TRAINER'S EYE #81 - "Nothing Butt Pokemon" ft. Alfindeol

In this Pokemon interview, we are joined by Alfindeol, a Pokemon Trainer from Seattle, Washington who creates Pokemon GO PvP content on Youtube and Twitch.

Alfindeol shares his Pokemon journey starting with the early days of Pokemon with RBY. He returns back to Pokemon when Pokemon GO is launched and shares the early days of playing the game, which was mostly solo.

Alfindeol returned to the franchise with Pokemon GO and how he would join his community in Raid Trains and Community Days. When Pokemon GO PvP went live, Alfindeol was heavily involved into the PvP community and his community was one of the earliest testers for the Silph Arena.

Alindeol decides to start streaming Pokemon GO PvP on Twitch and becomes a pioneer into the Twitch space. He also gives insight into his experience at GO Fest, including his own city hosting a GO Fest in 2022. 

Trainer's Eye is a series where the stories are real and people still play this game. From PVP to Shiny Hunting, each person's Pokemon GO journey is unique and we dive into each journey here on As The Pokeball Turns!

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

Connect with Alfindeol: Twitch | Twitter

Transcript

David Hernandez: 0:00

My name is David Hernandez, and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns. Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns. Our journey takes us to Seattle, Washington, where we meet a Pokemon trainer who started his journey back in the RBY days. Eventually, he returns to Pokemon Go and becomes involved in PvP from hosting tournaments, creating content, and competing in the first season of Silph Arena. Over time, as PvP has evolved and became a staple within the Pokemon circuit, this Pokemon trainer has gone from competitive to simply playing PvP out of fun and enjoyment. Here is his origin story into the world of Pokemon. This is Alfindeol! Today, I'm joined by a grown man here to share his opinion on Digital Rapids and cats battling on the internet. Alfindeol. Welcome to the show. I can't wait to hear these opinions you have.

Alfindeol: 1:28

I did write that, didn't I?

David Hernandez: 1:31

Well, I don't know if you really wrote it. I just, uh, I may have borrowed it a little

Alfindeol: 1:35

I forgot I for, so I think that's, is that the, uh, is that the description from my Twitch stream?

David Hernandez: 1:41

Ding, ding, ding, ding.

Alfindeol: 1:43

I'm pretty sure, I don't think I've edited a single piece of, content on my Twitch thing. I found a few months ago, I found a, like a sponsored panel from a sponsored stream. I'd done like nine months ago. Still. There was like, oh. Well, I guess I've been giving them free advertising. Oopsies. Um, not that anyone looks at any of that. But, yeah, I do have opinions about, a variety of digital animals, doing battle, I guess. That has become my mainstay, so.

David Hernandez: 2:08

Well, let's get started. What's Litten versus Scorbunny? Let's have it. Which one's the better out of

Alfindeol: 2:13

no. Oh, no.

David Hernandez: 2:15

We got to start a war here. Come on. Litten. Oh, wow.

Alfindeol: 2:18

Litten.

David Hernandez: 2:19

Why Litten? Out of just curiosity.

Alfindeol: 2:21

well, like, All of the Scorbunny family could be a fursuit, and only one of the Litten evolutions could be a fursuit. And I am, I am of the opinion, there's nothing wrong with fursuits, don't get me wrong. we're friends of the fursonas all around. But, I also just kinda like my Pokemon to be animals. Like it's kind of the thing that appealed to me initially and has always appealed to me was the designs were like kind of animal adjacent and the more that we've gotten like every starter is like eventually It's going to be on two legs and it's like, no, just give me a four legged friend. This is why, skele dirge is the best starter we've had in ages. Cause it stayed on four legs. I don't know what else to ask.

David Hernandez: 3:03

it's like a crocodile that shoots fire and it's a

Alfindeol: 3:05

Yeah, yeah, it's great. It's great. Great typing. And, I mean, I think it's kind of ugly, but it is still the best starter we've had in a long time cause it it didn't become a person in a suit. Which is really the only thing I was asking for.

David Hernandez: 3:18

Oh, me and Escarta, you had so much potential, but you failed us all. Nobody had, nobody gave the duck a chance.

Alfindeol: 3:23

No, the duck started on two legs, it was just

David Hernandez: 3:27

It got a

Alfindeol: 3:27

gonna happen. It was never gonna happen.

David Hernandez: 3:30

Well, Alfindeol, clearly you have some opinions that you've already mentioned. You have experience with Pokemon, but let's take it back a bit. Let's start from the beginning. So what's your first experience with the Pokemon franchise?

Alfindeol: 3:39

Oh, gosh. I'm a gen one kid. So I was of the age to get Pokemon red and blue and play them on my, purple see through game boy color. when they first dropped in the U. S. So I was given those for, Christmas, like the year they came out and I was obviously I was obviously absolutely obsessed with the Pokemon games for, several years from that point on the entire sort of media franchising games because, you know, it was the, it was the coolest thing around. That's definitely a cherished part of my childhood but it's definitely not As cherished a part of my childhood maybe as it is for some folks like It was a phenomenon, but like so many things Think Pokemon go for example Everyone in the world was talking about it, and then we all stopped talking about it for a while. It didn't go away it quietly Continued to sell like gangbusters and grow as a media franchise But as I got older and got into middle school, I stopped caring. I stopped playing. It was like, well, it wasn't cool anymore. It was like this thing people were doing, and it wasn't really until college that I on a whim bought a DS and whatever the newest Pokemon game, which was Gen four at the time and sunk. too much time into that over a summer break. I was like, this is rad! And then I did the exact same thing. I just, I think I bought every Pokemon game between, like, I bought like Gen 5 and Gen 6, and I never played those games. Like, I think I still have them. They're, they're opened. They're opened. I did open them, but I don't think I ever played them. So, like, my entire Pokemon journey before starting to stream, and so I played a lot of the more recent stuff. I had played Gen 1, Gen 4, and in my enthusiasm as a young'un, a emulated bootleg Japanese version of Pokemon Gold. Before it was released, I think anyone who's of the age probably remembers that before those games came out in the U. S. There was a version circulating and it didn't really work. The day night mechanics were not functional on the emulator. Basically, it was not translated in any way. And obviously, my ability to read and comprehend Japanese was pretty bleak. So I, Mostly remember just spending many, many hours on the first route, trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do and where I'm supposed to go. I remember being like, Hoot Hoot is a sweet Pokemon, and then not seeing the majority of the Gen 2 Pokemon ever because I never got off route, basically route one. I never got out the first route because I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do. it turns out it's not that hard. And I probably should have been able to figure it out. But I just kind of spent a ton of time just being like, Wow, look how cool the new games are. And then by the time it came out in the U. S. I had moved on to other interests, I guess. But, you

David Hernandez: 6:26

God.

Alfindeol: 6:28

It was definitely something, and it wasn't really until, Pokemon Go came out, and I'm not even a day one Pokemon Go player, I started playing soon after launch, when the game came out, my phone didn't run it. I had an old Android phone that wasn't really capable of running it, and it came out, and it was like the biggest thing in the world, and I remember, audibly saying to my partner, it's probably good that my phone doesn't run this Pokemon go game. I'd probably be pretty into it. Like it might not be good for me. And then my phone died, uh, like a month later. Like it just, it just, it shit the bed. Um, so I had to get a new phone. And the first thing I did when I got the new phone was like, well, I guess maybe I'll try this Pokemon go game. it was past the heyday like, there weren't as many people playing. It was hard to find people. People weren't really talking about it. And I kind of just quietly played Pokemon Go by myself from 2016 until Raids released in, what, 2017? So, first whole year of the game, I basically played quietly by myself. Played when I was walking, you know, to and from places. I didn't interact with another soul who played the game until Raids. And then, from there, The true obsession spiraled once I had met other people doing raids and we started doing those and I started, you know, playing hooky from my work from home job to do raids in the afternoon and stuff like, or chase down a hundo or that kind of stuff. And that, that really kind of. Crystallized my obsession with the mobile game until here we are today.

David Hernandez: 7:54

I was curious, so, it seems like Pokemon Red and then the fourth generation you played because it was popular, Pokemon Go is the complete opposite. What is it about Pokemon Go that kind of kept you engaged for as long as it has?

Alfindeol: 8:06

Uh, I don't know.

David Hernandez: 8:10

Good answer.

Alfindeol: 8:10

sure. I, I have been very much on the record as saying that I don't think Pokemon Go is a terribly good game. I don't think as a game, like as a, as a well designed game entity, I think it's not terribly good. I like to describe it as the world's most popular inventory management simulator. Right? Most of what you're doing is, deleting things that you don't want, that said, well, that is absolutely true. I think the game elements of Pokemon go are relatively. Light to be charitable to how they are. What it does have is just such a perfect marriage of concepts and execution in its core gameplay that it just doesn't matter. It's a sandbox, right? It ended up becoming a sandbox. And if you're someone like me, who's kind of a sandbox gamer who, like, can make goals for myself. Sure. I love when a game tells me. Something to do, but it's just a collection sandbox and I can go for a walk. I can catch a bunch of pokemon Maybe I keep some maybe I don't but at the end of the day I can set my own goals and I've you know managed to make quite a lot of my own fun with pokemon go between the gameplay elements that do speak to me and sort of the collection, compulsive collection element that brought me to Pokemon in the first place, as well as the social element, which to me is, where the game really shines. Playing Pokemon Go with people is great. Playing Pokemon Go by yourself is frequently a frustrating, boring experience.

David Hernandez: 9:32

Well, what kind of goals do you like to set for yourself in those early days? Like,'cause you said you, you're very goal driven, so kind of goals would you do before, I guess raid came around?

Alfindeol: 9:39

Yeah. So before Raids came out, I really just, for a long, long, long time in Pokemon Go, I just played it as muscle memory for when I went out for a walk. There wasn't really anything going on there. It was more like, I work down the street or I'm going to get coffee. I'm going to turn the game on. I'm going to walk and catch. Some of those times I probably played once or twice a week at most. there weren't any streaks or anything. There wasn't any of that gamification to keep me going. At some point when they fixed the appraisal system, And you could actually understand what the appraisals were. That was the first thing that set off, like, the collector in me. and I started collecting hundos at that point, right? And I was like, well, it'd be really cool to get a hundo of every Pokemon. Now, I did not realize what I had set out for myself at that point. Because I had no, no basis in reality of how difficult it would be. Because my very, very first raid Pokemon The very first raid Pokemon I ever caught was a Hundo Archikuno.

David Hernandez: 10:34

Oh,

Alfindeol: 10:35

Second raid I ever did, first raid Pokemon I caught was Archikuno, which happens to be not only the team Pokemon, because I'm a mystic, not that teams matter in the game at any point, but it's also my favorite Pokemon. So I was kind of set up for success there. It's like, oh, this will be great. I'll just Collect a hundo over everything and then it's Slowly, but surely spiraled out of control from there as far as collection. Although I have odd Collections like I collect stuff. That's a little odd, but I don't collect quite as Thoroughly as other folks. For example, I don't like costumes generally speaking I just don't, they don't appeal to me. Individual costumes certainly will appeal to me. you. Put Hoot, hoot in a hat. Hell yeah. Let's go. Like I'm in, you put Evie or Pikachu and it's 27th Hat. I don't care. Like I'm not those things. I'm not keeping those. because of the way I manage my inventory, which is borderlines. Psychopathic at this point. I will look for the option of like, for my little living decks, well if I have a costume and I like it, like, I don't know, pumpkaboo with the tiny hat.

David Hernandez: 11:37

Mm-Hmm.

Alfindeol: 11:38

So I look for a way to stick that into my existing, collection, living decks, which is just, I collect three things because the game displays in threes, right? Like it's three wide. And so when I look at my inventory, I can see Bulbasaur, Bulbasaur, Borbulsaur. And the next line, Ivysaur, Ivysaur, Ivysaur. makes me very happy. It's a weird thing. I get asked on stream all the time about why my Pokémon have these stupid names. And it's because alphabetical name sort is the only way to reliably view your, stuff. But I collect Hundos. I collect Shinies, obviously, of any variety. And then I collect Lucky Level 1 Pokémon. So not Luckies, not Level 1s. actual combination of the two. which has pretty much everything to do with the fact that it's a collection that I can't do by myself. It requires another human being to participate in this with me. and it's really a fun, satisfying thing for me to do. And I can You know, talk to other people and trade with them and that whole experience of like, them catching a Pokemon for me and saving it for me because of this specific thing is great. I have a spreadsheet that has what I'm requiring and search strings and all that sort of stuff. And I have people who will literally, six months will go by and they'll DM me be like, hey, do you want to get together to do a bunch of trades? I have like, 55 level ones you need because luckies are only a one in 20 chance So we'll sit down and we'll do we'll grab a beer and we'll do 50 100 trades and i'll get three or four lucky level ones. The end result is this collection that is You know collaborative and interesting and slightly different than what it could be. Otherwise borderline just vanilla luckies is fine Level ones fine, but I found level ones too easy and I found that like Lucky's are fairly easy And this was like hey, what if I did this but like turned it up to 11? So

David Hernandez: 13:27

Is that kinda how it started though? Is just because you felt, found both those easy that you just decided to combine the two? Is that kinda how this whole

Alfindeol: 13:33

It kind of just happened because I got a couple Lucky level ones in like the first couple trades like when trading launched and Lucky's launched at some point I got like a lucky level one ditto And they got like a level one, I think it was like a Sunkern or a Natu or something, but it was like, this is stupid, like it's CP It's so useless, but I like it. I don't know how to explain it, but this brings joy to me that it's like tiny and useless, but also has this glorious sparkle effect. I'm like, huh, I think I like this. And then I just started asking. It's like, Hey, if you caught any, like little ones, do you want to trade them to me? And like, Within a matter of, like, a month, I had, like, you know, 60 or 70 lucky level ones. I was like, oh, well, this is, this is a collection now. Like, now this is a thing. and so, from there, it's just kind of grown into its own crazy sort of side hustle. So, I spent, you know, I spent almost my entire weekend hustling people for shiny level one late guardians, right? Like, I have two of the three accounted for. I need to find. a shiny level one Mesprit. That's the Pokemon I'm looking for. I have an Azelf locally. I have two distance friends, who I'll see on occasion, who have Uxies for me. But I have not found for me a shiny Mesprit. Level one shiny Mesprit yet.

David Hernandez: 14:49

That's your white whale?

Alfindeol: 14:51

It's not quite my White Whale. My White Whale right now, if we want to get really into White Whale, My White Whale is level one Kanto Birds. Because they spawned a With elite raids remember they were supposed to have special spawns around elite raids the birds were the spawns?

David Hernandez: 15:11

Yeah,

Alfindeol: 15:12

Yeah. They exist.

David Hernandez: 15:14

glitch. Or

Alfindeol: 15:17

I've No, I've seen a level one, locally. Someone has one. But this person posted it and then they never responded to any of my I was like, hey, hey, hey, would you maybe The more reasonable one is I need a Suicune. Suicune is the only of the legendary beasts I didn't get. I know where there are a couple. I have a couple friends who have them, and it's just been a long process of maybe finding something that they're willing to trade for it, but, the legendaries, the level one legendaries have been a really fun challenge because they're very, very limited in the time that they're available. So it's been, it's always really challenging to like, try and make sure that I can scoop one of those up in the narrow window that they're available.

David Hernandez: 15:57

That's true, I forgot all about those. My gosh, that was such a brief moment, because they never brought them back. It was like, two elite raids, I think, and that was

Alfindeol: 16:03

Yep, yep, there were, there were maybe two elite raids where they were spawning, and then I think they just killed that feature entirely. It doesn't mean that we won't see them in the future, like, that's kind of the thing I always think about with this, like, everything in Pokemon Go is cyclical, like, almost everything comes back. There are some things that I don't think are ever going to come back, but they're, most things come back, and I think stuff like wild spawning legendaries, pretty much any wild spawning legendary, probably comes back at some point for something. so, you know, there's always and there's always stuff like that. Like, for example, it go fast is the first time we've ever had Lucario in the wild. So, tracking down a shiny level one Lucario was, you know, very much towards the top of my list of things to do. So, it's always been fun to kind of have like a slightly different, priority when it comes to like what it what it And also, when I'm playing with other people, I want them to get the shinies. Because me catching a level one shiny does me no good.

David Hernandez: 16:59

Right, because

Alfindeol: 16:59

lucky. Yeah, mean, sure, I'll trade it to somebody. It's fine. Like, I like catching shinies. It's great. But I'm always rooting for everyone else in the group. So when we would go this weekend and we would like, Oh, there's an Azelf. And I click on it. Oh, it's level one. I'm like, come on, let's go. Everyone else get the shiny. Like, it's like, I don't care if it's shiny for me. It does me no good.

David Hernandez: 17:19

That's true. That's true. So you want everybody else to get the shiny. So that way they can trade it and

Alfindeol: 17:23

Exactly. I'm like, if you get it, then maybe we can work out a trade. Maybe, you know.

David Hernandez: 17:29

So would you also, I know you said mentioned like shiny Lucario, you can still get a level one Riolu, right? If

Alfindeol: 17:36

No, real is real. Okay, so the hatches. You mentioned white whales And I had kind of forgotten because they're so they're so so so so rare Technically all of the hatched Pokemon are available as level ones. I think almost I think almost all of them There's probably some that aren't due to the mechanics but because if you get the egg at level one it has to be like Literally a new account first egg and then it has to hatch. I think the baby and then they have to keep it to the point where like, and I'm not going to. So like, I'm not going to farm new accounts for that stuff, right? I'm not going to be like, Oh, I'll just start a new account every day and I'll just hatch these eggs. Like to me, that's Okay. Bye. Dis and it's not it's not the point, right? I'm not so thirsty to complete the collection I'm doing air quotes, which I realize I'm on a podcast so no one can see I'm not so thirsty to complete the collection that I want to say Circumvent the game's terms of service. I don't want to cheat like it's not that's not the point The point isn't having lucky level in Pokemon. It's Hate to say it, it's the friends we made along the way.

David Hernandez: 18:43

Interromantic music or Some kind of violin music there

Alfindeol: 18:47

Yeah, I hate that I said that, but anyway, yes, that's kind of the point, is that it's more about the actual, like, act of you know, finding and trading and hitting lucky. I have a couple like, level one regionals that I did before. A lot of post were before lucky friends were a thing. So you have to remember for folks who maybe have forgotten, there used to be a time when you couldn't guarantee a lucky trade. So a number of very high value level ones in my inventory were got in the old fashioned way. It's like you've got one of the, you've got one level, one Corsa. I guess we're gonna try and see what happens and so quite a few of them were gotten that way Which is pretty cool. Given that like now it's super easy now It's like oh all I have to do is hit lucky with somebody. I'm lucky enough to play in a big city. So I have lots of locals who would happily trade me random level ones, but One, I don't want to waste my lucky trades on like, yeah, send me a level one Rowlet. Sure. Whatever. Like, at least it's got to be at least a shiny or something. Like I'm not, I'm just not interested in like spewing those trades for anything that isn't relatively difficult to come by. They're still valuable. And I still do like, you know, I do like other stuff like, Shundo legendaries, for example, would be great. I don't have any, but the pedestal where I'd put the one I had, if I had it is right behind me.

David Hernandez: 20:03

Don't know which is more crazy. You're trying to go for Shundell legendaries. You're trying to go for a level one lucky decks That's kind of

Alfindeol: 20:08

I think at this rate, I am likely to complete the level one Lucky Dex before I get a Shundo Legendary. Cause I have, I am cursed when it comes to Shundo Legendaries.

David Hernandez: 20:19

is there such thing as curse though? Cuz you know, the odds are very

Alfindeol: 20:22

know. Well, but like, the number of 98 Legendaries I have, I think I did the, the, the, the, like I had like 1998 Legendaries. Shiny Legendaries. From like lucky trades and stuff and like at some point. I don't know what to say. Like I know the odds are bad. But at some point i've done more than i've definitely done more than 128 shiny legendary trades, so

David Hernandez: 20:47

Well, that begs the question though, in theory, for example, say Niantic decides to bring the bottle caps, just for the sake of argument. Would you actually use it on the 98s? For your collection? Oh, you would.

Alfindeol: 20:58

Oh, yeah. If they put the mechanic in the game, I'm using it. 100%. there's no world I wouldn't. Like, I know that some people very much like the, the chase. I like the chase for some things. But ultimately, my collection doesn't necessarily require the chase for me to be happy. And especially when it comes to, say, making a Shundo legendary. Yeah, I'm bottle capping all those bottle capping all of them because I would I mean I I purified a shadow mewtwo to get a hundo Let's that's where I'm at. Yeah, I know. I know that's gonna be controversial I think I'm right to do it mostly because it mega evolves and I didn't have a hundo. So now I have a hundo maxed out mega Mewtwo when that when that drops that was the whole reason I did it. So Because I like this makes sense. This computes in my brain. I don't know why I do know why but like I I just think this makes sense this I think the logic is here Because it's my only hundo Mewtwo and I saved six shadow Mewtwo's and every shadow Mewtwo slaps So I think the difference between having 198 shadow Mewtwo And having 6 90 plus Shadow Mewtwos is nothing. So, I'll have 1 Hundo that I can Mega Evolve and 6 that are awesome. If I ever decide to do that, I won't. I just don't really build raid teams like that. So, it's not something I'm ever gonna do. I am happy with my decision because it brings me one step closer to just being fully done with Gen 1 Hundos, so, you know.

David Hernandez: 22:21

Which ones are missing?

Alfindeol: 22:23

I'm missing Moltres. The other ones are painful. The other ones are, getting into the realm of like, they've become memes. I don't have a Hitmonchan. I have played three events with friends where I have for whatever reason decided to like, I'm gonna go sit down and grab a drink or lunch with somebody. And then they've all gotten a Hondo Hitmonchan while I was away from them.

David Hernandez: 22:45

No

Alfindeol: 22:45

times, so that one's tragic. I don't have a single hundo Drowzee, and at one point I had caught more Drowzee than I had caught Rattata. or Zubats or Pidgeys, because they were, in Seattle, in, at the game, Drowzee was our common spawn. It was the most common spawn we had. They were just everywhere. I'm confident I deleted a perfect Drowzee at some point. I know I did. Because the appraisal system didn't work, and I didn't know what any of it meant, and I wasn't collecting anything, so I just wasn't paying attention to it.

David Hernandez: 23:11

We didn't even have an appraisal system back in the

Alfindeol: 23:12

Yeah, but now it's been in it's been in shadows. I couldn't get a hundo like I've just never been able to get a hundo Drowzee. Other than those oh I think am I missing a Doduo? Maybe I'm missing like one other stupid. That's the thing. I have a spreadsheet for this like what am I missing?

David Hernandez: 23:34

That's, how you know you're professional. You have a spreadsheet ready. Mm

Alfindeol: 23:36

a spreadsheet like it's a bit obnoxious. Those are all Alolans. Those don't count. Alolans and Galarians don't count, right?

David Hernandez: 23:45

hmm.

Alfindeol: 23:46

No, they don't count. I'm missing a Dodrio. Oh! I'm missing, uh, Seaking.

David Hernandez: 23:53

Oh, wow. I figured you would have that

Alfindeol: 23:56

Yeah, you would think. I don't have a classic Mr. Mime. Oh, that's the other one that's truly tragic. I don't have an an Aerodactyl.

David Hernandez: 24:06

Oh, gosh

Alfindeol: 24:08

it's, it's like six Pokemon and all of them are like, for the most part, Pokemon that I have, caught so, so many. And a couple of them Have been Pokemon 2 that are like, in Rockets. Aerodactyl and Drowzee were like, Compulsively in rockets. I think I got, like, four or five shadow 98, or not, like, purified 98s of both of them when they were in rockets. Like, I just could not get over the hump. Just tragic.

David Hernandez: 24:33

You've been listening to As the Pokeball Turns. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Well, Alfindeol, the one thing that people know you for is your PvP content. So what made you want to go into that? Like, what started that

Alfindeol: 25:53

Yeah. so, PvP kind of dropped out of the middle of nowhere. If, if you weren't around in 2019, like, It just sort of showed up one day. It wasn't really like a thing that they had teased much. It wasn't a thing they had talked about. One day they're just like, Hey, would you like to battle your Pokemon against your friends? Here's an entire feature. Like, it just dropped out of nowhere. And we had no information on it. We really just were like, holy crap. And it was just, like, the first day it came out, I just remember like, let's try this. And we started playing around with it. I was like, this is kind of fun. Like, Wasn't expecting this to be fun because I all I had experienced was raid battles and like trainer battles and they were bad There's nothing to them. I was like, this is kind of fun. And so I like started playing it quite a bit and then soon after the Silph Road and Silph Arena stuff started taking off and it just so happened that We're fairly well connected with folks in that community. We ran some of the very first Test tournaments of the sylph arena here in the Seattle area. And we ran it with a couple people who would later join the arena team And it was really cool. we just sort of started hosting those events. So we were, if not the earliest, we were some of the earliest adopters of Silph Arena here. And we had a really, really cool Sylph scene. And I just got totally into it. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was neat. I was absolutely, you know, hyper fixated on it for the entirety of the first season. and I kind of started streaming about midway through. through, uh, in collaboration with the go stadium folks. I was familiar with Twitch through other interests, but wasn't really like super expecting to do much streaming. but I kind of noticed that there wasn't anyone streaming Pokemon go. And I was like, well, I could stream this like three nights a week. And so I just started doing it. Like I just thought it'd be fun and turned out it was fun and turned out there was obviously a lot of latent interest for it. And then, you know, the pandemic killed the industry that I had been working in. I quickly pivoted to being a full time streamer because it was the only real option available to me in mid 2020. and kind of here I am, I don't know how to, like, it just sort of right place, right time. I mean, there's some of it is, it was a strategic idea of, I think there might be interest here that isn't being served. Um, I have a marketing background, so that's kind of like marketing one on one is like, Hey, can I do something that. People want that isn't really being done and at the time there just weren't a lot of people doing it especially like in a light Fun sort of way there was quite a bit of content on sort of really competitive play and there still is But like the light hearted like we did mostly auto recommended battles Like we would mostly just tee up with friends and just like let let fate take the wheel and have have a good time And you know, that was kind of where we we zeroed in and had the most fun And you know, I think that sort of resonated with people in a lot of ways at that time. So

David Hernandez: 28:38

I'm curious since y'all were like, one of the first ones to do the Silph Arena, what was it like for y'all to do the test? Like, how was it different?

Alfindeol: 28:46

original software basically was unchanged from when we tested it to when it went live for everybody else. Obviously, like, Arena stuff went through a pretty Massive sort of evolution from Boulder Cup until, you know, to Silph sort of shutting down. There were a lot of. quality of life updates that were just not present. you know, the Seattle area hosted one of the very first mega tournaments. We hosted one of the first invitational tournaments where a bunch of people from Portland came up to Seattle. A bunch of people from Vancouver came down and we hosted a Tempest Cup that became the template for future sort of mega tournaments and a ton of the feedback That came out of that tournament ended up kind of moving into and being added to, the Silph Arena stuff because it was like, Hey, you know, simple stuff like we need pairing numbers, just so people can find a table so that we are not just shouting people's names all the time, right? We just need pairing numbers and stuff like little things like that. The system was always being iterated, which was really cool. And it's really cool to see You know, not only the evolution of that, but the iteration of rules and stuff. I mean, anyone who played original Silph formats remembers that the first tournament was the only one they ever did where they didn't have a rule of one on your team. So, my Boulder Cup winning team was Medicham, Medicham, Skarmory, Skarmory. Marshtomp Magneton. And worth noting, at this time, here are some things that didn't exist. Uh, there was no power up punch. Metacham did not have that moveset. it had counter, you were running counter, ice punch, dynamic punch. That was basically the only thing. Psychic was very bad, at that point. It had not been, uh, it had not been adjusted. Um, Skarmory, did not have Braybird. I believe both of my Skarmories were single moved, and they had been caught in the wild at close to 1500 Marshtomp was the good Swampert because Swampert hadn't had a community day yet. So it was the only playable, really the only playable Mudboy with Surf and Mudbomb. Same, same moveset, but less good. And then, Magnetum was double Legacy. Thundershock and Discharge were legacy. Like, you literally could not get them. And I had traded a local who just happened to have a 2016 Magneton in her inventory. And it's job was It absolutely dumpstered Skarmory. Skarmory couldn't kill it. It could just straight farm a Skarmory and people were running most teams, like literally most of the battles you fought were Metacham Skarmory. And that was the whole team. And it was you mirror matched Metacham That was Boulder

David Hernandez: 31:18

a lot of fun.

Alfindeol: 31:19

Uh, it was not. It was not a lot of fun. but it was, you know, fun in that it was the first time people had gotten together and played tournaments. And I remember, like, the first time sitting down with people and, like, really theorycrafting tournaments. This is before PVPoke. So I remember, like, sitting down with my friend and literally running the Medicham-Skarmoy lead over and over again in the game to try and find an angle to win it. And what we, found out was Medicham basically beat Skarmory. People didn't, weren't considering it, but if you just stayed in basically punched through the thing. And so we ended up meeting in the finals because we had discovered our tech was like, Oh, like, and everyone's like, Aha, I got, I got you with the lead. And you're like, Yeah, you don't, you don't have And so, like, it was definitely a really interesting sort of, world where we were living in this. sort of, great unknown of what this would be. And I remember there being a lot of enthusiasm for it at the time. And, I'm glad to have seen it to me at kind of its, peak grassroots. It's awesome to see where it's gotten to. I think it's really cool. I don't think it's for me necessarily anymore when it comes to high level competitive play. I sort of retired at the end of cause I wasn't finding. I wasn't finding it satisfying anymore, and I was finding there's a there's a famous quote One of my other one of my other big Fan passions is college football And there's a quote from a coach who retired who basically described the reason he retired which was that? You know winning felt like a relief and losing felt awful And it was like, I can't do this anymore. Like, you get to that point where it's like, I've put so much into this. Winning feels like, oh, thank God I won. It's not even satisfying anymore. You just feel like, I put in the work, I'm glad I won. And losing just feels devastating. And it kind of got to that point for me where I was finding that I wasn't particularly liking the competitive person I had become. And I thought better of maybe scaling back my more competitive, angle and leaning more into some of the more trying to have a little more fun. And I still will find that a little bit if I get into a competitive rut playing, you know, GBL or a format like that where it's like, I can definitely see it impacting my mood sometimes. And I've been a big proponent, especially with, Go Battle League of. Do this when it's fun and don't do it when it's not fun like literally do not force yourself to do a thing You're not enjoying and I think it's super important that that's also true across the game For Pokemon go as I truly think that many Pokemon go players do it out of obligation And I think if you're not having fun Don't do it like The game will be there in a week like if you don't want to go out and play the current event Just don't take a week off Take a day off. Don't turn the app on for a day. Like, it's not going to kill you to skip a day, skip an event, skip a community day if you don't, if you're not interested. It, it's literally fine. You will be fine.

David Hernandez: 34:08

That's actually the hardest thing for me to learn because I was the same way to where I opened the game out of habit instead

Alfindeol: 34:12

Mm hmm.

David Hernandez: 34:13

and I didn't have fun at some point. Like I felt like it was just more of a routine. It was just like a thing to do and I finally decided to put the game down for just a couple weeks was one of the best decisions I ever made because I don't think I'd still be playing this game if I hadn't.

Alfindeol: 34:25

Yeah. Sometimes you just literally need to step away from, from stuff. And I think, There's a lot of elements of the game where that falls in, but I find that go battle league is a big one because it's not even necessarily the core game. It's an optional thing you can do. It has its own FOMO cycle, which is that if you don't hit legend by the end of the season, I've got advice. If you are somebody who stresses out hitting legend every season, don't hit legend next season. Just don't break it. Break the streak. if you're if you feel every season this unnecessary pressure to hit legend and you know it deep in your soul Here's what I want you to do. Don't hit legend next season Just just just let it let it happen because I remember the first season I didn't hit and I went Yeah, that wasn't that bad. now the pressure the pressure is off to an extent, right? Yes I make content on the game. Yes, it's cool to hit legend I've hit legend on stream a couple times. It always feels great. It's always a ton of fun I do not care if I hit legend it does not make a difference to me it's not, it's not the thing that defines, my engagement and enjoyment with the game. So, I think, in many cases, it is something people could do for themselves that might just help them break that kind of cycle of, like, I have to do this, right? And the answer is you really don't, and don't do things that aren't fun. it seems so simple, but if we just did things that were fun, if that thing is Pokemon Go, great. If it's not, then fine. Like, we have other hobbies, right?

David Hernandez: 35:46

Alfindeol, we're going to start a Pokemon Go recovery group.

Alfindeol: 35:49

Yeah.

David Hernandez: 35:51

Like an AA meeting, to be Go.

Alfindeol: 35:54

Yeah, you know, usually at AMEs they don't let you drink, so I don't think any of us are qualified to run this Pokemon Go group.

David Hernandez: 36:01

Oh, okay, good point, yeah, I haven't, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Details. But, one thing that I wanted to ask is that, you're kind of one of the few people I've met who has been able to experience PVP from the infancy, before when Silphro was just trying to test out its software. So even now, like, what is it like for you to kind of go through that journey and see how far PVP has become to what it is today?

Alfindeol: 36:23

I mean, it is neat. at this point, I still think Pokemon go struggles a little bit for legit legitimacy amongst the other. Pokemon games like I think it's died down a little bit, but I definitely remember the first couple seasons of the world circuit there being a lot of condescending nonsense around Pokemon go. I think many of those people have realized that there is more to the game than they probably thought there was, which is good. I've been critical of Pokemon go PVP design but I do think many people shortchange just how interesting it is as a, game. It's, it has more going on than I think anyone who's like, Oh, I casually played Pokemon go. I cannot imagine how you battle another person as satisfying. We're like, well, good news. It has mechanics that you've not used anywhere else in the game because that's the only way that that would be possible. but it's been cool. It's been really cool to see like something that I literally remember having, conversations about like, Oh, we had like 19 people show up for a tournament one time. Oh my God, like this is it's really happening. And I remember like, you know, the first couple, the first go fest I went to was in 2019 is the first time I met other people who played Pokemon Go that I knew exclusively from the internet. Cause I met friends that I had made through GoStadium. these are like the people who are, Their names are whispered in PvP circles as like, No, these are the people. These are, these are the ones. These are the ones who are, who are, who are good. and every community kind of had their one. And we hadn't really had an opportunity to get all those people together until then. So, you know, that first GoFest in Chicago was really like, One of the first big cross pollination events where we like, we all met each other, we all kind of like We get along. This is cool. We played big tournaments. The World Championships were a total train wreck. Like, if you consider the first Silph World Championships at that shitty bowling alley in Chicago they got kicked out before the finals were done and played them outside in the rain with the fact that we just You know, had a world champion crowned on a stage in Yokohama with all of the Pokemon, right? Like that journey is insane. Like it's it's hard to explain just how wild that is. I think that's always been kind of the ceiling for Pokemon go, I know early on a lot of people's eyes got very big about oh, this is going to be the next huge thing. I'm like It has a cap, it's gonna be on, like if it gets to the world circuit, and it stays there, Pokemon Go is here, and it's not going anywhere, and it's there, and that's really cool, we're seeing essentially, at least the game be given it's place among the other competitive games, I think at this point, the only real thing that we need from it is truly just more work when it comes to making the competitive game compelling. And I think that is entirely to do with balance and it's to do with feature. we haven't really had a new feature introduced in Pokemon Go PvP in years. Like it's been years.

David Hernandez: 39:15

I think since the buffs, I think that's probably the

Alfindeol: 39:17

Buffs and debuffs I think were the last time we had a new feature. Like an actual new feature. And that, uh, Buffs debuted in March of 2019, I know that because I played an Open Great League tournament the day they debuted Power Up Punch Medicham. It was a mistake.

David Hernandez: 39:37

And we've been living for the sins ever since. Ha ha ha

Alfindeol: 39:40

contemporary players know how good Power Up Punch used to be. They think Scald is bad? Oh, I have, I have bad news for you. I have bad news for you. It's, it's, it was insane. I remember that, like, two or three of us had Medichams for that tournament, and just like, Yeah, if you brought meta champ, you won. Same, same deal. I also played an Open Great League tournament, and the first day Bastiodon was available. And I was the only player in the tournament who had one. And I swept every single one of my opponents.

David Hernandez: 40:09

Yep. hard to beat We couldn't beat it. That

Alfindeol: 40:11

Especially because every Azu was running, uh Uh, none of them were running, uh, Hydro Pump. the meta in that era was just different. Like, it's hard to describe how different the Open Great League meta game was in 2019 as compared to what it is now. most of the Pokémon that you see now were not playable. for various reasons, like there weren't enough moves for most of these Pokemon.

David Hernandez: 40:34

you talked about how you were in the Chicago and GoFest. So what was it like to be at the first GoFest for you in 2019? Mm

Alfindeol: 40:41

cool. I unfortunately was sick the entire time. So my memories are kind of like a fever dream for most of that event. Like I just was, I felt like crap. to me, like the thing that was cool about it was that it was really the first time that I had. Left, it's the first time I've gone anywhere to play Pokemon Go, which now seems crazy like I've traveled so much in the last couple years, and post pandemic, I kind of just like, wherever Pokemon Go wants me to go, I'm just going. Playing an event in any of the places that they host events is secondary to me. I like to go places and it's been very cool to use that as an excuse to travel the world. I added, uh, Sightseer, the Sightseer badge to my, to do list on travel and it's been a growing Interest of mine to see how, high I can push that. but that first event was really cool. And it was the first time I had really met other people who were like really into Pokemon Go. We have locals that were into it. I had locals that went. it's one of the first times some of my best friends locally who play the game with me. That was only the first time we hung out in Chicago. Despite the fact that we lived here. Like we knew each other. But we weren't really hanging out much. And then, it just so happened that we were both there, and so we hung out there a bunch, and it kind of helped solidify a local friendship. And that was kind of cool too, that it was like, oh hey, this like, It was really the the genesis point for my current local play group that weathered the pandemic together was our pandemic bubble, right? It was the six or seven of us that play Pokemon Go together. and so we would, you know, be able to like, hey, get together and play a community day or something together, masked up and we were like, Hey, we know each other. Everyone talks to each other like we're good. and you know, that was the first time I had hung out with most of those people and it happened to be at an event, not even here, which was kind of, kind of interesting. It's, it's fun how that, that kind of comes together. But, it was a really good time. And I, you know, at this point, I think the in person events are always a ton of fun. I, always recommend people if they have the means, try and get to one at some point. it's pretty cool. There are things I don't like about them, I'm not a crowds person, so a lot of times the parks are a little crowded for me, but now that they've been doing city play for pretty much every event, like, I just go to the park. Yeah, I get to go to the park. I do a little loop around, see all of the things that are going on. And then I just go play wherever's comfortable. it's been really cool to be able to actually like, you know, get out and do that. I think that's been a really good design choice for them.

David Hernandez: 42:51

Now what's interesting is that eventually your hometown of Seattle, or where you're staying in Seattle, got to host GoFest in 2022. What was that like to be a Seattle native, and to be able to host a GoFest? Because you also hosted Trivia Night too, right?

Alfindeol: 43:02

Yeah, I did. I did a lot. there are many things that I will stubbornly. defend. There are hills I'm willing to die on and one of my hills is that Seattle is a great city and it's not even my home city. I wasn't born here. I technically didn't grow up here, but I've lived here. I lived in Seattle on and off since 1999. so I adore the city and I think that the city gets a bad rap outside of the Seattle area. Hell, it gets a bad rap in the Seattle area. Um, it's a, it's needlessly politicized city, in a lot of ways. And there's a whole can of worms I could open that I'm just not going to. Needless to say, I spent, an inordinate amount of time when they announced that they were doing GoFest in Seattle defending my city. Against idiots online, right? That's basically what I did because I refused to let people You know besmirch the good name of Seattle until they fucking come here and enjoy the

David Hernandez: 43:52

ha ha ha

Alfindeol: 43:52

So it's really cool I like for me one of one of my favorite things to do is to show people around the city to make sure they have A good time here to make sure that they see the best things that Seattle has to offer So I did a ton of Welcome content I made Hundreds of recommendations over the course of the month leading up to GoFest. Um, I hosted a bunch of events, uh, including, I, I host trivia, trivia is my, I mean, was my old full time job and it's still something I do, I, I actually, my, uh, 10 year anniversary at my, at my trivia night is next Thursday, so. that's, yeah, I feel old. Um, uh,

David Hernandez: 44:30

young at heart. Ha

Alfindeol: 44:34

at heart. Old and bitter. So it was just really cool. Like, and it was, it's so cool to have all of these people that I know from across the world in my hometown and be like, Oh my God, I can, like, I can help you have the best time. Let's do it. Like, I love showing people around. I always, anytime it was like, I'm coming to Seattle. I'm like, just you let me know what you need and I'll make sure that you have the best possible time. I just like, I really like playing host and it was like, wow, I get to play host to the entire Pokemon Go community, which, more or less it was really great. I really enjoyed it, and I'm really happy we got to do it. I'm bummed that we only got to one event, and we didn't do like a couple years in Seattle, but at the end of the day, like I was just really glad that we got to do one here. I thought it was, I thought it was a great city for it. And the summers here in Seattle are fantastic and they suck everywhere else, everywhere else. I go for a go fest. I'm like, I wish I was home. Home better weather. Why am I here?

David Hernandez: 45:30

Last question about Seattle. Say like somebody's coming to battle you. You're on top of the Space Needle for a Pokemon 6 on 6 Pokemon battle. What six Pokemon are you bringing to the challenger?

Alfindeol: 45:41

I mean they're all gonna fly Cuz feel like otherwise this is gonna be there's gonna be a mess Hmm on top of the Space Needle you say, um, let's see. an homage to the Space Needle itself, uh, in its shape, let's, let's bring like a Magnezone. That's like a, that's the closest to a UFO I can think of, right? And then, space probably means we need to bring like, uh, something that evokes that. So how about like Lunala? Lunala evokes space, right? These are Pokemon that I, I, I don't know where they're coming from as far as like, I can't Believe I actually remember what Luna's name was, but here we are. Um, right, right. I feel like we bring a Kyogre because we have whales and Kyogre is the most whale, well, Wailord a whale, but, Hmm. Kyogre. Um, we're not, we're not bringing Wailord. Um. What else should we bring? Seattle, Seattle is, notorious for, its lack of social skills. We have the Seattle Freeze. So we have to bring an ice type. the coldest, most distant ice type, let's bring Frostlass? Frostlass doesn't look like it's a fun time, just cold. Hmm, what else do we need? What else do we need? We have a lot of trees. Like, a lot of trees. Like, that's one of the most determining factors, like, it's a green city. so let's bring, let's bring, uh, Trevenant. It looks like a spooky tree. And then, uh, oh gosh, I haven't even thought about balancing this team at all. So Yeah, this, I'm just trying to do Seattle, Seattle themed stuff. you know, our resident hockey team is the Kraken. So that's like a squiddy thing. how about Malamar? Malamar is a squid. There we go. Dark It works. go.

David Hernandez: 47:31

if you go battle Alfindeol, he's gonna bring the six Pokemon for the space needle badge.

Alfindeol: 47:39

heh.

David Hernandez: 47:41

Well, Alfindeol, one thing that I know is that you're a huge fan of magic, the And as you'd mentioned earlier, you also used to be a trivia master or you still are. I'm not too sure. So I decided for the last segment of this podcast, I wanted to bring a trivia segment. I've got five questions, for each man, a one forest, one mountain, island, one plains and one

Alfindeol: 48:00

sure,

David Hernandez: 48:01

You just need to be able to answer three out of the five correctly. So, are you

Alfindeol: 48:07

yeah, screw it, let's go,

David Hernandez: 48:08

you can pick whichever one. Which one do you want to start off

Alfindeol: 48:10

uh, black,

David Hernandez: 48:14

We're going to go swamp. The question is, on Clodsire, how many purple circular spots are on its back?

Alfindeol: 48:21

god, oh, I love Claude Sire, but I haven't looked at his back much, um, six?

David Hernandez: 48:28

Yeah, you got it.

Alfindeol: 48:29

Oh, yeah, let's go. I do, I do redemptions on my stream where I draw Pokemon from memory. I never draw them correctly. I didn't even remember there were spots on its back, but apparently I remembered there were six of them. So Yeah, yeah, that's what I was thinking. It's like, they gotta be like the spots for those.

David Hernandez: 48:49

exactly.

Alfindeol: 48:50

okay, well I'm one for one somehow.

David Hernandez: 48:53

All right. Next one. Which one do you want to select?

Alfindeol: 48:55

Um, let's go forest. In

David Hernandez: 48:59

in the original Pokemon red and blue. How many bug catchers Could you battle

Alfindeol: 49:03

In Viridian Forest or overall?

David Hernandez: 49:06

In Viridian Forest?

Alfindeol: 49:06

Oh, Lord. Um, let's see, how many were there? There's like one there. Like, I know, like, kind of the route. Seven.

David Hernandez: 49:17

Nope. Unfortunately. It was three.

Alfindeol: 49:20

There's only three? Oh, some of them are bug catchers. Some

David Hernandez: 49:23

Some of them are just NPCs. Yeah.

Alfindeol: 49:25

well there's also, I think there's also trainers that aren't bug catchers in there.

David Hernandez: 49:30

Yeah. It's all good. It's okay. You're one for one. You just got two more right. What's the next mana you're going to

Alfindeol: 49:35

Uh, let's do, let's do red, let's do mountain.

David Hernandez: 49:38

Here's a mountain question. In Pokémon Conquest, this weather affects kingdoms, maximizing the energy of fire Pokémon in affected kingdoms. What is the weather called?

Alfindeol: 49:47

Oh my god, it's been so long since I've played Pokemon Conquest. I own it, I actually have a copy of Pokemon Conquest. Um, So it, it boosts fire types? I don't remember any of these. I don't even remember there being weather effects in this game. It's been so long since I've played Conquest. Um, I don't know. Uh, let's, let's just guess that it's like, sunny.

David Hernandez: 50:18

Close. It's heat waves.

Alfindeol: 50:20

that makes sense.

David Hernandez: 50:22

All right. So one for two. You gotta, one do you want to select next? You

Alfindeol: 50:26

do, island. Let's do islands.

David Hernandez: 50:28

All right. So the island question is this, So you know what mana is in magic, So the same within the Pokemon trading card game. How many energy cards do you need on fossil Articuno to use its blizzard attack?

Alfindeol: 50:40

Oh, lord. Four?

David Hernandez: 50:42

there you go.

Alfindeol: 50:43

Okay. I'm like, I think most of the cards are four. I wish these were actual Magic the Gathering questions. I'd actually get these right, probably.

David Hernandez: 50:51

I got to make it Pokemon themed,

Alfindeol: 50:53

lord.

David Hernandez: 50:54

I'll tell you what, when I start a Magic the Gathering podcast, I'll make sure they're actually Magic

Alfindeol: 50:58

trivia questions easy. Yeah.

David Hernandez: 51:02

get this one right, otherwise Niantic's gonna keep Catch Cup for an entire season.

Alfindeol: 51:06

take a break.

David Hernandez: 51:09

The question is for the Plains. What gym leader in Pokemon gives out the Plain Badge?

Alfindeol: 51:14

Plane badge?

David Hernandez: 51:16

Uh huh. Uh

Alfindeol: 51:17

Oh, Lord. Well, it's not gen one I know that. I don't know if I could name, I don't know if I could name a gym leader after gen one. the plane badge, Oh, all right. I have a guess because it would be funny if it's right. Is it Larry?

David Hernandez: 51:34

Nooooo.

Alfindeol: 51:36

It should be

David Hernandez: 51:37

though.

Alfindeol: 51:37

It's the normal type badge. Oh, Whitney. Oh. Oh, well, I only know that Whitney has a Miltank. That's all I know. I've never battled Whitney in my entire life. I never got that far in that game.

David Hernandez: 51:52

You're still on route one.

Alfindeol: 51:53

I'm still on Route 1 catching Hoothoots. Because the game won't ever rotate out at night time.

David Hernandez: 51:58

Well Alfindeol, thanks for coming on the podcast. if people want to check out your content, where can they go? By all means, please plug away.

Alfindeol: 52:04

Yeah, um, your best places to find me, uh, content wise, are mostly on Twitch and YouTube. All of my handles on every platform are spelled exactly the same way as you will see I'm sure in the show notes. I Every day regret picking a handle on all these platforms that I have to spell So I'll just direct you to the show notes. It's a little easier But mostly twitch and YouTube I do a lot of shared content between the two, but those are the best two places to find me. I do maintain profiles on other social media platforms, but they're not terribly active at this point. so I would say, come say hi, come say I will live streaming or pop in the comments on a, on YouTube and we'll be happy to see you there.

David Hernandez: 52:44

And I'll make sure to include links to every direct And to save him from spelling, to his socials in the show

Alfindeol: 52:51

otter. ai

David Hernandez: 52:53

Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns. If you want to support the show, consider becoming a Patreon by either clicking the link in the description or going to patreon. com slash as the pokeball turns. Now, if you aren't able to support the show financially, you can always support the show by sharing it with your Pokemon community, because this show wouldn't exist without listeners like you. Now, here's a sneak peek for the next episode of As the Pokeball Turns.