"Crunch Time For Sharpedo" ft. Unova Region Champion Black | TRAINER'S EYE #169 - As The Pokeball Turns

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unova Regional Champion Blac (00:00):
my name is Sharpie, the owner of

(00:01):
Unova Region Champion Black, andthis is my Pokemon story.

David Hernandez (00:43):
Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns, where every
voice, every journey, and everymemory brings us closer to the
world of Pokemon.
David Hernandez and I'm joinedby Sharpie, the owner of the
Unova Region Champion BlackFacebook page.
Sharpie, welcome to As ThePokeball Turns.

Unova Regional Champion Bl (01:01):
Hey, thanks for having me.

Absolutely Sharpie.
And you know, to have, I guess,a Facebook owner page'cause a
lot of people feel likeFacebook's kind of dead or it's
kind of the thing of the past.
before we dive into anything, Iwant to guess give some insight
to what is the Unova RegionChampion Black Facebook page.
Like, what is it about?

Unova Regional Champi (01:19):
Honestly.
So So, I wanna preface by sayingthis, originally, this was not
my Facebook page.
case.
my original Facebook page wasthe Real Rival Silver, which
the, that page is not upanymore.
The backup page is still active.
It's still, it's not active, butit's up.
But the original page, got takendown by Facebook in 2014, But.

(01:42):
My friend Happened to have,Unova Region Champion Black.
He started this page about twomonths after I started my
original one and we becamefriends because at that time the
Facebook community was reallypopping and everybody had the
Facebook pages and it was justlike you had the super popular
ones and he had the kind ofpopular ones and then he had the
ones that were trying to grow.

(02:03):
a lot of times you saw pageadmins on multiple different
pages and that was just kind oflike the thing.
So he was in the admin on myoriginal page, I was the admin
on his page and Unova RegionChampion Black at most I think
had eight page admins on it.
And just over time, throughoutlife or whatever the page pretty

(02:24):
much got down to one admin andit's been just me for Probably
since 2017 and I took time offof the page just because I had a
lot of life going on betweenlike 2017 and 2019.
I hate to say that like I letthe page die.
I just, I didn't delete it, butI just, I let it die.
I just, I couldn't focus on itat all.

(02:44):
And then 20 19, 20 20, I kind ofstarted picking back up.
I wanna see if I can rebuildthis page and, you know, just
make it feel more like me sinceI'm the only one here anyways.
And I needed a hobby to kind ofget myself away from just real
life.
And then I started posting, I'donly post like a couple of times
a day and then I would startposting more often.

(03:05):
And then COVID happened and Ididn't really have anything else
to do but post, so I startedposting more often so it went
from maybe two or three times aday to like five or six times a
day.
And as of the last three years.
I've been posting probably nineto 10 times a day every day for
the last three years straight

Oh my God.
That's some dedication.

Unova Regional Champion Bla (03:28):
is, and I don't really know how I've
kept it up like

gonna ask like how.

and before they let us actually
schedule posts, I was actuallygoing in manually every two
hours.
It didn't matter if I was atwork, it didn't matter if I was
at church or out, you know, onthe street, or if I was just
playing games with family, Iwould stop what I'm doing or you
know, I could be out at dinnerand if I know that timeframe has
passed, I'm going and I postedsomething else.

(03:57):
And it's at the point now whereeven though I can schedule
posts, I don't do it becauseit's now wired in my brain that
every two hours I have to checkmy phone.

so you're like almost attached to your phone.
You have to make sure that it'skind of there anyway.

Unova Regional Champion B (04:11):
Yeah, I try to tell myself, okay, I
need to break.
I need to break myself outtathis habit.
I need to get back to schedulingposts.
And I'll schedule posts for likea week and then after and, and
I'll still go back every twohours.
Like, did I schedule that theright way?
'cause sometimes I'll scheduleit for the wrong time or for the
wrong day, and I have to go backand fix it or go and post
something else and leave thatfor another day.

(04:31):
And then I get frustratedbecause now I've messed up my
routine.
But it's been a while.
Three years.
Last year for me was an insaneyear for me for growth because I
started at around 33,000followers, and I ended the year,
I believe at 133,000 followers.
That's just in that one year.

(04:52):
Whereas I spent the last, 10years before that, trying to
build this page up in one year.
I tripled, you know, my followerbase.
And I still don't know whathappened because I, I haven't
replicated it.
I'm not on that same trend thisyear, which is fine, but I don't
know I what happened last yearfor me to get to the point that
I'm at now.

Now you mentioned how you took a break
initially.
You took about two page.
Two years.
I'm

Unova Regional Champion (05:15):
Mm-hmm.

about two years to kind of take a break at,
after 2017, what inspired you towant to come back to this page?
'cause it could have been easyjust to forget about it and just
be like, it's over.
That's the end of the chapter.
But you decided to come backspecifically for this page and
continue it on its legacy.
What made you want to come back?

honestly, I was dealing with a lot of.
trauma, a lot of bad things thatwere just like kind of going on
in my life at the time And eventhough I spent I guess a
somewhat decent amount of timeon Facebook and even on other
social media platforms, I just,I always kept coming back to
Facebook and every now and thenI would see, you know, one of

(05:53):
the pages that was like, backwhen all the pages were booming,
one of the pages that were stillactive, they would post
something and I'm like.
I kind of miss, you know, thatold page community, you know, I
wish we could, you know, buildthat back up and then I would
see a couple of pages that werenewer, but they were active and
I was like, oh.
So, you know, there are stillactive, Pokemon fan pages that

(06:15):
are out there.
I still have this one and I kindof just kind of use it as a
gauge to see if this community,if my community is active, even
though I've been gone for solong, then I'll keep going.
But if I can't, get thatactivity back up, then I'll kind
of just let it go.
You know, at least be try, I'lldo something else, or I'll focus
on myself and the other socialmedia platforms that I'm on and

(06:39):
work on their growth there.
we had a couple of posts thatdid pretty well and I was like,
okay, this isn't, you know, it'snot too bad.
I can probably build on this.
I didn't know how, but I wasjust going to keep trying until
I got somewhere and then I gotsomewhere.

what felt different, I guess, about
engaging the community at thatpoint, you know, compared to
before 2017 to even afterwards.
Was there a difference or was itkind of more the same?

It's a huge difference.
some of the people that Irecognize coming back, like one
thing I like about Facebook isit's easy to tell who's been
around for a while and who'srelatively new because I still
see names that I saw back in,you know, 2013 that, you know, I
saw it come back to the pagewhen I came back in 2019.

(07:24):
And I was like, wow, you've beenfollowing for a long time.
And you know, you don't realizethat those names are kind of
like stuck in your head untilyou see them again.
And like, okay, hey, I rememberyou, or I think I remember you.
but the community back then itwas a lot more active.
like we had a lot of pages thatwere doing collabs together and
doing all kinds of communityevents.

(07:46):
And we would set up Facebookgroups where we could, you know,
combine our fan bases and wemight have Pokemon tournaments
or, you know, really biggiveaways or, you know, just in
general having fun.
And nowadays, even though it'sstarting to build back up again
up with like a new crop oftalent, new crop of pages, it
still doesn't feel as.

(08:08):
Lively as it used to.
I personally have been trying toget a lot of different Pokemon
pages from different walks oflife to mesh their communities
together again.
And you know, there's alwaysgonna be a couple outliers, you
know, people that kind of justwant to, you know, do their own
thing and that's fine.
Like, you know, I support yougrowing your community.

(08:30):
'cause at the end of the day,we're all here for Pokemon.
But I kind of, I don't wannasay, I feel this is probably the
only nostalgic thing aboutPokemon for me that really kind
of gets me is I do miss the waythe community used to be
compared to how it is now.
But at the same time, I enjoythe fact that the community is

(08:52):
building itself anew.

could you get some insight on that?
Like, do you mean the different,same based on the Facebook side
or overall?

Unova Regional Champion Black (08:58):
I would say primarily on the
Facebook side, the overallsocial media platform of Pokemon
has just grown in general withPokemon Go and with the
competitive scene growing to thepoint where it's, even if you
don't necessarily playcompetitive, you know, certain
people, you know, within thecompetitive realm of Pokemon or
if you're a shiny hunter or ifyou're this, people know these

(09:21):
names more and I feel like we'realmost in like a renaissance
period for Pokemon as a whole,but to dwindling down to
Facebook, it's a little bit ofthe same, like, kind of like a,
a lesser renaissance type feel.
And just like specifically forfan pages and One of the things

(09:41):
that I noticed when I first cameback is that we had fan pages,
but they didn't really interactwith their fan base, with their
fan base.
And one of the things thathelped my page take off and the
original, well I'll say theoriginal, community Days, is
that most of us as fan pageadmins, we were active in

(10:03):
talking with our community.
It wasn't just, okay, we'regonna post something and then
leave it alone.
It was if, you know, if somebodycommented on it, you know, we
responded to the comments andyou know, we would have
conversations and this thing andthat thing.
And coming back.
Initially we didn't really havethat, at least I didn't really
see it no matter you know, whatpage I was on.
I didn't really see peoplecommenting like towards their

(10:25):
fans, like having thoseconversations.
And I was like, well, it justdoesn't feel the same.
but I was gonna keep doing whatI was used to.
I was used to talking to thefans.
So if I brought up, a subject,whether it was something related
to the games or to the anime,and I wanted to have a
conversation, I would postsomething that's a conversation
piece.
on my Facebook page bio, itsays, Hey, you know, I'm

(10:47):
probably gonna argue with you,but like, don't take it
seriously for me.
It's all in good fun.

right.

And I think that a lot of people see
me as like a controversialposter, because I will post my
opinion and I will argue withyou on your opinion and my
opinion.
and I get a lot of mess forthis, and it's, it's fine
because everybody, you know, isentitled to their opinion.
but it's like we have so manypeople that feel so strongly

(11:14):
about things and I'm passionateto see those conversations keep
going and going.
So there are parts of theconversation where even though I
don't agree with yourstandpoint, I agree with parts
of it, but I'm not gonna focuson the parts that I agree with.
I'm going to specifically focuson the parts that I disagree
with for the sake of keeping theconversation going.
Because that increases thatviewership and that brings, you

(11:37):
know, more people to thisconversation.
And then more people get totalking.
And not only are they talkingwith me, but now they're talking
with each other.
And then you build, theserelationships, whether they're
good or bad, but you build theserelationships.
Amongst each other and withthem, And it's like, okay,
great.
You know, this conversation,this, this post went well and it

(11:59):
all started because I said thatI like Alola and everybody else
hates Alola, or I agree withDExT.
And everybody's like, Dex, itwas a bad idea.
They lied.
Game freak lied, you know?
And I'm just like, I carebecause everybody playing
Pokemon should be happy.
And no, you can't really pleaseeverybody, but there are things

(12:21):
that you can avoid and thingsyou can't avoid.
And I feel like everybodydeserves the right to not just
express their opinion, buteverybody deserves the right to
have fun if they want to.
the only time you'll see mereally get serious with a
Pokemon conversation is if I seeother people trying, trying to
dwindle people's ability to havefun.

I think it's a shift at some point.
I don't know when, but somepoint I think people who were,
I'll say creators, whether it bethe Facebook, I.
Or any kind of media became moreonlookers instead of being
involved within the community.
You know, I remember growing up,a lot of the people I watched,
they were also involved, likeyou were talking about.

(13:03):
They would lead discussions,they would lead talks, some of
them against some verycontroversial subjects, let's be
honest.
yes, they would get their flagfor it, but they would also open
up a conversation to otherpeople's minds out or open other
open people's minds, but also beable to lead dialogue.
And you don't see that much,much anymore.

(13:25):
You get people who to avoid thecontroversial side, who maybe
avoid like the negativity, whichI get it.
You know, you wanna protect yourmental health, but at the same
time there's that conversation'sstill gonna happen whether you
engage with it or

Mm-hmm.

And if you don't engage with it, well what
does that lead you to?
Right?
You lead to maybe people gettingideas that maybe aren't the
best, not just for Pokemon, butmaybe overall at least that's
what do you think?
That's my thought.

I agree.
I, I feel like people are, I.
I don't wanna say afraid, butpeople are more concerned with
protecting their image or theirbrand than to really talk about,
the hard hitting subjects or tohave those conversations about,
you know, the hard hittingsubjects or, the way things are,
not just with the people thatmake Pokemon, but the people

(14:14):
that play Pokemon, the peoplethat talk about it, like social
media doesn't seem to be, youknow, where it used to be, where
we could, you know,unapologetically have these
conversations without worryingabout offending a bunch of
people or getting canceled or,you know, whatever it is.
And for me that's just not fun.
It doesn't, for me promote.
Growth within the community towhere everybody's, voice can be

(14:37):
heard.
Like your opinion as a, as acontent creator, your opinion
matters too.
And to be so worried about thebacklash from whatever it is
that you might have to say isunfortunate.
Because while I understand that,you have an image to protect or
you've got, you know, so and sosponsoring you I understand that

(14:58):
point of view, but to limityourself in this, in such a
conversation that's so vast, Ijust, I feel it's unfortunate to
see people not be willing to.
Step out and say something andnot just like yell and, okay,
you know, these people areyelling or these guys are bad,
or they could, you know, dobetter.
Not just to be, you know,antagonistic, but just to talk,

(15:22):
to have the debates, theconversations, for me, I wanna
bring that back in any way thatI can.
I don't want people, peopleshouldn't have to be afraid to
speak their mind correctly.
Of course.

I want to dive into your experience with
Pokemon.
Let's get people an idea oflike, who's the Pokemon side of
your page.
what's your experience withPokemon?
Where does this all start?

Pokemon for me started, pretty much at
the very beginning.
it hit the states, at that timeI was only like four years old.
And to me it was really just theTV show, like it, it was just
the anime.
And I loved the anime.
And then, my mom and my dad,when we found out, when they
found out about the games, theygot me to Pokemon games and they

(16:01):
didn't think anything of it, youknow, it's, a kid with cute
creatures and they're, you know,they're going on adventures and
stuff like that, so you don'tthink anything about that as a
parent, And it was almost avery, very short lived career
for folk, for me as a Pokemonfan, because both of my parents
were very religious.
And when it started coming outabout the whole pocket monsters

(16:23):
things and demons and thisthing, they took like everything
from me.
Like my game boys were gone, myPokemon games were gone.
All my Pokemon bedsheets werelike gone and thrown away.
And it was, it was jarring forme to lose this thing that like
I had, you know, very quicklybecome super attached to because
of, what people were sayingabout it.

(16:45):
And I wasn't really old enoughto say, Hey, but that's not, you
know, that's not what'shappening.
We're not being, you know,manipulated or hypnotized and,
you know, all this other stuff.
But, you know, I was, I was alittle kid, so I didn't really
get it.
My grandfather pretty much isthe reason that I like, was able
to stay into it because he wouldgo, he went and he bought me a
second game boy and anotherPokemon game.

(17:07):
But he kept it at his house.
So whenever, like when I got thechance to play, like whenever I
gotta go over to his, to hishouse, I would've played.
And I was just playing Pokemon.
He encouraged and everything.
Like he said, don't worry aboutthem.
I, I got you, you know, justgrandparent things.
And over the years my momrealized that it was not leaving
me like, she could not getPokemon away from me, so she

(17:30):
kind of gave up.
Like, she, she really kind ofgave up and she was just like,
look, as long as you keep yourgrades good, then, you know,
whatever, it's fine.
around 2002, my dad passed awayand getting ready for his
funeral and everything.
I was on my way to mygrandmother's house and We were
out at the store.

(17:51):
It was my, me, my sister, and mymom, my cousin, and my
godbrother, and we were out, youknow, getting things prepared
and everything.
And being in New York, there's,you know, all kinds of stuff
happening everywhere.
There's a bunch of peoplearound.
You can keep up with mostthings, but you can't keep up
with everything.
So some, so all of all of ourstuff was in the trunk of our

(18:12):
car.
Like all of our Christmaspresents, all of our clothes,
all of our, you know, game wasand everything like that.
Were all in the trunk of thecar.
Somebody somehow had popped thetrunk of our car, took all of
our stuff out.
They stole, like stole all ofour stuff and closed it back
without anybody noticing untilwe got to my grandmother's house
and opened the trunk and nothingwas there.

(18:33):
And my heart was shatteredbecause at this point I'd done
lost my father, not, I lost mygame, my Pokemon games for the
second time, and I was like, youknow what?
I quit.
I, I, I can't, you know, I can'tbe a Pokemon fan anymore.
I'm like eight years old, nineyears old.
I was just as heartbroken overmy dad passing as me losing all

(18:54):
my game boy games.
Just got gold and silver and itwas like, gut wrenching for me.
I missed a little bit of thattime.
Fast forward a few years, I wasgetting into a lot of fights at
school.
I didn't have any Pokemon games,but I had a lot of Pokemon
carts.
I.
Me getting into fights atschool.
My mom was not happy.
My mom threw away every Pokemoncard I had ever had from when

(19:15):
they first came out.
So like a lot of the firstedition cards that are like
probably now worth thousands ofdollars all gone, all trash.
And then they were in the trashbag, came home ball in tears.
Sad you threw my Pokemon cardsaway and she let me keep some of
them.
So, you know, I kept out thelittle holographic ones and my
holographic G guards and musesand stuff like that.
And the mute card from themovie.

(19:36):
Like, I kept all that stuff andshe actually made me take a pair
of scissors and cut up everyother card.
So at this point I'm threegenerations in the Pokemon and
I've had three separatetragedies happen to me.
And I got into one more fight atschool.
And them cards that she let mekeep, I no longer could keep'em.
And they were, they were gonelike they were.
And I never saw them again.

(19:56):
And at until this day, I havenot collected Pokemon cards
because of that it was, it wasrough.
Like, so yeah, I, I don't touchPokemon cards anymore.
I still have some that have beenlike given to me or like, you
know, Christmas present,birthday present.
Like, I still have some Pokemoncards, but as far as being a
collector like I was when I wasa kid, never again, gen four was
the same thing that happened tome in gen two.

(20:18):
I had a DS and I had PokemonDiamond.
It was like a month after thegames came out.
And somebody that I thought wasa friend of mine stole my Ds and
stole my Pokemon Diamond game.
At this point, it wasn't like mymom wasn't gonna replace the Ds
like that, that was a wholeconsole.
She wasn't replacing that.
She wasn't replacing the game.

(20:38):
So I missed out on Diamond,Pearl Platinum, har Code Soul,
silver and black and white onebefore I could get another Ds.
And at that point I stoppedwatching the anime.
of course, I couldn't play thegames unless I was like playing
on an emulator.
And for me, I was just done.
I I, I was done with Pokemon forall of Gen four and half of Gen
five.

(20:59):
And I didn't start playing.
I didn't get another DS againuntil I started working.
I got hard gonna soul silver,even though black and white two
were getting ready to come out.
And from then on, now that I'mold enough to get my own games,
that's exactly what I did.
I got my own games, I did all myown stuff.
Nobody was gonna take anythingfrom me.

(21:20):
I was going to enjoy myself.
And this is also around the sametimeframe where I made my
Facebook page, my original one.
I would talk about her gonnasoul silver.
And then I would start talkingabout black and white too.
And now I'm like playing frombehind, having to play all these
games either in per, like,either with the DS cartridge or
on an emulator, trying to keepup with what everybody's talking

(21:40):
about.
cause I had no idea.
And when I finally got myself ina groove of things, then black
and white two came out.
And I was thankfully able to getthat.
And I played it and I played itfor, I don't know, eight or
9,000 hours.
Like, you couldn't take me awayfrom it at all.
It came to work with me.
He went to school with me.
It was on all of my trips.

(22:00):
Everything I did, my Ds was withme.

Did you feel like whenever you started,
getting the games back, did youfeel like you were taking back
something maybe you had lost orwere you kind of starting new,
you felt like you were startingkind of fresh?

Yeah, it was really rough.
I felt like when I was finallyable to come back, I felt like I
was reclaiming my childhood.
Like I knew there were thingsthat I wasn't gonna be like, go
and buy'em back.
Like, I'm not gonna go and buyPokemon pajamas or Pokemon
bedsheets or anything like that.

Hey, why not?
Let's go.
You got your own money.
Let's do

Don't get me wrong now, now that I'm
like in my thirties, yes, I havePokemon pajamas and yes, I have
like, I've got all those things.

okay.

But at that point where I'm in, like
my late teens or early twenties,I knew that I wanted to focus on
the games.
Like gimme all the gamesinformation.
I was starting to get intocompetitive battling.
one of my early competitivebattling dreams was to battle
Shofu And I got a chance to dothat.
it went on YouTube, I got swept.
It wasn't fun, but me battlingShofu was like, at that time,

(22:58):
the highlight of my careerbecause I got the battle.
You know, at that time, youknow, the most famous
competitive Poketuber.
it was like, yo, you got thebattle.
You got the battle Shofu I waslike, yeah, yeah.
I mean, you know, I lost.
But yeah, I got the battle him.
I got battle.
I was, look, I was so happy.
I did not care.
You couldn't tell me anything.

(23:19):
But what sucks about losing toShofu is that, first of all,
obviously he's an amazingbattler, but.
I would've thought that, okay,Darmanitan is gonna beat me, or
Heatran is gonna beat me.
No, no.
If you go on YouTube and youwatch that battle, I lost to
Pikachu like the first few turnsof the battle started off great.
I made one mistake and it justspiraled all the way down to me

(23:40):
losing to Pikachu

Do you think battling him was more about
testing your skill or kind ofbeing seen by somebody you
looked up to?

I would say it was a little bit of
both because I looked up to himand I knew I was still kind of
like a budding competitivebattler, but I knew I wasn't bad
and I figured that if I can.
Have a good showing against him,then I can go and I can, you
know, try and talk to theseother Poketubers and maybe do
some collabs.

(24:06):
Start, you know, see if they canhelp me with my content
creation, because I want to getinto the same field.
like, I want that to kind of belike, I guess my catapult to,

stone.

my,

Stepping

yeah, my stepping stone into content
creation and into competitivebattling.
And he did actually help mequite a bit as far as getting
started goes, it was just at thetime I couldn't really afford to
get all the software.
'cause at that time, you know,it was a DS era, so you had to
go and get your ds modded or youhad to get one of the ace cards
to, record your content, whichat that time I just couldn't

(24:37):
afford it.
Because I was pretty much,running my own household, I was
working full-time, but I wasalso paying for an apartment and
my car and everything like that.
So a lot of my money wasoccupied to where I couldn't
really keep up with it like theycould.
And now you see them, you know,their, you know where they are
at their point of life and I'mnot exactly there, which is

(24:58):
okay.
You know, everybody's, you know,walks of life are different.
Everybody, has thoseopportunities to, do what they
can.
but I did get, you know, theopportunity to battle a couple
of people that were prominent atthat time, like Hayden and Six
Foot Hacks and Yellow S Swallow.
And I battled, Joey Po game onceand I got a couple of wins off a
couple of people, but they'relike written off in history.

(25:20):
I didn't have any way to recordthose battles.
So they're there.
But, I just, I wanted to beseen.
I wanted to be seen by, youknow, I wanted to be noticed.
I wanted to say, you know, Hey,I gave this person a good, you
know, a good experience.
You know, how can I get myselfin the door so that I can do the
same

It's crazy to think that may have never
happened.
Had your grandfather not gaveyou the opportunity to
experience Pokemon at his place,do you think that maybe he saw
some love in Pokemon that madehim wanna protect it for you?
Like what do you think thereason why he wanted you to
experience Pokemon compared towhat you saw from your parents?

honestly, I'm not sure.
I think it's just a differentviewpoint.
like having like super religiousparents and growing up in that
household versus having agrandfather who was a lot more
down to earth and for me, likewhen you see kids like have a
passion for something, generallyspeaking, like you want to
nurture that.
And he was very good at likenurturing the things that I was

(26:15):
passionate about and outside,like even outside of Pokemon for
me, like I was a huge PowerRangers fan.
He went and I had this PowerRangers like CD ROM math game
when I was like learning mathwhile playing as a Power Ranger
at the same time.
And I had my Power RangersHalloween costumes like Power
Rangers and Pokemon were like mytwo fandoms and it was easier to

(26:40):
play Pokemon.
It was easier to get myself intoPokemon.
'cause Power Rangers at thattime was just, a couple of toys
and the TV show.
But Pokemon is something that Icould do, it's a learning
opportunity at that, you know,at that point.
You know, learning to read likelonger sentences and learning
how to problem solve and figurethings out.
And I think people underestimatethe amount of learning and

(27:03):
general motor skills andeverything that you can get as a
kid from playing Pokemon.
And I think that he saw that andhe saw that I was learning how
to do a lot of things just ingeneral from playing Pokemon and
having that passion forsomething that I didn't realize
was gonna be as big as it is forme now, like it was back then.

Now when it came to Pokemon, you know, we
talked on like the first fivegenerations a bit.
Do you have a particularfavorite set of games that you
enjoyed the most?
Out of those first half of thegeneration with Pokemon,

So my favorite generation, I would
say, is generation three, but myfavorite game is Heart Gold Soul
Silver Gen three was just, forme it was just, it was open, it
was in my opinion, like it hadthe coolest set of starters and
it was challenging, like I couldgo, and for me, the memories
that I remember, like the mostcommon with Gen three is the

(27:57):
rival battle with May orBrandon, on the bridge, under
the cycling road.
And I remember losing to May,like I, I couldn't even tell you
how many times in a row before Ifinally got it because I refused
to change Pokemon.
Like I absolutely refused tochange whatever Pokemon I had on
my team.
And I kept losing because Iwouldn't change or I wouldn't

(28:18):
add something to it.
I was just like, oh man, I can'tdo this.
Like, so the first time I beatit, I was just like jumping for
joy.
I was excited.
And then getting through, therest of the game.
The next part I got stuck at wasTate Eliza's gym.
And it just seemed like nomatter what I did, no matter
what Pokemon I put on my team, Icouldn't win.
And here's where my favoritePokemon comes into this.

(28:40):
I went and got a super ride andI caught a sharpedo.
And I took Sharpedo to the gym'cause I was like, look, I don't
even, I, I don't know, you knowwhat else to do.
I know it's a water type and Iknow that water beats three of
her live there for Pokemon.
So I took it and Sharpedo justcleaned up house.
It was like sharpedo andSwampert they just cleaned up
house and I was like, okay, LikeI really like Sharpedo.

(29:03):
Sharpedo pretty much took thewhole gym down by itself.

and that is the, became your favorite
Pokemon at

Yes.
It became my favorite Pokemon atthat point and the rest of the
game it was like, okay, we gotthrough that.
Sharpedo helped me beat Juan andthen Sharpedo helped me in the
Elite four against Phoebe.
it was just like, dang, thisPokemon's really good.
It can't take many hits, but itcan hit really hard.

It's literally a hit and run

It was a hit and run glass can, but
it, when it hits you, it hithard.

Yeah.

And I love that because it was like,
Sharpedo went down.
Let me go ahead and send out myLinoone and use my revival on
Sharpedo.
But when LInoone dies, I cansend Sharpedo back out and get
another kill and might dieagain.
But I've got all these revises,I'm just gonna keep bringing
back Sharpedo.
And that's what it like, that'swhat it was for me.
And, but what really sucked meinto Gen three and specifically
Pokemon Emerald was the battlefrontier.

(29:53):
The battle frontier, to this dayis still like the hardest thing
ever.
I've still never collected allseven gold badges because I
refuse to try the Battlepyramid, the Gold Battle Pyramid
Challenge.
It's just, it looks like it'stoo hard because silver was too
hard.
I'm not doing gold, butSharpedo, I think I had
sharpedo.
And Cradily and another Pokemonthat I had in the Battle Dome.

(30:15):
And that was the first time Iever got any battle symbol.
And I was like, dang, you know,Sharpe's really good in this
game.
And then just going forward andgoing through Gen four and like
missing gen four completely, Iwas just stuck on playing Gen
three games.
I played gen three, I played,you know, it by itself.
I played like Rom hacks ofFireRed and LeafGreen and

(30:37):
Emerald.
And it was just, I was just sofixated on gen three, so I could
just keep playing with Sharpedoand Cacturne and all the other
folk, one that I liked.
Just in that one game.
And I didn't really care aboutanything else.
And then when I played gen four,and I don't even know where I
could get Sharpedo in that gameunless I had to like trade it up
or something.
But Gen four for me, likespecifically like Diamond par

(30:58):
Platinum, it just never reallystuck with me.
Like the Pokemon didn't stickwith me.
Barry was annoying and I thoughtthe story was cool, but it just
kept, it just felt like itdragged on.
And then the Elite Four was kindof boring.
Like we had a bug Elite Four.
And I was just like, well this,this whole thing is a cakewalk,
you know, my fire type here andthen my, you know, my water type
there for Bertha.

(31:19):
And it was just like, this wasboring.
Cynthia wasn't hard for me.
by the time I got to play HarGonna Soul Silver, I was hooked
again.
That was for me, har gonna SoulSilver.
That was the first time I ever.
Tried the Masuda method forshiny breeding and I had a shiny
cynical that I named Kindle.
it was, it was just small andcute.
It was just like kindling aflame.
And I just played the gamethrough with my shiny, cynical

(31:40):
and the other random Pokemonthat I would have.
And it was the first time that Iknew that Crobat evolved via
friendship because I hadCyndaquil and I had a Zubat and
a Mareep.
And when my Zubat evolved into,Golbat and like the next level,
it evolved into Crobat.
And I was like, wait, youevolved at level 25?

(32:00):
And then I went and looked it upon Serebii and it was like, oh,
high friendship.
I was like, yeah, I don't knowwhat I did, but I'm, I've been
real good friends with Zubat.

You and Zubat were bros?,

Yes.
And then so I took, I had Crobatby like the fourth gym and
Crobat.
And Typhlosion pretty muchcarried me for the entire game.
And I was just like, dang, I,man, I'm the only person that
ever had a Crobat this early.

Dang, dude.
That's some memories rightthere.
I love it.

Mm-hmm.
And I spent a lot, a lot of timeat the Pokey Lon, like I was
going to, you know, breakrecords.
I was gonna be the, you know,the best person to ever do every
event in the Poke alon.
I spent so much time just doingthat.
Like, I didn't care about thegame, I didn't care about the
post game.
Me too Good weight, red couldweight, I was gonna master the
polon, whatever Pokemon I had touse.

(32:49):
I had Pokemon I'd never usedbefore, like electrode.
it was just for me, that was,that was super duper fun for me.
And I would go back and do itagain in a heartbeat and spend
thousands of hours again atPokeathalon.
So I think those two games,Emerald, I would say for Gen
three and Har Gordon, soa, wereprobably the two that resonate
the most with me.
And don't get me wrong, I knowyou know my page, Unova Region

(33:11):
Champion black.
I love Gen three.
I love Gen five.
I think Gen five still has thebest story out of all the
Pokemon or out of all thePokemon games.
But I can't, say that they're myfavorite games because they're
not.
I do like what they did whenthey had us, they forced us to
play with all new Pokemon inblack and white one.
But then I hate that they wentand just erased all of that in
black and white too.
Like I would rather play withall the new Pokemon, let me fall

(33:33):
in love with new Pokemon thatare out there, like Scrafty and
Jellicent and Krookodile inthem, like.
I developed, those bonds withthose Pokemon too, but I don't
know, it didn't, it didn'tresonate, it didn't stick with
me outside of like competitiveballet, you know, getting into
that stuff.
Gen five didn't overall stickwith me.
Like Lue Gen three and, and HarGoing Soul Silver did.

I wanted to ask,'cause you mentioned
Pokeathalon.
What was it about that specificmechanic or part of the game
from Heart Gold Soul Silver thatyou enjoyed compared to the main
series?

it was just, it was different, And
it was actually difficultbecause they didn't really, it
wasn't really handhold.
It wasn't the same, you know,turn based stuff.
you are actually out here andyou're tapping your DS screen
and you know, you're being theone, like you can't tap too fast
'cause you don't wanna mess up,but you can't tap too little and
then be behind.

You feel?
It sounds like it was moreskillful,

was, it was a lot more skillful than
just a normal battle.
for me that was like, everythingbecause like, it genuinely
challenged me because certainPokemon have certain stats and
if you want to be the best, youhave to use those Pokemon that
are the best.
Like, okay, Weavile andElectrode are gonna be, you

(34:43):
know, those fast Pokemon ifyou're running a race, you want
them there.
But then there are strengthcompetitions that were jumping
competitions and obviouslyjumping competitions.
You wanna have a flying type andstrength competitions.
You might wanna fighting type orrock type, something that's,
bigger and stronger.
But you could only pick acertain amount of Pokemon on
your team.
So to find that niche of theright combination of Pokemon,

(35:04):
that's gonna give you the thingsthat you need for whatever those
events are.
'cause they changed every time.
So you never really knew exactlywhat three events you were gonna
get in what order, and you hadto plan your team ahead to have
that balance, but to be goodeverywhere too.
Hey you.

(35:25):
Yes, you with the ears.
Don't go anywhere.
We'll be right back.
Love hearing real stories fromreal trainers.
Help as the Pokemon turns becomethe best Pokemon interview
podcast like no one ever was.
By joining our Patreon, you'renot just supporting the show.
You're helping more fans sharetheir journeys with the world.

(35:46):
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Now after gen five, you know, we get gen six
and that's kind of where I sayPokemon started getting easier.
You know, you didn't have togrind as much.
I would say the challenges werea lot less available.
Did you notice that?
And what did you think of thatsudden change?

I can agree with that.
I feel like the tutorials got alittle bit longer in than 3D era
of games.
the cut scenes were pretty good,good, they would drag on and
maybe that's just like thecapabilities of the Ds and the
three Ds back then.
But it was a lot of, I don'twanna say handholding'cause I
know that, phrase gets, youknow, thrown around a lot.

(36:34):
But it was definitely a littlebit easier, I think all the way
from, You know, your rival'sgiving you items to help you
along in your journey to them.
Really just in general, notbeing very strong in a sense.
Like you had one rival that wasactually a rival and then you
had three other people that werejust friends.
Like I was okay with that, but alot of people, I understand why

(36:55):
a lot of people wouldn't becausethey really just weren't a
challenge at all.
And it just kind of took awayfrom the overall experience.
But I do think that they got alot of stuff right in the 3D era
of games.
Just like in general, like Ilook at mega evolution.
I think mega evolution was agood concept with less than

(37:16):
stellar execution.
but I do think that being 3D,they took more focus on world
building than gameplay.
it's a very thin line to walk onbecause with the Sprite era of
Pokemon, you focus primarily onthe gameplay up until maybe gen
five, and then you startedlooking at more story based, you

(37:37):
know, aspects of Pokemon.
But in Gen six, I feel like theydid a lot of things right and a
lot of things wrong in terms ofthey sacrificed a lot of how the
game looks and how the gameplays for the sake of the story
or the sake of certainmechanics.
And if they could have balancedit a little bit better, at least
in Gen six specifically, theycould have balanced it a little

(37:58):
bit better.
I think the games would've beenfine.
In Gen seven, they kind of didthe same thing, but they focused
really heavily on the story andthen the games got a lot easier.
But the mechanic, in my opinion,got a little bit better because
like how mega evolutions onlyavailable to a certain few
Pokemon, you had Z moves, whichthere were different types of Z

(38:19):
moves.
You had signature Z moves thatyou know, only a few Pokemon
had, but Z moves as a whole wasavailable to everybody.
I think that that part of itwas, great.
I think that they executed itreally well.
It maybe could have been alittle bit better, but I think
it was really well because itdidn't necessarily change the
entire outcome of the battle.
Like the way Mega Evolution did.
And you had this mega of allPokemon for the entire rest of

(38:41):
the battle.
This Pokemon now, it justchanged, its typing and its
stats just changed, its abilitychanged and now you're getting
swept by somebody's MegaSalamence.
But a Z move was just like a oneoff nuke and it might have
affected a turn or two, but itdoesn't necessarily have an
impact on the entire battle inboth cases.

(39:02):
And then Gen seven got rid oflike the PSS, which I think was
like the best thing that Pokemondid as far as online
connectivity, like getting ridof the friend Safari, was it
kind of hurt?
'cause I liked the friend Safaria lot and I know a lot of people
like the friend Safari.
and then you had already thefriendship mechanic, but then
you had this happiness meter andthere were like two different

(39:24):
things for no reason at all.
Like why, why do we havefriendship and happiness?
Like they should be the samething.
And you know now it's the samething, it should have been the
same thing when they introducedit, because this Pokemon evolves
with high happiness.
But this Pokemon evolves withhigh friendship.
And I'm, but why?

you think it'd be both?
Yeah.
It should be the same thing,like who's friends and not
happy.
It'd be kind of an oddfriendship.
Right?

it, it was just like, why, why, why
did you introduce this mechanic?
And it literally does all thesame things as the one you
already had in place.
it just got weird.
But I do like, I think it was, Ithink Gen seven had Pokemon me.
Either Pokemon or me, or Pokemonor Fresh that Jens ever had.
I never touched it.
I just didn't care.
but I don't think it was bad.

(40:10):
A lot of people did like it.
A lot of people used it, but Ijust personally did not care
about that.
If I wanted my Pokemon to behappy, we were gonna go and we
were gonna do a lot of battlesand I was gonna keep you from
dying.
I was gonna do the normalhappiness, friendship stuff that
everybody else does.
You want a Soothe Bell here?
Take the so belt suit, but genseven for me, and up until now
where I'm doing a Sunflora solo,run through every Pokemon game

(40:33):
and I'm playing Alola again.
gen seven was the only Pokemongame that I never went back and
replayed at even one time.

really, how come.
Yeah.

Honestly, it was just, it was the story.
It, and Gen seven for me almostgot me back out of Pokemon
because.
I thought that the characterslooked kind of weird.
They were kind of like justsuper stale faced to me and even
though I liked the concept ofnot having Gyms anymore, the
characters I couldn'tnecessarily connect with.

(41:03):
And while I was just, growing upand doing adult life things,
when they were talking about howUltra Sun and Ultra Moon were
pretty much just a copy andpaste of Sun and Moon, I was
like, well, why would I go andget the exact same game again,
but only with a couple ofchanges?
It didn't occur to me that everyother previous, like third
iteration of every game waspretty much that, but at that

(41:25):
time that was just like, well,if it's the exact same game,
then I don't wanna play it.
Because I've already seen thisstoryline, at least in the other
games.
They either merged storylinestogether or they changed it
enough to where it wasinteresting, but I was already
not interested in the story ofSun and Moon.
So to go and play it again andhave nothing change was just
kind of like, yeah, I'm good.

(41:46):
I'm, I don't need to play it.
And it wasn't until I thinkgeneration eight when I found
out about Ultra Necrozma andTeam Rainbow Rocket and all of
those things, but I was like,okay, well all of that's post
game.
I don't care to go through thegame again just to get to that.
So I just never went back.

And I think that's what ruined it for me
too.
'cause that's when I stopped.
'cause I was playing Pokemon Goand it's like, you got ready,
it's the same game.
I'm like, why would I go throughthe, like you made me spend you
amount of money to buy the samegame, but the same stuff.
But only thing that's differentis the postgame

Unova Regional Champio (42:19):
Exactly.

it left.
It left a bad taste in my mouth.
I agree with you

Like that.
That was, that was it really?
Okay.
I was like, yeah, I, it might bemy time to take, a break from
Pokemon again.
That's when I was really kind ofgetting back into Pokemon Go and
I was like really, really biginto it.
I had just moved to where I'm atnow I was just trying to really
just find some friends thatplayed Pokemon and I found a

(42:43):
Pokemon Go server, like a localPokemon Go server.
got to a point where I was soinvolved in that server where
they was like, Hey, do you wantto be admin?
Because I was always postinglike all the latest updates,
like before everybody else whowas like posting'em.
I was already on it.
like you would've thought that Iwas like Serebii or one of these
other news outlets.
I was there the moment the stuffwas released, it was already
getting posted into the Discordserver and they added me as an

(43:06):
admin.
I was helping schedule likelocal events and stuff like that
and local get togethers andstuff and it was great for a
while.
Like it was great for like areally long time and that was my
way to stay within the Pokemonfranchise, but step away from
the main games until I sawsomething that was interesting.
And you know, seeing Gen eight,a lot of people, I was like,

(43:27):
okay, you know, the starterslook kind of cool and
everything.
like I understood everythingthematically.
I didn't really care for likeGrookey at the time.
I just didn't, I cared about,sitting out, sitting his
Scorbunny and the little onewho's Yeah, Sobble and I liked
them.
I thought that Sobble was likethe cutest thing in the world.

(43:47):
And they were like, yeah.
They were like, Sobbles so soft.
It is crying.
I'm like, so what?
So what?

what is the

I was like, that thing probably
evolves into something reallycool.
And then it did.
I was like, this man is, this isJames Bond.
This is, this is, this is 007James Bond.

Double oh seven and tillion.

Yes.
And I was like, yep.
See, I told you.
just let them cook.
I told y'all, and between doingPokemon Go and then Sword and
Shield, my first, when I firstfound out about Dex Like, I had
to mixed feelings about itbecause they announced that some
Pokemon aren't gonna make itinto the game.
For me, I didn't necessarilycare.

(44:28):
I didn't really pay too muchattention as to why, you know,
what their reason was.
I just wanted to know isSharpedo in the game?
Because if I can't play aSharpedo, I will be sad.
And then Sharpedo was not in thegame and I was like, man.
Y'all just ruined it for me.
Like I was fine until that pointwhere they were, when the decks
got leaked and I saw thatSharpedo was not on the list, I

(44:50):
was like, oh no, what am I goingto do?

That's my homeboy,

That's my homeboy.

that's my partner.
Yeah.

Like we done been through so many
games together and you tellingme.
And then not only that, but theycut like 90% of the starters
out.
So now I don't have my favoriteset of starters.
I don't even have my secondfavorite set of starters.
And I'm like, okay, well atleast I have Lanturn, at least I
have Jellicent, and then I'vegot, you know, James Bond, so

(45:17):
I'm gonna do a mono.
My first run was a mono waterrun.
Through the game.
And I had so much fun doing thatbecause I was like, I'm gonna at
least get one new Pokemon.
So I think Drednaw was my new,water type.
And Sobble of course.
So I had them two representingthe new one and I had Gyarados
and Jellicent and Lanturn and Iwas like, yep, this is the team.

(45:38):
And I swapped out Drednaw Ithink for Gastrodon, just'cause
Gastrodon just kind of like feltbetter on the team when I was
actually using it.
And

a better

it is a much better Pokemon.

Yeah.

I was just blowing through the
game and Gastrodon and Jellicentwere like my MVPs.
And even though my battle withRaihan and my battle with Leon
were kind of difficult.
But Like I enjoyed the stadiumfeel and like having this, this
like, this is what Pokemon is,this is what Pokemon should be
like when I see any anime, whenthey're always in these big
stadiums for the Pokemon League,that's what I see when I see

(46:14):
this game.
And for me, the story in itselfkind of lack luster.
Like you don't really get to thestory until the end of the game
basically, which kind of sucked.
But I almost didn't care becauseI was just, I was having fun
anyways, I enjoyed going throughthe wild area.
It was a little bit barren, butI still, I enjoyed going through

(46:35):
it.
I enjoyed the fact that thefirst thing I ran into was a
level 60 Onix and I couldn't runaway.
And I've like lost all myPokemon.
And I was like, and I was like,what on earth is this?
Why am I running into a level 60Onix and I've got like one
badge.

The skill level just went way

The skill level went way high up I
thought I could catch it.
And it was like, no, no, youain't got enough badges to even
try to catch this.
And I was like, oh, okay.
All right.
So I know not to come back hereanytime soon.
at that point I was getting backinto competitive and because of

(47:13):
COVID and everything, I had kindof slowed down on the Pokemon Go
playing for obvious reasons.
But, overall I was like, reallyhyped, but I was a little bit
late to the party because Ididn't get my switch until the
year after Sword and Shieldcame.
So I was kind of like trying notto spoil myself, like by
watching all the videos andwatching people play online and

though.

it, it was so hard because I wanted
to watch it, but I wanted tohave that experience for myself
whenever that time came.
And then when I finally got toexperience it, it was amazing
because at this point I hadtaken, you know, that break from
the middle of Gen seven to now,and it was a lot of it, like all
of it was cool.
Like my rival bead was like.

(48:00):
He was mean.
He was, he was cool.
And even though he had Psychictype Pokemon, which I thought
was stupid, and then he switchedfrom Psychic to Fairy, which I
thought was even worse.
Um, I'm sorry.
I did.
I was like, dude, you were good.
Like if you would've stayed thePsychic type general leader.
And I understand they had himtraining under oog, then
transformed him into a fairytype gym leader.

(48:23):
And I was, I was, it was okay,but I would've rather had him,
you know, with his Reuniclus andnot like Galarian Rapidash.
but it was fine.
Like I thought Marni was cool.
The only thing I think about theGym Challenge in Sorna Shield
that bothered me was getting toPiers and getting to like that
area because the fact that Genfive had Roxy and had like

(48:46):
recorded voice singing andeverything in, in that gym.
And then Piers, who's literallyon a stage, doesn't have any
type of voice acting, doesn'thave any type of recording, and
it's literally just his bodymovement and you see him
talking, but you don't hearanything.
it rubbed me the wrong way forlike those 30 minutes that I was
there.
And then I kind of like just hadto pretend like none of it ever
happened while I was going onthe rest of my journey.

(49:08):
But then it was just like therest of the game for me was fine
because now we're starting toget into the story and the
Dynamax Pokemon going everywherebut by the time I finished the
story, I was starting prettymuch a new chapter on my life
with Pokemon and I was gettinginto like draft league and I
pretty much shifted my entirelife focus into competitive
Pokemon and Draft League inparticular.

(49:30):
So I stopped caring about prettymuch everything else and I was
going to go and play Pokemon inthis NFL style.
Competition, this NFL style,like draft season, for me, that
was, pretty much been like thefocal point of my life.

Really?
You love the draft formatcompared to the fixed for fixed,
meta, I

Yeah.

What do you prefer over that compared to
like, you know, going to like,say A VGC or a smog in
tournament what does the draftleague offer offer for you?

for me, draft league is very.
It's a lot more diverse.
'cause even though draft leaguedoes have its set of rules and a
lot of draft leagues, in factmost draft leagues follow some
aspects of like Smogon's rulesset and everything.
And that's, you know, they arebalanced.
some of the rules they don'tfollow.
They have different, you know,tiering systems.
Like you have points, tiers, andthen you have, okay, well you

(50:19):
just choose one from eachsection.
And then you have like someextra poke one that you can
choose.
And it was a much more diverseexperience to see people at all
skill levels and to see peopleeven that were really good.
Like, okay, yeah, but you'reforced to have these Pokemon
that are not as good.
Like if I have to like seeingpeople do well with, you know,

(50:42):
Urshifu is, you know, it'snormal.
You expect that, but then whenyou go and you have these people
that are playing with, Scraftyand like other, like first and
second stage Pokemon, you'rejust like, dang, this guy could
play with anything and make itlook good.
And I remember, one of my bestfriends, since I've been in
draft league was like, justdestroying everybody with

(51:05):
Thwackey, and I'm like, Thwackeyis, it can't be that good.
It, it just, it cannot be thatgood as it was like Thwackey.
And then I had another friendthat was just beating everybody
with Raboot and I was like, Iknow liberal is good, but it's
not that good.
especially not all, you know, anuninvolved Pokemon.
He was like, I don't know, man.
You just slap a choice band onit and, and let it go.

(51:25):
And in the right situation, youjust let it go to work.
And So me, I'm very stuck in myways when it comes to
competitive battling and I'mgonna, you know, use what I
want.
So my first experience withDraft League, I went with all
water types because I thoughtthat was the right thing to do
and it was not the right thingto do.

(51:45):
And I got for the entire season,because they, they was a full
like NFL season, like 17 weeks,32 teams.
Like, it was a real like NFLstyle draft league.
And I ended that season four and12.
And then the next season, myfriends, they.
Convinced me to stop doing thatand stop running like all water
types.

Oh, you're ready to double down on it, it

I was, oh, I was so ready.
I was so ready because we hadgotten into, at this point in
the second season, the secondDLC had came out, the Crown
Tundra had came out and we hadaccess to more Pokemon and I had
already had Sharpedo from lastseason.
Like I was, I was ready, I don'tcare.
I'm here to have fun, notnecessarily to win.
they were just like, no, just,just take it serious.

(52:28):
Just take it serious one timeand just see how you do.
So I built my team.
I still built it around rain,around like the, you know, the
rain arc type, but I didn'tbuild it around water tech
specifically.
And sure enough, I went 13 andthree that season.
And even though I got eliminatedin the first round of the
playoffs, it was like I had thebest record in the league.
And I was like, okay, I'mactually decent at Pokemon.

(52:52):
And it wasn't like, okay, it wasjust the fact that I had all
water types versus, you know,when I have a diverse team and I
can actually use it.
I kind of dipped away fromPokemon Go and I stick straight
to Draft League until I got intoVGC and that's a whole nother
story.

you mentioned something about how you're doing
a sunflower versus all thegames, right?
You're just sewing the gameswith sun

Yeah.

I wanted to ask like, how did that idea develop
and how far are you into thisjourney?

Okay.
So this started back in blackand white too.
And this is back when like theoriginal Facebook community was
really kind of like popping.
So me and I think six or sevenother page admins, we decided to
have a challenge on who couldbeat the black and whites who
elite for like the PokemonLeague with the weakest Pokemon.

(53:41):
at this point, I think in VGC,like Pachirisu, who had just won
the World championships andeverything, and we were gonna
try and see what's the weakestPokemon we can beat the Pokemon
League with.
So we went and we had a ditto,clear, the Pokemon League.
We had Pachirisu clear thePokemon League, we had a Plusle
and Minun separately eachcleared the Pokemon League.

(54:03):
Pikachu did it.
I did it with Chikorita and thatwas like the hardest thing I
ever had to do in my life.
Like I, I love the Chikoritaline, I love the entire line,
but that Pokemon Leaguespecifically,

Yeah.

I mean, my Chikorita was level a
hundred and it was like, youknow, EV training and
everything, but it was.
Insanely difficult, but I got itdone.

Yeah.

Chikorita at the very least, it's that
it's stats are balanced and ithas moves to support itself.
And that was okay.
And then we went and we actuallylooked up, okay, well what are
the weakest Pokemon?
Like, okay, we got Tynamo andthen you got like Ledian like
the weakest, you know, evolvedor maybe not even evolved.
You know, the weakest like fullyevolved Pokemon.

(54:46):
You're looking at the Sunflorasand the Ledians and you know,
those Pokemon.
So my friend, Kyle, I think hetook, the Ledian challenge and I
took Sunflora and he blewthrough it.
Like he, he did his in like 30minutes and was done.
And me, I took a lot longer.
I took a lot longer.
I was struggling, don't get mewrong.

(55:07):
I had all the Hyper Potions andMax Potions and everything that
I could think of to help me getpast this.

Oh, so using items too.

Oh, yeah, yeah.
We were, we were, we had to usefor some of'em, we, we had to,
we couldn't, we couldn't justdeny ourselves items because
otherwise they would probably beimpossible.

that'd be torture.
Yeah.

So it was like, so we did all of
those, like when I was doing myson Flora one, I, I wanna say it
took me probably about 20 tries,but I had saved within the
Pokemon League, so I didn'treally have a choice but to like
keep doing it.
And every time I would go andbeat one of the Elite four
members, I would save the game.

(55:44):
So the only way I'm backing outof this is if I decide that I'm
going to accept the loss.
Then start all the way overagain.
I was just like, I'm not doingthat.
I'm not starting all the wayover.
And I got through the PsychicElite four and I got through
Kaitlyn and I got throughMarshall and I struggled with
Grimsley.
Grimsley was just extreme.

(56:05):
I don't know why, but he wasextremely hard for me to get
past

before you continue, So is this before you
beat the national or before theNo.
Is this the pre national decksor post national

this is post national deck, like, so
I, I played through the gamealready.

Oh my

Yeah.
I had

so here's what, here's what you're facing.
You're facing, Scrafty gonna bea pain in the butt.
You've got Bisharp, Drapion,Liepard.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
That's gonna give you trouble.
I'm sorry.

No, it, that was a hot, it was a
mess for the longest.
I kept getting cri by Drapionand I kept getting hit in
poison.
Like, okay, well I'm taking thisturn to heal myself, but then
I'm getting hit right backagain.
And it was just, it wasfrustrating and I don't even
remember how I did it.
But eventually I got past theElite four, and then I had to
deal with, I think it was blackand white too.

(56:51):
So it was like Iris and dealingwith, you know, all of her
Pokemon and her dragons.
And I thought I had recorded theentire battle because I had
like, I actually had like aphysical digital camera, and I
was like holding it up to myscreen as I was like trying to
play at the same time.
And it took me, I think five orsix tries, but I was determined
to get it right because I had,at this point, I understood the

(57:11):
pattern of how the computerplays against me.
And I was like, okay, I can dothis, I can do that, I can do
that.
And then when I fi, I recordedthat last battle that I actually
won.
but I wasn't paying attention tohow I was holding the camera, so
I pretty much, I held thecamera, but me moving with my
other hand, I like turned thecamera at like completely away
from the screen.
So I didn't even record mebeating her, like actually

(57:34):
beating her until like I knockedout like her last Pokemon.

Oh, that's

So I literally saw the ending of me
beating her and I was like, no,I missed all of that.
I'm never doing it again.
I was like, because I was soready.
I'm like, I'm gonna record this.
I'm putting it on YouTube, how Ibeat black and white, two elite
forward just to Sunflora.
I was ready and I ruined thewhole thing.

Well, why keep doing it though?
'cause I mean, you could juststop, but you're kind of
torturing yourself.
Why would you keep going throughthis with Sunflora?

Was fun, baby.

is fun for

Look, it was like, it was such a
weird, like, guilty pleasure.
Like I was determined.
I'm not going to let this, I'mnot gonna let this game beat me.
This is the hardest challengeever, but I will not lose it.

That's some determination.
I

Yes.
And when I finally, honestly, ifGen six didn't have the O
Powers, I probably would'vequit.
I actually probably would'vequit.
But when I started using those OPowers a little bit more and
like so that I could survive,hits long enough to do
something, then I was like,okay, just don't forget this.
When it comes to like the Elitefour, and I was still

(58:40):
struggling, but I wasn'tstruggling as much.
And I got to a point, I thinkright after I got eight badges
and I was on that bridge.
I was on the bridge and I hadthe battle all four of my rivals
like back to back to back.
I beat the first two easy and Iwanna say it was Tiano.
And he had a talent flame?
No, it was either Tiano orTrevor.
One of them had a talent flame.

(59:01):
And I'm like, okay, here'sworst.
Go back.
Here's another Pokemon thatresists all of my attacks and
has gill wings.
So it's not even like I can everout speed it because it has, you
know, priority flying typeattacks.
I got stuck.
I was streaming at this point.
I had just, I had just startedstreaming because I had gotten
to a roadblock at this battle,and I lost so many times in a

(59:23):
row that I just stoppedstreaming out.
I was like, you guys, I can't doit.
I am beyond frustrated.
I will come back when I havecome up with a game plan to beat
this thing because I am losingmy mind.
The old powers didn't help me.
Nothing helped me.
I was just losing.
I don't even, to this day, Idon't really know how I beat
that.
I think, I think I lived was aBrave bird or something like by,

(59:46):
I don't know, by accident ordamaged road or something.
And I got a critical hit returnand it put me in range to where
that I would be able to beat it.
The Pokemon League, I was like,okay, I know it's water fire,
steel dragon.
Dog can get through water prettyeasily.
Steel is probably not gonna betoo hard because it doesn't have
a scissor.

(01:00:08):
I just have to worry about allthe ex scissors and the aerial
lace.
And I was like, but I can handlethat.
Dragon's probably gonna be thenext hard one.
And then of course there's fire.
Malva was an experience I wouldlove to forget because, I could
never get past, her Houndoom, Ithink she would always send out
Houndoom second.
And like, even though I gotpast, you know, her, her first

(01:00:30):
Pokemon, then you send out your,your Houndoom next and they was
just like, okay, hey, I'm goingto pretty much just kill you
with like flames that were just,because I can't, it was hard
enough getting past Pyroar.
so it was just like, I gotta usemy special defense o powers and
get my Leech Seed off andprotect and at least hit you

(01:00:50):
with one return or a giga drain.
and hope you don't, you know,just straight up kill me with
like flame wheeler, stone ageagain, and just pretty much
stall until Torkoal died.
And then Chandelure came out andI died to Flamethrower a lot,
like, a whole lot.
But

David Hernandez (01:01:06):
that poor sun floor got burned.

Unova Regional Champion Blac (01:01:08):
it did, it got, I couldn't, I
couldn't figure it out.
And it was another episode whereI just kind of like, I quit.
I need to stop free focus,figure out what I need to do.
so I decided that instead ofsaving after each Elite four
member, knowing that I was stuckwith Malva, I would constantly
go back and I would keep usingmy special defense old powers to
level it up.

(01:01:28):
Like just for the strictly forthe sake of leveling up.
I would go in into matches and Iwould lose on purpose because I
was going to level the top, atleast to level two.
So I know I can take one hit ormaybe two hits and do something
back.
And then I kind of just clearedevery, all the other Elite Four.
'cause at that point I knew whatto do against them.
And then di, the first time Ikind of like went in raw, no O

(01:01:49):
Powers, no nothing.
And she led Hawlucha and Ididn't realize how strong
Hawlucha was until it once shotme.
And I was like, oh, oh, I didn'tthink he was that strong.
I was like, I know strong holyis fast, but I don't remember
being very strong.
And then I died.

some, gotta put some respect on D's

I, I have to.
after that I was like, okay, soI do need the old powers.
So at this point, my defense opowers at level two.
So I'm like, okay, I'm gonnastart with defense power,
defense o power level two, andthen when I get in the battle,
I'm gonna use an X Defend on topof that.
And so I was at like plus threedefense, like by turn one of the
battle.
And at this point, Hawlucha justcan't touch me.

(01:02:28):
And the moment I like got pastHawlucha, it was pretty much
over, like I clicked returntwice and it was dead.
And then I just clicked MegaDrain or Giga Drain against like
almost everything else she hadon her team.

Yeah, those were, that was kind of the
hardest one out of their,everything else.
Everything else is pretty

Unova Regional Champion B (01:02:43):
Yeah.
Now Alola, I'm in Alola now.
and this has given me very muchteam galactic vibes, even though
there's no, there isn't reallylike a bad team.
You know, you have the eighth,the foundation and everything,
but the trial captains, thetrial, the totem Pokemon are so
stupidly difficult.
I think that if it was justthem, that it would probably be

(01:03:03):
easier for me to deal with.
But when they go and they call afriend, I'm like, okay, I have
two targets that I have to dealwith.
I have to take them both outbecause they're both doing
damage to me and I'm not gonnasurvive if I don't.
Alola hasn't been, Hard.
There are parts of it that arekind of like difficult, but
Alola hasn't really been likesuper hard.
I did run into a little bit oftrouble with Uzma and Alolan

(01:03:25):
Raticate, but like even TotemKomo-o, I'm pretty sure I beat
on the first try and most of thetrial captains I was able to
overcome relatively easily.
I got to the Elite four, likeI'm finally at the Pokemon
League So Olivia's one of'em.
I'll be able to beat her prettyeasily.
And then it, you know, you haveHala and Oza and I can't

(01:03:46):
remember what the name of theflying Elite for is, but like
all of them, I'm like, okay,those will be a little bit
harder.

well, Sharpie, you've been a wonderful guest.
I want to finish on one finalquestion to close out this
podcast

Yeah,

It seems like you have a, an affinity for
water type Pokemon.
Is that kind of your favorite

it is.

So I want to give you, to give me your Dream
Water Pokemon team.

Unova Regional Champion Bla (01:04:07):
Six Pokemon, well, Sharpedo first of
course.

Of course.
I'm, I guess we're going Megan,maybe.

So I don't like Sharpedo Megas.

like,

Unova Regional Champion Black (01:04:15):
I don't like the design of it.
And I think they could have donebetter with, its ability and
everything like that.
It's, it's, I I like baseSharpedo more than Mega
Sharpedo.
My second one is Lanturn.
Lanturn is my second favoritePokemon of all time.

Yes.

Unova Regional Champion Bla (01:04:29):
So, and it's, it is like, it's such
a polar opposite from Sharpedo.
Like, Sharpedo is just, justdark and angry Pokemon now
Lanturn's just like smiley,happy, cute.
And then, you know, I, I getmost absorbed so, you know, I
get to redirect those electricattacks and stuff.

Mm-hmm.

So my third Pokemon, my third water
type Pokemon, probably Politoed.

Okay.

Unova Regional Champion Bl (01:04:49):
Told has.

get that drizzle

Unova Regional Champion (01:04:51):
Mm-hmm.
That's what it is.
Been my clutch or it's one ofthe people that's always been
clutch for me in competitivebattling.
So it's got a special place inmy heart.
my fourth Pokemon would probablybe, I'll say Jellicent.
Jellicent gives me, it's anotherbulky option that, I can do a
lot with.
Like, especially now withstrength staff and I'm thinking

(01:05:13):
strictly competitive.
Like, that's, this is the, I cantake on everything with these
six water Pokemon and I would behappy, like, so yeah, it would
be Sharpedo Lanturn Politoed

for it.

Unova Regional Champ (01:05:22):
Jellicent.
And then my fifth and sixthPokemon.
My fifth is Ludicollo.
Ludicollo for sure.
And I would like to thank MirorB from Pokemon Colosseum and XD
for that.

Music lives right in free of my head

Unova Regional Champion Bl (01:05:36):
Yes.
And then, oh man, what would mylast one be?
I think my last Pokemon would bethe Pokemon that was my favorite
before Sharpedo existed andthat's Poliwrath,,

Oh, so we get both poly's on

yeah, both polys on here.
Poliwrath was my very firstfavorite Pokemon.
And I like Poliwrath'cause youknow, it is bulky.
It is a good, strong, bulkyattacker, but it also gets Swift
swim and it can be fast.
Like if I need to be fast, itcan be fast.
And having that, you know, thattype diversity, you know, having
a dark type and Electric type, agrass type fighting type, like,

(01:06:11):
you know, I think that havingthat team diversity, I can
pretty much, I can take oneverything.
I've got physical attackers,I've got special attackers, I've
got bulky Pokemon, I've got fastPokemon that aren't necessarily
bulky and I like that diverse.
I like water types becausethere's so many of them and
they're also diverse with whatthey do.

Will Sharpie, thank you for coming As The
Pokeball Turns.
If people want to check out yourcontent, if they want to connect
with you, where can they go?
By means, please plug away.

So on Facebook, of course there's
Unova Region Champion Black, andthen everywhere else.
So that's Twitch Kick, YouTube,Twitter is all at Sharpie place.
And then on Discord, if youwanna reach me on Discord, it is
Sharped Writer three 19.

Thank you for listening to As The Pokeball
Turns, if this story resonatedwith you, share the podcast with
a fellow trainer.
Don't forget to follow us.
For more voices, more journeys,and more memories.
I'm David Hernandez, andremember, I'm David Hernandez,
and remember, your next Pokemonadventure begins here.

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"Crunch Time For Sharpedo" ft. Unova Region Champion Black | TRAINER'S EYE #169

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}"Crunch Time For Sharpedo" ft. Unova Region Champion Black | TRAINER'S EYE #169