TRAINER'S EYE #73 - "A Scrafty Bass Riff" ft. AstroZombie954 from Beginner to Winner PvP

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by AstroZombie954, a Pokemon Trainer from Florida and the co-host of the Beginner to Winner PvP podcast.

AstroZombie954 shares his experience with Pokemon GO and getting into Pokemon GO PVP. Starting out learning about Pokemon GO PVP, he desired content that was more entertaining for both experienced and newer Pokemon Trainers.

Afterwards, AstroZombie954 shares how he started the podcast with those values in mind and eventually adding on the other co-hosts over the year. He even dives deeper and talks about the decision for the podcast to branch out into other avenues within Pokemon, including Pokemon VGC and Pokemon TCG.

Finally, we play a throwback game from the Beginner to Winner Podcast, "Astro's Top 10." Listen toward the end to find out the prompt and which Pokemon he chooses!

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 AstroZombie954: 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. Before we dive into this episode, a core member of the Pokemon community 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. we remain in Florida to hear from the person where the idea of the Beginner to Winner podcast originated. With what he calls a smack to the face, he started a podcast for Pokemon Go PvP, with the goal to make it fun, informative, and understandable for any Pokemon trainer who listened. Over time, the podcast has grown and only recently started to branch out to cover both the TCG and VGC sides of Pokemon. Here is his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. He is the co host of the Beginner to the Winner podcast. This is AstroZombie954. today I'm joined by the quote unquote founder of the BTW podcast astroZombie. Astro, welcome to the show.

AstroZombie954: 1:44

Hey, Thank you for having me.

David Hernandez: 1:46

Absolutely. And, I use that word founder loosely. Because originally it was kind of came out of your noggin, right? It was your idea to start it?

AstroZombie954: 1:53

Yeah. it was just something I was like, there's nothing going on like this, that I could find. and, I was just like, well, why don't I do it?

David Hernandez: 2:01

Now, when you say, like, nobody's finding, so, in regards to just, like, doing PvP at all, like there was no other PvP, PvP podcast,

AstroZombie954: 2:08

yeah, so I got into like Pokemon Go PvP right as I guess like the Go Battle season and I was like, Oh, this is pretty cool. I really like this, but I sucked. Like I was bad, bad. I didn't know anything like what Pokemon to use, anything like that. So, I did what any typical person does. I went on the internet and was looking up, videos, which there weren't very many, And then I was like, well, maybe there's podcasts. Like, somebody's got to be talking about this. I found Pokemon Go podcasts, There was one, at the time that focused primarily on PvP called Battle Science. So, like, that was, like, the one I listened to, and I was just like, I wanna do something like this, and this sounds bad, like, I'm not trying to, like, knock them or anything, But, like, in my head, I was like, I wanna do this, but it, be entertaining. like, not that they weren't entertaining, they were just very knowledgeable, and, I don't know, like, I like to laugh. I like to have fun. I like a lot of that mixed in to what I'm learning and what I'm, discussing. that all comes down to, like, I'm, a sports person. I was really into AM, sports radio. and down here in Florida, we have, Well, now he's like national and whatever, but, at the time he was on a local AM station. His name was Dan Levitard, and he had a drive time show. and I listened to it every day on my way home from work. I remember at one point, me and my sister were carpooling to work. I would make her listen to it, and she wasn't a sports person at the time, and next thing I know, like, she's listening to it, and I'm like, Why are you listening to this? You don't really follow sports. She's like, it's just entertaining. Like, I enjoy listening to them talk about other things, but it also makes the sports part entertaining and makes me want to find out more about it. So, when I decided to do the podcast, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to make it entertaining where, if you were driving in the car, like, oh, this is another reason. Me and my wife would carpool, like, she would drop me off at work and then pick me up, and it was almost like a 45 minute drive back and forth. And I would make her listen to, like, my podcasts, and she hated it, like, it was just, she was just like, this is so boring, like, whatever. And I was like, I want my podcast to be able to, if the actual avid listener was listening to it with their spouse or, coworker or friend, like, it wasn't like, They couldn't have something to enjoy as well. which is why we do, like, some of the silly games and, talk about life and all kinds of stuff and don't just, like, keep it strictly to Pokémon. so yeah, I was just like, well, either do it or you don't, and I just did it. and almost three years later, we're still here.

David Hernandez: 4:47

It's interesting that you say that because You know, people will look at the length of your podcast like oh my gosh, it's a three hour podcast like Joe Rogan length podcast. But when you listen to it actually, like you said, that vibe comes out to where it's not just Pokemon Go. Y'all kinda get Not, I don't want to say y'all get off topic, but y'all kind of branch out to

AstroZombie954: 5:03

Oh, I de rail. I de rail all the time.

David Hernandez: 5:07

I was trying to give y'all some credit, like, I can feel what you're going for in regards to, like, playing Biotard and trying to just find that way to bring PvP to more of a basic human level, if so you will, because it's easy to get lost behind the terminology, behind the numbers, and behind all that stuff.

AstroZombie954: 5:22

yeah, I wanted it to be as informative and make the newer beginner person feel like It was a safe place for them to learn and talk and whatever, but it also was advanced enough that those higher up competitors didn't feel like we were dumbing things down for them. So, that's where, like, the good mix between me, Dino, and Wildcat, and Matthew, like, that all just combines to hit all those different layers or, tiers of players. now that we're going, beyond, Pokemon Go into, like, TCG and VGC, putting that, that accessibility for anyone, to listen to it and be like, Oh, okay. I'm like right where he is, so I don't feel so bad. That's the thing we transitioned into the discord and everything was just a sense of everyone being comfortable to ask the Astro question is what we would call it. Like the stupid question that isn't stupid. There's probably 15 other people who are asking that same question just no one wants to be that first person to ask it, because they're afraid, oh, we're just going to get made fun of, and when we did the discord, like, that was like, number one, like, this is a zero tolerance for anything like that, like, we do not put anyone down for questions, we're there to help everyone get better at whatever that is that they want to get better at. It's just, the Discord has morphed into so much more than just PvP and it's, it's awesome to see it, like, it's awesome to hear people, like, calling it a family, which is what I've always wanted it to be. I never cared about, popularity, or fame, or, obviously fame if I'm not going to be famous doing a podcast, unless I'm Joe Rogan or something like that, it was never about that, it was never about money, doing a podcast does not create a very strong revenue, so, it was never anything about that, it was just about helping everybody else, get to where they want to be and feel comfortable, doing it. I'm guessing, still doing it three years, people got over the fact that our shows are three hours, at first we were a little, hesitant about it, and we were actually gonna change it at one point, because a lot of the comments and a lot of things we heard was, wow, this is three hours, this is so long, blah, blah, blah. We actually, like, seriously thought about just cutting it down to an hour podcast. we polled, Twitter, and I believe the Discord did And surprisingly, the majority of our, like, avid listeners didn't mind the three hours. They actually liked it. They actually got mad at us if we didn't hit the three hour board. They said, no, not over three hours. Anything over three hours is too much. But, anything under two and a half, like, they're like, nope, this is not acceptable.

David Hernandez: 7:58

Oh my gosh, they have expectations

AstroZombie954: 8:00

they have expectations.

David Hernandez: 8:02

I love how you said family, like the Discord community is your family in a way. you think about just real briefly the three years from when you first started with just you and Dino to now you have all four of you and the big Discord community. What goes through your mind to see how much the podcast has grown over these past three years?

AstroZombie954: 8:18

Sometimes I still don't believe it. when you create, when you start something, like I had been in bands before, stuff like that where, you put your heart and soul into like the music and five people show up to your concert, your first show, and It either progressively gets bigger or gets worse, and, I was exposed to that, like I knew that, but like I look at this and I'm just like, It just like throws me back, to think that people like actually want to listen to what I have to say, or maybe not what I have to say, they just want to laugh at me for something, and if I'm making just somebody laugh, and someone who's having a bad day feel a little better. Regardless of it being about Pokemon or something, like, that is more important to me than anything that comes with the podcast. Like, it's weird when people come up to me and are like, oh, you're Astro? And I'm like, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, people listen to me. They know me. Okay. All right. but it's amazing. And then hearing, like, some of the stories people say, you know, send us, and things like that and, we talk about it, we say it in the show, like, oh, we're not crying, you are, whatever, like, just hearing people talk about, not even, like, getting better, but, like, how it helped them in their own personal life, feel better about themselves. That's incredible to hear, like, people saying, like, this is finally, like, a place, a family, that I can go to, like, where I feel comfortable, like, how many times, like, when you were growing up, you were like, I know it's not cool to be in high school and like Pokemon,

David Hernandez: 9:41

Hmm.

AstroZombie954: 9:42

I really like Pokemon, you know, And it's awesome. I love our community, like, I always say it's more than a community, it's a family, and, it's even better because once you've developed that relationship with your listeners and your fans and stuff like that, they are a lot more forgiving when, life gets super busy and you can't be as involved as you would like to be. it's one thing that I always feel bad about is I cannot be as active as Wildcat and Dino sometimes in Discord. Like, I just I've got way too many kids. got a business, like, that I have to deal with. and all the behind the scenes stuff and making sure things get paid and all the behind the scenes stuff that, you doing a podcast, like, you gotta pay for hosting, and you gotta pay for this, and you gotta pay for that, and, oh, we're doing three hour shows, so now we gotta pay a little bit extra for our recording site because we go over the limit of, like, the basic ones, so now it's like you gotta pay corporate prices and stuff, and it's like, uh, I try as, as hard as possible. to, if not be active, at least know what's going on, so that if, something comes up when we talk about it on the show, I'm not just like, Now, if it's news, if it's news about the games, yeah, yeah, I, no, I don't read that, I don't read that shit at all. Like, that is A hundred percent, not a character, that is a hundred percent, I do not and I've never looked at Pokemon Go news until we record the show, as we're recording it.

David Hernandez: 11:16

So you get a live reaction of Astro

AstroZombie954: 11:18

Yeah, it's, that's all real, that's all real. The TCG stuff, no, I, I study that one a little bit more, cause I don't want to sound like a complete imbecile, and I don't have, like, Dino, Wildcat, and Matthew Smarts to fall back on if I say something wrong. cause we're all still learning that part too. that's all real. Like, what you hear Astro on the show. if you've hung out with me at any length of time, you can ask Lyle who's, spent many days with me at regionals and stuff like that. this is me. Like, that's just who I am,

David Hernandez: 11:50

So you know, you talked about Pokemon trading card games, is that your first experience with Pokemon?

AstroZombie954: 11:54

Originally, yes. Like, me and my brother had cards, stuff like that. Never knew how to actually play the game. It was just always something, like, I watched the anime. I just liked Pokemon. I just liked what it was about. I felt that, the whole basis of the show of family and friends and, Being there for one another, like, that was such like a big part of my family, that watching it on TV, like, it was just like, okay, I could understand it. but I didn't actually play a Pokemon game until Pokemon Snap came out on, I believe it was the Nintendo 64. That was my first actual Pokemon game that I ever played and, I really didn't play a main series game outside of maybe like emulators until Sword and Shield when it came out on the Switch, cause I never had, I didn't really have a Game Boy. I had like the bigger systems, like, I had Nintendo, I had Super Nintendo, stuff like that. They never put out a Pokemon game on those until, Pokemon Snap came out and I was just like, oh, well. Try this, this looks fun.

David Hernandez: 12:59

Was it fun?

AstroZombie954: 13:01

No. No, It was, it was entertaining for like the first couple days that I played it, but then after that it was just like, eh, I'll go back to playing Tony Hawk.

David Hernandez: 13:11

So you mentioned how you and your brother would play TCG and that's your first experience as well as the anime. So would you and your brother play the trading card game together or were y'all just mostly collectors?

AstroZombie954: 13:19

collectors, we would, you know, oh, I got Charizard, or oh, I got this, or oh, I got that. and we played like, yeah, like, the typical, like, Okay, my Pokemon has 100 HP and it can hit your Pokemon for 80, so my Pokemon is better than yours. Like, that was like, that's how we played. We'd like, put our cards together and like a pile, and like, we didn't, we took all trainers out, no energies, anything like that, we're like, we don't know what that's for, so. And you, you kept it face down, it was like war.

David Hernandez: 13:51

That's what I was about to

AstroZombie954: 13:52

flip it over, and whoever had the stronger attack and the better HP, they won. Heh

David Hernandez: 13:58

So would y'all do it until the deck out or

AstroZombie954: 14:00

Yeah, yeah, until, it was just, we played it just like war, eventually someone would run out of cards, So, that's just what, how we played it, we didn't care, we didn't, I didn't know that there was an actual rules to the game until, I was older, like an adult, and I was like, oh wow, People compete in this, and this, and there's, there's rules, and then, Yeah, about 2016, I got back in, like, When I say get back in, like, I got a little, like, more Involved, with Go. I was also working at Hot Topic at the time, so, that makes it a lot easier to be a nerd. when you're being paid to be a nerd, too. Um, and, Pokemon Go, when that came out, was like a huge thing for Hot Topic. we did Pokemon Days, where everybody had to dress up. And, yeah, things like that. But we weren't allowed to play the game in the store. Nobody was allowed to play the game in the store. Because It's like walking through a warehouse and people were just running into like shelvings and displays and,

David Hernandez: 14:56

was the craze pretty serious for Hot Topic? Like a lot of people would come dressing up to do stuff like that?

AstroZombie954: 15:02

when we did like the thing for Pokemon Day right after Go came out, like yeah, people would come like dressed up and we had like things for them like, little giveaways or whatever. I don't know if Pokemon was ever like, officially partnering with Hot Topic, cause we never had cards or anything like that, and None of our shirts that we sold actually said Pokemon Company on it like it was always just like Another brand that Put, the Pokemon things on it. But, you know, we had stuff we gave away And It was cool, it was fun, I remember, getting off of work at like 10 o'clock and then going with like a bunch of the employees and we'd go to the park across the street and play until like 2 in the morning, and then my wife would call me saying where the fuck are you, you need to get home, stop playing this stupid game, uh,

David Hernandez: 15:47

were addicted it sounds like.

AstroZombie954: 15:48

I was addicted, I was playing every day until like late, and it was just to catch stuff, I didn't know about anything else like at that point, And then I got a little bit back into the cards at that point, I think that's when like the GX Pokemon, like, and stuff like that came out, I remember playing on TCG Online, the Nightmarch Mill deck, where you just try and get a whole bunch of Pokemon into your discard and then you just use Joltik To just knock everything out because it did like a ridiculous amount of damage for every Pokemon in your discard that had Nightmarch on it I just remember playing that Online, but like nothing serious or anything like that Until like I got more competitive with the ghost stuff and then Slowly, moved over to TCG.

David Hernandez: 16:36

It sounds like you kept with Pokemon throughout, but the TCG side, even through Go, it sounds like.

AstroZombie954: 16:41

Yeah, I've always liked the cards. I've always liked whether collecting it or anything like that. My kids collect, them, even before I started playing, like my wife is still, like, I'm so tired of seeing Pokemon cards everywhere, like there's Pokemon cards all over, like that's just, our family has always been a Pokemon family, like, I made all the kids watch the anime when they first, were watching TV and had no choice but to watch it with me. But then they started loving it and like, my middle son, and youngest son are really getting into the TCG stuff. they're playing on live every time, they're with me, we're trying to play cards and stuff like that. So, like I said, Pokemon is about family, and, being there for one another, and I just take that and transition it into real life.

David Hernandez: 17:26

That's so awesome. I love how Pokemon's allowed you to connect with your kids because it's a very good bonding moment as they grow up to where y'all

AstroZombie954: 17:31

for sure.

David Hernandez: 17:32

almost game night kind of thing it reminds me

AstroZombie954: 17:34

Yeah, yeah, but it's game, like, all day. It's either, it's either Pokemon, or they're, asking me to play Fortnite with them, so. They're very lucky that their dad is a nerd and, like, enjoys all that stuff, cause, my dad wasn't. I, I didn't have, you know I don't want to say my dad wasn't cool, like, we didn't have like anything in common in that front. he hated my style of music, he didn't understand, he didn't play video games, anything like that. I was just like, listen, if my kids think I'm a nerd and are embarrassed of me, I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna change. They just, like, love it, like, they tell their friends, Oh, my dad's going to compete in a Pokemon tournament. Like, Like, they're, they're cool about it. Like, they're, they're happy and they tell people about it. Like, I don't know how long that'll last, but,

David Hernandez: 18:20

So, you know, you talked about how y'all were, playing Pokemon Go in the streets till 2 to 3 AM with the wife calling you, right? Did you keep doing that over and over or keep playing Pokemon Go throughout or did you take a break at some point?

AstroZombie954: 18:31

At that point, my oldest son was almost two. and my wife had gotten pregnant with our second son. I played pretty hardcore until September when my son was born and then after that, I was like, okay, I'm on dad duty. Like, we got baby number two, like, I put it down. I would take them, you know, like I take the kids on walks or something like that and play like as, we were doing walks. and it was just like on and off throughout there. Like, when my kids got a little older, we started playing it again. I didn't really start taking it seriously and like seriously playing it until like the PVP part came out.

David Hernandez: 19:08

What was it about PvP that enticed you to come back into the game?

AstroZombie954: 19:12

it gave me something to do besides, collecting. I looked at Go as, like, cool, like, oh, okay, I get to collect these Pokémon, but what do I get to do with them? Like, it's just like, they're just there. and then when the, raid started, I was like, oh, that's cool, but, if I go to my park and no one's there, I'm not getting the Pokemon that's in the raid cause I wanted the legendaries, you know, who wants to go raid Pikachu. Nobody. Like. Ha ha

David Hernandez: 19:38

Unless it's a

AstroZombie954: 19:39

ha ha Yeah. Um. Ha Ha ha ha ha. Some people. but uh. Yeah, it just, it gave me something to do. and then, like. the pandemic hit, shortly after, Go Battle League started. And that was just like, okay, well now, like, I have nothing to do. Like, alright, I can do this. and then I hate being bad at things. Like, I don't mind being, like, mediocre, or okay, but I hate being bad. Like, losing is not fun. I wanted to get better and then, I ended up meeting, Dino and the podcast thing just kind of went and I'm still not great, but, I can still play.

David Hernandez: 20:18

You've been listening to as the Pokeball turns. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. how'd you meet Dino?

AstroZombie954: 21:18

I was part of a local Discord down here in South Florida, and somebody was posting some type of, new Discord server. It was kind of like, like a factions style, like way before. It was like, I forget, it's like called Pyramid something, I forget and I was like, oh, that sounds cool, I want to play like I want to play in something like that. It would be nice to meet people locally, because your team had to be from your area. I got with them and Dino was the guy in the whatsapp chat. It was just like everyone called him coach, everyone was watching his videos like you could tell he was good and he knew what he was doing. he wasn't my first choice for a co host, the original co host, ended up right before we were gonna start recording, backing out, due to like some work stuff, and just wasn't gonna have the time. So I still wanted to do it, And I asked him and he's like, I don't know anything about podcasting, but I like Pokemon Go, so yeah. Okay. We could talk about it. he was like, I don't know, what do I do here? What do I do that I was like, I dunno, just get a microphone and we'll talk

David Hernandez: 22:24

Right

AstroZombie954: 22:26

and, we had a couple other people join us here and there, but, until Wildcat joined, you know. And then it just kind of just evolved into what it is now. still like it to be bigger, but, you know, little, little

David Hernandez: 22:37

another co host.

AstroZombie954: 22:39

Yeah,

David Hernandez: 22:41

So originally it started with you and Dino with the podcast and supposed to be a third guy, but he never showed up and you're rotating through other people at the time.

AstroZombie954: 22:48

yeah, so we did actually, if you listen to episode zero, there was another person on there. and, we go to record the first episode. So, Like, I've got everything set up, like, we're ready to go, and just like, nothing. Like, radio silence. No one could get a hold of him. Dina couldn't get, I couldn't get, no one could get a hold of him. So I was just like, you know what, let's just do it, like, I already told my wife we're recording, like, I'm already doing this, it's already set up, let's go. Let's just do it. And it just worked. Like, I don't know, me and Dino just, like, clicked, like, right away. Like, there's just some people that you can click with, and I don't know if maybe it's, like, the height thing, because we're the same height. he has great hair, I have no hair, so it's like we're like

David Hernandez: 23:25

That's a good dynamic.

AstroZombie954: 23:27

we're like, we're, we're the opposites of each other. I have facial hair, he refuses to grow facial hair, it worked, and we tried other people, just, it was just always like, we didn't feel like there wasn't a, a vibe, it didn't mesh, it wasn't where we needed it to be. And it wasn't until, he had some school stuff, at the time, and it needed to take a couple weeks off. But I didn't want to, like, put the podcast on hold for a couple weeks, cause anybody who does podcasts know consistency is the key. and if you take a week off, you could lose half your listener base in one week.

David Hernandez: 24:03

See what we do for

AstroZombie954: 24:03

Yeah, yeah, consistency, consistency, and that's everyone was telling me, you know, I talked to Chris from GoCast, consistency, I talked to Salt and R from Pokemon Go Radio when that was still, consistency, Ken from Lured Up, consistency, it was like the first thing everyone said, consistency. And at the time, Wildcat was our Discord admin, and I was just like, hey, you wanna, talk on the podcast with me? And he's like, sure! And he gets on with like his bluetooth headset and it was just, it was, but like, it worked, Wildcat coming onto the show gave me the ability to be myself a little more, and not have to like, Act like I know a lot of things, so that Dino had somebody who could, like, talk intelligently about PvP with, so bringing, Wildcat on was just, like, it was perfect. Dino had somebody who could talk, like, real in depth stuff, and then I could just come in with, like, my stupid ass question and, just blow the whole thing up and, make it funny or whatever and just be, like, The average person, Like, the average player who wants to know if their 100 percent Stoutland is gonna be good for Master League, Cause I built it. and then I went, I build it and I tell you it's great and Dino and Wildcat tell me it's not, and we have a good laugh and it's fun.

David Hernandez: 25:25

Did you feel like before Wildcat came on the show as a permanent co host that you had to play a certain role at the time?

AstroZombie954: 25:30

Yeah, I don't wanna say I was like, being fake. I had to learn terminology, I had to learn things very, very fast that I didn't know, and being the host of the show is just like one of those things where it's like, you kind of feel like you're expected to know everything since you're hosting a podcast about it, I felt like I had to play that part a little more And, talk about things that I didn't really understand, but I didn't want, like, our listeners to be like, oh, well, this guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, why do I want to listen to this podcast, so yeah, bringing Wildcat on really gave me an opportunity to just be myself more, like, not be afraid to ask stupid questions, which I guess, in turn, made the show better because After he joined and we were able to transition like that, that's when it really started to take off. you know, we started having a little longer shows, I started adding more of like the, I don't want to say a comedy side to it, but like, a lighter side. we started talking more about, like, what's going on in our lives, all that kind of stuff. And me just being able to talk about how I literally thought, every soda in the 7 Eleven by my house was under quarantine, not realizing it was Halloween, like, things like that, like, being okay to, like, to do that, which I think, a lot of people can relate with, a lot of people tend to relate a little more with Dinyar, Wildcat, you know,

David Hernandez: 26:53

Sounds like it led you towards what you envisioned the podcast to be with, you always mentioned, Dan Leopard. Sounds like you got to live up to more of that, that you would always hope to be.

AstroZombie954: 27:01

Yeah, I've actually stole games from him, from their show. Uh, the Astros Top 10, that we used to do, which, people ask to bring it back sometimes. that was a direct steal. it was a direct steal from, they did Roy's Top 10, where they would take a subject. And, Roy was the only, African American on the show. They were all Hispanic or white. so the whole thing that he would do is he would name a bunch of, well known, African American, sports players or something like that. And then he would always end it with the random, like, really bad white guy. Like, as number one, like, it was just like the butt of the joke. but it was like, if it was about his top ten foods, he would name, athletes that had food names or, he would take, like, a name that sounded like part of it was a food, like, Cunningham. He would use that and, like, change it. So I was like, oh, let me do that with Pokémon. and it was cool. Like, we did it. I stole it. Like, everything. Everything about that sh That game was stolen directly from Dan Libetard. not that he's ever gonna find out. Um, so, I don't have to worry about it.

David Hernandez: 28:11

Yeah, no copyright infringement to worry about at all. What's cool about how your podcast has evolved and you alluded to it earlier, y'all eventually transitioned over to covering both TCG and VGC as well. Was that a very tough transition to go through and what led to y'all wanting to do that?

AstroZombie954: 28:29

Um,

David Hernandez: 28:30

Uh oh, I feel like I asked a bad question.

AstroZombie954: 28:32

Well, no,

David Hernandez: 28:33

that weird look, like, oh god, why'd you ask this question?

AstroZombie954: 28:36

No, no, it's, fine. It's fine. Um, So, It really kind of started And it's like, the reason I don't like talking about it so much is because like, I just hate talking about, the negative aspects of Pokemon Go. But, Unfortunately, that's what got me to a point where it was just like, I wasn't having fun playing the game. I wasn't having fun talking about the game. I didn't want to talk about the news. I didn't want to talk about how, they screwed over people in wheelchairs again. Or, things like that like, it just was getting old. and when regionals started and Pokemon Go came into play Pokemon, then it kind of reinvigorated things. but then again, it's like Niantic does this cycle, they make you real hyper about the game and then they slowly knock you down and then they'll bring you something back. and you know, it was starting to get bad again. Like it was starting to get real bad. and Charlotte last year, I got knocked out, like, I went 0 2, and Dinho was actually doing really well that tournament, he was on stream, and I was just like, I'm gonna give him his space, cause people are coming up to him, whatever, and I know, like, he wanted me to be there, and I was just like, I went up to him, and I was like,"good job!", and I I'm gonna let you have your space like, if you need me, you text me and I'll be there, whatever. plus, I was nervous. Like, I was nervous for him. and I just, like, I can't watch this. Like, I don't want to be there watching if he loses and then whatever. so I kinda just, like, wandered. so I went over to the TCG side, and I was able to understand the card game a whole lot more like I understood what they were doing, you know, when they were playing a card or like I could see, Oh, there's a strategy here. You have to try and do this and you have to try and do that. And you have time to think about it. Like GO you have what a millisecond to decide if you're going to switch out your Pokemon or not, where TCG you have, a good like 30 seconds to figure out like what your next move is, and that's more my speed, that night I downloaded, Live on my phone and I played it and, I just got hooked. Like, I just started playing more and more and more, and then Niantic started getting worse and worse and worse and worse. and I was just like, fuck this. Like, I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do TCG. I know I'm never going to win a regional in GO because my brain can't process that fast. Like, I can't process and I can't remember the things that you need to remember to win, and be good. Like, I can't remember timing, counts, all that stuff. But, I understand the TCG side. Like, I understand it, and it just clicked in my brain better. I always bring everything up to Dino first like, I talked to him, and I was just like, Hey, what if we talked about The TCG stuff and he's like, I don't know man. Like that's another thing to add in here and the show's already long and I brought it up to, you know, Wildcat and Matthew and It wasn't accepted by the group as quickly as I would want it to be. it's always been something that they know I've wanted to expand out to because I hate being pigeonholed into just the game and being reliant on, Other people to, give me something to talk about. Just kept bringing it up and bringing it up, and then I was just like, I'm playing this more competitively guys, like I'm actually going to leagues, like I'm actually building these decks and going and playing, like, I think this is something we should talk about. I'm assuming that our listener base has really accepted it because we have TCG tournaments now, and we have VGC tournaments, and a lot of people are going, Man, I've never played cards, but the way you talk about it made me want to do it, and now I'm hooked, like, now I want to play, like, we're not going to play competitively, but now, I play live a lot, and this and that, and it gave some of those people who were getting burnt out, by Pokemon Go and just like, all the bullshit that goes on with it and all that. It gave them another outlet, where they didn't feel like they had to leave the community. You know, we had people who were like, we are just here to be part of the community, I haven't played the game in like three months,

David Hernandez: 32:42

Oh

AstroZombie954: 32:42

I just want to be here, and I'm like, okay, But the TCG stuff now gave me something more like we had people who played VGC. They're like, you know, I've always wanted to help people would GO but I'm not as good as Lyle or someone like that, but now I'm really good in the VGC. So now I can help them Get better at VGC. So like it just opened up so many more avenues And, we had to readjust the format of the show, and it was tough. It was tough. It was scary. it's very scary to make a change after almost three years of doing the exact same thing. but I was just like, you know what? If our listeners are actually our listeners and our fans, they're going to ride this out. If They weren't, or they were just like casual listeners, then yeah, they'll probably leave and we just did it. I was scared, and, it's actually increased, maybe not like a huge jump, maybe like a 2 or 3 percent increase in listeners on a weekly basis, which is still, really good, and then we did this interview with Zoe, and then that kind of boosted up our listener base a lot more.

David Hernandez: 33:44

Awesome.

AstroZombie954: 33:46

Uh, so, you know. me and Matthew are competing in the TCG stuff, and Wildcat and, Dinyo are doing the go. And, it's now, we're able to spread BTW out, like, so more people can see.

David Hernandez: 34:00

It's an interesting dynamic you brought up to where you talked about how there was this one person who didn't play for, I guess, months and it allowed them a different way to be able to engage back in with the community, and even more so to where, hey, I may not be good at Go, but I might be able to be good with PVC or TCG, right? And it really allowed y'all to kinda gain more people accessibility to be able to be involved with y'all's community, instead of just looking on the sidelines.

AstroZombie954: 34:22

Yeah. Like, a hundred percent. And it also gave Our community, like a chance to feel like they were contributing more to the show, because there's a lot of things that we don't know about like TCG that I'm still learning. There's a lot of things of VGC, like we're all still learning, but some of our people in our discord have been doing it for a much longer time than we have, so they give advice or they say, oh, no, no, no, it's not this. It's that and things like that. And, we can translate that into next week's episode, and whatever, and we give the credit to, whoever told us, we don't ever try and take it. The more people start doing that, then they see, like, a trend, and then it's like, it starts going, and it's like, that's what I've always wanted like, I've always wanted my listeners to be able to feel like they are not just listening to the show, but being part of it. I always wanted, like, that whole, like, call in, like, you know, where first time caller, long time listener, you know, like, you know, and then they ask a question or something like that, like, that's what brought the question and answer section in was we couldn't do like, live call ins, so it was like, this is the second best thing.

David Hernandez: 35:25

Well Astro, you've been a wonderful guest. I do have one last question, but in the spirit of what you mentioned earlier, the Astro top 10, there's going to be a top 10 question.

AstroZombie954: 35:34

Oh, you're putting me on the spot. Okay. Here we go.

David Hernandez: 35:37

What Pokemon would be a great wrestler? Number 10,

AstroZombie954: 35:41

Gengar,

David Hernandez: 35:42

number 9.

AstroZombie954: 35:43

number nine would be Halucha,

David Hernandez: 35:46

Number 8.

AstroZombie954: 35:47

slacking.

David Hernandez: 35:48

Number 7.

AstroZombie954: 35:50

I'm gonna go with Scyther.

David Hernandez: 35:52

Number 6.

AstroZombie954: 35:54

Number six, Obstagoon.

David Hernandez: 35:56

Number 5.

AstroZombie954: 35:58

trying to think of like somebody who could like throw, Mr. Mime.

David Hernandez: 36:03

Number 4.

AstroZombie954: 36:05

Plusle and Minun? Minun? they'd be like that awesome like Lucha Libre, like, tag team, just flying all over the place.

David Hernandez: 36:12

Number 3.

AstroZombie954: 36:14

Number three, needs to be a big boy, Snorlax.

David Hernandez: 36:17

Number 2.

AstroZombie954: 36:18

Number two, I feel like everyone's yelling at me in their thing going, Say this one, say this one, say this one, and I'm just like, I don't know. I'm trying to think. I'm going through Pokemon in my brain, in my brain, and I'm looking at arms. Poliwrath.

David Hernandez: 36:33

And number 1.

AstroZombie954: 36:34

Oh, my boy, Scrafty. A hundred percent. World champion.

David Hernandez: 36:41

Astro, thank you for coming on the show. Before you go, people want to check out y'all's podcast. If they want to connect with you, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

AstroZombie954: 36:49

Sure, the easiest place to go is our website, www. btwpvp. com, it's got all the links for everything to our discord, it's got our emails, you can email us, directly or as a group in the info, on X, is btwpvppodcast, Twitch. Like, all this stuff is on the website. Like, it's really the, easiest place to go. Just go btwpvp. com. You can buy shirts, you can join our Discord, you can find our Twitch, all that stuff.

David Hernandez: 37:17

And go scrim at Astro about this Pokemon that he forgot to

AstroZombie954: 37:19

Yeah. Oh, I'm, I'm waiting for it.

David Hernandez: 38:22

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