Mongoose Gaming Burrow opens up about his journey from Pokémon Red to Sword and Shield, including his thoughts on Pokémon Sun and Moon. His love for Pokémon GO and Raiding has kept him engaged, and he shares his ambitions to grow the Pokémon GO community in New Mexico. Don’t miss his unforgettable Aquapolis Nidoking story. It’s one for the books!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mongoose Gaming (00:00):
my name is Greg with Mongoose Gaming and this is
my Pokemon story.
David Hernandez (00:43):
Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we
interview people about theirexperience with Pokemon.
My name is David Hernandez.
Today, I'm joined by the co hostfor off the wall nerds podcast,
Mongoose Gaming.
Welcome to the show.
Mongoose Gaming (00:57):
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it.
David Hernandez (00:59):
Anytime, and you know, we were talking about
it before the show, you're thesecond non Pokemon focused
podcaster I've had.
And in the same breath, Youcover nerding and gaming and
stuff like that with yourpodcast.
And I told you, Pokemon's kindof that branch of nerdom.
So we kind of are like distantcousins.
Wouldn't you say that?
Mongoose Gaming (01:15):
Yeah, I agree with that one.
Totally.
David Hernandez (01:17):
What made you want to start doing podcasting
real briefly?
Like what made you want to diveinto it?
Mongoose Gaming (01:21):
So, about five, six years ago when I started
doing this, generally my in gamenames of Pokemon and like stuff
in general has always been likeMongoose.
And I kind of got it to a pointwhere I was heavily involved in
the community of Pokemon Go andPokemon in general.
and then I met a couple offriends online who had their own
podcast and when they actually,they decided to split up, they
kind of like did their wholeout, ran our course.
I met this guy, Justin, and heand I decided to start our own
(01:43):
podcast, which was, as youintroduced it, Off The Wall
Nerds.
And we've been doing that fornow for the last couple of
years.
So, yeah, it was just somethingwe popped in our head, like,
Hey, let's do it for fun.
And that's basically what we do.
David Hernandez (01:54):
And you know, when it comes to the Pokemon
specifically, like how much of adedicated fan are you?
Like, what does the fandom looklike on your end?
Mongoose Gaming (01:59):
on my end, so me, I'm a hardcore fan.
So the communities I was in, soin California, growing up, a lot
of my friends, we were at thetime early two thousands, it was
collecting the cards.
It was still on game boys, linkcables.
There was still a lot of fungetting in trouble at school for
having the game boys.
So, that, that's where it kindof started up here though, with,
like Pokemon Go just as how itexploded because being one of
(02:21):
the OG fans, you know, we'relike, Oh, when Pokemon Go came
out, we lost our minds.
Like, Oh man, we're going to getred, blue, yellow.
We're getting all, you know, allthe generations and stuff like
that.
So it was really, it was more ofa dream come true for us,
David Hernandez (02:31):
you mentioned how, you know, for, it was a
dream come true and I heard thata lot, you know, when Pokemon Go
first launched that, you know,we finally get Pokemon in the
real world.
We get to kind of go and traveljust like Ash Ketchum at 10
years old.
You know, it sounds like thatwas kind of what you were
expecting.
What was it like in those earlydays to play Pokemon Go to kind
of live up to that dream?
Mongoose Gaming (02:50):
Oh man.
I was running into stop signs.
I was having to look, I washaving to look three ways and a
crosswalk.
Cause I'm like, Oh, I'm about tocross the street and not paying
attention.
it was a lot of fun when itfirst came out.
Cause while the tracking systemis way better today, it was
probably a bit more fun then,cause then you really had to
explore like, you're like, okay,I don't know where this,
Growlithe is.
I'm gonna have to go down thisstreet.
I'm gonna have to turn lefthere.
(03:10):
So you had the, you know, thefootprint.
So it was a lot of walkingaround.
It was, it was quite a bit.
David Hernandez (03:16):
you say running the stop signs, I'm assuming
walking to them, or are youactually in a car or just like,
Oh, ran over the stop sign.
Mongoose Gaming (03:22):
Oh, it was walking into them.
Just like, you know, walkingaround.
You go to catch that Pokemon.
All of a sudden I look up and I,you know, kind of stop myself.
Oh man, I was right in the stopsign.
And I just kind of go around itlike nothing happened.
David Hernandez (03:33):
I always called myself to where, you know, I was
the same way where I was gluedto my phone, trying to see what
Pokemon would pop up.
And I would always hit myself onlike, we have like these stone
benches here in my area wherethe bus stops are.
And I'd be like, where did thatbus stop come from?
It's always been there, but younever noticed it.
Cause you always saw it when youwere always, I was always
looking at my phone.
So that's when I startedlearning about those.
Mongoose Gaming (03:52):
Yeah.
Same.
There were street, there werestreet signs on my, I've never
seen these street names up onthis particular corner.
I'm like, Oh yeah, well at thiscorner now.
it helped explore the area a lotmore.
David Hernandez (04:01):
Oh, did you become more familiar with the
area thanks to the game?
Mongoose Gaming (04:04):
Oh, definitely.
that, that helped me come waymore familiar.
Like, and so I lived on thestreet called moon gate.
That's the only street I knew totake my exit.
Get on my street playing Pokemongo now all of a sudden I knew
like the 30 other streets thatwere around there So yeah, it
helped out a lot.
David Hernandez (04:18):
You know, that helped me too, because I worked
in downtown at the time.
And because downtown's alwaysusually the better areas for
around the world generally toplay Pokemon Go, I knew my
downtown like the back of myhand.
But whenever people would comein who weren't familiar, I'd be
like, how do you not know this?
And I'm thinking like, oh, theonly reason why I know this is
because of Pokemon Go.
Mongoose Gaming (04:37):
Yeah that that same thing was so I lived in Las
Cruces, New Mexico for a whileThat's how it was like it helped
me explore the city and then allof a sudden after about two
three years I knew that cityextremely well somebody say oh,
where's this like I could pointit to it on a map immediately
because the game Oh, I don'tknow where this is.
I'm like, don't worry.
I got you.
I'm like, and I would literallywould actually from memory,
create a map of like, okay, thisPokestop leads here.
(04:58):
This Pokestop leads to this gym.
So it was, it became easier todo it that way.
David Hernandez (05:02):
Do you still like, see the gyms and the
pokestops in your mind wheneveryou drive through?
I don't know if you're still inLa Cruces, but even in your
current area where you're atnow, do you still like, see them
in your head?
Mongoose Gaming (05:10):
Oh yeah, of course.
I'm like, because that's how wetell, that's how we tell
directions to each other.
Now, basically if I know it's,in the Pokemon go community up
here where I live now inAlbuquerque, it's just like,
Hey, I'm at this park.
Like what park am I?
Okay.
Hold on.
It's called the.
It's called the meme gym orsomething like that.
Like, Oh, I know where that'sat.
And then they had there.
So it's, it went from streetsand addresses to, Oh, I know
(05:31):
where that gym is at.
David Hernandez (05:33):
Now, you said you're from New Mexico, and me,
I'm from Texas, so we're kind ofdistant cousins, you'll relate
to this question.
How do you play when it gets alittle more, warmer in the
summer months?
Hahaha!
Mongoose Gaming (05:45):
so,
David Hernandez (05:45):
Just get a water hose and just spray
yourself down?
Mongoose Gaming (05:47):
exactly.
yeah, just walk around withthat.
Walk around with water was thekey.
Like it's one thing in thewinter, cause you're moving
around, dress a little warm.
You can keep warm like that, butwhen it's hot out, it's hot out.
So yeah, you just walk aroundwith a, you know, a water
backpack with on your back anddouse yourself and walk around
and find some shade when youcan.
Yeah.
David Hernandez (06:03):
Wow, so you still walk around even in the
hot summers for this game.
Mongoose Gaming (06:06):
Oh, yeah.
Oh, definitely.
Especially with the, especiallywith GoFest coming out in the
middle of summer.
Yeah, I'm going to be out andabout walking around on that
one.
David Hernandez (06:13):
Dude, you must wear a lot of sunscreen to
Mongoose Gaming (06:16):
I don't, thankfully I don't need it.
I've got a dark complexion, so,I'm like, I sit there, I'm like,
I don't, I don't burn, I justget darker.
David Hernandez (06:21):
So real quick, before we dive further into
Pokemon Go, let's talk aboutyour history with Pokemon.
So you said like how you startedwith the original games, I'm
assuming red, blue, and yellow,which game did you start with
out of the three?
Mongoose Gaming (06:31):
when I was younger with my brother, our mom
bought us both Pokemon.
She goes, what do you guys want?
And without even me and himdidn't even look at each other.
I just said red, he said blue.
So that made it easier for her.
so she got us red and blue,each, one game, a GameBoy
pocket, not the GameBoy color,the big GameBoy, but the GameBoy
pocket,
David Hernandez (06:48):
That's the black and white one, right?
Mongoose Gaming (06:50):
but I got the blue game boy and he got the red
one.
So just a little fun in color.
David Hernandez (06:54):
What the hell really?
Mongoose Gaming (06:57):
I think the blue game was red version.
He took the red game boy, theblue version.
David Hernandez (07:01):
Ooh, what about the starters?
Did y'all choose the samestarters, different starters?
Mongoose Gaming (07:04):
so I was actually a little unorthodox in
my starters.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I love Charmander, Bulbasaur,Squirtle.
Those will always be my OGfavorites, but when I did play,
I actually relegated Charmander,which I did pick originally, but
my, my, my go to.
Through any playthrough ofPokemon I've ever done in my
life has always been Nidoran andNidoking.
David Hernandez (07:23):
Really?
Mongoose Gaming (07:25):
cause Nidoking is an absolute monster that's so
underrated cause it can learnmost of the HMs.
It can learn ground moves,poison moves, it can learn ice,
all that.
It has such a huge movepool.
when I got that and made it toBrock, I'm like, oh, you know,
it had double kick.
I'm like, cool, it'll take outBrock.
And we got to Misty and allthat, but then I had like a, I
(07:47):
think I had like Bellsprout atthe time, you know, moving your
way through Moon Cave and allthat, but yeah, Nidoking was
just an absolute monster at thatpoint, but yeah, I always
relegated Charizard to numbertwo, so like, if you look at my
levels, my Nidoking was always ahigher level than my original
starter.
David Hernandez (08:01):
So, you still kept the starter in your party,
you just always focused more onNidoran whenever you could catch
it.
Mongoose Gaming (08:07):
Exactly, yes.
David Hernandez (08:08):
Oh, okay, I thought you benched your
starter.
I'm like, dude, this is mindblowing.
I've never heard anybody saythey benched their starter
before in my life.
Mongoose Gaming (08:15):
okay, I have benched the starter, it was
actually when I started playing,Gen 3, Hoenn, with Emerald,
Ruby, Sapphire.
I got to about, I want to say,sail port, I believe.
And that's actually when Istarted benching my starters.
Cause I did at that point, I hadFlygon.
I could get other stronger typePokemon.
So I was doing that.
I actually benched my gen threestarters.
David Hernandez (08:35):
well that's more understandable if you did
Gen 1 though.
Dude, you would be a renegaderight now.
Like, Gen 1, it's like, I wouldsay it's almost a sin if you did
bench your starter.
Like, that's why I was moreprepared for that.
Later gens, I can understand.
Gen 1, ooooh, if somebody saysyou benched your Bulbasaur,
Charmander Squirtle, you'd be onyour own.
Mongoose Gaming (08:52):
Yeah.
You would be, you'd be alienatedfrom your friends.
David Hernandez (08:55):
Now I will say though, I actually agree with
you on Nidoking cause I usedNidoking myself.
I always used it in conjunction,oddly enough, with Charmander.
Because they kind of both, theonly downside they were both
weak against water, whichhelped, which sucked against
Misty.
But I like Nidoking as wellbecause Nidoran always learned
Horn Attack at level 8.
but then it evolved intoNidorino at level 16.
And it was just a very strongattacker for the early game.
(09:17):
And even late game it wasn't toobad cause like you said it
learns serve, it learnedstrength, and the stuff you kind
of need.
Mongoose Gaming (09:22):
and that's, and that's, I'm glad you brought up
with Misty again, even though itwas weak to water, if you didn't
get the Moonstone right away,like you didn't use it right
away, Nidorino was actually verystrong against Misty, because it
was just pure poison, so waterwas doing neutral damage against
it, so I evolved my Nidokingafter Misty, so then when you go
to Lieutenant Surge, it has theground typing, and his electric
moves won't do anything to youat that point.
David Hernandez (09:42):
so we talked about, you know, the first
generation, it sounds like youat least played till gen three.
Did you continue to playthroughout the entire team or
did you take a break at somepoint with Pokemon?
Mongoose Gaming (09:49):
I took a little bit of a break about, I want to
say sun and moon.
I did like, and I did like genthree a lot.
Holbein was, I was like a reallya breath of fresh air.
Cause, gold, silver crystal aremy favorites, but like you got
to rehash Canto.
So it was a lot of fun when genthree came out and kind of had
the same graphics from, Emeraldtill about.
Sudden Moon on the 3DS, it waslike, okay, it was a breath of
fresh air, but Sudden Moon iskind of where I took a break and
(10:11):
I kind of came back after Blackand White 2 with, Sword and
Shield and Sword and Shield wasabsolutely, I had a blast with
Sword and Shield, with theconnectivity from Pokemon Go, so
I kind of, you know, I cheated alittle bit, sent over a couple
of Shinies, you know, that Icould pick up and then train,
so, I will say this, in Sword, Ibenched my starter, I did not
like the starters, So when I gotto the point where I could, I
(10:32):
dumped Cinderace like a, like asack of coal.
David Hernandez (10:34):
Oh, wow.
He just didn't like any of thestarters from sword and shield.
Mongoose Gaming (10:37):
yeah, no, none of, I, I, I just picked
Scorbunny just because you hadto, I had to pick one of them.
After that though, when I got,further in the game, I was able
to transfer, you know, myNidoking, one of my Eeveelutions
and all that, I, I dumpedCinderace.
David Hernandez (10:50):
Now you said like, you know, you were
cheating with the Chinese.
I'm like, you're not reallycheating.
You actually did still catch ashiny Pokemon just in Pokemon go
though.
Mongoose Gaming (10:58):
Exactly.
I don't have to put in all thework into sword.
David Hernandez (11:01):
I know there's kind of a, I don't wanna say
debate, but some people considergetting Shinies in Pokemon Go
and transferring them over askind of like you quote unquote
cheating because it's easier.
Are you kind of to that levelwhere it sounds like you're more
laid back to where like, asShinies are Shiny, I'd rather go
ahead and get it over with andget it on my decks.
Mongoose Gaming (11:16):
Yeah.
A shiny is a shiny.
That's how I looked at it.
and in sword, honestly, with,I've logged about, I want to say
a little over 200 hours in swordand shield combined.
I've never actually caught ashiny in sword and shield.
The only shinies I have are, ohyeah, the only shinies I have
are the result of from PokemonGo to home and then into sword
and shield.
David Hernandez (11:33):
Wow, so you wouldn't have any Shinies if it
wasn't for Pokemon Go.
Not even with the Raid Dens?
I know a lot of people would dothe Shiny hunting in Raid Dens.
Mongoose Gaming (11:40):
I did raid dens a lot.
I never got a shiny.
I did quite a few of them.
And when those things were likefirst came on, we're first
really popular.
I didn't get a shiny.
I got a lot of strong, EviePokemon.
Like the Evie's were great, butno shinies.
David Hernandez (11:52):
Now, at the time, you know, we're recording
this, you know, Sword andShield, the Pokemon, they aren't
really in the game yet.
And there's looming rumors ofGigantamaxes and all the
different raids that wereintroduced from that generation.
You know, what are your hopesfor whenever Pokemon Go does
bring the Pokemon from thatgeneration into the game?
Mongoose Gaming (12:08):
it should have been sooner than later.
I don't want to say Pierce, butI was a little more on like,
they should release eachgeneration in order with the
exception of legendaries andmegas.
I get the concept of like, okay,hold back mega Mewtwo for a
little bit.
you know, don't release Lugiawhen you release gen two, that
kind of thing.
Okay.
But the fact that we have over40 Paldean Pokemon and still
only I think what 15 from Galar.
It's like come on We're weessentially skipped a generation
David Hernandez (12:32):
don't even know if we have 15, do we?
I feel like it's less than
Mongoose Gaming (12:34):
It's something like that, but it's it's not
many from Galar.
I just know it's Zashu,Zamazenta, and a couple others
But yeah, I'm really lookingforward Galar because I did like
that.
I'd have to say from Galar swordand shield like Drednaw was one
of my favorites.
I really liked that one reallystrong physical attacker and
just an absolute goofy lookingPokemon.
but yeah, I'm looking forward tothat one.
David Hernandez (12:53):
So, you know, let's come back to Pokemon Go.
You know, Pokemon Go, we're backto 2016.
Did you stick with the gamethroughout, or did you take a
break as well?
Mongoose Gaming (13:00):
I am not even kidding.
My, my then friend, who's not myfiance.
but she can vouch for it.
I have not taken a day off fromplaying the game.
Like I can, if there was a wayto track how many days in a row
I've played the game, I'dprobably no joke, be up there in
the top of the world.
Who's never missed a day.
David Hernandez (13:14):
Do we really want to know, like, the in game
time of how much we've reallyspent in Pokemon Go?
Part of me is kind of gratefulthat I don't.
Mongoose Gaming (13:20):
I honestly, I kind of do, but I can kind of
put interest into perspective.
my gym defending hours is over300, 000 hours defended in a
gym.
and, I'm trying to think here,there's not really another way
to determine it, like how longyou've played the game, just,
just the, just You know, July6th, 2016.
David Hernandez (13:38):
Yeah, well, you know, like a lot of people say,
like, if you look at the medals,the higher the medals are, the
more you play this game, that'skind of usually the best way to
kind of gauge how much time youreally put into this game, you
know, like 300, 000 hours forJim is pretty high up there.
There's, of course, people withhigher, but that takes a lot of
dedication, takes a lot ofputting Pokemon and Jim's being
intentional with playing PokemonGo.
Mongoose Gaming (13:58):
And a good chunk of that.
So it's 300, 000 hours.
So yeah, you're right.
It's a lot of dedication, butthere's actually no joke.
I had a Pokemon traveling oneday and came across this gym.
It was gray.
And I'm like, okay, maybesomebody, I wasn't kind of that
nuisance.
I would knock somebody out of agym, but I would leave it gray
just to be that person, but Icame across this gym.
That was great Driving throughTexas, actually West Texas,
(14:20):
coming from East to West.
And there was this gym I cameacross and again, it was gray.
I dropped in.
Okay.
I'm not even kidding.
I'm actually opening my gamenow.
I was in that gym for no joke1340 days straight.
David Hernandez (14:33):
1300 days would be four years,
Mongoose Gaming (14:35):
Yeah, it was in that gym for over four years
David Hernandez (14:38):
Jeez.
It was in the middle of WestTexas.
I'm
Mongoose Gaming (14:41):
it's just I just noticed this the gym is
like Southern Texas between ElPaso and Dallas.
David Hernandez (14:46):
So what's your way to kind of play Pokemon Go?
Do you like to like shiny hunt?
Are you into gyms?
Mongoose Gaming (14:52):
So, I'm actually more along the lines of
a hardcore Raider.
So of course, you know, thefirst couple of years, everybody
was just catching shiny, noshinies weren't available yet.
So it was just a lot ofcatching.
but when raids came out, I was afiend.
Like I was like, I was doingraids as much as I could.
you know, at the time you were,everyone was level 40.
Alright, well, most people level40, but like, I didn't hit level
40 until about, I want to say,end of 2017, I'd have to go back
(15:16):
and look at my Facebook post,but we would just do raids,
like, get four or five of ustogether, and we actually did
some massive raid trains, but Iwas, like I said, I just had to
do the raids, like, when theraids came out, that was
absolutely crazy, we did that alot.
David Hernandez (15:28):
What was it about the raids that kind of got
you hooked into that part of thegame?
Mongoose Gaming (15:31):
At that time, if you remember the raids, it
was exclusivity.
So the first raids were Moltres,Zapdos, Articuno, and Lugia, Ho
Oh.
And so Lugia is my all timefavorite legendary.
So we would do the birds and thefirst time these raids came out.
I'm not even kidding.
We had in the city of LasCruces, there's less than a
hundred thousand people.
We go to the first Lugia raidand it was, I swear, in this
(15:53):
little church parking lot thatcould fit maybe 50 cars.
We had 400 plus people show upfor the raid.
And so I was team Valor.
I led all the Valor.
My fiance was instinct.
She led all the instinct.
We found a random mystic player.
We were like, Hey, we need youto help out.
So they took all the mysticplayers.
So we had literally had, threeseparate groups of Valor mystic
instinct jump into these raidsat 20 people at a time.
(16:14):
And just to do the one Lugia,because we were all like, we
wanted to make sure we all gotit.
So we were just there as agroup.
And so, to do all those raids,like those 400 people, it took
us about an hour just to do theone raid, and then we moved on.
David Hernandez (16:26):
Just to add some context real quick.
So back in the day when raidsfirst started, the reason why
you had to divide into teamslike he did is that there was
actually a team bonus.
So if you didn't divide into theteams like he did, you would
actually not get as many premierballs.
Cause I think usually theproblem we had here, I'm pretty
sure you probably did here usinginstinct would only get like six
or seven balls while thissticker ballot, we get like, I
(16:47):
think 13 or 14.
We lived in luxury whileinstinct lived in poverty,
basically, but that's why it wasso important to do that.
Mongoose Gaming (16:52):
it's funny you brought that up, because I
watched the original, Honesttrailer for Pokemon Go on Fandom
Games.
And they said the assholes ofteam Valor, the emos of team
Mystic and the paint eaters ofteam Instinct.
David Hernandez (17:04):
Oh my god, that, that, that me?
Mongoose Gaming (17:07):
That was, that was great.
When I heard that, I am so justgoing to go with that.
And every Instinct player Imeet, they're like, you're like,
yeah, we eat paint.
We play.
David Hernandez (17:14):
So, with the raids, you know, you have 400
people.
That's gotta be crazy.
How do you lead that manypeople?
You just kind of filter them in,like, Did y'all go to the next
raid afterwards?
Mongoose Gaming (17:23):
Yeah.
So the way we let them, as youdid, we did a dead poet society.
Oh, captain, my captain, Ijumped up on the ledge.
Like if you are Valor, come overhere.
If you're Instinct, go overthere.
And then so that people werejust like, okay, cool.
And so we did that.
And this is when the, this islike, again, OG raids.
The egg still had the timer onit, so it was an hour timer, so
we had enough time to divideeverybody.
The raid was an hour at thetime, so like, okay, cool.
(17:46):
And that's how we did it, andyeah, after we did that, People
actually, a lot of people wereable to park away from the
church, so it wasn't too badtraffic wise.
But yeah, we went to the nextraid, which was like an Articuno
about 10 minutes down the road,did that, and then we went to,
New Mexico City University.
And just basically dominated thecampus.
we just like, you had hundredsof people walking up and down
the campus doing raids at thatpoint.
David Hernandez (18:07):
Now, something that people will notice if they
check out your content, youactually started getting into
short man raids.
Like you would try to do raidswith the least amount of, people
as possible.
Can you tell me a little bitabout that?
Mongoose Gaming (18:16):
So that started, when I met my friend
Nico in El Paso, Texas about,2018.
he was the top player in El Pasoand this guy in 2018 already had
5, 000 raids.
so he had Pokemon built to takethese raids out with a minimal
team.
Like he was, he, he had his ownlittle group of about six
people.
They would just go around ElPaso taking out these raids,
(18:38):
just like that.
So met them, you know, headedoff.
We were friends and yeah.
So I became a part of thatlittle raid group.
he would show me, he goes,here's, here's what I do.
Here's how I divide my Pokemon.
Okay.
And so now actually he and Iended up dominating the El Paso
area leaderboard in a district.
They had a raid leaderboard andhe and I are one and two.
In terms of total solo raids andtotal group raids for fastest
(18:58):
time.
And at this point, except forMegalatius, Megalatius, and I
believe Lugia.
There's no raid I can't duo withmy fiance.
Or with anybody else that's onmy friends list as far as best
friends go.
David Hernandez (19:12):
do you also include that with party play as
well?
Mongoose Gaming (19:14):
No, like we didn't, so at party play we did,
we do like when there's a biggergroup, just to get the raid done
quicker.
But like when my fiance and Ihave duo to raid, I actually, we
don't, we don't, we forget tojump into a party, so we just go
and do the raid.
So we actually don't have partypower.
So if we did, obviously we'd getit a little bit quicker, but,
yeah, no, I actually, we, sheand I don't use, my friend, his
name is Wicked Deebo is anotherone that I've raided with.
(19:35):
And, yeah, we just forget to doparty play.
David Hernandez (19:38):
You've been listening to As the Pokeball
Turns.
We're going to take a quickbreak.
We'll be right back.
(20:45):
You talk about your fiance.
So did y'all met through Pokemonby chance?
Mongoose Gaming (20:49):
we did.
David Hernandez (20:50):
Oh, you got to tell me this.
I love a good love story withPokemon.
Mongoose Gaming (20:52):
Oh man.
the game came out and put aboutthe first few months, I was, I
wasn't a loner since I had whereI was working a lot.
So I'd actually started goingback to college.
I was working, so I would playin between classes or on my way
to work.
And so finally, during that, myfirst, break in school, I just
walked around NMSU one weekendand I saw the group.
So that's where I met her, mynow best friend Josh, who I was
(21:13):
actually his best man.
He used to be my best man.
So yeah, we, we all met as likea single group and, Yeah, she
and I met through Pokemon, abouta year later we started dating,
so that was about 2016, so yeah,about 2017, halfway through,
we've been together, it'll be 7years in August.
David Hernandez (21:28):
Wow.
And y'all play Pokemon gotogether and y'all go out and do
these raids and everything.
Mongoose Gaming (21:32):
religiously, we have a 4 year old son, he has
his own account, he plays withus, so, yeah, he also, he can
also throw a curveball too, so.
David Hernandez (21:40):
Hey, howdy.
So he's four years old and he'salready throwing curve balls.
That's crazy.
Mongoose Gaming (21:44):
Yeah, and he does have bragging rights over
me.
His, he's got a shadow shinyMewtwo while my fiance and I
have done so many shadow Mewtworaids.
He's got a shadow shiny on us.
David Hernandez (21:53):
Now, I gotta ask, so your wife is Instinct.
You're, you're Team Valor,right?
What did your son choose?
Mongoose Gaming (21:59):
He chose, we let him choose.
We just pulled up the screen andhe chose Valor.
I didn't, we, neither one of usinfluenced him.
Yeah.
We just put, we just said, thisis red, blue, and yellow.
He's like, okay.
He sat there and no joke.
He sat there a couple, likeabout 10, 15 seconds and he
picked Valor.
We're like, are you're like,you're sure you want the red
one?
He's all, yes.
It's like, okay,
David Hernandez (22:17):
Wow.
You know, it's funny how me,you, we grew up with Pokemon.
Our biggest challenge is tryingto figure out which Kanto
starter.
Your son is trying to figure outwhich team to join.
Mongoose Gaming (22:25):
exactly.
David Hernandez (22:26):
What do y'all do as family?
Like, do y'all like, go to parksand play at times?
Like, what does that kind ofdynamic look like with Pokemon
Go?
Mongoose Gaming (22:33):
So we actually, conveniently, live a five minute
walk from a pretty large park.
So we'll, just go walk overthere, play for a little bit.
He'll play for, I'm not, he's afour year old.
He's attention spans are thatlarge, but he'll play for about
10 minutes and then he'll goplay in the playground.
But then the playground he playson has like five stops around
it.
So we can just watch him andwe'll walk around the park and
walk around the playground andspend stops and catch the stuff.
David Hernandez (22:54):
So he plays on his own though.
Yeah.
Y'all don't really help him atall.
Mongoose Gaming (22:57):
Oh no, we only help him get set up, but yeah,
we put the iPad with him, andhe'll sit there, he'll catch,
he's picked his own outfit, hehas, you know, he knows what
Pokemon to transfer, sometimeshe evolves too many, so he
doesn't have any candy left, butyeah,
David Hernandez (23:11):
Do you also watch the anime together?
I assume.
Mongoose Gaming (23:13):
oh yeah, he, he loved, He loved the original
animes.
So what we could find for ourstream, it's hard to find a real
lot of the original Pokemonanime, but we did get, and
Netflix does have the original,Pokemon, so he watched that.
He loved it.
his favorite character actuallyis not Ash, it's actually Go
from the new Master's series,the Master's Journeys.
David Hernandez (23:32):
Oh, really?
Mongoose Gaming (23:32):
he loves Go, but we started him first with
Pokemon, you know, Indigoseries.
We found a couple more likeAmazon where Ash is in Johto or
Hoenn, but, yeah, his favoriteso far has been, watching
Master's Journeys and hisfavorite is Go.
David Hernandez (23:46):
You know, we talked about how both you and
me, we grew up with Pokemon.
We grew up with, you know,hysteria back in the nineties.
We grew up, you grew upthroughout Pokemon and now you
got your son experiencingPokemon.
What is it like to kind of seethat?
Interested in Pokemon come outof your son
Mongoose Gaming (24:00):
it's interesting because it's hard
for me to gauge it because he'sexperiencing this at four years
old.
When we were four, we wereeating paste.
David Hernandez (24:08):
were team instinct
Mongoose Gaming (24:09):
yeah, exactly.
But he's four years old and he'sunderstanding this.
So he's able to sit there on aniPad and play Pokemon go.
And I can say he's not an iPadkid.
We just, that's the device welet him use.
And so he's an experience of thefour years old.
I get to experience, you know,like eight, nine years old.
So it's fun to see him justreact the way he's reacting.
When we're sitting on a game boywith one, not even 151, but like
(24:32):
148 Pokemon.
And just grinding our way tobeating the elite four for the
hundredth time.
And he's sitting here, like gotPokemon that would decimate our
team from back in the day.
David Hernandez (24:41):
Now any plans for when he turns 10 years old
that you're gonna send him onhis own and try to become become
a Pokemon master
Mongoose Gaming (24:47):
no, yeah, actually.
Yeah.
So he's, he does want to be aPokemon master at the moment.
Like he's got Pokemon stuff.
He's like, he loves his stuff,Charles or stuff Venusaur, but
he will be picking his ownstarter at 10.
So what we're going to do iskind of get like a few
generations worth of startersand kind of narrow it down, but
you pick your favorite fromhere, here, here, And then, but
he will eventually pick hisoverall starter at 10.
David Hernandez (25:09):
Oh, that'd be awesome.
That's kind of a cool familytradition.
I like it.
Who thought of that?
Did you think of it, or?
Mongoose Gaming (25:14):
Oh, my both my fiance and I, she loves Pokemon.
Her favorite Pokemon is Eevee.
I swear to God, you could giveher a shiny Eevee, a regular
Eevee for trade.
She will trade you a shinyMewtwo or anything just to get
an Eevee.
David Hernandez (25:27):
Oh, really?
Thanks.
Mongoose Gaming (25:28):
She loves Evie that much.
David Hernandez (25:29):
her love for Eevee's deep
Mongoose Gaming (25:31):
It is hardcore.
and of course it's almost likemy love for Nittle King, but I'm
like, I'm cool.
Like my ni king, like Pokemoncards.
I have her just having NitoKing, like she will take Evie
any which way she can get EvieIt
David Hernandez (25:43):
What about you?
What's your favorite Pokemon?
Mongoose Gaming (25:46):
is Nittle king, hardcore
David Hernandez (25:47):
Oh, so it is Needleking.
Mongoose Gaming (25:48):
It is Nittle King.
Yeah.
So I have, a friend of mine, 3Dprinted, a ni king, a shiny new
king for me.
I had a custom ni king cardmade.
I have a couple old schoolNidoking cards from back in the
90s.
one's a crystal Nidoking, one'sa Giovanni's Nidoking, first
edition.
So yeah, those are ones that arelike graded and I keep those,
those are like my keepsakes.
David Hernandez (26:07):
It's unfortunate, you know, when you
talk about just the trading cardgame, I don't really remember
much Nidoking good card art, youknow?
Like the first one, which isbase set, it's just a standard,
image.
There's nothing really toospecial to it.
I think Giovanni has it likejust standing forward in a
different angle.
It's not really, there's nothingreally different from what I can
remember.
Mongoose Gaming (26:26):
So that's generally, that's pretty much
true.
Like the, like, and I have thecards just because again,
Nidoking is my favorite, but Isee where you're going on that
one.
My, I have to say like the mostunique Nidoking design is
definitely the crystal one fromthe Aquapolis series.
Because, A, it's, it's gotdifferent typings, it's not,
it's, it's showing like thecolorless versus like the plant
or poison.
but it just looks way morehardcore with the aqua polis
(26:48):
series than it does any othercard.
And actually I have a great, Ihave a great story regarding
this Nidoking.
So I bought this Nidoking off ofeBay.
I asked my fiance at the timefor permission because it was
like a little splurge buy, butit's just, it's a, it's a PSA
five Aquapolis Nidoking.
And it was one of, it's one ofmy two favorite Nidoking cards
ever.
So I was like, okay, she's like,yeah, go ahead and get it.
I'm like, great.
(27:08):
So I bought it and I've had it.
so when the, when I bought it,we were actually in the process
of, I got promoted my job.
So we're moving up toAlbuquerque.
And one night I'm at work and mytruck actually got broken into,
got a good old Albuquerque.
So they actually stole Nidokingbecause the Nidoking was in
there because I was going tosend it off the next morning to
CGC for re encapsulation throughtheir system.
David Hernandez (27:28):
Just to re emphasize, this is a good story,
right?
It's not a bad story.
Okay.
Mongoose Gaming (27:31):
this is a good story.
so they did, unfortunately brokeinto the truck.
I, as this is where I didn'tnotice because like they punched
the lockout, I didn't notice.
So like I literally drove homethat night.
well, drove to my friend'shouse, so I was staying with it,
and then I was like, just wentto sleep, wake up, and all of a
sudden, I'm like, wait, I gottaunlock the truck, I'm like,
wait, why is it not clicking?
So I go over there, I see thelock is punched out, I'm like,
(27:52):
oh crap, so that's when Irealized in the morning, it was
broken into, they stolebasically everything minus the
stereo, which, I'll be honest,there wasn't much to steal in
the truck anyway, but.
They obviously got the valuablething.
So, I was, I was devastated.
my wife got the idea to ask theAlbuquerque community for help.
So, Albuquerque obviously has aPokemon card page, as well as a
Pokemon Go page.
(28:13):
And we asked, like, hey, here'sa picture of the card.
We're like, we know it's a longshot, but if anybody comes
across this card, you know, wehave proof it's mine, through
the PSA, it's been reregistered, through all that.
And people are like, you know,we'll keep an eye out.
I'm not kidding that two weekslater, there was a hit, this guy
was trying to sell it onFacebook and he didn't even
break it out of the case.
Like, so this guy hits me onFacebook.
(28:33):
Hey, is this your card?
And I'm like, I looked at it andhe sent me the post straight off
the serial numbers matched.
I'm like, there's no way.
And.
Yeah, so I messaged the guy.
I was like, Hey, I messaged allnonchalant.
I'm like, Hey, you know, Imentioned this card, you know,
could we meet up so I could takea look at it?
He's like, yeah, and he waslike, he was lowballing it.
Cause this car is like a four or500 card.
He's like, yeah, I'm only asking250 for it.
(28:54):
I'm like, Oh, you poor sad soul.
so.
I had actually filed a policereport and, I had actually
called the cops and told them Iwant a meeting with the guy and
the APD dispatched because shegoes, okay, she goes, let us
know where you're meeting.
We'll send an officer out.
She goes, if you feel in dangerat all, she goes, leave the
sale.
But I'm like, okay, but she'slike, if you can get the card
back, get the card and a cop,you know, officer will meet you.
I'm like, okay, great.
(29:15):
So I go and meet the guy and Iparked my truck like half a mile
down the road, so he wouldn'tsee it in case it was the same
person.
I mean, I'm at this gas stationand like, Hey, how's it going?
Shake hands.
So again, doesn't recognize you.
Didn't nothing.
So it's just like a typical saleand he made the mistake.
He had, I was like, yeah, I cantake a look at the card.
He hands me the card.
And at that point, I'm like, I'mnot giving it back.
So I'm like, there's no way I'mlooking at it.
(29:37):
And this and that, and he's alltell me about it.
I'm like, man, this is so great.
I'm like, this card looks sofamiliar.
He goes, really?
I was like, yeah, cause it's theone that was stolen from my
truck.
And he paused deer in theheadlights.
he goes, he goes, this cardwasn't stolen.
I'm like, oh, it was.
I'm like, I've got proof.
This card is mine.
And he goes, oh yeah, show me.
So I pulled up my eBay account,PSA and all that.
I was like, serial number ismatching.
(29:58):
And hell man, it was.
Great.
Because he sat there trying todeny the whole thing.
Oh, well, some kind of casinosold me this.
I'm like, yeah, sure.
And it was funny because I, whathe didn't see is that I had
dispatch on the phone onspeaker.
So they were actually listeningto the whole conversation.
This guy gave me his first andlast name even.
(30:20):
And so I was like, they were,they were kind of like, so he
had a buddy with him and theywere kind of like, still giving
me a stink.
Like, there's no way this isyour car.
I'm like, dude, I have theproof.
And I'm like, by the way, I haveAlbuquerque dispatch on the
phone.
Is there anything you want tosay?
And the dispatch was like, shegoes, if I were you guys, you'd
probably want to stay therebecause if you really did get in
front of a casino, we'll needyour information for the report.
(30:40):
So
David Hernandez (30:40):
What?
Do they stick around?
Mongoose Gaming (30:42):
no, hell no.
They took off.
David Hernandez (30:44):
Dang!
Mongoose Gaming (30:46):
So I was actually, I got my card back and
yeah, now I'm not, I'm notsending it back in anywhere.
It's going to stay in this PSAcase.
And that's my story for thatcard.
Like that's what, that's whathappened with
David Hernandez (30:56):
Have you been to any live events by chance
Mongoose Gaming (30:58):
like Okay.
As far as like when I had sixhosted, no, I haven't been to
any of those.
So I never got a chance to go toChicago or go to New York or
anything like that.
But there was one, that myfiance and I, and our best
friend, we actually held a gofest on our own for the city of
Las Cruces back in 2017.
Yeah.
So this one was actually, kindof like a special one.
(31:19):
So we were like, we got kind of.
We couldn't go to Chicago.
We heard, you know, of coursethat happened in July of 2017,
the first go fast, we saw, youknow, saw like, you know, what
happened, the bad, the good, thebad, and the ugly there.
So we kind of got in our heads.
Like, what if we do somethingfor the city of Las Cruces?
Cause nobody went.
So I'm not even kidding.
We took months of planning.
We rented out a park, we gotpermits and everything, and we
(31:40):
were advertising for this, likewhat we did.
Like we had prizes, we weregiving out, we had sponsors
locally that were helping usout.
And so we were expecting about300 people.
and it was a 5 entry.
The 5 was used to like basicallyhelp recoup costs.
But then it was also like, youknow, pay 5.
You're entered into the rafflenow for all these prizes.
And, like I said, about 300people and We had over 2000 show
(32:03):
up.
We had
David Hernandez (32:04):
What?
2, 000 people showed up for aGoFest in La Cruces?
Mongoose Gaming (32:09):
For GoFest, that wasn't like, that wasn't
like Niantic approved per se.
It was just, that was justsomething we set up.
So like I said, we had 2000people show up because we had a
line for the ticket booth andwe're like, damn, that's a lot
of people.
So I'm on the mic on, on thestage of the park directing
everybody.
My fiance is up helping withtickets and helping the vendors.
my best friend was at the ticketbooth doing all the tickets and
(32:31):
stuff.
We had, people provide food.
We had sprint, actually thecorporate sprint store helped us
out bringing water and snacks.
we had, dominoes at the timeprovide food for us.
My work was, one of those, eventrentals.
So they gave us a bounce housefor the fun for kids.
And all we did was we lured upthe park.
We actually, we didn't intendto, but we timed it right.
(32:52):
We had a couple of raids at thetime.
So we had about three or fourraids in the park.
And yeah, we just had peoplewalk around, like, you know, we
had concerts from our shinies,we had concerts from our
catches, and it went off, likeit was, it was a huge success.
Like I said, we had over 2000people show up because we
counted everything the next day,how many tickets we sold.
We're like, wow, that wasactually crazy.
So just an unsanctioned Nianticevent.
(33:13):
And that's what we ended uphaving happen was, yeah, that
made people show up.
David Hernandez (33:16):
I'm impressed you had enough pizza from
Domino's to be able to feed 2,000 people.
That's crazy.
Mongoose Gaming (33:20):
Yeah, it was, it was actually really crazy.
and we had a, we had a localcafe sponsor food and,
David Hernandez (33:25):
Also, it wasn't just Domino's.
It was different
Mongoose Gaming (33:27):
yeah, it was Domino's in this place, that, it
was a cafe that put sponsor.
They did great.
They helped us out a lot.
sprint did bring enough waterfor everybody.
So that wasn't a problem.
the level 40 badges, sprintbrought those.
So if you sprint with giving outthose, those old level 40
badges, I don't know if you got,yeah, so everybody who was level
40, if you hit level 40 that dayor whatever, they gave you one,
it's obviously had to show youraccount.
But the thing was, we had peoplefrom Albuquerque, New Mexico,
(33:50):
from Deming, New Mexico, ElPaso, Texas show up for this
event and it was crazy.
David Hernandez (33:56):
like, what was it like to kind of expect only a
couple hundred and get 2, 000people?
Like,
Mongoose Gaming (34:00):
Oh, it was.
David Hernandez (34:01):
Were you scared?
Or
Mongoose Gaming (34:02):
It was total shell shock.
Cause like, I'm up there andI'm, I'm okay with public
speaking.
So I'm up on the stage and wehave the DJ behind us and yeah,
my, my fiancee's just like, Imean, she's all.
She's like, look at me.
I'm like, we'll see the line ofthe ticket table and booth.
And it was like, Oh God, there'sa lot of people coming in.
And so, yeah, we intended tostart around like four o'clock.
We didn't officially start tillfive.
(34:23):
Cause we had to get everybody,in and then, yeah, it just took
off from there.
It was, it was a lot of fun.
David Hernandez (34:27):
I mean, all things considered, you started
faster than the one in Chicagoin Niantic, so Starting an hour
late compared to six or never ispretty good.
Mongoose Gaming (34:35):
It started, started late, went off without a
hitch.
Like there was no cell phone,there were no cell issues.
There were nothing like that.
People came in and were able toplay without an issue.
David Hernandez (34:42):
Any hopes of trying to recreate that, or is
it just too time consuming?
Mongoose Gaming (34:46):
It's time consuming.
I'm trying something up here inAlbuquerque.
we have one community ambassadorup here.
He's been leading his communityfor a while.
I work at a place that's willingto sponsor food and stuff.
So like when I go do an eventfor Pokemon.
My regional director has alreadygiven the okay.
She's like go take food.
She goes do food drops.
She goes put our name out thereShe goes hell tell Pokemon
players.
They get a discount when theycome in.
(35:08):
So
David Hernandez (35:09):
Well Mongoose Gaming, you've been a wonderful
guest.
I gotta ask the last question Ievery guest I've asked lately.
Say somebody's coming to NewMexico and they're going to
challenge you in a Pokémonbattle.
What six Pokémon are you goingto bring?
Mongoose Gaming (35:21):
og favorite team.
I'm gonna bring in if it's a sixon six like that.
It's gonna be Charizard, Agron,Arcanine, Nidoking, and Lugia.
David Hernandez (35:30):
There you go, guys.
If you challenge MongooseGaming, you got those six
Pokémon, so come prepared.
Thank you for coming on thepodcast.
Before you go, if people want toconnect with you, if they want
to check out your podcast, wherecan they go?
By all means, please plug away.
Mongoose Gaming (35:42):
they can find me at youtube.
com forward slash at mongoosegaming burrow.
That's got pretty mucheverything content wise I've
ever produced.
you'll find my podcasts, mygameplay from Pokemon go from
Xbox, from Nintendo switch.
anything like that is all on myYouTube.
And then my Twitch is a twitch.
tv slash mongoose gaming burrowis also.
And yeah, that's where the magichappens.
David Hernandez (36:04):
Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball
Turns.
If you want to support the show,consider becoming a Patreon by
either clicking the link in thedescription or going to patreon.
com slash asthepokeballturns.
Now, I'm actually going to NewYork City Go Fest, and hopefully
I get to meet every single oneof you.
If you meet me, make sure to getyourself a free Necrozma
(36:26):
wristband.
I'll be giving out those toeverybody that I run into, so I
definitely want to make sure Ican give it to the people who
listen to this show.
If for some reason you can'tmake it to GoFest New York City,
don't sweat it.
Contact me on Twitter,Instagram, Facebook, whatever
have you and let me know like,Hey, David, I can't make it to
GoFest.
Can I still get a wristband?
(36:46):
And I'll make sure you get onebecause I want to make sure that
everyone who listens to thisshow gets one for GoFest.
So please hit me up if you can'tmake it.
Until next time.
my name is Greg with Mongoose Gaming and this is
my Pokemon story.
David Hernandez (00:43):
Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we
interview people about theirexperience with Pokemon.
My name is David Hernandez.
Today, I'm joined by the co hostfor off the wall nerds podcast,
Mongoose Gaming.
Welcome to the show.
Mongoose Gaming (00:57):
Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it.
David Hernandez (00:59):
Anytime, and you know, we were talking about
it before the show, you're thesecond non Pokemon focused
podcaster I've had.
And in the same breath, Youcover nerding and gaming and
stuff like that with yourpodcast.
And I told you, Pokemon's kindof that branch of nerdom.
So we kind of are like distantcousins.
Wouldn't you say that?
Mongoose Gaming (01:15):
Yeah, I agree with that one.
Totally.
David Hernandez (01:17):
What made you want to start doing podcasting
real briefly?
Like what made you want to diveinto it?
Mongoose Gaming (01:21):
So, about five, six years ago when I started
doing this, generally my in gamenames of Pokemon and like stuff
in general has always been likeMongoose.
And I kind of got it to a pointwhere I was heavily involved in
the community of Pokemon Go andPokemon in general.
and then I met a couple offriends online who had their own
podcast and when they actually,they decided to split up, they
kind of like did their wholeout, ran our course.
I met this guy, Justin, and heand I decided to start our own
(01:43):
podcast, which was, as youintroduced it, Off The Wall
Nerds.
And we've been doing that fornow for the last couple of
years.
So, yeah, it was just somethingwe popped in our head, like,
Hey, let's do it for fun.
And that's basically what we do.
David Hernandez (01:54):
And you know, when it comes to the Pokemon
specifically, like how much of adedicated fan are you?
Like, what does the fandom looklike on your end?
Mongoose Gaming (01:59):
on my end, so me, I'm a hardcore fan.
So the communities I was in, soin California, growing up, a lot
of my friends, we were at thetime early two thousands, it was
collecting the cards.
It was still on game boys, linkcables.
There was still a lot of fungetting in trouble at school for
having the game boys.
So, that, that's where it kindof started up here though, with,
like Pokemon Go just as how itexploded because being one of
(02:21):
the OG fans, you know, we'relike, Oh, when Pokemon Go came
out, we lost our minds.
Like, Oh man, we're going to getred, blue, yellow.
We're getting all, you know, allthe generations and stuff like
that.
So it was really, it was more ofa dream come true for us,
David Hernandez (02:31):
you mentioned how, you know, for, it was a
dream come true and I heard thata lot, you know, when Pokemon Go
first launched that, you know,we finally get Pokemon in the
real world.
We get to kind of go and traveljust like Ash Ketchum at 10
years old.
You know, it sounds like thatwas kind of what you were
expecting.
What was it like in those earlydays to play Pokemon Go to kind
of live up to that dream?
Mongoose Gaming (02:50):
Oh man.
I was running into stop signs.
I was having to look, I washaving to look three ways and a
crosswalk.
Cause I'm like, Oh, I'm about tocross the street and not paying
attention.
it was a lot of fun when itfirst came out.
Cause while the tracking systemis way better today, it was
probably a bit more fun then,cause then you really had to
explore like, you're like, okay,I don't know where this,
Growlithe is.
I'm gonna have to go down thisstreet.
I'm gonna have to turn lefthere.
(03:10):
So you had the, you know, thefootprint.
So it was a lot of walkingaround.
It was, it was quite a bit.
David Hernandez (03:16):
you say running the stop signs, I'm assuming
walking to them, or are youactually in a car or just like,
Oh, ran over the stop sign.
Mongoose Gaming (03:22):
Oh, it was walking into them.
Just like, you know, walkingaround.
You go to catch that Pokemon.
All of a sudden I look up and I,you know, kind of stop myself.
Oh man, I was right in the stopsign.
And I just kind of go around itlike nothing happened.
David Hernandez (03:33):
I always called myself to where, you know, I was
the same way where I was gluedto my phone, trying to see what
Pokemon would pop up.
And I would always hit myself onlike, we have like these stone
benches here in my area wherethe bus stops are.
And I'd be like, where did thatbus stop come from?
It's always been there, but younever noticed it.
Cause you always saw it when youwere always, I was always
looking at my phone.
So that's when I startedlearning about those.
Mongoose Gaming (03:52):
Yeah.
Same.
There were street, there werestreet signs on my, I've never
seen these street names up onthis particular corner.
I'm like, Oh yeah, well at thiscorner now.
it helped explore the area a lotmore.
David Hernandez (04:01):
Oh, did you become more familiar with the
area thanks to the game?
Mongoose Gaming (04:04):
Oh, definitely.
that, that helped me come waymore familiar.
Like, and so I lived on thestreet called moon gate.
That's the only street I knew totake my exit.
Get on my street playing Pokemongo now all of a sudden I knew
like the 30 other streets thatwere around there So yeah, it
helped out a lot.
David Hernandez (04:18):
You know, that helped me too, because I worked
in downtown at the time.
And because downtown's alwaysusually the better areas for
around the world generally toplay Pokemon Go, I knew my
downtown like the back of myhand.
But whenever people would comein who weren't familiar, I'd be
like, how do you not know this?
And I'm thinking like, oh, theonly reason why I know this is
because of Pokemon Go.
Mongoose Gaming (04:37):
Yeah that that same thing was so I lived in Las
Cruces, New Mexico for a whileThat's how it was like it helped
me explore the city and then allof a sudden after about two
three years I knew that cityextremely well somebody say oh,
where's this like I could pointit to it on a map immediately
because the game Oh, I don'tknow where this is.
I'm like, don't worry.
I got you.
I'm like, and I would literallywould actually from memory,
create a map of like, okay, thisPokestop leads here.
(04:58):
This Pokestop leads to this gym.
So it was, it became easier todo it that way.
David Hernandez (05:02):
Do you still like, see the gyms and the
pokestops in your mind wheneveryou drive through?
I don't know if you're still inLa Cruces, but even in your
current area where you're atnow, do you still like, see them
in your head?
Mongoose Gaming (05:10):
Oh yeah, of course.
I'm like, because that's how wetell, that's how we tell
directions to each other.
Now, basically if I know it's,in the Pokemon go community up
here where I live now inAlbuquerque, it's just like,
Hey, I'm at this park.
Like what park am I?
Okay.
Hold on.
It's called the.
It's called the meme gym orsomething like that.
Like, Oh, I know where that'sat.
And then they had there.
So it's, it went from streetsand addresses to, Oh, I know
(05:31):
where that gym is at.
David Hernandez (05:33):
Now, you said you're from New Mexico, and me,
I'm from Texas, so we're kind ofdistant cousins, you'll relate
to this question.
How do you play when it gets alittle more, warmer in the
summer months?
Hahaha!
Mongoose Gaming (05:45):
so,
David Hernandez (05:45):
Just get a water hose and just spray
yourself down?
Mongoose Gaming (05:47):
exactly.
yeah, just walk around withthat.
Walk around with water was thekey.
Like it's one thing in thewinter, cause you're moving
around, dress a little warm.
You can keep warm like that, butwhen it's hot out, it's hot out.
So yeah, you just walk aroundwith a, you know, a water
backpack with on your back anddouse yourself and walk around
and find some shade when youcan.
Yeah.
David Hernandez (06:03):
Wow, so you still walk around even in the
hot summers for this game.
Mongoose Gaming (06:06):
Oh, yeah.
Oh, definitely.
Especially with the, especiallywith GoFest coming out in the
middle of summer.
Yeah, I'm going to be out andabout walking around on that
one.
David Hernandez (06:13):
Dude, you must wear a lot of sunscreen to
Mongoose Gaming (06:16):
I don't, thankfully I don't need it.
I've got a dark complexion, so,I'm like, I sit there, I'm like,
I don't, I don't burn, I justget darker.
David Hernandez (06:21):
So real quick, before we dive further into
Pokemon Go, let's talk aboutyour history with Pokemon.
So you said like how you startedwith the original games, I'm
assuming red, blue, and yellow,which game did you start with
out of the three?
Mongoose Gaming (06:31):
when I was younger with my brother, our mom
bought us both Pokemon.
She goes, what do you guys want?
And without even me and himdidn't even look at each other.
I just said red, he said blue.
So that made it easier for her.
so she got us red and blue,each, one game, a GameBoy
pocket, not the GameBoy color,the big GameBoy, but the GameBoy
pocket,
David Hernandez (06:48):
That's the black and white one, right?
Mongoose Gaming (06:50):
but I got the blue game boy and he got the red
one.
So just a little fun in color.
David Hernandez (06:54):
What the hell really?
Mongoose Gaming (06:57):
I think the blue game was red version.
He took the red game boy, theblue version.
David Hernandez (07:01):
Ooh, what about the starters?
Did y'all choose the samestarters, different starters?
Mongoose Gaming (07:04):
so I was actually a little unorthodox in
my starters.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I love Charmander, Bulbasaur,Squirtle.
Those will always be my OGfavorites, but when I did play,
I actually relegated Charmander,which I did pick originally, but
my, my, my go to.
Through any playthrough ofPokemon I've ever done in my
life has always been Nidoran andNidoking.
David Hernandez (07:23):
Really?
Mongoose Gaming (07:25):
cause Nidoking is an absolute monster that's so
underrated cause it can learnmost of the HMs.
It can learn ground moves,poison moves, it can learn ice,
all that.
It has such a huge movepool.
when I got that and made it toBrock, I'm like, oh, you know,
it had double kick.
I'm like, cool, it'll take outBrock.
And we got to Misty and allthat, but then I had like a, I
(07:47):
think I had like Bellsprout atthe time, you know, moving your
way through Moon Cave and allthat, but yeah, Nidoking was
just an absolute monster at thatpoint, but yeah, I always
relegated Charizard to numbertwo, so like, if you look at my
levels, my Nidoking was always ahigher level than my original
starter.
David Hernandez (08:01):
So, you still kept the starter in your party,
you just always focused more onNidoran whenever you could catch
it.
Mongoose Gaming (08:07):
Exactly, yes.
David Hernandez (08:08):
Oh, okay, I thought you benched your
starter.
I'm like, dude, this is mindblowing.
I've never heard anybody saythey benched their starter
before in my life.
Mongoose Gaming (08:15):
okay, I have benched the starter, it was
actually when I started playing,Gen 3, Hoenn, with Emerald,
Ruby, Sapphire.
I got to about, I want to say,sail port, I believe.
And that's actually when Istarted benching my starters.
Cause I did at that point, I hadFlygon.
I could get other stronger typePokemon.
So I was doing that.
I actually benched my gen threestarters.
David Hernandez (08:35):
well that's more understandable if you did
Gen 1 though.
Dude, you would be a renegaderight now.
Like, Gen 1, it's like, I wouldsay it's almost a sin if you did
bench your starter.
Like, that's why I was moreprepared for that.
Later gens, I can understand.
Gen 1, ooooh, if somebody saysyou benched your Bulbasaur,
Charmander Squirtle, you'd be onyour own.
Mongoose Gaming (08:52):
Yeah.
You would be, you'd be alienatedfrom your friends.
David Hernandez (08:55):
Now I will say though, I actually agree with
you on Nidoking cause I usedNidoking myself.
I always used it in conjunction,oddly enough, with Charmander.
Because they kind of both, theonly downside they were both
weak against water, whichhelped, which sucked against
Misty.
But I like Nidoking as wellbecause Nidoran always learned
Horn Attack at level 8.
but then it evolved intoNidorino at level 16.
And it was just a very strongattacker for the early game.
(09:17):
And even late game it wasn't toobad cause like you said it
learns serve, it learnedstrength, and the stuff you kind
of need.
Mongoose Gaming (09:22):
and that's, and that's, I'm glad you brought up
with Misty again, even though itwas weak to water, if you didn't
get the Moonstone right away,like you didn't use it right
away, Nidorino was actually verystrong against Misty, because it
was just pure poison, so waterwas doing neutral damage against
it, so I evolved my Nidokingafter Misty, so then when you go
to Lieutenant Surge, it has theground typing, and his electric
moves won't do anything to youat that point.
David Hernandez (09:42):
so we talked about, you know, the first
generation, it sounds like youat least played till gen three.
Did you continue to playthroughout the entire team or
did you take a break at somepoint with Pokemon?
Mongoose Gaming (09:49):
I took a little bit of a break about, I want to
say sun and moon.
I did like, and I did like genthree a lot.
Holbein was, I was like a reallya breath of fresh air.
Cause, gold, silver crystal aremy favorites, but like you got
to rehash Canto.
So it was a lot of fun when genthree came out and kind of had
the same graphics from, Emeraldtill about.
Sudden Moon on the 3DS, it waslike, okay, it was a breath of
fresh air, but Sudden Moon iskind of where I took a break and
(10:11):
I kind of came back after Blackand White 2 with, Sword and
Shield and Sword and Shield wasabsolutely, I had a blast with
Sword and Shield, with theconnectivity from Pokemon Go, so
I kind of, you know, I cheated alittle bit, sent over a couple
of Shinies, you know, that Icould pick up and then train,
so, I will say this, in Sword, Ibenched my starter, I did not
like the starters, So when I gotto the point where I could, I
(10:32):
dumped Cinderace like a, like asack of coal.
David Hernandez (10:34):
Oh, wow.
He just didn't like any of thestarters from sword and shield.
Mongoose Gaming (10:37):
yeah, no, none of, I, I, I just picked
Scorbunny just because you hadto, I had to pick one of them.
After that though, when I got,further in the game, I was able
to transfer, you know, myNidoking, one of my Eeveelutions
and all that, I, I dumpedCinderace.
David Hernandez (10:50):
Now you said like, you know, you were
cheating with the Chinese.
I'm like, you're not reallycheating.
You actually did still catch ashiny Pokemon just in Pokemon go
though.
Mongoose Gaming (10:58):
Exactly.
I don't have to put in all thework into sword.
David Hernandez (11:01):
I know there's kind of a, I don't wanna say
debate, but some people considergetting Shinies in Pokemon Go
and transferring them over askind of like you quote unquote
cheating because it's easier.
Are you kind of to that levelwhere it sounds like you're more
laid back to where like, asShinies are Shiny, I'd rather go
ahead and get it over with andget it on my decks.
Mongoose Gaming (11:16):
Yeah.
A shiny is a shiny.
That's how I looked at it.
and in sword, honestly, with,I've logged about, I want to say
a little over 200 hours in swordand shield combined.
I've never actually caught ashiny in sword and shield.
The only shinies I have are, ohyeah, the only shinies I have
are the result of from PokemonGo to home and then into sword
and shield.
David Hernandez (11:33):
Wow, so you wouldn't have any Shinies if it
wasn't for Pokemon Go.
Not even with the Raid Dens?
I know a lot of people would dothe Shiny hunting in Raid Dens.
Mongoose Gaming (11:40):
I did raid dens a lot.
I never got a shiny.
I did quite a few of them.
And when those things were likefirst came on, we're first
really popular.
I didn't get a shiny.
I got a lot of strong, EviePokemon.
Like the Evie's were great, butno shinies.
David Hernandez (11:52):
Now, at the time, you know, we're recording
this, you know, Sword andShield, the Pokemon, they aren't
really in the game yet.
And there's looming rumors ofGigantamaxes and all the
different raids that wereintroduced from that generation.
You know, what are your hopesfor whenever Pokemon Go does
bring the Pokemon from thatgeneration into the game?
Mongoose Gaming (12:08):
it should have been sooner than later.
I don't want to say Pierce, butI was a little more on like,
they should release eachgeneration in order with the
exception of legendaries andmegas.
I get the concept of like, okay,hold back mega Mewtwo for a
little bit.
you know, don't release Lugiawhen you release gen two, that
kind of thing.
Okay.
But the fact that we have over40 Paldean Pokemon and still
only I think what 15 from Galar.
It's like come on We're weessentially skipped a generation
David Hernandez (12:32):
don't even know if we have 15, do we?
I feel like it's less than
Mongoose Gaming (12:34):
It's something like that, but it's it's not
many from Galar.
I just know it's Zashu,Zamazenta, and a couple others
But yeah, I'm really lookingforward Galar because I did like
that.
I'd have to say from Galar swordand shield like Drednaw was one
of my favorites.
I really liked that one reallystrong physical attacker and
just an absolute goofy lookingPokemon.
but yeah, I'm looking forward tothat one.
David Hernandez (12:53):
So, you know, let's come back to Pokemon Go.
You know, Pokemon Go, we're backto 2016.
Did you stick with the gamethroughout, or did you take a
break as well?
Mongoose Gaming (13:00):
I am not even kidding.
My, my then friend, who's not myfiance.
but she can vouch for it.
I have not taken a day off fromplaying the game.
Like I can, if there was a wayto track how many days in a row
I've played the game, I'dprobably no joke, be up there in
the top of the world.
Who's never missed a day.
David Hernandez (13:14):
Do we really want to know, like, the in game
time of how much we've reallyspent in Pokemon Go?
Part of me is kind of gratefulthat I don't.
Mongoose Gaming (13:20):
I honestly, I kind of do, but I can kind of
put interest into perspective.
my gym defending hours is over300, 000 hours defended in a
gym.
and, I'm trying to think here,there's not really another way
to determine it, like how longyou've played the game, just,
just the, just You know, July6th, 2016.
David Hernandez (13:38):
Yeah, well, you know, like a lot of people say,
like, if you look at the medals,the higher the medals are, the
more you play this game, that'skind of usually the best way to
kind of gauge how much time youreally put into this game, you
know, like 300, 000 hours forJim is pretty high up there.
There's, of course, people withhigher, but that takes a lot of
dedication, takes a lot ofputting Pokemon and Jim's being
intentional with playing PokemonGo.
Mongoose Gaming (13:58):
And a good chunk of that.
So it's 300, 000 hours.
So yeah, you're right.
It's a lot of dedication, butthere's actually no joke.
I had a Pokemon traveling oneday and came across this gym.
It was gray.
And I'm like, okay, maybesomebody, I wasn't kind of that
nuisance.
I would knock somebody out of agym, but I would leave it gray
just to be that person, but Icame across this gym.
That was great Driving throughTexas, actually West Texas,
(14:20):
coming from East to West.
And there was this gym I cameacross and again, it was gray.
I dropped in.
Okay.
I'm not even kidding.
I'm actually opening my gamenow.
I was in that gym for no joke1340 days straight.
David Hernandez (14:33):
1300 days would be four years,
Mongoose Gaming (14:35):
Yeah, it was in that gym for over four years
David Hernandez (14:38):
Jeez.
It was in the middle of WestTexas.
I'm
Mongoose Gaming (14:41):
it's just I just noticed this the gym is
like Southern Texas between ElPaso and Dallas.
David Hernandez (14:46):
So what's your way to kind of play Pokemon Go?
Do you like to like shiny hunt?
Are you into gyms?
Mongoose Gaming (14:52):
So, I'm actually more along the lines of
a hardcore Raider.
So of course, you know, thefirst couple of years, everybody
was just catching shiny, noshinies weren't available yet.
So it was just a lot ofcatching.
but when raids came out, I was afiend.
Like I was like, I was doingraids as much as I could.
you know, at the time you were,everyone was level 40.
Alright, well, most people level40, but like, I didn't hit level
40 until about, I want to say,end of 2017, I'd have to go back
(15:16):
and look at my Facebook post,but we would just do raids,
like, get four or five of ustogether, and we actually did
some massive raid trains, but Iwas, like I said, I just had to
do the raids, like, when theraids came out, that was
absolutely crazy, we did that alot.
David Hernandez (15:28):
What was it about the raids that kind of got
you hooked into that part of thegame?
Mongoose Gaming (15:31):
At that time, if you remember the raids, it
was exclusivity.
So the first raids were Moltres,Zapdos, Articuno, and Lugia, Ho
Oh.
And so Lugia is my all timefavorite legendary.
So we would do the birds and thefirst time these raids came out.
I'm not even kidding.
We had in the city of LasCruces, there's less than a
hundred thousand people.
We go to the first Lugia raidand it was, I swear, in this
(15:53):
little church parking lot thatcould fit maybe 50 cars.
We had 400 plus people show upfor the raid.
And so I was team Valor.
I led all the Valor.
My fiance was instinct.
She led all the instinct.
We found a random mystic player.
We were like, Hey, we need youto help out.
So they took all the mysticplayers.
So we had literally had, threeseparate groups of Valor mystic
instinct jump into these raidsat 20 people at a time.
(16:14):
And just to do the one Lugia,because we were all like, we
wanted to make sure we all gotit.
So we were just there as agroup.
And so, to do all those raids,like those 400 people, it took
us about an hour just to do theone raid, and then we moved on.
David Hernandez (16:26):
Just to add some context real quick.
So back in the day when raidsfirst started, the reason why
you had to divide into teamslike he did is that there was
actually a team bonus.
So if you didn't divide into theteams like he did, you would
actually not get as many premierballs.
Cause I think usually theproblem we had here, I'm pretty
sure you probably did here usinginstinct would only get like six
or seven balls while thissticker ballot, we get like, I
(16:47):
think 13 or 14.
We lived in luxury whileinstinct lived in poverty,
basically, but that's why it wasso important to do that.
Mongoose Gaming (16:52):
it's funny you brought that up, because I
watched the original, Honesttrailer for Pokemon Go on Fandom
Games.
And they said the assholes ofteam Valor, the emos of team
Mystic and the paint eaters ofteam Instinct.
David Hernandez (17:04):
Oh my god, that, that, that me?
Mongoose Gaming (17:07):
That was, that was great.
When I heard that, I am so justgoing to go with that.
And every Instinct player Imeet, they're like, you're like,
yeah, we eat paint.
We play.
David Hernandez (17:14):
So, with the raids, you know, you have 400
people.
That's gotta be crazy.
How do you lead that manypeople?
You just kind of filter them in,like, Did y'all go to the next
raid afterwards?
Mongoose Gaming (17:23):
Yeah.
So the way we let them, as youdid, we did a dead poet society.
Oh, captain, my captain, Ijumped up on the ledge.
Like if you are Valor, come overhere.
If you're Instinct, go overthere.
And then so that people werejust like, okay, cool.
And so we did that.
And this is when the, this islike, again, OG raids.
The egg still had the timer onit, so it was an hour timer, so
we had enough time to divideeverybody.
The raid was an hour at thetime, so like, okay, cool.
(17:46):
And that's how we did it, andyeah, after we did that, People
actually, a lot of people wereable to park away from the
church, so it wasn't too badtraffic wise.
But yeah, we went to the nextraid, which was like an Articuno
about 10 minutes down the road,did that, and then we went to,
New Mexico City University.
And just basically dominated thecampus.
we just like, you had hundredsof people walking up and down
the campus doing raids at thatpoint.
David Hernandez (18:07):
Now, something that people will notice if they
check out your content, youactually started getting into
short man raids.
Like you would try to do raidswith the least amount of, people
as possible.
Can you tell me a little bitabout that?
Mongoose Gaming (18:16):
So that started, when I met my friend
Nico in El Paso, Texas about,2018.
he was the top player in El Pasoand this guy in 2018 already had
5, 000 raids.
so he had Pokemon built to takethese raids out with a minimal
team.
Like he was, he, he had his ownlittle group of about six
people.
They would just go around ElPaso taking out these raids,
(18:38):
just like that.
So met them, you know, headedoff.
We were friends and yeah.
So I became a part of thatlittle raid group.
he would show me, he goes,here's, here's what I do.
Here's how I divide my Pokemon.
Okay.
And so now actually he and Iended up dominating the El Paso
area leaderboard in a district.
They had a raid leaderboard andhe and I are one and two.
In terms of total solo raids andtotal group raids for fastest
(18:58):
time.
And at this point, except forMegalatius, Megalatius, and I
believe Lugia.
There's no raid I can't duo withmy fiance.
Or with anybody else that's onmy friends list as far as best
friends go.
David Hernandez (19:12):
do you also include that with party play as
well?
Mongoose Gaming (19:14):
No, like we didn't, so at party play we did,
we do like when there's a biggergroup, just to get the raid done
quicker.
But like when my fiance and Ihave duo to raid, I actually, we
don't, we don't, we forget tojump into a party, so we just go
and do the raid.
So we actually don't have partypower.
So if we did, obviously we'd getit a little bit quicker, but,
yeah, no, I actually, we, sheand I don't use, my friend, his
name is Wicked Deebo is anotherone that I've raided with.
(19:35):
And, yeah, we just forget to doparty play.
David Hernandez (19:38):
You've been listening to As the Pokeball
Turns.
We're going to take a quickbreak.
We'll be right back.
(20:45):
You talk about your fiance.
So did y'all met through Pokemonby chance?
Mongoose Gaming (20:49):
we did.
David Hernandez (20:50):
Oh, you got to tell me this.
I love a good love story withPokemon.
Mongoose Gaming (20:52):
Oh man.
the game came out and put aboutthe first few months, I was, I
wasn't a loner since I had whereI was working a lot.
So I'd actually started goingback to college.
I was working, so I would playin between classes or on my way
to work.
And so finally, during that, myfirst, break in school, I just
walked around NMSU one weekendand I saw the group.
So that's where I met her, mynow best friend Josh, who I was
(21:13):
actually his best man.
He used to be my best man.
So yeah, we, we all met as likea single group and, Yeah, she
and I met through Pokemon, abouta year later we started dating,
so that was about 2016, so yeah,about 2017, halfway through,
we've been together, it'll be 7years in August.
David Hernandez (21:28):
Wow.
And y'all play Pokemon gotogether and y'all go out and do
these raids and everything.
Mongoose Gaming (21:32):
religiously, we have a 4 year old son, he has
his own account, he plays withus, so, yeah, he also, he can
also throw a curveball too, so.
David Hernandez (21:40):
Hey, howdy.
So he's four years old and he'salready throwing curve balls.
That's crazy.
Mongoose Gaming (21:44):
Yeah, and he does have bragging rights over
me.
His, he's got a shadow shinyMewtwo while my fiance and I
have done so many shadow Mewtworaids.
He's got a shadow shiny on us.
David Hernandez (21:53):
Now, I gotta ask, so your wife is Instinct.
You're, you're Team Valor,right?
What did your son choose?
Mongoose Gaming (21:59):
He chose, we let him choose.
We just pulled up the screen andhe chose Valor.
I didn't, we, neither one of usinfluenced him.
Yeah.
We just put, we just said, thisis red, blue, and yellow.
He's like, okay.
He sat there and no joke.
He sat there a couple, likeabout 10, 15 seconds and he
picked Valor.
We're like, are you're like,you're sure you want the red
one?
He's all, yes.
It's like, okay,
David Hernandez (22:17):
Wow.
You know, it's funny how me,you, we grew up with Pokemon.
Our biggest challenge is tryingto figure out which Kanto
starter.
Your son is trying to figure outwhich team to join.
Mongoose Gaming (22:25):
exactly.
David Hernandez (22:26):
What do y'all do as family?
Like, do y'all like, go to parksand play at times?
Like, what does that kind ofdynamic look like with Pokemon
Go?
Mongoose Gaming (22:33):
So we actually, conveniently, live a five minute
walk from a pretty large park.
So we'll, just go walk overthere, play for a little bit.
He'll play for, I'm not, he's afour year old.
He's attention spans are thatlarge, but he'll play for about
10 minutes and then he'll goplay in the playground.
But then the playground he playson has like five stops around
it.
So we can just watch him andwe'll walk around the park and
walk around the playground andspend stops and catch the stuff.
David Hernandez (22:54):
So he plays on his own though.
Yeah.
Y'all don't really help him atall.
Mongoose Gaming (22:57):
Oh no, we only help him get set up, but yeah,
we put the iPad with him, andhe'll sit there, he'll catch,
he's picked his own outfit, hehas, you know, he knows what
Pokemon to transfer, sometimeshe evolves too many, so he
doesn't have any candy left, butyeah,
David Hernandez (23:11):
Do you also watch the anime together?
I assume.
Mongoose Gaming (23:13):
oh yeah, he, he loved, He loved the original
animes.
So what we could find for ourstream, it's hard to find a real
lot of the original Pokemonanime, but we did get, and
Netflix does have the original,Pokemon, so he watched that.
He loved it.
his favorite character actuallyis not Ash, it's actually Go
from the new Master's series,the Master's Journeys.
David Hernandez (23:32):
Oh, really?
Mongoose Gaming (23:32):
he loves Go, but we started him first with
Pokemon, you know, Indigoseries.
We found a couple more likeAmazon where Ash is in Johto or
Hoenn, but, yeah, his favoriteso far has been, watching
Master's Journeys and hisfavorite is Go.
David Hernandez (23:46):
You know, we talked about how both you and
me, we grew up with Pokemon.
We grew up with, you know,hysteria back in the nineties.
We grew up, you grew upthroughout Pokemon and now you
got your son experiencingPokemon.
What is it like to kind of seethat?
Interested in Pokemon come outof your son
Mongoose Gaming (24:00):
it's interesting because it's hard
for me to gauge it because he'sexperiencing this at four years
old.
When we were four, we wereeating paste.
David Hernandez (24:08):
were team instinct
Mongoose Gaming (24:09):
yeah, exactly.
But he's four years old and he'sunderstanding this.
So he's able to sit there on aniPad and play Pokemon go.
And I can say he's not an iPadkid.
We just, that's the device welet him use.
And so he's an experience of thefour years old.
I get to experience, you know,like eight, nine years old.
So it's fun to see him justreact the way he's reacting.
When we're sitting on a game boywith one, not even 151, but like
(24:32):
148 Pokemon.
And just grinding our way tobeating the elite four for the
hundredth time.
And he's sitting here, like gotPokemon that would decimate our
team from back in the day.
David Hernandez (24:41):
Now any plans for when he turns 10 years old
that you're gonna send him onhis own and try to become become
a Pokemon master
Mongoose Gaming (24:47):
no, yeah, actually.
Yeah.
So he's, he does want to be aPokemon master at the moment.
Like he's got Pokemon stuff.
He's like, he loves his stuff,Charles or stuff Venusaur, but
he will be picking his ownstarter at 10.
So what we're going to do iskind of get like a few
generations worth of startersand kind of narrow it down, but
you pick your favorite fromhere, here, here, And then, but
he will eventually pick hisoverall starter at 10.
David Hernandez (25:09):
Oh, that'd be awesome.
That's kind of a cool familytradition.
I like it.
Who thought of that?
Did you think of it, or?
Mongoose Gaming (25:14):
Oh, my both my fiance and I, she loves Pokemon.
Her favorite Pokemon is Eevee.
I swear to God, you could giveher a shiny Eevee, a regular
Eevee for trade.
She will trade you a shinyMewtwo or anything just to get
an Eevee.
David Hernandez (25:27):
Oh, really?
Thanks.
Mongoose Gaming (25:28):
She loves Evie that much.
David Hernandez (25:29):
her love for Eevee's deep
Mongoose Gaming (25:31):
It is hardcore.
and of course it's almost likemy love for Nittle King, but I'm
like, I'm cool.
Like my ni king, like Pokemoncards.
I have her just having NitoKing, like she will take Evie
any which way she can get EvieIt
David Hernandez (25:43):
What about you?
What's your favorite Pokemon?
Mongoose Gaming (25:46):
is Nittle king, hardcore
David Hernandez (25:47):
Oh, so it is Needleking.
Mongoose Gaming (25:48):
It is Nittle King.
Yeah.
So I have, a friend of mine, 3Dprinted, a ni king, a shiny new
king for me.
I had a custom ni king cardmade.
I have a couple old schoolNidoking cards from back in the
90s.
one's a crystal Nidoking, one'sa Giovanni's Nidoking, first
edition.
So yeah, those are ones that arelike graded and I keep those,
those are like my keepsakes.
David Hernandez (26:07):
It's unfortunate, you know, when you
talk about just the trading cardgame, I don't really remember
much Nidoking good card art, youknow?
Like the first one, which isbase set, it's just a standard,
image.
There's nothing really toospecial to it.
I think Giovanni has it likejust standing forward in a
different angle.
It's not really, there's nothingreally different from what I can
remember.
Mongoose Gaming (26:26):
So that's generally, that's pretty much
true.
Like the, like, and I have thecards just because again,
Nidoking is my favorite, but Isee where you're going on that
one.
My, I have to say like the mostunique Nidoking design is
definitely the crystal one fromthe Aquapolis series.
Because, A, it's, it's gotdifferent typings, it's not,
it's, it's showing like thecolorless versus like the plant
or poison.
but it just looks way morehardcore with the aqua polis
(26:48):
series than it does any othercard.
And actually I have a great, Ihave a great story regarding
this Nidoking.
So I bought this Nidoking off ofeBay.
I asked my fiance at the timefor permission because it was
like a little splurge buy, butit's just, it's a, it's a PSA
five Aquapolis Nidoking.
And it was one of, it's one ofmy two favorite Nidoking cards
ever.
So I was like, okay, she's like,yeah, go ahead and get it.
I'm like, great.
(27:08):
So I bought it and I've had it.
so when the, when I bought it,we were actually in the process
of, I got promoted my job.
So we're moving up toAlbuquerque.
And one night I'm at work and mytruck actually got broken into,
got a good old Albuquerque.
So they actually stole Nidokingbecause the Nidoking was in
there because I was going tosend it off the next morning to
CGC for re encapsulation throughtheir system.
David Hernandez (27:28):
Just to re emphasize, this is a good story,
right?
It's not a bad story.
Okay.
Mongoose Gaming (27:31):
this is a good story.
so they did, unfortunately brokeinto the truck.
I, as this is where I didn'tnotice because like they punched
the lockout, I didn't notice.
So like I literally drove homethat night.
well, drove to my friend'shouse, so I was staying with it,
and then I was like, just wentto sleep, wake up, and all of a
sudden, I'm like, wait, I gottaunlock the truck, I'm like,
wait, why is it not clicking?
So I go over there, I see thelock is punched out, I'm like,
(27:52):
oh crap, so that's when Irealized in the morning, it was
broken into, they stolebasically everything minus the
stereo, which, I'll be honest,there wasn't much to steal in
the truck anyway, but.
They obviously got the valuablething.
So, I was, I was devastated.
my wife got the idea to ask theAlbuquerque community for help.
So, Albuquerque obviously has aPokemon card page, as well as a
Pokemon Go page.
(28:13):
And we asked, like, hey, here'sa picture of the card.
We're like, we know it's a longshot, but if anybody comes
across this card, you know, wehave proof it's mine, through
the PSA, it's been reregistered, through all that.
And people are like, you know,we'll keep an eye out.
I'm not kidding that two weekslater, there was a hit, this guy
was trying to sell it onFacebook and he didn't even
break it out of the case.
Like, so this guy hits me onFacebook.
(28:33):
Hey, is this your card?
And I'm like, I looked at it andhe sent me the post straight off
the serial numbers matched.
I'm like, there's no way.
And.
Yeah, so I messaged the guy.
I was like, Hey, I messaged allnonchalant.
I'm like, Hey, you know, Imentioned this card, you know,
could we meet up so I could takea look at it?
He's like, yeah, and he waslike, he was lowballing it.
Cause this car is like a four or500 card.
He's like, yeah, I'm only asking250 for it.
(28:54):
I'm like, Oh, you poor sad soul.
so.
I had actually filed a policereport and, I had actually
called the cops and told them Iwant a meeting with the guy and
the APD dispatched because shegoes, okay, she goes, let us
know where you're meeting.
We'll send an officer out.
She goes, if you feel in dangerat all, she goes, leave the
sale.
But I'm like, okay, but she'slike, if you can get the card
back, get the card and a cop,you know, officer will meet you.
I'm like, okay, great.
(29:15):
So I go and meet the guy and Iparked my truck like half a mile
down the road, so he wouldn'tsee it in case it was the same
person.
I mean, I'm at this gas stationand like, Hey, how's it going?
Shake hands.
So again, doesn't recognize you.
Didn't nothing.
So it's just like a typical saleand he made the mistake.
He had, I was like, yeah, I cantake a look at the card.
He hands me the card.
And at that point, I'm like, I'mnot giving it back.
So I'm like, there's no way I'mlooking at it.
(29:37):
And this and that, and he's alltell me about it.
I'm like, man, this is so great.
I'm like, this card looks sofamiliar.
He goes, really?
I was like, yeah, cause it's theone that was stolen from my
truck.
And he paused deer in theheadlights.
he goes, he goes, this cardwasn't stolen.
I'm like, oh, it was.
I'm like, I've got proof.
This card is mine.
And he goes, oh yeah, show me.
So I pulled up my eBay account,PSA and all that.
I was like, serial number ismatching.
(29:58):
And hell man, it was.
Great.
Because he sat there trying todeny the whole thing.
Oh, well, some kind of casinosold me this.
I'm like, yeah, sure.
And it was funny because I, whathe didn't see is that I had
dispatch on the phone onspeaker.
So they were actually listeningto the whole conversation.
This guy gave me his first andlast name even.
(30:20):
And so I was like, they were,they were kind of like, so he
had a buddy with him and theywere kind of like, still giving
me a stink.
Like, there's no way this isyour car.
I'm like, dude, I have theproof.
And I'm like, by the way, I haveAlbuquerque dispatch on the
phone.
Is there anything you want tosay?
And the dispatch was like, shegoes, if I were you guys, you'd
probably want to stay therebecause if you really did get in
front of a casino, we'll needyour information for the report.
(30:40):
So
David Hernandez (30:40):
What?
Do they stick around?
Mongoose Gaming (30:42):
no, hell no.
They took off.
David Hernandez (30:44):
Dang!
Mongoose Gaming (30:46):
So I was actually, I got my card back and
yeah, now I'm not, I'm notsending it back in anywhere.
It's going to stay in this PSAcase.
And that's my story for thatcard.
Like that's what, that's whathappened with
David Hernandez (30:56):
Have you been to any live events by chance
Mongoose Gaming (30:58):
like Okay.
As far as like when I had sixhosted, no, I haven't been to
any of those.
So I never got a chance to go toChicago or go to New York or
anything like that.
But there was one, that myfiance and I, and our best
friend, we actually held a gofest on our own for the city of
Las Cruces back in 2017.
Yeah.
So this one was actually, kindof like a special one.
(31:19):
So we were like, we got kind of.
We couldn't go to Chicago.
We heard, you know, of coursethat happened in July of 2017,
the first go fast, we saw, youknow, saw like, you know, what
happened, the bad, the good, thebad, and the ugly there.
So we kind of got in our heads.
Like, what if we do somethingfor the city of Las Cruces?
Cause nobody went.
So I'm not even kidding.
We took months of planning.
We rented out a park, we gotpermits and everything, and we
(31:40):
were advertising for this, likewhat we did.
Like we had prizes, we weregiving out, we had sponsors
locally that were helping usout.
And so we were expecting about300 people.
and it was a 5 entry.
The 5 was used to like basicallyhelp recoup costs.
But then it was also like, youknow, pay 5.
You're entered into the rafflenow for all these prizes.
And, like I said, about 300people and We had over 2000 show
(32:03):
up.
We had
David Hernandez (32:04):
What?
2, 000 people showed up for aGoFest in La Cruces?
Mongoose Gaming (32:09):
For GoFest, that wasn't like, that wasn't
like Niantic approved per se.
It was just, that was justsomething we set up.
So like I said, we had 2000people show up because we had a
line for the ticket booth andwe're like, damn, that's a lot
of people.
So I'm on the mic on, on thestage of the park directing
everybody.
My fiance is up helping withtickets and helping the vendors.
my best friend was at the ticketbooth doing all the tickets and
(32:31):
stuff.
We had, people provide food.
We had sprint, actually thecorporate sprint store helped us
out bringing water and snacks.
we had, dominoes at the timeprovide food for us.
My work was, one of those, eventrentals.
So they gave us a bounce housefor the fun for kids.
And all we did was we lured upthe park.
We actually, we didn't intendto, but we timed it right.
(32:52):
We had a couple of raids at thetime.
So we had about three or fourraids in the park.
And yeah, we just had peoplewalk around, like, you know, we
had concerts from our shinies,we had concerts from our
catches, and it went off, likeit was, it was a huge success.
Like I said, we had over 2000people show up because we
counted everything the next day,how many tickets we sold.
We're like, wow, that wasactually crazy.
So just an unsanctioned Nianticevent.
(33:13):
And that's what we ended uphaving happen was, yeah, that
made people show up.
David Hernandez (33:16):
I'm impressed you had enough pizza from
Domino's to be able to feed 2,000 people.
That's crazy.
Mongoose Gaming (33:20):
Yeah, it was, it was actually really crazy.
and we had a, we had a localcafe sponsor food and,
David Hernandez (33:25):
Also, it wasn't just Domino's.
It was different
Mongoose Gaming (33:27):
yeah, it was Domino's in this place, that, it
was a cafe that put sponsor.
They did great.
They helped us out a lot.
sprint did bring enough waterfor everybody.
So that wasn't a problem.
the level 40 badges, sprintbrought those.
So if you sprint with giving outthose, those old level 40
badges, I don't know if you got,yeah, so everybody who was level
40, if you hit level 40 that dayor whatever, they gave you one,
it's obviously had to show youraccount.
But the thing was, we had peoplefrom Albuquerque, New Mexico,
(33:50):
from Deming, New Mexico, ElPaso, Texas show up for this
event and it was crazy.
David Hernandez (33:56):
like, what was it like to kind of expect only a
couple hundred and get 2, 000people?
Like,
Mongoose Gaming (34:00):
Oh, it was.
David Hernandez (34:01):
Were you scared?
Or
Mongoose Gaming (34:02):
It was total shell shock.
Cause like, I'm up there andI'm, I'm okay with public
speaking.
So I'm up on the stage and wehave the DJ behind us and yeah,
my, my fiancee's just like, Imean, she's all.
She's like, look at me.
I'm like, we'll see the line ofthe ticket table and booth.
And it was like, Oh God, there'sa lot of people coming in.
And so, yeah, we intended tostart around like four o'clock.
We didn't officially start tillfive.
(34:23):
Cause we had to get everybody,in and then, yeah, it just took
off from there.
It was, it was a lot of fun.
David Hernandez (34:27):
I mean, all things considered, you started
faster than the one in Chicagoin Niantic, so Starting an hour
late compared to six or never ispretty good.
Mongoose Gaming (34:35):
It started, started late, went off without a
hitch.
Like there was no cell phone,there were no cell issues.
There were nothing like that.
People came in and were able toplay without an issue.
David Hernandez (34:42):
Any hopes of trying to recreate that, or is
it just too time consuming?
Mongoose Gaming (34:46):
It's time consuming.
I'm trying something up here inAlbuquerque.
we have one community ambassadorup here.
He's been leading his communityfor a while.
I work at a place that's willingto sponsor food and stuff.
So like when I go do an eventfor Pokemon.
My regional director has alreadygiven the okay.
She's like go take food.
She goes do food drops.
She goes put our name out thereShe goes hell tell Pokemon
players.
They get a discount when theycome in.
(35:08):
So
David Hernandez (35:09):
Well Mongoose Gaming, you've been a wonderful
guest.
I gotta ask the last question Ievery guest I've asked lately.
Say somebody's coming to NewMexico and they're going to
challenge you in a Pokémonbattle.
What six Pokémon are you goingto bring?
Mongoose Gaming (35:21):
og favorite team.
I'm gonna bring in if it's a sixon six like that.
It's gonna be Charizard, Agron,Arcanine, Nidoking, and Lugia.
David Hernandez (35:30):
There you go, guys.
If you challenge MongooseGaming, you got those six
Pokémon, so come prepared.
Thank you for coming on thepodcast.
Before you go, if people want toconnect with you, if they want
to check out your podcast, wherecan they go?
By all means, please plug away.
Mongoose Gaming (35:42):
they can find me at youtube.
com forward slash at mongoosegaming burrow.
That's got pretty mucheverything content wise I've
ever produced.
you'll find my podcasts, mygameplay from Pokemon go from
Xbox, from Nintendo switch.
anything like that is all on myYouTube.
And then my Twitch is a twitch.
tv slash mongoose gaming burrowis also.
And yeah, that's where the magichappens.
David Hernandez (36:04):
Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball
Turns.
If you want to support the show,consider becoming a Patreon by
either clicking the link in thedescription or going to patreon.
com slash asthepokeballturns.
Now, I'm actually going to NewYork City Go Fest, and hopefully
I get to meet every single oneof you.
If you meet me, make sure to getyourself a free Necrozma
(36:26):
wristband.
I'll be giving out those toeverybody that I run into, so I
definitely want to make sure Ican give it to the people who
listen to this show.
If for some reason you can'tmake it to GoFest New York City,
don't sweat it.
Contact me on Twitter,Instagram, Facebook, whatever
have you and let me know like,Hey, David, I can't make it to
GoFest.
Can I still get a wristband?
(36:46):
And I'll make sure you get onebecause I want to make sure that
everyone who listens to thisshow gets one for GoFest.
So please hit me up if you can'tmake it.
Until next time.
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