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E06// Doonebug97: The most feared bug in Pokemon Go PvP!
133 Plays11 months ago
Join us for this episode of Tap Tap Cast where we chat with Doonebug97, one of the fiercest and most well-known competitors in the Pokemon Go Championship series. Doonebug is one of two people globally to get first place in TWO regional championships in one season! He also has qualified for the World Championships every year. The crew talk about Doonebug's rise in pvp, his thoughts on what could improve the game, and his plan to take over Europe at EUIC!
Follow the crew! Amanda // www.twitter.com/Lundberger
Martijn // www.twitter.com/InadequancePOGO
Special Guest // www.twitter.com/Doonebug97
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome in everyone to the next episode of Tap Tap Cast, a Pokemon Go, mostly PVP podcast with the one and only Martine Inadequance caster, player, Pokemon Go extraordinaire. Yes, sometimes we talk about Pokemon, sometimes we talk about anything. Yes. Thank you, Amanda. My name again, Inadequance.
00:00:20
Speaker
and glad to be here with you again, Amanda. How was your week? Yeah, it's been pretty good. Been using the spring cup team that, you know, that I came up with. Ah, yes. To do a pretty decent amount of success, but I switched it up now. I'm playing ABA grass, so I'm leading Ferrothorn instead of Poliwrath because it was just so many counters like the Tentacruel and the Tropius in the lead, so just mixing it up. Was it the algorithm? Yeah, yeah, exactly. But now I'm doing so well.
00:00:50
Speaker
Do you have your Elo yet? I do I do yeah, I have my Elo I think it was like 2280 and I'm not that much above it. I was a 2400 something today right below veteran, but got knocked back down to like the upper 23 hundreds.
Rankings and Challenges in Pokemon Go
00:01:04
Speaker
So what about you?
00:01:05
Speaker
I'm almost expert. Of course you are. No, I actually don't have my Elo yet. You don't even have your Elo. Oh my goodness. I'm at rank 18 now. I just recorded some battles for YouTube. I just remembered I still have a channel there, so I just want to keep it up to date.
00:01:23
Speaker
Are you one of those, I mean obviously you don't need to be, but do you fall into the line of thinking that if you start a little bit later that the battles are also a little bit easier because a lot of people who really try hard for PvP start immediately when the new season starts?
00:01:38
Speaker
Yes and no, there's definitely a difference there when you start later that... Like, let's say you are near the very end of the season, right? You notice that around the 2800s might be easier than it was like a month ago. So I do think that the later you begin, the easier it somewhat gets. But, you know, it's in all good fun. Like, I don't really care for that. Myself, I've never really had trouble getting to Legend only like in the very first few seasons, right, when I was also new to it.
00:02:07
Speaker
At this point, yeah, I just play whenever I feel like, right? So just keeping it light. And doing my challenges in the local cups as well, right? I already have some new spice. I've already been trying to drive ToteTektiko and Tipton the crazy. You know, always giving them riddles. I'm hoping Tote will, you know... He usually cannot sleep because of my riddles. He's like, oh man, what is he going to use? And hopefully...
00:02:30
Speaker
but he always plays it off to like, no, I don't really care. It's not like he just keeps telling to do this to me, but I don't care. But then he keeps guessing. Exactly. He keeps going. He keeps going. But how many more cups can you win before you're at the cap? Because you can only count six of them, right? And you've won at least two that I've been at. I won four. I have 25 points from fourth place at Liverpool, you know, where I went one, two in the actual tournament and I played the cup.
00:03:00
Speaker
In the Swiss, I beat Patermann and then he beat me in the top cut. So I got 25 points from there. I got 40 points. That was actually the one you were at, right? In Boom. In Boom, yes, in Belgium. I won the challenge there, but I got second in the cup. So I have 40. Oh, yeah, yeah, you got second. I can get 35 points from cups. I can get 60 points still from challenges. I barely have been performing any challenges. Maybe that's because I'm bringing Pokemon like Energy Ball, Galvangela.
00:03:25
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. But I think that's at the point where you've already won the cup. So you're playing a little bit more relaxed anyway. You don't care as much because when you did win the challenge, it was, yeah, because you didn't win the cup. So you were still coming at it with a bit of a vengeance.
00:03:38
Speaker
Well, it's more than I already have those teams prepared in advance. Actually, I have two teams. I have two teams. Yeah, two spicy picks as well. I mean, you know, what I what I used to do in like my practice tournaments just make crazy stuff work. I like to apply that now in the local. I think that's where I get the most fun out now. Yeah, you know.
00:03:55
Speaker
Not everything is as good as Sunny Castform. Speaking of Sunny Castform, did you complete the Castform challenge this week? Because I did not. There was no Snowy Castform anywhere nearby. There was none! I actually went out, Amanda. I went out to play the game after work and I found none of them. I was like, man, because I actually do all my collection challenges. Yeah, I do too. It drives me nuts that I don't have this one finished.
00:04:21
Speaker
I was throwing up glacial lures and stuff too, I was like maybe I'll bring in some snowy things over here. I should have done that. Nope, it didn't help. I didn't see one. Man, unfortunate. Had to play a little bit more. Yeah, I guess we still have to play the catching portion of the game. Yeah.
00:04:44
Speaker
All right, Amanda, thank you. That was our week.
Introducing Doonbug: Achievements and Insights
00:04:47
Speaker
Now we have a special guest on for today. Actually, our guests are special, right? All our guests are very special. But today we have one that I kind of fear for the World Championships. He's a scary player and I think he likes to do loser bracket runs for fun. Like just lose the first round in the winners. And so you have more opponents to defeat.
00:05:07
Speaker
Do you know what I'm talking about? I think it's a guy who's taken a little bit of a hard road, but a champion, and also someone who's been named quite often as a champion, if I'm correcting my guess. Yeah. All right, let's head over.
00:05:25
Speaker
Welcome in Doonbug. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure being on. Yeah. Can you give us a little bit of an, for those who don't know you yet, that'd be crazy, but for those who actually don't, can you give yourself an introduction?
00:05:38
Speaker
Yeah, so I am Doonbug97. I am originally from Boston, Massachusetts, now living in Dallas, Texas, and I am a two-time regional champion this season in the Play Pokemon circuit. Overall, I have won three regional championships in my Play Pokemon career.
00:05:55
Speaker
getting right into it. I like it. Yeah, it has a threat to be reckoned with. But obviously, everyone who plays PvP is pretty knowing and fearful of your name. But how did you actually get started with PvP back in the day? So I've my whole life, I've always been a very competitive person. And PvP is was felt like a great way for me to just get my competitive genes going again.
00:06:22
Speaker
and I've been playing PVP from the start and it's just been a crazy ride from there. Did it click to you automatically though like when you first started playing or was there like a learning curve where you were like oh this is actually with counts or I mean being my first ever Pokemon game there was a lot of a learning for me I had to be like writing down okay this type is this and then if there was two typings I was like oh crap I have no idea what this means for this Pokemon.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, the first days were definitely a learning curve for sure, just learning how the PvP actually works. And when I was learning PvP, I was definitely watching a lot of the YouTubers that were putting out the content of how the mechanics worked.
00:07:07
Speaker
So when you talk about like the start, do you mean like the start of GO Battle League or like before that already? Before that when it was only friendship battles, that's when I started. Like right when the PvP feature was rolled out.
00:07:24
Speaker
So as someone who's a little bit of a zoomer in PVP, who did you watch back then? King IV was definitely the big YouTuber I watched. And honestly, it was really King. He was really the only YouTuber I was watching to get my start in PVP.
00:07:42
Speaker
I see. And is that how you've become this good? What was your learning technique, basically? Like how have you become the PVP that you are today? Yeah. So my learning technique was definitely to soak up as much information as possible and then just keep practicing, practicing until I mastered each technique that I was learning from the videos I was watching. Interesting.
00:08:08
Speaker
Okay, could you give like an example like say if someone now is just watching obviously like the regionals or something on Twitch and they're saying, this seems like a really cool thing but I'm so far behind the curve. What is like a tip that you would give someone to start out with be like okay if you're interested in doing PvP, here's a, you know, like a kickstart into how to get good.
00:08:28
Speaker
Yes, I would definitely say the first big thing to learn is type effectiveness, because that's really the foundation of Pokémon. And I feel like learning that will be a great way to start. And then also learning, learning how you can play the meta correctly, like what are the best Pokémon in the meta right now. That's I feel like that's that's another big, big key part of learning in PvP. Yeah, the type effectiveness. Is that direct telement?
00:08:58
Speaker
I'm so much better at it now, guys. Well, it just really depends on what the meta is looking like. Yeah. And youtubers to watch, right? Do you know any youtubers that you would recommend? Inadequants, maybe? Who? Who's that?
00:09:17
Speaker
But I really if you want to really learn from a lot of which streamers right now, I would definitely tune into its accent and rise to occasion. And maybe there's a guy called Doon Bug 97 that sometimes.
00:09:33
Speaker
Now you're talking about metas and obviously right now we're doing like the show six pick three, which is, you know, you bring six Pokemon to a tournament, you choose three to play in a battle. But this is not your first show six pick three because you also played in Silph. And I know that inadequates didn't play as much of this, but you were really like a solo Silphur. And not only that, I have like vivid memories of casting over an event where I feel like you,
00:10:00
Speaker
forgot to sign up or you didn't set your alarm in time or something like this so you were almost late to the tournament and then you just ended up completely sweeping past that point. Do you remember this at all? I think it was like one of the like battle tower or like whatever. Yeah it could have been something like that. Yeah it was one of those and I think I ended up like starting like 18 and 0 overall
00:10:24
Speaker
And then, like, I didn't lose a game until the final round against Ventuski. It was really crazy. Yeah, and I think I do remember, like, I literally showed up like 10 minutes before it started. That's classic dude fashion.
00:10:41
Speaker
maximizing your preparation right exactly yeah yeah efficiency very good yeah yeah the first silver world champion huh that's uh how did that not the not the first not the first oh sorry no speed was the first one yeah you feel a caster like i like i said the silver i've not been super active but uh how'd you get there to silver world champion
00:11:06
Speaker
Um, it, while that was during when COVID
Impact of COVID-19 on Pokemon Go Tournaments
00:11:09
Speaker
was happening. So I definitely had a lot of time in my hands. So just kept grinding at each at every tournament and putting in the work. And I probably put together one of the most dominating seasons ever.
00:11:24
Speaker
Did you compete also in the local live tournaments or was most of your stuff online only? Yeah, I definitely competed at a lot of the local tournaments, the local CILF tournaments. Those were definitely the best days of CILF in my opinion because those mega tournaments that we had back in the day,
00:11:46
Speaker
Orlando mega tournament, the one Richmond, Virginia. And then obviously I wasn't being able to get to the LA mega, the, I think it was rainbow cup and the rainbow cup. And that was in LA, but those days of self were amazing. Yeah. There's a nostalgia for me as well with it, because it was like something that really brought me into a whole new community of people. And without, I know, I don't want to make you try to sound arrogant or not humble, but at what point did you realize that, Hey, I'm like,
00:12:16
Speaker
significantly better at this game than a lot of people are like was it pretty early on or was it after a while we were like oh not only am I winning at locals I'm also now winning like these larger online events as well yeah I think the first time I really felt that was when ghost stadium put together that battle for the world tournament that it was like that first ever like really big tournament they put together and I remember I ran through everybody running shadow Gardevoir
00:12:54
Speaker
How many participants do you have?
00:12:59
Speaker
I think it might have been 128 if I remember. I'm not entirely sure. At this time, it's so long ago. Yeah, of course. Those mega tournaments, was it comparable to regionals? Absolutely. Was it also prize money? I don't recall any prize money at any of these mega tournaments. I think it was just for silk ranking. Right.
00:13:25
Speaker
But they were definitely very comparable to what regions are like right now. It does boggle my mind how Silph was so successful without any sort of monetary gain for anyone.
00:13:40
Speaker
You know, it's just like, there's so many tournaments that people are trying to put together where they're like, Oh, prize money of this and this. And it's like, they never got to that same level of like the silk regional qualifications or anything. It's like the invitationals. And that was for nothing, just a badge basically. Or it's just the right to say, yeah, I made it to the highest tier.
00:14:00
Speaker
Essentially, that's really what self was all about. It was just, it was mainly just for fun. But now that we have play Pokemon regionals and that there's real good money involved. It's sometimes, I don't think it's really fun winning 14 games in a row. Does the prize money like encourage you to perform better in these regional championships? I believe which one's your first win? Arlington? Arlington in 2023.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Can you talk about that, Arlington? Yeah. That was really, that really felt like my coming out party in the play Pokemon circuit for sure. First ever regional win coming back from an O two deficit against rise to occasion. My, my biggest rival who, fun fact, we played the most out of anyone who's met at play Pokemon tournament.
00:14:53
Speaker
But yeah, the prize money is a very good incentive to perform well at these regionals. Yeah. Do you win enough to fund more trips to these tournaments? I feel like I am now.
00:15:08
Speaker
That's why that's why I'm gonna try winning who I see I'm gonna steal it from y'all You're opening up a big can of worms because also for those who maybe don't also understand there's a leaderboards in play Pokemon and the top eight players in each region get kind of like a little bit of money to help them for their worlds and
00:15:32
Speaker
And you are at the top of the global leaderboard, I believe. So you have the most points out of anyone. You're one of two people who have been a two-time regional champion in one season. And now you're trying to threaten to take on another region at our local IC. So yeah, I feel like there's a gauntlet that's going to be thrown down here. And most Europeans are thinking that they want anyone but the Americans. But Inadequance, of course, who is going for the leaderboard push in Europe, says, yes, please, I hope the Americans win. Exactly.
00:16:02
Speaker
I already know I'm going to have a big target on my back when I arrive there. People are definitely going to try to eliminate me early on. I think that was the same thing I had when I went to Toronto, right? I also said beforehand that that's the one guy I don't want to play. That's why I let myself get knocked out before I got to play here.
00:16:27
Speaker
Yeah I don't think, yeah Europeans don't really have that grave of a track record coming to NA and trying to steal tournaments from us.
00:16:35
Speaker
No, not yet, not yet. Biblicious got to second place. I got to... Yeah, that was against you. Yeah, against me. Oh, yeah. Oh, there was an Arlington indeed, yeah. He did manage to steal a qualification spot from United States. He did, yeah. He did. So he didn't go home empty handed. I took away a medal, so I had to go through which was cool. Yeah, but no one from Europe has won an American tournament yet.
00:16:59
Speaker
Yeah, but we still have a couple more coming up as well. There's still Vancouver, right? Vancouver is coming up this weekend. I'm flying out in like a few hours, honestly. Yeah, like less than 24 hours from now I'm flying to Vancouver. Wow. Okay.
Predictions for Upcoming Tournaments
00:17:16
Speaker
I'll actually be on the staff team this weekend in Vancouver. Okay. Okay. To give everyone else a chance. Yeah. Other people need to win for once.
00:17:26
Speaker
So if you were playing I guess because there hasn't really been many in the new world of wonders now What would you? Suggest or what would you be playing or do you not want to say because this is the team that you will be running at EU I see I don't think I can disclose what I'm going planning on playing right now because After we're done recording I'm gonna ask you yes, that's that's a good that's a good idea
00:17:52
Speaker
Well, what are your predictions, though, for Vancouver? I believe there's about 60 participants. Yeah, right now there's 60 right now. So we're getting close. They're getting close to getting over the 64 threshold for to make it four pods. That's good. I hope I hope that they make that. I know that before it was a little bit lower. And so I was getting numbers would rise up. But yeah, there's I thought quite a few predictions on what Vancouver may look like.
00:18:16
Speaker
I feel like there's going to be going to be a lot of shadow for alligator because I feel like the North American players really enjoy testing out the new stuff. I feel like shadow for alligator is going to be really common. I feel like it is really good. I got to play in one of my factions matches this past weekend and I really got to see the power of it. It puts in a ton of work in the meta. There are matchups. It wins that I feel like you shouldn't be winning with shadow for alligator.
00:18:46
Speaker
Yeah, I experienced the same when how Stark uses against me in the scrims. Yeah. And what do you what the heck is going on there? This is like I'm Pablo Dinos today. And I felt so helpless.
00:19:03
Speaker
So I guess I can ask you Martijn because you're not, I mean you're casting so you're not going to be playing at EUIC and you're not going to be playing at Vancouver. What would you be running in this meta? Are you going to try to steer people astray? Oh man, it's so difficult right now. I feel like people are still shifting a lot with what they use. I think one thing that's for sure, two thing that I would say, three things, four things in our for sure. Oh my goodness, okay, so many things.
00:19:30
Speaker
Here are the Pokemon I 100% predict to be like top seven, top eight. Gligar? Wish Cash? People dropped it for a second. I think everyone's like, okay, well, that was for nothing. It's still as good as ever, especially when people use more Lantern. Oh, yeah, definitely. Skarmory? I think Skarmory is still very good, especially with the rise of Gligar. People bring more Skarmory.
00:19:51
Speaker
and the fourth I forgot. I think it was Cresselia. I think Cresselia is very good. But the thing that I can't figure out, which fighter do you use? It shifted to Vigrolet for a little bit. And now people are like, okay, this is gonna be Vigrolet. I'm gonna use Annihilate again.
00:20:06
Speaker
And now Poliwrath is making a little bit of a climb up there because it's a better Skarmory answer. Correct, yeah. Better Skarmory, better Gligar and Wishkesh. I won't say it's a Gligar answer, but it has a better matchup against those. Plus, like Shadow Polar at the most. Feraligatr. Feraligatr? Yep, good point. This is why you are quite a good player.
00:20:29
Speaker
Right and not even that bad of a matchup against Annihilape if you have energy somewhere, right? So yeah, I think all three fighters are very comfortable to use right now I do think polar rats may be a little bit more difficult to fit onto a team But yeah, I think I think that's kind of what what I would expect. I don't expect fire types Yeah, that's that's definitely something to watch is what fighter is going to be the best. Mm-hmm. What do you think? Annihilape
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah, let's talk about that too, because, so you use a Nihilape and for, I mean, there weren't that many tournaments before that, but Nihilape was more commonly used at that point with Ice Punch because it was able to, you know, fight back a little bit harder against the Gligars, but you use Night Slash and in the tournament you had two, was it two times? You had a double Night Slash boost and your opponents were just helpless to do anything against that team.
00:21:23
Speaker
And I was absolutely losing it on stage, especially the first time I got the double Night Slash boost. That was amazing. I honestly can't take credit for being the first person to actually run Night Slash Annihilate. I have to kind of give a little bit of credit to Arrow. He he beat me with Night Slash Annihilate in the cup at Charlotte. And that kind of inspired me to run it, actually. So I will give
00:21:50
Speaker
arrow a little bit of a shout out there. Everyone's called in crazy at first. I know. I know exactly. Yeah, I think your run flipped the meta on its head for that for for annihilate. And then after that, if you were running Icepunk, you were just kind of behind the times or didn't really work out so well in the mirror. I mean, I think I believe like probably eight out of 10 annihilates in the next tournament that we casted over Martine and I had Night Slash on it.
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Colin with the double night slash boost in the mirror. I was going nuts when I was watching that.
Local Tournament Experiences and RNG Discussion
00:22:29
Speaker
Forecast on. I've also been quite lucky with the boost past weekend. I played in the local cup with a sunny cast form, but I also had an annihilate on my team. And in the grand finals it came through. I boosted twice against the technical.
00:22:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's definitely a good battler to boost twice against. Did you see the title of his video of that cuff? I did not. Oh, I didn't either. What did he say? So first it was something like competing against the best battlers in Europe and then he changed it to, is this the new Grayling meta? And he put like an annihilate with what's called Dices with it. What is your opinion on the RNG that we have in the game with Night Slash and Skuld right now?
00:23:14
Speaker
I personally believe, even though I am such a Wizcash fan, I personally believe they should have nerfed Skald and made it a 30% chance. My opinion on chances for debuffs and buffs, there should be three levels of RNG for it. It should be a 10%, 12.5%, 30%, actually it's four levels, and 100%. They should make Zapkan 100% again. Oh, really? I think that's a controversial take. That's the whole take. We didn't even have to ask a controversial take.
00:23:45
Speaker
Yeah, I mean with all the the swords pointed at you, and you're just Yeah, register still need register still needs to be good again Yeah, but okay, but walk us through that So you you really do if you could make the choice you would like zap cannon to be 100% debuff walk us through why um I feel like 67% is
00:24:05
Speaker
feel it just feels so awkward as a chance because like it's like scald it's essentially a coin flip most of the time it feels like when it comes to zap cannon and i and i know a lot of people are very frustrated when it comes to those coin flip chances because like when it happens it's five times in a row you get a debuff or four times in a row you don't get a debuff
00:24:28
Speaker
I know it can be very frustrating for a lot of people. That's why I feel like 30% would be a lot fairer because now you can go into a game not expecting to get a debuff. And when you get one, it's nice.
00:24:43
Speaker
I like that train of thoughts because that's the same way I feel about as well. It should not be something you need to be relying on because it just induces frustration on either side when it happens or not. If you're not counting on it, if you can have your strategy that you're like, well,
00:25:01
Speaker
I get a skull debuff nice but if I don't get it well the game is still the way I wanted it to be right yeah absolutely because like a lot of people today like with whiz cash they go into these matchups saying okay if I get a skull debuff maybe I can flip this because people like the chance of getting a skull debuff are it's 50 50 so if if you get one you're the odds of flipping a matchup are really good
00:25:25
Speaker
But I would also argue that that's sort of playing to different win conditions as well, right? So if you recognize, okay, this is potentially my only way to win this, I got to go for it. Um, yeah, or it's like a timeout strategy or something where it's like, okay, I don't want to win this way, but if it's the only way that I'm going to win, then I'm sure it's going to do it. Absolutely.
00:25:47
Speaker
Yeah. You talked earlier about Ryze's location being your rival. Do you happen to have kept track of how many times you got played? Right now, it still stands at seven times in regionals. Ooh, an uneven match. We've added quite a few more at locals, but I feel like those don't really count as much. And to be fair, I have had his number at locals, too. Not to brag, but sorry, Ryze.
00:26:15
Speaker
I count those personally very much. That sounds like you beat him more at the regionals than he beats you. Yeah, it is currently four to three in favor of me. And he actually started three and one against me and I have won three in a row at regionals.
00:26:33
Speaker
because I remember it was the regional that he won where he was coming up from the loser side of the market. No, I was. I came up. Oh, you. Okay. I reset the bracket, but then he was able to end up on top after a tie in game five. Yes, that was as it could literally not get any closer than it did.
00:26:52
Speaker
Yeah, would you say that? I mean, obviously, you do have them by one. But on any given day, do you feel like, yeah, yeah, I have his number? Or is it more like every time you see that you're faced up against them again, you're like, oh, no, like, here we go again. Yeah, I definitely would say it's the latter, because like, Rice is an exceptional battler. I consider him one of the top five ballers in the world.
00:27:16
Speaker
He is so good and every time I see his name and a potential matchup looming, I get a little nervous because I know he is easily a battler who can take me down. Interesting. Yeah, very interesting. So if he isn't your top five and you beat him over and over, are you also your own top five? Maybe. Yes, I am. I would put myself in top five in the world. And I do feel like a lot of people would do the same because given my very recent track record,
00:27:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. Who's better? You or Axon? Well, Axon did beat me in that world championship brawl this past weekend, so I got to give the head up to Axon right now. And I haven't won a world championship and played Pokemon, so he definitely has that. So Axon is probably the top batter in the world right now.
00:28:07
Speaker
Okay so we have three of the top five in NA. I don't want to spark another debate. And you don't have to get the full list if you don't want to, but are there any non-NA battlers in your top five? Yeah, CobraVich is definitely one of those that I would put in the top five. And I would put Zizweilis.
00:28:28
Speaker
up there. He is he is easily the most consistent European battler I've seen. I think that's fun. I mean, obviously, his wireless is very, very good. I think that he doesn't sometimes get the credit that he deserves in that. I see Martine stewing just a little bit. I know a lot of Europeans feel like they don't get the credit they deserve, but I am so excited for EUIC to see to see how North Americans fare against the Europeans.
00:28:57
Speaker
I mean, there's some big old names coming over. That's for sure. There's you. It's actually, like you said, the world champion. And they have, I think, Ryze, Ryze, Arrow and Bopper. We have four of our Texan battle. Actually, nighttime clasher as well. Yeah, yeah. He's European now. Yeah, we're claiming him. He's he's ours. No, he is a Texan. Sorry. And at one point we had four of the top four from Texas on the play Pokemon leaderboards.
00:29:27
Speaker
That is great. Everything's bigger in Texas, right? Exactly. Gonna have to expand that leaderboard out. But I guess are there any, are you welcoming all the battles for the Europeans? Are you looking forward to crushing them? Or is it like, are there any names over there that you're like, Oh, I actually hope I don't face off against one of these in the earlier rounds because it could upset my run. Yeah, I'd be very nervous to play against so technical in round one.
00:29:53
Speaker
Well, I don't think that's likely to happen because potential seeding, but... Seeding, I think so too, yeah. Don't tactical would definitely be someone I would fear to play in that tournament. Really? I never fear, actually.
00:30:09
Speaker
But yeah, he is, he's always been very, very consistent and definitely one of the best ballers I've ever seen. Yeah, it's definitely, I think there's a lot of good ballers in EU. I think for NA it's mostly like, with all the respect, but it's like, I feel like there's a big skill gap between like the top of NA and like, I'm not saying that the lower half cannot win. Yeah, I can kind of agree with that. But it's noticeable often, right? Yeah, NA does feel like it is very top heavy.
00:30:38
Speaker
And then after the very top of the echelon, there's a significant drop in where you get to the next tier. But definitely in Europe, I feel like they're not as top-heavy, but they have a great... There's a huge pool in the A tier, I would say.
00:30:57
Speaker
Yeah, and like don't get me wrong. I don't think that like What we call a little bit lower level that they cannot defeat someone on a high I think on a good day. They can also beat anyone Absolutely have the skill to beat one of the S tier players
00:31:13
Speaker
So, like, if I had to make tiers, yeah, Doon's tier is now coming up. Oh, yes. The most controversial one. Yeah. So, like, if I had to, like, rate the tiers, I would say S tier would probably be... These are people who are, like, would be favored to win the World Championships in Honolulu this year. A tier would be people who definitely could make that run. And then there's, like, then there would be, like, a B tier who would be, like, these are people who...
00:31:42
Speaker
could make a run to like day two at Worlds, but don't wouldn't feel like really has a great chance of winning. I'm not going to name names in these tiers, but that's like how I would make these tiers. Yeah, we would you rate Amanda? Yeah, well, I'm not even qualified. So in this in the C unqualified tier. Yes, exactly. There we go.
00:32:07
Speaker
I will say like when I first started playing, I was very competitive about it because I really got addicted to playing it and I was like really loving like Silph. And I mean, I was pretty good for never playing a game like that before. My competitive nature has kind of been curbed a little bit in that sense. And with that, my skill level has not improved in the same way that I think that if I really kept at it. But then I see like newer players like Leo or like a nighttime clasher.
00:32:35
Speaker
And I think, dang, if you just really apply yourself or keep trying, I could probably get decent again. But I never was at the Doon Bug level. So I don't think I would ever get to that. If I ever qualified for Worlds, I would already put myself in the Doon Bug B tier of maybe she could make Day 2, but she's not going to win Worlds. Yeah.
00:33:00
Speaker
If you really put your mind to it, you can definitely get that skill level you need to make a run. Yeah, I think and that's a cool thing about the game as well. It's like there is a big learning curve, but I think once you've hit a certain point, some of the stuff is easier to pick up with a little bit of practice and dedication.
00:33:19
Speaker
I want to ask your thoughts about the new edition this year of the leaderboard points and like the CP, because we've talked about how you are on top of this, but you were qualified for Worlds before this was even really a thing.
Tournament Dynamics and Accessibility
00:33:32
Speaker
Do you like this new edition? Do you like more people being added to this and subsequently making more tiers of
00:33:38
Speaker
skilled players? Yeah I definitely feel like the points do make the accessibility a little bit better but I can also see why some people don't like the point system because it really incentivizes like needing to travel to so many regions maybe more than you have to in previous times but I do feel like especially with locals now starting in all regions
00:34:05
Speaker
The point system does allow for more accessibility to qualify for Worlds. Do you think that 500 is not enough for NA? I feel like 500 might be a little too much for NA. I feel like if they maybe dropped down to 450, I feel like that would be a good middle ground.
00:34:25
Speaker
Because right now, I believe based on the leaderboards in NA, only like 12 people right now would qualify based off of points. Really? It's not a lot. It's surprisingly a lot smaller than you think. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like Europeans are just like farming locals. Yeah, definitely. Especially Italians. Only four people show up, you guys. Yeah, they can collude and throw the games.
00:34:51
Speaker
But I know that's true in some of the areas in the US, too. I've seen some people that they can easily get their 15 points for challenges because even two people show up and they have to convince some card game players or something. Yeah, exactly. There are definitely some regions within North America that have that luxury of not having to deal with the best players every day, like I have to do every time.
00:35:15
Speaker
Yeah, Texas seems like it's a very stacked local tournament. It's almost like the Belgium, Netherlands tournaments. Yeah. When I see all the people there and us. Yeah. Cause you've got rise and dune and nighttime. Arrow and bopper. Arrow and bopper. Yeah, exactly.
00:35:32
Speaker
Okimango who gave me my only loss in San Antonio. Yeah, Texas does look very stacked often. Texas is probably the most stacked region in the US. I think it's kind of tough to balance out the championship point requirements because there's also like a lot of regions that don't have the championship points that they can get in nearby stores. If stores are not hosting or they just don't have them. Yeah, definitely.
00:35:58
Speaker
I don't know. It's a tough topic, I think, right? For some, it's too much, honestly. If I look at Europe, you technically can get 390 points just through locals. That's 10 points of qualifying. In Latin and Oceania, you would qualify with that. But if you don't have them nearby, and you have so little regionals, that just makes it so difficult.
00:36:22
Speaker
And Oceania didn't get access to locals until like maybe a month ago, right? Until the start of March. Yeah. Yeah. You guys are also taking this from the perspective, though, of some of the best battlers in the world. So, yes, if you are competing in this many cups and challenges, most likely you could do enough for you would get the 390 points. But for an average PPP player, I don't think that that is true unless they go and really farm like locals across like a bunch of different regions.
00:36:51
Speaker
But I know some people who are relatively decent, but they definitely will not be able to probably qualify for Worlds even and it's not because they're not good, but just there's not enough locals that they're hitting Yeah, and then they're not doing as well in the regional as maybe that they would hope and stuff Yeah, definitely. I guess you kind of have to avoid like Texas and Netherlands. You gotta avoid all the big cities in North America. That's the advice.
00:37:19
Speaker
It was pretty funny that the one local that I didn't go to, Stan finally managed to sweep it. I was like, man. That was trying so hard. Yeah, you had one job.
00:37:35
Speaker
I have another question for both again being such good battlers and just finding different ways of maybe getting points if there was the threshold was to go up or even just stay the same but another way what are you guys's thoughts of like if they somehow included online tournaments to be eligible so it's like there wouldn't actually be a location cap or an actual regional cap but there was a way to get cp points through competing in like like it would have been like a silk tournament but this way you
00:38:02
Speaker
That's kind of what they do in some of the Asian countries, like I think Japan has their own qualifying. Japan's a person, but like APEC and India is indeed online. Yeah, Korea I think, like the Asia Pacific, there's like a mix of like some of these online tournaments where like I think top eight from these tournaments or something like that qualify. I feel like that would be a cool concept to do in all the other regions.
00:38:27
Speaker
feel like like maybe have a tournament where top four qualify top four from the tournament automatically qualify for worlds but there's no prize you can follow because they're they would be online yeah yeah how would you like i mean i guess would people like just have to rsvp and it's like the first come first serve rsvp or would there have to be some sort of threshold already like yeah you have to have hit legend x amount of times or you have to have
00:38:51
Speaker
I mean, I guess that doesn't really help for new players. So there's a minimum CP requirement. So maybe put it at like 150 championship points. So if you're in any region, that's not enough to qualify. But if you win one of these, you get an automatic qualification spot. Interesting. I feel like a minimum CP requirement would be a fair barrier of entry. It would be a manageable one. And it would be and I feel like it would be a great time to hold it would be
00:39:19
Speaker
like a weekend where like later on the season where on a weekend where there's no regional happening.
00:39:24
Speaker
Yeah, at least some sort of qualification process in my opinion. Yeah, absolutely. I could just let Dumbo play on my account and, you know, he just gets the points, you know, that like, I would say that that's something that could be done, right? Because there's no monitoring. And I think that's one of the aspects that in person have. There is that monitoring that you do. And if you already have your qualifications secured, you can't play in these tournaments.
00:39:52
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I like the, I'm just like, I'm trying to think of ways that. Yeah. Fun ways. Exactly. That brings more people into the games because I know, especially in the U S as well, because the regionals are spread out and it costs an arm and a leg pretty much to fly anywhere in the U S like what would bring in like. Not even a casual player, but someone who was like, okay, I want to try this, but I'm not traveling all this way. I'm not paying all this money for a ticket and entry fee.
00:40:18
Speaker
just to be knocked out because I've never really played in this type of tournament before. This gives like a little more level playing field for people to compete.
00:40:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Because well, I know Inadequance has a great tool. He has he hosts plenty of practice tournaments where you can get a plenty of experience in show six. Pick three. Yeah, that's true. There are plenty. There are plenty of options if you want to do something for the community. Oh, my gosh.
00:40:53
Speaker
yeah i don't ever see amanda participating in there though i guess i know i know yeah but that's what comes when you cost right you become washed yeah i don't know i think this season is the season of the casters my goodness is like the first time that uh uh two casters have uh won a regional event so
00:41:12
Speaker
yeah definitely first was europe uh sorry first was america coming for europe now it's the cast is going for europe yeah yeah oh my goodness yeah he's gonna use bass heat on them when you see we would never hear the other
00:41:30
Speaker
I did make a joke about this because I was writing an article for Pokemon.com for EUIC and so I was naming some players to watch and so it was like a kind of a joke about the North American people coming over so maybe stay tuned for when that comes out you might see your name but also that yeah there's a lot of pastors who are also participating and looking to maybe be the third person to to take on this title in one season. Yeah who can be the second North American to win in Europe?
00:41:59
Speaker
I'm I'm unbiased. I'm unbiased. Yeah, I literally like would be great. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if an American wins, they eliminate my competition. So my my dream grand finals would be me versus accent and the UIC grandfather.
00:42:17
Speaker
Oh, what a slap in the face for Europe, that would be. Oh, that's pretty funny. Oh, man. Yeah. So, but while we're on that subject, too, are you competing at NAIC? Do you know already or? I am highly likely competing at NAIC as well. Like, I got to keep the Europeans out of here, too, so. Yeah, yeah, because I heard that there's quite a few coming. We'll see about that, punk.
00:42:44
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, I heard there are quite a few Europeans going as well. So we'll see how that goes. So far. I know that. Yeah. I think you've been to London, but have you ever been in New Orleans before? I have not. I'm really excited to explore New Orleans. Yeah. So we have. Let me think myself. Tiptundo, Swylos. Do we can't use a European? No, you're American. Do we know more of Europeans that are going? Is biblicious going?
00:43:12
Speaker
No, I don't think the village is playing at all right now. I don't maybe it will be a stalker I don't know. I think the tragicomics was thinking of coming, but I don't know if he still is but that would be cool It will be the last resort for everyone a little birdie told me valiant fish is making the trip. Oh, that would be awesome I think I did hear that from a source. Oh
00:43:36
Speaker
You know more than me, not gonna lie. Spilling all the secrets over here. I would love it. We need you out more often. To try to see an Australian come try to conquer a North American tournament. Yeah. I mean, also, if we want to talk about skill gap, I also, I mean, the Australians, they don't have so many people showing up for their stuff, but they are. There's quite a few good Australian battlers.
00:44:02
Speaker
in there for sure. In the Worlds in London, the first ever World Championships in London, I lost to Valerie and Vish to get knocked down to Lucy's bracket. And then my next opponent was Ryze Suication.
00:44:17
Speaker
I don't want to bring up a sore subject, but since you're already qualified again and you're having such a stellar season, walk us through your other world's run so far and maybe how are you preparing to have a better run for this 2024 season?
00:44:33
Speaker
Yeah, so unfortunately like my other two worlds appearances haven't been as good as I wanted to. And this year I've just been preparing so hard to really make a good run this year. This is the year, this is the year I really want to win.
00:44:49
Speaker
I feel like I definitely am going to be favored, so that will put a lot of pressure on me to begin. And if I can just win my first game at Worlds, I feel like it'll be cake from there. I feel like it'll be pretty... I feel like I'll have a good momentum to make a run at Worlds this year.
00:45:06
Speaker
What are you doing to prepare like you said that you're preparing a lot? Is it like screaming against teammates and friends or local tournaments are a great way as well? I've been really good. Great for me to prepare. I believe in the months June, July and August, I believe the locals are going to be a little cup format. No.
00:45:23
Speaker
I think I read that somewhere. I'm for real. I'm for real. Yeah, for fun. Not for championship points. Oh, I see. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Well, I know. I think I saw the last quarter for locals. It's only going to be counted from April and May for points. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So June, July and August. So maybe June will just be a fun month then. Maybe June. And then July and August will start counting for next season. Little Cup show six. Is that an indication for next season? No.
00:45:58
Speaker
What are your thoughts of like if it was more like Silph and there was like defined metas for show six pick three or do you like that it's so open that you can kind of choose exactly what you want to or what do you think it sounds
Future of Pokemon Go Tournaments
00:46:09
Speaker
different? Yeah, I do feel like at some point they should try to maybe fit in like some custom metas like a great league remix, something like that. I feel like that would be a really fun twist they could do for a quarter. I think per quarter they could do some fun metas for locals.
00:46:15
Speaker
No, please don't.
00:46:26
Speaker
Test out metas at locals and then see how that goes and then maybe even bring it to the big stage at regionals Yeah, I think like with VGC TCG. They're also changing like every now and then, right? TCG is changing in the middle of EUIC Apparently like their newest thing is coming out. So it's like okay. I get that. We also have it kind of bad with the Interact with Imagine like day one something's allowed in day two. It's like no I know
00:46:56
Speaker
I do like how they did do it this time around where like new like if Pokemon already had a move and it got buffed they could still use it but like new moves couldn't be used at a regional like Utrecht. Yeah I think that they handled it the best way that they could for sure.
00:47:12
Speaker
I knew that everyone was like up waiting to see like what the water pulse buff was gonna be on the the manteen and stuff and then despite it people not running it. Yeah absolutely and that's such a good precedent for the one the regional that's in Italy I think that in June right but like literally the day of the move move update
00:47:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's gonna be in Bologna. I believe on Saturday nights we get the moves set up there. I believe so. Yeah, so that'll be interesting. That could be a mess. That could be messy. No, no, no, no. It will be creative. Creative, yeah. Like if day one, there's one meta, day two, there's another one. I wonder if play Pokemon will try to force Niantic's hand to not update the moves until after the regional.
00:47:56
Speaker
i don't know i mean you have like if you look at the whole of pvp there's already a small portion of players pokemon go players actually yeah obviously a even smaller portion are at a tournament like that so i don't know if if if if
00:48:11
Speaker
maybe I would hope so like especially for the players traveling there um but if it's like 100 participants or something yeah I don't know if they want to you know hold back for for that I don't know I I have no insight in that and it's not my involvement there yeah I mean and I say like basically every episode but I am very positive about it the fact that we're still in like the baby stages of Pokemon Go play Pokemon so I do think that we have a lot of like things like this that maybe they didn't even consider
00:48:39
Speaker
And then now that this is happening, they're like, oh crap, we can't have that happen next season. And so maybe there'll be some more talk between Niantic and Pokemon. Yeah, hopefully. They'll have things a little bit more fleshed out. I mean, it was the same for the Twitch stream. Originally, I think that they were looking on having a European-specific Twitch stream, just in case there was an NA one going on at the same time. But then they're like, oh wait, let's just schedule them so they're not the same weekends. Yeah.
00:49:04
Speaker
I mean I think that as we get problems hopefully we'll solve them pretty quickly and then the next season we won't have that problem and we'll have something in the rulebook. I do hope at some point like Latin America and APAC are able to get their own Twitch streams on the main channel. They deserve the publicity that the other regions do for sure. Right and we want to see some Wheelmer action because no one in Europe or North America is playing any Wheelmer like where's the fun right?
00:49:29
Speaker
Well, they are, but they're just getting. Yeah, exactly. And I do feel really bad for Australia losing OCIC this year. Yeah. That's why next year I hope I would love to see a world's there. Oh, yeah. Sure. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we do know it rotates every year, right? It does. I would love to. Yeah. Yeah. That would be a great region to show some love with.
00:49:55
Speaker
So you've been to London a couple times. We did say this. Is there anything that you specifically are like, OK, when I'm going back there, I have to do this because now it's a staple for me. Well, actually, the first time I was in London, I really didn't get to see much of the city. So this time around, I'm actually arriving a little bit early so I can tour a little bit on I believe it's that Wednesday before the weekend starts. So I get to explore the city a little bit. It's going to be I'm excited for that.
00:50:22
Speaker
You know, this podcast is not sponsored by it. And I get that as an American, you will not be that excited. Uh, but there's Chipotle there and there is not Chipotle in Belgium or many places. So whenever I go to the UK, I like stuff myself on. Is there one like right in the Excel center as well? Um, there's one right by it. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Yeah.
00:50:44
Speaker
Yeah, I try not to, I'm trying to stay away from the fast food lately. But, arguably, healthiest fast food. Yeah, you can definitely, there are definitely some healthier options you can get there. Martijn, I'm really pushing for this sponsorship, can't you tell? Yeah, sponsored by Chipotle. Sponsored by Chipotle. Yeah, I was the same with Nando's. It's nowhere here, so. Yeah, that's true. It's UK specific.
00:51:11
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. All right. I think it's time for our final question, Amanda, don't you think? Okay. Yeah, I think so as well. We kind of already discussed it with these tears a little bit, but I'm interested if he has to pick one. Do you want to lead us in more time? Let's do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll do it. Doombug.
00:51:29
Speaker
We have our staple question here for you. If you were to pick a crap roller, which is someone who is not very well known currently, but is really able or has a skill to make a name for themselves, who would that be? And also, who would be your mad champion? Someone who's already well known and can potentially win worlds or, you know, do other fantastic stuff. And you can't say yourself. You can say me.
00:51:53
Speaker
Um, I would definitely shout out one of my fellow Texans, bopper. He, I feel like he's someone who really flies under the radar. He puts in so much work before each tournament he goes to. And I, I feel like he just hasn't had his breaking through moment. Can I name someone else too? Well, just because it's you. Jengles is another really good baller who is really good. I feel like
00:52:20
Speaker
He just hasn't broken through yet. And I feel like it's it's it's just a matter of time before one of those to break through and have a really exceptional tournament run. I like that. Yeah. And how about for your champion? Who's someone who you think is going to take home worlds? If it's not you, it's going to be X. If it's not me. Oh, my goodness. I think it's going to be rise to occasion. All right.
00:52:49
Speaker
Yeah, your rival. Wow. Yeah, like I feel like this is the friendliest. Yeah, very friendly. Yeah. Yeah, we're too nice here in Texas. But yeah, he is he like I said before, he is one of the most exceptional buyers I've ever seen. And I think he is someone who could go on a huge run. I absolutely agree. Would you think he can win rules? Definitely. I think he is a big he's a big threat to win worlds this year.
00:53:18
Speaker
even to you yeah even to me even to me for sure all right all right well dude but i can't i can't wait to see it i can't wait to see how you perform at euic as well i can't wait either not not too good of luck obviously good luck my friends good luck yes well see how many times i push yeah exactly oh
00:53:44
Speaker
Um, where can people find you? Uh, you kind of briefly hinted at it before, but if people are interested in getting to know a little bit more about you or want to check out your streams, where can they collide? Yeah. Everyone, if everyone wants to watch me, you can find me at twitch.tv slash dude, bug 97. And you can also find me on Twitter where I post plenty of updates about when I go live, you'll, we always get the notification on Twitter. Perfect. Thank you so much for coming on. And we will, uh, yeah, see how you're doing these upcoming tournaments. Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it.
00:54:14
Speaker
you