Jan. 3, 2024

TRAINER'S EYE #71 - "From PVP to Charizard Family" ft. WildcatDad17 from Beginner to Winner PvP

TRAINER'S EYE #71 -
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Season 1 Competitive Pokemon Trainers Podcasters

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by WildcatDad17, a Pokemon Trainer from Kentucky and the co-host of the Beginner to Winner PvP podcast.

WildcatDad17 shares his experience with Pokemon GO, starting with his in-person community in Kentucky that revolved around Raids. Eventually, he transitioned over to being involved with an online community, specifically with his podcast and Pokemon GO PvP where he learned to appreciate the in-person community a lot more thanks to the online experience.

WildcatDad17 also shares insight into his involvement with the Beginner to Winner PvP podcast with his other co-hosts. He explains his reasoning to becoming an admin and what his experience has been like recording and producing a Pokemon GO podcast and developing a community alongside with it.

Community Fundraiser
A core Pokemon community member, Garren a.k.a HoosierDada13, has lost his home in a fire. Listed below are the three ways that you are able to help.

1) Associate Crisis Fund Donations through the Hancock Health Foundation - Anyone from the community can donate, tax free, and 100% of the donations will go to support Garren (HoosierDada13) and Jessica and their family via the Hancock Health Foundation.

Here's how to donate:

  • Follow this link: https://www.hancockhealth.org/about/foundation/
  • Click the button "Make a Donation Today"
  • You'll be taken to the "Foundation Donations" form
  • Fill out the form with your information and desired donation
  • PLEASE NOTE in order for the funds to be earmarked for the Harter Family, make sure to choose the following:
  • Select "Associate Crisis Fund" under the "Designate Your Gift" field
  • Please add the verbiage "Harter Family" under the "My Gift is in Honor of:" field

2) Garren’s Venmo

3) Amazon Wishlist

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 WildcatDad17: Twitter | Website

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

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.580
My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns.

00:00:44.011 --> 00:00:53.993
Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns! Our journey takes us to Kentucky, also known as the Bluegrass State, where we meet a trainer who has been a part of the Pokemon community through most of his life.

00:00:54.301 --> 00:00:54.951
A self proclaimed OG.

00:00:55.536 --> 00:01:01.046
His journey led him to Pokemon Go, where he experienced a franchise he loved in his own world.

00:01:01.362 --> 00:01:13.772
Most importantly, it was the community that kept him connected with the game and eventually led him to being a part of the BTW, Beginner to Winner community, where it was designed with the idea of training people up from beginners to seasoned competitors.

00:01:14.081 --> 00:01:19.852
With my guest, the community is something he stresses and focuses on where they share their triumphs and defeats.

00:01:20.152 --> 00:01:26.088
More recently, a core member of their community, who's your dad at 13, lost their home due to a house fire.

00:01:26.397 --> 00:01:29.977
Thankfully, the family survived and are still recovering at the time of this episode.

00:01:30.284 --> 00:01:33.495
If you're able to help, consider leaving a small donation for the family.

00:01:33.572 --> 00:01:36.501
Instructions and links will be available in the description of this episode.

00:01:36.801 --> 00:01:41.980
But what drives this community to help one another and be there for each other is best left said with my guest today.

00:01:42.286 --> 00:01:43.686
We aren't just a community.

00:01:43.707 --> 00:01:44.537
We are family.

00:01:44.852 --> 00:01:47.311
Here is his origin story into the world of Pokemon.

00:01:47.602 --> 00:01:50.591
He is the co host of the Beginner to Winner Podcast.

00:01:50.951 --> 00:01:53.501
This is WildcatDad17.

00:01:54.774 --> 00:02:02.689
Today, I'm joined by the co host of the BTW Beginner to Winner podcast and your favorite country accent on the show.

00:02:02.969 --> 00:02:05.659
WildcatDad17, welcome to the show.

00:02:05.834 --> 00:02:06.474
Howdy folks.

00:02:06.474 --> 00:02:07.034
How's it going?

00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:11.689
Now, before we dive into the show, I need to make sure I avoid any potential repercussions.

00:02:11.699 --> 00:02:13.610
You're not really 17 years old, right?

00:02:13.824 --> 00:02:14.914
No, I am not.

00:02:15.549 --> 00:02:17.829
My daughter was born in the year of 2017.

00:02:17.859 --> 00:02:19.838
That's where the 17 in the name comes from.

00:02:20.133 --> 00:02:23.253
Okay, good, because I was worried I'd need a parental slip for you for this interview.

00:02:23.253 --> 00:02:23.913
I wasn't too sure.

00:02:24.459 --> 00:02:27.489
God, that makes me feel better cause Lord knows life's been

00:02:30.028 --> 00:02:31.938
Was life darkened when you were 17, Wildcat?

00:02:32.399 --> 00:02:34.699
Yeah, life was easier when I was 17.

00:02:35.169 --> 00:02:36.158
I didn't have bills.

00:02:36.459 --> 00:02:36.808
Oh, that's

00:02:37.079 --> 00:02:37.788
Yeah.

00:02:38.019 --> 00:02:39.468
Think, think, think about it.

00:02:39.468 --> 00:02:40.248
Back, back, back to the end.

00:02:40.248 --> 00:02:42.649
It's like, gas money was the thing you were worried about.

00:02:42.949 --> 00:02:45.429
And gas was what, 1.

00:02:45.769 --> 00:02:46.658
25?

00:02:47.519 --> 00:02:48.299
Dang.

00:02:48.408 --> 00:02:48.808
Yeah.

00:02:48.929 --> 00:02:52.579
All I was worried about was the next video game coming out and what new Yu Gi Oh card set was going to come out.

00:02:52.628 --> 00:02:52.998
Yeah.

00:02:53.294 --> 00:02:59.525
also, one thing I also want to bring up is, I remember when you were on Good Morning Johto, I heard that you cook a mean biscuits and gravy.

00:02:59.835 --> 00:03:01.414
Oh, Abso frickin lutely.

00:03:01.414 --> 00:03:02.455
I am from Kentucky.

00:03:02.455 --> 00:03:04.495
That is literally a requirement to live here.

00:03:04.794 --> 00:03:05.305
Really?

00:03:05.425 --> 00:03:07.235
So do you like the biscuits homemade?

00:03:07.235 --> 00:03:09.155
And I'm sure you do the great from scratch, of course.

00:03:09.250 --> 00:03:16.139
Gravy from Scratch, I, depends upon the day, 90 percent of the time I'm going to be doing the biscuits out of a can, just because I ain't got time for that.

00:03:16.849 --> 00:03:23.484
My mother, on the other hand, makes the world's best biscuits, and literally, my daughter has begged to learn how to make granny biscuits.

00:03:23.717 --> 00:03:25.377
So they're making biscuits together.

00:03:25.711 --> 00:03:26.722
Oh, I'm so jealous.

00:03:26.741 --> 00:03:27.651
It's so hard to make it.

00:03:27.711 --> 00:03:30.322
Well, it's not hard, but it's just tedious to make a new biscuit.

00:03:30.917 --> 00:03:32.847
Honestly, her biscuits are like three ingredients.

00:03:33.150 --> 00:03:37.229
They're the simplest things, like flour, milk, a little bit of butter, and a little bit of water.

00:03:37.349 --> 00:03:38.069
Four ingredients.

00:03:38.129 --> 00:03:38.349
that's.

00:03:38.444 --> 00:03:43.585
The entirety of her, but you cannot ask for a actual measurement of any of it because she doesn't know.

00:03:43.585 --> 00:03:46.235
She just keeps throwing things together until eventually there's biscuits.

00:03:46.829 --> 00:03:51.808
One time when I was at work, I had to bring a dish and I decided to bring biscuits and gravy myself.

00:03:52.229 --> 00:03:54.618
So the way I do my gravy, I do biscuits like you do.

00:03:54.618 --> 00:03:57.049
I don't try to mess with the make it from scratch.

00:03:57.218 --> 00:03:59.729
My gravy, I mix sausage and chorizo together.

00:04:00.139 --> 00:04:00.378
Ooh.

00:04:01.058 --> 00:04:05.609
And then I cook that in the stove, and then I'm pretty sure you probably do a similar process maybe with your sausage.

00:04:05.868 --> 00:04:11.618
You put the flour in, make a little bit of a roux, dump some milk in there, whole milk by the way, and then off to the races.

00:04:11.628 --> 00:04:15.318
And it gives it like a little bit of a reddish color, but my god it's so

00:04:15.528 --> 00:04:16.728
haven't tried it with chorizo.

00:04:16.769 --> 00:04:19.579
I do a lot of sausage gravy, a lot of bacon gravy.

00:04:19.579 --> 00:04:20.069
Ooh.

00:04:20.115 --> 00:04:20.975
Bacon gravies.

00:04:20.997 --> 00:04:31.817
It is a lot harder to get right, because there's just so much grease that if you don't get the roux right as you're doing it, you end up with greasy gravy And greasy gravy is not good gravy.

00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:34.069
for Thanksgiving, I actually did sausage and bacon.

00:04:34.069 --> 00:04:36.959
And then just dumped a little bit of the grease out, because it was way too much grease at that point.

00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:41.129
But I just let, I was like, you know what, we're gonna keep most of it, and we're gonna go to town on it.

00:04:41.495 --> 00:04:41.805
Yeah.

00:04:41.930 --> 00:04:43.949
like 45 minutes to get it right.

00:04:44.365 --> 00:04:44.754
Mm hmm.

00:04:44.774 --> 00:04:47.084
But when it came out, it was so good.

00:04:47.697 --> 00:04:50.026
Well, we're not here to talk about food, although I am hungry now.

00:04:50.627 --> 00:04:51.757
We're here to talk about Pokemon.

00:04:51.766 --> 00:04:54.437
So, Wildcat, like, what's your first experience with Pokemon?

00:04:54.951 --> 00:04:56.732
So as the kids would say, a real OG.

00:04:56.732 --> 00:05:02.072
I've been around Pokemon since it came to the US.

00:05:02.552 --> 00:05:04.702
I didn't get to play Red and Blue to start.

00:05:05.002 --> 00:05:07.000
We, grew up East Kentucky, very poor.

00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:13.331
So literally my first actual Pokemon experience at a yard sale, we found the yellow Game Boy and Pokemon yellow.

00:05:13.629 --> 00:05:18.918
I went berserk and begged and kicked and screamed until I got to get that brought home to me.

00:05:18.918 --> 00:05:20.119
so that was my first experience.

00:05:20.129 --> 00:05:22.271
And then I played, generation two.

00:05:22.576 --> 00:05:25.637
Couldn't play generation three cause did not have a Game Boy advance.

00:05:26.154 --> 00:05:30.185
So I missed, three and four and then went back and played them later on in life.

00:05:30.476 --> 00:05:35.596
But also, in elementary school, like all the kids back then, TCG was the thing to do.

00:05:35.906 --> 00:05:37.156
I'm gonna break your heart now.

00:05:37.458 --> 00:05:41.105
I had the shadowless first edition Charizard.

00:05:41.644 --> 00:05:43.134
Oh no.

00:05:43.305 --> 00:05:45.644
had it five, no, ten years ago.

00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:47.511
I gave it to my nephew.

00:05:48.115 --> 00:05:49.254
Have you thought about getting it back?

00:05:49.858 --> 00:05:52.579
I'm afraid to ask what's happened to it.

00:05:53.598 --> 00:05:56.088
I mean, it could just mysteriously vanish, I'm just saying.

00:05:56.098 --> 00:05:57.119
Wouldn't judge you.

00:05:58.369 --> 00:06:00.228
it's probably not in great condition at this point.

00:06:00.238 --> 00:06:11.098
So, but you know, I, I, I had that in my collection, love the anime one of, one of my OG favorite Pokemon games is actually one that a lot of people haven't heard of is Pokemon, the trading card game.

00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:12.548
I love that.

00:06:13.009 --> 00:06:14.608
Love that game.

00:06:14.949 --> 00:06:18.329
Now I may have not played it through approved Nintendo means.

00:06:18.329 --> 00:06:20.879
Cause once again, we covered the fact that I didn't have a Game Boy Advance.

00:06:21.165 --> 00:06:21.636
Right.

00:06:21.925 --> 00:06:30.005
But I played it, many times over, just like I played, all the Gen 3 and 4 stuff, many times over on non approved means that we won't talk about.

00:06:32.536 --> 00:06:34.565
I remember playing Pokemon trading card game as well

00:06:34.675 --> 00:06:35.026
Mm hmm.

00:06:35.125 --> 00:06:56.553
didn't really know how to play the game you know physically and I remember just looking to that game I was like oh I get to experience the trading card game you know keep in mind for us before the internet before online play this is the probably easiest way for you to experience the Pokemon trading card game and I was just hooked into it because I love card games for one but two It was just a fun little strategy, trying to get the Pokemon to work.

00:06:56.994 --> 00:07:00.874
And trying to use all the different power, I think they called them power, points.

00:07:00.884 --> 00:07:01.733
No, not power points.

00:07:02.033 --> 00:07:03.644
Abilities, I forgot what they called them back in the day.

00:07:03.928 --> 00:07:04.639
don't remember.

00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:06.019
It's been, that's been too long ago.

00:07:06.324 --> 00:07:08.543
Yeah, that's too long for us old people to remember.

00:07:08.836 --> 00:07:10.387
But it was a lot of fun though, to play!

00:07:10.492 --> 00:07:13.641
It was, and it did a great job of establishing the basics.

00:07:13.651 --> 00:07:16.692
Now, you weren't playing any, like, real competitive dicks in that game.

00:07:17.024 --> 00:07:20.184
You're playing like the basic of the basic decks, but you learned.

00:07:20.497 --> 00:07:21.456
So I loved it.

00:07:21.476 --> 00:07:26.223
you know, back then we didn't have TCG live and all that stuff to help teach us how to play this stuff.

00:07:26.223 --> 00:07:27.973
So we were making up rules with our friends.

00:07:28.610 --> 00:07:30.920
That's true, because I remember, I played with my cousin.

00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:33.161
And he had the base set Zapdos.

00:07:33.766 --> 00:07:35.675
Anybody knows it does 100 damage.

00:07:35.776 --> 00:07:40.665
He would just throw it down and he says, I think it's thunder, your Pokemon's dead without even attaching energy.

00:07:40.870 --> 00:07:41.391
Yep.

00:07:41.391 --> 00:07:42.730
But that's how simple it was back in the day.

00:07:43.630 --> 00:08:01.641
Now you got these retrieval strats and moving things around and the TCG is so It's so nuanced, just like all the other versions that people don't I don't get it that if you're not entrenched in the different competitive aspects of Pokemon, from the outside in, you're looking Pokemon Go, you're just tapping your phone.

00:08:01.641 --> 00:08:02.380
What's hard about it?

00:08:02.687 --> 00:08:05.038
VGC, you just click the most effective move, obviously.

00:08:05.341 --> 00:08:08.937
TCG, you're just, throwing Pokemon cards down and hoping you draw what you need.

00:08:09.233 --> 00:08:15.033
When in all reality, all three of them have so much intricacy and complexity to them that it makes them a lot of fun.

00:08:15.637 --> 00:08:18.076
you said you played the first three generations before taking a break.

00:08:18.257 --> 00:08:19.887
Which was your favorite, set to play?

00:08:20.432 --> 00:08:22.922
Oh, I will always be a Jim Warner.

00:08:23.141 --> 00:08:24.012
I can't help it.

00:08:25.302 --> 00:08:26.512
The nostalgia of it.

00:08:26.721 --> 00:08:28.141
Is it the best Pokemon game?

00:08:28.581 --> 00:08:29.581
Absolutely not.

00:08:29.634 --> 00:08:30.014
Mm hmm.

00:08:30.059 --> 00:08:31.588
But will it always be my favorite?

00:08:31.884 --> 00:08:39.659
100%., the nostalgia of, this is what I played as a kid, and you never experience Pokemon the first time again.

00:08:39.967 --> 00:08:45.947
And while, yes, you can experience a new game, going through Scarlet and Violet and being the first true open world was amazing.

00:08:46.254 --> 00:08:47.455
But I still knew all the mechanics.

00:08:47.455 --> 00:08:48.615
I still knew what I was doing.

00:08:48.615 --> 00:08:49.884
It wasn't challenging.

00:08:49.884 --> 00:08:50.294
Mm hmm.

00:08:50.335 --> 00:09:02.557
But, 10 year old Wildcat trying to actually get through all of this, gems and just getting beat down by the Elite Four over and over and over until you're like, screw it, I'm gonna go to Victory Road and get to level 100 and then just come back.

00:09:03.140 --> 00:09:04.211
Did you really grind to level

00:09:04.610 --> 00:09:05.350
Yes, I did.

00:09:05.701 --> 00:09:06.811
How long did that take you?

00:09:06.811 --> 00:09:07.510
That's crazy.

00:09:07.610 --> 00:09:08.591
don't want to talk about it.

00:09:09.171 --> 00:09:20.380
We don't want to HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Oh my gosh, that's crazy, Cause I remember trying to grind my pokemon up to level 100 and it would take like, weeks, but that's battling with the elite for

00:09:20.471 --> 00:09:20.841
Yeah.

00:09:20.931 --> 00:09:21.201
Yeah.

00:09:21.350 --> 00:09:22.110
Well, that's what I got.

00:09:22.110 --> 00:09:22.701
I'm so high.

00:09:22.701 --> 00:09:32.130
And then I went to the Elite four just competitively lost over and over and over and use them for the final levels.

00:09:32.171 --> 00:09:34.360
Road, Like I'm That's an impressive grind right there.

00:09:35.291 --> 00:09:38.900
As you get about level 75 to 975 to 85.

00:09:39.280 --> 00:09:42.431
You have to go through the Elite Four to get that additional XP over and over

00:09:42.801 --> 00:09:43.061
Yay.

00:09:43.311 --> 00:09:49.341
and then trying to find you under the truck Or glitching for missing though.

00:09:49.936 --> 00:09:51.686
Did you know about MissingNo back in the day or did you

00:09:51.691 --> 00:09:58.850
I found out about it through a friend that had a, GameShark and he showed me and I was like, well, is there any way you can get it without a game shark?

00:09:59.552 --> 00:10:11.299
And eventually I talked to enough people and we all figured it out because once again, no real Internet at that point where you just keep beating your head against the wall the number you keep corrupting your save file and over and over until you eventually you get a missing no.

00:10:11.299 --> 00:10:17.720
And then you get 999 master balls and then you just catch everything and everything's easy and unlimited rare candy and.

00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:18.480
Oh, well, this.

00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:21.020
It was a lot more fun when I actually played it the correct way.

00:10:21.626 --> 00:10:25.092
I think that's the one thing I want to someday figure out is how did somebody figure out MissingNo?

00:10:25.462 --> 00:10:31.182
Because you have to imagine how convoluted those steps are like, did somebody just literally go over and over for save files?

00:10:31.183 --> 00:10:32.932
Like, I want to know someday how they figured that out.

00:10:32.942 --> 00:10:33.533
It's crazy.

00:10:34.043 --> 00:10:35.493
Lord, I, I, I, you know what?

00:10:35.523 --> 00:10:36.403
Conspiracy theory.

00:10:36.692 --> 00:10:45.631
Game Freak put it out the method, cause they wanted people to find it, but then again, for people to think like Scarlet and Violet's broken, y'all don't know nothing about broken games.

00:10:46.254 --> 00:10:53.572
Generation 1 was the most broken, things, we take for granted now, like Ghost being super effective against Psychics.

00:10:54.017 --> 00:10:55.779
Nah, that, didn't work in Gen 1.

00:10:56.090 --> 00:10:56.809
It was broken.

00:10:57.164 --> 00:10:59.605
it's so broken, people still find stuff broken with it.

00:10:59.904 --> 00:11:09.794
I remember a couple years ago, they recently found out that if you use Body Slam on a normal Pokemon, it doesn't paralyze it ever because apparently normal types are immune to any status afflictions inflicted by normal attacks.

00:11:10.278 --> 00:11:12.519
And they just barely found that out a couple years ago.

00:11:12.519 --> 00:11:13.022
Ha ha ha

00:11:13.022 --> 00:11:17.471
So, Scarlet and Violet's a joy, comparatively to what those old games were.

00:11:18.066 --> 00:11:23.275
Before we dive into Scarlet and Violet, so if you play a playthrough with, Red, Blue, or Yellow, what 6th Pokemon are you using?

00:11:23.909 --> 00:11:24.490
Charizard.

00:11:24.490 --> 00:11:25.690
Cause, Charizard's the best.

00:11:25.994 --> 00:11:29.230
Dragonite, even though you're gonna have to get it late and go back.

00:11:29.534 --> 00:11:33.918
Alakazam, in Generation 1, was extremely broken.

00:11:34.220 --> 00:11:35.830
Or hypno take your pick of your Psychic..

00:11:35.899 --> 00:11:37.889
I prefer Alakazam as the Psychic.

00:11:38.289 --> 00:11:39.429
I enjoyed Porygon.

00:11:39.529 --> 00:11:41.720
I think it actually is a good Swiss Army Knife.

00:11:42.082 --> 00:11:45.702
And then Snorlax just because I'm Snorlax in real life.

00:11:46.614 --> 00:11:47.543
Right there with you, my friend.

00:11:48.913 --> 00:11:56.083
I'm glad I found a fellow Porygon lover, because I loved to use Porygon back in the day, too, and it's such an easy to miss Pokémon, but I really enjoyed using it, especially in Pokémon Stadium.

00:11:56.288 --> 00:11:57.558
Mm hmm.

00:11:57.558 --> 00:12:01.629
It's interesting because, especially back then, you had the only way to get Porygon was to gamble.

00:12:01.629 --> 00:12:04.979
So it was really one of those things that you just spent hours and hours and hours of grinding.

00:12:04.979 --> 00:12:07.163
So once you got it, you were going to use it.

00:12:07.461 --> 00:12:16.600
Like, that was just a requirement once you spent all that time, and then you start learning, like, what it's moves are, and it's shockingly bulky, even though I didn't know what that meant back then.

00:12:16.931 --> 00:12:18.910
I just knew it took a hit really well.

00:12:19.221 --> 00:12:20.201
So, I enjoyed it a lot.

00:12:20.496 --> 00:12:26.356
I would say if, you know, the ghost type wasn't actually, physically broken in Generation One, Gengar would be amazing.

00:12:26.663 --> 00:12:27.884
But, it doesn't work.

00:12:28.673 --> 00:12:31.004
Before we dive into the Pokemon Go side of things.

00:12:31.183 --> 00:12:36.683
Y'all did an episode on BTW, where y'all exclusively did one episode over Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

00:12:37.344 --> 00:12:46.594
And I really loved that episode because you really kind of dived into it and I wanted to know, like, do you still feel that strong connection with those games, even after the episode aired, like, maybe a year or two ago?

00:12:47.248 --> 00:12:48.028
Oh, absolutely.

00:12:48.028 --> 00:12:52.621
I still think they are, to date, the best version of Pokemon.

00:12:52.942 --> 00:13:05.575
The game itself is broken as can be, but it is still the closest I've come to feeling what Pokemon strives to be which is, here's your thing, you're a 10 year old, go out on an adventure and figure it out because there was no guide to how to get through them.

00:13:05.914 --> 00:13:09.847
There was no, you have to go to this gym, and then go to this gym, and then go to this thing.

00:13:10.168 --> 00:13:14.322
I got absolutely bodied by TeamSTAR's fire.

00:13:14.322 --> 00:13:18.418
the first time cause I was like, oh, I'm right here by it, I've already done this and done the gym.

00:13:18.700 --> 00:13:21.818
Done cloth in the gym, obviously I'm at a high enough level to take this on.

00:13:21.820 --> 00:13:22.279
No.

00:13:23.042 --> 00:13:23.802
No, I was not.

00:13:23.802 --> 00:13:28.312
I think I was like level 14 and they're dropping out level 20 things on me.

00:13:28.312 --> 00:13:30.422
And I'm like, Oh, I am not prepared for this.

00:13:30.561 --> 00:13:35.301
But then I went across the mat after, you know, getting prepared for it and doing it cause I'm stubborn.

00:13:35.586 --> 00:13:38.657
I make it over to the dark one and I'm like, these are level 10.

00:13:38.697 --> 00:13:40.697
Oh, I was supposed to come here first.

00:13:40.995 --> 00:13:43.995
Maybe one day we'll have proper level scaling in these games?

00:13:44.195 --> 00:13:44.745
Maybe?

00:13:45.056 --> 00:13:48.895
But not only that, the story, look, it's been almost two years.

00:13:49.198 --> 00:13:50.359
I'm going to give some spoilers.

00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:51.369
I'm sorry, y'all.

00:13:51.678 --> 00:13:52.509
You've had enough time.

00:13:52.658 --> 00:13:53.198
enough time.

00:13:53.509 --> 00:14:04.642
The story, especially once you quote unquote post game with Area Zero and Arvin's dad and or mom, I literally was bawling like, it actually hit an emotional place in my life.

00:14:04.946 --> 00:14:06.966
And when was the last time a Pokemon game did that?

00:14:07.267 --> 00:14:13.831
if you go back and look at, for example, Sword and Shield, it had the most shallow, uninteresting story in the world that was so predictable.

00:14:14.091 --> 00:14:19.611
Oh look, Rose is the bad guy, and oh, he wants to save the world by killing?

00:14:19.918 --> 00:14:40.094
That's so stupid! Versus in Scarlet and violet, you had this actual depth story of Arvin resenting his mom or dad, depending upon which version you play, because they haven't been there for him, to come and find out that they're trapped either in the past or the future, and they couldn't come back to him, and like, it was just this very emotional, relatable, and then you add on the stories of Team S.

00:14:40.094 --> 00:14:40.173
T.

00:14:40.173 --> 00:14:40.254
A.

00:14:40.254 --> 00:14:40.333
R.

00:14:40.333 --> 00:14:41.244
S., the bully thing.

00:14:41.624 --> 00:14:46.469
We've all been there, done that in our, especially as nerds, we've all been bullied at one point in our life.

00:14:46.784 --> 00:14:52.914
And then you add in trying to be the very best, you know, Nimona was definitely the least interesting of the characters.

00:14:53.225 --> 00:14:54.794
But it was still the classic story.

00:14:55.081 --> 00:14:56.121
I want to be the best.

00:14:56.121 --> 00:14:56.812
I need to battle.

00:14:56.812 --> 00:14:58.312
I need to be the best trainer.

00:14:58.312 --> 00:15:02.519
So you had all of these intertwined stories that really flushed itself out pretty well.

00:15:02.825 --> 00:15:05.615
And now with the DLC, we're expanding on those stories.

00:15:05.615 --> 00:15:08.924
And the DLCs are linking together versus being two separate DLCs now.

00:15:08.934 --> 00:15:09.934
Which I'm loving.

00:15:10.230 --> 00:15:13.615
I just think they, were the best version of a game we've got to date.

00:15:14.259 --> 00:15:17.491
You touched on something interesting, cause I think what you touch on is the why.

00:15:17.782 --> 00:15:19.491
Cause, what makes a good story is the why.

00:15:19.491 --> 00:15:24.048
You want to be able to Understand like why people do things and I agree with you in regards to Scott and Violet.

00:15:24.307 --> 00:15:29.739
Chairman Rose, I actually loved the guy, I was kind of sad like oh great he went heel on us and became a bad guy.

00:15:29.739 --> 00:15:30.548
I was like why?

00:15:30.568 --> 00:15:34.119
Like I actually liked him more as a good guy to be honest because he just seemed more genuine.

00:15:34.486 --> 00:15:37.067
For Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, specifically what we're talking about.

00:15:37.067 --> 00:15:39.903
I understood why Team Star did what they did.

00:15:40.248 --> 00:15:41.687
Yeah, it's like you started out hating them.

00:15:41.687 --> 00:15:46.427
You're like, oh god, it's just another bad guy team, obviously their motivations are gonna be stupid.

00:15:46.725 --> 00:15:54.442
And then you're like, oh crap, as you start beating each of the little stories, you're like, oh, oh, I do hate the twist that, that Penny was the big boss.

00:15:54.442 --> 00:15:56.202
I'm like, that was a little predictable.

00:15:56.317 --> 00:15:57.317
Pretty obvious, yeah.

00:15:57.462 --> 00:16:00.352
but it still fit, it still, the entire story flowed.

00:16:00.645 --> 00:16:06.428
Minus when you don't look for gaps, like, hey, how did the entire school forget that this happened five years prior?

00:16:06.428 --> 00:16:10.899
Because that's literally what it is, like, oh yeah, we forgot these kids were bullied five years ago, like, hell!

00:16:10.984 --> 00:16:13.538
they were in our school, yeah! Mm

00:16:13.609 --> 00:16:14.448
did this happen?

00:16:14.756 --> 00:16:18.787
But, minus little things like that, it's still overall a genuinely good story.

00:16:19.100 --> 00:16:24.533
And the Pokemon themselves in it have some of the most bangering designs we've had in a long time.

00:16:24.964 --> 00:16:29.181
And it's not just the, Pokemon that got new evolutions like, Annihilape is awesome.

00:16:29.461 --> 00:16:30.841
Undeniably, Annihilape is awesome.

00:16:31.167 --> 00:16:32.076
But Tinkaton?

00:16:32.456 --> 00:16:33.256
I love Tinkaton.

00:16:33.277 --> 00:16:34.226
It is precious to me.

00:16:34.606 --> 00:16:36.447
I love her so much, I just want to pet her.

00:16:36.986 --> 00:16:38.616
And then something like, even like Flamingo.

00:16:39.094 --> 00:16:42.750
It's one of the simplest designs, but it just hits so well.

00:16:43.053 --> 00:16:48.474
And I feel like a lot of generations in the past, people that's listened to me before know my hate for Vanilluxe.

00:16:49.053 --> 00:16:50.907
It's a damn ice cream cone.

00:16:51.086 --> 00:16:56.596
That's all it is! Do better! And this generation, they did better.

00:16:56.900 --> 00:16:59.681
Even the things that are simple designs, they're simple with a purpose.

00:17:00.244 --> 00:17:03.043
Flamingo's a simple design, but it's a fighting flamingo.

00:17:03.323 --> 00:17:05.614
It's exactly what I expect to see it be.

00:17:05.939 --> 00:17:06.449
I like that.

00:17:06.538 --> 00:17:07.388
It made me happy.

00:17:07.719 --> 00:17:08.669
It's not an ice cream cone.

00:17:09.272 --> 00:17:12.022
So, eventually, you know, you dive into Pokemon Go.

00:17:12.163 --> 00:17:13.663
When did you first start playing that game?

00:17:13.663 --> 00:17:14.333
What was it like?

00:17:14.502 --> 00:17:15.093
Day Warner.

00:17:15.373 --> 00:17:17.333
I jumped in Day 1.

00:17:17.634 --> 00:17:18.929
Almost missed Day 1.

00:17:18.929 --> 00:17:25.548
Literally, I went out to dinner with my wife and she sees a Facebook post from one of our friends from high school and says, Hey, I know you were looking at this game.

00:17:25.628 --> 00:17:26.769
You know it launched, right?

00:17:27.071 --> 00:17:29.582
No, I did not! And I immediately caught a Rattata.

00:17:29.672 --> 00:17:32.912
Like, downloaded it and caught a Rattata immediately as soon as I could.

00:17:33.210 --> 00:17:35.298
That was the first thing I caught that wasn't my starter.

00:17:35.602 --> 00:17:36.852
No, I do not have that Rattata.

00:17:37.001 --> 00:17:38.382
No, I do not have my starter.

00:17:38.571 --> 00:17:40.761
Those were ground into candy many years ago.

00:17:40.761 --> 00:17:43.142
No.

00:17:43.892 --> 00:17:47.071
They were force fed to their brethren to make them more powerful.

00:17:47.467 --> 00:17:47.987
There you go.

00:17:47.987 --> 00:17:51.237
but I was a day wanderer, and I've actually played continuously since launch.

00:17:51.826 --> 00:17:53.507
So, I'm one of those rare people.

00:17:53.507 --> 00:17:57.086
but early on in the days, my play was driven, I was traveling for work.

00:17:57.393 --> 00:18:01.823
I was spending roughly 140, 000 air miles a year on the road.

00:18:02.148 --> 00:18:09.988
So, something like 75 percent of my time was spent in different cities and what better way to get to see a city than to launch Pokemon Go and just have it walk you around the city.

00:18:10.318 --> 00:18:11.128
That's what I did.

00:18:11.128 --> 00:18:16.963
I would be literally in downtown Sacramento, just walking, catching things, and then go, oh crap, it's getting dark, I need to get back to the hotel.

00:18:17.282 --> 00:18:21.115
My favorite one, I went to, I was in L.

00:18:21.155 --> 00:18:23.746
A., I don't remember what part, but I went over to Redondo Beach.

00:18:24.107 --> 00:18:27.778
when I get done walking and realize it's dark, I'm in Long Beach.

00:18:28.066 --> 00:18:29.756
I had to get an Uber back to my car.

00:18:31.256 --> 00:18:32.316
You were that far.

00:18:32.405 --> 00:18:35.566
that far away that I had to get an Uber back to my car.

00:18:36.636 --> 00:18:46.140
And it was literally just walking the sidewalk on the beach, playing Pokemon Go, watching the sunset, enjoying the weather and was just playing and taking pictures and just enjoying the game.

00:18:46.455 --> 00:18:50.465
And then on that early days, pre PVP world, what did we do in this game?

00:18:50.526 --> 00:18:51.125
We raided.

00:18:51.465 --> 00:18:56.102
And Lexington had one of the best raiding communities in the country.

00:18:56.102 --> 00:18:57.731
you cannot make me change my opinion.

00:18:58.036 --> 00:19:03.888
On any given Saturday or Sunday, we would have a raid train of minimal 20, upwards of 60.

00:19:04.189 --> 00:19:04.308
Oh

00:19:04.409 --> 00:19:09.061
Just darting across the city doing raids together, and that was every single weekend.

00:19:09.372 --> 00:19:14.021
And then, of course, the world changed and that's not nearly as popular as it used to be.

00:19:14.368 --> 00:19:18.209
But we still have a good community of a lot of players here, and it's an active community.

00:19:18.521 --> 00:19:26.071
I have to always give Ryan Siegel a huge shout out for, helping us build out that community as well as, Ricky, who was the one that organized all the early day raiding.

00:19:26.375 --> 00:19:29.316
They just did a great job of making sure everyone was included.

00:19:29.624 --> 00:19:36.718
Like, I remember the first time when Rayquaza was shiny, it took me 91 Rayquaza to get my first shiny.

00:19:37.343 --> 00:19:38.982
I did all of those in two days.

00:19:39.298 --> 00:19:41.358
That's how raid crazy we were in this city.

00:19:41.674 --> 00:19:47.839
So, that was my OG gameplay, was going out and exploring cities and then raiding in my local city with my community.

00:19:48.446 --> 00:19:50.336
Where would people go for like, say, a community day?

00:19:50.976 --> 00:19:53.776
there's about three typical places you'll go.

00:19:54.071 --> 00:19:58.886
if you want to be able to car play, which nowadays with my kiddo, I have to do, there's Lexington Cemetery.

00:19:59.188 --> 00:20:04.327
it's great because there's, eight, nine gems, and forty or fifty pokestops.

00:20:04.847 --> 00:20:10.357
It's a historical cemetery, so it's actually, you know, within the confines of the rules of the game, allowed to be what it is.

00:20:10.846 --> 00:20:20.429
And they welcome players they welcome the city, because that's just the general place, like, when it's springtime and the flowers are blooming, that's where the city goes to take pictures like, it's that kind of city meetup spot.

00:20:20.729 --> 00:20:21.648
Then there's a couple parks.

00:20:21.679 --> 00:20:24.527
Of course, you could go, to something like, Lansdowne Park.

00:20:24.819 --> 00:20:25.859
It's a great place to play.

00:20:25.859 --> 00:20:26.980
It has a good walking trail.

00:20:26.990 --> 00:20:28.619
It has a few gyms, a few stops.

00:20:28.916 --> 00:20:29.846
Nice place to go.

00:20:30.017 --> 00:20:34.376
Or somewhere like UK Campus is always a good hot spot to play because it's a college campus.

00:20:34.376 --> 00:20:35.946
College campuses are great for this game.

00:20:36.230 --> 00:20:37.269
Can't go wrong with them, usually.

00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:38.490
Can't go wrong with them usually.

00:20:38.849 --> 00:20:42.279
So those are the typical places that we will go and play.

00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:48.406
Like I said, a lot of my time now is more Lexington Cemetery because I have my kiddo with me, especially when it's winter.

00:20:48.710 --> 00:20:50.099
I ain't getting her out of the car.

00:20:50.210 --> 00:20:51.380
It ain't worth the headache.

00:20:51.676 --> 00:20:56.616
So I'm gonna go slow drive and play, meet up with people there, roll down the windows, Hey, how you doing?

00:20:56.666 --> 00:20:58.126
Have a five minute conversation.

00:20:58.126 --> 00:20:59.707
And then roll the back of the window and be warm.

00:21:00.299 --> 00:21:02.000
Does she play with you when you're driving?

00:21:02.567 --> 00:21:07.644
So, I started her own account And I was letting her play on my dog's account.

00:21:08.709 --> 00:21:09.509
Everyone knows how that

00:21:09.604 --> 00:21:11.213
Your dog's talented, my gosh!

00:21:11.298 --> 00:21:12.388
dog's very talented.

00:21:12.729 --> 00:21:14.209
that's still at level 39.

00:21:14.209 --> 00:21:16.298
And still sitting on that shiny Mew eventually.

00:21:16.398 --> 00:21:17.628
One day, maybe.

00:21:18.028 --> 00:21:19.818
but I decided to go ahead and start her own account.

00:21:20.144 --> 00:21:21.644
She's already level 31.

00:21:21.954 --> 00:21:31.484
She does not know what she's doing, still and I constantly have to keep throwing things away for her and healing up her actual good Pokemon that she keeps trying to fight Team Rocket with that she doesn't know what she's doing.

00:21:31.781 --> 00:21:32.832
But she loves it.

00:21:33.134 --> 00:21:38.355
And more importantly, the excitement of her getting something that she thinks is cute or shiny.

00:21:38.419 --> 00:21:46.693
Like, the absolute vocal screaming that came out of her mouth during Samurott Raid Day and Ice Catchy event.

00:21:46.796 --> 00:21:48.105
made all my gameplay worth it.

00:21:48.336 --> 00:21:49.048
Like, I don't care.

00:21:49.348 --> 00:21:50.739
neither one of those, I got the shinies.

00:21:51.061 --> 00:21:52.798
She did and she was so excited.

00:21:52.798 --> 00:21:54.138
And then she gave me a snover.

00:21:54.435 --> 00:21:58.276
I played that entire event, still had not got a snover and she's like, I got two daddy.

00:21:58.276 --> 00:21:59.236
Do you want one?

00:21:59.548 --> 00:22:00.429
I'm like, you don't have to do that.

00:22:00.429 --> 00:22:01.179
She's like, it's okay.

00:22:01.179 --> 00:22:02.058
I'll give you one.

00:22:02.362 --> 00:22:03.402
I'm like, let's go.

00:22:03.721 --> 00:22:04.241
I'll take it.

00:22:05.527 --> 00:22:06.426
That must warmed your heart.

00:22:06.501 --> 00:22:12.231
Yeah, it warmed my heart and finally gave me my, snover, which will not get evolved because it came from her.

00:22:13.067 --> 00:22:15.916
Oh, that must be also a good, father-daughter kind of bonding moment.

00:22:16.007 --> 00:22:16.517
Yeah, it is.

00:22:16.636 --> 00:22:20.696
It's one of the things we go out and typically play most Saturdays and Sundays together.

00:22:21.430 --> 00:22:25.936
You talked about how earlier it used to be heavy into Raiding, and we're talking about pre PVP obviously.

00:22:26.356 --> 00:22:29.824
What was it about that part of era of Pokemon Go that kept you engaged?

00:22:29.824 --> 00:22:34.859
Because a lot of people who, from my experience who played PVP, they stopped playing But you're one of the few who still stuck with it.

00:22:35.452 --> 00:22:36.103
The community.

00:22:36.452 --> 00:22:40.805
Going out and seeing these people on a weekly basis was the reason I kept doing it.

00:22:41.105 --> 00:22:50.528
when I was traveling, it was easy to stay engaged with the game because I was in a new city, but when I was home What kept me engaged was meeting up with the people that I've got to know throughout this game.

00:22:50.827 --> 00:22:55.298
early on I went down to, oh that's the other park, Thoroughbred Park is another common one here in Lexington.

00:22:55.748 --> 00:23:00.587
I would go down there and literally I would meet people that I now consider very much friends in my life.

00:23:00.900 --> 00:23:03.789
Had no clue who they are, would have never connected with them otherwise.

00:23:04.105 --> 00:23:09.717
But because we had that very large community that grew and was very willing to help each other and Was constantly calling things out.

00:23:09.717 --> 00:23:15.529
It kept me engaged with it, which is the same thing that PvP does really too, is it has built a community.

00:23:15.529 --> 00:23:16.619
It's just a different community.

00:23:16.924 --> 00:23:21.840
I'm also very thankful that the game survived the pandemic because they made the changes.

00:23:22.169 --> 00:23:30.044
the one thing that really kills me is they still don't seem to understand that the online communities we built matter just as much As those in person communities.

00:23:30.263 --> 00:23:35.000
And it kills me because I feel like us as online players have taken the biggest hit from this game now.

00:23:35.300 --> 00:23:37.101
Even bigger than the in person communities.

00:23:37.101 --> 00:23:39.621
And none of them are going to be like they were back pre pandemic.

00:23:39.631 --> 00:23:45.505
The world's just not the same but you have to build both up and you don't have to hurt one to help the other.

00:23:45.795 --> 00:23:51.271
And I think that's the biggest thing that really drives me insane with some of the recent changes they've been making is all it was done was.

00:23:51.303 --> 00:23:59.987
Targeting the online communities of people that, you know, thanks to play events, I've got to meet some of these people in real life and was so excited to do so.

00:24:00.317 --> 00:24:02.067
Pre this, I would have without the online communities.

00:24:02.097 --> 00:24:04.336
I would have never met Astro and Dino and Matthew.

00:24:04.634 --> 00:24:08.733
It was because of the online community that I actually have made these lifelong friends.

00:24:09.337 --> 00:24:12.548
Do you feel like the online community is undervalued in Niantic's eye and

00:24:12.643 --> 00:24:15.173
Oh, it absolutely is absolutely is.

00:24:15.488 --> 00:24:22.449
And it's sad to see, I just don't think they, their company mission keeps them from seeing the value of what is there.

00:24:22.756 --> 00:24:23.296
I get that.

00:24:23.296 --> 00:24:29.106
Companies have visions, but, at the same time, you have to look at where your player base is at and what they're actually doing.

00:24:29.403 --> 00:24:30.344
just a prime example.

00:24:30.344 --> 00:24:34.394
I went to GoFest 2018 and 2019.

00:24:34.394 --> 00:24:37.564
I, for the most part, played by myself those entire two events.

00:24:38.413 --> 00:24:42.423
Still had a good time, but I was in the park with everyone, but I was still mostly by myself.

00:24:42.423 --> 00:24:46.932
I met up with a couple locals here and there, but we were all grinding and trying to go get what we wanted to get.

00:24:46.942 --> 00:24:49.115
It wasn't the community event still to me.

00:24:49.411 --> 00:24:55.932
Flash forward to GO Fest 2023, the BTW crew is traveling together there to do GoFest together.

00:24:56.501 --> 00:24:58.592
We have our listeners meeting up with us.

00:24:58.932 --> 00:25:02.846
We have people that we've never got to see actually playing together for a day.

00:25:03.159 --> 00:25:06.106
And it is still one of my most favorite memories of this game.

00:25:06.423 --> 00:25:10.877
The picture we took in the park with the other podcasters and other just groups of our listeners.

00:25:11.336 --> 00:25:19.342
I look back at that and I just smile because that is what Niantic wants, it wants the in person community, but that was only built because of the relationships we built online.

00:25:19.637 --> 00:25:21.577
And it's not going to be possible for us all to get together.

00:25:21.577 --> 00:25:23.948
People can't afford to travel to New York.

00:25:23.978 --> 00:25:25.498
They can't afford to travel to LA.

00:25:25.821 --> 00:25:29.617
They shouldn't be felt like they're left out of things because they don't have the means to do those.

00:25:29.650 --> 00:25:31.089
Expensive experiences.

00:25:31.715 --> 00:25:34.675
You've been listening to as the Pokeball turns.

00:25:34.992 --> 00:25:36.393
We're going to take a quick break.

00:25:36.690 --> 00:25:37.769
We'll be right back.

00:26:16.935 --> 00:26:22.229
Speaking of the community, you, of course, became known as the admin for one of them, which is the BTWPVP.

00:26:22.229 --> 00:26:24.769
And this is before you even started recording with the guys, right?

00:26:24.798 --> 00:26:25.088
Yeah.

00:26:25.407 --> 00:26:29.798
Before we dive into just how you started recording with them, what made you want to be an admin for the BTW?

00:26:30.647 --> 00:26:35.865
So, originally me and Astro were both in Pokemon Go Radio's Discord, PGR's Discord.

00:26:36.192 --> 00:26:40.721
I repetitively kicked him in the mouth over and over and over in our tournaments.

00:26:41.275 --> 00:26:44.561
And he's like, wouldn't it be cool if a place existed just for battlers?

00:26:45.025 --> 00:26:46.125
I'm like, that would be awesome.

00:26:46.414 --> 00:26:48.875
Months went by, never thought anything else of it.

00:26:49.734 --> 00:26:51.095
And then he sends me a Discord invite.

00:26:51.365 --> 00:26:54.434
He's like, hey, started up the thing, gonna start up the podcast.

00:26:54.714 --> 00:26:55.884
Do you mind helping me out with the Discord?

00:26:55.884 --> 00:26:57.285
You seem to know more about this stuff than I do.

00:26:57.877 --> 00:26:59.428
So he talked to you about the podcast beforehand,

00:26:59.577 --> 00:27:01.137
Yeah, oh yeah, long time.

00:27:01.147 --> 00:27:04.278
When he, that was in that whole like, community of just battlers.

00:27:04.666 --> 00:27:08.913
He mentioned that, I may start a podcast with it, and this and that, and just, we never said another word about it.

00:27:08.913 --> 00:27:12.894
And then, he just hits me up, and he's like, hey, you mind helping me do some Discord stuff?

00:27:13.219 --> 00:27:13.828
Sure, whatever.

00:27:13.828 --> 00:27:14.628
It won't take long.

00:27:14.628 --> 00:27:16.739
This is, never gonna get that big, it's all good.

00:27:16.739 --> 00:27:18.449
It'll be, a small group of us.

00:27:18.449 --> 00:27:19.278
Famous last words.

00:27:19.344 --> 00:27:20.423
famous last words.

00:27:20.733 --> 00:27:22.660
But yeah, so now we're moving forward.

00:27:22.660 --> 00:27:28.253
We're flashing to a point where I am starting to help and, realizing that this community that we're building.

00:27:28.253 --> 00:27:29.554
isn't just PvP anymore.

00:27:29.880 --> 00:27:33.150
Yes, that's what we're focused on, but we have people coming in that want to do raids.

00:27:33.490 --> 00:27:36.750
We have people that come in that want to just talk about Pokemon, that want to hang out.

00:27:37.047 --> 00:27:38.906
And our Discord starts expanding from there.

00:27:39.217 --> 00:27:40.696
And that was really cool to me.

00:27:41.049 --> 00:27:44.880
And then, the kind of way I got into the show part of it.

00:27:45.180 --> 00:27:50.044
they did a couple live shows, and I joined, and was like correcting them via the chat.

00:27:50.145 --> 00:27:51.215
I'm y'all, come on.

00:27:51.236 --> 00:27:52.326
did you not know about this news?

00:27:52.546 --> 00:27:53.175
What about this news?

00:27:53.226 --> 00:27:53.776
That news?

00:27:54.326 --> 00:28:00.598
And then I offered, I was like, hey, look, I want you guys to do the best you can, and I'm willing to do your show notes for you so you don't miss anything.

00:28:00.915 --> 00:28:06.256
So that's how I initially jumped into it and I jokingly all the time would tell them, hey, maybe you should bring me on sometime.

00:28:06.278 --> 00:28:08.138
ha, ha ha, ha, bring me on sometime.

00:28:08.138 --> 00:28:09.338
And just kept joking about it.

00:28:09.669 --> 00:28:15.078
And eventually Dihno had finals, and it was one of the two things that were going to happen.

00:28:15.378 --> 00:28:20.953
they were going to miss their first show, or Astro was going to record by himself, which he didn't necessarily want to do, or they were going to have somebody come in.

00:28:20.953 --> 00:28:21.923
I'm like, sure, I'll hop in.

00:28:22.227 --> 00:28:27.586
And I recorded on, not what I have right now, but on this, the first episode I joined.

00:28:28.001 --> 00:28:28.622
Oh, wow.

00:28:28.632 --> 00:28:29.832
No wonder you sound like a tin can.

00:28:29.967 --> 00:28:30.787
Yeah, exactly.

00:28:30.807 --> 00:28:37.441
So for those that are listening, it's a Plectronics business type headset, which is great for business calls.

00:28:37.471 --> 00:28:39.080
It's great to communicate with.

00:28:39.499 --> 00:28:43.808
It's audio quality is absolute trash when you actually record it at a high level audio.

00:28:44.221 --> 00:28:45.162
didn't think anything of it.

00:28:45.162 --> 00:28:46.571
I was like, oh crap, I sounded so bad.

00:28:46.571 --> 00:28:46.991
I'm sorry.

00:28:46.991 --> 00:28:48.412
He's like, hey, Dino's out another week.

00:28:48.422 --> 00:28:49.622
You mind hopping back in one more time?

00:28:50.135 --> 00:28:52.739
And my wife looks at me and goes, If you're recording on that, you're not.

00:28:53.048 --> 00:28:53.788
Go get a mic.

00:28:54.038 --> 00:28:54.989
She heard it.

00:28:55.098 --> 00:28:57.528
Oh no, I let her listen to how bad the quality was.

00:28:57.598 --> 00:28:58.489
Oh, wow.

00:28:58.528 --> 00:28:59.298
And she's like, no.

00:28:59.778 --> 00:29:00.338
No, you're not.

00:29:00.368 --> 00:29:03.429
She's like, look, if you're going to take time away from me to do something, you're going to do it right.

00:29:03.429 --> 00:29:03.896
Ha!

00:29:03.929 --> 00:29:06.028
Oh, I like that.

00:29:06.288 --> 00:29:07.818
Hey, I like that.

00:29:08.469 --> 00:29:10.546
she went and got me a mic.

00:29:10.862 --> 00:29:16.556
about two weeks went by, I, stepped in and hosted a couple more times, and Astro's messaged me, he's like, Hey, you're one of the hosts of the show now.

00:29:16.868 --> 00:29:17.568
Didn't ask.

00:29:17.689 --> 00:29:18.169
just blow me.

00:29:18.199 --> 00:29:19.058
Hey, you're one of the hosts now,

00:29:19.259 --> 00:29:19.888
You got anointed.

00:29:19.929 --> 00:29:20.308
Yeah.

00:29:20.358 --> 00:29:22.229
Yeah, I'm like, oh, oh, I, I guess.

00:29:22.449 --> 00:29:23.078
Sure.

00:29:23.618 --> 00:29:31.935
And then just when Dino came back, the three of us meshed really, really well and we were, once again, just like when they were getting overwhelmed and weren't able to keep up.

00:29:32.249 --> 00:29:34.699
I eventually got to the point I was getting overwhelmed and not able to keep up.

00:29:34.699 --> 00:29:38.159
And that's when we brought in Matthew to help with the notes and the producing and all that.

00:29:38.159 --> 00:29:40.316
And it's just been a really great synergy.

00:29:40.326 --> 00:29:43.526
And the show's grown astronomically with the four of us at the helm.

00:29:44.125 --> 00:29:45.256
First off, shout out to Mrs.

00:29:45.256 --> 00:29:46.205
Wildcat for giving you a mic.

00:29:46.961 --> 00:29:47.901
You started this whole journey

00:29:47.935 --> 00:29:48.746
the next Christmas.

00:29:49.141 --> 00:29:55.090
Yeah, she, next Christmas she got me the boom stand, and a ring light, and then her dad built me my awesome backdrop.

00:29:55.701 --> 00:29:59.040
Like, and keep in mind, my wife does not like Pokemon at all.

00:29:59.334 --> 00:30:01.423
Does not care for it in any form or fashion.

00:30:01.423 --> 00:30:04.074
And honestly gets a little annoyed with how much I like it.

00:30:04.371 --> 00:30:08.790
But she still invests in me doing this, because she can see how much it means to me.

00:30:09.096 --> 00:30:10.207
That's a great wife.

00:30:10.800 --> 00:30:11.621
That is true.

00:30:11.916 --> 00:30:13.646
you got very lucky finding her

00:30:13.957 --> 00:30:17.307
Oh yeah, yeah, definitely feel like I, like I've only known her since we were ten.

00:30:17.906 --> 00:30:19.116
what does the podcast mean to you?

00:30:19.126 --> 00:30:22.676
Cause you said that she realizes what it means, how much it means to you.

00:30:22.906 --> 00:30:23.977
What does it mean to you

00:30:24.574 --> 00:30:25.354
It's the community.

00:30:25.673 --> 00:30:30.794
Look, I'm a talking head that just says some shit that somebody thinks I'm actually know what I'm talking about.

00:30:30.834 --> 00:30:31.413
I don't know.

00:30:31.717 --> 00:30:42.797
but what it means is it's the people that engage with us, that listen to us because in the end, if it wasn't for our community, we wouldn't be heading on four years of a podcast.

00:30:42.874 --> 00:30:43.656
or no, three years.

00:30:43.936 --> 00:30:44.396
Three, four years.

00:30:44.446 --> 00:30:45.356
I can't remember anymore.

00:30:45.356 --> 00:30:46.116
It all runs together.

00:30:46.116 --> 00:30:48.116
Y'all's what's made this possible.

00:30:48.116 --> 00:30:49.737
The community's what's made it possible.

00:30:50.034 --> 00:30:51.304
And it's what I do it for.

00:30:51.314 --> 00:30:57.923
I do it because I enjoy engaging with the community and having fun and getting to talk about something I, I love and sharing that love with others.

00:30:58.054 --> 00:31:00.773
And then hearing how much they love it as well.

00:31:01.076 --> 00:31:03.386
And all the things that we can do as a group.

00:31:03.991 --> 00:31:07.362
One thing that's interesting about just podcasts, which I'm sure you've heard about is the length of it.

00:31:07.412 --> 00:31:10.182
y'all go two, three hours and that's only increased sometimes.

00:31:10.182 --> 00:31:10.832
Yeah.

00:31:11.142 --> 00:31:11.981
It's not a bad thing.

00:31:12.071 --> 00:31:13.211
I mean, it has its place.

00:31:13.558 --> 00:31:20.669
is it just that y'all are just so passionate about from different directions that makes y'all go that extended time or is that just kind of purposely y'all choose to do that?

00:31:20.864 --> 00:31:23.644
We don't choose, we've had episodes that are an hour and a half before.

00:31:23.941 --> 00:31:25.570
We just get online and talk.

00:31:25.921 --> 00:31:32.824
One thing that you'll, find about our podcast, Matthew does a lot of editing to make us sound good and things, but we don't do multiple takes.

00:31:33.134 --> 00:31:39.294
Very seldom do you hear us do a multiple take, so it's literally us sitting down, four people, four friends, and talking.

00:31:39.596 --> 00:31:42.766
And when we feel like we've covered a subject well enough, we move on.

00:31:43.088 --> 00:31:47.902
we have never time gated ourselves in any form or fashion, or tried to stretch for a time.

00:31:48.201 --> 00:31:57.872
Now we have, more recently, started trying to keep it three hours or less, just because we noticed that if you hit over that three hour mark, the listenership drops off and things of that nature.

00:31:58.172 --> 00:32:03.102
we've modified to what our listeners want and most of our listeners tell us a two to three hour podcast is perfect for them.

00:32:03.405 --> 00:32:08.669
And we have a lot of listeners that, drive for a living, things of that nature, commute back and forth and that's who they spend their drive with.

00:32:08.979 --> 00:32:09.588
And I love that.

00:32:09.598 --> 00:32:10.588
That makes me happy to hear.

00:32:10.892 --> 00:32:16.935
I talked to one of our listeners out of the UK and he'll message me anytime he has a long drive for the week from one side of the country to the other.

00:32:16.935 --> 00:32:18.586
Because that's a long drive in the UK.

00:32:19.481 --> 00:32:21.939
That, hey, can can you try to have a long episode this week?

00:32:21.949 --> 00:32:22.159
Come on.

00:32:22.723 --> 00:32:25.513
It'll be what it'll be, but it's probably a long episode.

00:32:26.911 --> 00:32:35.287
So, no, it's never been something we focused on, but it's almost become one of those things that is a point of pride for us now, that we are the long Pokemon podcast.

00:32:35.336 --> 00:32:37.487
we're the ones that go the distance on the time.

00:32:38.086 --> 00:32:40.957
so, the one thing about y'all's podcast is you're focused on PvP.

00:32:41.076 --> 00:32:44.717
what was it about PvP that engaged you and that wanted you to start that?

00:32:45.001 --> 00:32:51.816
So, it was the next logical step of the game, and it's really what helped me build Online during the pandemic.

00:32:52.105 --> 00:32:55.395
I was not very much into PVP pre pandemic.

00:32:55.905 --> 00:33:03.944
I was starting to do GBL but that walking requirement, when you work from home, isn't great for ya cause you ain't getting that five sets a day in that way.

00:33:04.414 --> 00:33:10.090
So when they dropped that barrier to PVP it just started to really engage me in a new way with the game.

00:33:10.115 --> 00:33:11.685
But I still wasn't very good at it.

00:33:12.006 --> 00:33:20.945
So then I started hopping in to SILF online things, PGR, once again, I can't thank those guys enough for everything, the community they built because it's how I got into the community.

00:33:21.286 --> 00:33:23.486
shout out to Overseer for dragging me in.

00:33:23.486 --> 00:33:24.566
Thank you so much, buddy.

00:33:24.895 --> 00:33:30.207
but, getting into their tournaments, I started learning these people and learning, oh, wait, I'm a little better at this than I thought I was.

00:33:30.207 --> 00:33:31.027
I thought I could be.

00:33:31.332 --> 00:33:32.942
This is just a counting game, for example.

00:33:32.951 --> 00:33:34.531
Or this is, starting to know the typing.

00:33:34.561 --> 00:33:38.632
I know my typings really well because I've played every single frickin generation of Pokemon.

00:33:38.942 --> 00:33:41.221
So, I started realizing I could be halfway decent.

00:33:41.261 --> 00:33:45.311
I'm still no Axan, I'm no Lyles, I'm no Dino for that matter.

00:33:45.627 --> 00:33:47.548
But I can get by well enough.

00:33:47.906 --> 00:33:56.178
So it started getting me to want to be a little better and a little better and a little better and start to learn these more advanced techniques because I realized, PVP in Pokemon GO is deep.

00:33:56.517 --> 00:34:01.167
It's actually a complex system that looks a little suspect and simple on the surface.

00:34:01.814 --> 00:34:07.983
So that's what got me into PvP and then the fact that it gave me something to do with these Pokemon that I normally wouldn't have cared about.

00:34:08.293 --> 00:34:12.923
Like I dabbled in VGC back in black and white, I want to say.

00:34:13.257 --> 00:34:14.898
Black and White or X and Y, I couldn't remember which.

00:34:15.007 --> 00:34:15.987
it was a long time ago.

00:34:16.288 --> 00:34:20.954
And, those were mostly legendaries, mostly pseudo legendaries.

00:34:21.038 --> 00:34:23.038
or those tech pieces that were bulky.

00:34:23.307 --> 00:34:24.898
That's, that was what VGC was.

00:34:25.210 --> 00:34:27.844
Versus PvP and Go, Medicham is good.

00:34:28.148 --> 00:34:31.458
When was the last time you seen someone in VGC ever touch a Medicham?

00:34:31.777 --> 00:34:39.157
So between having Great, Ultra, and Master League, you actually have even more complexity in the fact that different Pokemon could actually be good.

00:34:39.454 --> 00:34:43.668
that just allowed me to get engaged and start to look and go, Oh, look at these things I've caught.

00:34:43.677 --> 00:34:44.608
Now they have a purpose.

00:34:45.177 --> 00:34:49.378
And now instead of just catching something, if it wasn't a Hundo throwing it away.

00:34:49.523 --> 00:34:55.384
Oh, look, this 0 15 15 thing, it isn't good now, but it's one move away, so let's keep it.

00:34:56.150 --> 00:35:05.297
Oh, the old adage, there, there, I, I, I'm sorry, there, there's some of these Pokémon that I'm keeping that are 34 moves away, but I'm gonna tell you they're one move away and keep them anyways, because they're Rank 1s.

00:35:05.297 --> 00:35:08.280
Heh heh heh heh heh.

00:35:08.280 --> 00:35:15.610
So, and literally, I had to expand, I've had to expand my storage several times over because of my addiction to making sure I don't throw away something that could be good one day.

00:35:16.297 --> 00:35:18.527
Do you have a particular Pokémon you hope to be good?

00:35:18.527 --> 00:35:19.737
Or that is one move away?

00:35:20.007 --> 00:35:21.018
That you are saving?

00:35:21.628 --> 00:35:31.280
I love Drifblim and it used to be really good and then it, just the meta changed, new Pokemon got introduced and it got just hammered and believe it or not, Astonish just helped it a little bit.

00:35:31.670 --> 00:35:35.791
It's still not like top core meta, but in some weird off places it can work.

00:35:36.090 --> 00:35:37.838
Just some weird metas that need to be set up?

00:35:38.148 --> 00:35:39.009
So who knows?

00:35:39.009 --> 00:35:42.079
Maybe I'll design a specific one of highlight Drifloom one day.

00:35:42.079 --> 00:35:43.835
Mm hmm.

00:35:43.835 --> 00:35:44.416
Mm

00:35:44.460 --> 00:35:55.987
that, like, that's what I love about your community, because y'all do events, y'all do y'all started doing DCG and VGC, but y'all do Go Nights, and the community's pretty active, like, what is it about what y'all do that keeps them, like, active within y'all's Discord?

00:35:56.559 --> 00:36:13.016
One of the biggest things I said heading into this, I never want to be, those content creators are disengaged from their communities and I get it some of the bigger ones, they're too busy doing the content to be deep ingrained in their community, but you'll see me and Dino are in there talking as much as anybody else in the discord because we just enjoy it.

00:36:13.045 --> 00:36:14.425
We want to be part of that community.

00:36:14.425 --> 00:36:22.485
I think people feed on that when the host and the people they're hearing are actively in that discord talking, it's makes them more likely to talk.

00:36:22.485 --> 00:36:26.186
And then we specifically design things to help people engage in different ways.

00:36:26.911 --> 00:36:29.101
So, we have the rating channels to help that.

00:36:29.101 --> 00:36:33.887
Reyes does a great job of helping us out, making sure people know what to do with raids and everything there.

00:36:34.190 --> 00:36:36.501
And then I like to dabble in meta creation.

00:36:36.813 --> 00:36:43.411
To dabble, and then I started throwing some together, and I've got a little bit more dabbling, and now I have my own copy of PvPoke running on my machine locally.

00:36:43.704 --> 00:36:51.436
So, we started designing metas to, at the time, supplement what was going on with Silph, because, we got to a point where Silph metas were running for two months at a time, people were getting bored.

00:36:51.739 --> 00:36:55.978
So we started doing these, just wonky things in our Discord that was special to us.

00:36:56.313 --> 00:36:59.503
and then, unfortunately, Silph folded, and there was a void there.

00:36:59.672 --> 00:37:06.793
So we started running that, and then, Play kicked off, and we really wanted to focus in on that, because we know that's the next big thing in Pokémon now.

00:37:07.148 --> 00:37:13.677
So we've really kind of adjusted to the changes in the game around PvP to make sure that we keep things fresh for them.

00:37:13.677 --> 00:37:24.534
And that's one of the reasons you mentioned we've started transitioning and doing some VGC and TCG because unfortunately with the place that the game is now, people are getting either burned out or just completely sick of the bullcrap.

00:37:24.833 --> 00:37:25.903
And they're leaving the game.

00:37:25.903 --> 00:37:27.403
But they're not leaving the franchise.

00:37:27.634 --> 00:37:29.003
They're still engaged with Pokemon.

00:37:29.003 --> 00:37:30.393
They're just engaging in different places.

00:37:31.001 --> 00:37:33.891
And as I said, I've always enjoyed the main series games.

00:37:34.871 --> 00:37:36.740
Astro had really got into the card game.

00:37:37.041 --> 00:37:41.090
and it's something, even early days before I was even a host, it was something Astro always said.

00:37:41.110 --> 00:37:44.460
He's like, I want to eventually cover all aspects of the competitive scene.

00:37:44.971 --> 00:37:46.360
Oh wow! So it was a long term plan for you.,

00:37:46.501 --> 00:37:50.418
we've always said it, but we never knew if we were really going to get there.

00:37:50.427 --> 00:37:50.458
Okay.

00:37:50.753 --> 00:37:52.264
So eventually.

00:37:52.293 --> 00:37:59.768
Astro starts getting into TCG really heavily, and I'm starting to dabble back into the VGC space, and I'm seeing other GO players do the same thing.

00:37:59.768 --> 00:38:05.103
We're seeing other people kind of bridge those gaps back and forth across the environments of Pokémon.

00:38:05.423 --> 00:38:06.454
So Astro's like, let's do it.

00:38:06.454 --> 00:38:07.764
Let's jump in and add TCG.

00:38:08.050 --> 00:38:09.851
And we did that for a couple weeks, and I'm like, you know what?

00:38:09.860 --> 00:38:11.320
why not just go ahead and jump into VGC?

00:38:11.320 --> 00:38:15.161
I'm like, I'm still a beginner here, as far as my skill level, but I know more than some do.

00:38:15.684 --> 00:38:30.673
we really have focused on those beginning aspects of those games around TCG and VGC and helping folks get into them and get better at them because in the end, that's what the entire show is about is helping people that truly have a beginner skill set all the way up to the Lyle's Jeffs and the AXN of the world.

00:38:30.989 --> 00:38:32.579
Stay engaged and do something.

00:38:32.619 --> 00:38:35.329
And we're seeing people jump from one side of the game to another.

00:38:35.623 --> 00:38:39.893
And it gives us all something to strive for when Go may be in a place where we're a little upset with it.

00:38:40.201 --> 00:38:42.811
So it was the natural solution, it's where we wanted to go.

00:38:43.117 --> 00:38:45.998
one day, who knows, we may start covering Unite for all we know.

00:38:46.847 --> 00:38:58.432
Uh, we may cover Pokemon Sleep, I mean, competitive Pokemon sleeping, let's go! But yeah, so that's why we started expanding and it's honestly revitalized our show.

00:38:58.432 --> 00:39:00.958
It's revitalized all of our interest in the game.

00:39:01.259 --> 00:39:02.588
I think it's made for more entertaining.

00:39:02.599 --> 00:39:04.298
We've of course had some growing pains.

00:39:04.298 --> 00:39:10.478
We were just jumping initially when we added TCG, we were jumping all over the place and mixing the topics together and viewers gave us feedback.

00:39:10.498 --> 00:39:13.567
Hey, can y'all please not constantly jump everywhere?

00:39:13.875 --> 00:39:16.594
Oh, maybe we, because we got rid of the segments entirely in our show.

00:39:16.818 --> 00:39:25.411
And we're like, oh, maybe we should get rid of segments, but keep segments as in, let's talk about all the Go stuff first, then talk about all the TCG and then all the VGC.

00:39:25.735 --> 00:39:28.126
And one of the things I like that we do, we don't always leave them in that order.

00:39:28.146 --> 00:39:46.460
So as a listener, you can't just get comfortable thinking you're going to hear about Pokemon Go first thing because it gives us a chance to vary things up and have re engagement of our community back, and I'm really happy to see how well our community took to it because it's helped us realize the longer, bigger vision we have as being the true beginner to winner for Pokemon PVP.

00:39:46.831 --> 00:39:49.221
If you notice, there isn't the word GO in our name at all.

00:39:49.449 --> 00:39:49.639
Right.

00:39:49.639 --> 00:39:51.157
It's beginner to winner PVP.

00:39:51.487 --> 00:39:52.146
That's why.

00:39:52.744 --> 00:39:57.184
I heard that this all started from a drunk episode y'all recorded back in New York City.

00:39:57.487 --> 00:39:57.936
Is that true?

00:39:58.237 --> 00:40:01.067
Uh, it started before that, but that kind of helped accelerate it on.

00:40:01.547 --> 00:40:11.260
The City episode, that, that was a Random wildcat thought was we were all sitting at dinner and I look at Matthew and I go, why don't we just record tonight?

00:40:11.340 --> 00:40:17.920
Because our wives are not going to be happy about us wanting to record Monday night after we just spent the entire weekend gone.

00:40:18.224 --> 00:40:19.824
let's just sit down and record tonight.

00:40:20.134 --> 00:40:24.554
And the magic that night of recording happened cannot be recreated.

00:40:25.032 --> 00:40:30.092
Astro and his shots, and having Smiley there, it was just perfect.

00:40:30.242 --> 00:40:31.831
Ordering pizza in the middle of the episode.

00:40:34.242 --> 00:40:38.532
Like, yeah, I was completely sober, just so everyone knows.

00:40:39.331 --> 00:40:40.661
And I was the hungry one still.

00:40:43.411 --> 00:40:50.166
Look, we walked like 23 miles that day like, GoFest New York was no joke distance walking.

00:40:50.487 --> 00:40:53.876
Oh yeah, especially with how big that city was and trying to go every place.

00:40:53.896 --> 00:40:54.947
It was massive.

00:40:55.266 --> 00:40:57.947
definitely liked it better than Chicago Go Fest.

00:40:58.260 --> 00:40:58.740
Really?

00:40:58.740 --> 00:40:58.751
Bye.

00:40:58.751 --> 00:40:58.760
Bye.

00:40:59.070 --> 00:41:13.210
Transportation and things were easier around the city, and I think they've hit the sweet spot with the park slash city experience, because it just adds an overall new dynamic to the game because it's very easy to get bored of walking around that park after three or four hours.

00:41:13.260 --> 00:41:15.081
And then you say, Hey, release the hounds.

00:41:15.081 --> 00:41:15.710
Go to the city.

00:41:15.710 --> 00:41:16.630
It's all here for you.

00:41:16.940 --> 00:41:18.451
It gives you a different thing to do.

00:41:18.451 --> 00:41:21.844
Like, we went to the Nintendo store, which is always a dream of mine to go to.

00:41:21.983 --> 00:41:24.474
Many times I've been to New York, I never got a chance to make it over.

00:41:24.791 --> 00:41:26.791
So, like, we made it a point to go there for me.

00:41:27.097 --> 00:41:27.967
we walked around the city.

00:41:27.967 --> 00:41:31.916
We went to Little Chinatown so we could get Astro his Chinese food that night.

00:41:32.231 --> 00:41:35.271
Like, just having fun around the city with our listeners.

00:41:35.860 --> 00:41:36.880
Perfect weekend.

00:41:37.300 --> 00:41:38.400
Cannot wait for it again.

00:41:38.411 --> 00:41:40.400
Hopefully, I can make it happen again this year.

00:41:40.989 --> 00:41:44.329
So you talked about how y'all transitioned over to doing VGC and TCG.

00:41:44.329 --> 00:41:47.030
You started diving into the VGC side, I think you said, right?

00:41:47.510 --> 00:41:51.449
I specifically dived a little bit more into the VGC, just because one of us had to do it.

00:41:51.659 --> 00:41:55.619
Uh, I had I had a little history in it many moons ago.

00:41:55.943 --> 00:42:00.597
I understood the complexities of the main series a lot more, so it was a natural fit.

00:42:00.817 --> 00:42:10.409
And I was, luckily had some folks in the discord that know it a lot better than I do, like Brian Craziness, Catfish Camaro, Sherwood, that was also willing to help me relearn it because it's been so long.

00:42:10.710 --> 00:42:14.059
So, the fact that, once again, our community helped our own community grow.

00:42:14.353 --> 00:42:15.903
We have literally different members of our Discord.

00:42:15.903 --> 00:42:20.253
It's like, if you need a competitive Pokemon build, let me know and I'll build it and trade it to you because I just enjoy doing that part of it.

00:42:20.563 --> 00:42:26.923
So, now you have other people that weren't ever into VGC, dipping their toe in and realizing, hey, this is kind of cool.

00:42:27.250 --> 00:42:27.969
That's a win for me.

00:42:28.257 --> 00:42:32.286
Because now we can have, we literally every month run three different in Discord tournaments.

00:42:32.840 --> 00:42:35.440
the first Wednesday of every month is our TCG tournament starting.

00:42:35.750 --> 00:42:37.789
The second Wednesday, our GO tournament starts.

00:42:37.889 --> 00:42:39.980
And the third Wednesday, our VGC tournament starts.

00:42:40.570 --> 00:42:46.134
My main goal with that is that TCG and VGC never overlap because they are the most, time consuming of the formats.

00:42:47.085 --> 00:42:51.485
What has been the biggest adjustment or challenge for you to dive back into the VGC side compared Go?

00:42:52.168 --> 00:42:53.639
relearning the meta.

00:42:53.958 --> 00:42:57.523
I know the Go meta pretty well now, because I've been in it for years.

00:42:57.820 --> 00:43:08.766
I've been out of the VGC meta for years, so, the good news is, with all the regionals and things, and coverage, and the fact that Pokemon in general has significantly more coverage now than they did back in the black and white days.

00:43:09.126 --> 00:43:16.403
It's easier to pick that back up and start jumping back into it because now you can watch those high level players on a very regular basis and you're not having to go find them.

00:43:17.059 --> 00:43:22.789
So now it just, the accessibility is there and I think that's what's helping a lot of people be more willing to jump into it.

00:43:23.382 --> 00:43:32.202
I guess it makes more people more comfortable to see like, oh, this is what I have to breed or this is what I have to find, especially with the easy addition to breeding and getting IVs and EVs.

00:43:32.202 --> 00:43:34.101
It's a way lot easier compared to when you played.

00:43:34.112 --> 00:43:37.442
And that's the other reason I was willing to jump back into it is they made it easier.

00:43:37.762 --> 00:43:38.641
that is the biggest thing.

00:43:38.641 --> 00:43:47.778
And I think the biggest barrier to entry in Go right now is, if you really want to get to competitive in Go, the barrier to entry is extremely high.

00:43:48.079 --> 00:43:50.278
You have to have hundreds of thousands of Stardust.

00:43:50.349 --> 00:43:52.559
You have to have hundreds of XL Candies.

00:43:52.855 --> 00:43:55.784
That's really hard for the casual player.

00:43:56.083 --> 00:44:00.983
I think that's one place where I would love to see Niantic make things a little bit easier to get into it.

00:44:00.994 --> 00:44:02.994
And I know they have with the regional events.

00:44:03.313 --> 00:44:08.063
Now, instead of having, like, elemental monkeys were the big featured thing at all the regional events.

00:44:08.063 --> 00:44:09.273
You could get any elemental monkey.

00:44:09.579 --> 00:44:11.179
Us PvPers don't care about that.

00:44:11.483 --> 00:44:13.304
We could care less about your elemental monkey.

00:44:13.610 --> 00:44:14.909
But you know what we do care about?

00:44:15.210 --> 00:44:15.989
Swampert.

00:44:16.304 --> 00:44:17.134
Sandshrew.

00:44:17.364 --> 00:44:18.264
Medicham.

00:44:18.364 --> 00:44:18.963
Carbink.

00:44:19.503 --> 00:44:20.554
So you know what they did now?

00:44:20.554 --> 00:44:21.494
at Pokemon events?

00:44:21.963 --> 00:44:23.054
Those things spawn.

00:44:23.369 --> 00:44:28.639
If you go to a regional or an IC, that's what's spawning, is the things that you need to compete competitively.

00:44:28.947 --> 00:44:34.739
So now if you are mildly interested in one of those things, go attend a regional and watch, and catch what you need.

00:44:35.047 --> 00:44:38.936
But better yet, let me tell you, unless that regional cap is met, just go ahead and play.

00:44:39.233 --> 00:44:42.324
don't waste time just being a spectator because you're going to learn something.

00:44:42.623 --> 00:44:49.724
And I will say 90 percent of the people that's going to be across from you, is going to be polite, and even willing to help teach you something after the match is over.

00:44:49.884 --> 00:44:52.313
that's the other big thing about those regional events.

00:44:52.333 --> 00:44:54.094
The reason I say, just jump in and play.

00:44:54.134 --> 00:44:58.266
Even if you go 0 2, You're gonna have fun doing it, and you're gonna learn something.

00:44:58.574 --> 00:45:04.047
My first IC, I went O2 and got Powered Gem by a Sableye that I didn't realize was non purified.

00:45:04.349 --> 00:45:10.400
Even though I had a paper in front of me telling it was non purified and it was on my screen, just so much amped up energy and going on.

00:45:10.719 --> 00:45:11.409
It happens.

00:45:11.710 --> 00:45:14.530
But I learned, and the next regional I went to, I was top 17.

00:45:15.119 --> 00:45:19.260
So when are we going to maybe see a BTW person become a finalist, maybe?

00:45:19.403 --> 00:45:20.054
We have.

00:45:20.483 --> 00:45:22.853
Oh, that's cause like we have Lyle! ha

00:45:23.003 --> 00:45:23.454
Jeff has

00:45:23.753 --> 00:45:24.173
ha.

00:45:24.704 --> 00:45:26.923
I think Dino has a really good chance.

00:45:27.653 --> 00:45:28.893
It's gonna be Dino when it is.

00:45:29.280 --> 00:45:33.400
I know I'm not that level of competitor and I don't get to go to enough of these to do it.

00:45:33.697 --> 00:45:34.646
Hey, you never know.

00:45:34.976 --> 00:45:37.442
But hey, I was shocked I went top 17.

00:45:37.461 --> 00:45:41.215
I was literally one bubble from being top 16 at Fort Wayne.

00:45:41.528 --> 00:45:45.239
Like literally if I would have touched one More bubble on my rock slide.

00:45:45.239 --> 00:45:47.572
I would have beat Onion Frank and made top 16.

00:45:47.822 --> 00:45:49.612
You're one bubble away from becoming Ash Ketchum.

00:45:50.112 --> 00:45:50.391
Yeah.

00:45:50.442 --> 00:46:03.614
Yeah, so Anyone could go on that insane weekend that insane run at any time I do think Dino's the most likely because he's putting in the time But of course we have other people that's part of the BTW family like Lyle's Like, Buckeye, Fitzy.

00:46:03.914 --> 00:46:09.063
These are all part of our family that we claim them as BTW and we're very happy to, that they're part of our family.

00:46:09.403 --> 00:46:14.393
I will say, watch out this season, you may start seeing some BTW logos on stream even,

00:46:14.731 --> 00:46:15.862
Ooh,

00:46:16.197 --> 00:46:16.757
now.

00:46:17.079 --> 00:46:19.119
We approve for stream, we official.

00:46:19.719 --> 00:46:21.568
Well, Wildcat, You've been a wonderful guest.

00:46:22.193 --> 00:46:24.914
I do have one last question before we close this taco stand for the day.

00:46:25.143 --> 00:46:28.103
Or, no, we'll talk biscuits and gravy before we close this biscuits and gravy stand.

00:46:28.400 --> 00:46:36.119
You think about how BTW has grown over the three years, and I know you weren't one of the initial ones, but you've seen it grown as an admin and then becoming a podcaster.

00:46:36.440 --> 00:46:42.500
What does it mean to have this type of family, this type of engagement with the community, and it continues to grow and make an impact within the PVP scene?

00:46:43.103 --> 00:46:44.184
It means everything.

00:46:44.489 --> 00:46:47.449
it, it has helped me tremendously personally.

00:46:47.670 --> 00:46:54.264
It has given me more confidence and made me realize that I can be more genuinely who I am and people somehow like it.

00:46:54.474 --> 00:46:59.045
I don't know what's wrong with their ears that they want to listen to me talk for three hours, but they do.

00:46:59.344 --> 00:47:01.554
And that positive feedback has been absolutely amazing.

00:47:01.554 --> 00:47:08.005
And then to see the growth of the community and see people that have literally made friendships that are true and want to be lifelong.

00:47:08.318 --> 00:47:10.431
And that we've been able to help each other out when we're down.

00:47:10.739 --> 00:47:20.246
You know, we've had people in our families, or our Discord that's went through stuff and seeing the Discord rally around them and give them that place of outlet to not be by themselves means the world to me.

00:47:20.579 --> 00:47:24.190
it sounds cheesy as can be and it's the answer that, you know, Oh, they're just being phony.

00:47:24.190 --> 00:47:27.239
They're, you know, community, the community is why we keep doing it.

00:47:27.250 --> 00:47:29.130
It's why we're engaged.

00:47:29.369 --> 00:47:31.289
It's why we've made it as far as we have.

00:47:31.510 --> 00:47:34.099
Without our community, we pack up shop and leave tomorrow.

00:47:34.702 --> 00:47:36.492
Wildcat, thank you for coming on the show.

00:47:36.822 --> 00:47:37.961
It's been wonderful having you.

00:47:38.121 --> 00:47:42.322
Before you do go, if people want to check out your content, if they want to get connected with you, where can they go?

00:47:42.322 --> 00:47:43.672
By all means, please plug away.

00:47:44.086 --> 00:47:44.226
Yeah.

00:47:44.277 --> 00:47:47.217
best place to get ahold of any of us, btwpvp.

00:47:47.217 --> 00:47:48.817
com, our official website.

00:47:49.237 --> 00:47:54.186
we're on Twitter, BTWPVP podcast, Twitch, beginner to winner PVP.

00:47:54.507 --> 00:47:58.896
If you want to see a Twitch account that is never used, go follow WildcatDad17.

00:47:59.347 --> 00:48:00.947
I post once every six months.

00:48:01.456 --> 00:48:07.016
the only reason I have it is Siegel threatened to take my name and run it into the ground if I didn't get a Twitter account.

00:48:07.309 --> 00:48:07.978
Oh, wow.

00:48:08.246 --> 00:48:09.527
That's the reason I have a Twitter.

00:48:10.277 --> 00:48:10.806
No pressure.

00:48:11.427 --> 00:48:12.697
it was from a price of love.

00:48:12.697 --> 00:48:17.597
I know he was doing it to help my, me out because he knew I would never get a, well, I'm sorry, an X account.

00:48:17.677 --> 00:48:22.344
Otherwise And I wouldn't have, Hey, I still, I'm not very engaged on that.

00:48:22.344 --> 00:48:24.235
So if you need me, you can DM me there.

00:48:24.235 --> 00:48:25.405
You can always find me on discord.

00:48:25.755 --> 00:48:28.195
I am literally wildcatdad17 on all platforms.

00:48:28.195 --> 00:48:29.295
It's easy to find me.

00:48:29.996 --> 00:48:30.775
Cool beans.

00:48:30.936 --> 00:48:34.635
And I'll make sure to include links to everything he said in the description of today's episode.

00:48:34.956 --> 00:48:36.545
And I'm as the Pokeball turns.

00:48:36.835 --> 00:48:38.295
I'm WildcatDad17.

00:48:38.534 --> 00:48:41.014
So next time, good luck and get good.

00:49:13.684 --> 00:49:15.764
I don't know why y'all slogan tricked me up so much.

00:49:15.764 --> 00:49:19.394
It just seems like such a number of people has had issues with it.

00:49:19.864 --> 00:49:22.664
When they came on, it's becoming a running joke at this point.

00:49:23.175 --> 00:49:23.795
I really, yeah.

00:49:24.385 --> 00:49:25.175
Oh my gosh.

00:49:25.525 --> 00:49:27.425
I don't know if you heard the episode, when Laia was on?

00:49:27.608 --> 00:49:32.217
and he just absolutely destroyed it.

00:49:32.219 --> 00:49:35.068
Just didn't, just stumbled over every other word of it.

00:49:35.159 --> 00:49:37.938
I'm like, this, this is what we come for.

00:49:37.949 --> 00:49:37.969
So

00:49:38.360 --> 00:49:41.791
Now here's a sneak peek for the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.