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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's how to donate:

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

2) Garren’s Venmo

3) Amazon Wishlist

Trainer's Eye is a series where the stories are real and people still play this game. From PVP to Shiny Hunting, each person's Pokemon GO journey is unique and we dive into each journey here on As The Pokeball Turns!

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

Connect with WildcatDad17: Twitter | Website

Transcript

David Hernandez: 0:00

My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns! Our journey takes us to Kentucky, also known as the Bluegrass State, where we meet a trainer who has been a part of the Pokemon community through most of his life. A self proclaimed OG. His journey led him to Pokemon Go, where he experienced a franchise he loved in his own world. Most importantly, it was the community that kept him connected with the game and eventually led him to being a part of the BTW, Beginner to Winner community, where it was designed with the idea of training people up from beginners to seasoned competitors. With my guest, the community is something he stresses and focuses on where they share their triumphs and defeats. More recently, a core member of their community, who's your dad at 13, lost their home due to a house fire. Thankfully, the family survived and are still recovering at the time of this episode. If you're able to help, consider leaving a small donation for the family. Instructions and links will be available in the description of this episode. But what drives this community to help one another and be there for each other is best left said with my guest today. We aren't just a community. We are family. Here is his origin story into the world of Pokemon. He is the co host of the Beginner to Winner Podcast. This is WildcatDad17. Today, I'm joined by the co host of the BTW Beginner to Winner podcast and your favorite country accent on the show. WildcatDad17, welcome to the show.

WildCatDad17: 2:05

Howdy folks. How's it going?

David Hernandez: 2:07

Now, before we dive into the show, I need to make sure I avoid any potential repercussions. You're not really 17 years old, right?

WildCatDad17: 2:13

No, I am not. My daughter was born in the year of 2017. That's where the 17 in the name comes from.

David Hernandez: 2:20

Okay, good, because I was worried I'd need a parental slip for you for this interview. I wasn't too sure.

WildCatDad17: 2:24

God, that makes me feel better cause Lord knows life's been

David Hernandez: 2:30

Was life darkened when you were 17, Wildcat?

WildCatDad17: 2:32

Yeah, life was easier when I was 17. I didn't have bills.

David Hernandez: 2:36

Oh, that's

WildCatDad17: 2:37

Yeah. Think, think, think about it. Back, back, back to the end. It's like, gas money was the thing you were worried about. And gas was what, 1. 25?

David Hernandez: 2:47

Dang. Yeah. All I was worried about was the next video game coming out and what new Yu Gi Oh card set was going to come out.

WildCatDad17: 2:52

Yeah.

David Hernandez: 2:53

also, one thing I also want to bring up is, I remember when you were on Good Morning Johto, I heard that you cook a mean biscuits and gravy.

WildCatDad17: 2:59

Oh, Abso frickin lutely. I am from Kentucky. That is literally a requirement to live here.

David Hernandez: 3:04

Really? So do you like the biscuits homemade? And I'm sure you do the great from scratch, of course.

WildCatDad17: 3:09

Gravy from Scratch, I, depends upon the day, 90 percent of the time I'm going to be doing the biscuits out of a can, just because I ain't got time for that. My mother, on the other hand, makes the world's best biscuits, and literally, my daughter has begged to learn how to make granny biscuits. So they're making biscuits together.

David Hernandez: 3:25

Oh, I'm so jealous. It's so hard to make it. Well, it's not hard, but it's just tedious to make a new biscuit.

WildCatDad17: 3:30

Honestly, her biscuits are like three ingredients. They're the simplest things, like flour, milk, a little bit of butter, and a little bit of water. Four ingredients. that's. The entirety of her, but you cannot ask for a actual measurement of any of it because she doesn't know. She just keeps throwing things together until eventually there's biscuits.

David Hernandez: 3:46

One time when I was at work, I had to bring a dish and I decided to bring biscuits and gravy myself. So the way I do my gravy, I do biscuits like you do. I don't try to mess with the make it from scratch. My gravy, I mix sausage and chorizo together.

WildCatDad17: 4:00

Ooh.

David Hernandez: 4:01

And then I cook that in the stove, and then I'm pretty sure you probably do a similar process maybe with your sausage. You put the flour in, make a little bit of a roux, dump some milk in there, whole milk by the way, and then off to the races. And it gives it like a little bit of a reddish color, but my god it's so

WildCatDad17: 4:15

haven't tried it with chorizo. I do a lot of sausage gravy, a lot of bacon gravy.

David Hernandez: 4:19

Ooh.

WildCatDad17: 4:20

Bacon gravies. It is a lot harder to get right, because there's just so much grease that if you don't get the roux right as you're doing it, you end up with greasy gravy And greasy gravy is not good gravy. for Thanksgiving, I actually did sausage and bacon. And then just dumped a little bit of the grease out, because it was way too much grease at that point. But I just let, I was like, you know what, we're gonna keep most of it, and we're gonna go to town on it.

David Hernandez: 4:41

Yeah.

WildCatDad17: 4:41

like 45 minutes to get it right.

David Hernandez: 4:44

Mm hmm.

WildCatDad17: 4:44

But when it came out, it was so good.

David Hernandez: 4:47

Well, we're not here to talk about food, although I am hungry now. We're here to talk about Pokemon. So, Wildcat, like, what's your first experience with Pokemon?

WildCatDad17: 4:54

So as the kids would say, a real OG. I've been around Pokemon since it came to the US. I didn't get to play Red and Blue to start. We, grew up East Kentucky, very poor. So literally my first actual Pokemon experience at a yard sale, we found the yellow Game Boy and Pokemon yellow. I went berserk and begged and kicked and screamed until I got to get that brought home to me. so that was my first experience. And then I played, generation two. Couldn't play generation three cause did not have a Game Boy advance. So I missed, three and four and then went back and played them later on in life. But also, in elementary school, like all the kids back then, TCG was the thing to do. I'm gonna break your heart now. I had the shadowless first edition Charizard.

David Hernandez: 5:41

Oh no.

WildCatDad17: 5:43

had it five, no, ten years ago. I gave it to my nephew.

David Hernandez: 5:48

Have you thought about getting it back?

WildCatDad17: 5:49

I'm afraid to ask what's happened to it.

David Hernandez: 5:53

I mean, it could just mysteriously vanish, I'm just saying. Wouldn't judge you.

WildCatDad17: 5:58

it's probably not in great condition at this point. So, but you know, I, I, I had that in my collection, love the anime one of, one of my OG favorite Pokemon games is actually one that a lot of people haven't heard of is Pokemon, the trading card game. I love that. Love that game. Now I may have not played it through approved Nintendo means. Cause once again, we covered the fact that I didn't have a Game Boy Advance.

David Hernandez: 6:21

Right.

WildCatDad17: 6:21

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

David Hernandez: 6:32

I remember playing Pokemon trading card game as well

WildCatDad17: 6:34

Mm hmm.

David Hernandez: 6:35

didn't really know how to play the game you know physically and I remember just looking to that game I was like oh I get to experience the trading card game you know keep in mind for us before the internet before online play this is the probably easiest way for you to experience the Pokemon trading card game and I was just hooked into it because I love card games for one but two It was just a fun little strategy, trying to get the Pokemon to work. And trying to use all the different power, I think they called them power, points. No, not power points. Abilities, I forgot what they called them back in the day.

WildCatDad17: 7:03

don't remember. It's been, that's been too long ago.

David Hernandez: 7:06

Yeah, that's too long for us old people to remember. But it was a lot of fun though, to play!

WildCatDad17: 7:10

It was, and it did a great job of establishing the basics. Now, you weren't playing any, like, real competitive dicks in that game. You're playing like the basic of the basic decks, but you learned. So I loved it. you know, back then we didn't have TCG live and all that stuff to help teach us how to play this stuff. So we were making up rules with our friends.

David Hernandez: 7:28

That's true, because I remember, I played with my cousin. And he had the base set Zapdos. Anybody knows it does 100 damage. He would just throw it down and he says, I think it's thunder, your Pokemon's dead without even attaching energy.

WildCatDad17: 7:40

Yep.

David Hernandez: 7:41

But that's how simple it was back in the day.

WildCatDad17: 7:43

Now you got these retrieval strats and moving things around and the TCG is so It's so nuanced, just like all the other versions that people don't I don't get it that if you're not entrenched in the different competitive aspects of Pokemon, from the outside in, you're looking Pokemon Go, you're just tapping your phone. What's hard about it? VGC, you just click the most effective move, obviously. TCG, you're just, throwing Pokemon cards down and hoping you draw what you need. When in all reality, all three of them have so much intricacy and complexity to them that it makes them a lot of fun.

David Hernandez: 8:15

you said you played the first three generations before taking a break. Which was your favorite, set to play?

WildCatDad17: 8:20

Oh, I will always be a Jim Warner. I can't help it. The nostalgia of it. Is it the best Pokemon game? Absolutely not.

David Hernandez: 8:29

Mm hmm.

WildCatDad17: 8:30

But will it always be my favorite? 100%., the nostalgia of, this is what I played as a kid, and you never experience Pokemon the first time again. And while, yes, you can experience a new game, going through Scarlet and Violet and being the first true open world was amazing. But I still knew all the mechanics. I still knew what I was doing. It wasn't challenging.

David Hernandez: 8:49

Mm hmm.

WildCatDad17: 8:50

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

David Hernandez: 9:03

Did you really grind to level

WildCatDad17: 9:04

Yes, I did.

David Hernandez: 9:05

How long did that take you? That's crazy.

WildCatDad17: 9:07

don't want to talk about it.

David Hernandez: 9:09

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

WildCatDad17: 9:20

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what I got. I'm so high. And then I went to the Elite four just competitively lost over and over and over and use them for the final levels.

David Hernandez: 9:32

Road, Like I'm That's an impressive grind right there.

WildCatDad17: 9:35

As you get about level 75 to 975 to 85. You have to go through the Elite Four to get that additional XP over and over

David Hernandez: 9:42

Yay.

WildCatDad17: 9:43

and then trying to find you under the truck Or glitching for missing though.

David Hernandez: 9:49

Did you know about MissingNo back in the day or did you

WildCatDad17: 9:51

I found out about it through a friend that had a, GameShark and he showed me and I was like, well, is there any way you can get it without a game shark? And eventually I talked to enough people and we all figured it out because once again, no real Internet at that point where you just keep beating your head against the wall the number you keep corrupting your save file and over and over until you eventually you get a missing no. And then you get 999 master balls and then you just catch everything and everything's easy and unlimited rare candy and. Oh, well, this. It was a lot more fun when I actually played it the correct way.

David Hernandez: 10:21

I think that's the one thing I want to someday figure out is how did somebody figure out MissingNo? Because you have to imagine how convoluted those steps are like, did somebody just literally go over and over for save files? Like, I want to know someday how they figured that out. It's crazy.

WildCatDad17: 10:34

Lord, I, I, I, you know what? Conspiracy theory. Game Freak put it out the method, cause they wanted people to find it, but then again, for people to think like Scarlet and Violet's broken, y'all don't know nothing about broken games. Generation 1 was the most broken, things, we take for granted now, like Ghost being super effective against Psychics. Nah, that, didn't work in Gen 1. It was broken.

David Hernandez: 10:57

it's so broken, people still find stuff broken with it. I remember a couple years ago, they recently found out that if you use Body Slam on a normal Pokemon, it doesn't paralyze it ever because apparently normal types are immune to any status afflictions inflicted by normal attacks. And they just barely found that out a couple years ago. Ha ha ha

WildCatDad17: 11:13

So, Scarlet and Violet's a joy, comparatively to what those old games were.

David Hernandez: 11:18

Before we dive into Scarlet and Violet, so if you play a playthrough with, Red, Blue, or Yellow, what 6th Pokemon are you using?

WildCatDad17: 11:23

Charizard. Cause, Charizard's the best. Dragonite, even though you're gonna have to get it late and go back. Alakazam, in Generation 1, was extremely broken. Or hypno take your pick of your Psychic.. I prefer Alakazam as the Psychic. I enjoyed Porygon. I think it actually is a good Swiss Army Knife. And then Snorlax just because I'm Snorlax in real life.

David Hernandez: 11:46

Right there with you, my friend. I'm glad I found a fellow Porygon lover, because I loved to use Porygon back in the day, too, and it's such an easy to miss Pokémon, but I really enjoyed using it, especially in Pokémon Stadium.

WildCatDad17: 11:56

Mm hmm. It's interesting because, especially back then, you had the only way to get Porygon was to gamble. So it was really one of those things that you just spent hours and hours and hours of grinding. So once you got it, you were going to use it. Like, that was just a requirement once you spent all that time, and then you start learning, like, what it's moves are, and it's shockingly bulky, even though I didn't know what that meant back then. I just knew it took a hit really well. So, I enjoyed it a lot. I would say if, you know, the ghost type wasn't actually, physically broken in Generation One, Gengar would be amazing. But, it doesn't work.

David Hernandez: 12:28

Before we dive into the Pokemon Go side of things. Y'all did an episode on BTW, where y'all exclusively did one episode over Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. And I really loved that episode because you really kind of dived into it and I wanted to know, like, do you still feel that strong connection with those games, even after the episode aired, like, maybe a year or two ago?

WildCatDad17: 12:47

Oh, absolutely. I still think they are, to date, the best version of Pokemon. The game itself is broken as can be, but it is still the closest I've come to feeling what Pokemon strives to be which is, here's your thing, you're a 10 year old, go out on an adventure and figure it out because there was no guide to how to get through them. There was no, you have to go to this gym, and then go to this gym, and then go to this thing. I got absolutely bodied by TeamSTAR's fire. the first time cause I was like, oh, I'm right here by it, I've already done this and done the gym. Done cloth in the gym, obviously I'm at a high enough level to take this on. No. No, I was not. I think I was like level 14 and they're dropping out level 20 things on me. And I'm like, Oh, I am not prepared for this. But then I went across the mat after, you know, getting prepared for it and doing it cause I'm stubborn. I make it over to the dark one and I'm like, these are level 10. Oh, I was supposed to come here first. Maybe one day we'll have proper level scaling in these games? Maybe? But not only that, the story, look, it's been almost two years. I'm going to give some spoilers. I'm sorry, y'all.

David Hernandez: 13:51

You've had enough time.

WildCatDad17: 13:52

enough time. The story, especially once you quote unquote post game with Area Zero and Arvin's dad and or mom, I literally was bawling like, it actually hit an emotional place in my life. And when was the last time a Pokemon game did that? if you go back and look at, for example, Sword and Shield, it had the most shallow, uninteresting story in the world that was so predictable. Oh look, Rose is the bad guy, and oh, he wants to save the world by killing? That's so stupid! Versus in Scarlet and violet, you had this actual depth story of Arvin resenting his mom or dad, depending upon which version you play, because they haven't been there for him, to come and find out that they're trapped either in the past or the future, and they couldn't come back to him, and like, it was just this very emotional, relatable, and then you add on the stories of Team S. T. A. R. S., the bully thing. We've all been there, done that in our, especially as nerds, we've all been bullied at one point in our life. And then you add in trying to be the very best, you know, Nimona was definitely the least interesting of the characters. But it was still the classic story. I want to be the best. I need to battle. I need to be the best trainer. So you had all of these intertwined stories that really flushed itself out pretty well. And now with the DLC, we're expanding on those stories. And the DLCs are linking together versus being two separate DLCs now. Which I'm loving. I just think they, were the best version of a game we've got to date.

David Hernandez: 15:14

You touched on something interesting, cause I think what you touch on is the why. Cause, what makes a good story is the why. You want to be able to Understand like why people do things and I agree with you in regards to Scott and Violet. Chairman Rose, I actually loved the guy, I was kind of sad like oh great he went heel on us and became a bad guy. I was like why? Like I actually liked him more as a good guy to be honest because he just seemed more genuine. For Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, specifically what we're talking about. I understood why Team Star did what they did.

WildCatDad17: 15:40

Yeah, it's like you started out hating them. You're like, oh god, it's just another bad guy team, obviously their motivations are gonna be stupid. And then you're like, oh crap, as you start beating each of the little stories, you're like, oh, oh, I do hate the twist that, that Penny was the big boss. I'm like, that was a little predictable.

David Hernandez: 15:56

Pretty obvious, yeah.

WildCatDad17: 15:57

but it still fit, it still, the entire story flowed. Minus when you don't look for gaps, like, hey, how did the entire school forget that this happened five years prior? Because that's literally what it is, like, oh yeah, we forgot these kids were bullied five years ago, like, hell!

David Hernandez: 16:10

they were in our school, yeah! Mm

WildCatDad17: 16:13

did this happen? But, minus little things like that, it's still overall a genuinely good story. And the Pokemon themselves in it have some of the most bangering designs we've had in a long time. And it's not just the, Pokemon that got new evolutions like, Annihilape is awesome. Undeniably, Annihilape is awesome. But Tinkaton? I love Tinkaton. It is precious to me. I love her so much, I just want to pet her. And then something like, even like Flamingo. It's one of the simplest designs, but it just hits so well. And I feel like a lot of generations in the past, people that's listened to me before know my hate for Vanilluxe. It's a damn ice cream cone. That's all it is! Do better! And this generation, they did better. Even the things that are simple designs, they're simple with a purpose. Flamingo's a simple design, but it's a fighting flamingo. It's exactly what I expect to see it be. I like that. It made me happy. It's not an ice cream cone.

David Hernandez: 17:09

So, eventually, you know, you dive into Pokemon Go. When did you first start playing that game? What was it like?

WildCatDad17: 17:14

Day Warner. I jumped in Day 1. Almost missed Day 1. Literally, I went out to dinner with my wife and she sees a Facebook post from one of our friends from high school and says, Hey, I know you were looking at this game. You know it launched, right? No, I did not! And I immediately caught a Rattata. Like, downloaded it and caught a Rattata immediately as soon as I could. That was the first thing I caught that wasn't my starter. No, I do not have that Rattata. No, I do not have my starter. Those were ground into candy many years ago. No. They were force fed to their brethren to make them more powerful.

David Hernandez: 17:47

There you go.

WildCatDad17: 17:47

but I was a day wanderer, and I've actually played continuously since launch. So, I'm one of those rare people. but early on in the days, my play was driven, I was traveling for work. I was spending roughly 140, 000 air miles a year on the road. So, something like 75 percent of my time was spent in different cities and what better way to get to see a city than to launch Pokemon Go and just have it walk you around the city. That's what I did. I would be literally in downtown Sacramento, just walking, catching things, and then go, oh crap, it's getting dark, I need to get back to the hotel. My favorite one, I went to, I was in L. A., I don't remember what part, but I went over to Redondo Beach. when I get done walking and realize it's dark, I'm in Long Beach. I had to get an Uber back to my car.

David Hernandez: 18:31

You were that far.

WildCatDad17: 18:32

that far away that I had to get an Uber back to my car. And it was literally just walking the sidewalk on the beach, playing Pokemon Go, watching the sunset, enjoying the weather and was just playing and taking pictures and just enjoying the game. And then on that early days, pre PVP world, what did we do in this game? We raided. And Lexington had one of the best raiding communities in the country. you cannot make me change my opinion. On any given Saturday or Sunday, we would have a raid train of minimal 20, upwards of 60.

David Hernandez: 19:04

Oh

WildCatDad17: 19:04

Just darting across the city doing raids together, and that was every single weekend. And then, of course, the world changed and that's not nearly as popular as it used to be. But we still have a good community of a lot of players here, and it's an active community. I have to always give Ryan Siegel a huge shout out for, helping us build out that community as well as, Ricky, who was the one that organized all the early day raiding. They just did a great job of making sure everyone was included. Like, I remember the first time when Rayquaza was shiny, it took me 91 Rayquaza to get my first shiny. I did all of those in two days. That's how raid crazy we were in this city. So, that was my OG gameplay, was going out and exploring cities and then raiding in my local city with my community.

David Hernandez: 19:48

Where would people go for like, say, a community day?

WildCatDad17: 19:50

there's about three typical places you'll go. if you want to be able to car play, which nowadays with my kiddo, I have to do, there's Lexington Cemetery. it's great because there's, eight, nine gems, and forty or fifty pokestops. It's a historical cemetery, so it's actually, you know, within the confines of the rules of the game, allowed to be what it is. And they welcome players they welcome the city, because that's just the general place, like, when it's springtime and the flowers are blooming, that's where the city goes to take pictures like, it's that kind of city meetup spot. Then there's a couple parks. Of course, you could go, to something like, Lansdowne Park. It's a great place to play. It has a good walking trail. It has a few gyms, a few stops. Nice place to go. Or somewhere like UK Campus is always a good hot spot to play because it's a college campus. College campuses are great for this game.

David Hernandez: 20:36

Can't go wrong with them, usually.

WildCatDad17: 20:37

Can't go wrong with them usually. So those are the typical places that we will go and play. Like I said, a lot of my time now is more Lexington Cemetery because I have my kiddo with me, especially when it's winter. I ain't getting her out of the car. It ain't worth the headache. So I'm gonna go slow drive and play, meet up with people there, roll down the windows, Hey, how you doing? Have a five minute conversation. And then roll the back of the window and be warm.

David Hernandez: 21:00

Does she play with you when you're driving?

WildCatDad17: 21:02

So, I started her own account And I was letting her play on my dog's account. Everyone knows how that

David Hernandez: 21:09

Your dog's talented, my gosh!

WildCatDad17: 21:11

dog's very talented. that's still at level 39. And still sitting on that shiny Mew eventually. One day, maybe. but I decided to go ahead and start her own account. She's already level 31. She does not know what she's doing, still and I constantly have to keep throwing things away for her and healing up her actual good Pokemon that she keeps trying to fight Team Rocket with that she doesn't know what she's doing. But she loves it. And more importantly, the excitement of her getting something that she thinks is cute or shiny. Like, the absolute vocal screaming that came out of her mouth during Samurott Raid Day and Ice Catchy event. made all my gameplay worth it. Like, I don't care. neither one of those, I got the shinies. She did and she was so excited. And then she gave me a snover. I played that entire event, still had not got a snover and she's like, I got two daddy. Do you want one? I'm like, you don't have to do that. She's like, it's okay. I'll give you one. I'm like, let's go. I'll take it.

David Hernandez: 22:05

That must warmed your heart.

WildCatDad17: 22:06

Yeah, it warmed my heart and finally gave me my, snover, which will not get evolved because it came from her.

David Hernandez: 22:13

Oh, that must be also a good, father-daughter kind of bonding moment.

WildCatDad17: 22:16

Yeah, it is. It's one of the things we go out and typically play most Saturdays and Sundays together.

David Hernandez: 22:21

You talked about how earlier it used to be heavy into Raiding, and we're talking about pre PVP obviously. What was it about that part of era of Pokemon Go that kept you engaged? Because a lot of people who, from my experience who played PVP, they stopped playing But you're one of the few who still stuck with it.

WildCatDad17: 22:35

The community. Going out and seeing these people on a weekly basis was the reason I kept doing it. when I was traveling, it was easy to stay engaged with the game because I was in a new city, but when I was home What kept me engaged was meeting up with the people that I've got to know throughout this game. early on I went down to, oh that's the other park, Thoroughbred Park is another common one here in Lexington. I would go down there and literally I would meet people that I now consider very much friends in my life. Had no clue who they are, would have never connected with them otherwise. But because we had that very large community that grew and was very willing to help each other and Was constantly calling things out. It kept me engaged with it, which is the same thing that PvP does really too, is it has built a community. It's just a different community. I'm also very thankful that the game survived the pandemic because they made the changes. the one thing that really kills me is they still don't seem to understand that the online communities we built matter just as much As those in person communities. And it kills me because I feel like us as online players have taken the biggest hit from this game now. Even bigger than the in person communities. And none of them are going to be like they were back pre pandemic. The world's just not the same but you have to build both up and you don't have to hurt one to help the other. And I think that's the biggest thing that really drives me insane with some of the recent changes they've been making is all it was done was. Targeting the online communities of people that, you know, thanks to play events, I've got to meet some of these people in real life and was so excited to do so. Pre this, I would have without the online communities. I would have never met Astro and Dino and Matthew. It was because of the online community that I actually have made these lifelong friends.

David Hernandez: 24:09

Do you feel like the online community is undervalued in Niantic's eye and

WildCatDad17: 24:12

Oh, it absolutely is absolutely is. And it's sad to see, I just don't think they, their company mission keeps them from seeing the value of what is there. I get that. Companies have visions, but, at the same time, you have to look at where your player base is at and what they're actually doing. just a prime example. I went to GoFest 2018 and 2019. I, for the most part, played by myself those entire two events. Still had a good time, but I was in the park with everyone, but I was still mostly by myself. I met up with a couple locals here and there, but we were all grinding and trying to go get what we wanted to get. It wasn't the community event still to me. Flash forward to GO Fest 2023, the BTW crew is traveling together there to do GoFest together. We have our listeners meeting up with us. We have people that we've never got to see actually playing together for a day. And it is still one of my most favorite memories of this game. The picture we took in the park with the other podcasters and other just groups of our listeners. I look back at that and I just smile because that is what Niantic wants, it wants the in person community, but that was only built because of the relationships we built online. And it's not going to be possible for us all to get together. People can't afford to travel to New York. They can't afford to travel to LA. They shouldn't be felt like they're left out of things because they don't have the means to do those. Expensive experiences.

David Hernandez: 25:31

You've been listening to as the Pokeball turns. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Speaking of the community, you, of course, became known as the admin for one of them, which is the BTWPVP. And this is before you even started recording with the guys, right?

WildCatDad17: 26:24

Yeah.

David Hernandez: 26:25

Before we dive into just how you started recording with them, what made you want to be an admin for the BTW?

WildCatDad17: 26:30

So, originally me and Astro were both in Pokemon Go Radio's Discord, PGR's Discord. I repetitively kicked him in the mouth over and over and over in our tournaments. And he's like, wouldn't it be cool if a place existed just for battlers? I'm like, that would be awesome. Months went by, never thought anything else of it. And then he sends me a Discord invite. He's like, hey, started up the thing, gonna start up the podcast. Do you mind helping me out with the Discord? You seem to know more about this stuff than I do.

David Hernandez: 26:57

So he talked to you about the podcast beforehand,

WildCatDad17: 26:59

Yeah, oh yeah, long time. When he, that was in that whole like, community of just battlers. He mentioned that, I may start a podcast with it, and this and that, and just, we never said another word about it. And then, he just hits me up, and he's like, hey, you mind helping me do some Discord stuff? Sure, whatever. It won't take long. This is, never gonna get that big, it's all good. It'll be, a small group of us.

David Hernandez: 27:18

Famous last words.

WildCatDad17: 27:19

famous last words. But yeah, so now we're moving forward. We're flashing to a point where I am starting to help and, realizing that this community that we're building. isn't just PvP anymore. Yes, that's what we're focused on, but we have people coming in that want to do raids. We have people that come in that want to just talk about Pokemon, that want to hang out. And our Discord starts expanding from there. And that was really cool to me. And then, the kind of way I got into the show part of it. they did a couple live shows, and I joined, and was like correcting them via the chat. I'm y'all, come on. did you not know about this news? What about this news? That news? And then I offered, I was like, hey, look, I want you guys to do the best you can, and I'm willing to do your show notes for you so you don't miss anything. So that's how I initially jumped into it and I jokingly all the time would tell them, hey, maybe you should bring me on sometime. ha, ha ha, ha, bring me on sometime. And just kept joking about it. And eventually Dihno had finals, and it was one of the two things that were going to happen. they were going to miss their first show, or Astro was going to record by himself, which he didn't necessarily want to do, or they were going to have somebody come in. I'm like, sure, I'll hop in. And I recorded on, not what I have right now, but on this, the first episode I joined.

David Hernandez: 28:28

Oh, wow. No wonder you sound like a tin can.

WildCatDad17: 28:29

Yeah, exactly. So for those that are listening, it's a Plectronics business type headset, which is great for business calls. It's great to communicate with. It's audio quality is absolute trash when you actually record it at a high level audio. didn't think anything of it. I was like, oh crap, I sounded so bad. I'm sorry. He's like, hey, Dino's out another week. You mind hopping back in one more time? And my wife looks at me and goes, If you're recording on that, you're not. Go get a mic.

David Hernandez: 28:54

She heard it.

WildCatDad17: 28:55

Oh no, I let her listen to how bad the quality was.

David Hernandez: 28:57

Oh, wow.

WildCatDad17: 28:58

And she's like, no. No, you're not. She's like, look, if you're going to take time away from me to do something, you're going to do it right. Ha!

David Hernandez: 29:03

Oh, I like that. Hey, I like that.

WildCatDad17: 29:08

she went and got me a mic. about two weeks went by, I, stepped in and hosted a couple more times, and Astro's messaged me, he's like, Hey, you're one of the hosts of the show now. Didn't ask. just blow me. Hey, you're one of the hosts now,

David Hernandez: 29:19

You got anointed. Yeah.

WildCatDad17: 29:20

Yeah, I'm like, oh, oh, I, I guess. Sure. And then just when Dino came back, the three of us meshed really, really well and we were, once again, just like when they were getting overwhelmed and weren't able to keep up. I eventually got to the point I was getting overwhelmed and not able to keep up. And that's when we brought in Matthew to help with the notes and the producing and all that. And it's just been a really great synergy. And the show's grown astronomically with the four of us at the helm.

David Hernandez: 29:44

First off, shout out to Mrs. Wildcat for giving you a mic. You started this whole journey

WildCatDad17: 29:47

the next Christmas. Yeah, she, next Christmas she got me the boom stand, and a ring light, and then her dad built me my awesome backdrop. Like, and keep in mind, my wife does not like Pokemon at all. Does not care for it in any form or fashion. And honestly gets a little annoyed with how much I like it. But she still invests in me doing this, because she can see how much it means to me. That's a great wife.

David Hernandez: 30:10

That is true. you got very lucky finding her

WildCatDad17: 30:13

Oh yeah, yeah, definitely feel like I, like I've only known her since we were ten.

David Hernandez: 30:17

what does the podcast mean to you? Cause you said that she realizes what it means, how much it means to you. What does it mean to you

WildCatDad17: 30:24

It's the community. Look, I'm a talking head that just says some shit that somebody thinks I'm actually know what I'm talking about. I don't know. but what it means is it's the people that engage with us, that listen to us because in the end, if it wasn't for our community, we wouldn't be heading on four years of a podcast. or no, three years. Three, four years. I can't remember anymore. It all runs together. Y'all's what's made this possible. The community's what's made it possible. And it's what I do it for. I do it because I enjoy engaging with the community and having fun and getting to talk about something I, I love and sharing that love with others. And then hearing how much they love it as well. And all the things that we can do as a group.

David Hernandez: 31:03

One thing that's interesting about just podcasts, which I'm sure you've heard about is the length of it. y'all go two, three hours and that's only increased sometimes. Yeah. It's not a bad thing. I mean, it has its place. is it just that y'all are just so passionate about from different directions that makes y'all go that extended time or is that just kind of purposely y'all choose to do that?

WildCatDad17: 31:20

We don't choose, we've had episodes that are an hour and a half before. We just get online and talk. One thing that you'll, find about our podcast, Matthew does a lot of editing to make us sound good and things, but we don't do multiple takes. Very seldom do you hear us do a multiple take, so it's literally us sitting down, four people, four friends, and talking. And when we feel like we've covered a subject well enough, we move on. we have never time gated ourselves in any form or fashion, or tried to stretch for a time. Now we have, more recently, started trying to keep it three hours or less, just because we noticed that if you hit over that three hour mark, the listenership drops off and things of that nature. we've modified to what our listeners want and most of our listeners tell us a two to three hour podcast is perfect for them. And we have a lot of listeners that, drive for a living, things of that nature, commute back and forth and that's who they spend their drive with. And I love that. That makes me happy to hear. I talked to one of our listeners out of the UK and he'll message me anytime he has a long drive for the week from one side of the country to the other. Because that's a long drive in the UK. That, hey, can can you try to have a long episode this week? Come on. It'll be what it'll be, but it's probably a long episode. So, no, it's never been something we focused on, but it's almost become one of those things that is a point of pride for us now, that we are the long Pokemon podcast. we're the ones that go the distance on the time.

David Hernandez: 32:38

so, the one thing about y'all's podcast is you're focused on PvP. what was it about PvP that engaged you and that wanted you to start that?

WildCatDad17: 32:45

So, it was the next logical step of the game, and it's really what helped me build Online during the pandemic. I was not very much into PVP pre pandemic. I was starting to do GBL but that walking requirement, when you work from home, isn't great for ya cause you ain't getting that five sets a day in that way. So when they dropped that barrier to PVP it just started to really engage me in a new way with the game. But I still wasn't very good at it. So then I started hopping in to SILF online things, PGR, once again, I can't thank those guys enough for everything, the community they built because it's how I got into the community. shout out to Overseer for dragging me in. Thank you so much, buddy. but, getting into their tournaments, I started learning these people and learning, oh, wait, I'm a little better at this than I thought I was. I thought I could be. This is just a counting game, for example. Or this is, starting to know the typing. I know my typings really well because I've played every single frickin generation of Pokemon. So, I started realizing I could be halfway decent. I'm still no Axan, I'm no Lyles, I'm no Dino for that matter. But I can get by well enough. So it started getting me to want to be a little better and a little better and a little better and start to learn these more advanced techniques because I realized, PVP in Pokemon GO is deep. It's actually a complex system that looks a little suspect and simple on the surface. So that's what got me into PvP and then the fact that it gave me something to do with these Pokemon that I normally wouldn't have cared about. Like I dabbled in VGC back in black and white, I want to say. Black and White or X and Y, I couldn't remember which. it was a long time ago. And, those were mostly legendaries, mostly pseudo legendaries. or those tech pieces that were bulky. That's, that was what VGC was. Versus PvP and Go, Medicham is good. When was the last time you seen someone in VGC ever touch a Medicham? So between having Great, Ultra, and Master League, you actually have even more complexity in the fact that different Pokemon could actually be good. that just allowed me to get engaged and start to look and go, Oh, look at these things I've caught. Now they have a purpose. And now instead of just catching something, if it wasn't a Hundo throwing it away. Oh, look, this 0 15 15 thing, it isn't good now, but it's one move away, so let's keep it. Oh, the old adage, there, there, I, I, I'm sorry, there, there's some of these Pokémon that I'm keeping that are 34 moves away, but I'm gonna tell you they're one move away and keep them anyways, because they're Rank 1s. Heh heh heh heh heh. So, and literally, I had to expand, I've had to expand my storage several times over because of my addiction to making sure I don't throw away something that could be good one day.

David Hernandez: 35:16

Do you have a particular Pokémon you hope to be good? Or that is one move away? That you are saving?

WildCatDad17: 35:21

I love Drifblim and it used to be really good and then it, just the meta changed, new Pokemon got introduced and it got just hammered and believe it or not, Astonish just helped it a little bit. It's still not like top core meta, but in some weird off places it can work.

David Hernandez: 35:36

Just some weird metas that need to be set up?

WildCatDad17: 35:38

So who knows? Maybe I'll design a specific one of highlight Drifloom one day. Mm hmm. Mm

David Hernandez: 35:44

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

WildCatDad17: 35:56

One of the biggest things I said heading into this, I never want to be, those content creators are disengaged from their communities and I get it some of the bigger ones, they're too busy doing the content to be deep ingrained in their community, but you'll see me and Dino are in there talking as much as anybody else in the discord because we just enjoy it. We want to be part of that community. I think people feed on that when the host and the people they're hearing are actively in that discord talking, it's makes them more likely to talk. And then we specifically design things to help people engage in different ways. So, we have the rating channels to help that. Reyes does a great job of helping us out, making sure people know what to do with raids and everything there. And then I like to dabble in meta creation. To dabble, and then I started throwing some together, and I've got a little bit more dabbling, and now I have my own copy of PvPoke running on my machine locally. So, we started designing metas to, at the time, supplement what was going on with Silph, because, we got to a point where Silph metas were running for two months at a time, people were getting bored. So we started doing these, just wonky things in our Discord that was special to us. and then, unfortunately, Silph folded, and there was a void there. So we started running that, and then, Play kicked off, and we really wanted to focus in on that, because we know that's the next big thing in Pokémon now. So we've really kind of adjusted to the changes in the game around PvP to make sure that we keep things fresh for them. And that's one of the reasons you mentioned we've started transitioning and doing some VGC and TCG because unfortunately with the place that the game is now, people are getting either burned out or just completely sick of the bullcrap. And they're leaving the game. But they're not leaving the franchise. They're still engaged with Pokemon. They're just engaging in different places. And as I said, I've always enjoyed the main series games. Astro had really got into the card game. and it's something, even early days before I was even a host, it was something Astro always said. He's like, I want to eventually cover all aspects of the competitive scene.

David Hernandez: 37:44

Oh wow! So it was a long term plan for you.,

WildCatDad17: 37:46

we've always said it, but we never knew if we were really going to get there. Okay. So eventually. Astro starts getting into TCG really heavily, and I'm starting to dabble back into the VGC space, and I'm seeing other GO players do the same thing. We're seeing other people kind of bridge those gaps back and forth across the environments of Pokémon. So Astro's like, let's do it. Let's jump in and add TCG. And we did that for a couple weeks, and I'm like, you know what? why not just go ahead and jump into VGC? I'm like, I'm still a beginner here, as far as my skill level, but I know more than some do. we really have focused on those beginning aspects of those games around TCG and VGC and helping folks get into them and get better at them because in the end, that's what the entire show is about is helping people that truly have a beginner skill set all the way up to the Lyle's Jeffs and the AXN of the world. Stay engaged and do something. And we're seeing people jump from one side of the game to another. And it gives us all something to strive for when Go may be in a place where we're a little upset with it. So it was the natural solution, it's where we wanted to go. one day, who knows, we may start covering Unite for all we know. Uh, we may cover Pokemon Sleep, I mean, competitive Pokemon sleeping, let's go! But yeah, so that's why we started expanding and it's honestly revitalized our show. It's revitalized all of our interest in the game. I think it's made for more entertaining. We've of course had some growing pains. We were just jumping initially when we added TCG, we were jumping all over the place and mixing the topics together and viewers gave us feedback. Hey, can y'all please not constantly jump everywhere? Oh, maybe we, because we got rid of the segments entirely in our show. And we're like, oh, maybe we should get rid of segments, but keep segments as in, let's talk about all the Go stuff first, then talk about all the TCG and then all the VGC. And one of the things I like that we do, we don't always leave them in that order. So as a listener, you can't just get comfortable thinking you're going to hear about Pokemon Go first thing because it gives us a chance to vary things up and have re engagement of our community back, and I'm really happy to see how well our community took to it because it's helped us realize the longer, bigger vision we have as being the true beginner to winner for Pokemon PVP. If you notice, there isn't the word GO in our name at all. Right. It's beginner to winner PVP. That's why.

David Hernandez: 39:52

I heard that this all started from a drunk episode y'all recorded back in New York City. Is that true?

WildCatDad17: 39:58

Uh, it started before that, but that kind of helped accelerate it on. The City episode, that, that was a Random wildcat thought was we were all sitting at dinner and I look at Matthew and I go, why don't we just record tonight? Because our wives are not going to be happy about us wanting to record Monday night after we just spent the entire weekend gone. let's just sit down and record tonight. And the magic that night of recording happened cannot be recreated. Astro and his shots, and having Smiley there, it was just perfect. Ordering pizza in the middle of the episode. Like, yeah, I was completely sober, just so everyone knows. And I was the hungry one still. Look, we walked like 23 miles that day like, GoFest New York was no joke distance walking.

David Hernandez: 40:50

Oh yeah, especially with how big that city was and trying to go every place. It was massive.

WildCatDad17: 40:55

definitely liked it better than Chicago Go Fest.

David Hernandez: 40:58

Really? Bye. Bye.

WildCatDad17: 40:59

Transportation and things were easier around the city, and I think they've hit the sweet spot with the park slash city experience, because it just adds an overall new dynamic to the game because it's very easy to get bored of walking around that park after three or four hours. And then you say, Hey, release the hounds. Go to the city. It's all here for you. It gives you a different thing to do. Like, we went to the Nintendo store, which is always a dream of mine to go to. Many times I've been to New York, I never got a chance to make it over. So, like, we made it a point to go there for me. we walked around the city. We went to Little Chinatown so we could get Astro his Chinese food that night. Like, just having fun around the city with our listeners. Perfect weekend. Cannot wait for it again. Hopefully, I can make it happen again this year.

David Hernandez: 41:40

So you talked about how y'all transitioned over to doing VGC and TCG. You started diving into the VGC side, I think you said, right?

WildCatDad17: 41:47

I specifically dived a little bit more into the VGC, just because one of us had to do it. Uh, I had I had a little history in it many moons ago. I understood the complexities of the main series a lot more, so it was a natural fit. And I was, luckily had some folks in the discord that know it a lot better than I do, like Brian Craziness, Catfish Camaro, Sherwood, that was also willing to help me relearn it because it's been so long. So, the fact that, once again, our community helped our own community grow. We have literally different members of our Discord. It's like, if you need a competitive Pokemon build, let me know and I'll build it and trade it to you because I just enjoy doing that part of it. So, now you have other people that weren't ever into VGC, dipping their toe in and realizing, hey, this is kind of cool. That's a win for me. Because now we can have, we literally every month run three different in Discord tournaments. the first Wednesday of every month is our TCG tournament starting. The second Wednesday, our GO tournament starts. And the third Wednesday, our VGC tournament starts. My main goal with that is that TCG and VGC never overlap because they are the most, time consuming of the formats.

David Hernandez: 42:47

What has been the biggest adjustment or challenge for you to dive back into the VGC side compared Go?

WildCatDad17: 42:52

relearning the meta. I know the Go meta pretty well now, because I've been in it for years. I've been out of the VGC meta for years, so, the good news is, with all the regionals and things, and coverage, and the fact that Pokemon in general has significantly more coverage now than they did back in the black and white days. It's easier to pick that back up and start jumping back into it because now you can watch those high level players on a very regular basis and you're not having to go find them. So now it just, the accessibility is there and I think that's what's helping a lot of people be more willing to jump into it.

David Hernandez: 43:23

I guess it makes more people more comfortable to see like, oh, this is what I have to breed or this is what I have to find, especially with the easy addition to breeding and getting IVs and EVs. It's a way lot easier compared to when you played.

WildCatDad17: 43:34

And that's the other reason I was willing to jump back into it is they made it easier. that is the biggest thing. And I think the biggest barrier to entry in Go right now is, if you really want to get to competitive in Go, the barrier to entry is extremely high. You have to have hundreds of thousands of Stardust. You have to have hundreds of XL Candies. That's really hard for the casual player. I think that's one place where I would love to see Niantic make things a little bit easier to get into it. And I know they have with the regional events. Now, instead of having, like, elemental monkeys were the big featured thing at all the regional events. You could get any elemental monkey. Us PvPers don't care about that. We could care less about your elemental monkey. But you know what we do care about? Swampert. Sandshrew. Medicham. Carbink. So you know what they did now? at Pokemon events? Those things spawn. If you go to a regional or an IC, that's what's spawning, is the things that you need to compete competitively. So now if you are mildly interested in one of those things, go attend a regional and watch, and catch what you need. But better yet, let me tell you, unless that regional cap is met, just go ahead and play. don't waste time just being a spectator because you're going to learn something. And I will say 90 percent of the people that's going to be across from you, is going to be polite, and even willing to help teach you something after the match is over. that's the other big thing about those regional events. The reason I say, just jump in and play. Even if you go 0 2, You're gonna have fun doing it, and you're gonna learn something. My first IC, I went O2 and got Powered Gem by a Sableye that I didn't realize was non purified. Even though I had a paper in front of me telling it was non purified and it was on my screen, just so much amped up energy and going on. It happens. But I learned, and the next regional I went to, I was top 17.

David Hernandez: 45:15

So when are we going to maybe see a BTW person become a finalist, maybe?

WildCatDad17: 45:19

We have. Oh, that's cause like we have Lyle! ha

David Hernandez: 45:23

Jeff has

WildCatDad17: 45:23

ha. I think Dino has a really good chance. It's gonna be Dino when it is. I know I'm not that level of competitor and I don't get to go to enough of these to do it.

David Hernandez: 45:33

Hey, you never know.

WildCatDad17: 45:34

But hey, I was shocked I went top 17. I was literally one bubble from being top 16 at Fort Wayne. Like literally if I would have touched one More bubble on my rock slide. I would have beat Onion Frank and made top 16.

David Hernandez: 45:47

You're one bubble away from becoming Ash Ketchum.

WildCatDad17: 45:50

Yeah. Yeah, so Anyone could go on that insane weekend that insane run at any time I do think Dino's the most likely because he's putting in the time But of course we have other people that's part of the BTW family like Lyle's Like, Buckeye, Fitzy. These are all part of our family that we claim them as BTW and we're very happy to, that they're part of our family. I will say, watch out this season, you may start seeing some BTW logos on stream even,

David Hernandez: 46:14

Ooh,

WildCatDad17: 46:16

now. We approve for stream, we official.

David Hernandez: 46:19

Well, Wildcat, You've been a wonderful guest. I do have one last question before we close this taco stand for the day. Or, no, we'll talk biscuits and gravy before we close this biscuits and gravy stand. You think about how BTW has grown over the three years, and I know you weren't one of the initial ones, but you've seen it grown as an admin and then becoming a podcaster. What does it mean to have this type of family, this type of engagement with the community, and it continues to grow and make an impact within the PVP scene?

WildCatDad17: 46:43

It means everything. it, it has helped me tremendously personally. It has given me more confidence and made me realize that I can be more genuinely who I am and people somehow like it. I don't know what's wrong with their ears that they want to listen to me talk for three hours, but they do. And that positive feedback has been absolutely amazing. And then to see the growth of the community and see people that have literally made friendships that are true and want to be lifelong. And that we've been able to help each other out when we're down. You know, we've had people in our families, or our Discord that's went through stuff and seeing the Discord rally around them and give them that place of outlet to not be by themselves means the world to me. it sounds cheesy as can be and it's the answer that, you know, Oh, they're just being phony. They're, you know, community, the community is why we keep doing it. It's why we're engaged. It's why we've made it as far as we have. Without our community, we pack up shop and leave tomorrow.

David Hernandez: 47:34

Wildcat, thank you for coming on the show. It's been wonderful having you. Before you do go, if people want to check out your content, if they want to get connected with you, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

WildCatDad17: 47:44

Yeah. best place to get ahold of any of us, btwpvp. com, our official website. we're on Twitter, BTWPVP podcast, Twitch, beginner to winner PVP. If you want to see a Twitch account that is never used, go follow WildcatDad17. I post once every six months. the only reason I have it is Siegel threatened to take my name and run it into the ground if I didn't get a Twitter account.

David Hernandez: 48:07

Oh, wow.

WildCatDad17: 48:08

That's the reason I have a Twitter. No pressure. it was from a price of love. I know he was doing it to help my, me out because he knew I would never get a, well, I'm sorry, an X account. Otherwise And I wouldn't have, Hey, I still, I'm not very engaged on that. So if you need me, you can DM me there. You can always find me on discord. I am literally wildcatdad17 on all platforms. It's easy to find me.

David Hernandez: 48:29

Cool beans. And I'll make sure to include links to everything he said in the description of today's episode. And I'm as the Pokeball turns.

WildCatDad17: 48:36

I'm WildcatDad17. So next time, good luck and get good.

David Hernandez: 49:13

I don't know why y'all slogan tricked me up so much.

WildCatDad17: 49:15

It just seems like such a number of people has had issues with it. When they came on, it's becoming a running joke at this point.

David Hernandez: 49:23

I really, yeah. Oh my gosh.

WildCatDad17: 49:25

I don't know if you heard the episode, when Laia was on? and he just absolutely destroyed it. Just didn't, just stumbled over every other word of it. I'm like, this, this is what we come for. So

David Hernandez: 49:38

Now here's a sneak peek for the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.