyrocket on those GO Battle League videos.

00:18:31.448 --> 00:18:35.978
I did make one or two go Battle League videos and I decided it wasn't for me, this isn't what I enjoy.

00:18:36.280 --> 00:18:45.775
It becomes the point where I'm forcing myself to make content and I don't really wanna do that, so I'll just keep making Silph Arena content and I'll do what I enjoy cuz at the end of the day, this isn't some, attempt at a career.

00:18:46.075 --> 00:18:49.188
No one's making a living off of Silph Arena content, that's for sure.

00:18:49.188 --> 00:18:49.488
Right.

00:18:49.488 --> 00:18:50.627
But it was what I enjoyed doing.

00:18:51.224 --> 00:18:54.704
What is it about Go Battle League that turned you off compared to like Su Farina?

00:18:55.300 --> 00:18:58.627
I think it's just that there's a little bit less of point.

00:18:58.931 --> 00:19:03.881
I feel like Silph Arena has this overarching narrative where you sort of play in these monthly cups.

00:19:04.178 --> 00:19:17.421
In past seasons that went into regionals and Continentals, there was world championships and like you can still look back at like, you know, season two World Champion, SpeediestChief, is still like, you know, a title that sort of carried around, whereas Go Battle League just didn't have that impact.

00:19:17.724 --> 00:19:24.575
People will say, oh, I, I hit legend in season 7, 8, 9, and it's like, all right, it doesn't hold that same sort of gravitas to me.

00:19:24.871 --> 00:19:29.250
It feels a little more mechanical just without the actual personal touch.

00:19:29.550 --> 00:19:37.195
I think it's the personal touch and the personal connection that really sort of makes Silph Arena just that much more special to me than Go Battle League.

00:19:37.499 --> 00:19:42.028
Go Battle League, I'll still do it from time to time, but it's a little bit more of an extra time commitment.

00:19:42.333 --> 00:19:46.413
I'm already doing X amount of tournaments, x amount of battles in Silph Arena.

00:19:46.715 --> 00:19:55.596
I'm battling factions now as well and so Go Battle League is sort of an extra thing that you have to do, so it's sort of a third rung on the totem pole as far as importance is concerned.

00:19:55.596 --> 00:19:59.645
Do you hold the Silver Arena on the same level as the play Pokemon Circuit as well?

00:19:59.645 --> 00:20:03.306
Like they both do in person, they both do the show six, pick three format.

00:20:03.608 --> 00:20:04.836
Do you kinda hold'em in the same regard?

00:20:04.836 --> 00:20:13.373
Yeah, I mean, it, it's an interesting thing because obviously Play Pokemon is the major stage, like it is Pokemon Go getting that sort of massive spotlight on it.

00:20:13.675 --> 00:20:20.096
It's really gathering everyone, all of the Silph Arena players, all of the Go Battle League players coming out and attending these play Pokemon events.

00:20:20.405 --> 00:20:26.355
You know, I had never got the chance to travel for any sort of big Silph Arena tournament because they weren't in Australia.

00:20:26.653 --> 00:20:31.643
I think the biggest one here was maybe five rounds, because Brandon Tan was passing through Sydney.

00:20:31.939 --> 00:20:35.388
Some people in the local area sort of flocked to that, but no one was flying anywhere.

00:20:35.689 --> 00:20:41.509
There were all these, like mega tournaments were starting up in the Silph Arena in the end of 2019 before the pandemic came around.

00:20:41.806 --> 00:20:48.038
Which were these, you know, massive nine round tournaments, 200 people, 300 people, 400 people coming to these huge events.

00:20:48.338 --> 00:20:50.663
And then Covid hit and the rollout stopped.

00:20:50.963 --> 00:20:55.854
I never got the opportunity to get that sort of large scale tournament vibe from Silph Arena.

00:20:56.151 --> 00:21:01.678
I've had the opportunity to attend a couple of Play Pokemon tournaments now and the feeling is just incredible.

00:21:02.010 --> 00:21:08.538
Like it is so awesome to be at those events, to get that like massive community vibe, where everyone's coming together.

00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:13.881
And I don't perform well, it's not about the battles, it's not about the performance, it's about the people.

00:21:14.181 --> 00:21:23.030
It's getting there and being able to meet everyone, and just have a good time, you know, go for a night on the town after, after the battles are all done, it's just a really, fun time.

00:21:23.327 --> 00:21:33.112
I still think that Silph is incredibly important, especially all of the Asian communities where they don't have a single play Pokemon Regional, like there is just not a single one being hosted there.

00:21:33.416 --> 00:21:43.144
Hopefully they get some, but the best they can do is fly to Australia and for those people who can't afford to do that, Silph Arena sort of continues to fill that gap, which I really do appreciate as well.

00:21:43.748 --> 00:21:49.761
How about in regards to, let's say the meta, because Silph, they've obviously gotten diverse with the Metas, they do bans, they shake it up a bit.

00:21:50.065 --> 00:21:55.285
One of the criticisms to play Pokemon right now is that the meta really hasn't changed much compared to last year.

00:21:55.582 --> 00:22:01.428
Do you think play Pokemon could maybe do something like Silph does and do like some kind of ban list to maybe spice it up?

00:22:01.428 --> 00:22:07.484
Or do you think the way it is is just how it's always gonna shake out and it's more of changing the moves to really change up the meta?

00:22:08.087 --> 00:22:13.317
It's an interesting thing to think about because every three months they obviously make those changes to the Go Battle League.

00:22:13.622 --> 00:22:24.478
They have the Go Battle League move updates every season, so the next one will come in, there'll be a move update and then three months later, and that's sort of their way of adjusting the meta, trying to make sure that things aren't always too OP.

00:22:24.778 --> 00:22:37.708
Brings some sort of variety when a new Pokemon is released, there's some sort of variety there, and I feel like almost if they went to some sort of ban list or they had some sort of special restrictions, maybe move towards some sort of special meta.

00:22:38.007 --> 00:22:51.244
It runs the risk of bringing some calls to unfairness, I feel like this player got to play in this meta where they could run all of these strategies or is this one was just purely luck based and so these regional winners don't matter as much.

00:22:51.557 --> 00:22:56.652
Which I suppose you could say similar things about the different Go Battle League metas for the different seasons.

00:22:56.954 --> 00:23:04.875
But I think for now it's probably safer to just stick to open Great League, make the move updates every three months, introduce new Pokemon as we go.

00:23:05.471 --> 00:23:06.884
Let's, talk about factions real quick.

00:23:07.184 --> 00:23:09.125
How long have you been part of factions and what's your team?

00:23:09.724 --> 00:23:12.559
So I've been playing from the beginning in Thundurus Down Under.

00:23:12.863 --> 00:23:15.923
It's a bit of a collection of like Australian battlers and New Zealand battlers.

00:23:16.220 --> 00:23:20.900
So even though like down under is in the name, it's sort of Down Under and friends New Zealand sort of understanding.

00:23:21.019 --> 00:23:22.160
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:24.380
Being adopted, the Australian ecosphere.

00:23:24.675 --> 00:23:25.546
We'll take you on guys.

00:23:25.546 --> 00:23:26.115
It's all good.

00:23:26.413 --> 00:23:27.792
We started off pretty strong.

00:23:27.792 --> 00:23:28.765
I think we got up to.

00:23:28.765 --> 00:23:31.505
Diamond tier, which was the highest at the time.

00:23:31.807 --> 00:23:37.327
You know, since then we've sort of just slowly watered down as we've become a little less competitive and a little more fun.

00:23:37.631 --> 00:23:41.917
For example, one of our players, Yusei who's a Twitch Streamer, New Zealand guy.

00:23:42.218 --> 00:23:46.417
He's been running all shadow teams for the last couple weeks and he's won most of them.

00:23:46.721 --> 00:23:50.838
So we're sort of gracefully sliding down the rankings, but we we're having fun with it.

00:23:51.432 --> 00:23:53.311
What are the benefits of people joining a faction?

00:23:53.317 --> 00:23:57.234
Like what do they get out of factions that they may not get out of G B L or play Pokemon?

00:23:57.846 --> 00:24:02.047
I mean, again, it sort of comes down to personal connection, but in a very different way.

00:24:02.047 --> 00:24:10.240
So instead of sort of everyone's getting together for this tournament and sort of hanging out and battling each other, it's a very collaborative environment where you can sort of all talk about the strategy.

00:24:10.545 --> 00:24:13.125
You know, we're like, oh, I'm thinking about running Poliwrath in the lead.

00:24:13.130 --> 00:24:21.229
And then someone else will pipe in and say like, oh, but if they run Tropius, it could be a real problem for you, so maybe you consider running Poliwrath in the back and then maybe Gligar in the lead?

00:24:21.528 --> 00:24:34.345
Like, not only is it you're getting to hang out with people that you're sort of friends with, but you are also learning, you're actually becoming a better PVP player by sort of getting these other insights directly into your game, as sort as sort of like an inbuilt coaching session.

00:24:34.644 --> 00:24:42.664
You know, people pay for coaching sessions with all of these great battlers like Kieng, ThoTechnical, but it's sort of like, a bunch of friends that are all sort of trying to help you succeed.

00:24:42.969 --> 00:24:53.795
And it's just a very unique feeling that you don't get from Go Battle League or play Pokemon or even like the mainline Silph Arena, I guess single player Silph Arena where this is the multi-player option.

00:24:54.092 --> 00:25:02.852
It's a very unique vibe that isn't captured by very much aside from the odd team tournament that pops up here and there, that sort of run grassroots style,

00:25:03.459 --> 00:25:09.082
Do you think that it could ever make, the same stage as Pokemon Go is going on a play Pokemon circuit at some point in the future?

00:25:09.686 --> 00:25:14.037
It's weird cuz like obviously, you know, the video game and the card game have been going on for way longer.

00:25:14.106 --> 00:25:14.237
Right.

00:25:14.241 --> 00:25:22.616
And video game has the option of having the sort of, you know, two people on a team sort of running their own, each player has one Pokemon, two people on the other team have another.

00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:28.529
But that sort of never breached into the competitive circuit as far as I'm aware, the sort of play Pokemon circuit.

00:25:28.829 --> 00:25:35.096
And it sort of makes me think that even though it's probably not gonna happen, especially because it's not like you are playing the same game.

00:25:35.096 --> 00:25:37.450
It would purely be racking up points instead.

00:25:37.753 --> 00:25:47.287
We can't run double battles in Pokemon Go PVP where I've got a Charizard and you've gotta Swampert and we're both fighting these two Pokemon, Choose which Pokemon to throw the charge attack out, that sort of thing.

00:25:47.287 --> 00:25:49.386
Um, be a very complicated mess.

00:25:49.626 --> 00:25:57.426
I'm not sure if they could ever figure that one out cuz I'll click my hydro canon at you and then, be delayed for a while whether you deciding whether you wanna shield or not.

00:25:57.727 --> 00:26:00.567
It'd be a very complicated, uh, complicated game.

00:26:00.896 --> 00:26:09.698
I'm not sure if they'll ever get there with how many problems there are in regular PVP, but I have a feeling that it might stay single player for probably Pokemon Go's entire run I'd say.

00:26:10.303 --> 00:26:17.699
Now I've always been told you've been the man who works behind the scenes at Silph Arena, you're the one who makes things happen, You're like the godfather of Silver Arena.

00:26:18.692 --> 00:26:19.832
I've heard these accusations.

00:26:21.271 --> 00:26:22.261
Are they accusations?

00:26:22.267 --> 00:26:23.221
I think they'd be compliments.

00:26:25.862 --> 00:26:30.602
I, I, I have become like very involved as sort of time's gone on.

00:26:30.902 --> 00:26:34.412
I've always been sort of a little bit of a, a man with, fingers in a lot of pies.

00:26:34.412 --> 00:26:47.415
Like, you know, even now I'm a tournament manager over at GO Stadium, a part of the Silph Road team that does the challenges for the trainer card badges, like the defeat Sierra with only 1500 CP down Pokemon, that sort of thing.

00:26:47.715 --> 00:26:50.205
That's always been a lot of fun to me, again, a little bit competitive.

00:26:50.501 --> 00:26:56.868
But like Silph Arena has just sort of been like, obviously I was creating content from season one and I kept making it through season two.

00:26:57.167 --> 00:27:02.819
SosaFlo, back in season three, he was given the opportunity to sort of do an announcement stream for the new Silph Arena meta.

00:27:03.125 --> 00:27:08.272
it was all gonna be released on his channel, it's gonna be like a two hour stream, we'd, reveal the meta for the first time, and then talk about it.

00:27:08.569 --> 00:27:11.603
He invited me to be on alongside PVPoke and SpeediestChief.

00:27:11.903 --> 00:27:13.883
And so we sort of got on there and talked about it all.

00:27:14.222 --> 00:27:20.256
I made a meta simplified infographic for the stream in MSpaint, threw it on there, and as this gone on, I, I kept making content.

00:27:20.559 --> 00:27:23.692
They started reaching out to me for, sort of, contenty stuff.

00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:29.913
So like, I was the host for the Silph Arena 2021 World Championships, and 2022 actually.

00:27:30.210 --> 00:27:40.329
I sort of unofficially took over a lot of the planning content stuff, so like they do FSPN streams, so I essentially, they pick a factions bout and they gather all of the battles.

00:27:40.359 --> 00:27:44.829
I say they, it's, it's me gather all of the battles from two teams.

00:27:45.133 --> 00:27:51.775
And then, someone puts on a live stream editing it all together for the APAC region, for European region, north American region, and Latin America region.

00:27:52.070 --> 00:28:04.553
And so I sort of unofficially started taking over a lot of the responsibilities in that department, I suppose, and just organizing these streams, organizing what the World championship stream was going to look like with some very talented people.

00:28:04.853 --> 00:28:09.060
You know, Miss Mystic running production every year, actually fantastic, stream production.

00:28:09.361 --> 00:28:12.988
She's in the industry now, she's, got an actual job in the field, so really, really proud of her.

00:28:12.992 --> 00:28:13.857
She's actually getting paid.

00:28:13.857 --> 00:28:14.847
Yeah, very much so.

00:28:15.958 --> 00:28:19.678
But we, we get her back for Silph Arena World Championships for the grassroots love.

00:28:19.980 --> 00:28:27.496
I cannot confirm how much my involvement is, but I definitely have a lot more involvement now than I sort of have over time, but it's sort of like naturally grown.

00:28:27.808 --> 00:28:36.931
I guess it's sort of like I've just slowly been helping out with this little help out here, do some help here and it, it is sort of just that case of there's fingers in a lot of pies.

00:28:37.230 --> 00:28:45.717
I just like to help out and I really love the Silph Arena and I sort of, I wanna do anything to make sure that the Silph Arena sort of is able to keep accomplishing what it wants to accomplish.

00:28:46.317 --> 00:28:52.767
It sounds like it wasn't thrust upon you, but you took it upon yourself because you wanted to see Silph Arena succeed by any means possible.

00:28:53.076 --> 00:28:53.436
Is that fair?

00:28:53.436 --> 00:28:53.586
Yeah.

00:28:53.906 --> 00:28:53.987
Yeah.

00:28:53.987 --> 00:28:55.896
It very much hasn't been thrust upon me.

00:28:56.200 --> 00:28:59.289
In some places it was a little bit more, Hey, can you deal with this?

00:28:59.450 --> 00:28:59.730
Right.

00:28:59.730 --> 00:29:05.079
Um, but for the most part it's been very, very much on my sort of taking more stuff on to help out with.

00:29:05.675 --> 00:29:08.496
You hosted both the 2021 and 2022 Silph Arena.

00:29:08.796 --> 00:29:12.160
This past 2022, we actually had APAC be a champion.

00:29:12.160 --> 00:29:12.430
Yes.

00:29:12.430 --> 00:29:13.369
VroomVroomPow.

00:29:13.670 --> 00:29:17.448
Did you have like, some pride just being able to witness that and running that stream?

00:29:17.448 --> 00:29:25.122
Oh, it was, it was definitely so awesome to see cuz like, I think APAC's definitely slept on very often as far as region with talented battlers.

00:29:25.422 --> 00:29:30.836
And that's very much because the Silph leader boards are always packed out with European battlers, North American Battlers..

00:29:31.132 --> 00:29:42.685
it's a little bit of a joke, but when there was move denials and stuff going on, where North Americans had an advantage over European battlers cuz they were closer to the servers in PVP, APAC was just like the bottom tier, like we had the worst.

00:29:43.496 --> 00:29:46.935
We would lose fast moves to everyone, everyone else would get fast moves on us.

00:29:47.231 --> 00:30:01.132
There was sort of like a hidden underlying subtext of, we had a little bit of it disadvantage up until basically this world championship where VroomVroomPow won, which then spawned jokes of, well now that move denials are off the table, APAC's coming, coming up now.

00:30:03.145 --> 00:30:12.730
But no, it was really awesome to see sort of that APAC join the table and actually the first World Champion not from North America as well cuz the previous two were Dune Bug and SpeediestChief.

00:30:13.030 --> 00:30:17.263
So actually not even USA, so taking it straight out of USA, out of North America.

00:30:17.324 --> 00:30:17.953
No Europe.

00:30:18.493 --> 00:30:20.324
Straight into, uh, straight into APAC.

00:30:20.621 --> 00:30:22.411
Definitely proud of my man, VroomVroomPow.

00:30:22.707 --> 00:30:23.936
Pizza Man always delivers!

00:30:23.936 --> 00:30:34.557
He was, and that stream was fun cause I was actually there and the chat was lit up with all the people cheering for VroomVroomPow and he always delivers and so much green content for days on that chat.

00:30:34.621 --> 00:30:39.663
Oh, I was having the best time and like while the stream was going like in the background, I was like, you know, doing Ms.

00:30:39.663 --> 00:30:45.054
Paint bad sort of Photoshop sort of like, VroomVroomPow, his head on top of like a man delivering pizza and.

00:30:47.814 --> 00:30:50.183
I was having the best time watching all of that unfold.

00:30:50.183 --> 00:30:52.884
I, I love the chat in the Silph Arena Worlds thing.

00:30:52.884 --> 00:30:53.753
That's awesome dude.

00:30:55.703 --> 00:30:56.520
So much fun.

00:30:57.124 --> 00:31:00.903
Well, you speak so highly of Silph Arena, like what do you hope it can become moving forward?

00:31:00.903 --> 00:31:02.104
Like what are your hopes for it?

00:31:02.701 --> 00:31:12.951
Yeah, I think that Silph Arena had a little bit of an identity crisis, you know, when Go Battle League came out because it was like, oh, well now there's sort of an official way to battle in Pokemon Go, is Silph Arena dead?

00:31:12.951 --> 00:31:13.971
Is Silph Arena gonna die?

00:31:14.221 --> 00:31:15.421
Is this the end of Silph Arena?

00:31:15.721 --> 00:31:28.951
Against Go battle league, it very much cut out its cornerstone as it is for in-person battles, it is like getting together, it is community, meeting each other online or in-person and battling with real people with unique metas that are a lot of fun.

00:31:29.253 --> 00:31:38.993
And then obviously Play Pokemon come out and it's sort of coming in on Silph Arena's territory a little bit more in that it's doing in-person tournaments, it's getting people together for all of these really fun meetups.

00:31:39.297 --> 00:31:42.951
And I think that what Silph Arena has is the community spirit.

00:31:43.249 --> 00:31:47.798