"Gold Gym Romance" ft. 91jcamacho & Kayakpologirl | TRAINER'S EYE #4

From GO Fest memories to the thrill of catching rare Pokémon, 91jcamacho and Kayakpologirl share how Pokémon GO shaped their relationship. They discuss their favorite Pokémon, the appeal of Gold Gyms, and their tips for making Pokémon GO a unique and exciting activity for couples. Listen in for an inspiring story of how Pokémon GO brought them together and sparked a lasting bond.

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

Transcript

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TRAINER'S EYE #4 - "Gold Gym Romance"
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David: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. My name is David and you're listening to As the Pokeball Turns!

Welcome everyone to another episode of As the Pokeball Turns! A Pokemon GO podcast, where we discussed news, events, and other topics around Pokemon GO. Today, we have episode four of Trainer's Eyes, a segment where we get to hear from you,[00:01:00] the community, on how your Pokemon GO journey started, where it has been and where it is currently going. Back on June 20th, 2017, a gym rework was done that at the time, changed the landscape for Pokemon GO. Gone were the towers of 10 Blisseys in one Gyms, Bubblestrat, and Prestige. And what ushered in was the current state of Gyms we know today. In addition, badges were also introduced that allowed players the opportunity to level up gym badges from bronze, silver, and finally Gold. For a niche group of players, the grind for Gold Gyms had started requiring a total amount of 30,000 XP to achieve Gold status. XP on Gyms were gained from various activities, such as Berry feeding, gym defending, and most significantly Raiding. For my guests today, Gold Gyms have been their prime motivator for playing Pokemon GO. So much so that it even led to romance and feelings developing between the two that flourished into a relationship. Today, we get to [00:02:00] learn what drives them to pursue Gold Gyms and how they came to become a couple through Pokemon GO. Allow me to introduce to you, Javier and Marie, AKA 91jcamacho and Kayakpologirl. 

Hello everyone and welcome to an episode of Trainer's Eyes, a segment of the podcast where we get to hear from various people around the community on how their Pokemon GO journey has started, how it has been and where it's ultimately going. Today I'm joined by not only one guest, but I have doubled the trouble of both Javier and Marie joining the podcast today. How are you both doing today? 

Javier: Doing pretty good. 

Marie: Doing well myself. 

David: That's very good. I'm glad y'all could join the show. But before we do get started, how about y'all tell peoples y'all's names who you are and what team y'all joined.

Javier: My name is Javier. More known in the Discord as Javi or jcamacho.

Marie: My name's Marie and I'm known in the discord as purebloodedvampiregirl or in the Pogo community as kayakpologirl. I like to keep it confusing by having two different names, depending on what [00:03:00] I use. I originally started with team Instinct. 

Javier: I started as well with the same team. 

David: Now Marie, I can relate cuz actually I have like four different names going on. People know me by mostly Hamtaro. People who watch this podcast know me by David. And nobody knows me by ING name. So it works out perfectly. But it's kind of interesting y'all are both Instinct. So was that kind of planned or did y'all just happen to both choose the same team? 

Javier: I just went with that avatar. 

Marie: My journey was actually a little different. I had two friends that I worked with. We were all gonna play PokemonGo at the same time. I said, let's go team blue! Blue is my favorite color. I got out voted. They wanted team Instinct. And before we could even all play together, they moved over to Washington. So I was just left to stay team Instinct cuz we didn't have the medallion at the time.

David: Very cool. So how did y'all's journey in PokemonGo start? Did y'all start from the beginning in 2016? 

Javier: I started in 2016. I didn't start right off the back. I didn't know about it until I heard it in the news and I didn't [00:04:00] really get started into it until I saw someone had completed it. I got really into the hype and started playing it. 

Marie: My journey was just through my friends at work and then my sister as well. We all started basically within the first week, I think my start date was the seventh or the eighth of when it first came out. Basically, we all just kind of tried to find a way to hang out together and walk around a little bit. Other than that, it was more of a way to get back into the roots of growing up with Pokemon.

David: And at this time y'all didn't know each other?

Javier: No, we didn't,, 

Marie: No. 

David: So did any of y'all, I'm sure, I'm assuming Marie probably had some experience, but Javi, did you have any experience with Pokemon before Pokemon GO?

Javier: Oh, for sure. I watched the anime and I used to play a little bit of the card games before, when I was younger. 

David: Did you play throughout the entire time it kept releasing new games or did you eventually just stop playing at any point?

Javier: I continued playing for a good while, but after that, I think I just grew out of it and just started playing other different games.

David: Okay. And, uh, what about you, Marie?

Marie: I actually started [00:05:00] by collecting the cards, never played, but I just found the card so fascinating to the point where I would have my father give me the most ridiculous allowance ever, it was like 10 cents per chore to do and I'd just save up until I got about a dollar, I think it was back then. And I'd go buy a pack and just collect the cards in a big, huge binder. , I never got to play the video games as a kid, cuz video games were outlawed in my house. They were deemed inappropriate, never allowed to play. So I didn't get to actually touch my first video game until probably about 16, 18. And I picked up my sister's copy of Omega Ruby on DS. I love the colored blue. Always wanted to start with the water starters. 

David: So your first game was the ORAS series. That's a very long time to not play the game. Did you know the Pokemon that were in the game because of the card game or was it there's some new Pokemon that were introduced when you started playing?

Marie: I knew a couple of them because of the anime. I had watched a [00:06:00] little bit of the original Kanto region, I watched a little bit of Dawn and Max adventure around with Ash. Other than that, that was basically my main intro into Pokemon.

David: Very cool! And what is y'all's favorite Pokemon between each one of y'all?

Javier: I would say Rayquaza and Mewtwo and there's shiny forms.

David: Can't go wrong there. You got the black Rayquaza you got the limesicle Mewtwo. They're very beautiful colors, that's for sure. 

Marie: Mine would actually be shiny Rayquaza as well. I just love the color black and I love kind of that mythical dragon feeling. Mewtwo's fantastic, but I think I like the regular version a little bit better. 

Javier: Hater!

David: Fair enough. Those are very good Pokemon especially the shiny forms are always popular, especially when they come around. So let's move on a little ahead. Did any of y'all by chance attend any of the GoFest or any of the events at all?

Javier: This past GoFest was my very first one. I wasn't able to go to the past GoFest, but this one I really enjoyed. 

David: What was it like for you? 

Javier: I played the entire time and I was going crazy for those two minute [00:07:00] timer when Unown was popping up. So I was just like running from one edge of the park to the other trying to click on as many as I could. 

David: Okay, okay. What about you, Marie? 

Marie: My first experience was actually the last year they did it in Chicago, so 2019, I believe it was. It was really interesting cuz the person I was rooming with at the time, they chose Friday, and everyone else in Richardson basically chose Saturday. So I got there with a group of friends and I that all drove instead of flew from Texas to Chicago. And I was walking around until my friend finished the last hour of the event with my suitcase, just having everyone watch me walk around with my friend until we were able to get food. And I just walked the entire time in the town with a suitcase, just filled with clothes, waiting for my day to come.

David: My gosh. I wanna tackle both these, these, these are pretty interesting. I'm gonna start with you Javi. This past one was your first one in Seattle, right? Did you go in with any expectations or what did you kind of expect going to Seattle for Pokemon GO?

Javier: [00:08:00] I just expected know just a lot of people just walking around. When the game first came out, I traveled to Addison Circle and there was a lot of people. So I figured it was something similar to that. 

David: Did you enjoy all the hills you had to go up to be able to go explore the city at all? 

Javier: We tried going up a few, but it got a little bit of tiresome. We stuck to a little bit more of the flatter areas.

David: There's flatter areas in Seattle. I must have missed that part.

Javier: I think Marie couldn't handle too many hills. I was probably a little okay, but after the end of the day, my feet were sore.

David: I tell my listeners, like, you know, we're in Texas, we're not used to these hill areas we're used to just seeing flat land everywhere. Now I get whenever people criticize like Texas just flat like I get it now because we don't have these hills, we can just go from one place to the other, we might have a little bit of incline, but Seattle was just on a whole nother level. Wasn't really prepared for it. My feet were exhausted. I basically was ice bathing them the following day. Well, that's very cool. So last question for GoFest, what was your favorite part? Was the city or was it just the park?[00:09:00] 

Javier: For me it was the in park. I like everybody walking around trying to get all these shiny and all these habitats. 

David: Well, very cool. Let's go back to Marie real quick. So you said, you went to the 2019 GoFest, right? 

Marie: Yes. 

David: So that was your first one, right? 

Marie: Yeah, that was my first one. Went with a group of about five or six people from the same discord. 

David: What were you expecting when you went to GoFest Chicago? 

Marie: I was expecting mass chaos, which actually wasn't as chaotic as I thought it was gonna be, everyone kind of made almost like a circle, I guess you could say. Everyone walks one way, another direction. Most of the people were walking the opposite direction. And so it had this kind of structured chaos in a sense. 

David: Did you get to do anything else besides doing GoFest when you were in Chicago?

Marie: I got to visit a few of the restaurants and actually I had the GoFest day where it basically rained out the entire second half of the event. And so we were having to take a break, drop by a little pizza shop [00:10:00] while we waited for the rain to stop and then we just said, " it's not gonna get any better than this." And we played until they basically forced everyone to go home because the lightning got so bad. 

David: Wow! It got that bad? 

Marie: It got really bad that they were actually kicking people out of the park.

David: That's a rough first experience!

Marie: Honestly, I preferred it that way cuz it shows that no matter what Pokemon, they're willing to postpone an event or treat their players to an event that they missed out, just to prove that they wanna keep their player base safe.

David: Very true! A lot of people overlook that, especially when we get the warning sign saying what look at your local news station or whatever, and Niantic, they really genuinely do care about their play base because you know, this is a real world event where, real world happens as you just found out. Sometimes it rains sometimes it's pours. 

Marie: Yeah, to see basically everyone's phone going off all at once with the National Weather Alert and then maybe within the hour, everybody basically being told to head out and that they just said, "Hey! We'll figure something out. We'll do something for you guys, but for [00:11:00] now we need to make sure you guys are safe.

David: So let's fast forward to 2022, this past GoFest since y'all went together. How was it different for you to go to Seattle compared to when you went to Chicago, minus the rain? 

Marie: Honestly, it was kind of surprising that Seattle didn't rain. I was expecting it. I had a poncho ready, and then to see it be around 70 degrees, no more than 80 degrees at a certain point. While Texas was scorching hot at triple digits, I was not missing it. 

David: We hit Seattle's heat wave. 

Marie: If that's the heat wave I experience in Texas, I would not mind that heat wave comparatively, but also we got to go around in the electric scooters and the little electric bikes mopeds. The funniest parts were our feet were so tired and exhausted from walking. So we were trying to take these electric scooters and mopeds up a hill. The hill was so deep of an incline that the scooters and the mopeds couldn't even make it up the hill. That is [00:12:00] just how much more drastic those hills are in Seattle than anywhere else I've probably ever been. 

David: Yeah, there was a point to where I went all the way to the Harbor. It was very far down Seattle's Hills. I got a scooter and I literally was at the point to where I was basically dragging the thing up the hill. And I was like, I'm paying to drag a scooter up the hill at this point. So I ditched it. 

Marie: We did the same exact thing, but we didn't ditch ours.

David: Well, that's very fair. So it sounds like at least y'all had a very good experience this past 2022. So let's go and get move on. Y'all played since the beginning of 2016, it's six years, six years of our lives, what's been the biggest accomplishment for each one of you in Pokemon GO.

Marie: My biggest accomplishment was probably being, as far as I know, the first person to get all of the Gyms in Richardson, Gold, the first time around. 

David: What about you Javi? 

Javier: Well, for me, I think the biggest accomplishment was being one of the very first ones to complete the Unown Dex. I think that was one of the bigger accomplishments I was trying to go for trying to beat [00:13:00] most of the hardcore players, the long time players. So much running around and also just, making the community better and just having so much fun with everybody. 

David: One of our prior guests talked about your escapades. So let's talk about the Unown Dex real quick. Do you remember what it was like to get your last letter? 

Javier: I remember that one like it was yesterday. I was raiding with a group of friends with the Dallas Raid Trainers with GratefulD. I was Raiding with them and then I just saw the notification for the Unown K, which was my last one, cuz I missed one prior to that. It was only a 30 minute timer on it and it was a 30 minute drive. So I had to basically gun it and I just told GratefulD, "I gotta go. I'll still help with the tapping and all that while I'm driving. I got it at like last couple seconds and that was my last Unown that I needed. I was just so glad that I got it cuz I was trying to compete with this other long time players that the play around the Richardson area and the Dallas area. So I was super glad I was the very first one to get it.

David: You must have been hauling [00:14:00] some butt to get there within 30 minutes.

Javier: Oh yeah, for sure. I definitely broke a couple of, speed limits and a couple of laws. 

David: Only a couple.

Javier: Only a couple, not all of them. 

David: Well besides the letter, K, do you have any other interesting stories about getting any of the Unown?

Javier: Oh man. There's so many stories. So many things that had to do that maybe jump over a, couple fences or, try to drive into, some apartment complexes where I just had to wait for someone to exit and go through the exit side or the entrance.

David: Can you gimme one that's jumping over the fence? That sounds pretty interesting. 

Javier: I think was just a apartment complex where I would be the one who would be willing to jump over a fence and just wait for it to almost get to despawn time and I would get it for other people since I was in the other side of the fence and be that one person who people were to hand their phones and I'll just click on it, give it back to them, they can deal with the catching, whatever happened, it happened. I would help other people. I would even go a little bit step further and message people on discord. Like, "Hey, I'm here. If you wanna send me your info, I have an extra [00:15:00] phone. I can catch it for you and then you can change your password, whatever you want. 

David: It's no trainer left behind, it sounds like.

Javier: Yep. 

Marie: A pessimist in me saw him doing this. And I was like, is this guy just trying to get other people's information? I don't know if I feel comfortable sharing my own account's information, but I always saw it in across several discords and I was just like, This seems like a scam for some odd reason. There's no way, there's someone who's actively trying to help someone out in Pokemon like this. And I was very much like account sharing is bad. You should never do that. And then I heard some other people in the community talking about it. And they were like, yeah, this Jcamacho guy got me this Unown letter and I go, wait, it was real. It wasn't a scam?

David: Yeah, in the community we really did try to look out for each other, especially when it came to rare spawns or stuff you just don't see that often. Sometimes you have to work or sometimes, especially when the Ex-Raids were around. That's when really a [00:16:00] lot of account sharing really did happen because for some reason, Niantic likes to have 'em during regular business hours and most of us couldn't make it for whatever reason. And this is before Remote Raids 

Javier: For sure! 

David: Marie, let me transition to you real quick. At what point did you start getting more involved with the Richardson community, cuz for people who don't know, you're actually an admin, you've been an admin of multiple discords over the time since I've met with you. Like how did that start?

Marie: So it actually started with one of the communities where the leader happened to just be around UTD at the time while I was still going to school. After a while I started eventually just joining the Raids with him and he would always talk to me about how he was doing this almost what I would consider 24 7, but even though Raids weren't 24 7. From the time Raids would start at 6:00 AM all the way up until they ended at seven o'clock at that time. He would basically do his work. Once he got off of work, cuz he had like a shorter work schedule than everyone else. He would go out Raiding and as soon as I got off work, I would join, I would drive him around, so that way [00:17:00] he wouldn't have to drive himself around. It looked like a child clenching onto their father cuz they were scared. I was deathly terrified at the time. I'm so extremely introverted until someone kind of tries to be friends with me, and then I become a little bit more extroverted. But back then I knew no one in the group, so I was that introverted child hiding behind their father almost. And it was even funnier because the fact that the raid leader was twice my age. So he could have been my father. So he's like I got an event I have to go do, cuz he also did sports as well. And he is like, I'm putting you in charge. And I go, huh? What? No! Scary things. Huh? 

David: He just thrusts you into it. 

Marie: He just thrusted me and he goes, you can do it. He goes, you've watched me do it a million times. You can do it. And I was like, oh, okay. I'll try. And by then I had gotten everyone's name down, even if they didn't know my name, cuz I was really soft spoken. Didn't really talk a lot. And so I started running these groups and he had given me access to [00:18:00] the channel to start Raids. And that's when I was like, Okay, so, and so's here, so, and so's here and they go, how do you know my name? And I go, I was the little child hiding behind the, the father figure here. And they go, oh, that's you? I go, yeah. And they go, wait, you have a voice. We've never heard it before. 

David: Wow! So it sounds like you went from being just so introverted to the point you couldn't even stand being in front of people to like being very sociable that's you have definitely have changed based on just what you told me to, even how you are now. 

Marie: When I had first started Pokemon GO, I don't think I've told this story to very many people. I was deathly terrified of people that I didn't know to the point where if I got a large enough group happening. I would actually break out into a panic attack and I'd have to go walk back to my car while the raid leader was counting everyone and splitting them up into their groups. And so by him pushing me to actually lead a raid, it forced me to go, " Hey, it's not as scary as you think it is." I didn't pull in as many as people as he did [00:19:00] because it was my first time doing it, so I was like, okay, this is the manageable group and I know, 90% of the people's names, even if they don't know mine. I would hear them always talk to him. So I'm like, Hey, how is so and so doing in your family? Hey, how is so? And they go, how'd, you know this, and then I go just the little quiet body behind this person. So it really forced me to open up so much from that one push at the time that I thought was him just dumping his responsibilities on me, but it was actually him trying to open me up as a person.

David: And just to give some context to our listeners. So for Richardson, they have a very healthy Pokemon GO group. We're not talking like 10 people we're talking probably. Is it fair for me to say 25 to maybe 40 people for y'all's group? 

Marie: Easily could have been 25. At some points, it got as large as maybe even 50. 

David: There's a lot of people who say they're very introverted, people who are just like how you were very shy, very reluctant to really push yourself out there. What kind of advice would you give them in regards to just trying to get more involved with the community? Like maybe even becoming an admin, like you are? 

Marie: My advice would [00:20:00] be it's okay to be apprehensive at the start. Just kind of analyze a little bit and find that niche or find that sweet spot where you can already feel like you have kind of a connection to the people a little bit. You don't have to talk the first time around or the second time, but then you hear someone talk about your favorite Pokemon, like Rayquaza or talk about how they used to love watching the original Kanto anime series and bring up the topic about how they called Onigiri donuts or something like that. Find that little niche right there that you can latch onto and you feel like you know, a pretty good amount about it and then just roll with that, cuz that at least you can talk about it and you're not gonna find something that kills the conversation basically. 

David: Well, very cool guys. Let's get onto the next part. So at what point did y'all start meeting each other or how did y'all meet each other?

Javier: I believe we met doing morning speed Raids and then I have the Mustang, which is only a two passenger, car. So I think [00:21:00] if I remember correctly, I think Marie didn't fit in one of the other passenger's vehicles. So the Raid Leader stuck her in my car and I think that's how technically we met, cuz I don't know if I've seen her in with the raid groups. I don't know if she had seen me before, but I know for sure I was not paying attention.

Marie: So for my account Ziegy was actually the one who had invited me to these morning Raids cuz I finally got off of working the weekend shift at my work. Normally we drive in one of the guy's trucks and we actually couldn't all fit this time, so the raid leader was like, "Hey, go with this person." and I go, why are you sending the woman to go with the guy that she's never met before? Like that seems kind of weird! 

David: Kinda sketchy. 

Marie: And so I was like, fine. I trust you. You're the raid leader. If you trust this guy, I'm cool with, it was a little apprehensive. And the entire ride he was only playing Mexican music and he didn't say a word at all, except for, I guess one of his relatives have called and he was speaking Spanish. I turned to the Raid Leader and I go, "did [00:22:00] you sit me in a car with someone who doesn't speak English, knowing I only speak English? I was like, this dude, didn't talk once! Didn't say a word! We just listened to Spanish music the entire time. I genuinely thought that he just stuck me in a car with someone who couldn't even communicate with me. Come to realize, several months after that he was doing group Raids outside of our morning speed Raids. And he started speaking English and I turned to him and I go, " this boy spoke English and he didn't once speak English to me!" 

David: He does talk. 

Marie: For sure thought he only spoke Spanish for like a solid six months and I just turned and go, " is this like cruel punishment? Did I do something wrong? Did you put me in here because I spoke too much one day? Come to realize, no, he just didn't wanna speak English to be that day. 

David: Wow! And we're talking six months he didn't say a word to you? 

Marie: He mostly, went Raiding with the Dallas Raid Train, so he wasn't too much in the [00:23:00] same raid group as I was. But when he started working on Richardson Gyms, that's when I started seeing him. And he started speaking English to the raid leader and I just turned and I looked and the raid leader goes, " what are you looking at?" And I go, he speaks English!" And he goes, "yeah, he speaks English. Did he not speak when you were in the car with him?" I go, " no, he didn't!"

Javier: Introvert. Remember introvert. 

David: Apparently y'all are both introverts. Y'all giving introverts who listen to this podcast hope. 

Marie: I think the funniest part was this entire time I'm just like, this guy must really hate me or must really be afraid of women one of the two.

David: Now Javi I gotta get to your perspective on this real quick, so Marie shoved in your car. Were you like nervous or were you just kind of like business as usual kind of thing? Like what was your going through your mind? 

Javier: I wanna say a mixture of both. I think I was playing four phones, so I was really focused on what I was doing and driving. I was very shy and didn't really know her as well, so I kind of just kept to myself I was [00:24:00] kind of, not really in the talking mood. So I was just keeping to myself and just focusing on the task at hand and just trying to enjoy the game and get outta my head.

David: That's fair! At what point did you start kind of talking with Marie? 

Javier: I think more when I started doing more the Gyms in Richardson and started Raiding with them, cause it was something that was work towards my goal, getting all the Gyms in Richardson Gold through Raiding and joining this group and slowly started talking to the Raid Leader and she was around, we started talking and we just went from there, started carpooling and later on, we started doing Gyms together and we just went from there.

David: That's awesome! And the Gold Gyms is both y'all's thing, right?

Javier: Yeah, we both do it. Sometimes at the same time, sometimes a little bit separate. For the most part, we do it together. A little competition between us. 

Marie: We actually have a rule now where we are not allowed to do Gyms unless both of us can be present. And that way it evens out the playing field. The only way that we can up each other usually is by feeding berries and that's how we've made it kind of a challenge [00:25:00] between the two of us is we have to go the same exact time. We have to do everything the same minus the berries. The berries is the only way to kind of compete to see who can get Gold first right now. 

David: So y'all have a prime example of how a couple can compromise. So this moves into our last section. So when did the Gold Gyms kind of start? Do y'all kind of remember, like when y'all started heavily pursuing getting all of the Richardson Gyms Gold?

Javier: I think I started with trying to get all the Gyms Gold when we got the Gym rework. Not a lot of people were doing it or I didn't really hear anybody doing it. So I was just trying to get the Gyms around my parents' places. I used to live with them and then just try to spread out into these other areas. Just try to keep it between George Bush and 635 and 35 and 75. Just that inner circle. That was my main goal at first. 

Marie: For myself, I was trying to help this raid leader in between Raids always take back this one gym from the group, we call Mystic Tacos in Richardson. In my head, I was [00:26:00] just like, " wow, these people are really going at it." To me, I was like, there's people who are actually willing to like friendly compete, I guess you could say to see who could get to the Gym Gold first. And that's kind of where I guess my competitive side start kicking in and I go, " okay, I'm gonna do whatever I can to help out my friend at the time, get to this Gym Gold first. It was like a race between Mystics and I nstincts who could get this Gym Gold. 

David: So what is it about the Gold Gyms that interests both of you?

Javier: I just wanna say just bragging rights cause just getting it Gold also just gets you more items from it. But for me it's just bragging rights. 

Marie: I think for myself, it was the competitive nature. I always have this slightly competitive nature with my friends more than with strangers. And so when I saw Javi doing it, the raid leader, and then another mutual friend of ours, I was like, "okay, now I gotta get into this game and see who can get there first." By then the raid leader was, I don't know how many Gyms above us, but I was a few [00:27:00] above Javi at that point. It got to the point where we were literally a gym or two apart by the finale. 

David: So I counted Richardson's Gyms, there's currently 250 ish Gyms in Richardson. When it came to the finale, when was it like, "Hey, we're super close to having all the Gyms Gold. Let's try to finish them off!" What were the final Gyms and what was it like trying to finish that off? 

Javier: I think it was UTD cuz UTD flipped so much that we left it kind of towards the end. I think that was where we, our finale, I guess you could say took place. I tried beating Marie to it, but at the very end, I slowed down a little bit too much that she gained the advantage. 

Marie: Just to tell you how serious he was, the first community day, where they released everything all at once from the previous years. I kid you not. I saw this man running past me, right, left, front, and center. He was running to every gym as quick as possible to try to get as many points cuz of how far I'd gotten with UTD [00:28:00] being where I went to school. I would just, " okay, let me go randomly drop into a gym here, here, here." If I get kicked out, I'll go back and I'll just drop in here, here, here, before I go to work. So I kind of had that advantage. It's extremely hard to stay in those UTD Gyms, especially if you're Instinct those Gyms naturally gravitate to a more Mystic, sometimes Valor but I felt like it was usually more Mystic while I was going to school out there.

David: Well, to be fair it's hard for an Instinct to hold Gyms in general. So the fact that y'all are both Instinct and y'all have as many Gold Gyms, just, it speaks to how competitive and how much work y'all really had to do, to just get as many Gold Gyms as y'all do and I definitely have a lot of mad respect for you guys.

Marie: I would say probably my hardest Gyms to get Gold and I feel like you already know the answer that I'm gonna say to this is Foxboro Park, because of one of the residents that lived there. She's like, "oh, I love seeing the Gyms blue all the time. This is my home ground." At the time I was like, "man, [00:29:00] she is really going gung-ho! Does this woman hate me?" When I spoke with her, she's like, "Hey, no hard feelings. I just like to make all the gym players that actually wanna get Gold, really work for it." And I'm like, darn you. I live like two cities away from this gym. I live all the way in Addison, North Dallas, Carrollton. I was moving all around at the time and I'd have to drive back to go get this gym. They really tested people who wanted Gold Gyms out there. They made sure that you were watching 24 7. If you stopped watching at 2:00 AM, they go take it down. If they figured out you stopped watching at three, they would take it down. 

David: That's definitely intense. I've had to do that for a couple Gyms a long time ago and I don't miss those days cuz you don't sleep much. Javier I'm gonna ask that question for you. What's been the most difficult gym for you to get Gold? 

Javier: I think I have not just one gym, but probably just three areas and Marie covered one of them. I would say definitely Addison Circle because it gets flipped so much and it's very popular area where a lot of people [00:30:00] play. Definitely Downtown Carrollton, cuz that's very heavy Valor and I know of one player who just likes to battle so much, not really much take the gym, but try to do as many battles in the Gyms and he likes to keeps his Gym battles up. 

David: Well, that's very cool. Do y'all have any last comments or anything y'all wanna say? 

Marie: Funny story for you. I was doing a training class this week and during my training class, one of the new hires, took a quick smoke break. And I was like, okay, well, we got to the conversation about Verizon and phones and whatnot. And then they were talking to me about why do you have so many phones?" And I said, " oh, I have a lot of phones cuz of my family and at one point my family and I all played Pokemon GO." And they're like, "what? You, you do all this for Pokemon GO?" And I go, yeah. And in the middle of the training class, everyone downloaded Pokemon GO while we were all on break. They were like, "what team are you Marie?" I go, " oh, I'm the yellow team" cuz they don't know what team Instinct is. And they all downloaded the game, went team Instinct and [00:31:00] the next day they're like, " I blame you! I went outta my house to go down the street to a gas station to go get this XYZ Pokemon at nine o'clock at night!" You are the one who did this to me. And I got an entire team of about five people in training to all download the game and choose team Instinct. 

David: That's all I have for today. Thank you all for joining me for another episode of, As the Pokeball Turns. If you like the show, please leave me a rating of five stars. I love stars. The more stars you leave, the more treats I will give my dog. So help us both out here. As a reminder, you can subscribe to this podcast on apple, Spotify, or your podcast streamer of choice. If you wanna listen to more, please check out my other episodes. Feel free to follow me on all my socials by clicking the link in the description of today's show. And I'll see you next time!