As The Pokeball Turns
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As The Pokeball Turns
"Melodies & Pokemon" ft. HisuianRyan | TRAINER'S EYE #37
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Explore the world of Pokémon GO PVP with HisuianRyan, a player from Pallet Town PVP who combines his love for competition with his role as a music teacher. In this episode, he shares how Pokémon enhances his teaching and the personal impact PVP has had on his life. His story offers an insightful blend of music and Pokémon, showcasing the unique ways the two intersect.
🎧 Hear powerful stories from LGBTQIA+ voices in the Pokémon community.
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Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
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Introduction
David HernandezWelcome to As The Poker Ball Turns! Where the stories are real and people still play this game. In the beginning, there was silence. Let me ask you this in the beginning, what did you think was the first sound? What did our ancestors think when sounds went into their ears for the very first time. As time progressed, we eventually were able to harness sounds into rhythms and melodies of what we know today as music. From Beethoven and Mozart to the Beatles and journey, music has become a significant way humanity has artistically expressed emotions, thoughts, and feelings. When it comes to music, my guest has found a way to incorporate his passion for Pokemon with music to help his students become more engaged with his music lessons. He is a creator for PalletTownPVP, here's his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. This is HisuianRyan.
Interview with HisuianRyan
David HernandezToday I'm joined by one of the creators from Pallet Town PVP, HisuianRyan. Ryan, welcome to the show.
HisuianRyanHey, David. Thank you for having me on.
David HernandezYou're very welcome! So obviously, you know your background is PVP, but there was a period before PVP even existed. Right. And I gotta ask like, when did your journey in Pokemon go start?
HisuianRyanOh man. I was a day one player, very excited when I saw the announcement about Pokemon Go, like little nine year old Ryan, his head would just explode cuz you know, I was playing like Pokemon Yellow was my first Pokemon game So started playing day one. played for about a year 2016, and then it got a little bit stale. So I dropped out like a lot of folks did and came back in 2019 right around, when they released P V P, and kind of slowly got into that and been playing really strong ever since then.
David HernandezSo when you dropped out was just, cuz there just wasn't much to do like everybody else or,
HisuianRyanyeah, exactly. Um, I think raids were about the most exciting thing, there was no battling and they were releasing Pokemon a little bit at a slower pace if I remember back then, like, they'd released like a whole generation and then it would be like that for like a year right? And so, So, yeah, just kind of staled out and then PVP really brought a lot of life to the game.
David HernandezWhen Pokemon Go first came out in your area, like where was the place to go to? Like where did people gather?
HisuianRyanOoh man. I was in Houston, Texas at the time and I remember just seeing people everywhere, like I was out by a community college campus and just dozens of people, you know, walking around, you know, you could tell they were throwing balls on their phone screens. There's a memorial park over there is just this massive park and nowadays it's got tons of Pokestops. I remember running for a Gyarados back in the day when the game first came out at that park, but was really fortunate to play in a big city when the game came out.
David HernandezDefinitely. And I think there's a huge difference between a big city and maybe like a very suburban area cuz you get all the stops, the gyms, the spawns, and you also have the community usually?
HisuianRyanYes. The community, huge part of it for sure.
David HernandezSo you come back in 2019 and you say it's because of pvp?
HisuianRyanYes. Yeah. I had been playing the game kind of on and off. but when I came back and I was actually not that interested in PVP was more shiny hunting. So I got into shiny hunting, my friend started playing as well, so we started playing together a bunch. I actually got into PVP because I really wanted a Jellicent and that was the only way to get it at the time, was to hit rank 20 and get the Frillish from the GBL rewards, so it was sort of a slow boil, but staying strong now.
David HernandezI gotta ask you real quick, since you said you liked shiny hunting, like what Pokemon did you like to go after? Like what are your favorite shinies off the top of your head?
HisuianRyanOoh. Oh man. What a question. What a question. Man, these days it's things like Rockruff. Really loved shiny Miltank, so just got that from the Go Battle day, that was a huge hunt that I've been going for. I really like collecting the shiny legendary since they've made those a little bit easier to hunt, with the easier shiny rate. But, you know, nothing, nothing feels quite as good as that full odds shiny in the wilds man. I think those are my favorites, it's just that moment of surprise where you're not really expecting the shiny and then you get those sparkles on your screen.
David HernandezNow you said you're familiar with the main series. Did you shiny hunt in the main series as well?
HisuianRyanI didn't. I actually did not know that shiny Pokemon existed until they, until I stumbled upon one in Pokemon Go.
David Hernandezreally?
HisuianRyanSo, so I had no idea and my first main series shiny wasn't until Pokemon Sun, when I finally figured out the shiny hunting mechanics and grinded down a, uh, Shiny Palossand. But yeah, I had no idea that shiny Pokemon even existed until go.
David HernandezThat's crazy. do you never played gold, silver, and crystal cause that's usually where most people experienced their shiny Pokemon?
HisuianRyanI didn't, no.
David HernandezOh wow. That's how.
HisuianRyanYeah.
David HernandezDang. That's crazy. And then just Pokemon go really kind of sparkled. I don't know, sparkled your interest to shiny hunt more?
HisuianRyanYeah. Man, I just love this idea that like you have to do this physical, real world activity like where you go out and explore and on a rare occasion, you know that one in 500 chance you'll get this cool reward for it that you get to enjoy and maybe bring into battle later and like, you know, tell a story about, you know what other game has that? I think that's super cool.
David HernandezYeah. That's fair. Sure. Especially when you go to Nest, or like for you, Miltank is a very rare one. Mm-hmm. Like, cause you can't find a nest for that.
HisuianRyanRight.
David HernandezYou're either stuck with a random spawn or research or raids.
HisuianRyanYes.
David HernandezAnd that's about it.
HisuianRyanRight?
David HernandezSo obviously you eventually move into PVP. Mm-hmm. What was it about PVP that made you want to be so invested into it?
HisuianRyanI really like the sort of a chess like strategy where you're making these split to second decisions in the moment and I just really like the strategy of that. I know like Zyonic said once a long time ago, that it's a knowledge game, right? So the more knowledge you have, the better at PVP are gonna be. And something about that just really agrees with the way I like to play games. So memorizing like all the different ways the 18 types interacts like that by itself is a big endeavor. And then, you know, learning like how when you swap in, that takes one turn of time and then you have to count for that in your charge move timing, like all the little detailed mechanics, I think are just really interesting and a fun challenge to try and get better at.
David HernandezDo you have a favorite league you like to battle in by chance?
HisuianRyanOoh, man. I am a sucker for open great league like I am "plain jane" Open Great league all day, man. Um, I just kinda like the wild west feeling of it like you never quite know what you're gonna see. It's the league I've practiced the most in, it's what I specialize in, in my factions. I'm the open Great League guy. So yeah, give me that open any day.
David HernandezWhat factions are you a part of?
HisuianRyanI am in the Pallet Town Red Faction, so it's an absolute blast, man, that, uh, the team component is just so fun, like getting to battle with your friends in your ear, you know, once a week, it's just a blast.
David HernandezIn your opinion, what does factions offer that maybe Gbl L or even regular show six, pick three doesn't offer?
HisuianRyanI would say it really gives an opportunity to dig really deep into your matchup because unlike other Silph tournaments, you're allowed to run simulations and you're allowed to talk to your Factions teammates about how to play, what lead to run. I mean, they can even be looking up move counts in the middle of your match. And so, I can spend a good two hours studying the simulations for my team against my opponent's team and I feel like by doing that I've really been able to wrap my head around the game a lot more, so I think it's just a really great opportunity to really dig in deep.
David HernandezHow has Pallet Town PVP been able to improve your battling skills?
HisuianRyanMan, just having, a really supportive community in my corner. You know, we've got channels where you can ask any kind of question and people aren't gonna make you feel stupid, they're gonna give you like a detailed answer, like more than you might expect, right? So just having that community in the corner and then we run lots of events from practice tournaments. We do an Ultra League draft once a season. And so we just get a lot of battle practicing in and FishonAHeater, sort of the captain of the ship, so to speak, he runs lots of streams where he'll break down the next meta that's coming up along with, LylesJeff. He's a really strong leaderboard battler. So all of that combined, makes it feel a lot better than battling just sort of by yourself
David HernandezIt sounds like Pallet Town really focuses on trying to not only provide events for people who are part of the server, but also build each other up and be able to match people where they're at like some people who just barely start, people who are maybe a little bit more seasoned, and then you've got some of the super experts are also in there as well. Is that fair?
HisuianRyanOh, 100%. Yeah. There's just a whole range of folks and we're getting new people in all the time. That's something that Fish really wants to champion is creating this sense of support and community, no matter what level you're at.
David HernandezAnd you're also one of the creators for Pallet Town PVP.
HisuianRyanYeah.
David HernandezHow did you become a creator?
HisuianRyanMan, that was sort of a fun, slow boil as well. I started off by doing editing and that's another part I really love being a part of the Pokemon Go community is some of the behind the scenes stuff I've gotten to do. So yeah, so I've done some editing. Fish, runs some of the Gym Breakers competitions, which is international PVP competition. So he often hosts some of those streams and had asked me to do some video editing for those and I had a lot of fun with that. Decided it might be fun to dip my toe in streaming myself and so Fish offered the opportunity for me to do that on the Pallet Town channel. And it just kind of started to take off from there and you get more and more involved in different projects and, so yeah, so that's how I got my start and, um, loving it so far.
David HernandezWas this like your first time ever streaming ever? Or did you use to stream before?
HisuianRyanYeah. No, this was my first time ever.
David HernandezWow, dude. Yep. Mm-hmm. Were you nervous on your first stream at all?
HisuianRyanI was, man, it took a good, like six or seven streams to get comfortable, like sitting and talking to a camera that's not talking back at you, you know? That was really strange at first and so it took a little while to get my sea legs there, but it's really fun, you know, now it just feels like. you get to hang out with your friends to play video games after work. Very enjoyable.
David HernandezThat was the same issue that I ran into when I started my podcast because like you, I have nobody coming back. Mm-hmm So it's just like, you got me, you have a chat, so you kind of get a little bit of feedback. I have nothing. And that's one I can imagine that's one of the biggest hurdles for everybody who starts out with streaming or whatever to kind of overcome, like I'm not talking to myself, I'm talking to an audience.
HisuianRyanFor sure, for sure. But I'd say if you're interested in streaming, like just jump on in and if you, and see if you like it. You know, you don't have to have like fancy overlays or a perfect setup or anything. It is a lot of fun once you get used to it, it is a ton of fun.
David HernandezWithout a doubt. So one thing that's unique about your stream is that you actually incorporate music.
HisuianRyanYes.
David HernandezWhy did you do that? Like why did you incorporate more specific, I guess, the piano?
HisuianRyanYes. Piano. So actually that's my career, I'm a piano teacher. I've got my degree in piano performance, and I just love it, man, I love sharing music that people haven't heard before. You know, being on stream, it's sort of a unique opportunity to do that and take a little break from the battles, you know, wants a set or something and, and play a little piano. And I'm huge on music creation, so, I teach my students how to compose and how to improvise, and actually we incorporate Pokemon, I have Pokemon badges, they're like little enamel pins. And so I'll pass those out to students as they complete different challenges once a month or so. And so, I don't know, I just, Pokemon and my piano studio are sort of ingrained and so I wanted to kind of do the reverse and, integrate some of my music into my Pokemon streams.
David HernandezSo these pins you're talking about, you actually give them to your music students?
HisuianRyanI do, yeah, so I'll buy like a 20 bucks for a set of full generation of pins on Amazon. I'll get a box for each new student and like the first one is about like warming up and so they have to warm up four days a week for three weeks in a row. And if they can manage that, then they've earned their first badge and I like, I've renamed it like, I call it the limber badge cuz like, you're limbing up your fingers. Right? But I'll make this kind of big deal, it's almost like you're in the Pokemon world, right? And you're going to the different gyms. And so I want 'em to feel like, you know, I'm the gym leader and awarding them this badge cuz they overcame the challenge, right? I just wanna make it really fun.
David HernandezDude, that sounds awesome! And I would imagine you have some students who are diehard Pokemon fans as well.
HisuianRyanThey are, they are. Man, I'll, uh, every now and then, we'll take like a break in the middle of our lesson and I'll show 'em like, "Hey, you can name a shiny, in my Pokemon Go account." And, uh, they Aw, sweet, sweet. They, uh, they love it. They're obsessed for sure.
David HernandezI'm not gonna go through all the badges obviously. Sure. But what's the final badge? What's the eighth badge?
HisuianRyanOoh. So that one, I call it the Rockstar Badge. And to earn that, students have to complete the 50 Days of practice challenge where they have to play music literally 50 days in a row, no excuses. They have to teach themselves a song cuz that's the whole purpose. I've designed the badge program to where it leads them to how to teach themselves music without anybody's help, so that's sort of the ultimate goal. But that one's the hardest one to get, so I haven't had anybody quite make it that far yet, but I'm excited when they do.
David HernandezOh, so not, not all the students progress to badge eight. It's usually they get as far as they can when you have them.
HisuianRyanExactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so, just depends. Sometimes students don't stay long enough to get through the whole system cuz it'll probably take a good 18 months to earn all eight badges. I want it to feel like this big journey that they're going through and I want them to feel really proud at the end of it.
David HernandezSo going back to your stream, but one thing that you do is, I guess people will pitch out names and that's uhhuh, that's how you play on your piano?
HisuianRyanYeah. So I've got a redemption where I will take your username and turn it into music notes. And so I've got this, it's a, a sort of a teaching gimmick that I use with my students, but it's a little code. The notes on the piano only go A through G and then they repeat. And so it's just a little guide that turns like the letter J into one of the letters I can play on piano. So I'll take your username, I'll turn it into music notes, and then I'll create an improvisation over what that turns out to be, whatever notes those come out as.
David HernandezSo, as we've discussed before, you've actually agreed to be able to play the piano keys on. I got three names. Okay. And you've agreed to be able to, I guess, off the handle or improvise a Yes. Tune around the word.
HisuianRyanYes. Happy to. Let's do it.
David HernandezThe first one. I'm gonna make it simple. Let's do your name,. Let's do Ryan.
HisuianRyanOkay. All right.
David HernandezNow the next one. It's my favorite pokemon, Articuno.
HisuianRyanOoh, Articuno. Oh, that's cool. All right. I'll have to do some icy winter wonderland kind of sounds here. All right.
David HernandezAnd this third one, Niantic, please fix your game.
HisuianRyanNo. Oh, man. Okay. There. This is a fun one. This is a fun one. All right, Niantic, please fix your game. Okay.
David HernandezWell, thank you Ryan, for definitely showcasing your talent on this show. I'm really impressed by it and I hope you had fun with them. I know there are three random ones, for sure.
HisuianRyanYes, absolutely. Tons fun. Love it. Love it.
David HernandezIf people wanted to get connect with your content with Pallet Town PVP, how could I get ahold of you? By all means, please plug away.
HisuianRyanSure. You can find me on Twitter @HisuianRyan and Pallet Town town as well @PalletTownPVP. That's twitch.tv/PalletTownPVP as well and you can find me there and in our discord. Those are kind of all the places I'm hanging out.
David HernandezAwesome man, and I'll make sure to include links of everything he just said down in the description of today's episode.
Thank You For Listening! :)
David HernandezThank you for listening to an episode of As The Pokeball Turns! You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Remember to give the show a rating of five stars. If you wanna do four stars, sleep on it and come back tomorrow. If you're feeling eh with three stars, come back in about two days. If you think this podcast is like McDonald's with two stars, come back in about three days. And for some reason, if you feel like you can only give this show one star, come back next week because no matter what, each road should lead to five stars. Until then, I'll see you next time. Here's the sneak peek for the next episode of As The Pokeball Turns!
