I looked at that and I was like, oh, if people are going to talk about whether or not luck stamps, a good deck, Brit probably wants to.
Brit:to talk about it. I, I looked through it and do have some thoughts like Justin, I mean the real outlier for Neos, the magnetism, a champ deck. I'm just, I like stared at them. It was like, this wasn't a deck. What is this? Magna rock was a deck, but it wasn't. And I was trying to think, as long as this maybe better, I was thought that Magna rock was terrible, but people played it for states that year.
Mike:Magna.
Brit:Yeah. Magnesium prime, like red Yurok you just like you just use, uh, it was, it's like this, the champ deck that's in there, but it just didn't play a champ. It just played like more magnet zone and. I forget if there were other ways for it to get energy on the board, but it just like, it was just an Amazon deck.
Mike:Wait, what was the red Yurok though? I don't remember that.
Brit:Um, it's from legends awakened. It should be, uh, just attaches a fighting to itself from the discard, I think.
Mike:Oh, so you just like use that to pair up the sounds attack.
Brit:I know you discard, so you get some synergy with magnetic draw or what have you. But yeah, it was, it was like, I don't remember who came up with that, but it was like, I want to say it was like a gym roll deck, but I know that's not right. Cause he he's, he made the original magazine like way, way he would play. He was playing that at like the Georgia marathon that year. So maybe it was like inspired by that. But I just remember it like top aided some states. I remember I beat it like at states that year and just thought it was terrible, but it's, it's just a deck. But anyways, I there's something else that I, I did something else. I want to say, like maybe played some of the other magnums too. Maybe, or maybe it just played Spiritomb I don't remember, but I remember it was real and this version wasn't.
Mike:Yeah, this seems like a lot to include in the deck. Look, I forget when the champion,
Brent:Welcome to the Trashalanche run. Halliburton might appreciate bread. Pybas attendance is 100% as always. We're sponsored by a channel fireball. I was on vacation in San Diego this last week. So I figured out where the San Diego card store was. And I went in and said, Hey, do you guys have any like celebration stuff? And he was like, oh yeah, we have ETBs for sale for$80. And I thought the gouging is insane.
Mike:What's that? What's the MSRP on.
Brent:So I went and checked. the MSRP on. Pokemon center is$35.
Mike:Oh, wow. They're like marketed up more than a hundred percent.
Brent:It's absolutely bonkers. So, so then I went and checked channel fireball, which indeed is now like a TCG player card market. And you can buy it in the channel firewall market for 71 dot. So apparently channel fireball gouging me less than these San Diego local game store. And, uh, you know, uh, you gotta appreciate that. And if you use the code trash, when you check out at that probably results in a channel fireball appreciating us a little bit, which we always like, because they help sponsor the pod and help pay the bills, which we like. Um, but yeah, dude celebrations, uh, my impression is that we'll never own any of those cards because what the heck? Holy cow, um, we got no five star reviews, so let's not talk about that, but people should leave reviews because they love to review. We would read it on the pod. Um, the other, uh, piece of miscellany that I've been working on this week guys is, uh, I know we discussed last week, how podcasts are the least used source of, uh, Pokemon content, apparently in the community. Um, but I see all these other people getting these Pokemon celebration, plaque things on. And my, my big idea is I think that this, uh, social coordinator like Steven Hugh under something is the guy behind it because he replies, dang, what a celebration, every time someone posts a pic
Brit:Yeah. Yeah.
Brent:and they're all like these Twitter people that are like Twitch stream are people that I have. Absolutely no idea who they are.
Brit:Yeah. I mean, I've had, I mean, I don't, I don't, I don't pretend to know the worlds of being a community manager. So I would wager he's doing a pretty good job, but, but for me, it's just like, I don't know, like it's mostly a joke, not, not, not to beat up about it, but I just like, man, I was, I was good at this game at the wrong time, but there's a couple, a couple of worlds out there where I like, I just didn't do anything after college for about two years. And I like, you know, maybe he should've just like tried becoming a content creator or something in that time. I don't know. I don't, I don't, I don't want to be one. So I don't, I don't feel bad about like missing out, but yeah, just sort of similarly, I just like, who are these people? Why, why don't we get things, you know?
Brent:I mean, I recognize like on the one hand, obviously these people are completely not competitive card gamers who are getting these like amazing like card things from Pokemon, But. they have like 50,000 Twitter followers. Like they're clearly doing something that people like, but I don't know what, and I know it is not competitive content because if it was competitive cockpit, I would know. Right. We are the best competitive content on the internet. We would know of it if there was other competitive content.
Mike:the only person that I've seen that does competitive stuff is Luke. Right? Like I saw Luke get it, but I don't even think I saw Azul get one.
Brent:Yeah. I assume it was a little got one, even though he has not done the, uh, tutoring poster yet, but here there was my idea. We need to get Steven's address. And then we send him like, twenty-five Trump-ish is laid out in like a plaque and be like, there we say you a plaque,
Mike:That'd be pretty good. Did you guys see?
Brent:that seems to me like a really credible prank. There's a whole lot of pieces that are frankly impossible to execute on, but I want to let you guys know that I came up with that idea and that's about as far as it goes,
Mike:That's pretty good. Did you see Cutler's tweet?
Brent:yeah, I did see Keller's tweet
Mike:he's like my plaque
Brent:I thought, I, you know, I think maybe that tweet was part of what inspired my, like my, my idea because, uh, uh, killer street was, uh, a definitely
Brit:a funny one. That was just like a YouTuber that was just like here. I made it tutorial on how to make your own, if you, if you feel bad about not have, if you feel bad about having not been sent one. And I just like that's a little much, I think like,
Brent:Oh, see, so I need to see that so I can figure out how to make this thing to send to Pokemon that, you know, that, that rewards them for, uh, you know, uh, acknowledging that the Trashalanche is this.
Brit:I mean, I'm like mostly jealous, mostly just because like, I want those cards. I, I don't want, like, if I, if I purchase celebrations, it would be purely for these 15, however many cards there are. And I would just, it would. And I just, I don't, I can't possibly justify, um, buying celebrations, like even, even really like it, where I to get lucky at retail it's, you know, just gambling or whatever. I just like, those are the only cards from the set I won. So it would've just been great to have them so
Brent:Yes. I also saw that the tag team podcast was sponsored by. Manscaped this week or something.
Mike:Yeah, I saw that too.
Brent:I don't know. I don't know how they got that sponsorship, but now I want to have those guys on to interview. Just ask them questions about podcast sponsorships before it was a, you know, all questions about playing the bassoon, but now it's all questions about getting sponsored by manscape because at, does not make any sense at all. Like you could say that like both of them had a pandemic hair and like, in that way, maybe they appealed to advertisers, but spelt, how do you get on that radar? You would think I would know, but I totally did not. Um, the last thing that I thought we should talking about for two seconds is a, a Tina Mitchie, which is super bummer. Uh, it's worth taking a moment, uh, um, you know, Brit brought the news to Twitter, but, uh, we'll bring the news to the podcast world. Uh, uh, Tina Michi was basically everywhere all the time. I felt like. Yeah.
Brit:I mean, I, I have a story I can share too. I really, I, I tried to work it into the status, but I couldn't word it in a way that that felt right. That, that. And it was just appropriate, but, you know, I think most of us knew Tina of course, sort of as a behind the scenes player. Um, but she was good. Like she was a competent player and, um, I, I think, I want to say she might've qualified for worlds. Like I back back in she's been playing forever. Like, so, cause I know like, um, like Adam Garcia, so it's sort of like a good friend of mine from the game. Um, used to be very good. And part of his story in the game is that, is that she, she, he rode with him when he was like, or he rode with her, excuse me, when he was very little like, like a mass era, senior junior, maybe. I mean, that's just like his story of why he became a player in the game is his relationship with her. Um, and Adam is just one of my best friends in the game. And so that's good. But the story I wanted to share is that I'm blanking on the year, but I, I think I, I might've gotten to Texas states twice, but definitely this one time. And I remember that. This was like the first time Texas state's ended up being like really big a couple of years in a row, like bigger than Portland regionals. Like it was, they, they have like, like nine rounds, top eight, I think maybe even one of them like had day two or it was very, very close to day two numbers. So like almost a regionals. And, um, she, she taught eight at the, this Texas states that I was at. Um, I remember she was playing, um, it was funny. It was almost like, uh, even with like a data deck, she was playing the. It was called the, the Yeti or whatever. It was the like plasma Snorlax, like Lluvia deck. It was, it was a city, it was more of a city of stack. It kind of had faded away, um, by the state championships. But like, I mean, I think she would more or less, like just showed up, like with the city's list. And it just, like, I like watched her do the frustrating things. Uh, people getting mad at the clutch scramble switch plays, um, which was a big part of why that deck worked. And, but yeah, I just really wanted to call that out. As you know, we know her as sort of the, the person behind the scenes. They're really, they're really wonderful person for the younger divisions and so forth, but being able to top a states that was, you know, functionally or regionals, I think that's, you know, something to recognize something to call out. And I definitely wanted to bring attention to them. This feels like a good place to do that.
Brent:Yep. Super, super good person. Uh, uh, very, uh, uh, said to, uh, see people in the Pokemon community, uh, loose fight the COVID.
Mike:Yeah, absolutely. I don't have too much, dad. I didn't know her that well, I mostly knew her online, but he asked she as long as I can remember, she has been part of the game. And so that's at least since 2004, so really ridiculously long time, huge presence on Pokegear in particular, in those earlier days. And so someone, someone to always look up to you, uh, in the game,
Brent:Yeah. She, she was also super active in the last a year or two in the Reddit Pokemon community, like answering new player questions and stuff in the, uh, uh, Pokemon TCG group, which was, uh, always great. And I think my contribution I group is mostly like, she would comment that it'd be like, that is correct. This is, this is the answer you should listen to ignore all the other bad answers.
Brit:Yeah. That was like a throwback for me too. That the tweet from Jimmy McClure that I retweeted was just like, yeah, polka, Jim. I remember that now. And it's yeah. She's home of Mew on there, which was definitely, definitely one of the, like an inactive post or similar to how Brent describes her on Reddit, like helpful judge kind of person. Um, just always just such a positive member of the community. It's it stinks. And I know like a lot of newer players probably wouldn't have any reason to know the name, but just like, as Mikey said, too, it's, I mean, for me too, she obviously played long before I started and it's just, um, it stinks and it's, um, you know, as bad as it is. It's definitely, I think the right thing to do, the only thing to do is to try to recognize it like this and to try to honor, you know, what have you.
Brent:Uh, you know, it's worth for people who might be relatively new to a, a Pokemon or just hopping onto the pod and it might be worth taking a moment just to, um, uh, emphasize, uh, kind of the point of Britt's crazy story. So today we have regional championships and inner Continentals, but, and then lead cups. So like the smaller tournament, you know, in, in the United States, we used to have state championships and those eventually had to be dissolved because the Texas state championship and the California state championship were these like gigantic mega tournaments where people had to kill each other to, uh, come out of it with a CP. And then people like me and Mike were living in the Northeast. And, uh, I mean, there was one state season where. We went to Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, like back to back to back to back weekends. And, you know, we could've gone to Virginia one weekend and all those were within an hour drive of us. And as a result, there were like, it was like the same, you know, 80 people or something that were basically just farming points, like crazy where, you know, the Texas, it was the only state championship in a 12 hour drive for some people. And like 400 people would show up and they would beat each other's brains out for the same number of points that you. could get at the Delaware state championship, which had, you know, uh, uh, I think the year Liam, which was first Delaware state championship and top four, and I think there was like 10 seniors via for them point.
Brit:I mean, that was like the Northwest regionals were like that too. I know, like, I think both of the regionals that Jacob van Wagner one, like I know one of them was seven rounds. Um, and the other one might've been eight, I think. So it's just like, yeah, there's just always been this disparity. So I love states that does stink to not have them anymore. I think that was a fun
Brent:This was a super fun I mean, cities were fun too.
Brit:Yeah, cities are great as well. Miss miss miss some of that, or at least I think I do. I might not actually. Um, but yeah, I think the current system is definitely better for addressing those problems, but it's, you know, just part, part of the, was just part of the game and as you know, AZ coming up in that part of the game, I think it'll just always sort of have feelings for it, nostalgia or otherwise.
Brent:Yeah, Yeah. And, uh, the, the idea that somebody would be the champion of the state was always, I thought like really good marketing for Pokemon. I'm a big fan of bringing that.
Mike:Like it would be like, it would make way more sense to have like that level of tournament, something bigger than a weak cup, but smaller than a regional, like, it'd be really nice to have something like that, but have them more evenly spread out. But yeah, you do lose the, I am the state champion. Like that's, that is a really cool thing to say, both as an individual, as well as when, like you said, marketing for the tournament.
Brent:Yeah. I always thought, I mean, I've been on this train forever. I've written about it extensively. I've talked about on the pod before they should rename Lee cups, the city championships, and they can just have city championships more weekly frequently. But I feel like if you're trying to draw juniors into the game, when another junior says, like, you know, I'm the like, uh, uh, you know, Fairfax state champion or city champion or the Brooklyn city champion. Like that sounds like a thing. Whereas when you win like a league cup, that doesn't sound like a thing at all.
Brit:There's always to, like, I don't know if you've ever had this experience. This might might've been before you played Brent, but I couldn't think of, you know, maybe, uh, a number of ones, but just like, because the younger divisions predict. Juniors or so like dominant, um, like, like there's one in a general area that wins everything, but they would make that worse because like back when you, it was all metals, you would win metals for city championships. I would be at these tournaments and there, you know, be a little seven year old wearing like six of them or something. And it's like, I'm sure that's incredibly intimidating. And you know, I, I'm an I'm another seven year old. This is my first tournament. I'm playing some kid that jingles, every time he plays the card, like, it was just, just funny, funny to have.
Brent:Yeah. Yeah. So, so many, so many like small things they can do to kind of freak the marketing machine, but a state championships were great. I understand why they had to get rid of it because it was like super inequitable to people that didn't live in the Northeast. But, uh, but, but there you go. Speaking of which. There's there's tournaments. I mean, I don't know if we should say we had the worst scheduled podcast of all time,
Mike:Yeah.
Brent:but like 12 hours after our last pod Pokemon announces a return to play. Yeah.
Mike:Yep. I mean, we thought we were lucky with the, with the RCS timing, the RCS star thing.
Brent:yeah, yeah. We thought we were, we were breaking some news, but it turned out the news you were breaking was not like the news news
Mike:Yep.
Brent:man. So, so, uh, uh, Brit, it sounded like you you're like already in.
Brit:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, at least as much as I can, I will say that it's more in that more that I, I sort of swore, you know, decided a long time ago to myself that like the first one back would be, would be too, too good of energy, too much fun to miss. So I'm all in on Utah. I don't know where, where I'll be, um, qualifying going to other regionals and things like that, but not going to miss Utah. Definitely. Um, And we'll, we'll see about the other ones I've got, I've got thoughts on which ones I'll, I'll try to go to and which ones I won't. So my, my be able to travel to more than I thought, so we'll see. I just know, like I know myself well, um, and I'm sure, definitely Brent, maybe Mikey to knowing me for so long. I, I definitely, like, I talk a big game and I'll get tired after the first regionals a lot, or I like, I I've, I've like definitely quit or like, I'm definitely not chasing an invited this year. Like, I've done that a couple of times too. So you never know until I actually am at events, but I.
Brent:know, I, I mean, I. think the, I mean, the, the Sam Chen philosophy was always like, you go to the first two or three regionals, and that gives you a sense of what your strategy is for the year.
Mike:Yep.
Brent:Right? Like, you know, that's, I mean, on the one hand, if you go to the first, like two or three regionals, you've gone to half the regionals. Congratulations. But, but like, it's not a bad strategy. Right. You get a sense of how, like, on the, you know, a finger on the pulse of the Metta, you kind of are for that season and then figure out where you're going to go. Mike, I'm interested in what you're like. So what, what's the right way to talk about scale? Should we like grind through each regional? Or like, just talk about where we are.
Brit:we can probably fast forward through just like, there's this and then this, and then this, and just kind of move quickly. I would think.
Mike:yeah.
Brent:So Mike, what are you thinking?
Mike:So I am at, I have 320 points essentially, already. So not quite 500, but it's not, not a huge climb for me to get to 500, even with half a season. So a lot for me will depend on how many local events actually happen, because I still have like a bunch of the cup and lead challenge openings. And like I could probably get, I probably can't get them all from Lee cups and leak challenges, but at least a hundred to 150 more. Um, so if I'm able to do those, then I don't really need to go to very many regionals. Um, but looking at the schedule like the first, I'm definitely not doing Utah, Florida as potential. Definitely not Indianapolis. I'll almost certainly do New Jersey. So I get married on May 14th. Um, And that is the weekend before New Jersey, but New Jersey is like, it's like literally 20 minutes from where I live right now. So that's like really, really easy and we're not going on honeymoon right away. So, uh, I already, I already ran it by Kelly. She was like, this should be fine. Um, so, so definitely New Jersey Orlando maybe. And I'm probably not the rest of them. So really like
Brent:school wrap up for you?
Mike:uh, like mid, maybe like the second or third week of June. So like, I could potentially do Wisconsin if I really feel like I need to, but, but NAC is the weekend after that. And I'd rather like, not go to the Midwest two weekends in a row, or like, I guess I could go like go to Wisconsin and then like, just stay for NIC. That seems weird too though. So
Brit:Yeah.
Mike:I'm hoping.
Brent:one of the things that's weird about that schedule is what was that? What was the thing that was before in AIC the last couple of years? Origins. Thank you. Right? Like, like we were really, really, we had a big plan to like spend a week in Columbus this past year because we knew people that had done it the year prior. And it seemed like such a good idea, obviously all that got blown up. Right.
Mike:Yeah.
Brent:Uh,
Mike:so yeah, that's, that's kinda my plan. Like I'll, I'll definitely do the one New Jersey, maybe Orlando, maybe Wisconsin, but honestly, probably not to both. And then, uh, yeah, we'll, we'll see what locals are like and then NEIC almost certainly.
Brent:yeah. And so do you have April 1st off?
Mike:Why would I
Brent:I don't know why. I don't know why my kids don't have school on April 1st, but they don't. And I was like,
Mike:interesting? No, I definitely do.
Brit:their joke.
Mike:Yeah.
Brent:yeah. I mean, that's the, every time I see that I'm like, should I, is this, is this reliable information? It's, it's strange that I seem to live in a world where people can keep saying, they're doing an event on April 1st, or you have April 1st school post. And it seems reliable. It's reliable, like 99% of the time. And I'm like, Hmm, I guess that's good. Uh, you know, maybe April fools should be stronger in some way. Uh, um,
Mike:What about your bread?
Brent:so what are the odds that you go to Orlando Brit? Because let me tell you my big objective is will there be a live pod before an AIC? Cause in AIC, we're definitely all in right guys
Brit:Yeah.
Brent:it has got to happen.
Brit:Um, I forget where I was on Florida. Um, I think it was like a. Uh, maybe one, I think it was like, I'm trying to remember all the days, but I think like, I'll do Florida. If I don't do another one, I think was sort of the scenario I had in my head. But I'm pretty far in terms of points. I like have just a hair above a hundred. So I mean, I have to be doing a lot if I expect to qualify and I'm sort of even trying, like, I want to play, I want, I wanted to do well. Um, but I'm just kind of, I'm like happy, you know, I've accepted the fact that I can do that and, you know, live the good life or what have you, and not qualify for worlds. You know, it's a big sort of paradigm shift for me, but we'll see what happens. Um, the locals.
Brent:I mean, despite the fact that they announced the schedule, which is super great, they haven't explained like how points are working right.
Mike:Oh true. Yeah. I guess that's true. Like, I just had assumed that the points would be the same,
Brit:I thought they were, I thought they had confirmed it was the same, but it was just like tentatively could change or at least like, we know that the threshold is the same, at least. Right. It's just 500 still for any masters.
Mike:yeah. Is that what you were talking about, Brent? Or were you thinking of like the payouts from the
Brent:Um, I I'm trying to understand yeah. All those things, right? Like if, if you have zero CP right now, but you want to go to worlds cause you're like started out playing online. Do you have to just like destroy all these tournaments,
Brit:I mean, I
Brent:or is there like a lower, like I know they have a whole day, one day, two day three, like the changing of the world's model. Some have they explained how that works.
Mike:I think it's, I think it's just 500 for like day one.
Brent:And then what's, but, but it's a three-day thing now, right?
Brit:Yeah, I forget. I think it is explained. I just, I just didn't read what's
Brent:Maybe I just hadn't read enough, yet.
Brit:but yeah, I mean, for me, at least knowing what I know, I guess we'll, we'll assume that it's right. It could just be wrong, but like, I think they have to lower it. Like there's no way to get 500 points. So unless you're coming in with a good chunk
Brent:Yeah, that'd be, there's a, there's a lot of fewer tournaments. There's a lot less time.
Brit:I think, I think they have to. And I mean,
Brent:be way less local events. Like you can't pile them up.
Brit:and we've, we've said this before on the podcast too, and it can, I, and I think a lot, like logically speaking, This is, you know, this is events are back. It's been almost two years. The first worlds worlds has been postponed for two years as well. Like I think they should be doing everything to maximize the attendance for this event. And the best way to do that is to lower it to two 50 or 300 championship points again. Like, I mean, that, that, that's, that's my thought.
Brent:Totally agree.
Brit:at very least I just, I don't know what they're expecting with 500. I just think that like only, only the, the big names, the people who, you know, go to every tournament or are in the spot to just be like good to go, or, you know, people who went to a ton of tournaments, like maybe did so-so and they're just like, yeah. You know, 300 points there. No problem. But like you just had to grind basically have almost finished the last season, I think, to realistically expect to think on. Three 400 points. Like I, like I said, I need about 400 and, um, I don't know how doable it is. I mean, locals, locals are probably will be free regardless of where I am, but I still will have to do well at originals there too. And that's always hard.
Brent:Yeah. I I know. I, I always say. I know there's people out there that think that, um, our world championships should be like, like these super exclusive events where like five people are invited and I just never agree with that. Cause Pokemon's for the kids, man. If a kid wants to go, why wouldn't you let the kid go? Let's let them all go. You know?
Brit:I have actually I'm, I'm in favor of the exclusive worlds, but you just have to, you have to see clearly Pokemon doesn't want that. And so it, and going with what Pokemon wants, that's why we maximize seats. But yeah, if I were, if I were in charge, we'd, we'd be doing magic worlds with like 10 people and it would be great.
Brent:Yeah. I don't think it'd be great because like, if, if there's only like 10 juniors competing, man, it's just like, it's not as fun for the juniors.
Brit:Oh, there's there's no, there's no, there's no yet there's no juniors or seniors either. That's part of my plan too, there'll be full. I, it will be full a full masters. Every, every single game will be streamed. And so this wouldn't be as exciting if we had to also stream the little guys. I remember, I remember doing a stream with like, it was, I think when, like on the bubble it was doing streams and we were at it wasn't maybe it was Texas. I remember Chris, Christine, Christina was involved and we were just like, like forced us to stream like a junior match, like in the, in the middle of the tournament. And it was just like, awful, like a junior Matt, like a junior round seven or eight, instead of like, you know, as they will at X and on or something like, and it was. As bad as it could have possibly been, have a game to commentate, just like it was like physically, it was a mess. Like decision-wise, it was a mess, like cards were everywhere, so forth.
Brent:I don't remember. I think it was like the world championship. There. There's a tweet. If people go back and look for it than me. Where it was like junior has like when, on the board and just doesn't see, it
Mike:Yeah.
Brent:continues to play the game. Like doesn't take the win. Totally, totally insane. Having said that I'm Pokemons for the kids. You,
Mike:I mean, like, yeah. As long as there's age divisions, I don't think we can ever have the exclusive world. So like I, like, I kind of agree with both to be like the exclusive world would be cool, but only if you restricted it to the 15 and our masters. But that's yeah, it's kind of getting away from the point, I think.
Brent:Does cop 16 work? Is it just exactly the same, except that all the people who aged up or in the other division.
Mike:I that's what I've seen so far. That's what I've heard a little bit of is that like all the seniors and juniors that age up are just like good for you guys. You've made that 16.
Brent:so masters who were previously, uh, you know, like, uh, 10 through 16, top 16 masters, just suck it.
Mike:Yeah, pretty much.
Brit:Can we do we have a list? Like I want to, I want to see like who I want to list of names of the, the, the, the aged up seniors that are now just like heavily in top 16 or like, close to it. I'd just be curious one, see if I knew them or if they were, you know, making doing stuff in the online scene. Um, but just curious. Yeah, I saw John, John had, uh, had a good tweet, just like sort of his motivation for competing. It was just to make sure they don't, they don't keep their Tufts 16 on the sort of technicality, which is admirable. I find being motivated by spite and vengeance is easy, easy way to get out of bed in the morning.
Brent:Yeah. I mean, that's one of the best ways, right? That's basically how I get everything done. so if I look at the U S Canada, uh, so Travis Beck with aged up, Um, grant Shannon aged up, right? So grant Shannon is 1530. So I feel like, I feel like I need to look at masters and get a sense of where top 16 is really quickly.
Mike:So they need,
Brent:for masters is Jose Merera with 8 76 Tanner at 8 87, rebels 13th with 9 29. Kayla ghetto or 9 37 will Jenkins with 9 81, Isaiah brethrens and 10th with 9 89. Those are all the ones under 1,002 or top 16. And then Azul is ninth with 1,024. So then if you look at seniors, grand, Shannon would be first with 1530. I think Travis Beck with us 1,380 Christian Marino ages up with 1320, the booty Robinson age up. I want to say no. Piper lupine has 1040. So those are the ones I know. So that's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 people with over a thousand, but definitely adds up into masters.
Mike:Okay. Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see.
Brent:Yeah. So what can I say guys? Liam was in 20 seconds. He's in top 16. Now let's go. You know what? That's not entirely true because there's juniors who aged up. He probably got the strong,
Mike:Wait, so Liam, Liam. Doesn't age up.
Brent:well, this is Liam's last year as a senior guys,
Mike:Oh, okay. Okay.
Brent:I'm just continuing to reap the benefits. The problem is if I look at juniors, it's probably an absolute nightmare story for me. Oh, Mia. Sun's so good. Uh,
Mike:assume, I feel like all of the top juniors would have aged up in two years,
Brent:yup. Yup. And there's like, there's like 14 juniors that have more points than he does. So that's super bad for me. So, uh, uh, Yeah. Uh, you know, what can I say? We're probably Have to follow John exit inspiration and. you know, go on the grind to like push those kids out.
Mike:Have you taught, have you talked to them at all?
Brent:like the first test is going to be whether or not Liam is like really wanting to do it.
Mike:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was going to be my question. Have you talked to him at all? What he thinks his plan wants to be?
Brent:Um, I mean, unlike Brit, I haven't booked any tickets.
Mike:Yeah. Yeah.
Brent:I'm gonna, I'm gonna let it roll a little bit. And I, you know, I recognize, I think, I think roll every year does a YouTube video on how to get cheap tickets, like his strategy for like, uh, going to lots of tournament's on, on his, uh, on a budget plan. Um,
Mike:And you do the opposite.
Brent:like credit card churning strategies and figured out like right when the pandemic started, I canceled all my credit cards except for like the one, my cash back card. Cause I was like, okay, we're not doing that thing. Whatever that thing was. That I was doing when Pokemon was a big thing. So I gotta, I gotta get back on the grind and figure out like what weird hotel cards I need to be getting, or like, something like that. But I think the good news is it's been more than a year, so theoretically I can go back and like reapply for all the cards I had and tried to, I mean, we had, we had like, Liam had, uh, we had the Southwest companion pass, but that expires at the end of this year. So I gotta get that back. We gotta like figure all that stuff out, man.
Brit:it's funny that the roles, videos and such it's all about like the flights, the none, none, none of them really care about. Uh, anything, anything after that they know, they know they'll, they'll fit 16 people into a hotel room. No problem. It's just, it's about getting there. That's the only, the only hard part, that's the only thing that seems to be in the metrics of their calculations and things like, I mean, I know Raul knows what he's talking about. There's good stuff there, but I, I would personally go straight and I I've done this recently booking a trip for next year. It goes straight to Andy gray who works for the airlines and it was just a officiant auto of flying in general. He knows it all. And it gave me, I booked a trip to Japan for next year and through his, through his guidance that it was a steal. And I don't think I did anything like a luck based. I think that these are options that are always available if you know what you're doing. And it was very helpful.
Brent:Future a future, I guess.
Brit:I love Andy.
Brent:Okay. Oh yeah. Wait. Well, we should make that happen. Uh, you know, um, uh, I mean the one thing I would say, so I'd be interested in getting you guys' opinions on this as, as like single guys that fly the tournaments because, um, but here's, here's my hot take that not having watched role's video, I'm going to assume is a feature of roles, video, and just disagree with not even knowing whether or not he said it for me. Life's too short. The plant spirit guys.
Brit:Yeah, miss miss me with spirit jet blue frontier.
Mike:Definitely is good. Right. Jeff please. Good airline. Right?
Brit:I mean life, life is too short. The most frontier flight flights, I've been on feel like I'm going to die. Like the plane just shakes and
Mike:Yep.
Brit:it doesn't, I've never, I've never very sort of secure in my safety, even though they do have all the cute animals, you know,
Brent:Um, what other stuff? Uh, Yeah. so, so I think my strategy from a travel perspective is we're going to probably do salt lake city and Orlando. Cause Liam has April 1st off. So like Orlando is free and, and then we'll probably assess and say like, how did Liam feel about that? Did he like it? Does he feel like he wants to go do Indy? We have absolutely no idea what's going on with local events though. Right?
Brit:No. Yeah. Nothing just like tentatively. I think they'll start around the same time, maybe a little sooner. Um, but maybe not at all, I guess now that I'm thinking about it. Cause I did learn that there, cause it's it's Christine and Texas running Orlando and um, the reason it's not in Texas is COVID related. And so if, if you know, if the standard for regionals, you know, is all vaccinated.
Brent:They said we're not going to do it in Texas, so we'll do
Brit:Yeah. I don't get the logic of that, but uh, that's what, that's what Alec, Alec, Noah told me. That's part of, that's why they're not in Texas. So there's something about it that can work. But yeah, I had the exact same thought, but if that's the case for regionals, then. Maybe they're just, I mean, there have to be for points, but like, how do you, how are they going to are, are, you know, your, your neighborhood, your friendly neighborhood Tio, going to be forced to fight people on like vaccines and making them prove it and, you know, fighting with the bad actors and stuff like that, maybe. But that just sounds terrible for, you know, just, uh, most tios are, you know, they don't profit off this. They don't, you know, they're, they're spending their day to help us, you know, running, running an event, you know, for the competitive players, they don't, don't get a whole lot out of it. And that just seems like a mountain of stress, like added onto it, but I don't know what will happen or if maybe, maybe they won't be as strict. I don't have a clue, but it's a awkward for sure.
Mike:Yeah.
Brent:Yeah. I mean, I have the good news is I really, I, I feel like, uh, I don't know how many people have said it, but I, I feel like Pokemon did a pretty good job here. Like announcing mid-October that we're going to have regional. Mid-March like that gives people plenty of time to plan. They definitely, uh, spring themselves out of the, oh my God, they're doing events in the middle of a pandemic kind of mojo. And they only have the option to pull the plug if they feel like, you know, uh, the gamma variant is horrible or whatever. The, the next thing is
Mike:Right. Yeah.
Brent:like it's, it's pretty far away, but it answers our questions. And I feel like that checks all the boxes I think I was looking for. And like, you know, they could probably wait 60 more days and then say Lee cups are coming back or not coming back and like, that's okay. That's fine.
Mike:And maybe they'll, maybe they're waiting to adjust CP. Things based on what they feel like they can do for local events to.
Brent:Uh, so good job Pokemon, like figuring out how to straddle the line between, uh, you wanting to give us information and also being sensitive to a rapidly evolving situation.
Mike:Um, the only, sorry, I know that I put like a bunch of potential questions to talk about in real life. We don't need to talk about all of them cause we got other things to do too. But the one that I do think is interesting and there was some talk about it on Twitter last week when this first got announced was the, the online success translating or not translating to in real life success.
Brit:I think you have to answer the initial question of. Was the online successful, um, or at least it wasn't terribly successful or something like that. Um, I think the answer is yes.
Mike:I'm no, no. I'm talking about, I'm talking about the players that saw success
Brit:Oh, got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. Not if not, if just sort of similar. Um, yeah, definitely. Like I wouldn't, they, I I've, I thought for a long time, or at least like, you know, in the discourse on like online events, don't count. I'll see you, you know, I'll beat you at city, the league cup or something. I, I. Obviously there's some truth to that, but I've, I found a lot of that to be just like overly gatekeepery or what have you. I think these tournaments, a lot of these tournaments have been hard and ours are full of competent players, not just Americans, but international ones too, who I think, you know, like players, like Benny, it's like really teaching us stuff about the game. And this is, you know, an actual kid in Brazil and that's, you know, what, what a great part of the, you know, I guess just making something out of bad circumstances with COVID in the online scene, but I think definitely I think like the players doing well in the online scene are the players who are playing the most. And if they continue to play the most, then naturally they will. I mean, it might not be the same, you know, better players might get back on the grind and you know, maybe their, their ceiling of scale is just still a little higher. But yeah, I would absolutely expect some top eights out of, out of some of the names that have emerged from the online scene.
Mike:Yeah, I, I totally a hundred percent agree. I like, I can't understand at all people that think that there's not going to be like these people doing well, assuming that they can go to events. I mean, that's one of that is one of them. That is one of the nice things about the online events is it was able to showcase people that may not have had the opportunity to play in big events. And so if these people that have done really well are able to find themselves in, in real life events. Yeah. I think they're going to be like the players to beat, to be honest with you. I mean, there's going to be lots of. Players that didn't really play online that come back. You know, someone like, uh, someone like a Jon Eng, if he decides to like play again, of course, that then he'll be in the running for being, you know, winning any tournament. But to think that the online people that got really good over online won't do well and events just that like makes no sense to me at
Brit:Yeah, there's, there's definitely like a handful of them. A class of players who simultaneously have not played perhaps perhaps not, perhaps not even a single game through lockdown and are just the most vocal about, you know, the online not mattering. And I think, I think they are in for a rude awakening. It's not like some of it is like riding a bike, but I, I feel like I'm a great example of this is that. Just like I expect, I keep coming in. I expect to be good again, and I'm just not, and it hasn't happened yet. And I think that's a majority of that is on me. And I know that and I recognize that and like, but I don't think these people are to be, are going to expect that. I think that they're probably gonna do poorly unless they actually start practicing. So, um, definitely. I just, I think there's just such a clear metric and I, I, I'd be curious to like ask prowl, like they're not reasonable, but, um, I mean he's stream so same question, but I meant to say, uh, Azul, um, just like, does he, does he think he's become a better player as he's become a streamer? Um, and I would, I would assume the answer has to be yes. Um, just someone naturally, the more you play, the better you get, like you just learn that you just learn the text so much. Naturally intuitively there's so many just like edge cases that are so difficult to just think of it as like a hypothetical, but like when you're in the moment having to deal with it, you have to, you know, come up with these solutions on the PO on the fly. And you know, again, obviously naturally the more, the more experienced you've done that the more times you've practiced or had to do that, like, it just will be easier.
Brent:So, so here's the question guys? Uh, so there's, uh, a Utah and then two weeks later, there's Orlando. And I think we all kind of hope that, that this like, um, online event thing that is like going on today, where you can, you can compete virtually any night of the week in a tournament. And like when some stuff kind of continues, do, do those events become like more popular or less popular during that two weeks? Like, I always felt like regionals, there was this like, uh, um, particularly when you think back to the, uh, uh, The last year or two, there was this proposal, there was like secret decks and like secret groups working on secret decks. They show up at the regional and secret X-Files, uh Azule at all, like all those guys had their like secret groups working on secret decks. Does that change. And all of a sudden you're seeing like a more rapid evolution of the Meta that's like out in public happening at these tournaments every night in preparation for the Orlando event, as, as people like, see how the Meta was shaped by Utah, or is it back to the secret debt grind and like the good players still aren't playing online and they're doing their little like secret clubs working on.
Brit:We know.
Mike:there's probably some mix of that. Like if you're a top player and you think you have like a secret deck, you're just, you're not going to play it. And the online events, there's just not enough incentive to. Um, so I do think there will be some form of that. Like, Secrecy still, but if there does remain online tournaments regularly in between events of the same format, you're going to take that information in quite a bit. And a lot of the times when top players play quote unquote, a secret deck, it's not really a secret deck. It's more like they are choosing a known deck that maybe is not the most popular or they're like pick including some card or two, um, that changes a matchup. And that might is more likely to come out in a couple of weeks of online events because people will just, they will react. Other people will react quicker to the metagame that just happened where he's before, uh, you know, the, the group of as duel and whatnot can look at the results that happen, think, okay, this is how people are going to read. Now we're going to react to the reaction and that's where they're going to be at. But that process will have already iterated a few times, I think, over those few weeks, if that makes sense.
Brit:I mean, that's almost verbatim what I wanted to say. Like, I, I think it, it will be a mix of both, but like my, my immediate response was just that I wanted to challenge the notion of a secret deck. I just don't. I think that's just sort of, you know, an anachronistic or what have you. And it's just like, I think that as the game has gotten bigger that the, the quote, secret decks from, you know, the, the good old days was. So somewhat, so very targeted, like anti-medic decks and the game has just sort of become too big, um, for that, for those decks to really be good anymore. Like your, your tournaments are just so big, there's too many matchups to worry about and the cards they're just not designed in the same way anymore. Like, you know, we talk about the old cards and how lots of stage twos used to be good. And like, they would just interact with each other and there wouldn't be like, it wouldn't just be like a weakness or whatever, rock, paper scissors, or something like that. And so then, then I think if you like, look at, you know, like DDG Jimmy pen, Darvis zoo, all like the decks that they really showed up with. And, um, you know, those couple of years it was, they were never, they were never secret decks. They just had the right men game called. They just always came in with like the Metta deck. That was right. Or maybe like Mikey says maybe it had a Tek, a Tek card or two, but like generally I'm thinking, or at least like with Igor as decks, it was just consistency. You know, the Volcani on deck, the Drampa Garbodor deck, just nothing but four is like, and, and that's it too. And I was always like, when I was. Playing and competing. And in these times, and even like one of those years, I still managed to qualify for worlds. I, I always felt like I had pinned my problem, but I didn't know how to solve it. And it was that I could still out predict the average player, but I couldn't, I never had a pic as good as, as DDG, as Jimmy and people like that. And that's where I was. That was like my biggest struggle and so forth is that I, I could, I could get a read on like the average Mehta game, but I, I was just always two or three steps behind where they were with the game. And that was difficult for sure. I just, I never felt good. Like I couldn't make, I couldn't make day two, but I knew that was it. Like I, I knew there was, you know, there would basically be no chance of making top eight given, given their decks and so on.
Brent:Yeah. You mean as, as everybody, all, as we've talked about many times, you know, there's, there's the game of like what all the players are playing and then there's the meta-game of what the good players are playing, Right.
Mike:Right. Exactly. It's like, so do you want to make the two or do you want to make top eight? And those are like, those are sometimes. There are different questions and like the deck that you want to play, that's really good on day two has a less likely chance of actually making day two. But if you make day two, then you're like in really good shape. And so like, yeah, there's, there's that whole aspect of it as well.
Brent:Yeah. Uh, um, It's uh, uh, I guess what I wonder about, I, I always felt like there were secret debts. I mean, and like maybe the secret decks aren't super great secrets, but like, like if I think back to like some of the tournaments, right before things got canceled, there was the, what was it? Uh, grant and chip Richie playing the like for Jirachi Pidgeotto control build. Like there's always people who kind of think they have the edge and
Brit:yeah, great. Every time.
Brent:exactly good grants, like best I of that game shouldn't have lost anything, terrible luck, but that is the current manly tweet. Right. Uh, um, but, uh, uh, so here's a slightly different question. Um, I think how much do you think the players that are the good online players today are guys that are. Mechanically good versus good deck builders. Right? Like I think everybody thinks those are two different things. And when I think of the people that we've historically thought of as like the super good deck builders, like the grant Manley's like those, I feel like those people are the people who were like, definitely not playing a lot of online tournaments.
Mike:Yeah, that's a good, that's a good point. Um, I mean, and we see, we, like we saw Ross says even, even within the online era, Ross has been when he's decided to play a little bit, like he's always, he's always kind of come up with. His own deck or at least his own spin on a deck.
Brent:Right. Peter Keke is another guy, but like, I think people think of as super innovative deck builder, hasn't played a lot of online stuff. Like the one or two times he decided to play. He, he like changed the meta-game.
Mike:yeah. Right, right. Look at the Zacian Inteleon deck, right? Yeah. Yeah. So that's true. I think that's a good point. And I do think, I do think the online players probably are a little bit weaker on the deck building side, but, but I mean, that's a product of, it's a, how do I say when there's the big tournament? There's like, there's just monumental shifts because you don't see all the in-between, there is the in-between going on of like tweaking the decks, but it happens within small groups online. We're seeing those changes almost in real time. So there's like this gradient. And so they haven't like had to make these big jumps, but perhaps. Perhaps they still have those skills, but it's just, you don't, you just don't see it as obviously because
Brent:Right there, there, they're changing the deck by a card, uh, by, by one card, but they play it every night for three.
Mike:Right. And by the end
Brent:weeks, you know, they've changed the 25% of the deck.
Mike:Right. Yeah. So, so it's really hard. It's really hard to tell it's a good, it's a really good point and something to think about, and it could go either way, in my opinion.
Brent:Yeah. Yeah. It's
Brit:I mean, your, your, your, your, what choice of mechanics really just reminded me. Sort of the nuances of, of playing in person and that like maybe if you're exclusively an online player, you've, you've never had to think about scooping the save time, or, you know, really knowing how to navigate the awkward running out of time scenarios, especially in top cut and things like that. And so, like that's not, you know, a drag against these players. It's something it's easy to learn, but just again, maybe to compare to someone like John again, or someone who has that experience of knowing when the scoop of playing best of three is cause like the online and for the online tournaments, like. Time just doesn't come up in the way that it does in real tournament's best of three or not. It's just, it's, it's there, you know, that, you know, you're going to run out of time. Sometimes you might tie, but it's just a whole different ballpark in person. When you have to factor in all the micro time-wasting of shuffling of cutting and you know, so forth. And that's just like its own, you know, you know, it's part of the Meta it's, it's its own game almost. And that's just, um, that'll, that'll be a big question. I think for, for these, these online players to answer that's, you know, something they'll have to think about and maybe try to pick up before the first tournament, but I don't really think, like, are there, how many of these, the sort of this group of players that we're talking about? How many, how many of them like. I understand them more as like they got good and, you know, prove to be good online. I don't, I don't know any of them who, like, I've never played a game of Pokemon before. Here I am. I've stumbled onto the Pokemon online community during COVID and now I'm a good player. Like, are, do those, is there anyone who meets that description?
Brent:Uh, you know what the problem is? I think we don't really know those people.
Brit:Yeah. I mean maybe, maybe not like surely, you know, maybe there's a screen name on limitless making top 16 every night and no one, no one just knows them, but
Brent:I mean, certainly like, I didn't know who Jake Gearhart was or Tom Brophy was or cash. Although apparently they, they played a little before, but they didn't travel extensively.
Brit:Right.
Brent:So like, you just didn't know who they were. yeah. That's, uh, I do feel a little sad that like I recognize there is this community of people that like they're playing almost every night. Like you see them all the time and like, that's going to get kind of deprecated too with this like emphasis towards people who are like super high travel on the grind. And I recognize that that, that high travel on the grind is a little bit of like first world problems, you know,
Mike:Yeah.
Brent:like, uh, you know, there there's a whole bunch of people that'll be traveling a lot and had showing up at these like real life Pokemon tournaments, but like, uh, you know, they, they, weren't playing a whole lot of online Pokemon and maybe, you know, their incentive by the prizes. I don't know, same channel. We'll be back.
Mike:Yeah, well maybe like maybe, well, he'll do his strategy where he'll go to one or two things and then maybe we won't see him with NIC again.
Brent:He'll show up in Utah and he'll be like, Brit, give me the date.
Mike:Yep.
Brit:I think Sam knows better than to ask me for decks these days, it be nice to see him again. I don't, it's been years since I've seen Sam.
Brent:Yeah. Yeah. That'd be that's for me. That'll be like, the nice thing is I recognize there are a bunch of people that are very nice people that, uh, um, haven't been active in the online community. And basically like when COVID happened, they were like, Well, see Pokemon on the other side. Good luck. And hopefully they, hopefully they do come back and, uh, uh, you know, the community is able to come back bigger and stronger than ever with the power of online magic.
Mike:I just saw people posting that they're about to open fusion strike this weekend, which I think I meet think means pre-releases in theory would start this weekend, but I heard there was like some delays, so maybe some prejudice are happening in some are getting pushed, but yeah, so the card, we should know the card list by next week. And so we can look and do the fusion strike episode.
Brent:Yeah, I, guys, we, we would all, we would crack packs on the pod if Pokemon sent them to us.
Brit:We need, the social media presence. That's all it is.
Brent:Uh, I mean, is that yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know, I don't know we could Twitch stream this pod, but I feel like that'd be a mess.
Mike:Yeah,
Brent:And, and random hours to
Mike:yeah, yeah. Just like different every week. No,
Brent:exactly the ever-changing drive to preserve a hundred percent attendance. So the good news is the good news is I'll have to leave this for the pod. May by that point, the carpool should be big enough. That control will be like far more viable in the format.
Mike:That's good. Yeah. That's true.
Brent:We will, we will be coming at kids. I don't know how yet. Well, you know, I see all these tweets that people saying like, they're going to resume coaching again, blah, blah, blah. That was that. That was definitely like a three-day thing.
Brit:Yeah, that's funny. I like, it was definitely, definitely very clear that people in that RFI were like, ah, get some Pokemon people in here. Like clearly they were, they were, they were contacted, I think. But yeah, I see that a lot, but there's like all day,
Brent:Yeah. Yeah. There, there was, there was a modified marketing push, right?
Mike:Yeah,
Brit:all the it's just like par for the course, you're a content creator. You've got to do an, a hall. You've got a coach. You got to make videos. You got to make
Brent:So I'm waiting for Sander to tweet that he's coaching and then we're going to, you know, March 1st sign up for that coaching. That's
Mike:you go.
Brent:that's the Halliburton family.
Brit:I actually thought, I actually think I will. I meant to, I meant to put it in the chat, but I thought it would make for a good episode, but also because I actually think I could use it. I like when I'm going to like hire toward or something, someone really good for like a session or two. And mostly just be like, this is what I would do. Like where am I like how wrong am I? You know, I think it would be a good experience. It would be a fun episode.
Mike:Yeah,
Brent:you guys about my original idea for, for the podcast. Right? My original idea for the podcast was that to hire different people, to coach me. And it's a podcast of me playing PTCGO
Mike:like talking through,
Brent:exactly. It was like, like just the worst thing you could possibly listen to.
Mike:that's funny.
Brent:We'll try to teach me how to play a deck while you cannot see what's happening. I thought that seemed, to satisfy my desire to create random case. All right, guys, take it easy.
Mike:All right. See you
Brent:to you later. Bye.