TRAINER'S EYE #97 - "Showcasing Pokemon Fandom" ft. Pokemon Crossroads

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Pokemon Crossroads, a Pokemon Trainer who owns a website dedicated to showcasing the Pokemon Community ranging from podcasts, artwork, and so much more.

Pokemon Crossraods discusses his extensive involvement in the Pokemon community, including organizing tournaments for TCG, VGC, and GO. He talks about his love for Pokemon, starting from his childhood interest in a banned episode featuring Porygon.

Eventually, Pokemon Crossroads became interested in the Pokemon TCG to the point of becoming a judge and event organizer. He provides insight from transitioning from Pokemon TCG competitor to now Pokemon TCG judge and event organizer!

Finally, Pokemon Crossroads also shares insights about the fan-centered focus of his website and the impact of the Pokemon GO game on the VGC scene. The conversation offers a deep dive into balancing his passion for Pokemon with his commitments to fostering community engagement through Pokemon.

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

Connect With Pokemon Crossroads: Website | Twitter

Transcript

Pokemon Crossroads: 0:00

I, Pokemon Crossroads, and this is my Pokemon story.

David Hernandez: 0:42

Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we interview people about their experience with Pokemon. My name is David Hernandez, and today, I'm joined by the owner of Pokemon Crossroads, Mikey. Mikey, welcome to the show.

Pokemon Crossroads: 0:55

Hi, nice to be on! I'm usually typing, not talking, so, this is new.

David Hernandez: 0:59

Definitely, and, you know, you wear so many hats that people are going to find out, you know, you're the owner of Crossroads, you do Judging in the Spare Side League for TCG and VGC, right?

Pokemon Crossroads: 1:09

Yes, and GO tournaments too as well.

David Hernandez: 1:11

Oh, you run GOATS, so you do the whole three.

Pokemon Crossroads: 1:13

Yeah, I, I do whole driving circuits at my, uh, Puganda League, so.

David Hernandez: 1:17

Wow. how do you, like, balance the time to do all that stuff? Because that's a lot to handle.

Pokemon Crossroads: 1:22

By not playing the game. I mean, usually when I judge those events, I tend to be on the side running The computer. So I don't get to play the car game as much as I'd like to. But I usually try to. Has schedules saying okay first month is this game tournament. There's only so many sundays in a month. So I try to condense them to be like certain sundays Meanwhile, we have a torment every sunday, but I have other League leaders to help when those torments run busy with other torments But it's like crazy enough to do r3 them and then hey, that's my fault for Doing too much

David Hernandez: 1:53

Well, it begs the question. So what made you want to start hosting these tournaments? Cause a lot of work goes into them and you don't get paid. I assume, right.

Pokemon Crossroads: 1:59

I get compensated, there's a difference. One means I'm not an employee. The O one means I am employee,

David Hernandez: 2:04

Okay. So you get something out of it.

Pokemon Crossroads: 2:06

yeah, I get, I get this of it. Um, especially since for the last few years I've been doing that to regional judging, but they compensate us there. So it makes sense that I compensate the people who help me. I don't get to play the card game as much as I like to though. I But, how I got into it is back in 2011, when I started, playing the card game, I saw this guy who was running the pre release events. And I thought, oh, that'd be cool, dude. I would love to do one of these things, because it's so much fun. People come to them, they have fun, they're happy, and go, okay, I like to spread happiness as well. So, I went to my local league, and from there, I was really good at being there every Sunday. And to the point they say, hey, we want you to come as a professor. And then from there they say, hey, we want you to go ahead and, win tournaments. And the program became more open with who can win tournaments. So from there it was like, to the point where like, now I win the league, instead of being one of the league assistants. And now I get to win the tournaments every Sunday, and get to do this and that. Like, it started like, hey, we need somebody to do TCG tournaments. Now we need someone to do the video game tournaments. Hey, friend, I'm doing Go. Can you do Go tournaments now? Yeah, I can do that.

David Hernandez: 3:04

You know, for me, it reminds me of when I used to play basketball and I'd always watch people playing. I'd be a scorekeeper. I always had that itch of wanting to be on the court. Do you have that similar kind of feeling when you're a judge and you see people playing TCG, like you rather be at times you wish you were kind of the one playing?

Pokemon Crossroads: 3:20

Sometimes, but, I think everybody who got to my position eventually had this one spot where they were really competitive at one point in time. And then they decided to step back to give back to the community or something like. I think I did go through Windows in the early X, Y phase. Like I want to be really competitive. But I was having bad tournament experiences. I wasn't doing well and I had a nasty feeling like I wanted to do better. out of that tournament. I decide I said by going do I like this feeling I have or like I get really competitive. I get really down on myself, but makes me happy to do right. And what makes me happy is to won these tournaments for other people to have fun and like enjoy themselves because I really don't like that feeling that Mikey gets when he gets upset at like a bad news streak for that day. It's like I get this game but not good enough to play it and if I do want to play it then hey maybe I have a short tournament day so I can say afterwards I could go play with my regular league or sometimes we have a regular Sunday where like hey there's no tournaments that I need to win officially. So I can run my official tournaments and then say, yeah, I'll get to play today. So, yeah, I try to find times for me. I could play and not feel bad. Like. I wish I could play and if I want to, I live in 1 of the biggest cities in the United States where we have, like, over 20 leagues. So, if I really, really want to play. I could just go on non Sunday and say, Hey, I hear you're playing Pokemon today. Let me sit down and play some Pokemon today. if I get an itch, there's places to get an itch scratch.

David Hernandez: 4:36

it sounds like TCG is kind of your way to compete in Pokemon. What is it about TCG compared to the other ones like VGC and GO that got you hooked and kept you interested for so long before you became a judge?

Pokemon Crossroads: 4:47

That's hard. I guess it's the card actions. It's something different. VG is like the more exciting game to watch. but to play is kind of like the same thing. Like, you got the regular main stage. It's like, Oh, this team has a Rattlesnake Urshifu, or this team has Pokemon, they do this. With the TCG, there's a bit more freedom on like, what the cards get to do, because like, Urshifu does something different in the TCG, than compared to the video game. or let's say, um, your favorite Pokemon doesn't do good in VG or in GO, but has a niche in TCG. For instance, like one of my favorite cards is Kling It's not great in VG or Go. But at one point in time, it was a good card in TCG. So it gives a chance for different programs to do different things, or has, gives them a chance to shine, do something special. Like just a different outlet. There's different outlet to play with these Pokemon and characters that you like, that you may not see often in any of the other games.

David Hernandez: 5:40

No, it makes sense because, you know, with VGC and Go, usually there's a confined meta within maybe 10 and that's usually how it is for not only just one generation, but multiple generations. But with TCG, because y'all have rotation, because y'all have, you know, the cards aren't restricted by their stats, but restricted by whatever, Game Freak decides to create for the TCG, you get to see different Pokémon shine that you normally wouldn't in the other branches.

Pokemon Crossroads: 6:05

First day also like it changes every three or four months because the new set comes out. VG and go tries that every couple of months they change it to like they treat some moves They do this and that to make So I'm putting on a bit better or worse sometimes or video game. They had a different regulations as well. And they change every three or four months too. And they try to do that, but it seems like the TCG does it better. Like, well, I'm going to just go ahead and put a new bunch of new cars out there. Some of these cars would be great. Some of these cars are going to make some decks better. So it's always changing. There's like, you can't take a break. If you're playing this game constantly, you can't take a break And so it's really interesting. it is a money drain sometimes'cause you gotta buy cars, but if you do smartly you won't spend too much money. And the, and the tcgs like the cheapest of the main tcgs out there compared to magic. And you, so

David Hernandez: 6:51

amazing to see how much experience you have with all the different parts of Pokémon, but where did it first start for you? Like, what was your first experience with Pokémon?

Pokemon Crossroads: 6:58

I would say this is a unique one because I found out about Pokemon via science magazine for kids. And they were doing a report on the Porygon seizure incident that happened in Japan. And I was like, oh, I want to see this seizure incident happen too. I mean, I didn't want to get a seizure myself, but, so decided to watch it. I found out where the anime was being shown on TV, so I watched the anime. I begged my parents for like a, but again, hey, give me a game boy for my birthday and, uh, give me a Pokemon game and they gave me a Pokemon pinball. It's like, I didn't get the real Pokemon RPG screens. I got Pokemon pinball instead.

David Hernandez: 7:29

Oh, wow. That's a unique one.

Pokemon Crossroads: 7:30

Yeah, but eventually I did get Pokemon Red and then like, I got Gold version, then I got Ruby version. Never got any of the N64 games. I just continuous got each game from each generation to like, until now. Like, I just never stopped. Watching the anime and playing the video game. I mean I collect the cards as a kid but I never played until like our college like hey I got some disposable income and somebody wants to play the card game so I could play a card game with them and eventually I just branch out from there to be mostly involved in the card game now. But I do play the other facets of the game with the video game and go now

David Hernandez: 8:02

I'm intrigued. So what was it about that article about the Porygon? For those who don't know. So basically there's a ban episode of Pokemon to where Porygon was causing seizures over in Japan. Never came into the States. I don't believe, I don't think he ever got an English translation, but what was it about reading about that, that intrigued you to dive into Pokemon? It's such an interesting way to get hooked into this franchise.

Pokemon Crossroads: 8:22

It's just that A cartoon, like, if you're like 9 or 10, you'd think cartoons was a thing you saw, right? But the fact that this popular cartoon, in a different country, did something as menacing as putting so many people in the hospital, it's like, it's a morbid curiosity to me. It's like, how did this happen? Like, how does TV, you know, a pastime you enjoy as a kid, and many others do at the same time, put so many people in the hospital? Like, meh. What caused it? What's the science behind that?

David Hernandez: 8:49

Right.

Pokemon Crossroads: 8:49

And like eventually, you know, you find out it's the flashing lights. But like, at that time, I found Pokemon going, okay, what scene in this show, in this episode, caused this to happen? Like, I didn't know anything about, like, how did it happen, which Pokemon, like, heck, I didn't know what episode it was. I thought it was just like, a random episode of Pokemon that caused it. So I had no idea. But I wanted to know, like, what could be the cause of it. Was it this glint? Was it this thing? And, I mean, it turns out, if you don't know the full story, it was like, missile hits. Pikachu hits the missile with a thunderbolt, flashing red and blue lights happen. And apparently, those flashing red and blue lights in that certain parent just does something to your brain and just, bzzz, saves your time.

David Hernandez: 9:20

Yeah, because I remember I finally watched the episode when I went to college. And I don't remember what got me on there, but I was just curious because I was like, it was that episode I never saw, and it was the Safari Zone that I never saw You know, the one where Ash got all the Tauros. I finally saw the Porygon one. I'm like, I was doing the same thing to you. I was trying to figure out, pick apart which scene, like, which one caused the seizures? Because, it didn't affect me, obviously, but it was just so intriguing.

Pokemon Crossroads: 9:40

Yeah, and I don't know what they did, it's something in the lung mind of a child that, it's not, because it's not fully developed, it does something to them. As adults it doesn't affect us adults as much. I mean you could tell probably Reddened is a bit more now. That's it. Yeah but still it does say to the children's mind and saying that like the adult my senses is more developed It does the chances of it happening to adult is less likely I mean, I don't know if the version you saw they slowed down a bit. I I don't think I ever re aired but I know Some places may have some I heard this is all not hitting like deep rumors, but I heard like now i've been uploaded the unofficial sites It's been slowed down, but so it won't happen again. No, no, I know I know now. No,

David Hernandez: 10:19

could just call it, we can call it the distortion world,

Pokemon Crossroads: 10:21

Yeah This is social work. No,

David Hernandez: 10:22

social world. They have some copies. If you know, you know,

Pokemon Crossroads: 10:25

Yeah, but no, no now I confused him with something else. I I used to be really into anime at one point in time, too but uh But they had them to the older episodes to get the older episodes in order to reduce the same thing happening again You Similar effects where you have flashing lights have been slowed down a bit. It won't happen again on reruns. The Porygon episode is forever banned, but these, the older episodes and episodes after that has a silver flash effect. And this pretty much threatened the whole anime industry in Japan in general. it was common to have flashing lights at that speed, but after that episode with Pokemon, they pretty much made a mandate saying, nope, any flashing light has to be slowed down to ensure that our children are safe, It was a big thing. It was a huge incident. I mean, when I was back when I was 10, I had no idea that this was a thing. I was just like, oh, more of a curiosity.

David Hernandez: 11:09

So Mikey, you know, when it comes to the games specifically, what generation of games is your favorite

Pokemon Crossroads: 11:15

I love Gen 5. Every so often, the Gen 5 gets a Inkling of attention. I was like, hey gen 5 remakes were confirmed. It's a joke. I make fun. It's a joke I make fun of pretty much anybody who says X generation confirmed, but gen 5 really liked as a story I mean all my generations have saying I love because the story wise gen 5 didn't have a great story They just ain't different. the inkling of pulling slowly coming out of its japanese sphere because pre gen 5 is like Every region was based off a part of Japan, So it was really cool to see what they did outside Japan. I really like this different story they told using N and the characters itself. the other fairy region, the other fairy generation reminds me of Gen 7. I just really love the Sun and Moon games. Pacific Sun and Moon, Ultra Sun and Moon can be set aside. I just love the story that they told in Sun and Moon with Lily and her family and all that stuff as well. I mean, that almost brought me to tears. Gen 8, as much grief as it gets, is high. It's like in the top 5 or so. I think Gen 9, our current generation, is really good at themselves. I mean, when it comes to like, What they did with the whole alternating branches, like the illusion of choice between the three branches of do you follow the legendary path? the titan path? do you do the team star path? Do you do the genie path? And the characters he created for each path was really good at how they converge in the end to make one whole story. I really do like what they do with stories and when it comes to my opinion here, those three generations like have the best story overall. And It is a simple story, but it's a really good story for in my opinion I just love to if I have to replay those games again I can replay those games again and again and like still enjoyed when they give out I said gen eight is like probably like four or five, but like those five Seven and nine are always like in contention. Like who's the best one? Which is the best generation? Out of those three and they're always like shifting between One taking top one each time

David Hernandez: 13:04

I will say for Gen 5, besides the storyline, because I did love that, I really loved how they pushed the visuals for that game. Um, one that always stands out to me is, I think, it's Costella Bridge, I think? To where you go on the bridge, and you kind of see the city in the background, and you just see the screen moving, and It blew my mind and I was in college and I'm like, this is so great. And I just kept going back and forth just to see it over and over. Like, I love the story. Don't get me wrong. I've talked about the story to end, but that's the other thing I've never talked about when it comes to gen five is I love those visuals that they really pushed the boundaries of how much they can push those pixels. I think, I think there was still pit. I was the last generation for pixels. Right.

Pokemon Crossroads: 13:39

They were doing a weird they were trying to do 3d models without doing 3d models and I see like skyray bridge is such a the walk on skyray bridge is such a breathtaking view because like they were really trying to push the limits of the ds Gen 5 was the first time they every generation aria was on a new console It became a gameboy color and gameboy itself But, that was the first time they had gone back, well, okay, I'm guessing the Game Boy Game and Color are the same console, but. that was the second time they get to redo, do a other generation on the same console. they took the lessons from Gen 4 and applied it really hard to Gen 5 to like, if this is going to be our last. Ds game we're going to really push it to the brink and they really did push it to the brink because like Those games are beautiful on that console itself. It's like have everything looks like is this really 3d it is a preview we could see in the next generation games on the Things like that and like I do love like the white the black city and white forest. Those are beautiful scenery scenery sets end castle review at it at the Pokemon League all those like they that is the Sealing that is like the little seed of it was gonna be pulling in it for next 10 15 years in my opinion

David Hernandez: 14:45

And if you want to play these games, they can be years for 200 a piece. Cause they are not cheap.

Pokemon Crossroads: 14:49

I surprisingly bought them for my own fiance and her niece a couple years ago, and you can find them for like 50 60 I think 100 best

David Hernandez: 14:59

Oh, there's still hope.

Pokemon Crossroads: 15:00

They still hope but I said this was a few years ago, so maybe Not anymore, but if you try hard enough on ebay, you could find it for decent prices Game stop as well if you lucky but this is one of the reasons I wouldn't mind Remakes of those games anytime soon because I think those games Need to be replayed By current generations, especially since it's harder to find they were pre 3ds era So you can't get them on like a fancy e shop So those games are stuck on cartridge like if you before the shop the 3ds shop went down You can't download anything from gen 6 to gen 7 easily And now with the e shop or whatever they call it on the switch you can download Soren Shield and the DOC and Scar invite and their D Cs easily, I do think it's a real kind that we don't have access to this older games pre than six. And I'm hoping that, the Switch online service be great for those games. Be really hard for the DS games. Or just remakes in general.

David Hernandez: 15:53

So let's talk about, Pokémon Crossroads. Let's talk about what is, you know, Pokémon Crossroads for those who aren't familiar with it.

Pokemon Crossroads: 15:59

so Pokemon Crossroads is supposed to be a good ol hub to like, see different fan works, like, either fan art, or podcast works, or comics. We try to be a good hub for all that stuff to be found. Like, there's other sites, there's Sirenet, that's your number one place for news. We can't compete, nobody can compete with them. You can try, but. And at the end of the day, if you're going for news, streaming that's your place to go. So, when Crossroads was made, we decided to focus on just, fan works. Let's focus on things that people would like to go to for fan stuff. Like, oh, I want to see a new comic. Where can I go for a new comic? Crossroads would be it. Oh, I want to see a cool video. Crossroads would be it. Podcasting? Crossroads. Let me go to Crossroads for, just see some cool fan works in general. So that's the idea of where Pokemon crossroads came up to be And that's the idea that I constantly trying to push and find new ways to do And in now like what? 10 years now, I think we've been processing around for

David Hernandez: 16:50

Were you there from the initial beginning as well?

Pokemon Crossroads: 16:52

Yes, I wasn't there from initial beginning crossroads came out from a website called Pokemon Elite 2000. I'm not sure you meant you heard that website before but it's like been around since forever ago I started there as a regular forum member, and then they had the, uh, back in the PE2K, because that's the acronym they used, they wanted to focus on the website. The webmaster was kind of stepping back, and the element team at the time said, hey, we want to bring back the website for PE2K. They noticed my work on a blog that I used to have. I used to have a One Piece blog back in the early 2010s. And they said, hey, we noticed you write for one piece. We might do some news and some articles for p2k I said, yeah, I'd do that. I could write writing's fun. So I wrote oxford for that eventually, um the admin team and the owners Wanted to do two different things the own but the owner wasn't too keen on it. So, from there, we branch off to make crossroads where the idea was going to be just a place for the fandom to come together and share the work. And then. I want to be working on the forum side and the. I'm eventually you can call that discord and so I'll be focusing on the website itself. Provide articles and eventually I pretty much just. Time to make some basic wire to. Other in chief to now owner. And I have a team that I have a team then they We write my articles things like that. I really get team back in you know, put my news is Everywhere, right I don't know how Joe's from Serena or the can does it but he does all that news But that news is a lot and I also want to do other things as well I can't do all news because it's kind of boring the news like You This is great, but there's other sources for the news. And I want to get back to that main core idea of, Hey, look at this cool video that I found. You want to watch it too. It'd be interesting. Or, here is some great podcast that you want to look into. Or, here's a cool comic. Things like that.

David Hernandez: 18:35

One question I want to ask was, y'all started the website based on just fan art. What made y'all want to focus on that part of Pokémon, that segment of Pokémon, just for fandom?

Pokemon Crossroads: 18:44

It was just something different. Nobody else was covering the fandom in 2014 15. Mm hmm. It was always focused on news, like, what's going to be the next big leak? What's going to be this and that? It was really leak culture or leak, or like, news focused. Like, oh, have you heard about this interesting project done by a team called Niantic called Pokemon Go? It's like, oh, Go news, Go news. It's like, okay, but what about the fans? Cause like, that would be keeping Pokemon around forever. Like, it would always been, it's an interesting thing to watch because there's always the fans pushing things out like I heard about peekaboo Have you heard about this and that and then minute in it exploded when people got in it. They're like, oh cool Let me talk. Let me talk about my idea here. Let me do this and that. Oh, I have a cool piece of art I have a cool piece of fan fiction that I want to share right Previous fan community that's been pushing Pokemon to where it is today, to the point where like, now fans are doing actual official stuff for Pokemon. James Turner, he was not on the original Game Freak team, but eventually he worked to be on Game Freak, to be the art director for Sword and Shield. Or the social media people, they were fans at one point in time too, but now they get to run the show on Twitter and Instagram. To the point where they throw out memes, only the community we know. But it's so cool that Pokemon fans are able to do so much where They are pushing in both professional sense and Fandom sense like we are on both sides of the hour now I always feel like we need to put spotlight on the fans itself. That was one of the things that kept me on pokemon crossroads for so long because I went to push the idea of The fans themselves because hey you deserve attention, right?

David Hernandez: 20:10

I've identified with that. Cause that's how I started my podcast. Similarly. I wanted people to tell their stories. That's kind of cool.

Pokemon Crossroads: 20:16

and that's how I love about your podcast as well because like you're I know this about me, but your podcast so interesting because this is idea I had years ago Like how can I talk to fans directly? Like what can I do to help bot like them and what they do in the fandom? No matter how small it is. Like maybe they don't do a comic but they've been poking my friends since like 2015 we kept them in this fandom for so long. I have an idea, but I just need time. One hour of time, as they say,

David Hernandez: 20:38

You need another, you need another Mikey. You need to multiply yourself. you thought about learning double team?

Pokemon Crossroads: 20:43

I have it just illusions don't work as well as physical Mikey themselves

David Hernandez: 20:49

That's true. That's true. Well, let me ask you this. So what is it like to see Pokemon crossroads start from the early beginnings to what it is now? Like, how has it been to just watch transformation? It's growth over time.

Pokemon Crossroads: 21:02

It's interesting because like if I ever look at my articles it's interesting to see like These ideas that like, okay, i'm just gonna work on news No, I want to do something to help promote fandom because if you we have art buyers we have different beat buyers You But to where this like now is like, most of this is what I've been doing. Like, oh, I want to feature videos'cause nobody's talking about videos. Oh, I wanna feature, uh, fan art because I want to feature on fan art. Oh, podcasts. Nobody's talking about podcasts it's really interesting to see where this site has come along since then. The news is a thing, but I'm not focusing on news like, okay, maybe I should talk about the community today'cause that's big enough news to mention, but here's this cool video about MPCs and generation three and how crazy Raki do, or Here is this cool piece of fan art that's saw, here's this meme of the SPN guy nobody's talking about, about the ESPN guy talking about me two. Like did

David Hernandez: 21:50

Smith. Yeah,

Pokemon Crossroads: 21:51

And how, how was the fandom reacting to that? But at a point, they made a bunch of fan art about it. Like, here's me to like, playing with the bomb, James. Like, did anybody ask for that? No, but it's fun and I think people should like, see it. I think that's always I would think. I remember I posted, about the fans. I was going, would someone want to see this? Yes, let me go ahead and post this online somewhere. it's like social media, but now there's a full website for it.

David Hernandez: 22:13

So, you know, you alluded to, like, the Pokemon podcast and that's how we met, you know, because, you know, I'm a podcast myself. How do you keep up with all the Pokemon podcasts? You're just not doing go. You're not just doing TCG. You're doing anything and everything. Pokemon podcast.

Pokemon Crossroads: 22:27

I don't know how many podcasts there are anymore, but I don't, I can't, it's impossible. Not, not with the job I have now. Maybe the job I had like 10 years ago, I could have, but it's impossible to keep up with them all. But it's nice to have a big this like there's is an article on Crossroads But can't review but give a review to your favorite podcasts And now that is a great way to dig for reviews is also my master this a podcast I listen to oh, I keep track of Like okay. Let me see. They did a new update click. Oh, no, you haven't update since like two months ago Let me go back to that but The way I keep up with it just like okay. I listen to Bunch of podcasts that I can like I check up on them every few months Like any listen to episode here. I mean, this is an episode there. it's a lot of them some are inactive but The hope is that one day to come back and like hey, look this one's back. And I love that I could put a spotlight on a fandom that I think needs a spotlight but doesn't get enough talking about

David Hernandez: 23:18

What is it about the podcast that, leans you towards it compared to like maybe YouTube?

Pokemon Crossroads: 23:23

the ongoing aspect. You can listen to wherever you want, but YouTube, you have to focus on it a bit. you could download a YouTube video if you want, but the podcast, the grab and go aspect of it, you can listen to it at the gym, you can listen to it as you drive. You can listen to it as you clean the house. But YouTube, to me, it already feels like there's a visual aspect to it that you need to put full attention to it or you just not getting respect to dec declare that they deserve. they put work into the background of the youtube they put Work into all that stuff and if you're not watching that stuff Why are you just watching on youtube? I mean you can just when you have the podcast on your phone saying that You can take and grab and go and at different points in my life. I was always grabbing going somewhere like Oh, i'm going to drive My job was driving all over the city. Let me just put in a bunch of podcasts listen to that as I drive or i'm playing pong on go. I mean listen to a go cats Go as in go cats are like jump on go podcast itself that go cats hosted by chris and kyle

David Hernandez: 24:18

All

Pokemon Crossroads: 24:18

chat guys or just in general like now you're getting podcasts like that's like 30 minutes to 10 to 30 minutes With good morning joe and her 10 minute daily grind podcast Or there's Let's Go, that's a, Pokemon Go podcast, like 30 minutes long. So it's not that hard to keep up with Pokemon Go news if you want a very quick bite sized version of it. And, like I said, going back to what I said before, Podcasts are made by people who, they work well on RU. In the best way possible. Like, okay, I'm saying this with all my love, right? Like that's how they decide to express their love. Some people do be art. Some people do be a word. You guys are doing it via spoken word. And that's saying that's heartache push out there. Cause like it's easy to like, we treat a piece of art, right. Or say, Hey, let me go ahead and message this to a friend. They would like this, this piece of art, but it's hard to share podcasts unless you do via word of mouth or via a quick link.

David Hernandez: 25:07

And that's how I'm here to announce as the Pokeball Trends mixtape dropping soon. Stay tuned for the tune. No, I'm not doing, I'm not doing a drop tape. Well, it's been very cool to hear your experiences. One of the last ones I want to ask and talk about is your experience with Go. You've alluded to a little bit. So when did you first start playing Pokemon Go?

Pokemon Crossroads: 25:22

right before I came out. if day 0 is a thing, then I was a day 0 player because of Pokemon Crossroads, I was allowed to take part in a beta of Pokemon Go. Where like, I get to like, okay, play the game, and then do a review for it. They send me a link, and it's like, you know, this link, you get to play the beta. it was, it was a really unique experience because already, I was already going to, because of Pokemon Go, I was going to the park. I was going to see what Pokemon I can find in the park, what Pokemon I can find in my neighborhoods. And then when it eventually came out, I became the day, one of the day one players. But like, okay, let me go ahead and, now that the game is officially out, let me go ahead and play in, go to the park, let me go to this and that. Oh, I hear in some random new place I've never been to before. Okay, cool, let me go ahead and see what Pokemon is there. Let me spin and stop. I pretty much now Pokemon Go has been like, okay, I need to make sure I spin and stop, catch a Pokemon, and Do a research task. If I can do those three things, great. If I can get a shiny in the meantime, Even better. Mission accomplished. So I've been doing a lot of Pokemon Go as like, just a casual player. I don't, sometimes I go to raids, but Going to in person raids is kind of like, uh, but if there's a Pokemon that I want like Landorus, like I need a Landorus because that's a VGC big Pokemon, then hey, if you're like, can you draw me a remote raid, please? Or if there's a Pokemon that I need in the video game, then yeah, you can just do a raid for that because it's easier to catch that one than doing it in a game that hasn't come out since 2015. They can't do, um Black and white.

David Hernandez: 26:39

No shade, right?

Pokemon Crossroads: 26:40

No shade there, no shade. This is

David Hernandez: 26:41

Unless it's Pokemon

Pokemon Crossroads: 26:43

this is what I keep on pushing for like, re releasing those old games somehow. mean, did, Legend of Arceus did a good job for like, Landorus and them. But, I still gotta play all of Legend of Arceus to play, to get those Pokemon. Meanwhile Pokemon Go, saying, hey, Landorus invades for two weeks only. Okay, cool, that's faster.

David Hernandez: 26:58

You bring up an interesting point. I don't think I've ever had a chance to talk about, you know, how does a raid boss say like Landorus, factor in or play into the VGC scene,

Pokemon Crossroads: 27:08

One of the issues that BGC has is that people will argue that it's not easy to get into. Because there's so many games. Like, if you want Earthy Food, you have to play the DLC for Sword and Shield. If you want Landorus in this case, you can either play a black and white game that's hard to find and expensive. You can play through Omega Ruby and Sapphire, and there hoop of rings, similar to, um, ultrasound where you gotta do the, space rings, or you do so and shield where like you gotta play through all that to get to the dens to hopefully get, like to find landers And then, then you got legend rcs, where you gotta pay all legend IES to find the landrys there. Besides black and white and legend ies, Is luck based you gotta get lucky to find those Pokemon and those locations and be at the right time there's lots of things going on. They are post game content But Pokemon go is like, okay, I could pick up one go Go to that with 10 be because of 10 do raids And just wait the Pokemon go has a lander's raid weeks right It's much easier to do that at that point. You could just transfer landers from go to home You Find a friend who has landers already, trade that landers to your skyrim fight game, trade back, and then transfer landers to your game. It's a bit easier, in my opinion, The only hard

David Hernandez: 28:21

sounds in a weird way that Pokemon Go is more cost effective for a VGC player to just go catch a Landorus real quick, whether it be remote or in person, transfer it to home, bring it to VGC, and then they have bottle caps so they can raise whatever IVs it is, right?

Pokemon Crossroads: 28:35

exactly. It's much easier. The hardest part is waiting for Niantic to do landers raids, and having a friend. But the thing is, if you're playing Pokemon and you don't have friends, even Somebody as anti social as I am sometimes Have a few friends that say hey, do you have a landers? Can you trade to my scar and body game? We're at five seconds. Thanks Because that's how I got regedeki in my game. I didn't choose regedeki in my pokemon sword version. So I had to go ahead and get regedeki from pokemon go Get a friend to trade me that regedeki for like two seconds and then transfer regedeki to my scar and body game But it was much easier to do that than playing all of Sword and Shield again, just to get Vegedeki.

David Hernandez: 29:10

Well, very cool Pokemon Crossroads. Thank you for coming on the show. I do want to finish off with the final question before we close this podcast.

Pokemon Crossroads: 29:16

Okay.

David Hernandez: 29:17

So if somebody comes to you and they're going to want to do a Pokemon battle six times six, what six Pokemon would you bring?

Pokemon Crossroads: 29:23

Oh man, that's hard.

David Hernandez: 29:24

It's only six Pokemon

Pokemon Crossroads: 29:26

Yeah, that's hard. It's hard. Like, I want I go all Steel? Did I just go real Steel on everybody and just like, pick my Steel favorites? Or did I pick like, favorites of all time? Um, I guess Charizard. Charizard's one. I love Charizard. He's the big dragon. Just really fun have. Metagross, that's one of my favorite stereotype Pokemon. Just really cool. I just love how Metagross is like, you can float on top of him. He's a great battler. all time favorite. Electro wire, I just like electro wire. I like type immunities as well. You don't know that. And you have a Thai mu tea. That's great. I like it to be a big ball. So let's ride. Let's go. Let drive one. Can I go Ogre Pond and Whalespring? That's fun too. I like Ogre Pond as well. Ogre Pond is really fun. Golurk. Yeah, Golurk's fun. big punchy boy. Just

David Hernandez: 30:04

right

Pokemon Crossroads: 30:05

punch. Ghost type. Oh man, Ghost types are fun too as well.

David Hernandez: 30:08

last one

Pokemon Crossroads: 30:09

I'm going to do Fire Plume. a lot. August is one of my favorite Pokemon. If you ever see me at Regional event, it is always like, cover, always covering Audis. So five them, let's go. Five. Make it easy

David Hernandez: 30:19

Pokemon crossroads. Thanks for coming on the show before you do go if people want to connect with you If they want to check out your articles check out Pokemon crossroads, where can they go? By all means, please plug away

Pokemon Crossroads: 30:28

all. So pulling crossroads.com is the website. If you are on trailer or X or Hectic card, you go to A-P-K-M-P-K-M and Crossroads. You can find my, uh, program I'm using is there. We just got done talking about all the far day stuff. Personal Mikey, Mikey can be found at Mikey's Zard. I will post things like, Oh, this is what I'm doing this week, and at my league, or things like that.

David Hernandez: 30:49

Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. If you want to support the show, consider becoming a Patreon by either clicking the link in the description or going to patreon. com slash asthepokeballturns. Now, I'm actually going to New York City Go Fest, and hopefully I get to meet every single one of you. If you meet me, make sure to get yourself a free Necrozma wristband. I'll be giving out those to everybody that I run into, so I definitely want to make sure I can give it to the people who listen to this show. If for some reason you can't make it to GoFest New York City, don't sweat it. Contact me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, whatever have you and let me know like, Hey, David, I can't make it to GoFest. Can I still get a wristband? And I'll make sure you get one because I want to make sure that everyone who listens to this show gets one for GoFest. So please hit me up if you can't make it. Until next time.