As The Pokeball Turns
A Pokemon interview podcast where Pokemon Trainers share their experiences from the world of Pokemon! Each journey started with a choice and are as different as the number of Pokemon. Listen to the different ways Pokemon Trainer's interact with the Pokemon franchise ranging from Pokemon GO, Pokemon Battles, Pokemon TCG, and much more!
As The Pokeball Turns
TRAINER'S EYE #25 - "Meowth Bringing Back Community" ft. StarFire24
In this Pokemon interview, Starfire24, a Pokemon GO trainer and community builder, shares his experience with Pokemon GO and how it has brought his community together. He talks about how he has been able to build and re-build a community with Pokemon GO and shares a personal story on how his community united together for one cause.
Starfire24 discusses how the game has changed since its launch and how it has affected the community. He also shares his perspective on how to build and maintain a strong community with Pokemon GO.
Throughout the episode, Starfire24 emphasizes the importance of teamwork and how it can lead to success in the game and building a community. If you're a Pokemon GO player looking to build a strong community or looking for tips to improve your gameplay, you won't want to miss this episode with Starfire24.
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 David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
Join Our Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt
My name is David Hernandez and you're listening to As The Pokeball Turns! Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns, where we interview people around the community on how their Pokemon Go journey started, where it has been, and where it is currently going. The word community is thrown around a lot in everyday discussion, but what is community? If someone ask you to define it, how would you? What emotions, if any, stir up inside you with that word? One of the best ways I've heard it defined was said by Toby Lowe. A community is a group of people who share an identity forming narrative. In other words, we bond with people who share similar stories to us, but the parts of the story we form bonds with are so important that it defines who we are as an individual. These identities come in many forms from geographic location, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and even a game like Pokemon Go. People who play Pokemon go find their identity in game mechanics like Shiny Hunting, grinding, PVP, Wayfarer, and even spoofing. Regardless of your approach to the game, we are all part of the Pokemon Go community due to how much value we place on this game as our stories intertwine on the bigger stage we call life. In this episode, my guest shares his experience with the Pokemon Go community from barely knowing anyone to eventually becoming Raid leader and how he approached building back up his community post 2020. From Carrollton, Texas, here is his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. This is Star Fire 24. Today I'm joined by one of the Raid leaders from Carrollton, Texas, Starfire24. Welcome to the show.
Starfire24:Thanks for having me.
David Hernandez:Definitely And you know, let's just go ahead and dive right into it. When did you first start playing Pokemon Go?
Starfire24:All right, so it came out on Friday. At the time, I didn't have to work and the wife was about 36 weeks pregnant, give or take. So you can imagine that she had like a little soccer ball essentially stuffed underneath her shirt. So she got up to go to work that day and the kid was about two weeks from being born. So that morning I wake up and while she's getting ready for work, I'm grabbing my shoes, I'm downloading the app, I'm grabbing some Poke snacks, some water, my bag, and out I go. So you know, I walked around Carrollton for a while. I didn't know, nobody knew what was going on, I mean, there was just you go out and catch Pokemon, right? Isn't that how it work?.
David Hernandez:Yeah, everybody was everywhere. Did you go to a specific spot?
Starfire24:All right, so that morning, I really didn't, I just kind of walked around the neighborhood, but that evening I went down to, Jimmy Porter with my brother, and there were a lot of people running around Jimmy Porter Disc Park. And everybody would just go running over there to try to catch the Meowth to running over there to try to catch the Bulbasaur, running over there to try to catch the Pikachu. All that stuff. It was crazy that first night or two.
David Hernandez:Definitely. It sounds like it. So you said that you played right when your wife was pregnant, correct?
Starfire24:Yes! So that weekend we take my brother and the wife and we go on down to the arboretum cuz our thought is there's gotta be a lot of Pokemon at the arboretum, that's just, that's just a place to go. So you have to imagine she's sort of waddling behind us while we are running around like a bunch of idiots looking for Squirtles at the arboretum.
David Hernandez:Was she playing as well?
Starfire24:Not at the time, no.
David Hernandez:What did she think of the game at the time when you first started playing it?
Starfire24:She just sort of rolled her eyes and boys will be boys. I mean, she's like two weeks from giving birth to our son, so she kind of has other things on her mind if you will.
David Hernandez:Definitely. I think Pokemon Go would probably be the furthest thing from her mind if I happened to be carrying a kid about to be birthed.
Starfire24:Exactly. But I had to get as much in as I could cuz I knew once the little man was out, I mean, it's gonna be hard to get out there and get some Pokemon in.
David Hernandez:When the child was born, how did your playing for Pokemon Go change from before your wife gave birth to after?
Starfire24:So obviously the first, several months to, I'd say at least six months, I mean, I got a little bit in here and there, but I certainly wasn't a player, if you will, in the local community. You know, every now and then I would try to sneak over there to some of the local gyms, see if somebody was doing a raid. But obviously the main focus was the kid and the family and the wife and doing everything we needed to do. I would say play was definitely a minimum, that's for sure.
David Hernandez:Right. And what team did you end up choosing?
Starfire24:Valor! I went with the red.
David Hernandez:Any particular reason why?
Starfire24:Charmander, baby, Charmander,
David Hernandez:It was just because of the Charmander
Starfire24:Pretty much that everybody knows he's the best starter.
David Hernandez:Uh, you might get some disagreements there, but that's another podcast for another day.
Starfire24:Fair enough.
David Hernandez:So it sounds like you were familiar with the Pokemon franchise before Pokemon Go. How familiar were you with Pokemon in general?
Starfire24:So I was playing back in like 96, when it came out. My buddy had blue, I had red. We were there from day one when it happened; in fact, I'll tell you a quick story about that. In 2000, they had the Pokemon Stadium World Tour and they actually showed up at, Arlington in Arlington Mall. And my buddy, my brother and myself and my cousin all packed it up to go down to check out Pokemon Stadium. And while we were there, we got to, do some, battling against other trainers and we also got an official Mew for Pokemon. And I personally got an official Boulder badge from Nintendo.
David Hernandez:Really?
Starfire24:Definitely. It was just the world tour, they were showing it off. They were traveling literally across the country, and they just happened to stop Arlington. It felt good to have an official one at the time. That's really the key there, because they even gave you like a certificate and everything.
David Hernandez:Do you still have it by chance?
Starfire24:Yeah, I'd have to dig it around. I really don't know. I know I have the Boulder badge, but I don't think I have that certificate anymore. I have to look.
David Hernandez:That's awesome, dude, like you got to go there, you got to get an official Mew while all of us were looking under trucks, trying to figure out all these weird glitches at the time.
Starfire24:Yep. I remember all the little glitches and the missing, no glitch around the shore, I think it was.
David Hernandez:Yeah, that's what it was, yeah, you would have to go to Cinnibar Island, I believe and do some weird, convoluted stuff
Starfire24:I remember it. I was there too. I remember the missing, no glitch was a pretty big thing. I don't think I ever actually heard the rumor until later on about the under the truck thing. I don't think I ever heard that rumor.
David Hernandez:So after, uh, gen one did you continue to play Pokemon?
Starfire24:We actually imported the, Japanese version of, silver and gold.
David Hernandez:Really?
Starfire24:So you gotta imagine trying to play that, but it's not in English, and I don't think that, I don't say Japanese.
David Hernandez:You were just too impatient to wait?
Starfire24:Pretty much, yeah, that was not gonna happen. That was not an option.
David Hernandez:What about, further on other generations did you keep playing?
Starfire24:So I definitely played, God, what was after that? It was Emerald and Ruby and I did play Diamond and Pearl, I had Diamond, my buddy on Pearl, and then I kind of, petered out there and didn't really play much for black and white and x and y But then I did pick it back up for, sun and Moon.
David Hernandez:Okay. So you skipped about two generations, it sounds like?
Starfire24:Yeah. A couple generations there. I think when those came out, I was probably finishing up college, starting to get a job. I mean, all that good stuff.
David Hernandez:Now, you talked about the buddy who played with you. Did he play with you throughout the entire time up until you stopped playing?
Starfire24:Definitely! And when we picked it back or when I picked it back up, he was right there to get the opposite version that I got. I would remember going over to his place and we would have to trade some of the exclusive ones, you know, the Machamps and the Gastly and the, Alakazam and Golem, I think it was.
David Hernandez:Yes.
Starfire24:And so he always, gets the opposite one that I get. So like I'm getting Violet and he's getting Scarlet.
David Hernandez:Is that intentional or is that just kind of y'all pick one or the other?
Starfire24:It's intentional that we get the opposite. It's more matter of who says what they're getting first than the other person gets stuck with the other
David Hernandez:I was gonna say like there's only so many games y'all can choose between them
Starfire24:Pretty much. So whoever is slow to the draw gets what's left over.
David Hernandez:Does your friend play Pokemon Go as well?
Starfire24:He does, but he moved up, into Denton and there just really isn't a big community for him, so he doesn't really play as much anymore. Every now and then, I mean, he's been known to meet us in Addison and stuff like that, periodically to hang out for a little bit.
David Hernandez:Since you're familiar with the Pokemon franchise, do you have any favorite Pokemon?
Starfire24:I was, all about Meowth. I just liked the way he was, a bit of a jerk in the cartoons.
David Hernandez:he was very sarcastic, if I remember correctly.
Starfire24:extremely, and he let them know that he was the brains of the bunch, every chance he got.
David Hernandez:Although it was heartbreaking, I don't know if you remember this episode. Do you remember the one where he tried to get back with this female Meowth?
Starfire24:Yeah. Where you like, it's like Go West Young Meow, or something like that.
David Hernandez:Yes. There we go. That one. And then he got beat out by a Persian and yeah,
Starfire24:I remember that one what we said. In fact, our wife memory serves me, they had the cinematic showdown with a charge at each other, and they both swipe and they're both left standing and then the Persian topples over. I remember that episode.
David Hernandez:It's like the old west kind of style, if I remember correct. I think that's what it is, right?
Starfire24:Definitely.
David Hernandez:So you talked about how your kid, was eventually born, you had to take some time off from Pokemon Go. When did you come back to the game?
Starfire24:once he started getting a little bit older and it wasn't such like a rush, rush, rush. You know, because when kids are born, I mean, it's like everything's just like on a two to three hour cycle. But once that gap really started to get wider, the wife and I were always looking for some stuff to do together and she knew I liked Pokemon, so she's like,"well, I guess I'll download it and let's go catch some Pokemon."
David Hernandez:It was just that easy. Y'all would just, go on walks and stuff like that.
Starfire24:Definitely, I mean, sometimes granny would be over to watch a kid for a little bit and we would just slide out for a couple hours. Partly just to have some time away from the kid and just quite frankly, do something if you will, as a couple. And while we were out there, you know, we kept some Pokemon.
David Hernandez:how familiar is your wife with the Pokemon franchise?
Starfire24:Not nearly as much as I am, that's for sure. I mean, she definitely watched the cartoon but in terms of being really, really into it, I'm not even sure if she can name all 1 51 from the first one. I don't think she played like gold and silver and all that stuff after it.
David Hernandez:That's fair. Do you remember the first time y'all two played together?
Starfire24:You know, I really don't, I mean, I just remember she sort of surprised me one day like,"Hey, let's go get some Pokemon."
David Hernandez:Oh, so it was her suggestion?
Starfire24:Well, yeah. I was like, we need to play Pokemon, same as right now, so let's go. I'm like, okay, let's do it.
David Hernandez:Did you ever ask her like why she wanted to play Pokemon?
Starfire24:I did and part of it is, Pokemon, especially Pokemon Go is a great way to bring people together and she thought that it could be something that we could do together. And so we do.
David Hernandez:And in your opinion, do you think that's kind of brought y'all closer together?
Starfire24:It gives us something, a little more commonality, if you will. You know, it gives us something to look forward to do together and it definitely brings us a little bit closer together.
David Hernandez:How often do y'all get together to play Pokemon Go?
Starfire24:Her and I definitely take advantage of as many of the community days as we can. We definitely try to take advantage of as many of the, special ray days and stuff that they have. It's not uncommon for us to drop the kid off at Granny's for six or seven hours on Saturday while we do community day and then maybe catch a few more Pokemon before we're having like a nice dinner together.
David Hernandez:That sounds like a very good way to tie it all together. You drop the kid off, go play some Pokemon, go together and then have some dinner with the kid.
Starfire24:Exactly.
David Hernandez:Do y'all have like certain goals when it comes to playing?
Starfire24:Right now it's a race to 50. She has the experience, but she doesn't have the 999 excellent throws and she's not good at doing that. I will have the 999 excellent throws real soon, but I don't have the experience. So it's a race to see, can I get 20 million experience before she gets about 400 and some odd, more Excellent throws.
David Hernandez:Wait, so let me make sure I understand correctly. Your wife, who had very little interest in Pokemon, compared to you, she has more experience than you?
Starfire24:You would not believe how she goes on Reddit just to find friends for the best friend bonuses. She recognizes that's one of the best ways of getting experience, in fact, when Celesteela was a thing, we did not go the Pokegenie route because I saw that line. She went to the Reddit route and there were people shuttling very regularly on Reddit and here I was getting like three or four invites a night.
David Hernandez:Really three to four a night?
Starfire24:Definitely. I mean, we found this one lady, uh, I don't know actually know who she is, but, she was in Australia, I think it was, and she added us as a friend, sent us a couple of invites, and then like the next night, just out of the blue, she sent us a few more invites.
David Hernandez:Now I gotta ask you this, does the kid play Pokemon Go yet?
Starfire24:Well, he's six and I'm not gonna lie, man, the thought of putting like a phone or something in his hand just to watch'em drop it and break it. I, I, I don't know if I can do that yet. I really don.
David Hernandez:But hey, you can get him, get him like a cheap foam, like just one with a bunch of cracks already.
Starfire24:I could do that. I will tell you this, he's all about Pikachu. He has like a little Pikachu lamp in his room. He has like a little Pikachu, jacket, and he always likes to wear his Pikachu shirts on the weekend.
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh. You're gonna make the Pikachu fans scream in joy and cuteness. That's so adorable.
Starfire24:Oh, he loves it. I think part of it is just, he's just so bright and colorful as well, so it really attracts his, attention.
David Hernandez:Do you and your son bond over Pokemon? Like, what do y'all do together?
Starfire24:We haven't gotten to the point where him and I can like, play together in terms of the game. Maybe that's something I need to start actually kind of looking into. But in terms of what we do together, we don't do that much Pokemon stuff related yet.
David Hernandez:He's just not old enough to understand it?
Starfire24:He's probably right at the cusp. Maybe it's time to start, uh, introducing him to the old school cartoons first.
David Hernandez:There you go. Give him the first episode of Pikachu, where Pikachu is a little bit of a brat.
Starfire24:That's what I'm thinking. Maybe we need to start right there with the first episode.
David Hernandez:So you talked about how you and your, wife started playing Pokemon. How did you get involved with the Carrollton Pokemon GO community?
Starfire24:You know, it was, dumb luck. We happened to be by the gym. I don't even remember who the raid boss was, but in my brain I thought to myself,"if I stand here long enough, they will come." And they did. So I ran into, one of the admins and he hooked me up with the Discord.
David Hernandez:And then you just started showing up to like random raids and random events?
Starfire24:Well, yeah. so at the time, you know, the Carrollton group was pretty big and they were always out raiding. You know, I started checking the raid chat, people would be like,"Hey, you know, we're doing a raid train, come on down, let's do it." So I would start doing it. I would definitely say some of the people I met would be like, MarkyMark was always a big player. Halfwaydecent was always a big player. I did run into Rodrigo a few times. There's been a big shift in people cuz people have moved and adulting has gotten in their way too.
David Hernandez:How's the Carrollton community changed or grown over the years?
Starfire24:Covid really shut it down hard. In fact, I think Covid shut down a lot of raids hard. Raid hour and raids in general were pretty dead. So we went from being a pretty active community to not a lot going on. But one day I was like, it's time to bring raid hour, so I dug it up from the grave and decided to revive it.
David Hernandez:Did a lot of people show up for the first time after post covid for the raid hour?
Starfire24:It was a bit of a rollercoaster. I mean, it's been, I guess roughly two years, I guess as I revived it and we had some people turn out, and then people wouldn't, and then they would, I mean there were times when it was just like one or two of us out there, and then there were times when there were like 10 of us out there.
David Hernandez:And did y'all just stay in y'alls cars or did y'all keep the six feet still or
Starfire24:Six foot for sure. And I always told people, I'm like, look, if you, if you wanna wear a mask and you feel comfortable wearing a mask, then do it. If you wanna stand six feet apart, do it. I mean, I, want to catch some Pokemon, but I do care about your safety and health. So I would say at least for the first six months, I would say pretty much everybody had a mask and everybody kind of stood you know, several feet from each other.
David Hernandez:Well, let's fast forward to this year. Are people still willing to come out or is it still kind of difficult to get people out for raid bosses?
Starfire24:The last two months have been actually really good for turnouts. Really good. I feel like we've let people know that we're back, baby, and all you gotta do is show up and you're in. You know, we've had a couple people that have had birthdays, so I'll bring like pokey snacks for them or, or go have a drink afterwards. You know, we've had people celebrate, births of a kid or whatever, you know, we'll bring'em a Pikachu blanket or people getting a new job. Whatever it is, we try to celebrate the good and the bad.
David Hernandez:In what ways do you try to celebrate? It sounds like poke snacks, so is it like homemade desserts or
Starfire24:It could be anything from Pokemon theme Oreos, which for the record are a thing. Um, yep. They're they are definitely a thing.
David Hernandez:Gotta eat'em all folks.
Starfire24:Oh, definitely. Anything from that to just regular cookies. sometimes I could get, this trainer, uh, Valkerie to bring out nice fresh baked cookies. Always a crowd pleaser there. Just whatever we could bring.
David Hernandez:In your opinion, like why are things like that important?
Starfire24:Community? I mean, Pokemon is a communal game. It's meant to be shared with people and it's meant to bring people together, I think. So when we're out there, we're not just sketching Pokemon, we're talking to each other. You know,"how are you doing? How's the work last week? Hey, whatever happened to that thing you were talking about a month ago? How did that work out for you?"
David Hernandez:So it sounds like y'all really invest in each other and like whatever's going on in their lives, y'all really genuinely care.
Starfire24:I try my very best to do that cuz I know life gets in the way, I know adulting gets in the way, I know, you know, you can't make it every week, but we're always there for you if you need something and sometimes you just need to get out there for an hour, blow off some steam, relax before you go home and finish up your day.
David Hernandez:In your opinion, what does it take to have a community in Pokemon go?
Starfire24:Well, one, you gotta have somebody who's willing to, set up events, Like, let people know we're gonna be there. All you gotta do is show up. You gotta have people who are willing to put on pants and actually show up as well, cuz with the remote raids, I saw a bit of a trend where people didn't wanna put on pants anymore. They just,"Hey, send me a remote invite." Remote raids in my opinion were both good and bad for the game. I mean, it's good from the standpoint of you're still able to continue playing, but it's really, really bad for the community aspect of it. I think that if remote rates have not ever been a thing, I think we'd have better turnouts. I understand that some days you just can't do it, life happens, I get that. But I do think some people let them do the groundwork and I'm just gonna sit here on my couch. I don't want to feel like I'm doing all the boots on the ground while you just sit on the couch and let me do all the boots on the ground.
David Hernandez:It can feel like that sometimes, especially when you're physically driving to these raids and we can't predict why people do remote rates.
Starfire24:And some of those reasons are very legitimate.
David Hernandez:Remote Raids have definitely changed the game in some ways, both good and bad in regards to, it was good during our time to where we couldn't get together and it helps us get certain Raid bosses even helps us get regionals like Celesteela or Uxie or Mesprit.
Starfire24:Agreed. I've always thought to myself, I wonder how much money these remote Raiders are spending, like, per month on the game.
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh. They've gotta be making millions easily.
Starfire24:Me personally, I, I don't want to give Niantic that much money.
David Hernandez:Well, let me ask you this, this is the last one I'm gonna ask about Remote Raids and then we'll continue to move on.
Starfire24:Okay.
David Hernandez:Do you believe that remote raids can coexist with in-person raids and still have people come out?
Starfire24:Well, we do it every Wednesday night, so I'm gonna have to say yes because that's exactly how it works out for us.
David Hernandez:And is it just because y'all have just such a good community that y'all can both help people who can't make it for whatever reason, and people who want to have the in person that's there?
Starfire24:Yeah, I mean it's one of those where we've been doing it long enough to where I think we have a good core group of people who understand and quite frankly enjoy each other's company. So when we're out there every Wednesday night, I think those core people understand and appreciate that this is how you build a community.
David Hernandez:Now you said before we came on, you had some kind of crazy story. So I'm here, I'm interested to hear it.
Starfire24:I think it's somewhat of a legend around here in Carrollton or something, I'm not really sure. At least, I think it is in my brain. There was a player and we're gonna change the names to protect the innocent, if you will. There's really nobody innocent, but still. So you have to imagine this guy, we'll call him James and his wife Jesse, so they're a team rocket. But he had this thing where he had to have the gyms be all Valor. So every night, like clockwork, he would drive around, kick everybody out that was not valor and the community was quite frankly, frustrated with it. They hated the fact that they couldn't get any coins at all. And it got to the point where if you drove around, like it'll 10 o'clock to kick a valor out after he had done it, he would get back in his car, go back to the gym and take it right back over. So a group of us, we'll call them, Ash Brock, Misty Dawn, and of course myself. We decided to take matters into our own hand, if you will. So we launched what we, referred to as: operation, make Carrollton great again. So what we did is, cuz I'm also valor, I couldn't really kick him outta gyms. But since they were not Valor, they could kick him outta gyms. So what we would do is go out at night and start clearing out all the gyms, which would of course prompt him to get up to try to take him back. And while he was over here at, the Pewter City gym, trying to take that over, we were over at the Cerulean gym kicking that one out. And then he would drive over to the Cerulean gym and by then we were over there kicking out other gyms. And then he would drive over there and we'd be back at Pewter City, I mean, it was just a giant game of us just driving around all over the place, kicking him out of all the gyms and quite frankly, trying to send a message that this is not good for the community guys, because people are not getting their coins is a bad thing. One person hogging, one team, hogging up all the gyms is not good for the game or community either. So eventually we get to the point where, I don't know if it's paranoia, I don't know if it's, um, I really don't know what to tell you what was going on or going through his mind, but he would actually sit there in his car and like physically try to guard the gym and like wait for us to show up. I remember one time I was coming home from a Mavs game and it was like, I dunno, like 10 30 a night or something like that. And we happened to be passing one of the gyms, and I look over, I'm like, is that this car? And I, as I look over there, he's like, tucked behind the gym, if you will, trying to like hide around the corner, waiting, I don't know to surprise us? I'm not really sure what his plan was, to be perfectly honest, I don't know what he would've actually done if we had actually shown up to that gym physically. I really don't quite know what he was thinking, I wish I could tell you more of that, but he was too obsessed. He was taking it too far. Bottom line, taking it too far. So one day and this is where things start getting off the reservation. He contacts one of our members who he's pretty sure is involved in it. We'll call him Ash. And he tells Ash, I know you're involved in this, and if you don't stop it right now, I am going to have the District Attorney open up an investigation into this."
David Hernandez:Oh my gosh, really?
Starfire24:I swear to God. Couldn't make this up. And Ash was like, what are you talking about, dude, seriously? What are you talking about? I have no idea what you're talking about." He was like,"oh, well that case you, you'll have anything to worry about. But if this does not stop right now, I am going to open up an investigation, I am going to have Niantic subpoenaed for IP addresses, and I am going to have the district attorney prosecute you under Daniel's law. Now I know what you're thinking. What is Daniel's law? Daniel's law, refers to cyber bullying, and it relates to high schools. So it actually is not applicable here because he is not a high school student by any stretch of the imagination, um, and I don't think anybody would call this cyber bullying.
David Hernandez:Might be the other way around, to be honest.
Starfire24:It could be. I don't know. So Ash was like, dude, you're crazy, I don't know what to tell you, dude. You're crazy. But if you're gonna threaten me with a lawsuit, we don't have anything to discuss at all. Obviously, we were never worried about this happening because one, you don't tell the DA to open investigation, the DA decides to open up an investigation. And two, the cops are just gonna laugh at you if you go to them and say,"Hey, I want to have this guy arrested. So, as we continue operation, make Carrollton great again. It finally starts getting to the point where it's not enough for Carrollton to be red, it has to be his accounts. So he has between him and his wife, Jesse and James, have at least six Valor accounts. Whenever there was someone that was non valor, they would go over there, kick him out, fill the gym up immediately. When I was in a gym, he would go over there. Apparently he had a secret seventh account, which was a Mystic, which to be honest, struck me as odd because he was Valor all the way. He had a tattoo. He had a sticker on his car. I mean, he was valor all the way, but he had a secret mystic account. Apparently he would kick me out, put his mystic account in, and then kick himself out and then fill the gym all the way up. And at this point it was just like, all right, dude, you're taking us way too seriously. Way too seriously. All right, so fast forward it's about 9:30. I kinda look at the clock and I'm like, yeah, it's about that time." I mean, you can set your clock to it. Gyms are getting ready to get flipped again. And sure enough, I opened up my app and I'm looking at the couple of gyms that I'm in, and sure enough, it starts to get kicked out and sure enough, it turns blue and sure enough it turns right back red. So it goes red, blue, red in the span of a minute. So I'm like, you know what? It's time to do something. So I go on Discord and, and I'm like, James, what are you doing? And he's like, what are you talking about? Don't be stupid with me, dude. You know what I'm talking about? You're kicking me out with your blue account so that you can fill it up with your red account. He's like, No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I'm like, what are you talking about, dude? I'm literally sitting here watching you do it. Literally. And of course he denies it. And then eventually he is like, well, I've only done this like once or twice. I'm like, no, you haven't, dude. I've counted them. You're at least up to four or five. You've done it more than once. Okay. I don't know what your problem is, but this has gotta stop. And then his wife, which I will give Jesse credit, she is 100% ride or die. Gets on Discord as well and she starts defending her man. She seems to think that Pokemon Go is like a turf war like you gotta defend your turf, if you will, from the mystic and the uh, um, um, oh God, we're the yellow people. Um...
David Hernandez:instinct.
Starfire24:Oh yeah. Whoever those losers are. That's right. Instinct. That's right. The instinct. People. You gotta protect your turf buddy. You gotta protect it. and then at this point, Ash and Misty and Brock and Dawn all show up on Discord as well. And it just exploded. I mean, it explodes. Misty and Dawn are like, dude, what is your problem? You got issues, man. His wife's defending him, it's a turf war, you know? Other communities, they don't get at us when we, go to take over gyms there, and I'm like, well, this is not good for the community. This is not good for anybody. You are hogging up all the gyms. Jesse, you can get coins for yourself. I guess I don't know and we've gotten to the point where gyms are not getting flipped regularly anymore because people have stopped doing it, and that is terrible. So he actually invites me to come down to the gym and I'm like, I'm thinking to myself, He wants to throw hands at the gym. Does he really wanna do this? Now, there was no scenario where I was gonna do that because the victory that I was looking for was not to be found at a Pokemon gym. The victory that I was looking for was for this to stop and never happen again. So fast forward to, couple days later. James posts his apology, if you will, and where he admits basically that his behavior was not good for the community and that he was gonna try to do better. For the record, he never tried to do better, but he never took over all the gyms again, ever, ever again.
David Hernandez:Wow. So you got to somewhat of a resolution it sounds like. So does he just keep to his own area?
Starfire24:So my understanding actually, and this is probably unrelated, this may or may not be unrelated, but he has since actually moved and so I don't know the circumstances of why he moved, but he moved away.
David Hernandez:Well, that makes things a lot easier for you.
Starfire24:It does. I mean, cuz he probably lives or used to live, I guess maybe five minutes from where I live.
David Hernandez:So how did the plan first start?
Starfire24:Okay, so I remember talking to, some of the, local Raiders while we were out there just doing our raids. And he was actually, James himself was actually a big Raider at the time too. But he started to become a little more and more of a recluse because I mean, he had six accounts. What did he need us for? Right? But the other Raiders would talk about, Man, who is that guy? I, hate that guy. He just, every time I put myself in a gym, I get kicked out in 10 minutes. I can't get my coins. I can't do anything anymore. It sucks and it's annoying. I hate it." People were kind of starting to say that and that's when I start talking to Ash, Misty, Dawn, and Brock and them, and I'm like, guys, let's do something about this." And they're like, well, what do you have in mind? let's take back to gyms. Like, okay, what the heck? Let's do it. Why not? And so, I had my map up and you know how you can see like little sparks of the gyms getting attacked? You know, I could see them attacking one of the gyms and then they would move and then I could see the gym they just took over getting attacked so I could tell them,"all right, he's over here at Pewter City Gym, so go on over to Cerulean and take that over." So I would help coordinate it, if you will. Frankly, people were tired of his shenanigans, but nobody was doing anything about it, if you will.
David Hernandez:What did it feel like for people just to kind of unite against this one person?
Starfire24:I will tell you, I definitely made friends that I would not have made otherwise. I mean, we were cool, don't get me wrong, but uniting against for a common cause definitely brought us a lot closer.
David Hernandez:It sounds like it cuz usually there's people who want the old gym system back and stories like these are like, you really want stories like these to be around everywhere cuz the old gym system was way more intense and people couldn't participate for this obvious reason.
Starfire24:And it's not a good system when one person is dominating literally all the gyms in the Carrollton area and does everything in his power to hold them and so that nobody else can get a single coin.
David Hernandez:Right. Were you worried at all about this guy reacting the way he did?
Starfire24:I didn't want to actually have like a person to person with him. I wasn't sure how he would physically act. Now, to be perfectly honest, when he asked me to go down, I thought to myself a couple of things Here are the scenarios I could play out. One, he wants to throw fisty cuffs. That's not the win that I want, and that's not the win that I need. Two, and this is, I think, the more likely scenario. He tries to grow me into starting fisty cuffs so that he can then go to the police. And that's not a win for me either. I didn't wanna find that out.
David Hernandez:Well, thank you for sharing the crazy story. This is the last question I have for you. With everything you've done in Pokemon Go, what do you consider your biggest accomplishment?
Starfire24:I would probably have to say bringing back Raid hour. I am of the, opinion that the Carrollton group was on its way down because covid really shut a lot of things down. I don't know if anybody else would've done it, but one day I was like, let's bring it back baby. Let's bring it back.
David Hernandez:If other people were really struggling to get people out, like what would you tell them? Like is there something that people can do to encourage people to come in back in person?
Starfire24:The first thing I would tell them is it probably took me the better part of two years to get where we're at. It is not going to happen overnight. So the first thing is consistency, consistency, consistency. People have to know Wednesday night Raid hour is going to happen, rain or shine. Raid hour is going to happen and if you want be a part of it, just show up and you're in.
David Hernandez:Thank you for listening to an episode of As The Pokeball Turns. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. Feel free to follow me on all my socials by clicking the link in the description of this episode. And I'll see you next time! Here's the sneak peek for the next episode of As The Pokeball Turns.
