As The Pokeball Turns

"Electivire's Community Shock Wave" ft. LaserGator | TRAINER'S EYE #182

• David Hernandez • Season 1 • Episode 177

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What sparks a lifelong bond? For LaserGator, it was the crackle of Electivire on a TV screen and the warmth of cousins huddled around the Sinnoh anime, lightning outside, belonging within. Years later, that same charge pulled him back into the Pokémon GO community, where raid hours turned into real friendships and golden-hour memories at Klyde Warren Park.

LaserGator traces his Pokémon story from SoulSilver car rides and Bianca’s courage to say “I’m choosing my own path,” to losing a day-one GO account and starting over, only to find his Pokemon GO community led by Community Ambassador, Starfire. We relive the thrill of rivals like Paul, the lessons that stick, and the simple kindness of celebrating the “little guy” at raid night with a card, a snack, and a shoutout. It’s a love letter to nostalgia that grows up with you and a reminder that the spark you’re chasing might be community all along.

🎧 Celebrate Pokémon through the eyes of Asian Trainers.

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


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LaserGator:

my name is Laser Gator and this is my Pokemon story.

2 x chain 3 x blue 5 x white 6 x red សាសំប្រាន់រិជរាន្រាត្រោះារម្ម្ម៉្រោះារត់ប្រីម្យះាប្រោះ។

David Hernandez:

Welcome to As The Pokeball Ball Turns, where every voice, every journey, and every memory brings us closer to the world of Pokemon. I'm David Hernandez and I'm joined by a local community member, laser Gator from the Carrollton community. If you wanna know a reference, go to episode 25,'cause that's the community ambassador that he is known for years, but he's here to share his Pokemon story and how Pokemon's influenced his life. These are Gator. Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns. Thanks for coming on.

LaserGator:

I'm glad to be here, man.

David Hernandez:

it's been so long since I've had a local on this podcast and you have a lot of experience with Pokemon Go, which we're gonna dive in, but let's start it off slow. What is your favorite Pokemon?

LaserGator:

My favorite Pokemon is Electivire.

David Hernandez:

Really? Why Electivire?

LaserGator:

Because I grew up watching The Pokemon, uh, Sinnoh Anime and there was this one rival, I would say is Ash's Best rival. His name was Paul and Paul's Ace was Electivire. He was the foil for Ash's Chimchar,. Monferno, Infernape Every single time that that Electivire. Comes out of Paul's ball, you know, it was about to go down.

David Hernandez:

I mean, Paul was such an interesting character too, right? Because he was like the complete opposite of how Ash viewed the world, and I think Paul was probably one of my favorite rivals, if not the favorite rival For those who don't know, Paul was very, I. Say choosy about The Pokeball he raised and he was very kind of, if you were weak, then he really showed you you were weak. That's kind of what the story with the team tar, right?

LaserGator:

So imagine a casual player versus a competitive player. That's how I would, you know, think of it

David Hernandez:

so you see Paul as a competitive player and Ash is the casual player.

LaserGator:

kind of, because I remember a scene where he releases like three starleys and he kept one of the, you know, better IV or like nature ones. that's crazy.

David Hernandez:

very similar to Pokemon Go, But what was it about VIR for you? Because you said that's your favor. What was it about just seeing that VIR was just the fact that it was such a difficult Pokemon to defeat? Was it just its attitude? What drew you to it?

LaserGator:

the reason why is because, it was the cockiness of it because at this point EL had not lost against Ferno infer in charm. That dominance it, it was until the very end essentially haunting and like, come on, get up. I wanna fight you more. I like that energy.

David Hernandez:

It's like it, said, come on. Like just bring it. Remind me of the rock a little bit cockiness, but kind of a cool cockiness.

LaserGator:

Oh yeah.

David Hernandez:

Was that anime, the intro for you into Pokemon? When did you first get in, dive into that?

LaserGator:

Oh, no, no, no, no. I was kind of through, at the beginning I had, three, no, five older cousins, right. And we all lived near the same, you know, same block. So I have a 8-year-old, you know, eight year, age gap between three of my older siblings, five year age gap. So for one and a three year age gap for another one. So we would play, The Pokemon anime while we were, you know, all there amount of times we saw I think the anime show where it was like giant Pokemon on the VHS that would always, you know, have a cycle.

David Hernandez:

It sounds like y'all would all just get together, kind of like little family, like watch party, and y'all would just watch Pokemon Anime episodes.

LaserGator:

it's either that or rush hour two.

David Hernandez:

Did it bring you closer, do you think, to your family being so close to be able to watch Pokemon?

LaserGator:

yes, it would've. Yes, it, it did.

David Hernandez:

I guess, how often or how long did this kind of happen for you growing up?

LaserGator:

I would say about, um, like couple months reason why, um, look, I don't really remember much'cause I was like really young at that time and I moved away. you know, that art like three years old, so, but I still do remember, I still do remember, you know, actually watching Pokemon from their home.

David Hernandez:

The fact that you still remember at such a young age, age of three, you know me, sounds like that left impression on you or left a mark on you, like you kind of wish you still kind of had that even growing up as you got older or like,

LaserGator:

It's mainly that, you know, family all being there together because, some of'em are, you know, in Colorado, some of'em are in, Philly right now. And some of'em actually just got, they told me like two weeks ago that, hey, they're expecting so

David Hernandez:

Wow.

LaserGator:

I know.

David Hernandez:

Now for you specifically, you watched the anime, you mentioned how you were watching Paul, that was kind of Electivire was your favorite Pokemon from Paul's team, you know, how did your, I guess, connection with Pokemon Progress, did you get into the games, the cards, or were you just exclusively just the anime?

LaserGator:

I had my DS back in like 2007. I picked out, my first Pokemon game was actually, Pokemon, soul Silver for the Ds. I remember when I got it, like I remember playing that and like falling asleep to one of the more soothing, I can't remember the route name. Like it was rather soothing, just asleep in the car, like long drives until, until the DS died. Of course.

David Hernandez:

Right, right. So it's like you're a little MP three player for those who know.

LaserGator:

Yes.

David Hernandez:

I'm trying to think what route it would be though. It must have been that route between Olivin at Critique or Could have been. It's another soothing one.

LaserGator:

I think it was like a park or something.

David Hernandez:

Oh, it must be, where the bug catching contest was. Oh, I could see that one. I forgot about that one. So you would just sleep and listen to that and you would just snooze through that. Just listening to it.

LaserGator:

Yeah. I mean, it's good though. It is some of The Pokeball music, especially to now today, it's really decent.

David Hernandez:

Mm-hmm.

LaserGator:

really, not, not really to sleep to, but it's, really heart puffing.

David Hernandez:

What do you remember about playing Soul Silver? Besides the, listening to music to sleep, was there anything else particular about those games that remember?

LaserGator:

so funny story. I used to watch a lot of, um, rom hacks. I did not know what a rom hack was. So there's, there was these, YouTube videos and, oh, if you go to this place, you'll be able to find, like a shadow Lugia we could clearly see that it was, modded. again, I was like nine or 10. I didn't know that these were moed. So one day me and my friends, we watched a video saying, Hey, if you catch a Relicanth and a Wailord, on this route or something. This is like post game stuff. If you'd catch those two, go to this certain cave or something, you'll be able to find a Regigigas. No,

David Hernandez:

interesting.

LaserGator:

there was no Regigigas. It was all, it was for a different rum hat

David Hernandez:

But you believed it though. You like you've invested time and to get to it.

LaserGator:

I didn't really know what ROM hacks were.

David Hernandez:

I mean, I think that's the fun part about Pokemon, right? you know, anybody who's played the main Sears games knows that there's always that myth or rumor we think it's true. For me, playing Hoen, I always thought if you got to a hundred rockets, you go up to see Jirachi. And I think that's the fun part about Pokemon for all of us, is that there's that potential for a story, even if it's not true, it's that mystery.

LaserGator:

Oh, yeah.

David Hernandez:

how did it feel when you found out it wasn't true?

LaserGator:

I kind abruptly because me and my friends, we took turns trying to catch the Wailord as the Wailord, in one of these, routes, like only a 1% chance. So when we learned out that it was not real, we were both defeated because at that point we spent like, I don't know, like. Seven hours trying to catch that damn way. Only realize, hey,

David Hernandez:

I were determined,

LaserGator:

yes,

David Hernandez:

hey, at least the romack didn't show you had to catch a Shiny Wailord or a Shiny Relicanth.'Cause then that would've been more heartbreaking.

LaserGator:

exactly.

David Hernandez:

Would you and your friends share a game together? Would y'all like trade and battle? Like what did that dynamic look like for y'all?

LaserGator:

On his Gs his parents brought him, oh, I'm gonna close my age, I guess, but, do you know what the G four, G four was?

David Hernandez:

Yes, I do know what G four was.

LaserGator:

one of his, older sibling, older cousins, he bought, you know, GAG four cartridge and it had had mostly all of The Pokemon games, already inserted into that thing. I don't really know if I could have traded with that thing.'cause most of them were, I don't know if they were legal or not. Like he had almost every single Pokemon game, like, fire, red Leaf Green, all the GBA, you know, GBA games, the DS games. so I, I watched him, you know, play some of them because, I only had Pokemon white, SoulSilver and Black 2.

David Hernandez:

do you have a preference on which games you played out of those three?

LaserGator:

outta the most ones that I played the most. It was Pokemon White,

David Hernandez:

Why Pokemon White.

LaserGator:

Zekrom, easily, Zekrom.

David Hernandez:

Oh, you love Zekrom?

LaserGator:

Yes!.

David Hernandez:

Noticing a little pattern. You your favorite's electric type and you like crom. It sounds like you have a preference for electric types. Maybe.

LaserGator:

Probably, probably

David Hernandez:

Maybe just a little bit.

LaserGator:

not too on the, of course.

David Hernandez:

what aspects of Pokemon White do you remember, what sticks out to your brain Whenever you think about that game.

LaserGator:

So,. Going back to, Andela Town, I think this was, one of the best things I've, I remember was, Bianca's talking to his, to her parents, essentially her dad was saying, Hey, I think you've done enough. Please come home while Bianca says, no, I'm gonna continue my thing. I feel like that, especially in The Pokeball game, that's really, you know, powerful, you know, standing up. With the nation parent standing up to your parents? That's crazy.

David Hernandez:

Like that really spoke to you in a way.

LaserGator:

Yes.

David Hernandez:

Did you go through something similar or you just kind of resonate with Bianca A little bit.

LaserGator:

I would say a little bit of both, honestly.

David Hernandez:

That's fair. I mean. It is such a difficult thing to talk about, especially'cause you know, a lot of us grow up to where you're supposed to respect your parents, some of us don't have, maybe some of us don't have those kind of good parents that we kinda have to go against and it's hard to do that. It's one of your hardest choices you've ever had to make. For me personally, I remember when I had to go against my own mother,'cause my mom had this certain way of seeing the world, this certain way of. I'll say doing things. And one of the hardest things for me to do was kind of escape that because A, I love my mother, don't get me wrong. But B, I had to find my own path, had to kind of define who I wanted to be. As a person, and it's such a difficult challenge for people to do because we wanna love our parents. We want to kind of make them happy, make them proud. Sometimes at the end of the day, you're the one who has to live with the choices. You know, your parents are gonna eventually pass away. They're gonna eventually move on, and then it's your life. And it's so difficult. Like, I get it.'cause it's, it was an easy decision for me. It's still not easy sometimes, but I get it, man. It's, it's a very, what Bianca went through,'cause her choice was similar to where she had to either choose between listening to her dad and going home and just packing it up or keep going forward to see what that road led to her. And then the flip side was that dad had to accept that Bianca was growing up, that she was becoming a grown woman. So it's two different dynamics.'cause I'm sure I'm not a parent, never going to be, but I'm sure for parents out there, they probably relate to that to where eventually their kid's gonna have to make their own choices and that's hard. It's very hard.

LaserGator:

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I really wanted, you know, at least our player to say something. I know Pokemon is not, you know, not known for, you know, the character speaking, but like I wanted to, you know, at least give us some text boxes just to say something

David Hernandez:

I mean, we're not a Pokemon game. Let's talk about it. what would you have said to Bianca in that moment if you could have

LaserGator:

Do what you're hard is, right. do? What you think is right?

David Hernandez:

Why?

LaserGator:

Why?

David Hernandez:

Yeah, why that message?

LaserGator:

Because at some point it's your choices, right? It could be bad, it could be good. It. You gotta just choose.

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David Hernandez:

Let's dive into, your Pokemon Go experience.'cause I know that's where I've known you. I know you've been in very active community. Talk to us about when you first started playing, what was it like? I.

LaserGator:

So I actually was a day one. on July 6th or seventh, sometimes like that in 2016. One of my friends saying, Hey, I don't know this type Pokemon Go. It's live now jump in. I did exactly that and what I didn't know though is I can't use my school email just to sign up. my school email. I played until 2016, all the way to 20, 2018. I've, I've kind of fell off at 2018. Not gonna lie. I feel like that year in particular, people really, dipped then, um, got back into it, you know, just a few years ago. I just want to get outta the house. after a trip going to India, I realized, Hey, your account is gone now. Your email no longer exists.

David Hernandez:

Oh man,

LaserGator:

but now I created a new account and level 70. Now I'm big 70. I got so many different, you know, types of Pokemon that my previous account barely would not even be, you know, worth it. and that's how I managed to find the group just by, simple workout actually. So I used to go to the recreation center. So there was a sticker at the recreation center and on the sticker it was The Pokeball, go, gym logo. I made us run into two people who were doing a Regigigas EX-Raid. Do you remember those things?

David Hernandez:

Oh yeah, I remember those. They were fun. I miss'em.

LaserGator:

So I asked, Hey, is this, you know, Pokemon Go is coming back, right? So they added me, of course, into the, the original Pokemon Go Discord. and then COVID happened. Of course I was there for missing number, EV event, the Super Bowl event. I was there. I sat back, ACE some popcorn, watched Star Fire crash out. Again, if you want to listen. go to 25, but going back into Pokemon Go, it truly did, bring me back, you know, love to Pokemon because this time, it was more about community rather than, Hey, we gotta catch'em all now.

David Hernandez:

Well, when Pokemon Go came out, you were mostly inside. It sounded like you wanted to get outside. did you feel like you were very isolated and shut in at the time?

LaserGator:

I just did not want to go outside because at that time it was still summer. I did not have the greatest, phone data. So my. Usage of Pokemon Go was limited to malls and, you know, gyms, you know, like actual workout gyms.

David Hernandez:

Right.

LaserGator:

That 2016 summer. Oh my god. I remember, I was taking a class. History class actually. And one of my teacher's, own mothers, she came in, she was actually playing Pokemon Go and a Snorlax, appeared right in front of McDonald's we were at, and you could see a line of people just pull up their phone and try to catch it again. I'm talking about an 80-year-old woman. Still playing. So yeah, we see it all the time now. Like back in, back in the days 2016. That was interesting.

David Hernandez:

I think what's what else is interesting is how you talked about when you first started Pokemon You and your brothers, y'all both living next to each other. Y'all would come over and watch the anime. Now you come to Pokemon Go and it's kind of a similar reason Y all kind of come together to play Pokemon Go. And you said specifically when it became more about the community, you really enjoyed it. It sounds like that's kind of been what you've been chasing when it comes to Pokemon.

LaserGator:

Correct. Let's see. Yeah.

David Hernandez:

You feel like that sense of belonging kind of helped you feel more welcomed and maybe, even cared for now that you found this community within Pokemon GO.

LaserGator:

I would say yes because my own group, they know me and we talk mostly all the time. You know, whenever we can, we talk about the cowboys and how they suck. we also talked about how we've all been doing, you know, workwise, how we've all been doing mentally because like. Where can truly drain us and just, oh, how, you know, how's your life been? How's, you know, how's, you know your work? How's life? Try to mainly make sure that everybody is, you know, well accounted for.

David Hernandez:

It sounds like you kind of find your own, Pokemon goat family in a way.

LaserGator:

Yeah, I would say so.

David Hernandez:

What is it about, I guess, when you think about those people. In what way have they influenced you and what have they bring to your, brought to your life that you wouldn't have otherwise?

LaserGator:

So for Star Hour, me and him, we usually talk about, you know, other than, you know, other than Pokemon, we talk about, you know, how's live, how's, his kid. His kid, and what he likes to do and what he, what he is, what is his drink of choice is, margaritas, by the way. he loves margaritas, but he's a good dude, right? I'm just gonna leave as that.

David Hernandez:

it's so important to kind of find people. You can kind of be real with people. You can kind

LaserGator:

Oh.

David Hernandez:

you know, as much as Pokemon Go is about Pokemon, there's also the behind the scenes, which is kind of what you're diving into, which is why I asked that question. It's finding those people who you can kind of connect with and can kind of. Hey, I guess maybe the mask or take the personality, or however you wanna call it, take whatever you're wearing off and just be like, Hey, I'm having a rough day. Or, Hey, this is going well. Or, Hey, my kid did something pooped on the wall. Or, I don't know what kids do, but but it's, it's important to kind of have those people you can kind of go and be real with, because otherwise you live a lie almost, and it gets tiring after a while.

LaserGator:

Oh yeah. We've had many times where, other people have been, you know, being a little bit, you know, crappy with their, own whatever happened with work. We try to be there for them, but like we also give them their space they need it. As being pestered about, Hey, are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay? That can be, that can be very annoying.

David Hernandez:

Now, I know you mentioned how there was a event y'all went down to in Clyde Warren Park. Would you fulfill to kinda share the story and what's the connection behind that?

LaserGator:

I think this is back. gimme a moment. Lemme see when, lemme just take a minute just to see when exactly this event happened,

David Hernandez:

This guy's memory's written down in notebook. He's looking up, he's trying to find out what year it is, what day it is, what hour it is. He's gonna break it down fully.

LaserGator:

Oh, yes, yes, I will. So, April 23rd, 2022. This is not yet, super masked up. But during this time, Niantic announced, Hey, we're gonna be coming to Dallas on this day. You'll be able to meet us. We'll be giving out some swag, calm down. And on that day, we of course did. me, star fire and other people We all came down, took the dart and the sweltering heat, when we went to Klyde Warren Park, There were people wrapped around the entire park playing Pokemon Go. One other thing is that, EC had they had their own little booth. And in that booth they were given out like, stickers, their logo. I got my own a, wooden key chain of their logo, which I still, I'm pretty sure I still have that. But The amount of people there, it was immense. We also took one last, you know, picture with each other, when the sun was setting. So we have that little golden hour picture.

David Hernandez:

Ooh.

LaserGator:

And, this is, around like 12, people right by the Klyde Warren Park Sign.

David Hernandez:

Made it sound like it made your Pokemon Go Experience matter a lot more than It sounded like it made your Pokemon Go experience mean something,

LaserGator:

Not really mean something, but like this was a true event. Like, Hey, this has not happened before. I don't think it's gonna happen again. Not gonna lie.

David Hernandez:

right. I mean, now that we talked about the community ambassador you talked about afterwards, how has that been, you know, experiencing Pokemon Go that way since the Community Ambassador has been assigned?'cause Starfighter is a community ambassador. How has that been for you now compared to what it was before?

LaserGator:

Ambassador has been truly, you know, one of a kind. But I try to do something different than other com command masters. I like to call myself the vice captain because, whenever Star Fire is not there, I steer the ship.

David Hernandez:

I mean, people know you though, everybody knows who you are.

LaserGator:

Yes, yes. Thankfully they do. But, We also have a little game we like to play.

David Hernandez:

Ooh, tell us.

LaserGator:

So this is back during, the team Harmony days. Starfire, he was tired of people complaining about getting the 10 10 tens. So what he would do was, while he was making his paragraphs and upon paragraphs of things that happened that rate hour. At the very bottom, he was, he would shout out, Hey, and this person, usually it would be, or like Adonto or someone different, he would met, you know, he would act then saying, and this lastly, this person got the 10, 10, 10, because we have a saying here. The shiny is, is his own reward. The Hondo is his own reward. What about the little guy who got nothing? it started off as just like a little, you know, shoutout on Discord and then it's, it eventually became something much more different and even to the, in a, started back in like 20 21, 20 22, still going on to this day, and I even upped the ante. I bring snacks, I bring Pokemon cards of the said, legendary. That shows up on radar. I used to collect a ton of Pokemon cards, still have Pokemon cards, so I have a ton of like basics double rares. V Max, whatever you got.

David Hernandez:

That's very, uh, generous of you,

LaserGator:

Oh yeah, I tried to, you know, I try to do it. some of the, legends though, they don't have much Pokemon cards on them, for example. Azelf, they have not had a, you know, full rare since like 2019 and trying to find them from other Pokemon card shops. it is, difficult. It is difficult.

David Hernandez:

I think the key word there is just try because. It gives those to show that you don't have to have a title to be a leader. You don't have to have a loud voice, you don't have to have like charisma. You just need to be willing to try and that's all you did. And that's all kind of leading a group or just being like in charge is just effort. Even when you know you don't get thanks for it. And that's why I said, you know, you may not be a community ambassador, but you sure do act like one. If I can say so myself.

LaserGator:

Thank you so much.

David Hernandez:

Well, I wanted to just finish off this, question for that. Why do you feel it was important for you to kind of bring those cards to a Pokemon Go event?

LaserGator:

I'm gonna be honest I was having a lot of space in my binder and I just was really trying to get rid of some of the cards, but eventually it was more of a, hey. feel like they would actually enjoy. I feel like it feeds the theme nicely If people would actually want to, join in, try to actually, do something. In fact, Don one of the, members, one of the members, his. He was essentially the raid master. And so essentially he is friends with the, farmers branch or like Addison people and they're ambassadors I'll still never forget this, Essentially told me and Star Far, during one, the, G Max raids or something like that, one person actually said, hey Leader, are you gonna give out anything for the worst, like the Carrollton people do. That made me and Starfighters day. Because we've, we have been doing that for like years now. and just to hear that, Hey, are you gonna do something like that? it was heartwarming and also a little bit, Oh, we got you. Because the Addison people, there are rivals.

David Hernandez:

Really why?

LaserGator:

No, I would say rivals, I would say, you know, like you know, friendly rivalry, I Friendly. Friendly

David Hernandez:

Yeah.

LaserGator:

because we use, Addison Circle a lot whenever there's like a community days or like big events like that.

David Hernandez:

well, LaserGator, that is gonna be an interview. I do want to finish on one final fun question if you're down for it.

LaserGator:

Sure.

David Hernandez:

If you were gonna come to a Pokemon battle, six on six what six Pokemon would you choose?

LaserGator:

You putting me on the spot, dude? Oh my. Okay, so I'm gonna be starting off with my ace. So of course it's gonna be Electivire. My, starter would be Feraligatr. you have gotta have a, Evie, so I would have Glaceon Gotta do, do, some powerhouses. So I would do, Landorus.

David Hernandez:

Which one are the Incarnate or the other? Or the Ethereum.

LaserGator:

thethe.

David Hernandez:

Okay.

LaserGator:

I really do like, uh, Tinkaton. I'm just gonna say my favorite mythical, which is, Vicini.

David Hernandez:

Thank you for listening to As The Pokeball Turns, if this story resonate with you, share the podcast with the fellow trainer and don't forget to follow us. For more voices, more journeys, and more memories. I'm David Hernandez, and remember, your next Pokemon adventure begins here. I.

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David Hernandez

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