TRAINER'S EYE #74 - "The Executive Edition" ft. MatthewBraeker from Beginner to Winner PvP

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by MatthewBraeker, the Executive Producer from the Beginner to Winner PvP podcast.

MatthewBraeker shares his experience with Pokemon GO and getting into Pokemon GO PVP. He gives insight to how he always saw the purpose of Pokemon was to battle and his experience playing Pokemon GO PvP when it was launched. He also gives his experience shifting from Pokemon GO to Pokemon TCG and what he enjoys about playing the Pokemon TCG.

MatthewBraeker gives insight into his experience with Pokemon ranging from the Pokemon TCG at a younger to watching the anime. He also shares how him and his friend would develop strategies to compete in the Battle Tower in the Pokemon games. 

Finally, MatthewBarker shares how he got involved with the Beginner to Winner PvP podcast as the Executive Producer and gives some insights to how the podcast approaches building a PvP community and what he hopes it becomes in the future.

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 MatthewBraeker: 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 community lost their home due to a house fire. Thankfully, their family survived and are all 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. For the past three weeks, we have heard from each host of the Beginner to Winner podcast about how their stories interconnected in a way to create both a podcast and thriving PvP community within Pokemon Go. But what if I told you that there was one more? One person who works in the background to help the podcast run Or what the other co hosts call, the glue that holds the show together. My podcast is always about highlighting people, and it's time to bring him center stage. From podcast editing to his involvement in starting the Getting Good series on YouTube, and the Executive Edition interviews on the B.T.W Podcast. Here is his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. He is the executive producer of the Beginner to Winner podcast. This is Matthew Breaker. Today, I'm joined by the executive producer of the BTW podcast, Matthew Breaker. Matthew, welcome to the show.

Matthew Braeker: 1:53

Hey, thank you for having me.

David Hernandez: 1:54

Definitely, Matthew. And what's the BTW without you? Because I've heard that you're a lot of the behind the scenes kind of guy, is that true?

Matthew Braeker: 2:01

Yes, yes, I'm very much behind the scenes. You, you will hear me, like, throughout the episode. I have been a little more vocally active, as like a side host, but in terms of like the front facing, people, that's, the big three, Astro, Dino and WildcatDad17.

David Hernandez: 2:17

And what's your role with the podcast, for those who may not know what an executive producer is?

Matthew Braeker: 2:21

Yeah. So, being an executive producer of the podcast, it's like a over glorious title for everything. Um, essentially what, I do for the podcast is, I'm one of the primary writers of the show notes. Which we've like simplified over the, years as well. so it's less arduous when, all the news drops that come in. the main thing that I do for the podcast though, is editing and publishing what you, the listener would hear. So, we have a pretty quick turnaround. We typically record on Monday nights, and then our release has typically always been on a Wednesday, so I typically have a day to turn around about a two and a half to three hour podcast. I've been doing that for the past year, almost two years now.

David Hernandez: 3:11

And from what I was told with Dino, he says, y'all pay six figures for you to do your services. Is that correct?

Matthew Braeker: 3:16

I guess I'm owed a lot of money. I'm going to have to have a little chat with Astro after this, if that's what

David Hernandez: 3:26

yeah, he said you were making six figures. So is it just like a running tab that they still run on you?

Matthew Braeker: 3:30

I guess it's just like this giant IOU. So, you know, but I also can get paid in, cards now, so that's fine.

David Hernandez: 3:38

What lets you becoming the executive producer of BTW?

Matthew Braeker: 3:41

I was part of their discord. so the BTW, we have a Patreon that, our discord in order to gain access to it. It's a dollar a month. I was a part of that discord because when I was first starting out trying to learn PVP, I was a huge fan of the podcast. And I just wanted to, like help them out. So, I became a patron myself. I pledged for like one of the higher tiers. from there WildcatDad had made a message out to some people saying like, Hey, like we want help, writing the show notes Cause at the time, Dinho was in school, family life and everything, and you're trying to juggle a podcast to be released weekly. it's a team effort and they were needing some help. So that was sort of like my in where I like raised my hand and volunteered. I was like, Hey, I'll do it. And it quickly went from. Like, writing show notes to, oh, you're the executive producer. I was like, oh boy. So, but it worked out pretty well for me because my skill set previously was video editing and I was very comfortable with audio editing as well. So, it worked really well for me. it was just like learning like how they run the show and then like incorporating, my skill set, into helping Astro fulfill the vision that he had for his show.

David Hernandez: 5:04

You know, it's interesting cause you're not the only person who joined from becoming like an audience listener to becoming on the podcast as other people find out. What was it about the BTW at the time that made you want to get more involved? Like, what did they have that maybe you resonated with?

Matthew Braeker: 5:18

I really related to Astro and, Dino's like sense of humor. That was a big thing for me just listening to their podcasts, so we like, they're vulgar. Like we have an explicit tag on our podcast for a reason. I always listen to the podcast that typically just use swear words. It's just, something that for me, I enjoy humor and I enjoy unfiltered humor most of the time too, especially because I was particularly looking for PVP podcasts. At the time, there was really only two. There was Battle Cats, which Zyonik and Caleb Peng were doing. And there was the BTW PVP podcast. so I was listening to both of them in tandem, but the interaction that I was getting in the BTW discord was a lot more personal because, it was very interesting for somebody outside of that world entirely. And at that time completely new to discord and in all honesty, like social media in general, that I was talking to and greeted by wildcat dad, Dino and Astro, like the moment that I joined in the group, that was a really like eyeopening experience for me and it made the discord more personal for me and more like a home base, So having that initial interaction just made me want to engage more with the community that they were building.

David Hernandez: 6:48

It sounds like they had a very hospitable way to approach the Discord. Because I remember when I joined y'all's Discord, I think y'all were one of the first ones to greet me as well. And you really resonated just feeling welcomed immediately, not just by regular people, but as well as the leader themselves.

Matthew Braeker: 7:00

yeah, and that's something that we talk about often behind the scenes too. We Do really want everybody to feel like they can reach out and talk to us. And I know that that's not necessarily the case with a lot of other Content creator based discords, where it's really like they have their admins handling everything. And they take this like overlord, watchful view of things. Like we really want to be interacting with our community. So we are constantly either just like joking with each other in general chat or interacting with people at multiple different points and places in the discord. So that's just something we pride ourselves on and we want to continue doing. A lot of the community is very experienced in PVP, so it does make it. easier to get advice when you have a community filled with like really like top battlers and really skilled individuals. And it's also really personal and easy to talk to them. So it makes getting help a lot more comfortable for people.

David Hernandez: 8:13

Definitely, and what's interesting is y'all both focus on both the rookie as well as the experienced player. How do y'all find that balance to be able to address opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to PvP?

Matthew Braeker: 8:23

to be honest, I think That's a challenge that we do have in the discord. And it's something that we've talked about a lot behind the scenes just with the guys, especially with, the member coaching where we're, empowering members of our community to coach live, people playing GBL. one of the transitions that we made. that, I was really like passionate about spearheading is really defining like what kind of help people want instead of having like a more general, video chat, area where people can screen share their battles. Like I wanted different rooms that mean different things. So we have. voice chat rooms where people can get coaching and screen share their battles. Really defining what each room means really helps ground the type of coaching that people can choose to get. So I will spend most of my time in either like free play or in all honesty, like the beginner level tiers as well, just because the repetition and the coaching of like move counts is something that I still need hammered in my head. So, so it just, it's, it's helpful for the coach or whoever's like role it is to lead and guide because they know what skill level the person is, at or asking for and can tone their approach to match that.

David Hernandez: 9:44

Now, let's take the people back to the beginning side. Let's take them back to Matthew Breaker in the early days. What was it like for you when you first started playing Pokemon Go?

Matthew Braeker: 9:51

I was pretty enamored with the game. I don't think I put it down for probably a good six months, much to my partner's dismay. Honestly, I think it was the first video game in my life that I've been completely enamored. Like, I think Pokemon Go, when it first came out, was a lifestyle. Especially for, like, people my age that grew up with Pokemon. So the nostalgia hit was so visceral because now I am walking around my town every single day and night playing this game and got to see a lot of parts of my city that I wouldn't have had it not been for this game. The primary exploration side of the game, I really cherished, and I do miss that rush still.

David Hernandez: 10:47

So you miss being able to see a new area when it comes to Pokemon Go? Do you just not experience that anymore?

Matthew Braeker: 10:52

no, I really don't experience that anymore. The closest experience that I got to That, 2016 hype was GoFest, because like, New York City. It was the second time I've been to New York City, the first time Pokemon Go was not out, so this was the best experience I could have is just, I've never walked that much in my life, but it was like, like my, my, I, I wore really cushioned shoes too. So I was prepared for it, but I think I spent probably seven hours in Central Park and like, I still don't feel like I saw all of it. The day before, we were on the island and then we were doing city play. So we were all over the city. and just because just like in the area that I'm in and the life that I have, I don't travel much. So Like, I've played in my city probably consistently about four years now, so nothing's really new. Like, I know all the parts of my city. Like, I'd make a phenomenal Uber driver because, like, I know where everything is now just from playing Pokemon Go, so.

David Hernandez: 12:02

I definitely recommend doing Uber and playing Pokemon Go at the same time if y'all can. Now What was fun for BTW is y'all got to actually host a tournament I believe with the Battlecatz?

Matthew Braeker: 12:11

yeah, so we partnered with, Caleb Peng and in all honesty like that was my first experience with like a live grassroots tournament. but it was just a ton of fun to get to meet Caleb Pang for the first time, but also get to meet a lot of these like top tier battlers that you can see on stage at regional tournaments. We randomly bumped into ZoetwoDots, that's how we made like the connection with her and To get her on our podcast as well, but it was just like these random really weird Scenarios that happened that like wouldn't if we hadn't done stuff like that

David Hernandez: 12:51

For sure, and speaking of Zoe, like I listened to y'all's episode, it must have been surreal to finally have, I guess, a big YouTuber on y'all's podcast?

Matthew Braeker: 12:58

Yeah, I think the interesting thing was just how like grounded and down to earth a lot of these content creators are Zoe is Definitely one of the best in the Pokemon go Creator sphere. and she's extremely generous with her time to the community. So, very easy to coordinate with, very lovely guests to have on and she's always welcome.

David Hernandez: 13:23

So PvP came out, obviously that's the primary focus of the podcast, What is it about PvP that, interests you and kept you engaged?

Matthew Braeker: 13:30

For me, the way that I see the Pokemon games is they're always battle focused. it just made sense to me that, okay, finally, Pokemon Go is having battles in it that you could battle your friends. I was able to do it with the TCG when the TCG came out, I was able to do it with all the VGC games. so for them to finally put that on their game, after initially advertising it, in 2016, probably like, what, 3 4 years later, it finally entered the game. Like, for me, I was like, okay, it's about time, guys. Like, you know. Right, so that, that brought my interest back into it, just because I Like that type of competition, it's just fun for me.

David Hernandez: 14:15

were you a competitive battler within the original Pokemon games at all? Or were you just very interested in the battling mechanic within the story?

Matthew Braeker: 14:22

for the video game series, one of like my favorite things was me and my buddy would do like double battles together and just try to see like how, like what win streak we could go or how high our win streak could get.

David Hernandez: 14:34

Would y'all do like the Battle Tower stuff like that?

Matthew Braeker: 14:36

Yeah, yeah, so there'd be times where it's like a whole bunch of friends are hanging out and him and I are playing this and my partners, they're like cheering us on, but it's like him and I are really getting into this and like trying to like talk strategy and stuff. So, that was always fun for me, so being able to sort of get back to that environment really is something that I enjoy.

David Hernandez: 15:00

How would you and your friend prepare, like, would y'all like strategize teams or, like how would y'all prepare y'alls teams?

Matthew Braeker: 15:05

Yeah, we would really like, Did the whole like EV and IV training and stuff. Like we went pretty hard and I'm to be honest, like in a competitive VGC sphere, like that's not what I was doing, but like specifically for like double battles, it was like, okay, we need Pokemon that are going to synergize really well with each other and like match our individual play styles as well. And being in the same room while we're doing it was even more fun because it's like, when we'd lose, it's like, Oh. Dammit, and like, okay, we're gonna have a, we're gonna have a beer break, you know, and like, okay, and we're, we're right back at it. Let's, let's go again, so, Those type of interactions is stuff that, that I found enjoyable.

David Hernandez: 15:47

With regards to just the Pokemon main series, do you have a particular favorite region at all? I don't know.

Matthew Braeker: 15:51

Johto is like my favorite region and in my favorite Pokemon too. So I don't know why I think well I My theory is because the first game that I got in the Pokemon series was Pokemon Gold for Game Boy Color. So, my first playthrough was in Johto. So, they always hold a special place in my heart because they were like my gateway drug into the Pokemon world.

David Hernandez: 16:21

Do you have any fond memories of playing through Pokemon Gold?

Matthew Braeker: 16:24

I remember one of the gym leaders, having a Kingdra that was really frustrating and when you're nine years old and not necessarily understanding what's super effective and what's not, that Kingdra wasn't, uh, that and the Miltank were like two gym leader obstacles that were super, super annoying to have to try to work through.

David Hernandez: 16:45

Last question in regards to the main series. If you're going to do a playthrough through Pokemon Gold, Which six Pokémon did you choose.

Matthew Braeker: 16:51

Okay. So the starter is going to be Chikorita Um, I

David Hernandez: 16:56

YESS! YES! I love you right now my friend. Yes, Meganium lovers unite!

Matthew Braeker: 17:00

Yeah for sure for sure Meganium, 100% I would make sure that I got a Tyranitar, a Steelix, a Scizor, an Umbreon. I would probably do my best to get, like, an Arcanine on there. And the team's not balanced. They're just my favorite Pokémon.

David Hernandez: 17:16

You've been listening to as the Pokeball turns. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. So, moving back to Pokemon Go, eventually, of course, you dive into PvP a little bit, and right when you become the executive producer for PTW, you start your own little segment called the Executive Edition. What made you want to start that, and what was the reasoning behind it?

Matthew Braeker: 18:39

that was a conversation that Astro and I had. That was an idea that Astro had from the jump was he had wanted extra content. so when we were designing the show, it became a way for us to interview players or members of our community like, give a spotlight on the people that as a podcast wanted to back. the first One that we had was us sort of like introducing what our member coaching tier is going to be. So we had at the time, like our original two member coaches, MiamiDoc, and then Lyle's Jeff's three. Lyle is on our show semi regularly. he's always welcome, but he's extraordinarily active and very, very generous with his time in our discord like thank you does not do it justice. the devotion that this man has to helping people in his own special way is unparalleled. I've never met somebody that is able to, give that much care to the community as him. So,

David Hernandez: 19:51

he's low key the fifth person at BTW.

Matthew Braeker: 19:53

very much. So, yeah, yeah. He he's, he's, definitely part of the family for sure.

David Hernandez: 19:59

Do you have any interviews that you really enjoyed, or ones that were your favorites?

Matthew Braeker: 20:02

so like, I can't like cherry pick favorites. I would say that the opportunities that it allowed me, like I was able to interview FishonTheHeater. at that time. That was a big moment for me in my life like both like professionally and personally, getting out of my comfort zone of being behind the scenes, that was the first time that was more like, this is a pretty substantial person in the Pokemon Go community. And, I had the opportunity to interview him in the way that I wanted to talk. So, that was probably the one that stood out just because it had the most impact on myself. From there, we were able to, bring on, like the RTC guys and what a riot that is. So it's, it's just, I've never had a bad experience with that portion of the show. it's something that we want to bring back. it's not the right time for us right now. So it's just waiting in the wings until, you know, we can figure out, when we can logistically do it the justice that it deserves.

David Hernandez: 21:08

Eventually, y'all transferred over to doing just exclusively Pokemon Go to adding on TCG and VGC. What was the challenges to do that, and why did y'all decide to go down that route?

Matthew Braeker: 21:18

So, from the jump, I think what was important To note was the podcast was never specified as a Pokemon Go podcast. It was always Pokemon PVP. So that was like the caveat that we had to allow us to have this sort of like natural transition into adding more content onto it. But to be completely honest, like the main reason why we transitioned into having more PVP content available for our listeners was because of how stagnant go has become, especially during this past year. New York and our time in New York was a really enlightening moment for our podcast, primarily the episode that we did when we were in our Airbnb and drunk. So the, yeah, that recording really just like, hat was a light bulb moment for us. we had been talking previously before that and before that trip of changing the style of the show to be less rigid and what I call like bullet pointing where it's here's the news event, here's the things about the news event, here's what's PVP relevant, next event. And it's just like, for me, I like a free flow style conversation. I think bullet points are fine as a guide, but it shouldn't be the rule. So that was something that the guys and I have been talking about and not really knowing how exactly it would be implemented. So, our episode that we recorded in the Airbnb was truly, like, no notes, nothing, freeform conversation.

David Hernandez: 23:06

Off the cuff.

Matthew Braeker: 23:07

Off the cuff and it was the most fun that we've had recording a podcast honestly to date still. Since that moment we were trying to get back to like okay well it's not gonna be The same level of excitement just because when you're in person, it's just different. So how can we at least try to replicate the majority of that excitement in our digital space where we are all recording from different parts of the country. A lot of it was having to change the format of the show. to be completely candid. I don't feel we got it right for about 10 episodes after that we were trying a lot of things. it just wasn't clicking in terms of the flow that we were looking for and then when you're adding on new topics and expanding the podcast to start talking about TCG and VGC, it could get really muddied and convoluted when topics are changing in a natural free form conversation. And then bouncing back to different sections throughout the course of a two and a half, three hour podcast, it's just organizational wise, it doesn't work. It's like the most simple thing that alluded us and it took Dino just being like, well, hey, why don't we just bring everything into like a free form conversational style just within each section? And it was like one of those moments where i'm killing myself because i'm like why didn't I think about this like this was the most simple solution ever. When he said that it was like ding ding ding this Completely makes sense, and since then we've implemented that in, like, how we've done the show, and it's still like a transition of getting comfortable with that new style, but our enjoyment Doing the podcast has drastically improved because it's a breath of fresh air like you're changing up the style. You're still talking and covering the same news, but you're able to do it in the conversational like style that we want. But it just makes organizational sense as well.

David Hernandez: 25:17

It sounds like from what you described earlier that the podcast had come to the point to where it was formulaic To where it was the same thing over and over. You introduced the news you talk about how it relates to PvP, You might say how Niantic's screwing stuff up and rinse and repeat, right? And it just sounds like y'all got into a rut and then now with the whole added of VGC and TCG I don't know, I guess spread your wings if so you will.

Matthew Braeker: 25:38

Yeah, I think it's really hard to do a show week in and week out when you're not passionate about the game or as passionate about the game. and I think our excitement level of the game was showing in our conversations and it's not something that listeners want to hear. it's fine talking and being real about how like you're not having fun at the game. But when, like, week after week, you're audibly frustrated. And that's the only emotion coming across in a podcast episode. And it doesn't make for good listening. So, changing it up and having more fun in the episode, even though on the Pokemon Go side, me personally, I'm not enjoying that as much, but I can still have fun talking about that content because I also know that I'm having a lot of fun, doing the TCG and being able to talk about that as well. So it just improves the mood of everybody. throughout the recording and that shows, when people are listening to it, it just, it translates better.

David Hernandez: 26:44

You said how you felt like y'all weren't passionate about Pokemon Go as y'all used to be and that's what caused kind of the repetition. What kind of killed your passion?

Matthew Braeker: 26:51

so what killed my passion was hearing over and over again, after like every event that would have an issue that Niantic is working hard, they're trying to improve the quality of the game. We understand things are frustrating, but we have a blockbuster slate of features coming out in the summer and then it's like... the analogy that I use is it started becoming like a toxic relationship where we're promised change, like I'll do better. And then it's good for a little bit. And then this slowly starts going back into the old pattern of behavior where in my view, simple things like if you're releasing a new Pokemon, make sure it is A, in the game, or B, it's actually working? Like, stuff like that, has consistently happened over and over. I finally just said, like, enough's enough, I'm not going to continue devoting as much of my free time into this game that I'm not getting the emotional joy as a return on the time investment that I'm putting into it. thankfully, Pokemon has More properties. So it's very easy to just be like, well, I love Pokemon. Like, it's not anything about I'm not liking Pokemon. It's just, this, particular section of Pokemon is not my favorite at the moment. And I can find joy in other parts of Pokemon.

David Hernandez: 28:24

And what other parts have you started exploring in regards to just Pokemon?

Matthew Braeker: 28:28

the big thing is the TCG, Astro had been the spearhead and he was like I'm getting into TCG, and, Actually the three guys I have been collecting cards, I know that, Dino's probably the most hardcore of the three of us when it comes to collecting cards like Dino's thing is his, Charizard, his graded Charizard collection. He's always talking about cards and opening up packs and he's got the ETBs in the background and stuff of his, streams. So, having, Astro get, Into the competitive side of like the TCG and learn it. And then off air, him talking about him playing brought back a lot of nostalgia memories for me, because that's how I got started into Pokemon in the first place was playing the TCG. We had a wizards of the coast in like a local mall. I would go every Saturday and play in their leagues. Those are the happiest moments of my childhood is my mom and my dad taking me to wizards of the coast every Saturday at 10 AM. And like, right when the mall opens and being able to play the card game.

David Hernandez: 29:43

Was this back when Base Set, Fossil, and Jungle, or is this a little bit later down the

Matthew Braeker: 29:47

Yeah, so it was Base Set, Jungle, Fossil, and then, I started was when, they had, Neo Genesis had just come out, and then they had the Gym Leaders as well, so, like, I had bought the, Blaine. Gym leader deck with Blaine's Arcanine and I think that's what solidified like Arcanine is like one of my favorite Pokemon. that's a card that I want to make sure I get a nice copy of. I played like a modified version of Blaine's Arcanine for about a year and it was The most fun that I've had in my childhood

David Hernandez: 30:23

well, what is it about the TCG that wants you to play that part of the Pokemon? Because TCG, seems intimidating. A lot of people don't know it. They know it's this cool card, shiny, and that's about it. What about for you makes you want to play it?

Matthew Braeker: 30:35

I mean to be honest TCG is intimidating. like getting into it you have to enter it knowing that you're going to have a learning curve. I would say though, that the, resources available to learn the TCG, are very plentiful. In fact, I think it's got probably one of the best business models of all the properties. So they have a TCG live, which is free to sign up and play. You can't actually physically put money into that game like, when I first started out, I tried. I wanted to put money, I wanted to get all the cards that I needed, but like, no, like, you have to play and get your reps in, and by doing that, like, you learn what the cards do, you learn how the game works, and What it allows you to do is build a deck or see how other people play certain decks. And when you're comfortable with a deck that you've been playing for a while on this app, then you can go and physically buy the cards. So when you actually get the cards and go to, your first in person league, You know how to play the game, you know how your deck works, it's just getting over now the hurdles of, well now you're playing in person and you have to learn how to shuffle all these cards and stuff like that, like it poses new problems, but the actual like mechanics of playing the game are there. For me to have like that in person competitive stuff, which I know that like for Pokemon go, that was the big, push for Silph before, like the pandemic was, you know, a lot of these people having tournaments, in breweries and stuff for that month's meta and, and everybody coming together to play that and then, you know, when COVID hit, that took a significant hit, and never got back to that level of in person, but TCG has bounced back like TCG is very, involved in like their league plays, all these card shops can run challenges or cups, or here's just a free play during the week that you can go to, so you're able to get that in person like community sense. Of play and, and competition that way.

David Hernandez: 32:43

Now how has your community reacted to y'all adjusting those content from strictly go to strictly go into now a mixture of the three. Have they been more receptive or have they been kind of pushed back?

Matthew Braeker: 32:53

I definitely believe that they've been very, like, receptive. the pushback that we've gotten has been primarily with the transitional, period where it was very chaotic and scattershot. in the episode, like it wasn't organized the way it is now. so I think like they definitely knew that we're like having growing pains and going through like an adjustment period, trying to figure things out. I think that it's opened up a lot of avenues, we've gotten a lot of people added into our discord that, have expressed like, Hey, like I'm wanting to be in your discord now, because I heard that you're getting more into VGC, more into TCG. So having the expansion of topics, I don't believe has hurt our podcast at all. it kept it fresh for us. And I think it was a nice breath of fresh air for like our listeners. And I think that, a lot of our listeners are a reflection of a lot of the people in our discord where they're not solely there for Pokemon Go. A lot of them, we found out, also play TCG competitively, or also played VGC. So, they actually get now more of an enjoyment of our pod, because now we're talking about more things that they like. People aren't just Pokemon Go fans solely, typically, they like other things about Pokemon. So it is not going to negatively affect our listenership by talking about things that I'm pretty certain that people are interested in.

David Hernandez: 34:24

In a weird way, it sounds like your listeners grew with you guys to where y'all both feel burnt out of the game and y'all kind of grow in on this new journey together. And I think that's very sweet to hear. I don't know. It just very touches my little warm heart over here.

Matthew Braeker: 34:35

yeah yeah. For sure.

David Hernandez: 34:38

Well, Matthew, you've been a wonderful guest. I do have one last question before we close this taco stand.

Matthew Braeker: 34:43

Okay.

David Hernandez: 34:44

You know, with BTW, y'all took it on TCG and VGC to include Pokemon Go. What do y'all hope BTW continues to grow and to become later on as y'all advance into this new, content that y'all have created?

Matthew Braeker: 34:55

So for me personally, I would like it to become a hub that people of all skill levels can, from a podcast perspective, listen and enjoy. That's the primary focus. From a discord perspective, I want it to be a place that people can come to feel that no matter what their skill level, it's okay to ask questions and it's okay to be where they're at. Feel comfortable reaching out to people for help and feel that the coaching or the advice that they're given in our discord is something that they find worthwhile and helps them grow on whatever competitive journey they're on.

David Hernandez: 35:41

Matthew, thank you for coming on the show. That is a podcast before you do go. If people want to check out y'all's content, where can they go? By all means, please plug away

Matthew Braeker: 35:49

You could search through us at beginner to winner PVP podcast. We are on Twitch. At beginner to winner PVP. We are on YouTube at BTW PVP official, and you can follow us at Twitter at beginner to winner PVP as well.

David Hernandez: 37:02

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