The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast

2005 Worlds Scandal! Listen to this pod! Also: Liverpool, Orlando, Sander, working in eSports, next generation Pokedads

January 24, 2023 Brent Halliburton Season 1 Episode 118
The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
2005 Worlds Scandal! Listen to this pod! Also: Liverpool, Orlando, Sander, working in eSports, next generation Pokedads
Transcript
Brent:

All right. Let's see. And we can always cut it out if you say, oh my God, we should totally cut that out. Right. welcome to the Trashalanche podcast. It's everybody's favorite podcast. It's the best Pokegear podcast. It's the most official of Pokegear podcast. Uh, um, attendance is a hundred percent. Mike's here, Britt's here. I'm here. We're on Twitter too. If you wanted to find us in more places, uh, no one left a five star review update, but you could leave a review and we will read it word for word on the pod. You could say anything you want and then you'll be like, it was in a podcast. Dragon Shield is our sponsor. Uh, I'm, I gotta find out which tournament Brit is planning to go to so I can bring him the pile of sleeves I have for him, because Dragon Shield sleeves are great. Before I get to my, uh, a work related question, I just want to give a quick shout out to Dan and Dco, uh, count to Money, a loyal listener, uh, uh, saw his tweet the other day. It sounds like, uh, his, uh, child is having some challenges and I thought we should just send a shout out. We hope all the best for, for him and his family and hope everything goes, uh, okay there. Um, so Brit here is my work-related question and, and for people who haven't been following Brit kind of works in the industry right now, he is helping John Cena navigate my career over at, uh, like the w w E video game or something. But, so if, I'm sure many, many of our listeners, uh, for example, my son are like thinking I would like a career in gaming with the vast array of knowledge that you have now, what advice would you give to someone like my son about how to get a career in gaming?

Brit:

Well, you know, I've been asked by, I've been asked this, this. Or by, uh, his name is, uh, Nathan Kaplan, maybe, uh, someone, something like that. He's a, he is a good player. He is a friend of, he's a friend of my friend Noah, who's someone I knew played as seniors who started playing again pretty recently and is having a good season. And he's asked, he asked me that and he's like a software engineer at Google. And I'm just like, you're more qualified than I felt, you know? I just like, dunno how to

Brent:

answer you guys. I mean, I think everyone who's in Pokegear thinks, you know, it would be great working for Pokegear.

Brit:

Yeah. Um, and then, I mean, just to direct it towards your son, I, you know, I think he's in in the right direction already. You're just being good at the game and like, you know, truth be told, I, you know, and when I, when in, in my experience having been asked this question before, I truly don't know. You know, obviously I do have a lot of, a lot to offer.

Brent:

So if you had to do it all over again, what would you major?

Brit:

No, I would major in philosophy. Again, not a, I've never, I've never doubted that or wished I had done something else, not a, not a second or day in my life. Um, I would, I think, have double majored. I was like pretty lazy. I came in with a ton of credits from AP and IB programs, and so I had like 12, 12 hour semesters, 14 hour semesters, like the entire time I actually even had to take my only 15 hour semester. I had to take just like an extra class because I wouldn't graduate on time because I just, like, I had finished my major, but I didn't have enough just credits from the university, so I just had to take just like some junk to finish. And so all that to say, I, I could have been in, in more classes the entire time and I think I, um, would, would, would've done something in computer science, whether that's like data or, you know, I guess not necessarily, but like something on that end of things because as, I guess, as I guess. Because I was, al always was going to be an academic. That's just always sort of what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a philosophy professor and also sort of, you know, never doubted that either, and just sort of was on track for that more or less. And, um, COVID, you know, the, the story in academia is, is pretty dismal. There, there aren't jobs and the jobs don't pay well and so on and so forth. So like, it was sort of like, I think do, I was doing, you know, the wrong thing the entire time and I just, I stumbled into my, my position at Blizzard, uh, some way somehow. But generally speaking, I think you would be maybe surprised at, at least within game design, obviously like other disciplines like. Engineering of course are going to be much different and you know, production and things like that as well. But for game design, definitely you, you find an eclectic bunch. There's, there's more people like me than you would think, just in term, people who are smart, people who are capable of deep diving on like, you know, any, any given topic. Just sort of like, you know, they're not relegated strictly to math or science, it's just something that they wanna see how you think and sort of process these things. And so I think naturally there is a lot of philosophy that is able, you know, has import too. I think about these things a lot and a lot of my cover letters talking about how I think, you know, game design is, you know, inherently a philosophical pursuit and that may be, you know, silly sounding or something like that. But I very truthfully, When we're, when we're asking these questions, like, it just, it's so philosophical. It's just like, well, what balance is a game? Or, you know, you know, how should we balance this card? Or something like that. Well, that's gonna depend on this supposition or that supposition and, you know, everyone's coming about it differently. But all that to say that I think being a good critical thinker, obviously is, is valuable no matter what you do. And that's, you know, being a, a major and trying to trick other people into majoring in it, that's always how we would sell it at our, you know, career fairs or what have you. It just like, it will, you know, you might not get a philosophy job per se, but just look at how well philosophy does on the GRE or the, um, the LSAT or, you know, e even the, the business, uh, exams and things like that philosophy are always at the very, very top four. Like only, like math people tend to tend to beat us Math and like physics on the more like, analytic stuff, but philosophy just scores the, be like amongst the very best on just all the. Well, the standardized test, which is not something you see in the other humanities, like English don't score particularly well. Uh, I think history does okay, but the philosophy are, um, shoulders above all the other humanities and how they fare and sort of these other things. Um, but yeah, I mean, just to try to get us back to the initial question, I would say just keep doing what you're doing. Find something that you really enjoy and are passionate about and like I think just you definitely have the sort of means and intelligence to make it work from there. I mean, contrastingly too, you can just study game design. Like my, the one of my coworkers at Blizzard, uh, she was, she was part one of the. First one of the early, early classes graduating classes of the NYU's gaming program. And she was brilliant. And so like, it, like, and not just like, and her like technical skills, obviously very like sound and coding and across different like, uh, gaming engines and things like that, but her ideas were much better than mine and things like that too. So like, um, the sort of creative process, being able to like, refine yourself to think about game design in the right way. That's certainly something you can study directly. And I, and I think sort of would benefit you there too. I think there's just sort of the potential downside is just like, if, if that's what you studied and you don't find a job in there, like it seems like you might maybe struggle, um, you know, which is, it's kind of the opposite of my case. Whereas I, I have a job that doesn't have any sort of direct import to a profession or industry, but, um, it's just useful I think. Or at least, you know, I don't wanna talk too confidently about. Not critical thinking or anything. I'm certainly capable of lots of flaws and errors, just like anything else. But I do think I have, there's, you know, certain things that I'll just think about differently or analyze from a different perspective because of my studies. And I think, you know, this isn't just a safe philosophy. I think you should re engage in whatever it is that you love. Whether, you know that's history, you know, studying, collecting, you know, salamanders or something, you know, biology, it just like it. I'm not, it doesn't have to be anything particular, but I think like in a lot of ways, like I was saying before, they just wanna see that you're kind of like a well-rounded person. One of my leads at Blizzard, you know, told, told me a story once about, um, like design tests he would give out and sort of design tests are kind of different and perhaps unfortunate part of being a game designer. I think it's in a lot of ways. Um, it's just like, it's what it replaces your first interview or something like that. Like they, they see your application and they say like, Hey, there's maybe potential here. They skip the recruiter call and you have to take a test or something like that. And what's, design tests are, they're looking and testing for different things, so they'll obviously be a little different. I've taken quite a few, not just in card design, but all sorts of, you know, system design, product management, things like that. So it's, it's fairly common, not just in game design, but the industry. But what my boss would say is he, he just like wanted someone to like explain like a lock or something like that to him. Like do, do a, do a deep dive on like, Cat burglary, like lock picking, you know, some just kind of like random topic and just sort of like design something around that topic. And so I think, you know, if, if that's part of what you're tested on, I think, uh, there's sort of a clear advantage if you're, you know, deeply passionate about something or have the capacity just to like, get stuck on Wikipedia or something. Just, you know, like clicking, linking, linking and just like sort of wanting to absorb, um, as much information as possible. Um, but yeah, there's definitely like more, and I don't wanna take the whole podcast or anything like that. I'm always open to, if you have particular questions or anything like that. I do occasionally see people talking on Twitter, like applying mostly to T P C I, um, and things like that. And I, I tend to chime in, but I'm always, if you have particular questions, I, I suppose I can ask'em. Especially as, like I was saying, I, I do have an experience with design tests, both doing poorly on them and doing well on them. So again, it's like, They're, they're just always different and are very time consuming. So it's like, sometimes I would rather just have the interview. Um, but they're, they're there for a reason, of course. Um, it's definitely like a, a different experience for sure.

Brent:

I had a former boss who was a big believer in asking people, uh, to explain something that they understand well to him. Yeah. He's like, teach me something, uh, to try to get a sense of how effectively they are, like structuring their thoughts and like walking

Brit:

through things in a step-by-step way. And, you know, I think just general, like, I'm not sure of the word I'm looking for, but just like, you know, being a good communicator, being a good writer, you know, all I guess, you know, on some levels that's the same thing, I think. Um, and just being able to like, demonstrate that, you know, in the sense that like, what would set me apart, say from, you know, everyone applying to a, a game designer opening, like Tp c i, it would be this stuff, you know, like, I'm not gonna be, you know, obviously like I'm a worst player than, you know, say Azul or some, someone like that applying. But like, do I think that. I have like skills or talents that like Azul doesn't have that would, you know, be beneficial to game design, like Yeah, absolutely. Um, but yeah, I mean, at a certain point too, like you also just, you have to shoot your shot. Like, I, I don't know if I've ever told the story on the podcast before, but like, I've been rejected for jobs. Like I was qualified before, you know, rejected for jobs that I was told I was overqualified for. So like, I just was like truly shocked to see this, like, you know, my first like, recruiter call for the, the position I had at Blizzard, it was like, I didn't even remember I had applied because when, when I did apply, it was just like, it was not like an active, like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be a game designer, I'm gonna find a job in the industry. I was just playing Hearthstone one day. There was a posting on the Battle Net client about job openings and That was it. And so I, you know, these, and obviously it changed my life, like, no question about that. You know, it was such a diff different trajectory from just a year or two ago. Um, but yeah, I mean, again, that's all to say. The rejections stink and are always gonna sting, but you gotta, you gotta shoot your shot too. And like I said, I don't really have a great answer. I couldn't tell you why I stood out, um, initially, like, I really don't know. I like, I like, I do think I like interview well, and I know, you know, I can speak on specific things. Like I was pretty confident I was gonna get the job based on the way the interviews went, but like, how I got noticed and, and I think that's often the hardest part is like the initial notice, just getting your foot in the door, especially if you don't have connections, which I, I didn't have blizzard. I didn't know anyone. Um, but yeah, I'm happy to, happy to talk about this all day if you'd like. But

Brent:

speaking of trajectories and speaking of unusual outcomes, Liverpool All right guys, let's talk, let's talk about, uh, some Pokegear for a minute. Uh, what did we take away from Liverpool?

Mike:

Um, for me it was kind of just like more the same, honestly. Like obviously the, there's some interesting decks that came out of it. Sander and Stefan doing well, doing well with the Las Gora. But other than that it's kind of mostly the same stuff. Like Lugia was, uh, you know, 30 ish percent of day one, a little bit more than that on day two. So we had a pretty good conversion rate. Mew continued to be up there in the 10 to 15% range in Shaone in the 10 to 15% range. And then there's everything else. Uh, so like I feel like the meta share was pretty much as expected. The top eight is not super crazy. Tu Lugia, two Mew, Arceus box two, Los Gures, whatever, and then Sanders's Deck. Uh, I feel like every time Sander plays an event now you just go, we just have to assume he's gonna make top eight Um, right,

Brent:

right. It, it's, uh, it, it's super fun. Like I, I don't know if you feel like there's some alt other like Pokegear timeline that was, uh, this great, but the, the like Sander Pokegear timeline right now is absolutely fantastic. Yeah.

Brit:

like the thought that I have and I think might be an interesting question to ask. I don't really know how I would answer it. Um, but just like, I think it goes both ways. Could toward do what Sander does and could Sander do what towards does, like if, if she was rivers, cuz there's, they're clearly. so, so, so, so good. You know, just, uh, and you know, Sandra is just such a unique case cuz he's just like, he's on this such a, when was the last time he didn't top eight? Like, I,

Mike:

I don't remember. I think it's like three or four events in a row if you exclude worlds. I think it's like four

Brit:

in a row. But yeah, like back to back first seeds that I ics and just like ev just like, and it's always, it's never the same. Like obviously it's iterations and variations of control, but it's, it's just always such a unique concoction in that like, yeah, I mean, I, I, I think, I don't know the answer. Like I, I, I, I would be, I think, open to any possibility here, but like, is. I guess like, to, to ask it in a different way, is Sander that good of a player? Is, does he just sort of have this, this sort of grasp on, on Meta gaming and making these concoctions that are unbeatable and things like that? Or, you know, let's, you know, in this hypothetical where he'd only played Medex or something like that, would he, is he's, so he would have like similar results to Tor and I, I don't even have, it doesn't even have to be like, comparable to, to, we don't have, he doesn't have to win each IC ones. It could still just be like, you know, a similar level of top cut consistency, top eight consistency and things like that. Um, and it, it's hard to know. I think, like I said, I feel like everything is possible

Mike:

here. Yeah. I, I feel like Sander has taken the idea of, we, we talked about it, I don. A while ago on the podcast now of the idea of are you someone that plays a lot of different decks and changes decks all the time or are you someone that takes, you know, sticks with a deck and really gets to know it? And I feel like Sandra has kind of taken that idea of sticking with a deck, but instead of sticking with a deck, he just has a concept, um, and is just all in on that. So I'm sure he could play the other decks cuz he is gotta be a good player in general. But I don't know, I don't know Sandra well enough, um, to know if he could actually, you know, pick up Lugia or Lost Box and. Be very good. Um, I'm sure he would be good, but I don't know if he would be very good or, or, or if, you know, he's just so, so deep on the control archetype as a, as a whole, that he just understands it. Like at, at a level that l takes years and years to develop. Um,

Brit:

yeah, I mean I think that there, there's definitely something there for sure, because I think just like on that point, there are like control fundamentals that, you know, that just are, are, are unique and you know, obviously there, there's overlap in things like that to, you know, say fundamentals of playing like Medex. Um, but yeah, I think just because he's been on, you know, whether it's just like wall decks, you know, it's just been going on for so long. You know, it's, it's been several formats now where this has just just been the case. Sandra has, you know, this immense capacity to do well with some just. Pile of cards and like I think that, you know, that is an example is why, you know, Sander does really well and like Mace only does well sometimes, like kind of with the same concoction and decks. Like I think Mace has a similar mind and is a very good deck builder and is good at, at Meta gaming and sort of understanding how to pin deck down and you know, where they're really weak. But I think, you know, I think something like that, like I, you know, at a certain point I just, you know, it's not just bad luck, that is why Sander, you know, good luck versus bad luck. Sander always top eights and you know, Mees day twos and does bad or doesn't even make day twos. Like something like that. And like, you know, obviously there's, there's a lot of variance in, you know, your matchups might just not just go the way they do, but just there's obviously this degree of consistency that Sanders has look no other control player has. And so I think like the answer to that potentially, like Mikey says, is just like this, these sort of like micro sort of decisions that you make, you know, more consistently, things like that. And is identifying your wind condition and obvi. I think a lot of it would have has to deal with time too, cuz he just has such a. Like immaculate record. It, it is not the case that he's bought the seventh or eighth seat. He's always, it's, he's always at the very top. So like, you know, he, he didn't lose a game until, um, the, the top four. And so like being able to play that game, playing that time game too, is like a huge part of it as well, I would think. And like, just a crazy part where you probably just see that you're gonna lose that game, but like you, you already want, you know, you can beat them the second game and like, that'll be good enough. And I'm not exactly sure sort of how you go about going for the same cause like with the ut V-Union, at least the version that we played at NAIC, it was just like, we're done. If we lose the first game, like we're, we're gonna shoot for a tie and that's it. But like with these other decks there, you know, there's probably, there might be different lines, different, you know, faster routes to the wind condition or what have you. I'm not sure. Um,

Brent:

uh, co couple of thoughts. Uh, one, one thing that I think is interesting is, um, I mean, despite the fact that we can kind of say, well, obviously he's all in under control. Like it's a part of it is the fascinating diversity of Dex. Like I think we've seen from past tournaments in this format, Mewtwo was a viable thing, but he, he was like, this is a totally different thing. And I recognized a lot of people picked up the, the U2 concept for them coming out of NAIC. And I think the, uh, the difference between U2 and like all the other stuff that he is done is generally speaking, it basically had a fairly consistent strategy. Like people saw him play it and they were like, okay, you set up this thing and I see what you do. Yeah. Whereas, This and like his Zekrom box decks were all like, I think people would look at the pile of cards and they would say, it's not obvious to me what you do

Mike:

Yeah. Right. Well, and that's the, that's the thing. And I remember saying it that coming out of NAIC, I was like, I wouldn't be surprised if the Mewtwo deck catches on and people actually play it because exactly what you said. Yeah. Um, but nobody's gonna play this deck that he just top Ada with no shot There's like, you know, 10 different ways to play the game and yeah, that's just too much for most people. And it's like, you need to really understand why all of these cards are in the deck. And it's not like you can, even if you're a pretty good player, like I can look and be like, okay, you know, Miltank is in the deck because it, you know, beats v Pokegear. But like why is Starley in the deck? I don't know. There, I'm sure there is a very specific reason Sander put Starley in. It's not just because it has the, you know, the search for two cards with the bird keeper. Like, yeah, but why D hasn't, he played Starley Bird Keep and other decks, but he played it in this deck. Like, there's gotta be like a very specific reason that

Brent:

I, right there, there's a, a key loop that, that enables at a key moment and only Right?

Mike:

Like there's just weird and, and, and it's funny, you know, when people ask him on Twitter, he is pretty explanatory, but I don't, I saw the, uh, the crush, why Someone asked about why the one crushing hammer, and he is like, basic, well he's like, you know, this, this, this, this, and this. But I didn't really mean to play it It was a mistake.

Brit:

Yeah. The one, the one shoe and the one hammer. Just a d a submission error. Yeah.

Mike:

which is too funny.

Brit:

Yeah, like you said, just I guess to reiterate, it is funny though that even, even with the accident and even kind of, it's strange, like it, it's strange to see a one-off hammer and a one-off shoe, but like, there was very, very sort of deep reasons. Obviously they, they decided there were better cards to play, but there, there was, you know, reason in Jessica those cards to begin with too. I'll sort of playing into everything else, but yeah, it's always just a, i, I just like, almost can't wrap my head around it at times. It's just like really very astounding. Like I, I'd be curious, wanted to know like if there are sort of other. Other players across other games that just like, you know, a magic pro, you know, a magic hall of famer that I just don't understand that has, you know, did something similar every time with his decks. I, I would be curious to hear those stories cuz it's, it's so unique cuz again, like we, with the, in, in our, our history of like top players, like, it's always, it's always people like tour, it's always people like Jason who just, like, they play the best deck very, very, very well, very consistently and you know, and that's the story to all their wins. Whereas like, there, I'm trying to think of like, I mean, Yoshi, Yoshi Tate maybe a good example. I feel

Brent:

like Ron, I would say Grant. Yeah, I think Grant is a guy who like, he'll play Quad WB and then he'll play Lawson bucks. Like he's a guy who just plays the best deck. Right? Yeah.

Mike:

I feel like Ross is like the only one that's kind of comparable too, like, on that spectrum. Um, but it's still different. It's still very different than even Sander. Yeah.

Brit:

I mean especially this.

Brent:

Ross is, is a guy who like, it seems like as, as somebody sitting on the outside likes to play decks where like he, he won't lose really fast, so he has time to kind of figure out how to win.

Mike:

Yeah, yeah. That's a good, pretty good description.

Brent:

And, and like, like, you know, that's not the like agro versus control versus mid-range, but that's like, he's like, I'm looking for a deck like that where there's a lot of micro-decisions and the other guys to make a lot of micro-decisions and we'll see which one of us makes more mistakes over the course of

Brit:

a long, long game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There just hasn't been, I mean, a lot of us, I think has to do with Pokegear, but there's, there's no, we don't have control. There's no, like, other control players that come to mind. Sanders the control player and like, it's just different. Like, they're just naturally Pokegear I don't think has had too many formats where the Sander decks have really, really worked. But for, you know, years now they have. And you know, that's why he is on the very top, at the very top.

Brent:

Yeah. Well it, it's interesting, I think, I think there have been other control players. There was that Italian guy that always plays control. Yeah, yeah. Who you're talking. But, but I think, um, I think the thing that differentiates Sander from everybody else, like Liam would say he's a control guy. But the thing that differentiates Sander from everybody else is, um, I think all the other guys at various points throughout the years have said, well, control's not viable with the current Cardpool. Mm-hmm. and Sanders's like, no, it totally is. We're going in

Mike:

Um, okay. Moving on from Sander, one of, one of the other interesting things was it seems like the LucMetal decks got pretty teched out at this event. So the two luas that made top eight are both pretty teched. Kim PGAs in particular has like everything that you can think of, it has two luminance, it has Raku, drap, uh, dun, sparse and Manatee. Canceling colognes, a lost vacuum, a choice belt. Uh, so like it has kind like all of the texts, um, which is funny. Uh, he definitely cut down on some supporters. He only has two research, two Marnie and a Serena and a bird keeper for supporters. So pretty thin there. Uh, so that's interesting. And then the other list that made top eight actually made top four. Um, ran double Lumin as well. A bunch of the texts, but not all of them did have a canceling cologne. Well, actually he did really have a lot of texts. He had two Lumion, Raku, Stoutland Dunsparce Mane. One vacuum, one cologne, one choice belt. Um, but he also ran one ida, which I think is cool. Um, so Ida being like, kind of like Skyla to search for the one of vacuum cologne belt, but also searches at Luon, which is pretty cool. And we saw, I don't know the rest of LucMetal list cuz they're not up, but I, I know when Tord was streamed we saw that he ran Skyla and uh, cologne and he also ran Raku. So even to who is the king of consistent Lugia, played a bunch of tech cards. Yeah. Um, so it seems like the LucMetal list, I don't know if that'll become the norm going into Orlando, but certainly was interesting to see so much, uh, touchiness in particular canceling cologne. So Liam was ahead of the, ahead of, ahead of his time,

Brent:

And, and, and to think he went all in on capturing aroma instead of going all in on canceling

Mike:

There you go. That's funny.

Brent:

Yeah. You, you gotta figure out where to use your, uh, Twitter cloud. very carefully. but I think, I think other people had been playing canceling cloud. Like canceling clone was kind of wandering around a little bit. Yeah. He just did not go all in

Mike:

on it, but I don't know if it stays in the list. Um, going forward now, because like it's good against like ve Boltund wheezing, it's good against all like the random stuff, right? Likeon. Um, and none of those decks are in the top. A I didn't really see any really onstream. We saw a little bit of D on, on stream every time that it was on stream was playing against Lugia and it lost every time. Um, so just things to think about going into Orlando, I suppose.

Brent:

Um, yeah. So let's, uh, shall we, should we transition to talking a little bit about Crown Zenith and, and what you guys think's gonna happen?

Brit:

Yeah,

Mike:

so I, uh, I played in person a bunch actually the last few days in this weekend. Um, Kelly's away. So had, I actually had a bunch of people over my apartment on Saturday and we played for quite a long time and it was really fun. Um, and I, my big takeaways from the three Crown's, Enni cards, radi and Internist Zamazenta, and this new Sky, steel, sky, seal, stone is that they're all good and none of them are great. They're all kind of just. Fine. I think like we tried lost box decks with the sky stone and it's like kind of hard to find when you exactly need it and like if you get it off it's cool, but like you don't get it off as often as you would like. The Zamazenta in Lost Box, we tried that. It's kind of like also it's awkward cuz you need, you can't Mirage Gate and then attach any energy you have to Mirage Gate and then attach a Melmetal cuz it takes two Melmetal energies. It's also like just doesn't have as many use cases. I think as we had thought the Radian Eter deck we saw we were playing like the Draw Adon Pikachu versions that have been going around and they're like all fine. It's not a bad deck, but it's not like a great deck. So I just felt like all of the cards were like good. But I don't think any of them are really good enough to maybe replace the cards in the popular decks that we already have. Um, that was kind of my. Big takeaway coming out of that testing session.

Brent:

So, so what, what wins, uh, Orlando

Brit:

Palkia. is probably, seems like a good prediction to me. Like, yeah. Cause I think like, I mean, in a lot of ways that, you know, many of which have already been discussed. Like, it wasn't like, you know, I don't think anything happened that made Lugia a bad player. You know, explain, explains why Mew won instead. That like, we would give you cause to not just keep playing Lugia. It was just like pretty, pretty standard Meta game, muted Mew things, which is bound to, it is, it was sort of bound to happen eventually. Like, it still, you know, I don't think there's been, you know, new dynamics to those matchups or anything like that. Just like the way that Mia can beat you just happened. I, I just like, I feel like Mia is still kind of in a worse spot currently than it was. Um, I mean there was just a point in time where I felt like people thought the Lugia Mew matchup was a little more even. But I, you know, just looking at the data and things like that, I think we can see how it is definitely skewed more towards Lugia being favored, but it's, you know, often just Mew being, Mew being frustrating. It's always scary to play against just depending on how they flip and how they, how fast they're drawing kind of out of the gate.

Mike:

Yeah. Um, I think Luie is a fine choice. Um, and I agree with Brit. It's very possibility it could just win again. Uh, I think Pablo's lost box deck, the Ryku Rayquaza is still like, incredibly strong and I feel like it'll be a pretty popular choice from like good players, like above average players. Um, and it's funny, I was talking to Pablo a bit. He's like, all these players are like, you know, took my list and they changed one or two cards. And they just make it worse. Like, don't change any cards. The list is great.

Brent:

uh, I saw somebody tweeted, I just played the exact same 60. Yeah, yeah,

Brit:

yeah.

Mike:

Um, things Brennan Can Cannon. Oh yeah, yeah. Brennan Cameron, something like that. He got top 16. He's like number one or top three in eu right in this year. Um, yeah, he just played the same thing and the list that got third was like one card off. I think. I think he subtract, he, he took away one of the rakus and played another switching card. And like, I know Pablo would just be like, why? Like, don't do that Um, so it's just funny. Um, those are

Brent:

the crutches of bad players right there.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, like Pablo's list is very good. I've been playing it quite a bit. Um, it's kind of my backup choice if I don't find anything else that I like. Um, I think it's a really, really strong deck. It just, it's such an aggressive lost box deck and has so many. It just so does so many different things for, for l not a whole lot of cost, if that makes sense. Um, you know, Raku gives you the aggressive spread damage, Ray, Quik and one shot anything. And then you obviously have, you know, easy quick Kos with Cramorant and save light to, to finish the game. So I think that'll be, I wouldn't be surprised if, if, if that did well. Um, one deck that is kind of interesting to me, I don't know if you guys saw this, I think I made top 32 in Liverpool. Someone posted on Twitter. It was like a Turbo lost box deck where it didn't run Crem Ranch at all, and it ran. Like Lumion, it ran the computer search seal stone. It ran four of all the switching cards. So four net, four rope, four switch cart. And the idea was to just get turn one Mirage gate as often as possible. So like you try, you go second and then like against lost box mirrors, you try to turn one Mirage gate onto Greninja and kill two things and then turn two Sableye and just go from there. Uh, Iran Dragonite V, so like against the V deck you could turn one Dragonite and just kill a V on turn one, which is pretty strong. Uh, and then it did have Kyo still to kind of like wrap up games and you power through your deck so fast that you actually get to kyo quicker than the typical Kyo deck. Um, I've only played one game with it so far and it's cool and I'm sure it's like relatively consistent at getting the turn two gate, but it, I think if it misses like the turn two gate. You probably lose a lot of games because you're kind of like all in on this Turbo uh, style. So, I dunno, it's something I'm gonna play around with, but it is a cool idea for sure. I mean, in a

Brent:

best of three, that doesn't sound completely horrible.

Mike:

Yeah. And it takes away, and that's a good point and something that I was thinking about, it takes away a little bit of the, uh, hesitancy that I have a plain lost box is that I would tie a lot potentially, and with a Turbo lost box deck, maybe you won't tie as much cuz you're just the the games are shorter. Yeah.

Brent:

Yeah. At the very least, you, if you're gonna scoop quickly, you can scoop quickly. Right.

Mike:

Um, that's thing. Yeah. The, uh, only other thing I'll mention from Liverpool and kind of going into Orlando, uh, I said last week that I thought Veal was really in a strong position and I think part of that, um, was reflected in the Lugia players playing canceling cologne, kind of respecting it a little bit. Uh, and we didn't see it do that well, I'm sure it wasn't played in very high numbers. Uh, I don't know if we'll see the Meta game breakdown, but one of them did make day two and it did like solidly, well, I think it got like top 32. Um, there's

Brit:

one that didn't play at Acto.

Brent:

Yeah, yeah. That's what you're about to talk about. The like top 16 guy that didn't playact, right. Yeah, right. Exactly.

Mike:

Yeah. And he didn't play, aerodactyl played like double Path to the Peak instead. And I asked, uh, I asked him on Twitter, like how he deals with Lugia cause he beat a bunch of Lugia, which is cool. Um, I'm a little skeptical on not no aerodactyl. Um, I, aerodactyl is just like a pretty good card overall actually. Like as I've been testing peek Boltund, like your matchups where you're kind of unfavor like Udra or Archist or Adon, like Aerodactyl is just a good attacker. It's just doing two 40 for three, like big damage. It's not getting one shot back. Like, it's just a pretty good card, I think outside of just, of its, uh, outside of its VStar ability. So I'm kind of into redact for a lot of reasons like that.

Brent:

Uh, you know, it's interesting. I, I recognize like, uh, uh, I guess one of my reactions when I looked at the stuff that won, like, like the Mew guy with multiple paths that won the tournament, like all those things I thought, uh, the like not teched out at all Lugia decks that were doing well. At the last tournament, I felt like, like they were starting to cut stadiums, like they were starting to cut the lost vacuums. Like they were just trying to get pure consistency. And if, if those are the only guys you hit, it's probably, uh, you know, you can just stick a path and uh, get easy dubs. But, uh, um, it seems like aerodactyl would probably be better if particularly against these more teched out lists,

Mike:

right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes, that makes sense. Cuz they'll just,

Brent:

but yeah, I mean, more teched out lists did well, like, you know, this was, uh, I, I think we talked last part about whether or not this would be like janky stuff. Winning or lu straight Lugia winning and this was definitely like janky stuff, here we go. Mm-hmm. even though Lugia continued to do well, it was like more teched out Lugia is than like consistency. Lugia is, and, and more janky stuff I think did well than people would've, uh, uh, expected. Yep. So, uh, what, what does that mean for Orlando? Do you think it's, uh, are we gonna see more teched out Lus or are people gonna play like, super consistent Lus to try to beat the tech out Lugia? Or is it just gonna be like a wave of

Mike:

techs? I think it's gonna be both. I think there'll be lots of both ums every deck. Yeah. We're like, I think we're so far beyond the point of lu's coalescing over a single list. Like there are some constants that I would expect, right? Like, everyone's gonna have Stalin and a lot of people are gonna have iq. Not everyone have iq, but I'm gonna, you know, at the beginning of the format, I went in people assuming people wouldn't have Raku and now I'm going into matches assuming they will. Um, it's, it does make it awkward cuz it's like you have to kind of go into Lugia matchups, like, okay, I gotta assume they play all these cards until I see a bunch of cards that are not those cards. Yeah. Um, to, to like rule it out. I am sure people were playing against Kim Vega this weekend. They saw like all of the texts and they're like, there's no way he has this card too. And then he did

Brent:

Uh, you know, it's funny. I feel like, uh, uh, one, one of the like funny things about uh, uh, Pokegear Twitter recently has been like, I feel like every Lugia deck that does well, they post their list and then they say like, you have to say at the end, Snorlax mpp.

Mike:

Yeah. We didn't see Snorlax in the top eight, but um, we did. There was that dude, the British dude, I forget his name. He was Onstream that did post that about the Snorlax though. Demetrius or something? Yeah. Demetrius. He like made top 32

Brent:

and then, and then Sanders's like, I'm gonna play all this snow Lexus. Yeah. It's fine. It's totally fine.

Mike:

Yeah. That was funny when, when he was onstream the first time we, we were, you know, I was in person playing with people. I'm like, oh, Sanders's on stream. Okay. On his field. I see. Boltund Snores Flying Pikachu and a Starley. Not sure what's going on, but Sounds about right.

Brent:

Oh, fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah,

Brit:

I, I agree on the Lugia points that I will. Just a hunch no, no data inside information. This is purely, purely just a gut feeling. I, I, I have this sense though that like Arceus, aerodactyl, like that version, the Catron stack from like the first event with Lugia, like, I feel like for some, I just have this gut feeling that like, I, there's like a group of players that is, is gonna have refined that. I don't think it's gonna be a great. Uh, this group of players doesn't really has great play, but they will play weird stuff and do pretty well, and that's just this feeling I have. I don't know why, you know, again, this is based of nothing, but I feel it's Archeops time to at least like do better than it has recently. I like

Brent:

that. Yeah. Yeah. These are, these are the hot takes of Fuel podcast people right there. Um, so, uh, uh, quickly, a couple of other questions. Knoxville, anybody planning on going? Brit? No. Knoxville, I'm not, uh, I,

Brit:

I was planning on going, I like accidentally have a tattoo appointment that conflicts, so I'm just like, I gotta back and. Between the two. I'll probably not go. That's right. Oh, we'll see. Yeah, it's like not as I'll definitely, definitely have plans to go to like all the other Midwest ones. Like not, not to say that Knoxville is in the Midwest, but it's, it's drivable still a little bit. Um, yeah, I, I'd like to play and like, have, have been missing out. Um, do definitely like, would like to, you know, at least day two something, but more looking towards like the summer stuff. I don't, I don't think I'll be making it out to, uh, Knoxville or forget what's after that.

Mike:

I think Carolina's the other one that's still Oh yeah. Charlotte. Charlotte. Yeah. I don't think I'll do that one either, but we'll see.

Brent:

Yeah, so I'll, I, I'll be at Knoxville, but I thought it was important both to note that, uh, I registered for Knoxville and, uh, the fact that they could open up Australia like, Let, like a month before the tournament free show it. Is it honestly totally crazy all these people that are going, that are not getting paid by Pokegear to go It absolutely typifies me. Planning a trip to Australia is like non-trivial.

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah. Uh,

Brit:

yeah. I mean, just after we talked about sort of the, the frustration with Orlando, I mean, I get that this is like, you know, it's being outsourced there too. It's not like a T P C I event. It's the, the ESL doing it. But yeah, just like, not, not just like the, the light notice, the incredibly light notice. Basically you had to gamble on your flight to get a good deal, but also there's no seats. Like it's so small and like, I know that these, the ics obvious like usually do skew under what we typically get at regionals, but like, you know, especially with, you know, how hot the, you know, pricing discourse is right now just to like, see it again there. It's just like, it does definitely feel like, you know, this, this was obviously the case before, but just like, well I go to regionals when you can, when you can go to two ics that will be, be smaller and, and give you exponentially more, more points and prizes. It's just like, you know, they're, they're a rich getting richer scenario. Like only people with stipends, you know, get to go and like, they already sort of got to go anyways and like, feels bad. I mean, I know not for me personally, but. Especially just like Australians have such a good and like unique player base too, it always feels a little bad just to see them similarly struggle for the, for events and things like that even. And they're, they're good and, you know, have a lot of people too. Yeah. Despite these issues, eh, it's,

Brent:

uh, it's super weird. I, I agree. The, the pricing discourse has been hilarious of late. Uh, uh, I mean, the fact that Orlando is going to be so big, I, I, uh, I'm looking forward to seeing what the venue situation is like. It seems like it's gonna be big.

Brit:

Yeah. Yeah. It'll be, I'll be curious. Hopefully it's not a too much of a disaster. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, we talked about that a little last week too, but, you know, I guess just to bring it up again, like the discourse is, I. As I tweeted, sometimes I think inconsistent with itself. Like it's just like, how do you, how do you just like demand change when the numbers just keep going up? Like I don't, I don't know what has to change, but I think if you're just like expecting things to, then you're in for a bad time. Because T P C I doesn't, doesn't really seems to respond to community feedback in like meaningful ways. Um, I don't know what will happen. I mean, I think we're certainly overdue for changes. Maybe. Hopefully they're all coming with Scarlet and Violet. I don't know. But yeah, I mean, I definitely think there's a ceiling. Like I don't think we're always, we're gonna keep trending bigger and bigger and bigger. But like, I think, we'll gen generally. The same numbers like throughout the year and things like that. Like, uh, you know, at least somewhere the arguments are grounded as like, they think that the, this, the numbers, the numbers are so high because people want to go to worlds. People want, the numbers are high because like, Japan is an enticing destination. And I just like, I really don't think that's all that true. Like, I don't think that the average player has world's ambitions in mind. It's, it's, it's easy to think that way to get lost in, you know, the echo chamber. Pokegear Twitter, where we're all pretty competitive, we're all playing for worlds invites and things like that. But I just, maybe I'm wrong. I'm happy to be wrong here and certainly open to it, but I just, I just don't get this feeling that like, that's really driving the numbers right now. I, I think it's other things, you know, being back from Covid and new generation, blah, blah, blah, the, the surge in collection that we saw over Covid and things like that. I don't, I don't think there's necessarily a direct correlation with the rise in numbers because people want to go to Japan. Like, that seems like a stretch to me. Um, but yeah, I just, I, yeah, all that to say, like, I, I definitely don't think we're gonna just keep growing and growing and growing and growing and like maybe we will just stagnate and really see a sharp decline, and that's what it'll take to get these changes. But I don't know. And with a lot of things with T P C, I just like, it just seems like they have the money to make things much better, very easily. And it's, it's strange that they just choose not to time and time again.

Brent:

Mike, any thoughts on that? I, I recognize my perspective is skewed by the fact that like, Li's got his invite, he's getting paid to go, so let's do it

Mike:

for me, I mean, I agree I think with BRA overall that yeah, like attendance is high, not just because of that reason. I'm sure it's like a small boost, but, um, yeah, it's probably a lot of other factors. I honestly like, if anything it might be a, like a detriment um, because it's not realistic for most people to,

Brit:

that would ha that happened to every time Worlds was in Hawaii. Like that is exactly what would happen. People would just sort of decide from the get-go that it wasn't their year. Yeah. Um, and you know, obviously 2007 is one, you know, one of the really, really low turnout years. Um, similarly, um, just because of the constraints, but yeah, I mean, I remember in. 2012, not as much as 2010 because I, I wasn't like a grinder competitive player, like on that front. So I don't, I don't quite understand what happened there. But yeah, I remember that a lot in 2012. And even people talking about the 2010 seasons just like, yeah, like I, if I talk for nationals, I'll go, but that's about it. Yeah, exactly. And so yeah, I definitely, I definitely think that would have to be true. Like if anything it's a detriment. Like people like, you know, if it's in Nashville again Sure. You know, then the whole south describes there versus like a foreign country.

Brent:

So. So the one other thing I wanted to ask you guys about quickly, it was like I, I, and I threw this in the show notes, it occurred to me today, like I just got struck in an odd moment, I guess is I was doom scrolling, Pokegear Twitter at, uh, where I thought, um, maybe it's like, maybe Pokemon's like just been out for a certain number of years, but like all of a sudden it seems like there's a whole bunch of super competitive players that all in five years they'll have Pokegear juniors. And like, I don't think that that's been a thing because I think, I think like by its nature, like when Pokegear came out, like what you're now seeing is people who were kids playing Pokegear are now becoming parents, playing Pokegear and uh, uh, and there was not this like maybe perfusion of, of like kind of older Pokegear players that had this connection to the game because it just wasn't possible to have that connection to the game. Mm-hmm. eh, do you think like, will, will things change in some way? Like, I mean, I guess projecting like eight years forward, will, will Alex Wilson and Chip Richie and Israel and JW not be competing because their juniors are competing? Or will there be like, will there be like a real like polka dad scene where it's just absolute pandemonium and you know, I'm just gonna put myself out there and say like, Five years from now, including Mike in that conversation. Like, it's gonna be crazy times people,

Brit:

uh, I don't think so necessarily, or I mean, I think about this a lot, or just like when I teach my kids to play Pokegear or would I, you know, would my, you know, hypothetical child become a, you know, a stipend winning junior or something. And I just like, it's a little strange to me, I guess, just like, as a parent to just assume that like, that's what your kid is going to want to do. Like, I, I would, you know, personally, I would be open to the possibility of it, but I would, I don't think I would ever just be like, you know, you know, the examples of just like, you know, kind of overbearing dad forcing his kid to play a sport. He doesn't want, like, you know, it's a, a trope at a certain point. It just, it feels like that to me and that,

Brent:

you know, it's strange. Let me vicariously through your children's Pokegear, what.

Brit:

It just feels strange to me for them to, I mean, not to say that anyone is doing this, uh, I definitely don't think that, but just for, to be like, yeah, absolutely. Like you're gonna grow up and just do like, you're gonna like it just like I do. And that's just like, they might not even like it. And that, that might be, should be the end of the conversation. Like, I guess, you know, I guess it'll all just depend and, you know, maybe as children, we don't have all that much agency in the things that we like and you know, of course we're so very influenced by our parents and things like that. And maybe just, it happened naturally too, I'm not sure. But I think it just, it's just gonna depend. Some will, some won't, but maybe I'm wrong. And everyone, everyone will have their kids, Israel's kids will win more regionals than him. So on

Mike:

Yeah, I, I think I generally agree the, let, I'm gonna, let's take the hypothesis. A bunch of them do end up playing. Um, let's just say that's true for one reason or whatever. One thing that I think I'll find interesting, Brent, I'm sure you know, very firsthand, it's tough to play, not impossible to play as a master if your kid is in the juniors or seniors. Um, especially, I mean, maybe like once you're kind of like mid seniors, older seniors, you could probably make it work, but like as a junior, like not really, right? Because the ki they, their schedule is so much different than the masters is, and they're just too young. You can't just leave'em to fend for themselves.

Brent:

uh, you know, I've seen, I mean, there's definitely been parents that are, are braver than me. Mm-hmm. or parents with like more energy than me or something like that who have figured out ways to make it work. I think sometimes they've like just straight up been able to make it work. I don't know what, uh, like Tanner's dad, The was like Tanner's mom always there when Tanner's dad was playing. Mm-hmm. Or, or did sometimes that they just gutted out. I don't know. Right.

Brit:

Yeah, she was a sideline person for sure.

Brent:

Yeah. Like, I, I mean, I didn't recognize they were both there a lot. So, so in that respect, yeah. She, she didn't play, but Rex played and like Rex was pretty competitive. Nil. Hyatt's another guy who, uh, um, both he and uh, Jeff Ang were like competitive masters more Jeff, like, Jeff actually went and got like some worlds invites. Mm-hmm. but like, nil nil was always like, I'll play a couple of rounds and then when I'm like, X two I'll just drop because like, it's time to go. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't, but, but like, he got bored being a parent, right? Mm-hmm. he was like, I don't wanna sit around for an hour or two. It's hard for me to imagine, uh, um, Uh, like Chip saying, okay, I'm just gonna sit here while you go play around and come on back, But like, I, you know, I, I also recognize conversely, you know, if his kid is like seven or eight competing in a Pokegear tournament, he's gonna be all in on that kid. So. Yeah. Yeah. Right. We'll be happy to sit and watch mm-hmm. Um, but, you know, I just, I imagine that, uh, like, I mean, I wonder if over the next five or six years how many of those guys will have to disengage because parenting is just an absolute handful and like they have to take some time off versus showing up at more tournaments, uh, uh, maybe as they do today. Um, and then I, and then I wonder, like, you know, I assume, I assume, and my, my sample size is like an in of two, so that every kid when they're like seven or eight, their school is like Pokegear. Like it becomes a thing for at least a hot second. Yeah. And, and I know. All those guys that I just reeled off when their kid comes home and it's like, dad, you know, I need to trade Pokegear cars with my friends at school. They'll be like, come sit here and let me tell you about Pokegear my child.

Mike:

And in their head they're going, finally, finally, finally,

Brent:

Yeah, like it, like probably it's already happened. Like probably when their kid is seven, their kid knows that their dads are like the greatest Pokegear players in the world. But like, like God forbid, it hasn't happened. If for some reason Chip Ritchie's child does not realize at age seven that his dad is into Pokegear that would be a glorious moment that I would want captured on film. Yeah, Alright, Mike, you got, you got two quick fun stories for us.

Mike:

Yeah, so these came up when I had people over this weekend. You know, a lot of them are relatively newer players, um, in the last year or couple years. Um, so both of these stories are. From way back in the day. So do you guys know the championship arena promo card? Are you aware of the existence of this card?

Brent:

I feel like I heard, I heard like it's not Ring Bell talk about it recently, which is No, which is,

Brit:

I feel like I'm a, his historian or what have you. I should know these things, so I might, I might jog, it might jog my memory, but off the cuff I don't, I don't know what it is.

Mike:

All right. So I don't think I've told either of these stories before. So this first one is Championship Arena. Um, it is probably the most valuable card I own by a lot. It's the only card that I actually wanna get graded at some point. Um, so it's from, is this the one that was slipped under your door? Yeah, exactly. So Worlds 2005, they gave these out to competitors by slipping them under hotel. Doors. So, you know, some of the competitors didn't get'em, I assume Um, and then some people that probably weren't Pokegear people got them as well, would be my guest. Some of them are not in great condition because they got slipped under doors and got stuck or something. Um, and now they are very rare. Um, so that's like a funny card that exists out, out in the world. Um, probably more interesting is the second story though. So we were playing a little bit of, uh, world's Decks. We were talking about old World's decks. And so this 2005 Dark Tyranitar World's deck, it was, um, piloted, I think to second place at the 2005 World Championships. It was actually by Yoda's younger brother. So Tai's younger brother, uh, Takashi, Yoda, and. It got made into a world's dick. Um, I was in the senior division, or the 11 of 14 division that year, and I played against Takashi in like round three, round four, somewhere around there. Um, and I, I beat him, which was cool. Um, but so anyway, so I play him and, you know, uh, then whatever, six months later, the World's Deck comes out and I'm like, Hmm, that's weird. The Jirachi that is in the World's Deck is not the Jirachi that he played So there were two Jirachi Legal that year in 2005. One of them was the Hidden Legends Jirachi. That was a, a dual type psychic Melmetal Pokegear that, um, had the attack. Uh, make-a-Wish. You get to search your deck for an evolution card and play it on one of your guys. It was good. It was played in a lot of stuff. Then there was another Jirachi from Deoxy that was Melmetal type. And it was similar to the di Jirachi that we had legal recently, where you look at the top five or six cards of your top five cards of your deck and take a card. Um, that card was more popular. Um, but both were played and like, it's kind of this, I don't know if you guys have ever experienced this, where like you're like, pretty sure something happened, but then over time, like you're, and then you see evidence of con, you know that of a contrary reality and you're like, but I'm pretty sure that it was this. And so that's kind of what has happened over time. Like I look back and I'm like, I'm pre, I, like I played against him. Like I'm, I'm pretty sure that he played this other Jirachi. Um, and then I hadn't thought about this in like years and then we busted out the 2005 Worlds decks the other night and we were playing this deck and I feel like I got some evidence for it just in the actual deck list itself. So I dunno if you guys have the deck list pulled up, but, um, It plays Melmetal energy in the deck and the Jirachi from Hidden Legends takes psychic and Melmetal energy for its attack. But the other Jirachi just takes Melmetal colorless for its attack, like the Jirachi that is not in the world's deck, but I think he played. So I feel like that's evidence to my point, that it's the wrong Girafirig. They just straight up printed the wrong Jirachi in the deck, um, which I just think is really funny. So I gotta, if anybody listening, I want to try and get a message out to Takuya Yoda, cuz he is on Twitter, but he doesn't ever post in English, so I don't think he like, and I've talked to him not in English, really at Worlds a few times, and he doesn't really speak English. So if any of the listeners want to try and translate a message that I can send him to confirm. What I think he could like talk to his brother because I'm sure his brother knows, like, if the World's deck came out and it had the wrong Jirachi, I'm sure he was like, what the hell man.

Brit:

and you're, are you, this is, uh, just a question. You're certain that they're related and that it just, it's not just the same name, you're, you're

Mike:

certain No, no. I'm, I'm certain I'm certain that they're,

Brit:

I, I wanna, I wanna just make, make, make, make sure we were positive there first. Yeah,

Mike:

yeah, yeah. No, no, I'm, I'm, I'm sure I like, I, when, when he played, when the younger one played as well, they would always be together at Worlds like walking around. I saw them with their parents, like back in the day, so. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You've

Brit:

been, you've been Mandela, that's just another, you've a different, a different timeline,

Mike:

right? Uh, I just can't imagine why you would play Melmetal Energy. In this deck without that

Brent:

Teraji. This is, this is absolutely fantastic. We should have kicked off the pod with this because I feel like, I feel like we need answers to this now. We gotta make sure people hear this and act on it in some way. I bet someone that's absolutely

Brit:

wild, like would know and would be able to back you up someone who like, understood the deck in the format and things like that enough to see that the, you know, of the energy point that like, might be your, your strongest piece of evidence. Yeah.

Brent:

Uh, um, and looking at the players that were playing in the 2005, uh, world Championship, that like top 16 brackets are totally, uh, crazy. Uh, like juniors, Jeff Sock loses in the finals. Uh, uh, J James Ballard, uh, loses in the quarter finals. Um, pat Tuske loses in, uh, top 16 in the 11 to 14 bracket. There's, uh, who else besides, uh, Takashi and Nada? Nobody jumps out at me. Jeff Verla, although Adam Verla also was in, uh, masters. Mm-hmm. Jason k Luzinski loses in top 16. Sammy Secum loses in top eight. Pablo loses in top four. Ross loses in finals. Mm-hmm. That's crazy, man. Fel Khan loses in top 16. It's just a who's who of I know. And even today. Good.

Mike:

Today, there's so many players, that you would recognize their names.

Brent:

Yeah. It just, it just goes to show people have been playing Pokegear for a, a long time. Mm-hmm. Guys, uh, a strong episode. Uh, I feel like we'll be back, uh, next week with other stuff and hopefully we'll have answers to this burning question. Wow, I really like this Mike, this solid detective work. I, I cannot wait to find out what happens.

Brit:

You might ask like, there's, uh, a, the per the person, Noah, I mentioned, he, he, like recently he was posting translations, like he's, he is, oh yeah, his Japanese, his family, like his parents are, I don't actually know. Sort of if they're first generation or what have you. But he seems to have, you know, a good handle on language and interacts with Japanese players as well as, uh, Josh Fernando seems to as well. I don't, I would, I would guess Noah is, has better Japanese, but at least from what I can tell, uh, Josh is better than me. But, so like there's are just I guess some potential options that, but Noah, I think also just like, not just like he talks to Japanese players regularly and like that's why, you know, way back when he was on, why I was so confused on like capture energy, Palkia, cause all testing with him, all of his stuff is influenced by the team choic lists and things like that. So it would maybe be someone to ask Noah Yahida

Mike:

maybe. I met him in Texas so I will reach out to him. Cool. Yeah,

Brent:

it was good guys. Awesome. Alright guys. John Pauls are our outro amazing pod.

Mike:

Cool all. I, I gotta go make

Brent:

dinner. Absolutely. Same here. Same here, guys. Mike, I love the detective work. Here we are. We are absolutely going to break the game with this. This is the knowledge people need. Nice. You have found an error in a 2005 world stack, and we're gonna get to the bottom of it no matter

Mike:

what, All right, see you guys. Bye guys.