TRAINER'S EYE #60 - "The Raid Bus Returns" ft. FrostisEpic

In this heartfelt Pokémon interview, FrostisEpic discusses how his bond with his mother through Pokémon GO led to the rebirth of The Raid Bus in Austin. From attending GO Fest in Seattle and New York City to capturing rare Shiny Pokémon, his journey is filled with family, adventure, and community. Dive into the world of Pokémon GO as he reveals his obsession with collecting rare poses and shiny finds in the game.

Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay

Transcript

David Hernandez: 0:00

My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Welcome to As the Pokéball Turns, where the stories are real and people still play this game. Last year, I invited a guest known as PhilofAustin onto the show. He was the founder of the Raid Bus, a bus that would transport a group of Pokémon trainers around select cities in the US. Due to a combination of COVID and live transitions, He ceased operations for the Raid Bus, leaving it for a new individual to pick it up. He even encouraged anyone to contact him if they had any interest in starting a Raid Bus in their city. little did anyone know, myself included, that someone would actually answer the call and reach out to PhilofAustin to help restart the Raid Bus. What is even more interesting is that it's not just one person, but two. Actually, both a son and a mom who decided to restart the bus for the Austin community. In this episode, we come full circle, he shares his experience with Pokemon and the reason why he wanted to restart the Raid Bus. He also shares the challenges and And his hopes for what the RAID bus can become moving forward. Here is the origin story into the world. Here's his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. This is FrostisEpic! today... I'm joined by FrostisEpic. He's the co founder of the new Raid Bus and is here to share his story on how he rebuilt a former business with him and his mother. Frost, welcome to the show.

FrostisEpic: 2:11

Hi, how are you doing?

David Hernandez: 2:12

I'm well, my friend, and for those who don't know, What is the Raid Bus for those who may not know what it is?

FrostisEpic: 2:18

So, the Pokemon Raid Bus was originally started by someone named PhilofAustin, back in 2016 when Pokemon Go first released. it's kind of a bus that just drives around downtown Austin and later expanded further, that would take you on raids all the time, and it was honestly just a really fun experience. it's more of a community now than a bus itself.

David Hernandez: 2:41

When the Raid Bus first came out back in, when raids were introduced. What was your first trip? Do you remember that?

FrostisEpic: 2:47

Oh, that is a good one. I want to say it was Entei, but it could also have been Armored Mewtwo. I know that I was really upset. I think if it was Entei, I, my child self was really upset because when spoofing was a big thing, I did it for three days and then I got a warning saying, your accounts going to be banned and so I stopped, deleted all my spoofed Pokemon out of fear, and apparently I got shadow banned from any, 3 star raids or higher, where I could never catch a Pokemon. And it took me about, I think, around 50 legendary raids before I got my first legendary. And I think Entei was one of my first on the bus.

David Hernandez: 3:26

So you did 50 raids and you can never catch a single one of them?

FrostisEpic: 3:29

Yeah, on the bus I probably did like 2 tickets before I could catch anything. And it was really heartbreaking, cause I was like, My mom paid the tickets, we were on the bus making friends, and I think trading was honestly the most I got out of them at that point, but I just could never catch it and I was just so heartbroken.

David Hernandez: 3:47

Heartbroken. And I would be frustrated too, if I did 50 raids and not catching an Entei. You must've had a lot of patience.

FrostisEpic: 3:53

Eh, I think my mind's kind of blocking out all the, crying I did, but. I'm sure it got better the more I realized it was just not gonna change.

David Hernandez: 4:03

Befor we dive into Pokemon Go, do you have any experience with Pokemon?

FrostisEpic: 4:06

I got introduced to the franchise probably when I was like four or five. My friend was huge into the games, huge into the cards as well. He had some of the coolest cards I've ever seen. I love the art. I think art is one of my biggest passions as of now. all the courses I'm taking, like graph design and stuff, I think is really brought on by Pokemon cards, Because if I go through my old books of like drawing sketches, it's just all Pokemon. And all trying to replicate these styles of Pokemon cards and then I tried my first Pokemon game. this is why I love Lugia so much, my first game was actually Soul Silver and that was the first Pokemon into games I've ever seen. So I think that was really fun experience.

David Hernandez: 4:53

You mentioned earlier how you were connected to the art and that's what inspired you to what you're doing now or trying to do. Do you remember any cards that stick out that were like your favorites, like you really appreciated the art from them?

FrostisEpic: 5:05

my friend had some fake cards, because, as you know, a lot of kids can't tell the difference. But it was the Mega Metagross, the Japanese one, the shiny Mega Metagross and I was like, that was the one that I really wanted, And before that, I think he had some of those dark cards, like Dark Magikarp and Dark Gyarados from Team Rocket, and I was like, I just fell in love with those art styles, like the dark versions, those before shadows were a thing, way before Pokemon Go, like we're talking 2012 ish, 2010, of just cards, and I think those were some of my favorites.

David Hernandez: 5:40

When you were trying to learn how to draw, did you have like a favorite Pokemon you really wanted to learn how to draw or you practiced over and over?

FrostisEpic: 5:47

it'd have to be Lugia, I'm not the number one Lugia fan, but I like to say myself as I am. I think my profile on chess. com is a Lugia. a lot of my old website designs were based off Lugia. A lot of my art is based off Lugia. Some of my favorite palettes are from Lugia. I think the item itself, in Pokemon Go, the Lugia master you got from Johto Tour The minute I put it on, I have not taken it off since. I just fell in love with Lugia, and I'm still not able to draw it after all these years, I can draw almost any Pokemon, but Lugia, something with those little, eyes, always gets me. I never feel like I did good enough.

David Hernandez: 6:27

One part of Lugia that I appreciate, I'm not too sure if you know, I'm pretty sure you probably do know about it, is the Shadow Lugia from XD: Gale of Darkness.

FrostisEpic: 6:35

Yes, I have a physical copy, I made two of them, of a note I sent Niantic back in, 2017, 2016, when Buddy System first got introduced, I was writing down, I was like, it would be really cool If you could, like, give your buddy something and it could walk around on the map with you. I understand it could be a lot of coding and some animations, but I feel like it would be an amazing thing for you to add. And, of course, that later came true. I like to credit myself for that, but I know I didn't. I know they never opened those things, but I think Shadow Lugia was one of the requests. I said, if you ever add this, please add a Shadow Lugia from XD.

David Hernandez: 7:14

Please do it, Niantic, because I'm actually a big fan of that Lugia as well. I would raid so hard for it if it ever came to raids.

FrostisEpic: 7:20

I had not stopped until I did a Hundo. I think.

David Hernandez: 7:23

Oh? For Lugia?

FrostisEpic: 7:24

Yeah, my funny story about Hundo's Lugia is my first ever one, I was in my school's Pokemon Go club. Of course, I'm not the leader of it. I waited for someone else to start it, but, I was in there and I was like, we were all doing raids cause there's like a bunch of gyms around my school. And so there was a bunch of Lugia raids and so I was of course in class on my phone, sticking in, doing some, and then at Pokemon Go club during lunch, I did my first raid of that day. I didn't even know it at the time. I was just catching the Lugia, my friend looks over at my phone, and he's like That's a hundo, and I'm like, No, hundo's this, and I was thinking of the weather boosted, but it wasn't, and he's like, No, that's hundo, that's hundo, and everyone starts freaking out, and I'm like, I think it took me until the second ball to catch it, and my heart was racing. that was probably my biggest thing, one of my favorite accomplishments was the Hundo Lugia in my collection.

David Hernandez: 8:13

So unfortunately for me, I actually encountered a Hundo Lugia as well. However, mine did not stay in the ball. I was with my friend, his name was Deverock, and I remember, I was like, Oh my gosh, this is the Hundo CP. I think I had maybe 13, 14 premier balls, and I threw every single one. Now granted, they weren't excellent, they were mostly great throws, because trying to get an excellent on Lugia is difficult with how much it, attacks. I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm not going to catch it and of course I didn't. it haunted me. Like I was like done. Like I couldn't go to sleep after that, that's how bad it was. I really wanted the Hundo Lugia.

FrostisEpic: 8:46

Yeah, I remember I've lost, I want to say around seven hundo legendaries in my raiding career. I know the latest one was Genesect. I lost that one. I was super bummed. I was on raid night with some of the people from the raid bus originally.

David Hernandez: 9:05

So did you stick with Pokemon after SoulSilver? Did you stick with it throughout till present day?

FrostisEpic: 9:10

I went to a lot of summer camps growing up, and if you've ever been to one, you would know, with Pokemon cards, they were the thing. You would just have Pokemon cards and you'd trade them. It was like, hierarchy, the coolest kids would have the best cards and I remember one camp, I left them at home, and my mom mailed them to me. they ended up not giving them to me because they thought it was a suspicious package. So they wouldn't give it to me until my mom came to pick me up like a week later and I was so sad, like every day I was like, I swear they're coming, my mom said she, mailed them to me. I swear they're coming and they just never did until found out they didn't give them to me.

David Hernandez: 9:51

Wow. So they would just confiscate it. And they did they even open the envelope or they just

FrostisEpic: 9:55

they didn't open the box. There was like a specific height the box could be apparently. And it was like two centimeters over or something, so they didn't trust it.

David Hernandez: 10:06

Damn. That's unfortunate. At least you got the cards back though.'cause usually when I grew up, when they took the cards, we never got'em back.

FrostisEpic: 10:11

Yeah, I know, like, I was so worried. if I'm not mistaken, it could be a Thundurus, but I think I have one of my prized possessions. It's a Team Plasma Lugia. And I have kept that thing forever. It was like one of my first pulls. I was freaking out with my friends. We went to Target, got like a three pack. I was super in love with it because of the art. It was a full art. I didn't know those existed at the time and then the Team Plasma logo on it was like, amazing. and that's why Team Plasma is my favorite team. And they should add that to Pokemon Go, but yeah.

David Hernandez: 10:43

I actually have the first Lugia card released or the first, version. And the reason why I have, it's,'cause I always was fascinated by that one, having each elemental, like the fire, water, and electric. And I just thought that was so cool to add to the card that like, I need that card and I keep it in a, box cover just'cause it just has so much memories of just constantly, always looking at it growing up.

FrostisEpic: 11:02

I did not know that existed. I haven't looked at Pokemon cards in a hot minute. although, my last birthday, I was doing some of those Pokemon Go packs for those codes and I think I pulled, 12 Full Art Melmetals out of like, the 20 packs it came with, and I got so annoyed. So they don't need more of them. And my friends were freaking out just apparently that was like really good. And then I was going through all the codes, redeeming them. Cause if you didn't know this, the Pokemon Go, Pokemon cards come with codes you can claim that can give you an exclusive shirt and hat item and I was after that as I collect all rare things in Pokemon Go, like anything that's limited or exclusive, I try and get it. Of course, that doesn't count for GBL because I cannot battle in Pokemon Go. I just don't have the reaction time and don't want to spend eight years in the Stardust. But, uh, I got it on my birthday, my very last code. my mom and I were talking cause it was just me and her for a little bit, dad went to bed and we were like. Like, it would be so funny if this was the shirt, and little did I know I got the shirt, and we were like freaking out, it was so happy.

David Hernandez: 12:10

So Pokemon Go comes out in 2016. When did you first start playing?

FrostisEpic: 12:15

When the game first came out, my friend, same friend who introduced me to Pokemon, he was like, Get this game, it's the thing and me just following whatever he says. I was like, Oh, all right. I'll try it. It's Pokemon. My mom's reading all these articles of people getting trampled and like stampedes happening and she's like, no, no, you can't get this. You can't get this game. It's too dangerous. You'll die. Can't do any of this. I was so upset. So I waited like two weeks and then my mom finally agrees to let me get it after I'm sure was like seven hours of nagging a day. I really wanted that game. I finally did it. I remember being confused about, how to throw a Pokeball. I didn't know you had to click on the Pokemon. I went to my bag and I, kept clicking the Pokeballs that can't be used here. And I'm like, there's a Pokemon right here! What are you talking about? But I've been playing ever since then, and then... Later, I go on a trip to Florida and we were playing Pokemon. my mom got really hooked on it, and she didn't have her own account. She was playing on mine. So anytime I tried to play, she would just be on my account. I wouldn't do anything. So I told her, make her own account. She started like four months after me. She is now four levels higher than me.

David Hernandez: 13:25

your mom got addicted real quick after she played on your account a bit.

FrostisEpic: 13:28

Yeah, the ironic thing is she wouldn't let me get that game. She was afraid it was too dangerous. And now I have to remind her not to play while driving. She'll be like, but there's a Pikachu, I need it! And I'm like, no you do not. And she's like obsessed with like those, she calls them babies, CP10

David Hernandez: 13:45

Oh, level ones.

FrostisEpic: 13:46

Yeah, she'll, she'll find them and she will swerve off the road trying to get a cp 10 And I'm like, it's not worth it. I'll catch it for you. I'm afraid of what she does when I'm not in the car with her because that is It was really funny though. She was afraid of me getting hurt playing the game and now she's gonna Be crazy about the game

David Hernandez: 14:05

How does it feel to have your mom playing Pokemon with you? Does it feel kind of weird or does it feel something like y'all can kind of bond over together?

FrostisEpic: 14:13

I think, the first few weeks she started playing, I was just happy. I was happy she was playing. I can finally play on my own account. Then we started going to the Austin capital for comm days. Then I felt a little bit more weeded out. I'm like, eh, that like my independence phase where I was like, oh, I want to be by myself or with my friends. But, it felt weird, and then I got really comfortable with it, and then, like, mother son bonding is very difficult, because usually you don't share too many interests, but, found Pokemon, and it was just really fun. She'd drive me out places to go, she'd drive my dad crazy telling her, like, pull over here, there's a Pokemon we want, and it was just really fun.

David Hernandez: 14:54

So you and your mom would go to play Pokemon go together. I guess, as soon as she's driving. So y'all would also do that for community days and stuff like that.

FrostisEpic: 15:02

Yeah, we would, we'd drive community days. we found a nest. there used to be an app that would show you nearby nests. And we were just playing it all the time, just running around, having the time of our lives. Being like, there's a Charmander! There's a Charmander! And there's like 50 of them. And back then, Charmanders were really rare. Getting like candies for them or evolving to a Charizard was like the thing. You could not like not have a Charizard and be a good player.

David Hernandez: 15:28

So what's your way to play Pokemon go? Like, do you collect, are you a shiny hunter?

FrostisEpic: 15:33

I do a little bit of both. I collect anything that's limited, like items. I think currently my outfit is the black, In person, exclusive, New York, Osaka, shirt, in game, with just the pants I always wear. I always wear the same ones, because they resemble the shorts I wear every day. I'm more of a collector of like rare items and then shinies. I love shiny hunting, I think that's really fun. not really big into PvP, as I said, it's very... difficult for me to actually play it. My friends will go on 30 minute rants about, here's what team to use and why, and all this stuff that just sounds like gibberish to me. It's just too difficult. And I get super upset at it. I'm like, I clicked the move. Why isn't it using it? I can't, do this. I just want my Pikachu Libre to be over with.

David Hernandez: 16:21

So you said items. So you mean like, costumes or do you mean like you actually collect every single item in the game? Cause you said rare items.

FrostisEpic: 16:27

I do more of the anything that's limited. So a ticketed event that has a pose, it's mine. I think that started with the GO rock star pose from the Regigigas research. I didn't actually play that day. my mom and I completely blanked that we bought like the 30 ticket for it, but I did get the pose and I was rocking it forever. And everyone kept asking me, how did you get this? How did you get this? And I'm like, honestly, I don't know, but I realized no one had it. And that started like an addiction in my brain. I'm like, I want all these rare items now. I want to have something that someone else can't have. it was just really fun collecting all these items, to get all these shirts, going to in person events, Getting as you said costume, like Pokemon as well like I think I'm still missing a few. I'm missing all the clone Pokemon and a lot of shiny event Pikachus, but I have almost every costume in the game.

David Hernandez: 17:20

You know, I've been doing this interview stuff for about a year. You're the first person I've ever met. Who's talked about collecting poses or items like that's just so fascinating to me, I'm, impressed that there's this different way to play that never knew existed until today, so thank you for that.

FrostisEpic: 17:34

Yeah, it's honestly not a lot of people know that there's some really rare items besides the GBL stuff, like You would probably not know that like certain shirts are like limited to like certain events like I missed out on the Mr. Crime event as everyone calls it. So I'm always upset I don't have the mime pose. there's a lot of like tiny poses that you could just get and no one knows about. they look so similar to the other stuff, but they're not, they're just exclusive. I think the rarest one, in my opinion, has to be, just from pure skill alone, the Giovanni shirt. I think that one, I still don't have. I'm stacking my rockets to get it for a good Pokemon, but you have to beat him 20 times, and I think very few people have that. I think you had to actually stack a bunch of researches. I think the only way you could currently have that is if you bought a super rocket radar When it was available in the shop for 2, 000 coins Back when he first got released

David Hernandez: 18:33

so, you said New York, do you mean like GoFest?

FrostisEpic: 18:35

Yeah, my first in person GoFest was Seattle. I was really big into that. my mom and I went, it's just a fun vacation and we loved it. I think the walking really killed me. I recently at that point got, my feet problem that I still have to this day uh, My tendon, my Achilles tendon has shrunken and compressed to the point that I can't even, stand up straight anymore. And I have to, like, wear special shoes to stand up straight, so I'm always, leaning forward. If you ever meet me, you'll always see me leaning forward, just a bit barely noticeable, but right when it started, it was when I was in, like, the most pain. And so like, I remember that GoFest being like so fun, yet I couldn't walk more than like two hours before like my feet just started dying.

David Hernandez: 19:21

Going into Seattle, what were your expectations for GO Fest? what did you imagine it would be like?

FrostisEpic: 19:27

Honestly. I went in expecting very little. I was like, I thought it was just gonna be a Comm day. My Comm day, odds are terrible like going into it I was Expecting really low shinies, But I go into the park and it's like shiny after shiny my first click of the event shiny Unown-A. Really exciting for me. My mom and I were freaking out. She got really jealous. I think I got three shiny Unowns from the first check and it was just really exciting for me. At one point I even forgot that my legs existed and I was just having so much fun. I was just like running around. It was super fun. I think the bubbles, I remember it was like the fairy habitat, that was my favorite. I love just running around there. It felt very immersive

David Hernandez: 20:09

So we fast forward to New York, how was that different? Like, were you just as excited as you were for Seattle for New York?

FrostisEpic: 20:15

I think I was more excited because I was taking a friend. we went to Las Vegas for go tour, but I brought like five friends with me as my birthday and Christmas gift was, I was able to take five friends with me to Vegas. We did have a problem with that, my friend, didn't get a ticket in time and so he had to play on my mom's account, which she was fine with. But New York, I was super excited. I was like, I understood how everything worked. We had all three days. We were playing my first click, Shiny Seviper, one I've been needing forever. Shiny Unown odds were actually really sad. I think Niantic made them more rare than they should have been. out of that entire event, I got three shiny Unowns, which Seattle, I nearly tripled that number with nine. I think some people might've gotten more lucky than me. I think my shinies, I ended up with around 110. the park, this is my only negative feedback, it was honestly really congested with the amount of people, they had like 10, 000 ish people there, I think, the places they put buildings blocked the natural flow. So you had to walk in like tight, compact areas where everyone's playing Pokemon and looking at their phones, so you would just get bumped into constantly. And then the swap between two habitats, I think the athletic field and noxious swamp and then the hidden Treasures and Volcano one was terrible. You had to walk in like a circle, I would say it's like a one bike lane worth of it. And you have to, you couldn't walk behind you. You have to walk in a certain direction. So if you got caught in the flow, you'd have to walk back around again, then no Pokemon would spawn while you're walking through it and it just felt really bad for me. I was like, Compared to Seattle. Seattle flowed well. Seattle, there was not really congestion points. You were able to freely walk. My friend was super excited. It was his first ever, GO Fest. He was like, this is amazing! This is so fun! But to me, I was like, this park really sucks compared to Seattle and compared to Vegas. It's just too congested.

David Hernandez: 22:12

what was it like for you to go New York and experience go fest with your friend? Did it feel any different compared to when you went with your mom?

FrostisEpic: 22:18

It was honestly, I spent a lot of time with, we were all together, but I think it felt really different. he is really in the PVP, so he's really helpful with a certain Pokemon I needed to catch. He also would call out random Pokemon. I think he was really helpful with that. it was also just really fun watching us like compete for Shinies, just like every Comm Day, my friends and I will get together and we'll have a little competition and be like, Alright, whoever gets the most Shinies. wins. And we have a point system where like a hundo is five, a non community day shiny, or a non event shiny is three points, first shiny is two, last shiny is two. We keep track of all these things and it's just really fun watching us like run around and compete. on the days I don't compete, it's fun watching them like sprint everywhere trying to beat each other at the last minute. It's just really fun.

David Hernandez: 23:08

Last question about Go Fest. If somebody was on the fence about going to go fest, what would you tell them?

FrostisEpic: 23:13

I think if you're gonna go to GoFest, Make sure you have money for in game items. We bought the hotel, we shared a room, so it was cheaper for that. But make sure you have money for... I'm saying like 150 for in game items like, you need, raid passes, incubators, star pieces, eggs. If you have a star piece and an egg running for the entire time, I think I did over 3 million stardust in New York alone. I know I did 255 eggs hatched in New York alone. I hatched 4 hundo Tirtougas. But, if you're gonna go to GOFest, you need to have a lot of money set aside for it. You need to make sure you have items, you need to make sure you have, everything you could possibly need. Sometimes you could go without some stuff. But, if you really want to maximize your experience, you need to have Pokecoins.

David Hernandez: 24:03

You've been listening to As the Pokeball Turns. We're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back. earlier you mentioned how I think your first raid bus was, uh, you weren't too sure, but you said it was probably Entei?

FrostisEpic: 25:20

Yeah.

David Hernandez: 25:21

What was it about the raid bus that you enjoyed back in those days?

FrostisEpic: 25:25

Honestly, because I couldn't catch anything, it was the friends. I met two notable people, michelle or Meech Maxx, she was amazing and she had a friend, who I thought at the time was her husband, turned out they're just really good friends. Bucka Rhett, he's now in Arkansas, but still have a lucky friend with him trying to somehow manage to do that. But They were so nice. I remember one time we forgot our portable chargers and they offered us like three for every device. They were amazing and little did I know if I didn't make friends with them I would have never tooken over the Raid Bus. I think that is one of the biggest things is Michelle actually talked to me while we were doing our raid train I think they had this little thing after the bus shut down with a lot of like Really passionate Raid Bus people with Phil for Austin, I think all of them were community managers for him. And they started this thing called a Raid Train and my mom's friends, or my mom's co worker knew one of them personally and so they were talking, and then she got invited to this Raid Train in December. I remember one of them was talking like, y'all heard the raid bus shut down and we were like, what? I'm like, yeah, the Phil has officially told me he's shutting it down, but They're looking for people to take it over and I'm like, I want to take it over. I think that was the jump in my brain. I was like, all these people I go raiding with, I want to like take over the raid bus. I think at that time I was more motivated by money than the people.

David Hernandez: 26:50

Why did you want to take it over?'cause you said earlier, it started with money, but then it eventually changed to the people. So my first question is, why did you want to take it over?

FrostisEpic: 26:59

my first thought when I was doing that, I said my mom was like, this would be a fun summer job. This would be something to do I can make money from. that was kind of like my main motivation at the time. I realized that's not what I really want to do. I want to be there for the people, I think some of my favorite moments on the bus was just seeing, like, people's face light up as they got a Shiny or they got a Hundo. on our last Mega Rayquaza bus, we actually got, I think, like, seven Hundos and that's seven times more than we've gotten on any bus before, we've only gotten one. someone got a Shundo on the bus, and we were all freaking out. The first Hundo of the day was, in fact, a Shundo Rayquaza and everyone was freaking out. I think that was really fun and that's why I wanted to take it over. I think in the back of my head, I really wanted to do it for the people, but my vocals were kind of like, it's for the money, but that's not truly what ended up happening.

David Hernandez: 27:54

It sounds like that you were kind of conflicted Like at first you kind of thought like, Hey, I can make some money off this, doing something that I'd like to do. maybe it's more of a transition or a journey. You found out that, Hey, it's more of the people that reason why I do this and the money's kind of secondary. If I even do make money off this,

FrostisEpic: 28:11

Yeah. And that's a very good point there. If I even make money, we've actually been losing, I think, about 200 per bus. I know my mom doesn't want me to share this, but I think it's good to say it. We don't do this for the money, if anything, we're actually losing money. I think that was the biggest thing, where we lose money and that kind of shows how, everyone on our team. My mom, Jessica, and I, Jessica, she was from the original Raid Train, are all just in it for the people to put smiles on their faces, and money is just a bonus if we can make it.

David Hernandez: 28:43

what were the struggles that you ran across when you were trying to rebuild the raid bus?

FrostisEpic: 28:48

I think the biggest struggle was people, branching out. when we first wanted to take it over, it was still recently announced that it was over, and so a lot of people were wanting to take it over. But, we ended up reaching out first, or, ended up actually, putting the most effort in. I remember every day after school, we contacted Phil, and I'd come home and be like, Mom, has Phil talked back to us? Has he said anything about it? she'd be like, no, no, until finally, she was like, he finally said something and she reads the message, and I'm all like excited upstairs, where she's in her office, and we're all like, Happy. we later go and call him and we talked about it. We're like, we've been on the bus a few times. We're not the most avid bus riders, but we love it. We love what we're doing. I think taking it over would honestly help. The problem with us was we just couldn't get everything figured out in time and we ended up just forgetting about it for about a year. We just forgot. We just absolutely forgot that it was a thing. And then later, Jessica was like, have y'all put any more effort into the raid bus? And we're like, acting like we have a lot, but we completely forgotten. We ended up just taking that opportunity and restarting the whole project and I think we got it up within a month. it was tireless nights. I was staying up to like 1am making promotional images in Photoshop doing all this stuff, doing all the research I need, all the stuff. Of course, my mom, she only set up financing. She's only a volunteer, because she wants this to be my thing and so she's just a volunteer who helps the social media and the website. the biggest part is just like doing all the promotionals and trying to get everyone from Discord, Facebook, the old, anything on our side. I remember being so distraught when I was talking to some of the people in Phil's chat and they're like, I thought raids are free, not if you ride the bus, and they were like trash talking us, and it really distraught me. I was like, why would you say this? used to ride the bus too and you're now just trash talking us trying to start it. Like, oh, now I have to pay to ride a bus? Now I have to pay to do raids? They were all so mean about it and I think that was my biggest struggle at first was just trying to figure out what we were doing, trying to overcome how everyone thought we were just in it for the money.

David Hernandez: 31:09

How did you handle that negativity, or that criticism that came towards you?

FrostisEpic: 31:13

A lot of it, I just didn't respond. I didn't say anything. I just blocked it out. I'd talk to my friends and be like would you still ride the bus if we did it? And they're always like, yeah, we'll still ride the bus. And I just blocked them out of my mind. I think one of the best things was, your podcast actually, for building it and I think a lot of the stuff we did was listening to Phil talk in his own words about the bus and it enabled us to actually push past any negativity, any naysayers by the positivity he had for everyone. I think by the time y'all did that podcast, he already knew we were taking it over and so he just wasn't saying anything about it.

David Hernandez: 31:50

What was your mom's thoughts initially when you brought this idea as like, Hey, I want to bring the raid bus back. Can you help me? Like, What was her initial reaction? Oh,

FrostisEpic: 31:58

She was very against it. She was very opposed to doing it. She was like, This is gonna cost a lot of money. Do we even have enough people? What are we gonna do? Do you really wanna do this? Are you just saying this to make them happy? Get impressions? And I'm like, I actually wanna take it over. I think later she realized I wasn't joking. She realized that I wasn't just trying to do it. She realized that I was actually just trying to genuinely help everyone out doing raids and building my own community, I think. That was one of my biggest things, I think. My biggest failure was to build a community and I think that was my biggest problem was that I was never able to truly just build a community. And I think that this is kind of a passion project where I was able to bring all these people together. Like we've had people come out from El Paso to ride the bus.

David Hernandez: 32:48

Oh wow!

FrostisEpic: 32:49

That's really far. And we've had people from Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, all these places just to ride the bus and I think it was really fun. some of our most. loyal customers actually haven't missed a bus since and it's like, all these random people I didn't know for the longest time are coming just to ride the bus that we put together for them. And we spend months doing all these stuff for them and I'm just really excited I think the Mewtwo bus, I remember being in class making the professional look for the bus and then the t shirt design was also my idea. Those are some of our favorite things a lot of people love the t shirts they love supporting us, that's really important to us as well. but we couldn't have done it without Phil's help and we later got help from POGO512. they are Austin's official community. their two main people are Inspired Mayo and Cass Attack. We ran into them and I didn't even know who they were, but my friend Jessica was like, Oh my god, that's the leaders of Pogo 512, and they're in my car right now. And she was like, fangirling about them. And I think without them making that announcement, we'd probably still only be sitting around 50, 60 members, maybe.

David Hernandez: 34:01

Just to give some context for people listening El Paso to Austin's about a nine to ten hour drive non stop So those people going to the raid bus from El Paso are truly dedicated people

FrostisEpic: 34:12

Yeah, We were so surprised to hear that people came all the way out from El Paso. Apparently they stopped at motels just to ride the bus.

David Hernandez: 34:20

well that's what my question was like, how does it feel to have people come from El Paso ten hours? Dallas is easily six you got people all over Texas coming to ride your raid bus Like how does it feel to experience that or to think about that?

FrostisEpic: 34:34

It feels really awesome, honestly. It feels to me like all the effort we put into these things are like paying off and how we were able to revise such a concept. This is more of a controversial take I have. A lot of people are negative on the remote raid limit. But I think if that never happened, the bus would have rarely taken off because everyone could have just done it just sitting at home doing the bus. But with this, it implemented in a business term, demand, a lot of demand for the bus because no one could no longer just sit at home and doing raids all day. They would actually have to go out and do them, especially with like Shadow Mewtwo raids, where it took about 10 people to do. That bus sold out really fast. I think we had like 10 tickets by the third hour we had the announcement out.

David Hernandez: 35:22

And now you're approaching the bus as building community now, instead of trying to make a quick buck, it sounds like. So it sounds like you're gonna have more regulars coming.

FrostisEpic: 35:29

Yeah, I think that was my favorite thing, was although I knew we were losing money, I was like, we just need to keep doing these things. I can work overtime for these buses. And funny enough, my boss...

David Hernandez: 35:41

Dude, you work until 1am. That's you're already working overtime.

FrostisEpic: 35:44

Yeah, no, no, no, I work, I work sometimes till 3am, honestly. And it turned out my boss actually is a huge Pokemon Go fan. And now it's really awkward, cause he looks at the Raid Bus. I see him, he has a account on our website. I see him looking at tickets and I'm like, oh no, oh no, he's gonna figure out that I'm taking this day off to do the bus and not the family event I said I had.

David Hernandez: 36:07

I mean, it's a family event. It's you and your mom.

FrostisEpic: 36:09

It is, it is a family event, And it'd also be really awkward, I'd be like, everyone behave, this is my boss, don't get me fired, please. this is something not a lot of people know, but we work with a company called Limos of Austin. My mom isn't as attached to them as we are or as I am. I am very attached to them. Our first bus driver, Denise. She was amazing. She knew all the little spots. She loved Pokemon. Of course these buses were smaller, but she helped us out. Our first ever bus, the A. C. on the bus broke.

David Hernandez: 36:38

Oh no.

FrostisEpic: 36:40

and that was terrible, but she called them, she got it fixed within minutes, and then she gave us non stop. That bus actually went an extra, like, seven hours than it was supposed to. I think we went to, like, ten, maybe eleven. So people were like, alright, this is enough sitting, I need to go home.

David Hernandez: 36:56

We're Pokemon'd out.

FrostisEpic: 36:58

Yup. that was really fun. And I think putting that together was really fun. And then our second bus driver for the Shadow Articuno bus, he actually knew one of our community members. He knew him personally, like he's his friend. He's like, yeah, I need to tell my friend about y'all. He loves Pokemon He's actually going out to a soccer that don't play and I'm like, oh that's pretty cool and it was very exciting, to find out that Our bus driver was recommending us to our friend, and that his friend was already on the bus last time. It's like, yeah, no, I know these people. I already go on their bus. What are you talking about, man? And it was like super funny. We were all like laughing once we found out. But I feel like everyone truly enjoyed that bus, especially with her first ever Shundo on the bus. And that was, like, really crazy to me.

David Hernandez: 37:42

Well, that's good, man. It sounds like you've really worked hard to try to bring the Raid Bus back and I'm happy to see that y'all are trying to create something out there. You know, it's been a while since I've had Phil, it's been almost a year at this point, at the time, I wasn't really as aware of a community, aspect around the Raid Bus. Since I've done more interviews, obviously, and just since I've been more involved within the Pokemon Go community, I realize how important it is to have people that you always know, come by, like Phil, he knew specific people who come to the bus all the time, and you're going to have that same people. Some of them are going to be returned. Some of them will be brand new. And I think that's going to be the exciting thing to hear how this raid bus is going to evolve over time, because there's a lot of people who the raid bus touched their journeys and I'm looking forward to seeing where the raid bus takes you.

FrostisEpic: 38:29

Yeah, I think definitely something, not a lot of people would know about the old raid bus is, I think, the entire Austin community community. broke up. If you've ever watched like, I guess Avatar is a good reference, kind of like four nations. It split up, I think everywhere in Austin, there's still a fragment of the bus who still hang out. I think POGO512 started, after the bus, but it just has several different bus communities and like all sorts of parts of Austin and it's really honestly cool to think about how some of these old people are all getting back together, friends who haven't seen each other in like years just to go on the bus. I think that's really exciting for me.

David Hernandez: 39:10

What are your hopes or what are your goals for the raid bus? what do you hope it becomes?

FrostisEpic: 39:15

I really hope it becomes a business where we can just like One, sustain ourselves financially, but also build a massive community of just Pokemon players where we can move the bus to different cities like Phil had, and where it stops becoming just Austin, but becomes like this community of people who love raiding, who love Pokemon, and try and connect everyone from all different backgrounds, doesn't matter where you're from, what you believe in, just, you're here to play Pokemon, you play Pokemon, you have an amazing time. And that's my goal for the buffs, is just to build a fun community who loves raiding, who loves going out, who loves hanging out. I really hope that the Raid Bus can become something where Everyone can be involved together, where it's just a massive community and We just take every aspect of Pokemon pile it into one.

David Hernandez: 40:06

Well, Frost, we're almost done with this interview. I do have one last question before we close this taco stand.

FrostisEpic: 40:11

Alrighty,

David Hernandez: 40:12

from what I've heard so far, it sounds like your mom has played a huge part with you and Pokemon. in your opinion, how has she changed your journey with Pokemon?

FrostisEpic: 40:22

especially Pokemon Go, I think at the beginning she wasn't really too big into Pokemon cards. She didn't like the idea. She thought it was more of gambling, but in Pokemon Go... I think she changed my perspective on how you should play the game. I thought Pokemon Go is all about collecting the rare, cool, shinies. But she, she runs after like CP10 Pokemon. Pokemon that just aren't good for anything. Pokemon she finds cute and it really just opened my eyes to see Pokemon Go isn't just one community or multiple communities, but it's just how everyone plays. It's shows like an actual Pokemon game where trading and shiny hunters still exist. I think the way my mom impacted my Pokemon Go experience was more of just like finding out how everyone else can really play together. How everyone really can just play different styles, but also be doing the same thing in a sense Like at the end of the game, the whole point is just to collect what you find cool Do what you want to do? I think the reason why it makes it so special is I'm able to go places. I'm able to meet people Unlike most Pokemon games where you just sit inside all day just on your switch or on your 3ds just pressing the same buttons for shinies. I actually have to go out talk to people and I think that's what makes Pokemon Go so special and how my mom really helped it was just by her being able to take me places and actually drive me everywhere. I think that's something a lot of my friends are jealous of is that my mom plays and so I'm able to go do things that they can't.

David Hernandez: 41:49

And now you and your mom are riding the raid bus to who knows where, and I look forward to seeing where that journey takes y'all. But Frost, that is the show. Thank you for coming on. Before you do go, if people want to get connected with you, if people want to find out, like, hey, I had the raid bus in my area, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

FrostisEpic: 42:07

the best place you can reach out to me is gonna be our Discord. if you're not into Discord, you don't know what Discord is, Facebook, I'm sure everyone's heard of Facebook, it's meta now. That shouldn't be a good way to reach out to my mom, she manages Facebook, I call it the old people social media, even though I know it's not.

David Hernandez: 42:26

Cool beans. And I'll make sure to include links to everything he said in the description of today's episode. Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. If you want to support the show, consider becoming a patron by either clicking the link in the description or going to patreon.com/asthepokeballturns. Now here's a sneak peek for the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.