Dec. 20, 2023
TRAINER'S EYE #69 - "Catching Friends With Pokemon GO" ft. Rowan8436
In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Rowan8436, a Pokemon Trainer from Jacksonville Florida who enjoys catching Pokemon in Pokemon GO and streams her "catch grind" to an audience on Twitch.
Rowan8436 shares her personal experience of using Pokémon GO as a therapeutic tool for mental health. Through the lens of her heartfelt narrative, we witness the profound impact of Pokémon GO on her life – a game that goes beyond entertainment and becomes a lifeline for mental well-being.
Rowan8436 shares how she went from being alone to building a community and making friends with other Pokemon Trainers through Pokemon GO. From friendships that transcend the world of Pokemon to fostering a romantic partnership, her story is a testament to the power of Pokemon GO in fostering genuine connections.
Finally, Rowan8436 shares her experience at the iconic GO Fest events in Seattle and NYC. Experience the excitement, community spirit with other Pokemon Trainers, and unforgettable moments that make these gatherings worthwhile.
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 Rowan8436: Twitter | Twitch
My Interview with Star Piece: Watch | Listen
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
Join Our Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt
Transcript
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My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns.
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Welcome to As the Pokéball Turns, where the stories are real and people still play this game.
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Our journey takes us to Jacksonville, Florida, where we meet a trainer who primarily plays Pokémon GO to catch as many Pokémon as possible.
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She consistently streams her catchcry into an audience on Twitch, where she catches hundreds if not thousands of Pokémon on stream.
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For many people, They are motivated by numbers, stardust, or shiny Pokemon when it comes to catch grinds.
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However, she plays Pokemon Go and catches Pokemon for her mental health.
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She plays for her Twitch community, who joins her on her catch grinds when she goes live.
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She plays for the friends she has met both online and in real life.
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Here is her origin story into the world of Pokemon Go.
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This is Rowan8436! today, I'm joined by Rowan.
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Rowan, welcome to the show!
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Thank you so much for having me.
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I'm super excited to be here
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Likewise, And I love to watch an old school grinder because I like to grind Pokemon Go myself, or I used to.
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it's just so much fun to really kind of just try to play the game as much as possible and try to collect all the Stardust, XP, whatever motivates you.
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So, like, how do you like to grind?
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so my play style has changed a lot since I started streaming.
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I started that back in 2021 and at the time I was not level 50, I didn't have a hundred thousand catches or anything like that Since then, my playstyle has kind of evolved more to a catch grind style, focusing on like, you know, number of catches and hitting different goals, and I think streaming has just kind of kept me motivated with that, because even if the event is like, boring, or the season spawns are boring, having a catch grind goal, and having people to keep me company along the way, it just makes it more interesting and more fun.
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Now, were you a grinder before Twitch, or did Twitch kind of encourage you to even grind even harder?
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I considered myself to be hardcore, but I had no idea what that meant.
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my idea of what a hardcore player is has changed a lot since I found out about, like, the Twitter Pokemon Go community.
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so, I played a lot, but I really just shiny checked stuff because I had hit level 40 and there was no level 50 or anything at that time, and so I just, I didn't really have any active goals I was working on, so I was just, like, trying to fill out the shiny decks.
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But I wasn't really, like, catchgrinding or XP grinding or anything like that.
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You were just clicking, hoping to get the shiny, and that was basically it.
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Yeah.
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Do you have a particular, like, favorite shiny Pokemon, or favorite hunt that you remember?
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the first time I stayed out really late For a Shiny, it was when Shiny Poliwag was released, which that's my favorite Pokemon, it's not my favorite Shiny.
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And I stayed out, it was like 2.
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30 in the morning, and I was like, oh, I'm doing this one for a video game, and now routinely I'm out until like, the sun rises, and I'm like, oh, I should probably go home.
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do you ever get stopped?
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Like, so I used to grind late at night and sometimes I would get stopped by the cops.
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Did you get ever get stopped?
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And that's like, what are you doing?
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Kind of thing.
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Like, two or three times, they've never been like, upset about it, if anything, they find it kind of amusing.
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nothing that's ever been an issue, I play, Typically in the same area, so it's an outdoor mall, and the mall security, they know me, to the point where they'll wave, and I'm like, hey.
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awesome.
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So they even, do they know you by name and they just check on you or they just leave you alone at this point?
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they leave me alone, at this point, which is good.
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One time there was like a new, guy on their team, or whatever, and he, had some kind of issue with me, and, and then, the rest of their team backed me up instead of him, and I was like, oh, okay,
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You mentioned how Poliwag was your favorite Pokemon.
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how did it become your favorite Pokemon?
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that's a really good question.
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I don't really know.
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I think it was, I've always thought it was cute.
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And then, someone, this was really early on into streaming, had asked me, what's your favorite Pokemon?
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And I hadn't really thought about it.
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Because Pokemon Go was my first experience with Pokemon.
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So, I didn't have a favorite Pokemon growing up and then I guess they had asked me around the time that they were just Poliwags in the wild and I had caught one and I was like, well, this one's pretty cute.
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So I said like, Oh, Poliwag.
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And then, uh, now I am very attached to it.
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So
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Oh, it's like Pokemon go helped you form a unique bond with Poliwag.
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It sounds like
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Yeah.
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I don't know.
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It's round.
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It's kind of cute.
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it's Kanto.
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So you said you didn't grow up with Pokemon, so like, is Pokemon games you just weren't interested before Pokemon Go at all?
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I wasn't allowed to play video games or watch TV as a kid, which was odd, but it was, like, with the idea that I wouldn't grow up to be a video game addicted adult, and that did not work out for them, so,
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Right.
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yeah.
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after I got into Pokemon Go, I was like, Oh, I'll get a 3DS and I'll go get some of the main series games.
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And, so I have played back through them.
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Is it different from Pokemon Go when you try to play him?
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Are you still finding interest into it or are you still more into Pokemon Go?
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I'm into the main series games too.
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I think there's just something about Pokemon Go where it gets me out in my real life surroundings and stuff.
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That helps with my mental health and it helps with my depression and it gets me out of like the laying in bed depression rut.
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And so I think that's why I've been so into this.
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I feel the same way because I remember that's what I love about Pokemon Go is it got me out because as much as I enjoyed video games back in the day.
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it was easy for me just to stay indoors all the time, but Pokemon Go really encouraged me to go to parks and meet other people who love this game, which I found very different, I guess, compared to what I was used to.
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Yeah, I mean, when I tell people like Pokemon Go changed my life, I'm not exaggerating.
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I'm, I mean it very, very seriously because before this I really didn't have any friends.
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I spent a lot of time just by myself, just like, I went to college, I was taking classes, but I didn't really talk to anybody, and now I have so many friends that I've met through this game, both, locally and internationally, and it's made a huge difference in my life.
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There were three, four other people that were hanging out with us, and two of them I hadn't met, but by the end of the day, we turned on music, we cranked it up, and we were just all singing, like, shots, shots, shots, shots, and it was great, and like, it was just a really fun time, and we all screamed when Tyler got, Hundo Zekrom, and we were all freaking out for him, and, it just, it connects people, it's a really cool thing that it can do that.
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So, Pokemon go comes out.
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Were you like, the first one to kind of play the game or did you kind of come later into the game?
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So, my account start date is, January 23rd, 2019.
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So I wasn't playing at the beginning, because I didn't have any kind of experience with Pokemon, so it didn't really appeal to me, I guess?
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I don't know.
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but I was taking biology class, and there was this girl sitting next to me, and she was driving me crazy.
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She's like, you have to download it, and she was always on the game during class, and I was like, your grades are suffering, why are you?
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but she wouldn't leave me alone about it.
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And so finally I was like, okay, fine, I'll download it.
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And then she made me get to level five in front of her and pick mystic and I really just did it to get her off my back.
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Like I never thought I'd open the game again.
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You thought it was just be just the kind of thing to kind of, I guess, quote unquote, shut her up and be like, okay, let me just get this over with and I can move on with my life kind of thing.
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Yeah.
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And then a couple of weeks later I was like, well, you know, I'm walking in between classes all over campus like, why not just open the game and play it walking around campus.
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And next thing you know, I'm out all night playing the game.
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I have 600, 000 catches.
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I stream it on Twitch.
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Like it's, I don't know.
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All encompassing in your life now.
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Yeah!
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What was it about Pokemon Go, because you came back in 2019, so that's three years into the game's lifespan.
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What was it about that game, when you started playing, started being more consistent about it, that kept you engaged?
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I think it was how much I could tell that it was helping with my mental health.
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So I struggle with depression, anxiety, and PTSD and the idea of getting up and going for a walk in the morning around my neighborhood was not really that appealing, but the idea of going out And getting the new Pokemon that were in the new event was really appealing.
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So that's what got me out and got me going.
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And then I realized I was like, Oh, I do feel better like that does work.
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and it's a much healthier coping skill than some of the things I was doing previously.
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And so I was like, Oh, I'll just keep doing this.
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What is it like to in your area?
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Like, what's the community like?
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Where would y'all go for like a community day or raids and stuff like that?
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so I'm in Jacksonville, Florida, the Jacksonville community.
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pretty big, for the size of my city.
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I think there were a lot more people playing in this area, like, that I do my catch grind at, a few years ago.
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And so there was a while there, like during COVID, and until I'd say the last few months, that I didn't really have anybody to play with, but recently I found, in my new neighborhood, I found some people that play pretty actively, and so I've been getting to hang out with them for events, and that's been really fun.
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And you and your friends, y'all usually kind of grind around the mall, right?
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Because sometimes I notice your friends will join you in the grinds as well.
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Yeah, yeah, So that's why, you know, this time works really well for me because I get up in the evening and then I go and I'm out all night playing.
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it's really hard to find people to go and catch grind with you at three in the morning after they worked all day.
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So,
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Right.
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but I have found, recently Richard.
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he'll join me and I have to make him leave.
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I'm like you need to go sleep Richard, but they often drive which is really sweet So that I can stream.
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And what was it about the streaming that made you want to start streaming on Twitch?
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Because it's a huge jump for you to become so introverted and, you know, dealing with mental health, obviously to starting playing a game you didn't really care for, to now What led you to want to start doing that?
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back in like 2020 2021.
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I was watching fleece king and i've told him all of this.
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I was watching his streams quite a bit and he had talked about you know, he's pretty Open about being positive with mental health and stuff like that.
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And on a whim, one night I was like, I was out, I was playing.
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I was like, I'm really alone.
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You know, why don't I just try that?
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And even if, you know, there's just one person in there that is somebody that can help keep me company and that I can talk to, and on a complete impulse decided to go live.
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It went further than I ever thought it would, to be honest with you.
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That first stream must have been nerve wracking, because I think about when I first started doing podcasting.
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Did you have that same kind of feeling when you first pressed live?
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it took about at least six months for me to kind of grow into my own comfort zone a little bit with it.
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I remember asking a lot of established streamers for advice about what to do or how to stream because I had this idea that I was doing it wrong somehow.
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And the best advice I got was from, Kricket23, and she said, there is no wrong way to do it.
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It's your channel.
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so you're doing just fine, and there's, no wrong way to do it.
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You just do what you're comfortable with and what makes you happy, and that'll show that you're confident and happy to the viewers, and they'll be able to see that.
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I'm curious, so, how did you feel like you were doing it wrong?
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Like, what perception did you feel like you should have been doing it?
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I don't know, like, it was just a feeling of like, oh, I haven't been doing this very long.
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I don't know how to do it.
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I Should ask people who are, you know, well established, like, how they do it, but Yeah, I think it was more just, like, my own social anxiety that made me feel like I was doing something wrong, cuz I, I really wasn't.
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Was it more like you had like doubt or just very self conscious about it kind of thing
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Yeah, and I like I said, I didn't have any friends for Pokémon Go, so, you know, the idea that anyone would, would want to spend time listening to me and chatting with me and all of that was really surprising.
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and I didn't really, I didn't really know what to do with that, because I wasn't expecting that to happen, and so I just was like, oh, how do I I guess, how do I grow this, or how do I do this, quote unquote, right, but there is no right way to do it.
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that's just kind of cool how you've been able to connect with people who are interested in your grind but also just having a conversation because you know you're driving by yourself it gets kind of quiet it gets kind of lonely.
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It's kind of cool to be able to have somebody you can kind of talk with and have a conversation with while streaming on Twitch.
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Yeah, it's not always like, just talking about Pokemon Go, like, there's only so much you can talk about Pokemon, you know, which is part of what I like about the catchgrind streaming is, you know, if someone comes in chat and they're like, oh, you'll never guess what happened today when I went to walk my dog, I'm like, tell me about it.
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So, we can just, talk about whatever, and sometimes we talk about, like, if people are struggling, we talk about, you know, supporting each other and, being positive support to each other in the community.
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In chat, it's really, really cool to see everybody support one another and immediately offer to the person who needs support, like, Hey, you can reach out to me, I'm here for you and it goes so much further than just talking about in game mechanics.
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How does it feel to be able to, like, look at your community you've built so far and think about how far your gameplay has come with Twitch and with your grind?
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It feels really cool.
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Sometimes it still feels a little bit surreal.
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and I journal a lot, so I'll go back and read, like, journal entries.
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And I was doing that the other night, and I saw one, and I was like, Oh, I had 30 viewers at one time! And I was freaking out about it and just so grateful that people would spend that time with me and then flipped later on in the journal and it's like, Oh, I had like 300 viewers at one time like just seeing that and seeing the growth and all of those, just, it's just really cool.
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You know, we've talked about so much about your grind, but we've never really dived into the numbers of it.
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So, like, how hard of a grinder are you?
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Like, what's the most proudest stat you have at the moment?
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so I'll go out and I'll do catches, but I haven't been doing as much of a set catch grind lately.
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the day that I did.
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I was trying to hit catch cap.
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this is before they lowered catch cap.
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I was trying to hit it and I didn't understand exactly how it worked.
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I thought it was 4,800 in a day was catch cap.
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And so I went out and I was like, I'm going to go do 4,800 catches today.
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and I did, I got to 5, 000 and I was like, uh.
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What?
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that shouldn't be possible, so I think I did like 5, 200 something catches that day and that's when I learned that, at that point, catch cap was 14, 000 in the last 7 days and in the last 24 hours, 4, 800, and I hadn't done 14,000 In the week prior, so that's why I didn't hit it, but I think that was my most impressive grind.
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Did you try to get to hit the 14, 000 by chance?
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I did not, because I made like a little plan to do it, but man, that's, that's a lot of days in a row that you gotta go out and do
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That's what I was going to say.
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Like, did you talk about just the one day you hit 5, 200 catches?
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That's an insane amount.
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like, how much of a grind is that?
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Like, were you tired after you did the first day?
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Yeah, yeah, I was, and my sleep schedule, which is, I use that term very loosely.
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I'll be up for like two days, and then I'll sleep for like a full day, so I don't go out every single day and do catches.
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I'll skip a day here and there to sleep, which is why you know, the idea of going out and doing like 2K every single day without a one day being a break or something is, is wild to me.
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You've been listening to as the Pokeball turns.
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We're going to take a quick break.
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We'll be right back.
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I was recently a guest on Star Peace, a part of the GoCast podcast, where you get to learn about your favorite personalities and leaders in the world of Pokemon Go.
00:14:41.929 --> 00:14:51.980
There I talk with co host GoCast Chris and Lachlan about my history with Pokemon, why I like to do interviews, and even myself and Dukes make our video debut on YouTube.
00:14:52.330 --> 00:14:53.340
Yes, YouTube.
00:14:53.929 --> 00:14:54.960
Make sure to check it out.
00:14:55.110 --> 00:14:56.970
The links will be in the description of this episode.
00:14:58.330 --> 00:15:00.789
And if you haven't already, listen to their episodes.
00:15:01.009 --> 00:15:03.299
Make sure to check out Trainer's Eye number 20.
00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:13.179
Top quality C words featuring LF Kamala and Trainers I number 53 a silver win from Chicago featuring go cast Chris now.
00:15:13.179 --> 00:15:14.379
Let's get back to this episode
00:15:18.028 --> 00:15:21.129
now, have you had a chance to be able to attend any live events at all?
00:15:21.429 --> 00:15:22.759
Yeah, actually I have.
00:15:22.789 --> 00:15:27.029
My first GoFest was Seattle, and then I also went to, New York.
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it was crazy, and I was so excited, too, because it was my first in person event.
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it was so cool, just walking around, just walking around the city, and then having people be like, Hey, I just got this shiny, like, and I've never talked to this person before, and I'm like, congrats, but they could see I was wearing, like, Pokemon merch and stuff.
00:15:43.677 --> 00:15:48.537
or recognizing the names of people that had dropped lures from Twitter, I was like, hey, I know them!
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Did you go by yourself or did you go with your friends from where you're from?
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well, I got to meet my girlfriend in person, Tazstar.
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She's a player.
00:15:59.565 --> 00:16:00.095
Yeah.
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And she recently hit a billion XP.
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But, yeah, so we got to meet and spend time together.
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And, we went and played, like, we went out all night one night just walking around.
00:16:09.745 --> 00:16:10.485
heh.
00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:12.990
gosh, that must have been so romantic and so nice.
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Yeah, it was really cool watching, like, looking at the lights on the Space Needle and stuff, too.
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did y'all meet through Pokemon Go or did y'all know each other before?
00:16:20.605 --> 00:16:22.330
We did meet through Pokemon Go.
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I, knew who she was, like, I recognized the name from Twitter and I knew she was a really hardcore player, and so I was always, like, kind of intimidated to want to add her because, I don't know.
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and then she came in my stream.
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and I like kind of was like, Oh, Taz.
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Oh, hi.
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And I was like, super awkward about it, but yeah.
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And then eventually she was like, I kind of think you're cute.
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And I was like, who me?
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she helped me learn how to catch grind more.
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That's so awesome, especially, cause, you know, at the time you didn't really feel like, I guess, I don't know if that's the word, at the time you didn't feel like you were kind of worth your time, but it's kind of cool how y'all came together, both online and through Pokemon Go, that's so sweet.
00:16:58.692 --> 00:17:03.922
Yeah, I didn't feel like I had, much of a standing in the hardcore community at that point.
00:17:04.218 --> 00:17:17.842
That's why I started Twitter in the first place, was because I wanted to keep track of, like, my stats, and that sort of thing, towards hitting level 50 at that point, at one point I made a post, this is before the Remote Raid limit, and I was like, oh, I Raid a lot of, like, trash Raids, right?
00:17:18.082 --> 00:17:22.781
And so I made a post that was like, trash Raiders, add me, and I had no idea what I was signing up for.
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I got endless spoink raids back to back to back for hours, and I was like, well, I have a reputation to uphold now, so I did like thousands of like, porygons and spoinks and like, garbage raids.
00:17:34.416 --> 00:17:35.646
Oh, no.
00:17:35.811 --> 00:17:38.132
up on 10k champion raids now, so.
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so now we go to New York.
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So how was New York different and was it better?
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Was it worse in your opinion?
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I think my personal overall experience was better in New York because I kind of knew what I was Going to experience.
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It wasn't my very first in person event.
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With the social anxiety and i'm on the autism spectrum I can get really overwhelmed with big groups of people and in seattle I didn't prepare for that.
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And so I I ended up being pretty overwhelmed and not enjoying myself that much.
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In new york, You know, I knew what to expect with that.
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And so before I went, I was like, I need to make sure if I'm feeling overwhelmed, I go and take a few minutes and breathe.
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of course, you know, all of my friends, They know that about me and I had been pretty open and they're all very supportive.
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So, if I needed a break I was just like, okay guys, i'll be right back I just gotta go like breathe and I think that was really helpful and I got to enjoy it a lot more.
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I felt bad because people knew what I looked like or what I sounded like, but I would not recognize them at all because I only know like their, Twitch name or their in game name, and maybe we've talked quite a bit in chat, but I feel so bad, I'm like, what's your in game name?
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And then they tell me, and I'm like, oh yeah, we know each other on like, a pretty solid level.
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Sorry about that.
00:18:42.973 --> 00:18:46.605
but yeah, I was, like, man, I'm supposed to recognize people, but I've never seen them before.
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did you get a lot of people who came up to you who recognized you, your face and your voice and stuff like that?
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Like, was that pretty consistent?
00:18:53.701 --> 00:18:59.404
yeah, so I think it, part of that too was, right before I, so the day I was flying up to New York.
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Because I don't have like a camera on me at all times on stream I was like Oh I should post a picture of me in the airport and put it on Twitter and because I was going to a meetup that night That I was featured in and I did that and Pokemon go Retweeted it and so it got like 250, 000 impressions and stuff.
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So I think that added to being recognized because I was wearing the same outfit.
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Oh my gosh.
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that must've been kind of cool though to have Pokemon, retweet your tweet though.
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I was recently a guest on Star Peace, a part of the GoCast podcast, where you get to learn about your favorite personalities and leaders in the world of Pokemon Go.
00:14:41.929 --> 00:14:51.980
There I talk with co host GoCast Chris and Lachlan about my history with Pokemon, why I like to do interviews, and even myself and Dukes make our video debut on YouTube.
00:14:52.330 --> 00:14:53.340
Yes, YouTube.
00:14:53.929 --> 00:14:54.960
Make sure to check it out.
00:14:55.110 --> 00:14:56.970
The links will be in the description of this episode.
00:14:58.330 --> 00:15:00.789
And if you haven't already, listen to their episodes.
00:15:01.009 --> 00:15:03.299
Make sure to check out Trainer's Eye number 20.
00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:13.179
Top quality C words featuring LF Kamala and Trainers I number 53 a silver win from Chicago featuring go cast Chris now.
00:15:13.179 --> 00:15:14.379
Let's get back to this episode
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