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 #35 - "The Ditto, The Myth, The Legend" ft. PVPSteve
In this Pokemon interview, my guest PVPSteve, who is a well-known player in Pokemon GO and a leading player in the competitive scene, shares his journey into Pokemon GO and experience with Pokemon.
During our conversation, PVPSteve shared his involvement with Silph Arena, a community-driven organization that hosts tournaments and events for Pokemon GO players around the world. The Silph Arena debut alongside Pokemon GO PVP around December of 2018. Before Go Battle League or Play Pokemon, the Silph Arena was a vital lifeline for Trainers to be introduced into PVP.
Finally, PVPSteve shared his experience attending Safari Zone Singapore, a massive Pokemon GO event that attracted thousands of players from around the world. He talked about meeting people and his hopes for someday attending a GoFest.
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 PVPSteve: Youtube | Twitch | Discord | Twitter
Connect with David Hernandez: Linktree
E-mail Me: asthepokeballturnspodcast@gmail.com
Join Our Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt
Hey!
Employee 2:Oh crap. You scared me.
Employee 1:Boss is gonna catch you. We're not working.
Employee 2:He's not gonna catch me. I'm staying aware of my surroundings!
Employee 1:Uhhuh.
Employee 2:I really am.
Employee 1:What are you listening to anyway?
Employee 2:I'm listening to a podcast actually.
Employee 1:Oh yeah? What kind of podcast?
Employee 2:It's a Pokemon Go podcast. It's called As The Pokeball Turns!
Employee 1:Pokemon GO? People still play that game.
Employee 2:Oh yeah. A lot of people do. We even have a PVP tournament this Friday at Torchy's. You should come check it out.
Employee 1:They finally added battling. Took them what? Seven years?
Employee 2:You should honestly download the game again. It's way different from when it first started and while at it, you should listen to the podcast.
Employee 1:Why? So I can get fired? Like you will be soon.
Employee 2:Whatever.
Employee 1:Pokemon Go. Huh? As the poke ball turns,
David Hernandez:Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns! Where the stories are real and people still play this game. The Silph Arena made its debut alongside PVP around December of 2018. Before Go Battle League, and even the play Pokemon Circuit, the Silph Arena provided ways for communities to experience and participate in both PVP and organized play. Every month a new meta was introduced to players that allowed them to learn new Pokemon, develop team building, and introduce many to the show six, pick three format that is used in the play Pokemon circuit today. For many season battlers, the Silph Arena was a way they learned many mechanics in pvp such as energy management, farming, safe switches, and many others. Keep in mind, this is before the influx of content that is available through YouTube podcast, Twitch, or even coaching sessions today. A lot of what was learned was through experiencing and sharing knowledge through Reddit and within your local community. Nowadays, most content creators cover Go Battle League or whatever Cup Metas Pokemon Go introduces. But there remains a select few who still cover Silph Arena's monthly cups. My guest is one of those creators with a passion for what Silph Arena can offer to the community. From New Castle Australia, here's his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. This is PVPSteve! Today I'm joined by the one and only PVPSteve! Steve, welcome to the show.
PVPSteve:So happy to be here. I was like, oh, man. Is he gonna set a new world record here? my longest Steve ever? Uh,
David Hernandez:I think I got all the ease in your name. I'm not too sure.
PVPSteve:I think you're the first person to ever pronounce it correctly. so thank you for that.
David Hernandez:All right. All right. I'm hitting all the points today, guys. Well, Steve, welcome to the show and I'm looking forward to just hearing how you got into Pokemon Go. So let's start with how we always start with every guest. When did you first start playing Pokemon Go?
PVPSteve:I was pretty late to the game, so back in 2016. Now I guess I should lay the context. I've always been a big Pokemon fan. You know, I, I think my first video game ever was Pokemon Leaf Green. I'm a pretty youthful figure, so I think I would've been like four or five or something, when I picked up Leaf Green. ever since then I've been a pretty solid Pokemon fanboy. granted, I'll admit, I'd kind of stopped playing the main series games after about gen four. I think Gen four was the last one that I really went hardcore into. And so when Pokemon Go was released in 2016, I obviously really wanted to play, but my phone was unfortunately, an ancient relic that could not run the game. So I just had to watch as everyone around me was playing. I remember I went to, I call it soccer. I think that football is the technical term in Australia. but I'm a soccer man. So when I went to soccer training one time and everyone just stopped doing soccer training for a bit just to play Pokemon Go for a bit. I think it was very early, so it must have been like a Pikachu, which people are still looking for. It was like, oh, there's a Pikachu over there. So the entire team just went over there and I was just like,"oh man, wish I could get in on that." Fast forward a couple years later, 2018, I finally had a phone that could run the darn thing and so off we went, could finally sort of join in the fun. I think I was spurred into it, because I saw a friend from high school playing the game and I was like, hey. Yeah, that's still going. I'll give that a go." So finally downloaded, got into it and said, I think that was about like September, 2018. So well behind the curve for the most part. But,
David Hernandez:That must have sucked not being able to play Pokemon Go right When it came out, like did you have any like bitter feelings seeing people play while you just had a watch and, you know, that meme where, uh, squid we're seeing outside in SpongeBob and they're just walking outside? Was that you?
PVPSteve:Oh, look, I think bitter painted a bit too negative a light, but I was definitely Squidward hanging out at that window, just wishing I had big part of the fun. I think I was still in high school, when it released and so we went on some, snow trip. As you can imagine, Australia, not a whole lot of snow around the country, so from my city, we had to travel hours to the nearest place that gets any snow and that was like a big trip to go and finally see snow. On that bus trip as we'd sort of make stops for the toilet and whatnot, everyone was like catching all these Pokemons and I think that was the the biggest point where I was like, this is like the perfect opportunity to be playing, everyone's doing it, and I was quite literally like looking at the bus window, like, yeah, that that could be me, but I got there in the end.
David Hernandez:Well you said you were a huge fan of Pokemon, so you started with Leaf Green and you said you stopped after Gen four?
PVPSteve:Yeah, so that covers like a full two generations.
David Hernandez:Right, right. And then you didn't pick it back up until Pokemon Go, I assume?
PVPSteve:Yeah. I think that I touched Pokemon X, but it wasn't a significant, you know, I definitely didn't play as significantly as other games and I think I ended up passing it on to my brother who purchased my whatever DS it was I Oh, cause it was three Ds days.
David Hernandez:Yeah, 3DS.
PVPSteve:Yeah. I've passed that on to him alongside the game and then Pokemon Go was the first proper return to Pokemon.
David Hernandez:What about now? Have you gone back into the main series now or are you just primarily still Pokemon go?
PVPSteve:So, I've really wanted to like so badly, but I've, I've sort of decided that I've put so much time into Pokemon Go as it is into, you know, Pokemon Go and PVP and making YouTube videos here or there that it's kind of like, I've decided that I might come around to it later, but for now it probably just doesn't fit in. Every time a new Pokemon came, comes out from let's go, I've been like, oh, this could be the time to jump in, this could be it. But then it just, doesn't end up coming, coming around. But I'm pretty confident that I'll get there someday. But for now, I'm pretty content with just Pokemon Go and I do a bit of Pokemon Showdown, which doesn't count as any sort of proper game, but that's just a little bit of fun on the side that you can pop up and do a little bit of a pretend VGC battle.
David Hernandez:Do you have a favorite Pokemon at all then?
PVPSteve:Oh, see, I'm a, pretty classic guy even though I didn't start in the actual generation one, I started in a remake of a Generation One game, so I'm still a gen one slave. I do love my ditto. I think Ditto is probably like my first favorite game.
David Hernandez:Wow.
PVPSteve:Yeah. Of all time. And you know, it obviously has the cheat answer of, oh, well, if Charizard is your favorite Pokemon that Ditto could, we could recover Charizard. Uh, so really isn't ditto better cuz it can be everything else. But I just always, I think I like the gimmick Pokemon because another one that I like is Shedinja because it's got that gimmick, if it can only be damaged by super effective moves.
David Hernandez:unfortunately it didn't come to go, but yes,
PVPSteve:Yes, well, both of those Pokemon have that one thing in common where you aren't able to use them in PVP, they're like on the very short ban list. I thought that might have been a third, but maybe it is just the two.
David Hernandez:is there a third one? I know, Ditto, you couldn't do it, and I knew Shedinja, I mean, well, could you use Shedinja, but it just dies?
PVPSteve:Well you can use it in like gym battles and stuff, but I think in PVP, I think it's banned. I think you can't actually pick it.
David Hernandez:Wow. Even if you just do it against friends?
PVPSteve:Yeah. It's just unpickable. I don't think anyone's, you know, waiting to be able to use Shedinja in PVP anyway.
David Hernandez:Oh! I am, I'm please make it workable. I would love to use Shedinja!
PVPSteve:It would be truly awesome.
David Hernandez:It would be. It would. Now, I think. Ditto the way it is is that really every Pokemon's your favorite because ditto can be anything. So really you're just saying you love all pokemon.
PVPSteve:I'm such a Pokemon lover. It's the classic, you know, I can't pick a favorite. They're all my favorites.
David Hernandez:There you go! There you go!
PVPSteve:I don't have a favorite child.
David Hernandez:Well, so you come back in 2018, cuz you finally had a working phone. So how did you approach the game before PVP?
PVPSteve:I was very much you know, I guess the perfect casual in terms of I was just looking at shadows, I was picking up to fill up my Pokedex, I was going for big cp cause I assumed that was most important. I was still figuring out what nice, great,and excellent throws were. I have these like vivid memory of having no clue what was going on because like some of the circles were green, some of'em were red. It would say like excellent when the circle was really small, but then it was also to like tell nice when you got it in the circle and it was big. And then sometimes you hit small and you hit outside of that main middle circle, and I was just so confused, it was baffling to me. So I was just figuring out the ropes, And very much like, you say before pvp, but PVP was released in December, so I only had like three months to actually get that pre PVP gameplay going. And it really was just the sort of early days, love of the game, catch Pokemon, evolve Pokemon to fill that, Pokedex, get enough candy, walk Magikarp for kilometers and kilometers, walked for ages for that Magikarp. I've still got that Magikarp didn't end up evolving him, just used it for the candy. And to be honest, I think if PVP didn't come along when it did, I probably would not be playing right now like, what, five years later or four and a half years later.
David Hernandez:Really?
PVPSteve:I think really PVP probably came at the perfect time for me.
David Hernandez:What was it about PVP that I guess got you hooked in?
PVPSteve:I think, well, I've always been a little bit competitive, not super competitive, you know, I'm no, I'm, no try hard, I've never been going for top of the leaderboards or anything like that.
David Hernandez:Have you ever trash talked somebody like just face cussed them out?
PVPSteve:I, I don't think I could. I don't think it's in my nature. I would just hide in the corner. I'll privately be like, yeah, and then I'll type in and I'll type in politely. Gigi's well played, right?
David Hernandez:There's a lot said in those ggs.
PVPSteve:Yeah, look, there's a lot of subtext here that, uh, I'm not sure comes across in text. You know, sometimes I'll do it on stream or something and then I'll be like, then, then you can tell. but yeah, otherwise pretty reserved. But I think it's just, so much more of a connected experience because when I first started playing, I, I didn't really know anyone around. There was a discord and I started to kind of meet people, but not really. It was just a very fleeting, attender thing like, you know, someone posted a raid and I'd sort of rock up and everyone else seemed to already know each other from playing for the last two and a bit years. and I was kind of like, okay, I see that there is some sort of social element to this game, but I'm not quite getting in there. And I think it was actually, it was in that first three months, before PVP because I live in Newcastle, which happens to be the same city as ZoeTwoDots. At the time, I went to some raid that Zoe was at and she had a switch cuz it was, you know, let's go time. So she was giving out Meltans and I was like, yes, I can finally get Meltan in my game. I can finally get Melmetal going!" So got that and then we all sort of talked for about 30 minutes and that was like my sort of proper introduction to the community which definitely helps some longevity even if PVP didn't come around. But with Covid coming around, that community as far as Raiding is long gone, but that's another conversation.
David Hernandez:Right, Now, you said you live in New Castle, right?
PVPSteve:Yes, yes.
David Hernandez:What is it like playing Pokemon Go in that area? What is it like to be there?
PVPSteve:So Sydney is the sort of, you know, it's two hours away and it's the hardcore grind spot, like hardcore, hardcore, you know, FleeceKing going up and down there. Spoofers are there all the time in every single raid,you can just minimax everything and Newcastle definitely has some spots that are like the hard ground spots. The Foreshore, is this famous walk that actually is Zoe featured in her video that she did on Trainer Tips' Channel, like years and years and years ago. She sort of gave a little bit of a tour of the New Castle scene and that was one of the big grind spots. And I think that back before remote raids and such, before Covid, the community was pretty strong like there was a lot of raids going on, there were bunch of discord channels for the different regions. The Newcastle Discord stretches a bit further than, you know, a bit of a local area cuz it, like, there's a lot of rural communities that are kind of like close-ish, you know, an hour away. And so that all just sort of got locked up into the Newcastle Discord. And so it was really good whenever you posted a Raid up, you could almost be certain that you're gonna get some people to come round. But, post Covid, it's a much more quieter scene. there's not as many get togethers and whatnot cuz pre covid there was also like this big, Christmas meetup that was going on. I sort of like, was just ready to go after sort of properly meeting everyone at the end of November in that raid. I was like, okay, I'll come along to this and I think it was like a couple of days after PVP was released. That was sort of the introduction to everyone in the Newcastle scene to PVP, so there was kind of like this, off the book, open Great League. It was actually go battle league style battles, just blind, no teams or anything, just pick three, and run it at each other. And I'll tell you right now, I sucked so bad. I was like, I was using, I think I was using Ente and I had a Gengar hanging around, all single moved, all probably the completely incorrect moves. But it was a good time and it sort of got us going and started off, I mean, on a pretty good footing to head into Silph Arena in January.
David Hernandez:is that how you, started getting involved in the self arena cups at that point? You just started going, attending'em when they started taking place?
PVPSteve:Yeah, so I mean, following that December one, which is a bit of a success, January came around with the first ever Boulder Cup and unfortunately, I was a little bit devastated. The first one that was held. I couldn't attend. I was busy that weekend, couldn't come around, but because there were enough people that sort of came that first one, they were like,"oh, let's host a second one." And the second one happened to be like really close to my house like within a kilometer. Like I could walk there, easy stuff. And I was like, all right, I can finally get involved, go in, and, you know, I was looking up infographics and whatnot. There wasn't really any details or anything, So it was kind of running in blind. it was interesting, to be honest, because no one else knew what they were doing, I ended up doing all right like, I think I finished two, one. There were only eight of us there and there was only two people there that knew how to play PVP properly, one of them certainly won with their double scam re Strat that was allowed back then. But, I was definitely just a lucky fish back then, I think.
David Hernandez:Well, so what's interesting is that right when Kingdom Cup came around, that's when you started doing content creation, or you kind of started doing, you would show your battles and then you would do a voiceover, right?
PVPSteve:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. So, my history with video games tends to be that I'll pick it up, really suck, and then I'll be really good, really quick. But I'll plateau and everyone else will as they're sort of on the slower trajectory just surpassed me by far. And that's sort of how it happens in Silph Arena as well cuz Twilight Cup came around. I attended, I didn't have anyone to practice with. There was a, game press infographic about the Twilight Cup in February and I just like picked a Pokemon from each of the slots. And there were only five sort of slots on their graphic, so I picked one of them and went,"oh, I guess I'm done," and just like threw in a random Spiritomb as a sixth pick that didn't matter at all. And I ended up sweeping that tournament, 4-0. That definitely was the moment that like the competitive switch in my mind like sparked and went, okay, we are playing this properly now. Uh, we we're doing this thing and then, and then Tempest Cup came around and I, I won one of those, kingdom Cup came around. It was probably after the Tempest Cup win that I was kind of like, Okay, I feel, you know, I'm not gonna have imposter syndrome about putting out some content here or there." because I didn't have people to practice with, it really was the case that I was relying on other people's content. So I was relying on Purple Kyogre, who was, showcasing his battles at the time. I was really relying on the game press infographics. And so that sort of pushed me to kind of go like, I want to provide that level of help to someone else that was also in my position that also didn't have people to practice with and it just purely relying on internet. In those early days, like there was not a lot of content, so you could very easily watch the entire amount of, Tempest Cup content and then be done. There was a bit of a, a lacking, so I gave it a go, I recorded some battles, I did some commentary. I go back and watch that first one sometimes, and it is just the most awkward thing like that, that kid recording those battles is so uncomfortable recording his own voice. I remember I was like sitting in a chair, I've got my laptop on some books on a pool table and just like recording straight into the laptop microphone. Look, it was pretty rubbish quality, but it gave a starting point. You know, the most important thing, and I tell this to, you know, when people ask sort of how to get involved making videos and stuff. The most important start point is that you are gonna suck it first, but just do it anyway. Like it's going to be some atrocious content. But, you'll learn lessons along the way and you get the benefit of picking up those lessons early when there's not very many people watching your content.
David Hernandez:That's the, what's the word I'm looking for? It's the rite of passage-
PVPSteve:Yeah!
David Hernandez:Every content creator. You get to hear how bad you suck the first couple times every single time.
PVPSteve:Yeah, and then like you watch one today and it's like, oh, the confidence is there. You figured everything out. You a lot more comfortable in recording and doing all the rest of it, speaking, you know, way that's gonna be, you know, imprinted on the internet forever. It comes quick!
David Hernandez:So you kept going over the Silph Arena you branch off more nowadays besides Silph, right?
PVPSteve:Yeah, I always held the feeling that you should make the content that you actually want to see, that you enjoy making. And for me, Silph Arena has always been way more enjoyable than Go Battle League. I guess there's a lot more frequent meta updates, there's a new meta every month. It's a lot more personal, so you're actually batting real people, you're talking to them, whether it be in person or through messages. So for me, Silph Arena has always been the big thing. When Go Battle League was introduced, that was obviously the point for everyone with a brain that they would stop making Silph Arena content and they would start making Go Battle League content because the audience is so much wider. You could just see the views absolutely skyrocket on those GO Battle League videos. I did make one or two go Battle League videos and I decided it wasn't for me, this isn't what I enjoy. It becomes the point where I'm forcing myself to make content and I don't really wanna do that, so I'll just keep making Silph Arena content and I'll do what I enjoy cuz at the end of the day, this isn't some, attempt at a career. No one's making a living off of Silph Arena content, that's for sure.
David Hernandez:Right.
PVPSteve:But it was what I enjoyed doing.
David Hernandez:What is it about Go Battle League that turned you off compared to like Su Farina?
PVPSteve:I think it's just that there's a little bit less of point. I feel like Silph Arena has this overarching narrative where you sort of play in these monthly cups. In past seasons that went into regionals and Continentals, there was world championships and like you can still look back at like, you know, season two World Champion, SpeediestChief, is still like, you know, a title that sort of carried around, whereas Go Battle League just didn't have that impact. People will say, oh, I, I hit legend in season 7, 8, 9, and it's like, all right, it doesn't hold that same sort of gravitas to me. It feels a little more mechanical just without the actual personal touch. I think it's the personal touch and the personal connection that really sort of makes Silph Arena just that much more special to me than Go Battle League. Go Battle League, I'll still do it from time to time, but it's a little bit more of an extra time commitment. I'm already doing X amount of tournaments, x amount of battles in Silph Arena. I'm battling factions now as well and so Go Battle League is sort of an extra thing that you have to do, so it's sort of a third rung on the totem pole as far as importance is concerned.
David Hernandez:Do you hold the Silver Arena on the same level as the play Pokemon Circuit as well? Like they both do in person, they both do the show six, pick three format. Do you kinda hold'em in the same regard?
PVPSteve:Yeah, I mean, it, it's an interesting thing because obviously Play Pokemon is the major stage, like it is Pokemon Go getting that sort of massive spotlight on it. It's really gathering everyone, all of the Silph Arena players, all of the Go Battle League players coming out and attending these play Pokemon events. You know, I had never got the chance to travel for any sort of big Silph Arena tournament because they weren't in Australia. I think the biggest one here was maybe five rounds, because Brandon Tan was passing through Sydney. Some people in the local area sort of flocked to that, but no one was flying anywhere. There were all these, like mega tournaments were starting up in the Silph Arena in the end of 2019 before the pandemic came around. Which were these, you know, massive nine round tournaments, 200 people, 300 people, 400 people coming to these huge events. And then Covid hit and the rollout stopped. I never got the opportunity to get that sort of large scale tournament vibe from Silph Arena. I've had the opportunity to attend a couple of Play Pokemon tournaments now and the feeling is just incredible. Like it is so awesome to be at those events, to get that like massive community vibe, where everyone's coming together. And I don't perform well, it's not about the battles, it's not about the performance, it's about the people. It's getting there and being able to meet everyone, and just have a good time, you know, go for a night on the town after, after the battles are all done, it's just a really, fun time. I still think that Silph is incredibly important, especially all of the Asian communities where they don't have a single play Pokemon Regional, like there is just not a single one being hosted there. Hopefully they get some, but the best they can do is fly to Australia and for those people who can't afford to do that, Silph Arena sort of continues to fill that gap, which I really do appreciate as well.
David Hernandez:How about in regards to, let's say the meta, because Silph, they've obviously gotten diverse with the Metas, they do bans, they shake it up a bit. One of the criticisms to play Pokemon right now is that the meta really hasn't changed much compared to last year. Do you think play Pokemon could maybe do something like Silph does and do like some kind of ban list to maybe spice it up? Or do you think the way it is is just how it's always gonna shake out and it's more of changing the moves to really change up the meta?
PVPSteve:It's an interesting thing to think about because every three months they obviously make those changes to the Go Battle League. They have the Go Battle League move updates every season, so the next one will come in, there'll be a move update and then three months later, and that's sort of their way of adjusting the meta, trying to make sure that things aren't always too OP. Brings some sort of variety when a new Pokemon is released, there's some sort of variety there, and I feel like almost if they went to some sort of ban list or they had some sort of special restrictions, maybe move towards some sort of special meta. It runs the risk of bringing some calls to unfairness, I feel like this player got to play in this meta where they could run all of these strategies or is this one was just purely luck based and so these regional winners don't matter as much. Which I suppose you could say similar things about the different Go Battle League metas for the different seasons. But I think for now it's probably safer to just stick to open Great League, make the move updates every three months, introduce new Pokemon as we go.
David Hernandez:Let's, talk about factions real quick. How long have you been part of factions and what's your team?
PVPSteve:So I've been playing from the beginning in Thundurus Down Under. It's a bit of a collection of like Australian battlers and New Zealand battlers. So even though like down under is in the name, it's sort of Down Under and friends New Zealand sort of understanding. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Being adopted, the Australian ecosphere. We'll take you on guys. It's all good. We started off pretty strong. I think we got up to. Diamond tier, which was the highest at the time. You know, since then we've sort of just slowly watered down as we've become a little less competitive and a little more fun. For example, one of our players, Yusei who's a Twitch Streamer, New Zealand guy. He's been running all shadow teams for the last couple weeks and he's won most of them. So we're sort of gracefully sliding down the rankings, but we we're having fun with it.
David Hernandez:What are the benefits of people joining a faction? Like what do they get out of factions that they may not get out of G B L or play Pokemon?
PVPSteve:I mean, again, it sort of comes down to personal connection, but in a very different way. So instead of sort of everyone's getting together for this tournament and sort of hanging out and battling each other, it's a very collaborative environment where you can sort of all talk about the strategy. You know, we're like, oh, I'm thinking about running Poliwrath in the lead. And then someone else will pipe in and say like, oh, but if they run Tropius, it could be a real problem for you, so maybe you consider running Poliwrath in the back and then maybe Gligar in the lead? Like, not only is it you're getting to hang out with people that you're sort of friends with, but you are also learning, you're actually becoming a better PVP player by sort of getting these other insights directly into your game, as sort as sort of like an inbuilt coaching session. You know, people pay for coaching sessions with all of these great battlers like Kieng, ThoTechnical, but it's sort of like, a bunch of friends that are all sort of trying to help you succeed. And it's just a very unique feeling that you don't get from Go Battle League or play Pokemon or even like the mainline Silph Arena, I guess single player Silph Arena where this is the multi-player option. It's a very unique vibe that isn't captured by very much aside from the odd team tournament that pops up here and there, that sort of run grassroots style,
David Hernandez:Do you think that it could ever make, the same stage as Pokemon Go is going on a play Pokemon circuit at some point in the future?
PVPSteve:It's weird cuz like obviously, you know, the video game and the card game have been going on for way longer. Right. And video game has the option of having the sort of, you know, two people on a team sort of running their own, each player has one Pokemon, two people on the other team have another. But that sort of never breached into the competitive circuit as far as I'm aware, the sort of play Pokemon circuit. And it sort of makes me think that even though it's probably not gonna happen, especially because it's not like you are playing the same game. It would purely be racking up points instead. We can't run double battles in Pokemon Go PVP where I've got a Charizard and you've gotta Swampert and we're both fighting these two Pokemon, Choose which Pokemon to throw the charge attack out, that sort of thing. Um, be a very complicated mess. I'm not sure if they could ever figure that one out cuz I'll click my hydro canon at you and then, be delayed for a while whether you deciding whether you wanna shield or not. It'd be a very complicated, uh, complicated game. I'm not sure if they'll ever get there with how many problems there are in regular PVP, but I have a feeling that it might stay single player for probably Pokemon Go's entire run I'd say.
David Hernandez:Now I've always been told you've been the man who works behind the scenes at Silph Arena, you're the one who makes things happen, You're like the godfather of Silver Arena.
PVPSteve:I've heard these accusations.
David Hernandez:Are they accusations? I think they'd be compliments.
PVPSteve:I, I, I have become like very involved as sort of time's gone on. I've always been sort of a little bit of a, a man with, fingers in a lot of pies. Like, you know, even now I'm a tournament manager over at GO Stadium, a part of the Silph Road team that does the challenges for the trainer card badges, like the defeat Sierra with only 1500 CP down Pokemon, that sort of thing. That's always been a lot of fun to me, again, a little bit competitive. But like Silph Arena has just sort of been like, obviously I was creating content from season one and I kept making it through season two. SosaFlo, back in season three, he was given the opportunity to sort of do an announcement stream for the new Silph Arena meta. it was all gonna be released on his channel, it's gonna be like a two hour stream, we'd, reveal the meta for the first time, and then talk about it. He invited me to be on alongside PVPoke and SpeediestChief. And so we sort of got on there and talked about it all. I made a meta simplified infographic for the stream in MSpaint, threw it on there, and as this gone on, I, I kept making content. They started reaching out to me for, sort of, contenty stuff. So like, I was the host for the Silph Arena 2021 World Championships, and 2022 actually. I sort of unofficially took over a lot of the planning content stuff, so like they do FSPN streams, so I essentially, they pick a factions bout and they gather all of the battles. I say they, it's, it's me gather all of the battles from two teams. And then, someone puts on a live stream editing it all together for the APAC region, for European region, north American region, and Latin America region. And so I sort of unofficially started taking over a lot of the responsibilities in that department, I suppose, and just organizing these streams, organizing what the World championship stream was going to look like with some very talented people. You know, Miss Mystic running production every year, actually fantastic, stream production. She's in the industry now, she's, got an actual job in the field, so really, really proud of her.
David Hernandez:She's actually getting paid.
PVPSteve:Yeah, very much so. But we, we get her back for Silph Arena World Championships for the grassroots love. I cannot confirm how much my involvement is, but I definitely have a lot more involvement now than I sort of have over time, but it's sort of like naturally grown. I guess it's sort of like I've just slowly been helping out with this little help out here, do some help here and it, it is sort of just that case of there's fingers in a lot of pies. I just like to help out and I really love the Silph Arena and I sort of, I wanna do anything to make sure that the Silph Arena sort of is able to keep accomplishing what it wants to accomplish.
David Hernandez:It sounds like it wasn't thrust upon you, but you took it upon yourself because you wanted to see Silph Arena succeed by any means possible. Is that fair?
PVPSteve:Yeah. Yeah. It very much hasn't been thrust upon me. In some places it was a little bit more, Hey, can you deal with this? Right. Um, but for the most part it's been very, very much on my sort of taking more stuff on to help out with.
David Hernandez:You hosted both the 2021 and 2022 Silph Arena. This past 2022, we actually had APAC be a champion.
PVPSteve:Yes.
David Hernandez:VroomVroomPow. Did you have like, some pride just being able to witness that and running that stream?
PVPSteve:Oh, it was, it was definitely so awesome to see cuz like, I think APAC's definitely slept on very often as far as region with talented battlers. And that's very much because the Silph leader boards are always packed out with European battlers, North American Battlers.. it's a little bit of a joke, but when there was move denials and stuff going on, where North Americans had an advantage over European battlers cuz they were closer to the servers in PVP, APAC was just like the bottom tier, like we had the worst. We would lose fast moves to everyone, everyone else would get fast moves on us. There was sort of like a hidden underlying subtext of, we had a little bit of it disadvantage up until basically this world championship where VroomVroomPow won, which then spawned jokes of, well now that move denials are off the table, APAC's coming, coming up now. But no, it was really awesome to see sort of that APAC join the table and actually the first World Champion not from North America as well cuz the previous two were Dune Bug and SpeediestChief. So actually not even USA, so taking it straight out of USA, out of North America. No Europe. Straight into, uh, straight into APAC. Definitely proud of my man, VroomVroomPow. Pizza Man always delivers!
David Hernandez:He was, and that stream was fun cause I was actually there and the chat was lit up with all the people cheering for VroomVroomPow and he always delivers and so much green content for days on that chat.
PVPSteve:Oh, I was having the best time and like while the stream was going like in the background, I was like, you know, doing Ms. Paint bad sort of Photoshop sort of like, VroomVroomPow, his head on top of like a man delivering pizza and. I was having the best time watching all of that unfold. I, I love the chat in the Silph Arena Worlds thing.
David Hernandez:That's awesome dude.
PVPSteve:So much fun.
David Hernandez:Well, you speak so highly of Silph Arena, like what do you hope it can become moving forward? Like what are your hopes for it?
PVPSteve:Yeah, I think that Silph Arena had a little bit of an identity crisis, you know, when Go Battle League came out because it was like, oh, well now there's sort of an official way to battle in Pokemon Go, is Silph Arena dead? Is Silph Arena gonna die? Is this the end of Silph Arena? Against Go battle league, it very much cut out its cornerstone as it is for in-person battles, it is like getting together, it is community, meeting each other online or in-person and battling with real people with unique metas that are a lot of fun. And then obviously Play Pokemon come out and it's sort of coming in on Silph Arena's territory a little bit more in that it's doing in-person tournaments, it's getting people together for all of these really fun meetups. And I think that what Silph Arena has is the community spirit. That it's always this, you know, grassroots organization, I suppose that's running these monthly metas. Battle towers are back. There's some like pretty good prizes involved as well, so there's definitely gonna be a lot of reason to come to these mega tournaments. I'm excited to see how that sort of unfolds, whether it does get that same pull as it used to as a play Pokemon tournament. But I think that in the short term, you know, in the next like couple years, I think that Silph Arena is just gonna keep doing what they're doing and it's gonna be a really fun place for people to sort of like express their creativity in terms of, like the meta team are a bunch of real people who are like putting these metas together every single month. They're putting them together for the Silph Arena. They're putting them together for Factions, they're putting them together for Continentals, and Worlds. All of these unique metas that just this small group of people are like putting together constantly. It's sort of gives them an outlet to be creative, it gets graphic designers to be able to, like, it makes up, up for the silver arena. It's got that such pure grassroots feel, that it's gonna be hard to shake. Even if one day, if Silph Arena happens to hang up its hat for the single player experience, it goes, look, thanks for all the fish. I think that factions is gonna continue as a really important foothold for years to come because it's so unique and so much like it's just not covered by Go Battle League or Play Pokemon and quite frankly, I don't think that, Niantic or Play Pokemon are gonna have anything in the sort of group team format, anytime soon, if ever, going forward and Silph Arena is always gonna have a place in the community for that.
David Hernandez:Well, let's keep moving forward. I know you actually got to attend a Niantic event in Singapore. What was it like at the Safari zone?
PVPSteve:Oh, it was seriously, like so awesome. So I had tickets booked to attend, US Go Fest last year. Well, actually two years back I wanted to go to Go Fest in America in 2020. Obviously, for some reason that event did not take place. Uh, so
David Hernandez:yeah, something big happened, I think. Yeah, I can't remember what, it is kind of fuzzy at the moment.
PVPSteve:I, I know back of my tongue. it's there somewhere, but, something happened that didn't happen. 2021 didn't happen either, and 2022 was gonna be the first big return to GoFest. I'd booked my tickets, I'd booked my, accommodation. I was ready to go. And then like three days before I was set to leave for Go Fest. I tested positive for Covid and I was just like, oh, no, no. And Australia was still taking it somewhat seriously. Not as seriously as they had been for the first two years but it was still very much, you know, Stay put, you gotta going anywhere, Buster. Unfortunately, had my hope stripped away from me. So Singapore Safari Zone was my first actual opportunity to attend an Niantic event and sort of get involved in that sort of regard. And it was just so much fun. I mean like Singapore was like blistering hot, like I'd step out the door of the air conditioned hotel and just instantly be drenched in sweat. But it was,
David Hernandez:That's saying a lot coming from an Australian, I'll be honest.
PVPSteve:Oh, well, Singapore's got the, like, unique advantage of being like so much closer to the equator than us. Which is not something that's held by many people. Singapore is right smack bang on there, perfect for the humidity, they've really cooked themselves up well. But I
David Hernandez:You heating up Steve, you heating up.
PVPSteve:Yeah, exactly right. It was, I mean the, the temperature wasn't so bad. It was just the humidity, the sweat of it all. But the actual event was like really well put together. And to be honest, it's sort of weird cuz I'm not much of a shiny hunter. I'm very much, as I've said for the last however long this has been going, I'm in it for the people, for the connection, for the battles, that sort of bit. And so I was kind of there for the people more so than like, you know, I was getting some shinies. I don't remember what shinies I got. I'm sure that I got some special Singapore Pikachu shiny, but that wasn't what mattered to me. What mattered to me was sort of being able to meet a bunch of people. Like, uh, Debbie Pebble is an Australian who lives on the other side of the country to me, which is like a nine hour flight or something, something ridiculous, like Australia's a big place.
David Hernandez:Oh, wow.
PVPSteve:But she lives all the way over there and I've been friends with her online, but we'd never got to meet before. And so by both going to Singapore actually got to meet with her for the first time. Obviously all of the content creators there, all of the, you know, like trainer tips and the like. So it was just like this hodgepodge of being able to meet all of these really cool people and just have a lot of fun going around the park with everyone. And then just hanging out for the weekend, you know, going out, getting dinner, watching the, drone show. Oh my gosh! The drone show that they held at that safari zone was absolutely amazing like it was kind of like a firework show, but instead of fireworks, they had drones that were like, you know, making Pikachu and then Pikachu would do a little dance in the sky and then it would turn into Corsola and then it would like, it was just the incredible thing. There's all those videos on Twitter of these, you know, big old drone shows that are for whatever sports events and whatnot that do all these fancy things. Oh, they had one at the Olympics, I'm pretty sure. And I've always been like, yeah, you know, it's probably just as cool watching the video as it is in person, but it's just so incredible to watch it happen in person and like, watch all of the like animations going on just in the sky in front of you. It was just wild. From that experience, I'm like, yep, I like drone shows now. Drone shows are awesome and if you ever get the chance to see a drone show in action, especially a Pokemon one, it's well worth it They had like a poke ball, like spinning, I think it was like a 2D image, but like the poke ball was like turning, so they had all of the drones perfectly placed, so it was all like, they'd turn on and then disappear at the right point. Like incredible!
David Hernandez:If somebody wanted to go to Safari Zone, would you tell'em to go?
PVPSteve:Oh, absolutely. I'm sure GoFest is like that, but brought to another level, I can't attest to that, maybe this year I'll be able to covid willing, um, but, you know, knock on wood, but it's just like they're really well put together events and Niantic as much as they, you know, obviously receive a lot of flack for many things in this game. One thing they know how to do is to host an in-person event like that. They definitely know what they're doing and it's so much fun being able to meet everyone from the community as well. I really look forward to the next opportunity I get to be able to attend something like that. Maybe it is Go Fest. We'll just have to wait and see.
David Hernandez:Now, I know you haven't had a chance to attend to Go Fest, so what are your expectations?
PVPSteve:I mean, seriously, like the first thing that comes to my head, like, if I was going to U.S GoFest, I'm like, oh my gosh, I get to meet like, Matt, PVPoke, I get to meet SpeediestChief. It's very much like straight to the people, rather than attending this Niantic event, getting to, play Go Fest. It's more of like in my head as, oh my gosh, I get to go to this place that all these other people are also coming to, so it's really just an excuse. You know, they could just have some random convention and it'd be the same thing would be like, you know, all of the people packing into the one spot. It was like, yes, that is what I'm looking for. The actual Go Fest experience, that's just sprinkles on top.
David Hernandez:Now you know what you need to do this year? If you, if you get a chance to go to go fest, you gotta just quarantine yourself for the entire month before we trip. Be like, I'm not getting Covid this year.
PVPSteve:This is my year. You're not getting me now. Covid.
David Hernandez:There you go.
PVPSteve:He's like, well, you know, I maybe I'm, I'm, I'm hoping, I'm hoping that I'm just like super immune now because, uh, back in, uh, at New Year's Eve, I was at a, at a party that was like this, you know, I was having some very significant contact with two people who had covid and I was like, oh, okay, here we go. I'm gonna, I'm gonna test positive and I tested every day for weeks and it just never came. And I was like,
David Hernandez:Wow!
PVPSteve:"okay, maybe, maybe that last Covid experience was enough. Maybe I, I can ride it out to go fest now.
David Hernandez:Well, Steve, you've been a very good guest. I've enjoyed talking with you. I have one last question before we close this taco stand.
PVPSteve:Uhuh.
David Hernandez:So what do you hope for yourself? Like what do you want to continue doing with Pokemon Go? Like, what do you see yourself doing?
PVPSteve:Look, I, I think the, the dream for me, I guess if you could call it, is that I really want to, I'd like to be able to cast a play Pokemon event. That's sort of the current goal, I suppose, in the Pokemon Go scene and that's, that's one goal. Obviously, I really love Silph Arena and I'm gonna keep supporting it in every way I can. I'm gonna keep making Silph Arena content, keep making the meta simplified stuff every month. Do the tournament recaps or the rest, get involved, host tournaments. But on the casting side, I'd really like to improve myself, to the point where I'm sort of play Pokemon level. I watch back some of my casts sometimes and it's like, okay, I see that I stutter on some, I say I'm a bit too much here or there. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I tend to talk a little fast. Um, so, and sometimes. Sometimes, uh, and you may experience similar, my mouth moves a little bit faster than my brain does, and so I get to the end, get to the end of when I, what I was ready to say, and then I'm like, hang on, you know, let the brain catch up here and I'll throw in an, um, and then continue going.
David Hernandez:Steve, you like the Australian me version basically.
PVPSteve:So... As The Pokeball Turns: Australian edition, coming soon!
David Hernandez:Upside down!
PVPSteve:I'll put in that like, you know, upside down text generator thingo as the actual podcast title.
David Hernandez:There you go.
PVPSteve:But, but yeah, it's, I know that I've got some work to do to improve myself, but I'd really love the chance. I mean, the last two Australian regionals haven't actually had a stream at all. z I have offered, I've been like, Hey, I'll, I'll put this entire production together, but no bites yet. But hopefully, we get some streams going and I would love the opportunity to cast at some point. But, we'll see how we go. I'm, I'm happy. Happy where I am at the moment, regardless, but that would just, that'd be some lasting on top.
David Hernandez:Let's play a fun game call pretend real quick, you get the letter or email or however they play Pokemon context. You, I don't know. And they invite you to cast a play Pokemon event. Who's your co-host? Who's alongside You?
PVPSteve:Can SpeediestChief be there? Please, please. I,
David Hernandez:There you go, SpeediestChief!
PVPSteve:I mean, it's my idol. I love that guy. He's so amazing.
David Hernandez:Well, thank you Steve, for coming on the show. If people want to connect with you or check out your content, where can they check you out? By all means, please plug away.
PVPSteve:Oh look, I mean, for the most part you can probably just type PVPSteve into Google and it'll come up. But you know, it's PVP Steve on YouTube and then like all the other things are like, so hecky, it's all numbers. It's like Twitter has to be pvp. Steve one, Twitch's pvp Steve seven, because I wasn't able to pick a creative enough name. I mean, the thing is I wanted my YouTube name to be my in-game name, which is that Steve with 10 E's v e seven. But YouTube does not allow you to have a YouTube name that has more than three of the same letter in a row. And I was like, that will not do not good enough. Get that out of here. On the spot I came up with pvp, Steve. I wish I came up with something more unique so that there was less numbers involved. Uh, but yeah, it's all out there. The other thing of course is thank you for listening to another episode of As The Poker Ball Turns. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. If you wanna support the show, consider becoming a Patreon by going to patreon.com/as the poker ball turns. Or by sharing the podcast with your friends and family end. David will see you next time.
David Hernandez:Wow. Word for word. I'm impressed.
PVPSteve:Did I nail it? Did I nail it?
David Hernandez:Wow. Yeah, you did. I'm like, holy crap. He's really gonna say the entire thing.
PVPSteve:Hang on, hang on, hang on. Just, just need to get this on. But here's a sneak peek of the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.
David Hernandez:Wow, Steve, I'm impressed. Somebody finally turned the tables on me, and of course, it's the Australian version of myself. I am so proud right now.
PVPSteve:I'm happy to oblige.
David Hernandez:Uh, definitely. For those listening, I'll make sure to link everything for Steve down in the description of today's episode.
PVPSteve:But here's a sneak peek of the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.
