As The Pokeball Turns
As The Pokéball Turns is a Pokémon interview podcast that shares real stories from Trainers around the world. From personal journeys to lasting friendships, we explore how Pokémon shapes lives and builds community across the games, the TCG, and beyond. Join creators, community leaders, and everyday fans as they share what makes Pokémon more than just a game. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. One voice, one journey, one memory at a time. Your next Pokémon adventure begins here!
As The Pokeball Turns
"Crunch Time For Sharpedo" ft. Unova Region Champion Black | TRAINER'S EYE #169
What if everything you loved about Pokémon was taken away, not once, but again and again? And yet...you kept coming back.
The creator behind the Unova Region Champion Black Facebook page shares a powerful journey of resilience, rediscovery, and rebuilding. From having Pokémon taken away by family, to stolen cards, lost consoles, and a shattered childhood, Sharpie found his way back through grit, community, and the comforting chaos of a Sunflora solo run. You'll hear how a stolen Game Boy, a grandfather's support, and a lifelong love for Water-type Pokémon all shaped a voice now heard by over 130,000 fans.
Listen now to discover how one Trainer turned heartbreak into healing and why the Pokémon community still means everything.
🎧 Tune into stories that honor Black identity through Pokémon.
Start the Black Pokémon Trainers playlist today!
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
- Visit our website: www.asthepokeballturns.com
- Join Our Discord Community!
https://discord.gg/AqAbD7FbRt
Your next Pokemon adventure begins here!
my name is Sharpie, the owner of Unova Region Champion Black, and this is my Pokemon story.
David Hernandez:Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns, where every voice, every journey, and every memory brings us closer to the world of Pokemon. David Hernandez and I'm joined by Sharpie, the owner of the Unova Region Champion Black Facebook page. Sharpie, welcome to As The Pokeball Turns.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Hey, thanks for having me.
David Hernandez:Absolutely Sharpie. And you know, to have, I guess, a Facebook owner page'cause a lot of people feel like Facebook's kind of dead or it's kind of the thing of the past. before we dive into anything, I want to guess give some insight to what is the Unova Region Champion Black Facebook page. Like, what is it about?
Unova Regional Champion Black:Honestly. So So, I wanna preface by saying this, originally, this was not my Facebook page. case. my original Facebook page was the Real Rival Silver, which the, that page is not up anymore. The backup page is still active. It's still, it's not active, but it's up. But the original page, got taken down by Facebook in 2014, But. My friend Happened to have, Unova Region Champion Black. He started this page about two months after I started my original one and we became friends because at that time the Facebook community was really popping and everybody had the Facebook pages and it was just like you had the super popular ones and he had the kind of popular ones and then he had the ones that were trying to grow. a lot of times you saw page admins on multiple different pages and that was just kind of like the thing. So he was in the admin on my original page, I was the admin on his page and Unova Region Champion Black at most I think had eight page admins on it. And just over time, throughout life or whatever the page pretty much got down to one admin and it's been just me for Probably since 2017 and I took time off of the page just because I had a lot of life going on between like 2017 and 2019. I hate to say that like I let the page die. I just, I didn't delete it, but I just, I let it die. I just, I couldn't focus on it at all. And then 20 19, 20 20, I kind of started picking back up. I wanna see if I can rebuild this page and, you know, just make it feel more like me since I'm the only one here anyways. And I needed a hobby to kind of get myself away from just real life. And then I started posting, I'd only post like a couple of times a day and then I would start posting more often. And then COVID happened and I didn't really have anything else to do but post, so I started posting more often so it went from maybe two or three times a day to like five or six times a day. And as of the last three years. I've been posting probably nine to 10 times a day every day for the last three years straight
David Hernandez:Oh my God. That's some dedication.
Unova Regional Champion Black:is, and I don't really know how I've kept it up like
David Hernandez:gonna ask like how.
Unova Regional Champion Black:and before they let us actually schedule posts, I was actually going in manually every two hours. It didn't matter if I was at work, it didn't matter if I was at church or out, you know, on the street, or if I was just playing games with family, I would stop what I'm doing or you know, I could be out at dinner and if I know that timeframe has passed, I'm going and I posted something else. And it's at the point now where even though I can schedule posts, I don't do it because it's now wired in my brain that every two hours I have to check my phone.
David Hernandez:so you're like almost attached to your phone. You have to make sure that it's kind of there anyway.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yeah, I try to tell myself, okay, I need to break. I need to break myself outta this habit. I need to get back to scheduling posts. And I'll schedule posts for like a week and then after and, and I'll still go back every two hours. Like, did I schedule that the right way?'cause sometimes I'll schedule it for the wrong time or for the wrong day, and I have to go back and fix it or go and post something else and leave that for another day. And then I get frustrated because now I've messed up my routine. But it's been a while. Three years. Last year for me was an insane year for me for growth because I started at around 33,000 followers, and I ended the year, I believe at 133,000 followers. That's just in that one year. Whereas I spent the last, 10 years before that, trying to build this page up in one year. I tripled, you know, my follower base. And I still don't know what happened because I, I haven't replicated it. I'm not on that same trend this year, which is fine, but I don't know I what happened last year for me to get to the point that I'm at now.
David Hernandez:Now you mentioned how you took a break initially. You took about two page. Two years. I'm
Unova Regional Champion Black:Mm-hmm.
David Hernandez:about two years to kind of take a break at, after 2017, what inspired you to want to come back to this page?'cause it could have been easy just to forget about it and just be like, it's over. That's the end of the chapter. But you decided to come back specifically for this page and continue it on its legacy. What made you want to come back?
Unova Regional Champion Black:honestly, I was dealing with a lot of. trauma, a lot of bad things that were just like kind of going on in my life at the time And even though I spent I guess a somewhat decent amount of time on Facebook and even on other social media platforms, I just, I always kept coming back to Facebook and every now and then I would see, you know, one of the pages that was like, back when all the pages were booming, one of the pages that were still active, they would post something and I'm like. I kind of miss, you know, that old page community, you know, I wish we could, you know, build that back up and then I would see a couple of pages that were newer, but they were active and I was like, oh. So, you know, there are still active, Pokemon fan pages that are out there. I still have this one and I kind of just kind of use it as a gauge to see if this community, if my community is active, even though I've been gone for so long, then I'll keep going. But if I can't, get that activity back up, then I'll kind of just let it go. You know, at least be try, I'll do something else, or I'll focus on myself and the other social media platforms that I'm on and work on their growth there. we had a couple of posts that did pretty well and I was like, okay, this isn't, you know, it's not too bad. I can probably build on this. I didn't know how, but I was just going to keep trying until I got somewhere and then I got somewhere.
David Hernandez:what felt different, I guess, about engaging the community at that point, you know, compared to before 2017 to even afterwards. Was there a difference or was it kind of more the same?
Unova Regional Champion Black:It's a huge difference. some of the people that I recognize coming back, like one thing I like about Facebook is it's easy to tell who's been around for a while and who's relatively new because I still see names that I saw back in, you know, 2013 that, you know, I saw it come back to the page when I came back in 2019. And I was like, wow, you've been following for a long time. And you know, you don't realize that those names are kind of like stuck in your head until you see them again. And like, okay, hey, I remember you, or I think I remember you. but the community back then it was a lot more active. like we had a lot of pages that were doing collabs together and doing all kinds of community events. And we would set up Facebook groups where we could, you know, combine our fan bases and we might have Pokemon tournaments or, you know, really big giveaways or, you know, just in general having fun. And nowadays, even though it's starting to build back up again up with like a new crop of talent, new crop of pages, it still doesn't feel as. Lively as it used to. I personally have been trying to get a lot of different Pokemon pages from different walks of life to mesh their communities together again. And you know, there's always gonna be a couple outliers, you know, people that kind of just want to, you know, do their own thing and that's fine. Like, you know, I support you growing your community.'cause at the end of the day, we're all here for Pokemon. But I kind of, I don't wanna say, I feel this is probably the only nostalgic thing about Pokemon for me that really kind of gets me is I do miss the way the community used to be compared to how it is now. But at the same time, I enjoy the fact that the community is building itself anew.
David Hernandez:could you get some insight on that? Like, do you mean the different, same based on the Facebook side or overall?
Unova Regional Champion Black:I would say primarily on the Facebook side, the overall social media platform of Pokemon has just grown in general with Pokemon Go and with the competitive scene growing to the point where it's, even if you don't necessarily play competitive, you know, certain people, you know, within the competitive realm of Pokemon or if you're a shiny hunter or if you're this, people know these names more and I feel like we're almost in like a renaissance period for Pokemon as a whole, but to dwindling down to Facebook, it's a little bit of the same, like, kind of like a, a lesser renaissance type feel. And just like specifically for fan pages and One of the things that I noticed when I first came back is that we had fan pages, but they didn't really interact with their fan base, with their fan base. And one of the things that helped my page take off and the original, well I'll say the original, community Days, is that most of us as fan page admins, we were active in talking with our community. It wasn't just, okay, we're gonna post something and then leave it alone. It was if, you know, if somebody commented on it, you know, we responded to the comments and you know, we would have conversations and this thing and that thing. And coming back. Initially we didn't really have that, at least I didn't really see it no matter you know, what page I was on. I didn't really see people commenting like towards their fans, like having those conversations. And I was like, well, it just doesn't feel the same. but I was gonna keep doing what I was used to. I was used to talking to the fans. So if I brought up, a subject, whether it was something related to the games or to the anime, and I wanted to have a conversation, I would post something that's a conversation piece. on my Facebook page bio, it says, Hey, you know, I'm probably gonna argue with you, but like, don't take it seriously for me. It's all in good fun.
David Hernandez:right.
Unova Regional Champion Black:And I think that a lot of people see me as like a controversial poster, because I will post my opinion and I will argue with you on your opinion and my opinion. and I get a lot of mess for this, and it's, it's fine because everybody, you know, is entitled to their opinion. but it's like we have so many people that feel so strongly about things and I'm passionate to see those conversations keep going and going. So there are parts of the conversation where even though I don't agree with your standpoint, I agree with parts of it, but I'm not gonna focus on the parts that I agree with. I'm going to specifically focus on the parts that I disagree with for the sake of keeping the conversation going. Because that increases that viewership and that brings, you know, more people to this conversation. And then more people get to talking. And not only are they talking with me, but now they're talking with each other. And then you build, these relationships, whether they're good or bad, but you build these relationships. Amongst each other and with them, And it's like, okay, great. You know, this conversation, this, this post went well and it all started because I said that I like Alola and everybody else hates Alola, or I agree with DExT. And everybody's like, Dex, it was a bad idea. They lied. Game freak lied, you know? And I'm just like, I care because everybody playing Pokemon should be happy. And no, you can't really please everybody, but there are things that you can avoid and things you can't avoid. And I feel like everybody deserves the right to not just express their opinion, but everybody deserves the right to have fun if they want to. the only time you'll see me really get serious with a Pokemon conversation is if I see other people trying, trying to dwindle people's ability to have fun.
David Hernandez:I think it's a shift at some point. I don't know when, but some point I think people who were, I'll say creators, whether it be the Facebook, I. Or any kind of media became more onlookers instead of being involved within the community. You know, I remember growing up, a lot of the people I watched, they were also involved, like you were talking about. They would lead discussions, they would lead talks, some of them against some very controversial subjects, let's be honest. yes, they would get their flag for it, but they would also open up a conversation to other people's minds out or open other open people's minds, but also be able to lead dialogue. And you don't see that much, much anymore. You get people who to avoid the controversial side, who maybe avoid like the negativity, which I get it. You know, you wanna protect your mental health, but at the same time there's that conversation's still gonna happen whether you engage with it or
Unova Regional Champion Black:Mm-hmm.
David Hernandez:And if you don't engage with it, well what does that lead you to? Right? You lead to maybe people getting ideas that maybe aren't the best, not just for Pokemon, but maybe overall at least that's what do you think? That's my thought.
Unova Regional Champion Black:I agree. I, I feel like people are, I. I don't wanna say afraid, but people are more concerned with protecting their image or their brand than to really talk about, the hard hitting subjects or to have those conversations about, you know, the hard hitting subjects or, the way things are, not just with the people that make Pokemon, but the people that play Pokemon, the people that talk about it, like social media doesn't seem to be, you know, where it used to be, where we could, you know, unapologetically have these conversations without worrying about offending a bunch of people or getting canceled or, you know, whatever it is. And for me that's just not fun. It doesn't, for me promote. Growth within the community to where everybody's, voice can be heard. Like your opinion as a, as a content creator, your opinion matters too. And to be so worried about the backlash from whatever it is that you might have to say is unfortunate. Because while I understand that, you have an image to protect or you've got, you know, so and so sponsoring you I understand that point of view, but to limit yourself in this, in such a conversation that's so vast, I just, I feel it's unfortunate to see people not be willing to. Step out and say something and not just like yell and, okay, you know, these people are yelling or these guys are bad, or they could, you know, do better. Not just to be, you know, antagonistic, but just to talk, to have the debates, the conversations, for me, I wanna bring that back in any way that I can. I don't want people, people shouldn't have to be afraid to speak their mind correctly. Of course.
David Hernandez:I want to dive into your experience with Pokemon. Let's get people an idea of like, who's the Pokemon side of your page. what's your experience with Pokemon? Where does this all start?
Unova Regional Champion Black:Pokemon for me started, pretty much at the very beginning. it hit the states, at that time I was only like four years old. And to me it was really just the TV show, like it, it was just the anime. And I loved the anime. And then, my mom and my dad, when we found out, when they found out about the games, they got me to Pokemon games and they didn't think anything of it, you know, it's, a kid with cute creatures and they're, you know, they're going on adventures and stuff like that, so you don't think anything about that as a parent, And it was almost a very, very short lived career for folk, for me as a Pokemon fan, because both of my parents were very religious. And when it started coming out about the whole pocket monsters things and demons and this thing, they took like everything from me. Like my game boys were gone, my Pokemon games were gone. All my Pokemon bedsheets were like gone and thrown away. And it was, it was jarring for me to lose this thing that like I had, you know, very quickly become super attached to because of, what people were saying about it. And I wasn't really old enough to say, Hey, but that's not, you know, that's not what's happening. We're not being, you know, manipulated or hypnotized and, you know, all this other stuff. But, you know, I was, I was a little kid, so I didn't really get it. My grandfather pretty much is the reason that I like, was able to stay into it because he would go, he went and he bought me a second game boy and another Pokemon game. But he kept it at his house. So whenever, like when I got the chance to play, like whenever I gotta go over to his, to his house, I would've played. And I was just playing Pokemon. He encouraged and everything. Like he said, don't worry about them. I, I got you, you know, just grandparent things. And over the years my mom realized that it was not leaving me like, she could not get Pokemon away from me, so she kind of gave up. Like, she, she really kind of gave up and she was just like, look, as long as you keep your grades good, then, you know, whatever, it's fine. around 2002, my dad passed away and getting ready for his funeral and everything. I was on my way to my grandmother's house and We were out at the store. It was my, me, my sister, and my mom, my cousin, and my godbrother, and we were out, you know, getting things prepared and everything. And being in New York, there's, you know, all kinds of stuff happening everywhere. There's a bunch of people around. You can keep up with most things, but you can't keep up with everything. So some, so all of all of our stuff was in the trunk of our car. Like all of our Christmas presents, all of our clothes, all of our, you know, game was and everything like that. Were all in the trunk of the car. Somebody somehow had popped the trunk of our car, took all of our stuff out. They stole, like stole all of our stuff and closed it back without anybody noticing until we got to my grandmother's house and opened the trunk and nothing was there. And my heart was shattered because at this point I'd done lost my father, not, I lost my game, my Pokemon games for the second time, and I was like, you know what? I quit. I, I, I can't, you know, I can't be a Pokemon fan anymore. I'm like eight years old, nine years old. I was just as heartbroken over my dad passing as me losing all my game boy games. Just got gold and silver and it was like, gut wrenching for me. I missed a little bit of that time. Fast forward a few years, I was getting into a lot of fights at school. I didn't have any Pokemon games, but I had a lot of Pokemon carts. I. Me getting into fights at school. My mom was not happy. My mom threw away every Pokemon card I had ever had from when they first came out. So like a lot of the first edition cards that are like probably now worth thousands of dollars all gone, all trash. And then they were in the trash bag, came home ball in tears. Sad you threw my Pokemon cards away and she let me keep some of them. So, you know, I kept out the little holographic ones and my holographic G guards and muses and stuff like that. And the mute card from the movie. Like, I kept all that stuff and she actually made me take a pair of scissors and cut up every other card. So at this point I'm three generations in the Pokemon and I've had three separate tragedies happen to me. And I got into one more fight at school. And them cards that she let me keep, I no longer could keep'em. And they were, they were gone like they were. And I never saw them again. And at until this day, I have not collected Pokemon cards because of that it was, it was rough. Like, so yeah, I, I don't touch Pokemon cards anymore. I still have some that have been like given to me or like, you know, Christmas present, birthday present. Like, I still have some Pokemon cards, but as far as being a collector like I was when I was a kid, never again, gen four was the same thing that happened to me in gen two. I had a DS and I had Pokemon Diamond. It was like a month after the games came out. And somebody that I thought was a friend of mine stole my Ds and stole my Pokemon Diamond game. At this point, it wasn't like my mom wasn't gonna replace the Ds like that, that was a whole console. She wasn't replacing that. She wasn't replacing the game. So I missed out on Diamond, Pearl Platinum, har Code Soul, silver and black and white one before I could get another Ds. And at that point I stopped watching the anime. of course, I couldn't play the games unless I was like playing on an emulator. And for me, I was just done. I I, I was done with Pokemon for all of Gen four and half of Gen five. And I didn't start playing. I didn't get another DS again until I started working. I got hard gonna soul silver, even though black and white two were getting ready to come out. And from then on, now that I'm old enough to get my own games, that's exactly what I did. I got my own games, I did all my own stuff. Nobody was gonna take anything from me. I was going to enjoy myself. And this is also around the same timeframe where I made my Facebook page, my original one. I would talk about her gonna soul silver. And then I would start talking about black and white too. And now I'm like playing from behind, having to play all these games either in per, like, either with the DS cartridge or on an emulator, trying to keep up with what everybody's talking about. cause I had no idea. And when I finally got myself in a groove of things, then black and white two came out. And I was thankfully able to get that. And I played it and I played it for, I don't know, eight or 9,000 hours. Like, you couldn't take me away from it at all. It came to work with me. He went to school with me. It was on all of my trips. Everything I did, my Ds was with me.
David Hernandez:Did you feel like whenever you started, getting the games back, did you feel like you were taking back something maybe you had lost or were you kind of starting new, you felt like you were starting kind of fresh?
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yeah, it was really rough. I felt like when I was finally able to come back, I felt like I was reclaiming my childhood. Like I knew there were things that I wasn't gonna be like, go and buy'em back. Like, I'm not gonna go and buy Pokemon pajamas or Pokemon bedsheets or anything like that.
David Hernandez:Hey, why not? Let's go. You got your own money. Let's do
Unova Regional Champion Black:Don't get me wrong now, now that I'm like in my thirties, yes, I have Pokemon pajamas and yes, I have like, I've got all those things.
David Hernandez:okay.
Unova Regional Champion Black:But at that point where I'm in, like my late teens or early twenties, I knew that I wanted to focus on the games. Like gimme all the games information. I was starting to get into competitive battling. one of my early competitive battling dreams was to battle Shofu And I got a chance to do that. it went on YouTube, I got swept. It wasn't fun, but me battling Shofu was like, at that time, the highlight of my career because I got the battle. You know, at that time, you know, the most famous competitive Poketuber. it was like, yo, you got the battle. You got the battle Shofu I was like, yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I lost. But yeah, I got the battle him. I got battle. I was, look, I was so happy. I did not care. You couldn't tell me anything. But what sucks about losing to Shofu is that, first of all, obviously he's an amazing battler, but. I would've thought that, okay, Darmanitan is gonna beat me, or Heatran is gonna beat me. No, no. If you go on YouTube and you watch that battle, I lost to Pikachu like the first few turns of the battle started off great. I made one mistake and it just spiraled all the way down to me losing to Pikachu
David Hernandez:Do you think battling him was more about testing your skill or kind of being seen by somebody you looked up to?
Unova Regional Champion Black:I would say it was a little bit of both because I looked up to him and I knew I was still kind of like a budding competitive battler, but I knew I wasn't bad and I figured that if I can. Have a good showing against him, then I can go and I can, you know, try and talk to these other Poketubers and maybe do some collabs. Start, you know, see if they can help me with my content creation, because I want to get into the same field. like, I want that to kind of be like, I guess my catapult to,
David Hernandez:stone.
Unova Regional Champion Black:my,
David Hernandez:Stepping
Unova Regional Champion Black:yeah, my stepping stone into content creation and into competitive battling. And he did actually help me quite a bit as far as getting started goes, it was just at the time I couldn't really afford to get all the software.'cause at that time, you know, it was a DS era, so you had to go and get your ds modded or you had to get one of the ace cards to, record your content, which at that time I just couldn't afford it. Because I was pretty much, running my own household, I was working full-time, but I was also paying for an apartment and my car and everything like that. So a lot of my money was occupied to where I couldn't really keep up with it like they could. And now you see them, you know, their, you know where they are at their point of life and I'm not exactly there, which is okay. You know, everybody's, you know, walks of life are different. Everybody, has those opportunities to, do what they can. but I did get, you know, the opportunity to battle a couple of people that were prominent at that time, like Hayden and Six Foot Hacks and Yellow S Swallow. And I battled, Joey Po game once and I got a couple of wins off a couple of people, but they're like written off in history. I didn't have any way to record those battles. So they're there. But, I just, I wanted to be seen. I wanted to be seen by, you know, I wanted to be noticed. I wanted to say, you know, Hey, I gave this person a good, you know, a good experience. You know, how can I get myself in the door so that I can do the same
David Hernandez:It's crazy to think that may have never happened. Had your grandfather not gave you the opportunity to experience Pokemon at his place, do you think that maybe he saw some love in Pokemon that made him wanna protect it for you? Like what do you think the reason why he wanted you to experience Pokemon compared to what you saw from your parents?
Unova Regional Champion Black:honestly, I'm not sure. I think it's just a different viewpoint. like having like super religious parents and growing up in that household versus having a grandfather who was a lot more down to earth and for me, like when you see kids like have a passion for something, generally speaking, like you want to nurture that. And he was very good at like nurturing the things that I was passionate about and outside, like even outside of Pokemon for me, like I was a huge Power Rangers fan. He went and I had this Power Rangers like CD ROM math game when I was like learning math while playing as a Power Ranger at the same time. And I had my Power Rangers Halloween costumes like Power Rangers and Pokemon were like my two fandoms and it was easier to play Pokemon. It was easier to get myself into Pokemon.'cause Power Rangers at that time was just, a couple of toys and the TV show. But Pokemon is something that I could do, it's a learning opportunity at that, you know, at that point. You know, learning to read like longer sentences and learning how to problem solve and figure things out. And I think people underestimate the amount of learning and general motor skills and everything that you can get as a kid from playing Pokemon. And I think that he saw that and he saw that I was learning how to do a lot of things just in general from playing Pokemon and having that passion for something that I didn't realize was gonna be as big as it is for me now, like it was back then.
David Hernandez:Now when it came to Pokemon, you know, we talked on like the first five generations a bit. Do you have a particular favorite set of games that you enjoyed the most? Out of those first half of the generation with Pokemon,
Unova Regional Champion Black:So my favorite generation, I would say, is generation three, but my favorite game is Heart Gold Soul Silver Gen three was just, for me it was just, it was open, it was in my opinion, like it had the coolest set of starters and it was challenging, like I could go, and for me, the memories that I remember, like the most common with Gen three is the rival battle with May or Brandon, on the bridge, under the cycling road. And I remember losing to May, like I, I couldn't even tell you how many times in a row before I finally got it because I refused to change Pokemon. Like I absolutely refused to change whatever Pokemon I had on my team. And I kept losing because I wouldn't change or I wouldn't add something to it. I was just like, oh man, I can't do this. Like, so the first time I beat it, I was just like jumping for joy. I was excited. And then getting through, the rest of the game. The next part I got stuck at was Tate Eliza's gym. And it just seemed like no matter what I did, no matter what Pokemon I put on my team, I couldn't win. And here's where my favorite Pokemon comes into this. I went and got a super ride and I caught a sharpedo. And I took Sharpedo to the gym'cause I was like, look, I don't even, I, I don't know, you know what else to do. I know it's a water type and I know that water beats three of her live there for Pokemon. So I took it and Sharpedo just cleaned up house. It was like sharpedo and Swampert they just cleaned up house and I was like, okay, Like I really like Sharpedo. Sharpedo pretty much took the whole gym down by itself.
David Hernandez:and that is the, became your favorite Pokemon at
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yes. It became my favorite Pokemon at that point and the rest of the game it was like, okay, we got through that. Sharpedo helped me beat Juan and then Sharpedo helped me in the Elite four against Phoebe. it was just like, dang, this Pokemon's really good. It can't take many hits, but it can hit really hard.
David Hernandez:It's literally a hit and run
Unova Regional Champion Black:It was a hit and run glass can, but it, when it hits you, it hit hard.
David Hernandez:Yeah.
Unova Regional Champion Black:And I love that because it was like, Sharpedo went down. Let me go ahead and send out my Linoone and use my revival on Sharpedo. But when LInoone dies, I can send Sharpedo back out and get another kill and might die again. But I've got all these revises, I'm just gonna keep bringing back Sharpedo. And that's what it like, that's what it was for me. And, but what really sucked me into Gen three and specifically Pokemon Emerald was the battle frontier. The battle frontier, to this day is still like the hardest thing ever. I've still never collected all seven gold badges because I refuse to try the Battle pyramid, the Gold Battle Pyramid Challenge. It's just, it looks like it's too hard because silver was too hard. I'm not doing gold, but Sharpedo, I think I had sharpedo. And Cradily and another Pokemon that I had in the Battle Dome. And that was the first time I ever got any battle symbol. And I was like, dang, you know, Sharpe's really good in this game. And then just going forward and going through Gen four and like missing gen four completely, I was just stuck on playing Gen three games. I played gen three, I played, you know, it by itself. I played like Rom hacks of FireRed and LeafGreen and Emerald. And it was just, I was just so fixated on gen three, so I could just keep playing with Sharpedo and Cacturne and all the other folk, one that I liked. Just in that one game. And I didn't really care about anything else. And then when I played gen four, and I don't even know where I could get Sharpedo in that game unless I had to like trade it up or something. But Gen four for me, like specifically like Diamond par Platinum, it just never really stuck with me. Like the Pokemon didn't stick with me. Barry was annoying and I thought the story was cool, but it just kept, it just felt like it dragged on. And then the Elite Four was kind of boring. Like we had a bug Elite Four. And I was just like, well this, this whole thing is a cakewalk, you know, my fire type here and then my, you know, my water type there for Bertha. And it was just like, this was boring. Cynthia wasn't hard for me. by the time I got to play Har Gonna Soul Silver, I was hooked again. That was for me, har gonna Soul Silver. That was the first time I ever. Tried the Masuda method for shiny breeding and I had a shiny cynical that I named Kindle. it was, it was just small and cute. It was just like kindling a flame. And I just played the game through with my shiny, cynical and the other random Pokemon that I would have. And it was the first time that I knew that Crobat evolved via friendship because I had Cyndaquil and I had a Zubat and a Mareep. And when my Zubat evolved into, Golbat and like the next level, it evolved into Crobat. And I was like, wait, you evolved at level 25? And then I went and looked it up on Serebii and it was like, oh, high friendship. I was like, yeah, I don't know what I did, but I'm, I've been real good friends with Zubat.
David Hernandez:You and Zubat were bros?,
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yes. And then so I took, I had Crobat by like the fourth gym and Crobat. And Typhlosion pretty much carried me for the entire game. And I was just like, dang, I, man, I'm the only person that ever had a Crobat this early.
David Hernandez:Dang, dude. That's some memories right there. I love it.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Mm-hmm. And I spent a lot, a lot of time at the Pokey Lon, like I was going to, you know, break records. I was gonna be the, you know, the best person to ever do every event in the Poke alon. I spent so much time just doing that. Like, I didn't care about the game, I didn't care about the post game. Me too Good weight, red could weight, I was gonna master the polon, whatever Pokemon I had to use. I had Pokemon I'd never used before, like electrode. it was just for me, that was, that was super duper fun for me. And I would go back and do it again in a heartbeat and spend thousands of hours again at Pokeathalon. So I think those two games, Emerald, I would say for Gen three and Har Gordon, soa, were probably the two that resonate the most with me. And don't get me wrong, I know you know my page, Unova Region Champion black. I love Gen three. I love Gen five. I think Gen five still has the best story out of all the Pokemon or out of all the Pokemon games. But I can't, say that they're my favorite games because they're not. I do like what they did when they had us, they forced us to play with all new Pokemon in black and white one. But then I hate that they went and just erased all of that in black and white too. Like I would rather play with all the new Pokemon, let me fall in love with new Pokemon that are out there, like Scrafty and Jellicent and Krookodile in them, like. I developed, those bonds with those Pokemon too, but I don't know, it didn't, it didn't resonate, it didn't stick with me outside of like competitive ballet, you know, getting into that stuff. Gen five didn't overall stick with me. Like Lue Gen three and, and Har Going Soul Silver did.
David Hernandez:I wanted to ask,'cause you mentioned Pokeathalon. What was it about that specific mechanic or part of the game from Heart Gold Soul Silver that you enjoyed compared to the main series?
Unova Regional Champion Black:it was just, it was different, And it was actually difficult because they didn't really, it wasn't really handhold. It wasn't the same, you know, turn based stuff. you are actually out here and you're tapping your DS screen and you know, you're being the one, like you can't tap too fast'cause you don't wanna mess up, but you can't tap too little and then be behind.
David Hernandez:You feel? It sounds like it was more skillful,
Unova Regional Champion Black:was, it was a lot more skillful than just a normal battle. for me that was like, everything because like, it genuinely challenged me because certain Pokemon have certain stats and if you want to be the best, you have to use those Pokemon that are the best. Like, okay, Weavile and Electrode are gonna be, you know, those fast Pokemon if you're running a race, you want them there. But then there are strength competitions that were jumping competitions and obviously jumping competitions. You wanna have a flying type and strength competitions. You might wanna fighting type or rock type, something that's, bigger and stronger. But you could only pick a certain amount of Pokemon on your team. So to find that niche of the right combination of Pokemon, that's gonna give you the things that you need for whatever those events are.'cause they changed every time. So you never really knew exactly what three events you were gonna get in what order, and you had to plan your team ahead to have that balance, but to be good everywhere too.
Hey you. Yes, you with the ears. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. Love hearing real stories from real trainers. Help as the Pokemon turns become the best Pokemon interview podcast like no one ever was. By joining our Patreon, you're not just supporting the show. You're helping more fans share their journeys with the world. As a thank you, you'll get accustomed Pokemon Wristband each month themed after a featured Pokemon. Head on over to patreon.com/as the FO ball turns and join our community today.
David Hernandez:Now after gen five, you know, we get gen six and that's kind of where I say Pokemon started getting easier. You know, you didn't have to grind as much. I would say the challenges were a lot less available. Did you notice that? And what did you think of that sudden change?
Unova Regional Champion Black:I can agree with that. I feel like the tutorials got a little bit longer in than 3D era of games. the cut scenes were pretty good, good, they would drag on and maybe that's just like the capabilities of the Ds and the three Ds back then. But it was a lot of, I don't wanna say handholding'cause I know that, phrase gets, you know, thrown around a lot. But it was definitely a little bit easier, I think all the way from, You know, your rival's giving you items to help you along in your journey to them. Really just in general, not being very strong in a sense. Like you had one rival that was actually a rival and then you had three other people that were just friends. Like I was okay with that, but a lot of people, I understand why a lot of people wouldn't because they really just weren't a challenge at all. And it just kind of took away from the overall experience. But I do think that they got a lot of stuff right in the 3D era of games. Just like in general, like I look at mega evolution. I think mega evolution was a good concept with less than stellar execution. but I do think that being 3D, they took more focus on world building than gameplay. it's a very thin line to walk on because with the Sprite era of Pokemon, you focus primarily on the gameplay up until maybe gen five, and then you started looking at more story based, you know, aspects of Pokemon. But in Gen six, I feel like they did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong in terms of they sacrificed a lot of how the game looks and how the game plays for the sake of the story or the sake of certain mechanics. And if they could have balanced it a little bit better, at least in Gen six specifically, they could have balanced it a little bit better. I think the games would've been fine. In Gen seven, they kind of did the same thing, but they focused really heavily on the story and then the games got a lot easier. But the mechanic, in my opinion, got a little bit better because like how mega evolutions only available to a certain few Pokemon, you had Z moves, which there were different types of Z moves. You had signature Z moves that you know, only a few Pokemon had, but Z moves as a whole was available to everybody. I think that that part of it was, great. I think that they executed it really well. It maybe could have been a little bit better, but I think it was really well because it didn't necessarily change the entire outcome of the battle. Like the way Mega Evolution did. And you had this mega of all Pokemon for the entire rest of the battle. This Pokemon now, it just changed, its typing and its stats just changed, its ability changed and now you're getting swept by somebody's Mega Salamence. But a Z move was just like a one off nuke and it might have affected a turn or two, but it doesn't necessarily have an impact on the entire battle in both cases. And then Gen seven got rid of like the PSS, which I think was like the best thing that Pokemon did as far as online connectivity, like getting rid of the friend Safari, was it kind of hurt?'cause I liked the friend Safari a lot and I know a lot of people like the friend Safari. and then you had already the friendship mechanic, but then you had this happiness meter and there were like two different things for no reason at all. Like why, why do we have friendship and happiness? Like they should be the same thing. And you know now it's the same thing, it should have been the same thing when they introduced it, because this Pokemon evolves with high happiness. But this Pokemon evolves with high friendship. And I'm, but why?
David Hernandez:you think it'd be both? Yeah. It should be the same thing, like who's friends and not happy. It'd be kind of an odd friendship. Right?
Unova Regional Champion Black:it, it was just like, why, why, why did you introduce this mechanic? And it literally does all the same things as the one you already had in place. it just got weird. But I do like, I think it was, I think Gen seven had Pokemon me. Either Pokemon or me, or Pokemon or Fresh that Jens ever had. I never touched it. I just didn't care. but I don't think it was bad. A lot of people did like it. A lot of people used it, but I just personally did not care about that. If I wanted my Pokemon to be happy, we were gonna go and we were gonna do a lot of battles and I was gonna keep you from dying. I was gonna do the normal happiness, friendship stuff that everybody else does. You want a Soothe Bell here? Take the so belt suit, but gen seven for me, and up until now where I'm doing a Sunflora solo, run through every Pokemon game and I'm playing Alola again. gen seven was the only Pokemon game that I never went back and replayed at even one time.
David Hernandez:really, how come. Yeah.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Honestly, it was just, it was the story. It, and Gen seven for me almost got me back out of Pokemon because. I thought that the characters looked kind of weird. They were kind of like just super stale faced to me and even though I liked the concept of not having Gyms anymore, the characters I couldn't necessarily connect with. And while I was just, growing up and doing adult life things, when they were talking about how Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were pretty much just a copy and paste of Sun and Moon, I was like, well, why would I go and get the exact same game again, but only with a couple of changes? It didn't occur to me that every other previous, like third iteration of every game was pretty much that, but at that time that was just like, well, if it's the exact same game, then I don't wanna play it. Because I've already seen this storyline, at least in the other games. They either merged storylines together or they changed it enough to where it was interesting, but I was already not interested in the story of Sun and Moon. So to go and play it again and have nothing change was just kind of like, yeah, I'm good. I'm, I don't need to play it. And it wasn't until I think generation eight when I found out about Ultra Necrozma and Team Rainbow Rocket and all of those things, but I was like, okay, well all of that's post game. I don't care to go through the game again just to get to that. So I just never went back.
David Hernandez:And I think that's what ruined it for me too.'cause that's when I stopped.'cause I was playing Pokemon Go and it's like, you got ready, it's the same game. I'm like, why would I go through the, like you made me spend you amount of money to buy the same game, but the same stuff. But only thing that's different is the postgame
Unova Regional Champion Black:Exactly.
David Hernandez:it left. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I agree with you
Unova Regional Champion Black:Like that. That was, that was it really? Okay. I was like, yeah, I, it might be my time to take, a break from Pokemon again. That's when I was really kind of getting back into Pokemon Go and I was like really, really big into it. I had just moved to where I'm at now I was just trying to really just find some friends that played Pokemon and I found a Pokemon Go server, like a local Pokemon Go server. got to a point where I was so involved in that server where they was like, Hey, do you want to be admin? Because I was always posting like all the latest updates, like before everybody else who was like posting'em. I was already on it. like you would've thought that I was like Serebii or one of these other news outlets. I was there the moment the stuff was released, it was already getting posted into the Discord server and they added me as an admin. I was helping schedule like local events and stuff like that and local get togethers and stuff and it was great for a while. Like it was great for like a really long time and that was my way to stay within the Pokemon franchise, but step away from the main games until I saw something that was interesting. And you know, seeing Gen eight, a lot of people, I was like, okay, you know, the starters look kind of cool and everything. like I understood everything thematically. I didn't really care for like Grookey at the time. I just didn't, I cared about, sitting out, sitting his Scorbunny and the little one who's Yeah, Sobble and I liked them. I thought that Sobble was like the cutest thing in the world. And they were like, yeah. They were like, Sobbles so soft. It is crying. I'm like, so what? So what?
David Hernandez:what is the
Unova Regional Champion Black:I was like, that thing probably evolves into something really cool. And then it did. I was like, this man is, this is James Bond. This is, this is, this is 007 James Bond.
David Hernandez:Double oh seven and tillion.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yes. And I was like, yep. See, I told you. just let them cook. I told y'all, and between doing Pokemon Go and then Sword and Shield, my first, when I first found out about Dex Like, I had to mixed feelings about it because they announced that some Pokemon aren't gonna make it into the game. For me, I didn't necessarily care. I didn't really pay too much attention as to why, you know, what their reason was. I just wanted to know is Sharpedo in the game? Because if I can't play a Sharpedo, I will be sad. And then Sharpedo was not in the game and I was like, man. Y'all just ruined it for me. Like I was fine until that point where they were, when the decks got leaked and I saw that Sharpedo was not on the list, I was like, oh no, what am I going to do?
David Hernandez:That's my homeboy,
Unova Regional Champion Black:That's my homeboy.
David Hernandez:that's my partner. Yeah.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Like we done been through so many games together and you telling me. And then not only that, but they cut like 90% of the starters out. So now I don't have my favorite set of starters. I don't even have my second favorite set of starters. And I'm like, okay, well at least I have Lanturn, at least I have Jellicent, and then I've got, you know, James Bond, so I'm gonna do a mono. My first run was a mono water run. Through the game. And I had so much fun doing that because I was like, I'm gonna at least get one new Pokemon. So I think Drednaw was my new, water type. And Sobble of course. So I had them two representing the new one and I had Gyarados and Jellicent and Lanturn and I was like, yep, this is the team. And I swapped out Drednaw I think for Gastrodon, just'cause Gastrodon just kind of like felt better on the team when I was actually using it. And
David Hernandez:a better
Unova Regional Champion Black:it is a much better Pokemon.
David Hernandez:Yeah.
Unova Regional Champion Black:I was just blowing through the game and Gastrodon and Jellicent were like my MVPs. And even though my battle with Raihan and my battle with Leon were kind of difficult. But Like I enjoyed the stadium feel and like having this, this like, this is what Pokemon is, this is what Pokemon should be like when I see any anime, when they're always in these big stadiums for the Pokemon League, that's what I see when I see this game. And for me, the story in itself kind of lack luster. Like you don't really get to the story until the end of the game basically, which kind of sucked. But I almost didn't care because I was just, I was having fun anyways, I enjoyed going through the wild area. It was a little bit barren, but I still, I enjoyed going through it. I enjoyed the fact that the first thing I ran into was a level 60 Onix and I couldn't run away. And I've like lost all my Pokemon. And I was like, and I was like, what on earth is this? Why am I running into a level 60 Onix and I've got like one badge.
David Hernandez:The skill level just went way
Unova Regional Champion Black:The skill level went way high up I thought I could catch it. And it was like, no, no, you ain't got enough badges to even try to catch this. And I was like, oh, okay. All right. So I know not to come back here anytime soon. at that point I was getting back into competitive and because of COVID and everything, I had kind of slowed down on the Pokemon Go playing for obvious reasons. But, overall I was like, really hyped, but I was a little bit late to the party because I didn't get my switch until the year after Sword and Shield came. So I was kind of like trying not to spoil myself, like by watching all the videos and watching people play online and
David Hernandez:though.
Unova Regional Champion Black:it, it was so hard because I wanted to watch it, but I wanted to have that experience for myself whenever that time came. And then when I finally got to experience it, it was amazing because at this point I had taken, you know, that break from the middle of Gen seven to now, and it was a lot of it, like all of it was cool. Like my rival bead was like. He was mean. He was, he was cool. And even though he had Psychic type Pokemon, which I thought was stupid, and then he switched from Psychic to Fairy, which I thought was even worse. Um, I'm sorry. I did. I was like, dude, you were good. Like if you would've stayed the Psychic type general leader. And I understand they had him training under oog, then transformed him into a fairy type gym leader. And I was, I was, it was okay, but I would've rather had him, you know, with his Reuniclus and not like Galarian Rapidash. but it was fine. Like I thought Marni was cool. The only thing I think about the Gym Challenge in Sorna Shield that bothered me was getting to Piers and getting to like that area because the fact that Gen five had Roxy and had like recorded voice singing and everything in, in that gym. And then Piers, who's literally on a stage, doesn't have any type of voice acting, doesn't have any type of recording, and it's literally just his body movement and you see him talking, but you don't hear anything. it rubbed me the wrong way for like those 30 minutes that I was there. And then I kind of like just had to pretend like none of it ever happened while I was going on the rest of my journey. But then it was just like the rest of the game for me was fine because now we're starting to get into the story and the Dynamax Pokemon going everywhere but by the time I finished the story, I was starting pretty much a new chapter on my life with Pokemon and I was getting into like draft league and I pretty much shifted my entire life focus into competitive Pokemon and Draft League in particular. So I stopped caring about pretty much everything else and I was going to go and play Pokemon in this NFL style. Competition, this NFL style, like draft season, for me, that was, pretty much been like the focal point of my life.
David Hernandez:Really? You love the draft format compared to the fixed for fixed, meta, I
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yeah.
David Hernandez:What do you prefer over that compared to like, you know, going to like, say A VGC or a smog in tournament what does the draft league offer offer for you?
Unova Regional Champion Black:for me, draft league is very. It's a lot more diverse.'cause even though draft league does have its set of rules and a lot of draft leagues, in fact most draft leagues follow some aspects of like Smogon's rules set and everything. And that's, you know, they are balanced. some of the rules they don't follow. They have different, you know, tiering systems. Like you have points, tiers, and then you have, okay, well you just choose one from each section. And then you have like some extra poke one that you can choose. And it was a much more diverse experience to see people at all skill levels and to see people even that were really good. Like, okay, yeah, but you're forced to have these Pokemon that are not as good. Like if I have to like seeing people do well with, you know, Urshifu is, you know, it's normal. You expect that, but then when you go and you have these people that are playing with, Scrafty and like other, like first and second stage Pokemon, you're just like, dang, this guy could play with anything and make it look good. And I remember, one of my best friends, since I've been in draft league was like, just destroying everybody with Thwackey, and I'm like, Thwackey is, it can't be that good. It, it just, it cannot be that good as it was like Thwackey. And then I had another friend that was just beating everybody with Raboot and I was like, I know liberal is good, but it's not that good. especially not all, you know, an uninvolved Pokemon. He was like, I don't know, man. You just slap a choice band on it and, and let it go. And in the right situation, you just let it go to work. And So me, I'm very stuck in my ways when it comes to competitive battling and I'm gonna, you know, use what I want. So my first experience with Draft League, I went with all water types because I thought that was the right thing to do and it was not the right thing to do. And I got for the entire season, because they, they was a full like NFL season, like 17 weeks, 32 teams. Like, it was a real like NFL style draft league. And I ended that season four and 12. And then the next season, my friends, they. Convinced me to stop doing that and stop running like all water types.
David Hernandez:Oh, you're ready to double down on it, it
Unova Regional Champion Black:I was, oh, I was so ready. I was so ready because we had gotten into, at this point in the second season, the second DLC had came out, the Crown Tundra had came out and we had access to more Pokemon and I had already had Sharpedo from last season. Like I was, I was ready, I don't care. I'm here to have fun, not necessarily to win. they were just like, no, just, just take it serious. Just take it serious one time and just see how you do. So I built my team. I still built it around rain, around like the, you know, the rain arc type, but I didn't build it around water tech specifically. And sure enough, I went 13 and three that season. And even though I got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs, it was like I had the best record in the league. And I was like, okay, I'm actually decent at Pokemon. And it wasn't like, okay, it was just the fact that I had all water types versus, you know, when I have a diverse team and I can actually use it. I kind of dipped away from Pokemon Go and I stick straight to Draft League until I got into VGC and that's a whole nother story.
David Hernandez:you mentioned something about how you're doing a sunflower versus all the games, right? You're just sewing the games with sun
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yeah.
David Hernandez:I wanted to ask like, how did that idea develop and how far are you into this journey?
Unova Regional Champion Black:Okay. So this started back in black and white too. And this is back when like the original Facebook community was really kind of like popping. So me and I think six or seven other page admins, we decided to have a challenge on who could beat the black and whites who elite for like the Pokemon League with the weakest Pokemon. at this point, I think in VGC, like Pachirisu, who had just won the World championships and everything, and we were gonna try and see what's the weakest Pokemon we can beat the Pokemon League with. So we went and we had a ditto, clear, the Pokemon League. We had Pachirisu clear the Pokemon League, we had a Plusle and Minun separately each cleared the Pokemon League. Pikachu did it. I did it with Chikorita and that was like the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life. Like I, I love the Chikorita line, I love the entire line, but that Pokemon League specifically,
David Hernandez:Yeah.
Unova Regional Champion Black:I mean, my Chikorita was level a hundred and it was like, you know, EV training and everything, but it was. Insanely difficult, but I got it done.
David Hernandez:Yeah.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Chikorita at the very least, it's that it's stats are balanced and it has moves to support itself. And that was okay. And then we went and we actually looked up, okay, well what are the weakest Pokemon? Like, okay, we got Tynamo and then you got like Ledian like the weakest, you know, evolved or maybe not even evolved. You know, the weakest like fully evolved Pokemon. You're looking at the Sunfloras and the Ledians and you know, those Pokemon. So my friend, Kyle, I think he took, the Ledian challenge and I took Sunflora and he blew through it. Like he, he did his in like 30 minutes and was done. And me, I took a lot longer. I took a lot longer. I was struggling, don't get me wrong. I had all the Hyper Potions and Max Potions and everything that I could think of to help me get past this.
David Hernandez:Oh, so using items too.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Oh, yeah, yeah. We were, we were, we had to use for some of'em, we, we had to, we couldn't, we couldn't just deny ourselves items because otherwise they would probably be impossible.
David Hernandez:that'd be torture. Yeah.
Unova Regional Champion Black:So it was like, so we did all of those, like when I was doing my son Flora one, I, I wanna say it took me probably about 20 tries, but I had saved within the Pokemon League, so I didn't really have a choice but to like keep doing it. And every time I would go and beat one of the Elite four members, I would save the game. So the only way I'm backing out of this is if I decide that I'm going to accept the loss. Then start all the way over again. I was just like, I'm not doing that. I'm not starting all the way over. And I got through the Psychic Elite four and I got through Kaitlyn and I got through Marshall and I struggled with Grimsley. Grimsley was just extreme. I don't know why, but he was extremely hard for me to get past
David Hernandez:before you continue, So is this before you beat the national or before the No. Is this the pre national decks or post national
Unova Regional Champion Black:this is post national deck, like, so I, I played through the game already.
David Hernandez:Oh my
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yeah. I had
David Hernandez:so here's what, here's what you're facing. You're facing, Scrafty gonna be a pain in the butt. You've got Bisharp, Drapion, Liepard. Oh my God. Yeah. That's gonna give you trouble. I'm sorry.
Unova Regional Champion Black:No, it, that was a hot, it was a mess for the longest. I kept getting cri by Drapion and I kept getting hit in poison. Like, okay, well I'm taking this turn to heal myself, but then I'm getting hit right back again. And it was just, it was frustrating and I don't even remember how I did it. But eventually I got past the Elite four, and then I had to deal with, I think it was black and white too. So it was like Iris and dealing with, you know, all of her Pokemon and her dragons. And I thought I had recorded the entire battle because I had like, I actually had like a physical digital camera, and I was like holding it up to my screen as I was like trying to play at the same time. And it took me, I think five or six tries, but I was determined to get it right because I had, at this point, I understood the pattern of how the computer plays against me. And I was like, okay, I can do this, I can do that, I can do that. And then when I fi, I recorded that last battle that I actually won. but I wasn't paying attention to how I was holding the camera, so I pretty much, I held the camera, but me moving with my other hand, I like turned the camera at like completely away from the screen. So I didn't even record me beating her, like actually beating her until like I knocked out like her last Pokemon.
David Hernandez:Oh, that's
Unova Regional Champion Black:So I literally saw the ending of me beating her and I was like, no, I missed all of that. I'm never doing it again. I was like, because I was so ready. I'm like, I'm gonna record this. I'm putting it on YouTube, how I beat black and white, two elite forward just to Sunflora. I was ready and I ruined the whole thing.
David Hernandez:Well, why keep doing it though?'cause I mean, you could just stop, but you're kind of torturing yourself. Why would you keep going through this with Sunflora?
Unova Regional Champion Black:Was fun, baby.
David Hernandez:is fun for
Unova Regional Champion Black:Look, it was like, it was such a weird, like, guilty pleasure. Like I was determined. I'm not going to let this, I'm not gonna let this game beat me. This is the hardest challenge ever, but I will not lose it.
David Hernandez:That's some determination. I
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yes. And when I finally, honestly, if Gen six didn't have the O Powers, I probably would've quit. I actually probably would've quit. But when I started using those O Powers a little bit more and like so that I could survive, hits long enough to do something, then I was like, okay, just don't forget this. When it comes to like the Elite four, and I was still struggling, but I wasn't struggling as much. And I got to a point, I think right after I got eight badges and I was on that bridge. I was on the bridge and I had the battle all four of my rivals like back to back to back. I beat the first two easy and I wanna say it was Tiano. And he had a talent flame? No, it was either Tiano or Trevor. One of them had a talent flame. And I'm like, okay, here's worst. Go back. Here's another Pokemon that resists all of my attacks and has gill wings. So it's not even like I can ever out speed it because it has, you know, priority flying type attacks. I got stuck. I was streaming at this point. I had just, I had just started streaming because I had gotten to a roadblock at this battle, and I lost so many times in a row that I just stopped streaming out. I was like, you guys, I can't do it. I am beyond frustrated. I will come back when I have come up with a game plan to beat this thing because I am losing my mind. The old powers didn't help me. Nothing helped me. I was just losing. I don't even, to this day, I don't really know how I beat that. I think, I think I lived was a Brave bird or something like by, I don't know, by accident or damaged road or something. And I got a critical hit return and it put me in range to where that I would be able to beat it. The Pokemon League, I was like, okay, I know it's water fire, steel dragon. Dog can get through water pretty easily. Steel is probably not gonna be too hard because it doesn't have a scissor. I just have to worry about all the ex scissors and the aerial lace. And I was like, but I can handle that. Dragon's probably gonna be the next hard one. And then of course there's fire. Malva was an experience I would love to forget because, I could never get past, her Houndoom, I think she would always send out Houndoom second. And like, even though I got past, you know, her, her first Pokemon, then you send out your, your Houndoom next and they was just like, okay, hey, I'm going to pretty much just kill you with like flames that were just, because I can't, it was hard enough getting past Pyroar. so it was just like, I gotta use my special defense o powers and get my Leech Seed off and protect and at least hit you with one return or a giga drain. and hope you don't, you know, just straight up kill me with like flame wheeler, stone age again, and just pretty much stall until Torkoal died. And then Chandelure came out and I died to Flamethrower a lot, like, a whole lot. But
David Hernandez:that poor sun floor got burned.
Unova Regional Champion Black:it did, it got, I couldn't, I couldn't figure it out. And it was another episode where I just kind of like, I quit. I need to stop free focus, figure out what I need to do. so I decided that instead of saving after each Elite four member, knowing that I was stuck with Malva, I would constantly go back and I would keep using my special defense old powers to level it up. Like just for the strictly for the sake of leveling up. I would go in into matches and I would lose on purpose because I was going to level the top, at least to level two. So I know I can take one hit or maybe two hits and do something back. And then I kind of just cleared every, all the other Elite Four.'cause at that point I knew what to do against them. And then di, the first time I kind of like went in raw, no O Powers, no nothing. And she led Hawlucha and I didn't realize how strong Hawlucha was until it once shot me. And I was like, oh, oh, I didn't think he was that strong. I was like, I know strong holy is fast, but I don't remember being very strong. And then I died.
David Hernandez:some, gotta put some respect on D's
Unova Regional Champion Black:I, I have to. after that I was like, okay, so I do need the old powers. So at this point, my defense o powers at level two. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna start with defense power, defense o power level two, and then when I get in the battle, I'm gonna use an X Defend on top of that. And so I was at like plus three defense, like by turn one of the battle. And at this point, Hawlucha just can't touch me. And the moment I like got past Hawlucha, it was pretty much over, like I clicked return twice and it was dead. And then I just clicked Mega Drain or Giga Drain against like almost everything else she had on her team.
David Hernandez:Yeah, those were, that was kind of the hardest one out of their, everything else. Everything else is pretty
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yeah. Now Alola, I'm in Alola now. and this has given me very much team galactic vibes, even though there's no, there isn't really like a bad team. You know, you have the eighth, the foundation and everything, but the trial captains, the trial, the totem Pokemon are so stupidly difficult. I think that if it was just them, that it would probably be easier for me to deal with. But when they go and they call a friend, I'm like, okay, I have two targets that I have to deal with. I have to take them both out because they're both doing damage to me and I'm not gonna survive if I don't. Alola hasn't been, Hard. There are parts of it that are kind of like difficult, but Alola hasn't really been like super hard. I did run into a little bit of trouble with Uzma and Alolan Raticate, but like even Totem Komo-o, I'm pretty sure I beat on the first try and most of the trial captains I was able to overcome relatively easily. I got to the Elite four, like I'm finally at the Pokemon League So Olivia's one of'em. I'll be able to beat her pretty easily. And then it, you know, you have Hala and Oza and I can't remember what the name of the flying Elite for is, but like all of them, I'm like, okay, those will be a little bit harder.
David Hernandez:well, Sharpie, you've been a wonderful guest. I want to finish on one final question to close out this podcast
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yeah,
David Hernandez:It seems like you have a, an affinity for water type Pokemon. Is that kind of your favorite
Unova Regional Champion Black:it is.
David Hernandez:So I want to give you, to give me your Dream Water Pokemon team.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Six Pokemon, well, Sharpedo first of course.
David Hernandez:Of course. I'm, I guess we're going Megan, maybe.
Unova Regional Champion Black:So I don't like Sharpedo Megas.
David Hernandez:like,
Unova Regional Champion Black:I don't like the design of it. And I think they could have done better with, its ability and everything like that. It's, it's, I I like base Sharpedo more than Mega Sharpedo. My second one is Lanturn. Lanturn is my second favorite Pokemon of all time.
David Hernandez:Yes.
Unova Regional Champion Black:So, and it's, it is like, it's such a polar opposite from Sharpedo. Like, Sharpedo is just, just dark and angry Pokemon now Lanturn's just like smiley, happy, cute. And then, you know, I, I get most absorbed so, you know, I get to redirect those electric attacks and stuff.
David Hernandez:Mm-hmm.
Unova Regional Champion Black:So my third Pokemon, my third water type Pokemon, probably Politoed.
David Hernandez:Okay.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Told has.
David Hernandez:get that drizzle
Unova Regional Champion Black:Mm-hmm. That's what it is. Been my clutch or it's one of the people that's always been clutch for me in competitive battling. So it's got a special place in my heart. my fourth Pokemon would probably be, I'll say Jellicent. Jellicent gives me, it's another bulky option that, I can do a lot with. Like, especially now with strength staff and I'm thinking strictly competitive. Like, that's, this is the, I can take on everything with these six water Pokemon and I would be happy, like, so yeah, it would be Sharpedo Lanturn Politoed
David Hernandez:for it.
Unova Regional Champion Black:Jellicent. And then my fifth and sixth Pokemon. My fifth is Ludicollo. Ludicollo for sure. And I would like to thank Miror B from Pokemon Colosseum and XD for that.
David Hernandez:Music lives right in free of my head
Unova Regional Champion Black:Yes. And then, oh man, what would my last one be? I think my last Pokemon would be the Pokemon that was my favorite before Sharpedo existed and that's Poliwrath,,
David Hernandez:Oh, so we get both poly's on
Unova Regional Champion Black:yeah, both polys on here. Poliwrath was my very first favorite Pokemon. And I like Poliwrath'cause you know, it is bulky. It is a good, strong, bulky attacker, but it also gets Swift swim and it can be fast. Like if I need to be fast, it can be fast. And having that, you know, that type diversity, you know, having a dark type and Electric type, a grass type fighting type, like, you know, I think that having that team diversity, I can pretty much, I can take on everything. I've got physical attackers, I've got special attackers, I've got bulky Pokemon, I've got fast Pokemon that aren't necessarily bulky and I like that diverse. I like water types because there's so many of them and they're also diverse with what they do.
David Hernandez:Will Sharpie, thank you for coming As The Pokeball Turns. If people want to check out your content, if they want to connect with you, where can they go? By means, please plug away.
Unova Regional Champion Black:So on Facebook, of course there's Unova Region Champion Black, and then everywhere else. So that's Twitch Kick, YouTube, Twitter is all at Sharpie place. And then on Discord, if you wanna reach me on Discord, it is Sharped Writer three 19.
David Hernandez:Thank you for listening to As The Pokeball Turns, if this story resonated with you, share the podcast with a fellow trainer. Don't forget to follow us. For more voices, more journeys, and more memories. I'm David Hernandez, and remember, I'm David Hernandez, and remember, your next Pokemon adventure begins here.
