The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast

Liverpool preview: LZB? Lugia? Retro, Twitter & more

January 16, 2023 Brent Halliburton Season 1 Episode 117
The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
Liverpool preview: LZB? Lugia? Retro, Twitter & more
Transcript
Brent:

Welcome to the Trashalanche Podcast. It's a very special Martin Luther King, uh, junior edition of the, uh, Trashalanche podcast. Attendance remains 100%. We're all here Brit, Mike, me, uh, we're on Twitter two at no new five star reviews. If you leave a review, we will read it on the pod. Uh, apparently reviews are good. Um, Dragon Shields our sponsor. Uh, we appreciate them sending us leaves. So I try to say Dragon Shields our sponsor, uh, at least once per podcast. Uh, that covers all of the stuff that we gotta talk about before we talk about all the other stuff that we wanna talk about. Mm-hmm. Guys, anything, uh, exciting happen? I, I recognize the agenda's a little bit light. Maybe we should kick it off by talking about the retro tournament that we were, uh, hyping last week and then both Mike and Liam participated

Mike:

in this week. and, uh, I don't think it went great for either of us. I played and Liam might have played the same list. I'm not actually too sure, but I pulled Taku. It was a dark cry Garbodor. Yep. And it, it, you know, I, I didn't have that many options for the event. Basically it was dark ride decks and I figured some people would net deck Jason's and I was like, oh, let's do something a little different. And then I lost round one, two. The Sableye Garbodor that Dustin Zimmerman got top four with. Uh, and then I lost to lay with Jason's list Um, and then Lay ended up going to win the event. Um, so that was fine, but Liam did play the same list.

Brent:

Uh, um, so when I asked, I, I saw that Liam had gone one, one drop and I asked him what happened, uh, uh, and he said, um, The, the list that I was, uh, gonna play, played two kds, and I decided to just cut it for, cut it to one and said, well, I just won't prize that, uh, if I ever need it. And then I played against Gotha, tele Elgar, and I prized it.

Mike:

Yeah,

Brent:

yeah, yeah. That's, and, and I said, dude, I don't think even if you had one that necessarily fixes that match, And he said, well, the other thing that happened was I looked at his list before the round started and I looked at all the one ofs and I didn't see any scrapers. And I was like, oh, that's totally fine. It's totally fine. Turned out it wasn't in the one ofs because he played two scrapers

Mike:

Uh, nice. That's funny. Um, and then there was another retro event. This past Saturday, I did not plan that. That was 2019 NAIC. And I think Lele won again with, uh, with Baby Bland. So I think he won both of them. I feel like.

Brent:

Uh, and those are not the only retros that Lele has won. Lele is like a retro winning

Mike:

machine, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's killing it.

Brent:

I, I told him I was surprised that he did not run ael, and he said he didn't think we had AELs in our PTCGO account, which surprises me because I feel like we would, and I said, oh, I didn't think the Segars were probably a problem. I thought, Gotha tells me the problem. He's like, well, I'm sure we don't have those either. But like, as it turned out, just getting four dark eyes together was a, was a real struggle. So, mm-hmm. I think these retro tournaments are just popular enough to make trading, uh, prohibit.

Mike:

Yeah, I was not super, even if the 2019 NAIC was during the week, I probably would've played it, but I would've been less excited. What I wanna play is 2019 Worlds, which is not like a super great format, but I played a, like right after that event, the first or second regionals that was still that format I created like a Behem, the GX deck that I really loved. I only got to play in like one event, maybe one league cup and, and that regional. And I'd really like to play that again.

Brent:

Right, right. Um, Liverpool coming up, uh, do you guys have any exciting commentary on, uh, people preparing for Liverpool this coming weekend? Mm,

Mike:

not really. I think lost boxes. Would probably be my play. I've been playing a decent amount of Pablo's, Raku, Rayquaza, lost Box, and it seems very, very strong. Uh, I think that's in a pretty good spot. I was just watching towards Stream. He's been playing the Kyo Lost Box on. Stream, which obviously also seems quite good. Um, I've also been playing the vehicle ball deck just to kind of get a feel of that. And it feels pretty good. Like it just feels pretty good into Lost Box. Pretty good into Lugia. Um, and I think. I don't know how you respect Veco Volt, but I feel like you should. I don't know like what that means exactly for each deck. Um, but if you can come up with a way to respect Veco Volt, that seems good because Veco Volt is actually pretty strong.

Brent:

Uh, it, it is interesting how that has become like, yeah, like that's a real thing. All right. Yeah. Brett, any, any big thoughts going into l.

Brit:

Uh, I would personally be on Xander's deck. I think. I feel like that is like, you want something a little different, that's also a little safe, kind of something like that. I did actually test. I don't know what motivated me, what the impetus for this was, but I was just like, Hey, I could play some Pokegear live this week. I haven't played it in a little while. And I, like, I built Kyo, the kyo loss box on live and like tested at a pretty good amount, um, for no reason, like not preparing for any event or anything local or anything like that. I was just like, oh, this is something I could do. I haven't burned through all my conversion credits or what have you. After migrating from T C G O to. Um, but yeah, no real thoughts. It's just like, it's such an awkward deck. I. It's just, it feels like, like a best of three deck. Like you just, you know, you're gonna brick a game and you just sort of have to instantly know how to go to the next game or something like that and be able to play it for time. And it's, again, it's sort of one of those decks too, where it's clearly so good, but like maybe if it were actually like the next percent better, it would, it would've won an event or something. But you know, at the end of the day it's Azul just got a million top sixteens or something. And maybe that's just kind of. The ceiling for the deck. Like it's really, really good. It rewards good play. Um, but still at the end of the day, things have to go your way to be, you know, Lugia level strength or something like that. Um, but yeah, Xander's deck similarly is like kind of, I'd have to think. I don't,

Brent:

Boltund is

Brit:

still probably pretty hard, but like if you just draw through it, you're in a really good position. So just kind of. The variance on when, where your double Turbo energy are during those ver those games. I would feel like, and this this is true for like seism owed mirrors and things like that, a lot of the time too, it's just like sometimes getting locked like was really bad. But if you just happen to be sitting on like three double color lists, like you, you might, you would maybe be fine. Um, and like something like that, I would imagine being true here. Um, and it's, it's just different, but I. You know, I think the, the main thrust of the argument, or at least like why would you play this over regular Mew is just that, like, that the aerodactyl, um, just hurts you so little that it's just worth gambling with. Like, it's, it's not wrecking your consistency, it's just kind of two burnable, very burnable cards everywhere else. It's, you're a deck that has the most access to the most discard in thinning and things like that. So it's just like, It's probably okay to start with, even in a matchup where you don't wanna start with it. Um, and yeah, just something like that. Like it, it's cute, I think. And so that's also part of why I'm gravitating towards it, just in that like it's a different kind of deck. Um, but yeah, in terms of like the, the overall like landscape for the Meta game, I don't, I wouldn't really expect anything different. I would think that. The format has largely been solved to a degree I would think. Like, sure, like some percentage of people might be playing like Gloss Box gu, like so brothers, things like that. But I would expect like to and Limitless just to probably be playing vanilla Lugia ready to kind of do the same stuff again.

Brent:

I, I didn't see any tweets that implied, uh, uh, that he was going or not, but, we'll, we'll, Sandra show up with some crazy.

Brit:

Assuming he shows up. Oh, if he goes I would, I would wager he's on some iteration of Gardevoir gang. Gar something I would guess. Um, I just like all, you can always bet on him playing some sort of control, but if it's a new version or an iteration of a pre previous version, I really have no idea. I don't always a safe, I think

Mike:

I wanna go back quickly to your point about lost box and maybe like, The ceiling is like the bunch of top sixteens. And that might be true, but another thing that I'm thinking about Lost Box that's kind of related is that let's say let, let's say lost box is the best deck, like even above Lucia, but maybe it's only like, you know, one or two percentage points above Lucia. I think then it becomes a worse play for almost everyone, right? Because. Even if it's played at its optimal level, if it's one or two percentage points above Lugia, where it's way harder to play, like way harder, you have to think much more. You're going to time more often. You're just more likely to make mistakes that. Your percentage, like even if you're Azul and Grant, like your win rate might actually be better with a deck like Lugia because it's easier to play and it's just more naturally powerful. Um, and so it's, it's such a weird thing because. Do you play the deck that you know is the best deck, but it's incredibly hard to play and you're gonna make mistakes? Or do you just play an easier deck that is not quite as good, but is probably just better for you? Um, and I think that's what a lot of people really need to ask themselves before they play a deck, like Lost Box Kai Hogar. I think the Ray Qua Raku is a little bit easier to play. Um, but Kyo is, it's still hard, but Kyo is like that next level.

Brent:

Yeah. You know, one, one of the questions I wanted to ask you guys about, uh, lost Box. Sounds like you guys have both been putting in some reps is, I mean, if, if you guys were like coaching up a new player who was like, I saw, you know, toward playing Lost Box on Stream and I saw Zulu playing Lost Box on Stream, and I'm like, I wanna play Lost Box on Stream. Are there, like, is there like advice you would give them besides putting a 10 million.

Brit:

I mean, I think that there would just be lots of kind of like minutia entailed in all those steps. It's just like all these finer points. It's like you, you can understand how to play the deck, but like, you also need to be extra cognizant of time. Like you also need to be like, um, you know, a little more tuned into your price cards and you know, Lou gear, you know, another option on the table. Things like that. Um, just like these things that I guess are fundamentals for Pokegear, like something that, like you've played for long enough and are at least some currently active, like you probably have at least a vague understanding of these things, but like, it's hard to sort of get a new player to, it's a kind of like something you just catch. It's not just like a fact that you internalize. It's cuz it's, it's kind of a fluid notion. It's, it's not just like a, you know, a chart that you can follow each and every time. And so that's why it's difficult to teach. Um, but yeah, I don't know if there's anything, any finer points for the deck specifically that like would be worth, you know, trying to, like a point of advice that would only apply to Kyo. I don't think so. I mean, I guess the whole sort of making k itself effective is sort of a unique concept, like the, not a lot of other decks really need to sort of. Obviously like thinning and sequencing are important, but in the ways you have to do it for kyo are a little specific. You just have to like be thinking about your Oranguru and maybe even a double Oranguru. This turn, putting two energies on top and just playing to your odds as much as possible when you do have to pull the trigger on that attack. Um, it's just some finer points that other decks, I don't think there's like a, an analog to that kind of like micro play that's important to succeeding with. Even, even like the Ray queso version is, is so much simpler. It's just like, Like Reza just Blowns up the active and there's no, no sort of like proceeding steps other than just like making sure it's what you want to discard all your energy on. Mm-hmm. whereas Kay is just, there's a lot and you like, you don't really get it more than the one time generally speaking. So you have to really sort of be careful when deciding it's your time to use it. Yeah.

Mike:

Um, and one of the other things for lost box decks in general is they need to figure out their prize mapping. I. More earlier than other decks would and be more precise with it as well. You know, a lot of the big hit'em V decks, like Lugia have a little bit more of a flexible, uh, uh, prize mapping because they can just kill something whenever they want, pretty much. Um, but a lot of the lost box decks can't do that. Even rayquaza like though it can, you can only. Once or twice, depending on what the matchup is. And you don't wanna, if you

Brent:

have to do it twice, you better realize you have to do it twice. Right, right,

Mike:

right, right, right. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That exactly right. Like that means you can't lost own, like you're a recycler. You're one of recycler. Usually if you need to rayquaza twice or like you're ordinary, rods are much more valuable. And so being able to kind of map out like how many of these Mirage Gate attackers can I actually use? And how am I gonna draw six prizes using them? I need to be able to use Cramorant and Sableye effectively. Um, so the, all of those things matter a lot more when you're playing a deck, like Lost Box compared to, to something like Lugia.

Brent:

Do you think when, when, uh, people look back on this format, When, you know, five years from now when people wanna play Retro deck, will people play Lost Box or will they be like, lost Box is crazy.

Mike:

I think people will definitely play it. It's, uh, I'm trying to think. Is there like any analog, I mean like Zoroark, it's. Not super dissimilar to like Zoroark decks, right? Because Zoroark was constant. There's a constant balance of discarding resources with trade and making sure you still had enough things to, to win the game. Obviously you could get stuff back with the Zoroark decks, but, uh, and so puzzle a time mitigated that a little bit, but in the formats without puzzle at the time, I think that, um, dynamic was very much there. Uh, and people enjoy playing the Zoroark deck, so.

Brent:

Yeah, it's fun having, uh, big hand sizes. I feel like, I feel like the ability to build up for some reason, I feel like, um, like the idea of, uh, uh, people not having gigantic hand sizes, like a Zoroark Zoroark man, it was like, it was, it was so common for people to have like 20 cards in their hand. Yeah. Here, I don't know if it's just like Marnie's more prevalent or if it's, you know, the fact that it goes to the law zone or that you can only use the companies when the air, when the, when they're in the active. I don't, I just, I feel like I rarely feel like people have that kind of crazy agency when they're playing, uh, lost box x

Mike:

I mean, well, it depends on the matchup too, because you're right against Dex with Marnie, that's a hundred percent true, but like in a lost box mirror, when they know that there's no hand disruption, like the game ends with both lost box players with like 15 cards in their hand still at least. Right, right. Because just cuz they know that they can hold all these cards for the, the proper,

Brent:

it's never gotten badly for them. Right, right. Yeah. Any other stuff we should talk about with respect to Liverpool? Or we can jump right into like my wave of uh, uh, crazy, uh, mailbags questions.

Mike:

I just wanna, uh, I know I said it and I just wanna reiterate it again. The Veco volt deck, I think. Much, much, much stronger than I gave it credit for before. Um, we haven't seen Gibb's exact list, but from what he was, from like his interviews, it sounded like he might have just dropped Marni for a judge. Um, from Alex k cracker's list there. There's probably like another change or two in there, but that was the big one. Um, Like I, it's like one of the very few decks that I think is quite favored against Lugia and las Box. Like there's not really any other deck that, uh, I feel that way about. Um, so. I dunno, that's just something I would really consider if I was going to Liverpool. And it's something that I'm really considering going into Orlando as well. N maybe both like me potentially playing VCA Boltund, but also just how I build my deck. I want be more aware of VCA Volt.

Brent:

So, uh, um, related question to that. I'm sure you guys saw there was like a tweet ro roaming around where people were talking about how um, Marni is more disruptive than judge. Because you have no opportunity to redraw the cards that were in your hand. And I thought I hadn't really given that too much thought, but I didn't know if that was like mathematically true or not true. Like I guess if the point is that you had to win in your hand. Well then like Sure.

Brit:

Yeah. It would depend on the contents of your deck, like very, very clearly for it to be like, uh, you don't have the same odds. So it's like, well, you might or you might not. Like it depends on your counts and what's in the deck and what's in the prizes and things like that. Right.

Brent:

Yeah. I mean, I, I guess if you're assuming that the guy Marnie. Uh, because your hand was not dead, then, like you're taking good cards and putting'em to the bottom of your deck and you don't have access to those as opposed to like, if you had a dead hand, then like if you Marty do it's a mitzvah and you're just winning, things are good. Yeah, it

Brit:

is interesting just now that we've seen the, the scans for Scarlet and Violet, like, it's interesting that they didn't, we don't have the end the, the Marni supporter yet. Like, and so Marni obviously came out in. Uh, sword Shield set, like in the base set, but like n there's a couple sets in, um, and things like that. So there might, I'm just, I'm just sort of thinking out loud. I'm curious if, if we'll get one or not. Like, based on Marni, you would think the precedent was like, You know, you would think they would, were gonna stick it on like one of the rivals and like they just did the rival, like one of the coolest rival is just the drop three supporter. Unfortunately, like I, I would've thought she was gonna be the one to get the, the in level supporter. Alas. But yeah, I don't, I'll be curious, like, are they gonna do it again? Are they just gonna reprint rocket's admin, are they gonna do something a little different? But it's attempts to capture something similar between Marni and Judge. I'll be curious to.

Mike:

Yeah, I mean I do think Judge is sticking around, but yeah, that, that's kind of, it's not quite like an Evergreen card yet, but it's, you know, it's been around much longer and they've always seemed to have like an extra disruption effect. I guess Roxanne will still be in the format too, but yeah, I agree. Like what is going to be, if any, the Scarlet Violet new one.

Brent:

Interesting. Yeah. Uh, obviously, uh, and, and it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of support for control yet in like any of these new sets that are coming. Right, man. Looking for that. Mm-hmm. um, Alright guys, let, let me jump in with the random questions I have for you. The first question I want to talk about was, um, I feel like when I look back, every tournament that that finishes now I look back and I think our like top 50 Pokegear players thing was, uh, uh, something that I enjoyed very much and I feel like it's worked out fantastic. I don't know, I don't even know exactly what that means, but I feel. And, you know, feeling, um, so, so if I wanted to run that back, but have it be like, the best Twitter follows in Pokegear. Is that right? Yeah, yeah.

Mike:

Follow you mean exact?

Brent:

Yeah, like. And, and I thought of this, I guess because I guess over the last several months, like Liam has told me that, that Tate and Jake, uh, Gearhart have like the greatest Twitter accounts, And then he, at another point he was talking about an interaction that I think Jake had with Sandra on Twitter. And he was like, Sandra doesn't tweet a lot, but Sandra's never wrong. uh, so. I know last time we just did public polls to try to get us there and I said if I could go back and do it all over again, maybe I would bring in highly qualified judges. Uh, when you guys think about it, is there, are there people that you think of as people that would be highly qualified? Judges of the quality of, you know, uh, Pokegear Twitter?

Mike:

So we're not, we're not right? Lele, lemme just be clear what you're not asking for the. Twitter people you're asking the

Brent:

is not a judge. We're asking the judge who, who is qualified to evaluate each person in like the Twitter Pokegear universe and, and judge the their, their contributions to Pokegear

Brit:

Twitter. I can't think, it's not like a person that's a judge that way. Cause if you're just asking like, who, who would I name? Like for the accounts, I think the, there would be a common theme of like a, a similar kind of humor. Of like, of like Crispy and Tate and people like that, right?

Brent:

There's not a, there's not someone who's a judge who's qualified to evaluate that humor. I reckon that's

Brit:

what I mean. There's not someone who's a judge that I can think of that I feel like is on that wavelength or a similar wavelength, like humor wise. And that's not to say that you have to find it funnier, that you can't disagree with these people. It's just sort of a very particular kind of humor and I don't know. The only judge I know is like will post the rest. I don't know any like sort of like Kush manky, I guess, obviously, but the rest are kind of just like we're judges and we're on Twitter, but it's not like, The well-to-do judges. It's the random deck check

Brent:

ones. Yeah. I, I recognize, I, I think part of the challenge is the things that qualify you to judge are also the things that qualify them to be an entrant. Right? Like, the problem is, I think some people would say, well, will post is one of the great Pokegear Twitter follows. Uh, um, so, so like may, maybe the moral story is the, the Venn diagram is just highly overlapping.

Mike:

Yeah, that's true. Two, two people that might be. I, I would recommend them as follow, as, as follows as well, but maybe not in the top five that I think would be good Judges, uh, chip and, uh, Joe Bernard. I think both of them are, both, would both be good judges and also good follows, but, you know, maybe not top five Right,

Brent:

right, right.

Brit:

I like, I like the Joe pick for

Mike:

sure. Neither of them post like that much. On

Brent:

Twitter. So, uh, you know, Joe's enthusiastic response to the top 50 Pokegear players, uh, uh, I think really demonstrated his, his qualifications as a judge. He, he, he took it extremely seriously and I appreciated that. Yeah, liked it a lot, That was, that

Brit:

was an

Brent:

absolute, that, that was one of the great tweets of, of that, uh, moment because, uh, uh, it was, it was very much on point. Alright, second dumb question I have for you guys is, um, One of the things that has really been top of mind here in the Halliburton household lately, and, and I thought you guys might be in a position to have an interesting opinion on this, um, uh, given, uh, career adventures and your backgrounds, blah, blah, blah. So Liam's won the World Championship of Pokegear. We're like, okay, let's go. But I recognize that like, uh, he's supposed to have a more well-rounded. Resume, for lack of a better word, term in like applying to colleges. And, and I wondered if you guys had thoughts or advice that you would give to high school students that love Pokegear or I think college students early in their college career of like internships that, like you would say, oh, you should try to get an internship at blah, blah, blah. Or like, like what's funny is, uh, When, when I was talking with my son about this stuff, uh, two things I said it was, I said, one, this is why, this is why there's like a Pokegear club at school and you hate the Pokegear Club at school. Because they're like, they're completely disengaged and they're not paying attention at all. But like the kids literally just doing it to say he did that thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. And like the nice thing about the Pokegear Club at school is because he's just doing it to say he did that thing, it takes zero effort. Mm-hmm. so like running the Pokegear club at school is. It's like a layup, but it's like a stupid layup. Yeah. Whereas, you know, Liam, anytime you wanna take over and run on the podcast for me, like that's a real line on a resume. The problem is, and he said this too, he is like, man, that's so much work.

Mike:

So like, my first thought is that, When I was coming out of college, I did put a little bit of Pokegear stuff on the resume, but the thing that I highlighted the most was my involvement in six prizes and writing articles. Um, I hadn't done the podcast yet, but uh, you know, I had some Bulu points on there that was like one of the founding five writers of six prizes. The first, um, paid. You know, premium article website for the Pokegear trading card game. Then the next Bulu point was, um, saw the growth of the website, you know, from zero members to whatever, 200 monthly subscribers, whatever it was. Um, and so those are like really tangible things that even someone outside of Pokegear they could recognize and be like, okay, you know, he's been involved. He, he's gotten paid for this. He's creating, uh, content. He's clearly, uh, a decent writer if they would pay him to do this. Um, so it was like Pokegear, but it was also like all of those other things. And so I think your point is exactly right that, you know, if, if Liam was doing something like a podcast that is something that has other skills, while also showing the, the passion and the depth of his involvement in this thing.

Brent:

Is there any place left to write in, uh, in Pokegear? Like there's, I recognize there's like official writing gigs now where place people like Stefan get to get to like write for Pokegear dot com. And then there's Alex Schlansky's, CK

Mike:

uh, cutter Tap has come back. Oh

Brent:

yeah, cutter Tap. That's, that's really the good one.

Brit:

Natalie Natalie's been writing articles here and there for TCG player, I think.

Mike:

Okay. Yeah, that's. That's about, that's about it. I think Palkia Beach Beach is still going. Uh, like I see Grant post every now and then that he has

Brit:

a poker. Yeah, I see. Yeah. Z they, they do post the Palkia beat still, so yeah, it still exists. I imagine it's pretty poultry compared to what it used to be, but yeah, I don't know. That's a good question though. I do think just. And I participate in these sorts of Twitter threads here and there. Not just about like Pokegear, but more, it is more just like how do I get like an eSports or gaming job with my like hobby interest? And I see, I see a lot of stuff like that and I like, it's sort of, I've been like, I forget, someone was just like, can I say this is experience? And it was just like an echo chamber of yeses and I'm just like, no, like you should talk about it. I'm not telling you not to talk about it, but I know it, you know now that I have a little. Industry experience. I've interviewed with a lot of different people and things like that. Now I have a good idea of what they're looking for and like what they're not looking for. And it's just like, it's, it's definitely one of those things where it's just like, if you have to ask, it's probably not experience. And just like, I, I like, I get the sentiment that you want to like twist it and to say like, I think, I think the, the case was just like, Does running online Pokegear tournaments count as eSports tournament organizer experience or you know, something like that and it's just like, no, like it's a hobby that's adjacent. I'm not telling you not to talk about it, but in terms of just like actual experience and so, yeah, I think with Pokegear it, it would, it would want to be some. And so like I, I guess it depends too, if you're talking just like college admissions essays and I think anything looks good like on that. You can talk about your, your hobby, you can talk about Pokegear there like all day long, and that's a really good opportunity to do so. But yeah, for me, at least speaking professionally, I never, I don't think I've ever really talked about it on my resume other than six prizes experience, which I didn't really even. I treated more as writing work than Pokegear or gaming or a hobby. I, I never, I never sold it as anything, but just like, Hey, it's a website I wanted to, I wrote for, if you wanna look into it and see what I wrote about, like, feel free.

Brent:

Yeah. So someone literally paid me to be a writer. I can write. Yeah.

Brit:

Right. Um, and I, I do think in like, like for certain like honors programs and things like that, they really want to, um, like see these sorts of things, but it's just sort of. I don't know. Like they, they want to see that you're Isaiah Bradner. They don't wanna nec, they don't necessarily care that you've, you've day two to regionals once or something like that. And so I guess it's just being realistic with what you're trying to present as well. Um, so like some things are just like, it's probably gonna get it ignored, but some things like won't, I think if there's enough, enough traction there and like, I don't know, like my undergrad made a video about me and like, I don't really know how that happened, but like, there's just a reason to do it and they did it. And so like, sometimes these opportunities just like come to you. Like I, I got asked to be on like the local news once too, so I don't, I don't exactly know how those things happen, but like, if you're out there, like they, certainly, these things can certainly come your way. But I do think that like the game has evolved somewhat to the point where like it has to be pretty particular. Like what? Presenting. And so yeah, if you have anything like coaching or even even content Creation, I think content Creation is like a really good thing to always talk about. Um, and then it doesn't matter if you're big or small, but like it's important to show that you're, you know, you're doing that kind of work. You're, you know, that's the, at the grindstone doing that sort of thing. And so I think that again is, it's like worth noting in like a, like a hobby sort of side interest thing where you would talk about like your volunteer work and things like that, but not necessarily as like selling it as like job experience.

Brent:

Yeah, you know, you make a, you make a really interesting point and I, I think it's worth like drawing a, a, a little bit of precision in, in there. And like, I don't wanna say you get out of it what you put into it, but like, if you have a, um, kind of end state vision and you try to do that thing, you could put more into it and get more out of it. Like, I guess what that, that's a really obtuse way of saying, uh, like where I would quibble with you. Like, look at Ethan Hecky, right? Like, here's a guy who said I'm gonna organize online tournaments. And then at some point his resume was like, I've organized online tournaments for like 5,000 players, right? And then like, Pokegear offers him, uh, a gig flying all over the world. And like, like he was able to. Take that thing and like Boltund it into a bigger thing by like, really just like doubling down again and again and again on that. So like, there's the, I'm gonna organize an online tournament and that's the, that's the online, yeah, that's the limitless equivalent of I'm running the Pokegear club at my school. And then there's the like, really, really investing in, in what you're trying to do there. You. I'm like, some of

Brit:

it is, it's just luck. It's, it's like, it's, it's not fair. And that's just like gonna be the story no matter what you pursue. And so I think like, just look at what's happened to Hester, to Ethan and just like, is that, you know, very cool and, and like impressive and stuff. But is there, is, did he do it like way, way, way better than everyone else? Or was he just kind of in the right place at the right time? I'll leave that open-ended. I don't necessarily know, know if I have all the info to say concretely what it was, but I think that like, it, it didn't have to be him, but like now, now he's probably, you know, kind of got the, his foot in the door for, you know, un until he is uninterested in Pokegear. Right. And that's just sometimes the way it goes. Um, and so, yeah, I think so. And that's I guess more to say that like. You have to be putting the work in first to be in the right place to get to the point where you can be in the right place at the right time. So that isn't to say that it's all luck and that you shouldn't try, and that doing your hardest isn't important. No, I believe very strongly in all of those things too. But it sometimes, you know, just look at content Creation, how much there's so, so much of that. And success and failure is, I think, just arbitrary at the end of the day. I. You could be really, really, really good at it and, you know, never hit your audience and be kind of bad at it and hit a really good audience. You just never know. Um, that's just kind of how all these things go. And I, I mean, I don't know how I got my job either. Mm-hmm. you know, I think about that every day. And so like, just never know until you

Mike:

try One other, another component of this, well, first of all, I agree with what Brit said earlier about if you're applying to college, Write the crap out of your essay about Pokegear. Um, like you don't need any specific things. It's such a unique, um, you know, experience that any of us have. And that's really what I think a college essay is all about. Obvi, you wanna talk about Pokegear, not just as the game, I think, but also as a, an opportunity to meet people from all over the world and, uh, experience. Cultures and people that, you know, you wouldn't have, you know, experienced at a young age otherwise. So I think like you can talk about the game, but I think like all of those other components are, are more compelling in a more, you know, college essay type of setting. Um, so that's like one thing. And then another thing I was just thinking about, I wonder if in a more. Going for like a more professional or career thing, whether it's related to gaming or not. I wonder if being on the judging and volunteer side is a more. You know, rigorous and appealing thing to put on a resume. I imagine so. Because you're actually like, yeah. Doing work um, rather than just playing a game. Like you're, you can spend that in a lot of ways, right? Um, you're, you're organizing a certain amount of people, uh, whether you're a volunteer or a judge, you know, you have to, you get to highlight the social, um, and personable skills, being able to talk to different constituents, um, during, during an event. So I feel like there's a lot more. Ways that you can spin that for whatever thing you're applying for. I feel like

Brent:

the guy who knows this, how old do you have to be to be a judge in Pokegear? Is there an age requirement?

Brit:

18. Yeah. You can't, you can't apply to be a professor until you're 18. Alright. Um, I think, I think you could still maybe volunteer at regionals. I don't think that's necessarily sort of cut off, I guess in like an official capacity. It probably is, but I know, like I just, I just know. Families that are, you know, ended up becoming judges for their kids and seeing their kids help them do stuff. You know, it's like Right, right. Lines and things like that. It's not terribly uncommon. Um, but yeah, I think on to Mikey's Point, that's definitely something I, I, I wish I had said and a really good point. Yeah, I would definitely, like, it's not about playing the game, it's about, it's about the community and making friends and, you know, developing critical thinking skills and things like that. You don't need to just. Write a tournament report or something as your letter Um, I'm trying to really remember what I did because I was in like an interesting place where I like sort of started. I, my Pokegear career sort of started like after I had already done all my college essays and stuff and so I, like, I was playing, I had had my first like year yet, but I, like, I didn't know I was gonna be good or anything like that. So I'm trying to remember like what I talked about, if I mentioned it at all. Um, but yeah, I was, I was still a scrub and I like hit my stride going into my freshman year of college. Um, but yeah, I think, I think there's lots of good opportunities to talk about it as just sort of being real realistic and knowing what they're looking for. But I think as, as more and more like eSports, Like becomes common. You don't even necessarily need to talk about Pokegear. You can just sort of sell it as, you know, an eSports experience that you're sort of involved with and, you know, just compare it to how that has grown, like culturally and things like that. And I know lots of schools have eSports clubs and, you know, teams and scholarships and things like that for it. So it's like I'm, I'm sure it would get to the, the people who understand and would care.

Brent:

Fair enough. So, uh, uh, any other topics before I move into the last thrilling topic for you guys? Alright, so the last thrilling topic I've got is, I gotta tell you, I, I was told directly prior to this, I wanted to ask you guys, you got any feedback that I had to make sure we had some more? Would you rather. Because apparently that was well received, but I was told that my Pokegear would you rathers were, were bad and I should come up with better ones. Mike. I, so I told Mike right before you hopped on Brett, that, that we had to come up with him and, and he, he thought he would try. Do you have one or do you want to hear my next bad one?

Mike:

I have one. I have a Pokegear one.

Brent:

All right. Let's do. Would you rather? Here

Mike:

we go. So, so these both have to do with the start of a game in Pokegear. So, um, for the rest of your Pokegear playing career, would you rather always win the coin flip or never Mulligan? That's tough. Yeah. because it's not like you're not winning the, it's just like you still have 50 50 to win the coin flip if you take the never mulligan, oh,

Brent:

you, you make a good point here. Yeah. So it's like, I guess there's, there's step, step one. You have to calculate how frequently you're planning on Mulligan for the rest of your life.

Mike:

Right? Well, and it depends on, like, if you never mulligan, it opens up like maybe. Well, so like both of them openly. Oh,

Brent:

right. You're, you're like, I'm just gonna play this one wall card. Here we go, Right,

Mike:

exactly. But if you always know that you're gonna win the coin flip, like think about you, like in this current format, you could like play aerodactyl on your deck and just always beat Lugia Right, right. So,

Brent:

Yeah, I feel like, uh, I feel like that like 45% of the time that I could go first and probably not Mulligan is probably pretty good.

Brit:

Yeah, I think, I think I would be, I would be more willing to play the, which is weird because mathematically you, I think you would probably be favored flipping a coin every time and playing the odds for a good starting hand, but like, In my head, I feel like I, I just need to go first and I'll be okay. And just like, even if you don't have a good ha, like the best starting hand, the fact that you're going first can often be like, Enough of a, a bandage for that bad starting hand that is just like, ah, I just, I just needed the supporter next turn and was fine. Like, you know, rcs attached past isn't the worst start at the end of the day. Like, and at least you're going first. Like, that's my logic. I, I definitely think that if you really, really, really crunch the numbers, you could sway me. But I, I think I'm gonna go with, I'd rather go, I'd rather win every coin. Play the odds, the, again, maybe

Brent:

to your point, even if I fed them an extra two or three cards, if they're gonna get arit in a second, it's not gonna help their problem

Mike:

I

Brent:

mean, I recognize Pokemon's trying hard to make it, so going first isn't such an overwhelming advantage. But man, oh man, it seems like going, going first is really good.

Mike:

Yep. That seemed reasonable. I don't know what I have picked, but yeah, it does. Those are good arguments. I'd probably, yeah, I'd probably take the coin flip, but it's pretty close. All right. Did you have a knot? Pokegear? Would you rather?

Brent:

Alright. Alright, here we go. Um, let's see. Uh, you know, I, I, I had one and then I looked at it again and I thought maybe it's a little too scatological for, for an early morning, uh, Martin Luther King podcast. Alright. Alright guys, here you. For the re, for the rest of the year, just one year. You have a choice. You have to eat two cans of dog food per week, or unbeknownst to you. 15% of the hands you shake receive a wet, violent sneeze seconds before you shake them, and you realize that upon shaking the hand. Mm. I'd probably, maybe, maybe I have to up it from 15% to like 50% in our like, post, uh, uh, like covid environment where there's like less meeting people face-to-face or something to really

Mike:

Yeah, I was gonna say like how many in a year? Um, I don't know. A fair,

Brent:

a fair amount of Pokegear tournaments.

Mike:

Yeah, that's true. Like, let's say, and that would be the worst. you have to go wash your hands every like five minutes.

Brit:

dog food. Gross. Uh, I'm just gonna say that I think that the. The sneezing option probably isn't that detached from reality? Like as it is, like what's always going on in your, your people's hands. Like, especially at a Pokegear tournaments, sort of like, oh, that might not be that sort of thing in there, but like the, the, the reliability on not being a, a cleanly handshake is probably already pretty slim. So, and Alex, you know, contrastingly, I don't think eating dog food would really be that bad. I don't know. People eat some pretty. Um, and it's like at. Purportedly, he is gonna have some protein or nutrients in it. Like it's all my dog needs to eat, so. So you can see him lounging there

Mike:

Yeah, I would. So

Brent:

I feel like you just made a strong defense for how neither of them's that terrible

Mike:

I would probably choose the sneezing one. I don't know if I could eat two things of dog food every week. That's a lot of dog food, man.

Brent:

There's only like 50 weeks left of the year. It's a hundred can Yes.

Mike:

Yeah. Depending on the time of year. change.

Brent:

How about you Brit? Neither one's that bad. Neither

Brit:

one's that bad. But I think I bec or my argument, or what I meant, what I meant it to be, because the sneezing one is so close to reality anyways, that that would be the right choice. Um, gotcha. Since the dog food is at least not really in anyone's every day.

Brent:

Uh, you know, interestingly, I I, I liked your defense of the dog food. I thought kind of where you were gonna go is like, I feel like when I go to, uh, when I really, um, uh, snooping the aisles at, like the pet food stores, there's some cans of dog food that seem like they're pretty high quality I don't know. You know? Yeah. Like, if, if you, if you found the keto dog food, you could be like, we're, we're on diet, we're training here, we're, we're, you know, the workout program will support this. um, uh, you know, like I, I'm, my dog's a dry dog food person, but like, uh, you know, I try to buy the like real chicken and rice or whatever all the time. That makes me think there's hope out there that there's a dog food flavor for me. Anything

Mike:

else going on, guys? So, yeah, I did remember we wanted to mention the shuffle squads. Oh yeah, so, so yeah. The Shuffle Squad is officially taking over the late night series, which I believe runs events on Tuesday nights, and starting, I think in the beginning of February, their weekly events. There'll be like a, a series where you get points based on your placement. I'm not sure if there's like a best finish limit. The, the, the video that they released made it sound like there was a best finish limit, but I'd have to look into it. Um, I think that would make sense because the. Goal or the, the journey that this leads to is that the top 64 point earners from February through July will get to play in a 64 person event in July, and the winner will get a free trip to the world Championships regardless if they have an invitation or not to play. Um, I'm also not sure if there's two free trips going out because I know that the late night. Events now on the Europe time zone and the America time zone. Um, so there might be two of these events happening. I'm, uh, I'm not a hundred percent sure or if they're just gonna take the top 64 from, you know, both, uh, event series. Um, but it's really cool that they're offering such a amazing prize. Uh, I am hopeful that. You know, at least the top eight at that 64 event will also get some pretty good pricing because it would be really, really sad to get to the finals and then lose and then, uh, you know, miss out on a free trip to World and get like, you know, a hundred code cards. Like that's Um, I was, I was telling, telling someone, Brit Brit, did you ever play with Gym Challenge? I don't think you did right. No, I know what they are, but yeah, yeah, yeah. So gym challenges were around in 2004, 2005, 2006, just those three years. And they were basically, you know, like League Cup sized maybe a little bit bigger, and the winner got a invitation and a free trip to World and second Place got a half a booster box, so it felt real bad to lose in the finals of a June challenge. And I would hate for that to be. Obviously it's gonna suck losing no matter what in the finals, but hopefully there's at least some sort of cushion to, uh, make that fall not so bad.

Brent:

Uh, you know, it's an interesting design decision for competitions. When, when you like, think about that problem, um, I mean, what if I told you that like, They were getting rid of all the regionals prize, but like the winner gets like 50 grand or something. Right. like so, so here, this is a real thing that happened in Fortnite. They recently had a thing where Mr. Beast offered to sponsor a Fortnite competition. So they had the Mr. Beast Fortnite competition. Mr. Beast, he is a big celebrity, famous for doing crazy, crazy things at He did exactly. The, for first place you get a million dollars and a guy, a guy wanted, you got a million dollars. Second place, you get nothing. There's nothing

Mike:

That's crazy.

Brent:

But like, uh, for first place you get a million dollars

Mike:

I, yeah, I mean, that's insane. Like, I don't know, in these like shooter games and fighting games, I know. Variance and randomness is much less of a factor. I'm sure it's not zero of a factor. Um, but like at least in, you know, in our card games, I feel like that is never the correct move because of there's so much variance. Um, I understand it a little bit more in those other games, but I don't know them well enough to know how much randomness is a factor or not.

Brent:

I, I recognize it's also consistent with the Mybe brand to do something. Right. Right, right. That is true. You hear, you're like, well, that sounds insane. Yeah. perfectly on brand Uh, um, yeah, I, I hope they do something as well, but it, it is exciting to see. Uh, I mean, I think the more we see online tournaments and like third parties potentially get some sort of support or like some sort of mechanism for being able to do bigger prizes, like all community benefits, it's really. Right. Yeah. I, I don't exactly understand how they did it. I don't understand. Uh uh But I like, I like that it's happening. I hope everything is, uh,

Mike:

totally good. Yeah, exactly. Shout out to them for making it happen. However, however they are doing it. Um, exactly. And you know what's really cool is that, you know, we're now. Basically a year almost into live events, being back and, you know, there's no locals, but there is still a pretty thriving online scene, which I think is pretty sweet. Yeah.

Brent:

Yeah. I think, I think we all thought that, uh, there, there was like a 50% chance that a lot of the online stuff would kind of go away, and it seems like it's been basically fine. Yeah. And, and there's enough weekends without regionals that like, there's still some big online tournaments on the weekends sometimes. All that seems great. Anything else going on guys? Hmm. Silence is complicity. Uh, the John Pauls are our outro. We'll see, uh, everybody next week. Easy peasy.

Yeah.