TRAINER'S EYE #116 - "Lucario's Gym Badge" ft. PaellaPapi91

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by PaellaPapi91, a Pokemon Trainer and self-proclaimed Gym Leader at the Skillet Gym. 

PaellaPapi91 shares his initial experience with Pokemon starting with the main series games and anime. He would play all of the game, with a deep fondness for Gen 4 thanks to the introduction of added evolution and the introduction of Pokemon following the Trainer.

PaellaPapi91 eventually gets involved with Pokemon GO and the PvP mechanic. Drawing back to his roots of batling Gym Leaders, PaellaPapi91 creates his own gym badge and grants battles to Trainers around the world to battle him for a Paella Badge!

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

Connect with PaellaPapi91: Instagram

Transcript

TRAINER'S EYE #116 - Paellapapi91
===

[00:00:00] PaellaPapi91: I'm Paellapapi and this is my Pokemon story.

[00:00:02] 

[00:00:43] David Hernandez: Welcome to as the Pokeball turns where we interview people about their experience with Pokemon. My name is David Hernandez. Today I'm joined by Bobby, AKA Paya Poppy. Welcome to the show.

[00:00:58] PaellaPapi91: Thanks, David. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:00] David Hernandez: Absolutely. And, you know, I apologize. I didn't know that we initially had met in New York, but so it is kind of a small world, but, you know, just seeing, you know, the content you've posted about on Instagram and how, when you were seven years old and you come in and it's like, you always dreamed of Pokemon be in real life.

[00:01:18] And now you're a Pokemon go trainer. what is it like to kind of be, I guess, a quote unquote gym leader and see Pokemon come to life? Yeah.

[00:01:24] PaellaPapi91: It's been amazing. So yeah, just as you mentioned, ever since I was seven, I've always wished that Pokemon was real. I watched Toy Story and I really thought that when I left my room, my toys would come alive. and I've always been interested in toys. Like I've always thought creating toys were cool.

[00:01:40] Like I used to make like, SpongeBob toys with clay and stuff. So, I always thought like, you know, after I made it or I played with a toy, leave, I thought it'd come to life. So, especially when Pokemon, was introduced to my life, I was into getting the little knick knack ones. And, yeah, after a while I started Making the list of the balance of the Pokemon I didn't have just so I could have all 151 Pokemon for Christmas for sole reason of them coming to life when I was gone and Yeah, I just always wish they were real and Pokemon Go has made that a reality

[00:02:13] David Hernandez: You know, I kind of relate to that because, growing up I had a very active imagination. when Pokemon Snap came out, you know, for those who don't know, it was a game where you took pictures of Pokemon, you're on like a little track.

[00:02:24] I actually try to re Live that in my house to be honest I would like masking tape on the floor like tracks and then I would tape Pokemon cards to like random spots where you think Pokemon would be think like a zoo bat hanging from like a chair and then you had like the Voltorb in a cave or dark area because you know in the tunnel and Pokemon snap and It's cool just to kind of Have Pokemon Go really bring that dream of having Pokemon in the real world, having it, as a reality now.

[00:02:54] And it's kind of cool to kind of see it come full circle.

[00:02:57] PaellaPapi91: Yeah, it's cool that they pretty much implemented every part of Pokemon into it like Pokemon Snap the battling collecting Okay,

[00:03:08] David Hernandez: Now you said, you know, initially you were into Pokemon. That's where it first started when you were seven. So was it primarily the games, the anime that you were interested at that age?

[00:03:17] PaellaPapi91: it first started with the anime, where I remember kids on the playground were talking about it, and I was like, oh, that sounds pretty cool. and I remember it being on TV before I went to school. So, for the most part, I would watch half the episode, half of the first half of the episode before going to school.

[00:03:39] So pretty much whenever the commercial came on, it was like, who's that Pokemon? And I go, I never knew what Pokemon it was. so that's how I got introduced to it. And then kids started bringing cards in. So I got into the cards and then what really, what I really ended up like loving the most was,

[00:03:56] David Hernandez: what was it about the Game Boy games over the other anime and the cards that really got you hooked?

[00:04:01] PaellaPapi91: It was like my first time really getting into video games. Like, I've always gone over my friends places to play video games. Like, if it was N64 or Playstation. this time around, it was the Game Boy. And I, I skipped the colorless Game Boy. I got the Game Boy Color. And my first game was Red Version. And I just was hooked.

[00:04:19] ?

[00:04:19] PaellaPapi91: I did love the anime quite a bit. I would say it was the Game Boy games, the anime, and then the cards. And then the toys.

[00:04:29] David Hernandez: And of course, you can't go wrong with the toys, right? You gotta have the toys.

[00:04:32] PaellaPapi91: Yeah.

[00:04:34] David Hernandez: When it came to playing Pokemon Red, you know, who was your starter? You know, which one did you choose and why? 

[00:04:40] PaellaPapi91: The first time ever was

[00:04:42] Squirtle, but I restarted it so many times that it's been consistently Charmander. And, uh, You know, red, I just like fire, I was just a red guy, and my brother had blue, so, and he always did, um, Squirtle, so, that was just kind of our rivalry among other. did red, I did blue.

[00:05:01] David Hernandez: you really got to live out that red versus blue rivalry with your brother?

[00:05:06] PaellaPapi91: Yeah.

[00:05:06] David Hernandez: Would y'all battle with Pokemon red and blue?

[00:05:09] PaellaPapi91: Not really, we, took us a while to get the link.

[00:05:13] David Hernandez: Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah.

[00:05:15] PaellaPapi91: yeah, so we didn't get to battle but um, what we would do is, you know how you can nickname the rival? We would We just, we just named each other Gary.

[00:05:28] David Hernandez: So you are both Gary and Gary.

[00:05:30] PaellaPapi91: Yup.

[00:05:31] David Hernandez: When it came to the games, did you stick with it throughout? Like after Red Blue, you played Gold and Silver and stuff like that? Or did you kind of back away at some point?

[00:05:38] PaellaPapi91: I played until SoulSilver and HeartGold. and funny story about the 151 Christmas story was that, This kind of screwed me up for a while because I thought Santa Claus was real long after I probably should have. Um, so that list I made for Pokemon, that Christmas I ended up getting gold version, well my brother and I got gold and silver version.

[00:06:04] The Japanese version, so it was before the English release and I had no idea what Johto Pokemon were. The game was in Japanese and like I kind of thought it was fake just because I didn't recognize the Pokemon but it felt the same and everything and there's some of the same Pokemon when you walk through the grass like Pidgey I got a little frustrated just because I didn't speak Japanese like this is cool um I guess I guess like my wish came true.

[00:06:29] Like these are Pokemon, right? Like this is exactly the same. So, yeah, I did play until HeartGold SoulSilver. I kind of forget what year that was. Was but it was definitely around high school.

[00:06:40] David Hernandez: I imagine like playing Gold, Silver, and Crystal, you know, or I'm sorry, Gold and Silver in Japanese. And I'm like, are these Pokemon real? Are they kind of the bootleg ones? You know, when people like Pokemon, stuff like that.

[00:06:51] PaellaPapi91: Yeah, absolutely. I didn't make it far and I It's hard to say. I don't know where I have that game.

[00:06:56] David Hernandez: Oh, it's, lost somewhere, right? It's just, it's not lost, it's misplaced.

[00:07:01] PaellaPapi91: It's misplaced along with my pokemon cards

[00:07:03] David Hernandez: Oh, no. Hey, you might have a rare edition Charizard, uh, Blaster or something like that. You might need to dig those up.

[00:07:08] PaellaPapi91: Funny story about that

[00:07:10] David Hernandez: Uh oh.

[00:07:11] PaellaPapi91: true story

[00:07:12] the first pack i've ever opened in my life I opened up a holographic charizard

[00:07:17] David Hernandez: Oh my gosh.

[00:07:19] PaellaPapi91: and my neighborhood went crazy. They're like, oh my god, you're so lucky I felt like the luckiest kid ever within a week or two, I traded that card away for love slash a Zapdos second grade love.

[00:07:30] And, um, I never saw it again.

[00:07:32] David Hernandez: Oh no. 

[00:07:34] PaellaPapi91: I went back to my neighborhood that day and everyone was like, Oh, you're so stupid. What's wrong with you? So I went back. I was like, okay, good. Like my card back. It's like, I said, no trade backs. I had no idea what that meant in hindsight. I wish I just got teacher involved, but It

[00:07:53] David Hernandez: I would've seen if I could beat the guy up, but nah. Oh,

[00:07:59] PaellaPapi91: you like me now,

[00:08:00] David Hernandez: it's a girl! Oh my gosh, that's horrible. Did she at least like you back for the trade? Ah, damn. Well, at least she tried.

[00:08:08] PaellaPapi91: Yeah, you gotta learn these lessons young

[00:08:11] David Hernandez: Pokemon cards are forever. Love is temporary. That's what we learned today. But on that note, because you have such an extensive history of Pokemon, you know, Red to HeartGold's old server is pretty extensive. You know, do you have a particular generation or like set of games that you lean to that are like your favorite? 

[00:08:30] PaellaPapi91: No order i'll tell you what I like and what I don't

[00:08:33] kento. I like it's so original johto and might say like just gold the silver I I was I did silver version and I really liked that I don't really care for Hoenn, and then Sinnoh, like, I did Pearl version, and that may have been my favorite.

[00:08:50] I loved when they added the feature of Pokemon following you, like after Yellow. 

[00:08:53] but Pearl version may have been my favorite. 

[00:08:56] And, I think they had the feature where you can trade with anybody in the world, so that was cool. I like the evolutions of the original Pokemon, like Tangrowth and, Sneasel, Magmortar, Electrovire, I liked all that, the evolutions were cool, like the new evolutions, and I liked how the Pokemon looked, like Lucario, um, Garchomp, think they did a good job,

[00:09:17] I

[00:09:17] like the ones right after that, like most of the generations after that, I, I didn't really like.

[00:09:22] David Hernandez: it seems like you just kind of lost touch and it just wasn't your thing at that point.

[00:09:25] PaellaPapi91: Yeah, I think the designs kind of started turning me off.

[00:09:28] David Hernandez: Sinnoh was unique because it did bring a lot of evolutions from prior Pokémon. Plus you had a lot of introductions. Plus they had a lot of legendaries in that generation. You got Dialga, Palkia. So much to really love about that generation. And just like you said, the online capabilities was the first time.

[00:09:44] PaellaPapi91: And the anime was pretty good At that point, I wasn't following it too much, but I would watch it more than I do now, and I, thought the, like, Chimchar Ash storyline was cool, and Paul was a good rival.

[00:09:57] David Hernandez: It was a very Emotional storyline, cause you know, Chimchar was, I mean, spoilers if you've never watched it, although you've had 15 years, so bear us, but, you know, it was sad to see, you know, Paul, you know, abandon Chimchar, and then, it was kind of a good redemption story, I guess, in a way.

[00:10:12] and then what I loved most was, you know, how, different both Ash and Paul were, like, Paul, I felt like he was like the competitive, like, EVs and IVs matter and Ash is like the young, you know, like, oh, just got to believe in a Pokemon kind of thing.

[00:10:25] PaellaPapi91: That's kind of how I am a little bit with Pokemon Go. Um, I've

[00:10:32] David Hernandez: We've all become Paul, that's what happened.

[00:10:36] PaellaPapi91: I've grown to care more about as I've tried to get better with PVP, but you know, just the Pokemon I've caught around the world or just like in my backyard, like, especially if it was like on a special day kind of thing. I'm like, all right, I'm going to make you my best buddy and you're my buddy and we're going to get good at battling.

[00:10:53] It

[00:10:54] David Hernandez: You know, since we're on Pokemon Go, you know, Pokemon Go comes out in 2016. You know, what was it like those first couple of days when the game launched or when you first started playing? 

[00:11:03] PaellaPapi91: It was the closest to world peace we ever got, man. Like I used to work right outside of Bryant park, um, in the bank of America tower and that seems to be in the Mecca in. New York, like if it's not Bryant Park, it's Central Park.

[00:11:18] David Hernandez: Yep, it is the hot spot. I mean when I was in New York for GoFest both years It was the hot spot to go for Pokemon Go because everybody who wanted to play was there

[00:11:28] PaellaPapi91: Yeah. I didn't necessarily realize that, but I the day it came out, I was working like out of Bryant Park. and luckily for my productivity at work, the spot in the building I was when initially launched. I didn't have great reception, so I couldn't really like play during the workday, but I had the freedom to kind of go outside you know, I, I saw kind of, you know, people playing and, you know, it was just very, like, especially after work where I could like play without any limits and just like talk to random people.

[00:11:57] And my, my friends would play. It says, Oh, meet me at Bryant park, or let's just like go exploring around the city. So it was euphoric.

[00:12:04] David Hernandez: You know, it's hard to describe Bryant Park, I don't want to say it's small but it's basically like a square park Was it like just jam packed of people or something like that?

[00:12:13] PaellaPapi91: Yes. I did run to One infamous person who was playing at the time, there. And it was one of my first Pokemon Go AR I haven't shared yet. Um, Martin Shkreli,

[00:12:27] David Hernandez: Oh, really?

[00:12:28] PaellaPapi91: Farmer Bro.

[00:12:29] David Hernandez: Uh huh. That's crazy.

[00:12:31] PaellaPapi91: yeah,

[00:12:32] David Hernandez: Dang, I wonder if he still

[00:12:33] PaellaPapi91: it Yeah, I wonder too. He was definitely playing, I went out for a lunch break, and I was walking around playing, and I stopped by a group of people playing chess, I saw him walking with his friend, and was walking his dog, and this is around the time, you know, obviously, this, this was 2016, I don't remember when he got in trouble, but like, I know he was on the news, because like, I looked to recognize him, I was like, oh my god, he's, like, I saw him doing, like, the little swirl on it, on the phone, so, I kind of looked, and I saw that he was playing, and I took a little picture, AR picture, and there's a Zubat to his head.

[00:13:12] 

[00:13:19] 

[00:13:50] David Hernandez: So, you know, what keeps you engaged with the game? Like, what do you love about the game that kept you, you know, playing all this time?

[00:13:56] PaellaPapi91: I think just the thought of like, Pokemon is real has always stuck with I like that it gets me outside. Actually, you know what? I really love the best buddy feature. kind of training my guys to be, like, get the ribbon.

[00:14:10] David Hernandez: Mm hmm.

[00:14:11] PaellaPapi91: So, that's the bulk of what I do when I'm like at home or something.

[00:14:15] I'll catch some, I'll catch a Pokemon. If I have time to focus, I'll battle. But if not, I'm kind of mindlessly just feeding my guys, uh, some berries and, training them at, with the, um, I forget what you call them, but, uh, the mystic, valor, and, instincts guy, yeah. Uh, I'll train them with that, I'll a picture, I'll earn their hearts, and I do that on rotation with about four people per I

[00:14:41] David Hernandez: you know, what is it about the buddy feature that you like?

[00:14:44] PaellaPapi91: I like that the Pokemon follow you, um, when you feed them. on my Ash, I just like making best friends with my virtual Pokemon, man.

[00:14:53] David Hernandez: they get to be fed and you try to get the hearts up.

[00:14:56] Out of curiosity, what's your, uh, badge at? How many best buddies do you have, if you're willing to share?

[00:15:01] PaellaPapi91: I'm at like a hundred and, three official ones. But then I have about five Pokemon that are a heart away that I'm just saving for a rainy day.

[00:15:14] David Hernandez: A rainy day? You saved some for a rainy day.

[00:15:17] PaellaPapi91: Yeah, well, okay, so. If you look at my account, you'll see that sometimes I kind of just do a little reel of my Pokemon, like kind of hang out on Pokemon and then I'll feed it a berry and they'll go out and come back with a ribbon.

[00:15:31] some of those, I just say like the, you know, wait for a cool background to make it my best buddy.

[00:15:36] Or if it's like a. community day and I just happened to have that Pokemon laying around. I was like, Oh, let me do that. And I'll post it. 

[00:15:42] Like, for example, I have an Annihilate ready to go. And the Mankey, Mankey community day you see a post of me and my Annihilate, increasing our friendship level,

[00:15:51] David Hernandez: Oh, that's

[00:15:52] PaellaPapi91: making it official.

[00:15:54] David Hernandez: Official best buddy.

[00:15:55] PaellaPapi91: Yes.

[00:15:56] David Hernandez: What other ways do you like play Pokemon Go? Is it just best buddy? It seems like you also grind the game as well. Do you do PvP? Shiny hunting? 

[00:16:03] PaellaPapi91: I like the PVP. I like to incorporate it with my life. So, when I travel, I typically like to take pictures and, you know, it kind of gets a little boring. Like, Oh yeah, here's a building. Here's not. And like, now I like to kind of use the AR function to just add a layer to creativity.

[00:16:19] Like, all right, I'm going to put a, like a Pikachu in front of this building that looks cool maybe I'll make a jump or something. PVP, definitely. That's actually what made me start my account. I thought I was pretty good and I was like, Oh, I should like videotape this and share this with the world.

[00:16:33] Like, I'm the best. but I actually don't really post that many PVPs unless I do my gym battle yeah, I mostly like battling, exploring and, photos and,

[00:16:45] David Hernandez: It seems like the photos are almost like a, I was here kind of moment, right? To where, you know, you get a Pokemon out for AR and it's like, I was here for these brief moment. And is it, do you, how do you pick which Pokemon to choose? Do you have like, are they the best buddies or ones that have like sentimental value?

[00:17:01] PaellaPapi91: a bit of both. I do make my sentimental, Pokemon, my best buddies. It depends on the environment, like if I'm like, You know, in the subway in New York, I'll be like, Oh, all right, let me get my eradicated out or something. Or I think a Magnemite could be cool here. Or if I'm, at home, I'll get more home time feels.

[00:17:21] And that kind of puts me in the place of Pallet Town. So I'll only get some basic Pokemon, like a Spear or something. it depends on the environment or like, know, sometimes I kind of like, pretending I'm using Pokemon for actual use. Like if I'm barbecuing outside, I might get a Charmander out of like, Hey Charmander, use Ember, like grill my meat.

[00:17:39] And then like, you'll see, uh, smoking, smoking fillets. Uh, yeah. 

[00:17:45] David Hernandez: So we'll get into the Pokemon gym later here in a minute. But I want to talk about, because you said you're from New York, you know, obviously GO Fest was there for two years in a row. Was that like your first ever live event for Pokemon GO?

[00:17:57] PaellaPapi91: Um, okay. Yeah. So I'm actually from New Jersey, but I'm like, New York is a stone throw away from where I'm at. I'm in Jersey city, but, Yes, New York, that was, yeah, that was my first event, GoFest. 

[00:18:09] David Hernandez: Awesome. what was it like to have GO Fest in your backyard, if that's fair to say?

[00:18:14] PaellaPapi91: It was awesome. one, like, you know, fairly convenient for me. Two, I didn't realize how many people still played. I thought the magic of, cause I kind of play by myself. and then with the Instagram, I've been introduced to the community a bit more and like, I'm not on discord that much, but I know it exists, but yeah, I kind of play, you know, And just to kind of be out and see that, like, it's alive and well thriving, it was great.

[00:18:44] It just brought me back to 2016 Bryant Park vibes, and it was awesome because a lot of people were at Bryant Park. So, time traveled me back there a little bit.

[00:18:53] David Hernandez: You know, when you finally got the chance to kinda go to your GO Fest experience at Randall's Island, you know, what was it like to kinda see in, you know, the first time of all the stuff they set up and all the Pokémon and stuff like that?

[00:19:04] PaellaPapi91: It was great. Like, I really admire Pokemon, the brand, the franchise, like how they incorporate the whole ecosystem of Pokemon, like, you know, if you wanted to, stay home, watch TV and play video games, you can do that. If you want to go out and play go, you can do that. If you want to, Go to a curated event where it's Disney World, but Pokemon with inflatables and you get to meet like the influencers and just other people where you can battle, trade, like that was amazing.

[00:19:35] And like, I don't know of another brand that does it like Pokemon does. Comic Con was what, two weeks ago and right across the street, they had the Pokemon TCG stellar event and they rented out a space and there's crystals inside. It was a maze and I was like, you guys really know how to bring an idea to life.

[00:19:55] And that's what Pokemon Go Fest was for me.

[00:19:58] David Hernandez: You know, and that makes sense because, you know, there's so many different angles to engage this franchise. You mentioned a couple of them, like you talked about, we talked about Go, we've got the anime, the cards, the games, Pokemon Sleep even, although I don't know if you've ever interacted with somebody while sleeping, but hey, if you have, let me But that's the cool part is that no matter how we decide to play this game Or how we decided to engage the franchise. It's all about Pokemon, right? And we all get to kind of experience it in our own way.

[00:20:26] PaellaPapi91: Yeah, really feeding my inner child.

[00:20:30] David Hernandez: So I want to touch on something that's very unique is that you do a Pokemon go gym challenge. Could you share like, what is that about and how that started?

[00:20:39] PaellaPapi91: Yeah. So again, I thought I was like really good at PVP and after kind of seeing that and witnessing other people, maybe average at best, but, I always thought the gym aspect of the video games were cool and I liked how everybody had their own kind of space that they curated and like everybody specialized their type and that everybody has, you know, as a trainer, you go and kind of, you know, test yourself. So I thought that Pokemon Go doesn't really have that I was hey, why don't I create my own gym, my own virtual gym or physical gym whatever.

[00:21:10] I'll just make myself a gym leader. Based off of self improvement, because I also try using Pokemon Go as a self improvement mechanism, like, you know, when I run, I'll purposely feed one of my buddies I'm training, so they're running alongside me and they get the extra hearts. I decided to create the Pied Poppy, uh, I call it the Skillet Gym, where you have to beat me Best two out of three if you do win, you receive a Paya badge, classic badge.

[00:21:37] David Hernandez: Wow. Okay. So you've, you've gone all out to where you even have your own badges you're giving out to people.

[00:21:42] PaellaPapi91: Yes.

[00:21:43] David Hernandez: That's awesome. And what is, I guess, for those who don't know, what is the meaning behind Paya? 

[00:21:49] PaellaPapi91: So Paella is a Spanish Dish.,

[00:21:51] I decided to name myself this because when I was little I felt like everybody had cool gamer names and I just was never creative enough to think of one and all my friends have really cool, like unique names that I was just like, how did you even think of that?

[00:22:07] Like, I'm just like Bobby one, two, three.

[00:22:11] David Hernandez: right.

[00:22:12] PaellaPapi91: so. I've had paella in a couple scenarios and it just felt like a vibe and I was like, yeah, I'm just gonna be paella papi. I actually also lived in Sevilla, Spain for a bit and, had some really good paella there. And, I was just like, yeah, I'm really just gonna dive into the paella lifestyle.

[00:22:30] I am paella and I was born in 91, so that's where the 91 comes from.

[00:22:35] David Hernandez: is your badge also inspired by Paya or like, how did the

[00:22:39] PaellaPapi91: Oh yeah,

[00:22:40] David Hernandez: It is.

[00:22:41] PaellaPapi91: yeah. I googled some Paya images, and I was like, I put, I put up a mood board, and and my, uh, creative, director, Alex, um, we, we started playing around some Paya gym badge, ideas.

[00:22:54] 

[00:22:55] David Hernandez: So when you first started it, right? And, you know, you got people come and challenge you for the badge. What was the reception like when like, Oh, this guy's like a gym leader, like where people were like, Oh, I got to take this guy down.

[00:23:05] Or did you like, how'd you get people engaged into being interested in your badge? I guess.

[00:23:10] PaellaPapi91: the first time I really put it out there was Pokemon GoFest. for those who don't know, when you go to GoFest they kind of have a sign that you can write on. of, and hold up to like, Hey, I want to this or Hey, I'm looking for a shiny so and so so I use that as a, Hey, I'm a gym leader.

[00:23:32] Battle me badge. Um,

[00:23:34] David Hernandez: I like that.

[00:23:36] PaellaPapi91: so some people would kind of look and if I made, you know, kind of like the Pokemon game, if we made eye contact with like, Hey, try to go, like I got badges and like, I'll like pull it out. And I'm Hmm, that's pretty cool. Yeah, sure. I'll, I'll battle you. And, most, if not all.

[00:23:50] Reception was like really like that's so cool. That's so creative like thank you like And then those who didn't beat me. We're like, uh, that's still so cool. But I'm gonna go catch a Pokemon now

[00:23:59] David Hernandez: Did you have like a civic theme team or like a type? You know, you know, in the main series games, the gym leaders are main type focused. Were you the same way with your gym badge? And if so, what type?

[00:24:12] PaellaPapi91: I am NOT I do not have a type I specialize in I do want to play around with that at one day But if I were to have a type I'm juggling around three.

[00:24:22] David Hernandez: Which one are they?

[00:24:23] PaellaPapi91: Fire, Steel, and I will say, I feel it's kind of a cheating one, but I just love flying type Pokemon, and I it's cheap. Cause you can, cause like, a flying type is typically a dual type, so it's like, flying, fire, so I can like, kind of have all the types.

[00:24:42] David Hernandez: Why don't you do it that'd be perfect

[00:24:45] PaellaPapi91: True, I don't know, I don't

[00:24:47] David Hernandez: You're over

[00:24:48] PaellaPapi91: I'm still pondering it, but yeah, I do like flying type. Yeah,

[00:24:54] David Hernandez: on it like that's perfect

[00:24:59] So, You know, you've introduced it to Pokemon Go. Is it still as well, like, you know, after Pokemon Go passes, people still challenge you for the badge?

[00:25:07] PaellaPapi91: no, I haven't really advertised it too much on my account, but I do want to revitalize So, stay tuned. There is a link in my bio, to schedule a battle with me, but I will start probably advertising that soon, again.

[00:25:22] David Hernandez: That's what everybody needs to just hit his DMs and load this boy up with nothing but battles.

[00:25:27] PaellaPapi91: That's right.

[00:25:29] David Hernandez: Do you have an idea? There you go. Test yourself. Get the Paya badge or Paya. Am I saying it right? Paya badge? Paya. Paya. Okay. I'm sure. Yeah. do you have an idea of like how many people challenged you at GoFest or an idea of how many badges you gave away?

[00:25:45] PaellaPapi91: alright, so I did two GoFests and I to the LA Sinnoh event. I'm gonna say in total I probably gave out about 30. I would say about 10 per event.

[00:25:57] David Hernandez: Dang. So 30 people came up and challenged you or at least you

[00:26:00] PaellaPapi91: More than that, not every, not everybody got a badge.

[00:26:03] David Hernandez: Oh, that's right. Cause it's only people who won.

[00:26:05] PaellaPapi91: Yes, I stuck to that.

[00:26:07] David Hernandez: Dang, I like it. I like it.

[00:26:10] PaellaPapi91: I feel like with these, um, events, I need to go one day to have, a lot of people that have the opportunity to earn a badge and the second day to just really have fun and catch Pokemon.

[00:26:21] David Hernandez: Oh, yeah, for

[00:26:22] PaellaPapi91: Cause you can't really do both.

[00:26:24] David Hernandez: yeah, unless you can somehow figure out how to multiply yourself.

[00:26:27] PaellaPapi91: Yeah. I'm working on. Yeah.

[00:26:32] David Hernandez: Stay tuned for that. He's trying to learn how use double team.

[00:26:35] PaellaPapi91: Yes.

[00:26:37] David Hernandez: Well, you know, thank you for your time for coming on the show. I do wanna finish it off with one last question. in the spirit of, you know, you being a gym leader, of you doing the gym leader challenge, if somebody was to come battle you, what six Pokemon would you bring to a Pokemon battle?

[00:26:54] PaellaPapi91: That's a good question. because I'm looking at the sticks right now. Um, uh, these are the sticks that I like to use and go, throughout the different leagues. So it's going to be my Charizard. It's the first Charizard I ever caught in 26 Melmetal, Gyarados, Garchomp, Azumarill, and Shiftry.

[00:27:16] David Hernandez: Such as the unique team.

[00:27:18] PaellaPapi91: yes, that's something. I try to stay with, with PVP. Like the medals are boring. Like I kind of like the spicy alternatives maybe that's why I lose quite a bit just because like, I'm trying to like, you know, find a, just a spicy team. So yeah, I want to keep it spicy. You got to keep it spicy with Paya, man.

[00:27:39] David Hernandez: Hey, there you go. Hey, if it's not spicy, is it really paya? That's the real question we need to be asking at the end of this episode.

[00:27:46] PaellaPapi91: It probably, probably is. I don't know how spicy Paya is, but,

[00:27:53] David Hernandez: Well, Paya thank you for coming on the podcast. Before you go, if people want to check you out or want to connect with you, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

[00:28:02] PaellaPapi91: I am really just on. Instagram, at piepoppy91. And, yeah, you can reach me there, and I'll be happy to share my, Pokemon Go friend code. 

[00:28:12] David Hernandez: Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Follow all my socials and join our Discord community to stay connected by clicking any of the links in the description of this episode. Tune in next time for more episodes featuring more people, more stories, and more Pokemon. Until next time.