As The Pokeball Turns
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As The Pokeball Turns
"It's A Charizard Life" ft. ShadowPrime34 from The Round Table Chat(ot) | TRAINER'S EYE #14
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Get an inside look at ShadowPrime34's journey in Pokémon GO and podcasting in this episode of As The Pokeball Turns. From writing fan fiction in middle school to becoming a co-host of The Round Table Chat(ot) Podcast, ShadowPrime34 shares his evolution in the Pokémon GO community, including his love for raids, setting ambitious goals, and attending live events like GoFest. ShadowPrime34 also gives valuable tips for aspiring Pokémon GO podcasters and reflects on his proudest Pokémon GO achievements.
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My name is David Hernandez and you're listening to As The Pokeball Turns!
Introduction
David HernandezOn another world known as Cybertron Auto Bots and Decepticons raged war against each other in a classic doubt of good versus evil. When the war subsided what remained was a cold metal world engulfed by pillars of smoke as reminders of the barren wasteland their world has become. But in the mind of an eighth grader, rusty winds blew life toward the cold metal world of Cybertron. In a past life, he was known as Sidewire, but he was now walking in the shadow of primes before him, and with this new found power, a new hope poured color onto the metallic world. The New Hope was a podcast known as The Round Table Chat(ot). Here is his origin story into the world of Pokemon Go. A member of the BTW Part Deux faction and co-host of the Round Table Chat(ot). This is Shadow Prime 34.
Interview with ShadowPrime34
David HernandezToday I'm joined by JT, who will not only be sharing his Pokemon GO story, but he will also give insight to his love for the Avatar the Last Airbender live action movie. Jt, welcome to the show.
ShadowPrime34Oh no, not the live action movie, we don't talk about that I'm doing well, David. How are you doing?
David HernandezNot too bad, my friend, I'm really looking forward to, I'm glad you can make it to the show today. Let's just go in rock and roll. How about it?
ShadowPrime34Sounds good.
David HernandezBefore we do get started, how about you tell people who you are, where you're from, and what team you're on.
ShadowPrime34My name is JT, hailing from the Denver, Colorado region of the world. my in-game name is ShadowPrime34, and I'm on Team Valor.
David HernandezHow about we start with Shadow Prime 34, so apparently it's like a little story behind it. Is that true?
ShadowPrime34Oh yeah. I was in, middle school and I would make fan fictions for my favorite movies. So after I would take a test, I would start writing while everyone else is finishing. When I got done with one of my science tests, I was like, I'm gonna write a Transformers one cuz Optus Prime is cool. So I was like, "well, something that's like, not optimist, but kind of optimist." So basically there's a robot that follows an optimist prime shadow. So I was like, "oh wait, shadow Prime!" 34 is my, basketball number. So here we are years later and that's my best story I've got for it.
David HernandezThat's very interesting. So you made this story from scratch, like this isn't a lore officially from Transformers, right?
ShadowPrime34Yeah, this was completely all from my brain. We hop all over the place. At one point you're at Cave and then at another point you're in a field and then you're at a dig site, so you can definitely tell it's from my brain but it's good.
David HernandezSounds very interesting. How about we start with the other question I ask everybody else that comes on the show? How did your journey in Pokemon Go start?
ShadowPrime34I remember seeing like ads for it, like day one. I immediately downloaded it and uh, I was like, okay, let's figure out what this is" and I couldn't get into it because the servers like couldn't handle it back then. So we got that, that nice little like, "oh, please try again later," screen. And I got into it and Professor Willow popped up and was like, "Hey, choose your three." And I was like, "oh, Charmander all day." And I kind of played it like kind of off and on and took a bit of a six month hiatus. It was actually, John, kind of peer pressured me back into the game and I fell in love with it all over again.
David HernandezSo you started out playing, you said, so I'm assuming the six months came, like right after the game came out, or was there like a little bit of a gap or?
ShadowPrime34So I played for about a year or so. This is right when they were like kind of dropping Gen 2. I would do just barely enough to make sure I got all the Pokemon. Then I was like, eh, whatever. I haven't opened the app in about a week or so, like, just kind of like casually playing like aggressively casually as simply casual.
David HernandezYeah. What's that? Like?
ShadowPrime34Like Yeah. It's just like, "oh wait, I forgot I have this app. I'm, I'm walking somewhere, let's open it up and see what it's like." So yeah, and I did that and it was good, like I would get a shiny every once in a while, but like I'm not the collector of the two of us. I stopped playing and I got into Jurassic World game, which was an experience to say
David HernandezIs that good or bad thing?
ShadowPrime34A little bit of both. It's definitely a Pokemon go clone, but I think Pokemon Go is definitely better. but I realized that I can only have room for one. in real life, hunting game, like Pokemon Go. So I had to give Jurassic World the old, pink slip and let 'em know that they're terminated.
David HernandezSounds like you realized the error of your ways and you came back to Pokemon Go.
ShadowPrime34Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So,
David HernandezSo what was it about Pokemon Go that made you wanna take a brief hiatus? Were you just bored of it, or was it just not much for you to do?
ShadowPrime34Yeah, I kind of got bored with it because they, at this point, they hadn't really introduced raids and there weren't too many events that went on. At that point, I didn't have my obsession with like, my unrealistic goals I'm all about now, but I was just kinda like, eh, I'm, I'm good. No, thanks. Yeah.
David HernandezI love being realistic. I love unrealistic goals. How about you tell me a little bit about them?
ShadowPrime34So, they're, they're absolutely ridiculous, like, I'll text John at 11 o'clock at night and I'm like, "Hey, do you think I can get 5 million experience in two weeks? He's like, are you, are you kidding me? And he's like, "if you play like a madman, sure" and I was like, okay, I'm gonna try it." I put my nose to the grindstone and just see like what I can get and how close I can get to that goal. And like honestly that's, what's brought fire back to the game for me, which has been pretty fun, even though I don't necessarily have like a special research story or anything to do. I make my own goals and see how close I can get to attending them, so that's always fun.
David HernandezYou know, from one mad man to another, I have mad respect for something like that.
ShadowPrime34Yeah.
David HernandezSo, real quick, I'm gonna go on a little bit of a detour. One of my goals that I tried to do, I got pretty close, I wanted to get, I think it was a hundred million XP in three months and a hundred million. Cuz I was trying to see how fast I could get. I just wanted to see, I never cared about xp. I just wanted to see if I could do it, you know, like, you, like can I do it? And the way I had to map it out and I had to average like a million or a million a half XP per day, I think to get to that point And
ShadowPrime34that is incredible.
David HernandezYeah. I made it to I think I made it past one month and a couple weeks after. And at that point I was like, I can't do it. I love Pokemon Go, but it's also that part to where like, I needed a break at that point. I was playing like nonstop when I wasn't working. I was playing Pokemon Go and we, even, while I was working, I was playing Pokemon Go
ShadowPrime34Exactly! And it's just, it's like, all right, like I'm a little Pokemon out right now, so I'm, I'm gonna take, take a step back.
David HernandezYou know, we just, we need a little bit of a break. It's like if you ever watched a friends episode, you know, we just need a break. It's not you, it's me, we need a break!
ShadowPrime34Exactly!
David HernandezThat's very awesome. Do you have any other kind of goals that you come in mind besides just the XP one?
ShadowPrime34Right now my big one is xp. My next one I'm actually trying to see if I could hit 150,000 Pokemon caught before I hit level 50.
David HernandezI think that's a little bit more attainable compared to your XP grind.
ShadowPrime34Yeah. I'm like, I think I can do this. I've been just trying to like, see how well I can do and if I can do it, so just taking it one day at a time.
David HernandezDid you have any experience with Pokemon before Pokemon Go?
ShadowPrime34I did, actually as, a, we crouton in a world full of big croutons. My first experience was actually with one of my buddies in third grade. I went over to his house and he had the Pokemon show on and he was playing on his red cartridge and he had an extra blue cartridge. And I was like, "oh, I wanna play." They were just pixel blobs back then, but in your imagination it was just like these awesome fights like, I'm watching Charizard on the television, but I'm like using my little Charmeleon and like I fell in love with the series then I was like, "this is so cool!" And then I played, the series as they came out. I remember whatever game it was where you could like, put the Pokemon in the daycare. I remember playing that game and like I stuck a Dragonite and a Charizard in the daycare and I was like, "okay, maybe I can make a dragonite with fire on its tail!" Every single time. It was just a Dratini that would pop out and I was like, "oh, no! Okay, okay. I'll get rid of this one maybe this time," and I will like, okay, if I get my Charizard to Level a hundred, then maybe I'll get a flaming Dragonite!" My poor ignorant me was wasted so many hours hatching eggs for no reason
David Hernandezbut that's how it was back in the day, cuz you know, nowadays everything's online. Yeah. We didn't have that back in the day. Like we had rumors between friends and maybe a magazine that usually gave you a bunch of, you know what, that wasn't true. One thing I did, so in gen one, I read this from a magazine, that's why I said magazine. They talked about getting the poke gods and I was like, what's the poke gods?" This is gen one. And they gave you a list of, options to say like, which one's, the way you get to the poke gods.
ShadowPrime34Yeah.
David HernandezAnd one of them was like beat the elite four a hundred times, without healing, with one Pokemon or something like that, I don't remember. And I was like, "well, I've gotta find out what these Pokegods are like, "what are they?" So I used my Alakazam because that was one of my favorite Psychic types at the time. And I didn't make it like, after a while you run out of Elixirs and Ethers and there's no way to get more once you run out.
ShadowPrime34Exactly.
David HernandezOh my gosh. But that's the fun nostalgia. You don't really, I mean, there's probably it nowadays, I'm not that young anymore, we're a little bit older, but I do miss those kind of times where the game was just more simplified, it was a little bit naivety when it came to figuring stuff out like that.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, it was, and then like all those, myths like you were saying, like with friends, like, "oh Mew is under the truck", or like,
David HernandezYes!
ShadowPrime34That little grassy patch in Pallet Town like if you could get back there, you could get a bunch of rare Pokemon.
David HernandezI swear that grass on the east side of Pallet Town is the most famous grass out of the entire region that we never get a chance to explore for whatever reason.
ShadowPrime34A hundred percent. Who knows what's just lurking in that grass and we'll never know.
David HernandezWe never know, it's just left up to the imagination.
ShadowPrime34Yep.
David HernandezSo I gotta ask you, so did you play Pokemon as the generations progressed or did you ever take like a break at some point?
ShadowPrime34So I played all of them up until Black and White and I took a little bit of a break there. And then I got back into it right around I believe X and Y because I saw the Mega evolutions. And then I saw Mega Charizard X and I was like, "oh, welcome back. I'm home." So I played that one and continued to play. I never finished Sun and Moon and I never played Ultra Sun and Moon.
David HernandezSo out of all the Pokemon you've played, do you have any favorite Pokemon specifically or maybe favorites?
ShadowPrime34I'm a huge sucker for fire types. Fire types all day like almost in every single game I've chosen a fire type except for X and Y, which I chose Greninja.
David HernandezWow. You betrayed your fire brethren.
ShadowPrime34Yeah.
David HernandezFor a frog.
ShadowPrime34For a frog, but when Arceus came out, I had to go back to my fire types.
David HernandezIt was really rough for gen three to five, I don't know if you were online, do you remember the memes because we got three straight Fire-Fighting Pokemon.
ShadowPrime34Yep.
David HernandezAnd people thought that was gonna last forever.
ShadowPrime34No more firefighting types, yeah.
David HernandezFor the 89th generation, we have another Fire-Fighting type. It was a time to be alive for be a Pokemon fan in that moment.
ShadowPrime34Exactly. and then they, pulled the fast one on us and gave us a Fire-Dark type with Incineroar.
David HernandezI always thought that should have been a pure fire, in my opinion.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, I agree.
David HernandezFennekin one of my favorite fire types and I really never liked its final evolution.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, that's actually why I chose Greninja. I saw the final evolution. I was like, ah, let's check out water type this go around? It was definitely fun, I enjoyed that piece. For the older games, I'd beat the Elite four and I'm like, "nice, okay. I got all the Pokemon" and I didn't realize that Shiny's were a thing. I saw a shiny, I'm not sure if it's gen three or not, but it was a Dunsparce. I was walking the grass and a shiny Dunsparce popped up and I was like, "oh, well, this clearly means that I get more XP so if I kill it, I'll get double the xp."
David HernandezOh, no,
ShadowPrime34I did And uh, I was like, oh, just the normal amount of xp. What, what's going on? And I was like asking my friends like, "no, dude, that was a shiny," like, what was a shiny?" And, that is the unfortunate experience of how I ran into my first shiny in the main series.
David HernandezSo we transitioned back to Pokemon Go and, you took your break and you came back. You told me that you're not much of the collector between you and, John. Yeah. So like what is your style to play Pokemon Go? Like how do you play?
ShadowPrime34When I started getting into my unrealistic goal setting, I was like, "okay, how is it that these people are catching so many Pokemon?" They've got all these things maxed out. There was a local resident grinder that I ran into, and he was like, you literally just have to catch everything." That's how you get stardust, that's how you get candy, and I was like, "okay, let's do it. So I started doing that and then, the PVP side of things, I remember I was going through my friend's list and someone had a weird pose that I didn't have access to. I was like, "whoa, where'd you get that?" And they were like, "oh, yeah, I, reached legend rank." So I started putting together teams and that's honestly been my drive for PVP ever since. So I'm, the battler as the Roundtable crew. and we're, we're slowly converting John but yeah.
David HernandezHe told me he's more of a collector of the side between y'all two.
ShadowPrime34Yeah cause like he's all about the shiny costumes and I've tried and I cannot care any less for the shiny costumes,
David HernandezWell, we know costumes not your thing. So what is it about pvp? Is it just the pose that you missed out on, or is it something more?
ShadowPrime34I fell in love with it because I started playing it and I got the basic gist and then I started doing my own thing and I would make it to ace rank every season. And I would just plateau from there. And I was like, I want more, I need more, I wanna be better. So through the course of our podcast and like explorations through other things, I fell into the world of like the community of Pokemon Go, which was so much bigger and better than I had imagined. I've learned so much, which has made me a better battler and like made battling that much more fun for me.
David HernandezDo you have like a favorite league you like to participate in or anything like that?
ShadowPrime34It's been rotating with all these like move shakeups that they've been doing as of late. Master League was my favorite, I was building everything for Master league, I wouldn't touch the other two. But then I was working with some people at the B T W podcast and kind of fell in love with Great League. As of right now, I think my favorites probably Great League.
David HernandezSo you're from Denver, Colorado, what is it like playing out there?
ShadowPrime34It's a little sparse.
David HernandezDon't you need D sparse?
ShadowPrime34Ah, yes. I there
David HernandezI had to try for this one.
ShadowPrime34That, was impressive. That's a 10 outta 10 right there.
David HernandezThank you. Chef's kiss. Continue. Continue.
ShadowPrime34That's awesome! But yeah, the closer you get to the foot hills, the Pokestops would get a little bit more spread out. It's okay, we, usually do a lot of our playing in a city called Golden. You got a nice little river, you can walk right there, dip your feet in it if it's super hot. When we're hungry we can hit the little shops right there. If we are feeling the city vibes, we usually go hit downtown Denver on 16 Street Mall.
David HernandezWell, what about during, when it gets a little colder for y'all, do y'all play less or how does that work?
ShadowPrime34So for me, Especially like on my grind sessions, I try to walk around the mall. So that way, like I'm still getting like the movement in and I'm still like hitting like unique stops, but not necessarily having to be out in the snow or where it's less than a negative a billion degrees outside. The winters can be, I think they're just aggravating. So I drive there, do do my laps around the mall, then call it a day.
David HernandezAs we move forward, have you had a chance to go to any past live events by Niantic for Pokemon Go?
ShadowPrime34So the first one that we ever went to was actually this past year in Seattle. It was absolutely incredible. The friends, the spawns, the Pokemon, the Shiny's, and just getting to meet people that I listened to their voice like once a week for like an hour and meeting them in person was super cool. That was probably my favorite part of that experience.
David HernandezAwesome. And do you remember who you met while you were in Seattle?
ShadowPrime34We met the crew from Go Cast, Chris and Kyle. Met Ken Pescatore and Adam Tuttle from, the Lured Up podcast. got to meet, PVPSteve, JTValor, Trainer Tips, so a lot of kind of like big names in the Pokemon Go community that I like to call them the Titans in the Pokemon Go community. Kind of like, wow, I watch your videos", your voice is in my ears for an hour," this is awesome, I'm sitting down having a drink with you, this is great!
David HernandezI saw y'all's photos that y'all posted, on y'alls website and y'all just look genuinely happy. it's not like that, YouTube thumbnail kind of smile, it looks like y'all are generally enjoying yourself at Go Fest and it shows so much through your photos on your website.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, I was fanboying like all weekend. They had a PVP tent, which was awesome. It was like a stadium and as you walk in, they're playing the Pokemon Go Battle music. So you're like, oh,
David HernandezIt was epic!.
ShadowPrime34I feel like it, it was, yeah. You walk in and I was standing in line working on it and I'm like, oh man, I like, I need to figure out my team. And John calls me and he's like, "Hey look JT. That's Caleb Pang." I'm like, "wait, what?" And like, I hopped outta line and I was like, "oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. No. Okay, I need to breathe in out. Okay. 'Hi Caleb. My name's Ja.' Like, it was just like the speediest chief was there. Like I'm battling, I beat my first opponent, waiting for my next opponent, and it's, SimplyGabby and she shout casts for the Pokemon plays. I'm like, this is incredible! So it, it was, it was really cool just to like experience that piece and just meeting so many like big names. So.
David HernandezYour co-host. So he actually told me to ask you about Caleb Peng, which you already shared, but he also told me to ask you about FleeceKing?
ShadowPrime34Yeah. So I was, walking back, I was coming down from the Caleb Peng high, and I was like, "oh my gosh. I met Caleb Ping." I was walking and I saw Lachlan who's part of the Wayspotters podcast with Jamal. So I saw Lachlan. I was like, "oh, hey, Lachlan, good to see you." And I look over at FleeceKing and my brain doesn't process that's FleeceKing. I go back in line then John's like, dude, that's FleeceKing." And I was like, wait a second." And then like the whole loading bar happened in my brain and like ran back over, I was like, "oh my gosh! You're FleeceKing! I'm so sorry, I saw you, recognized you, but it didn't process" and I was like that the entire weekend. They were like, "oh, I'm fanboying so hard right now." "Well it looks like you're controlling yourself." "Well, no, I can hear my blood like, this is great. I'm so excited.
David HernandezThat's how it is like!
ShadowPrime34Yeah.
David HernandezI remember when I first met Trainer Tips and Mystic7, when I went to Chicago in 2017, I was literally like all over the place like, dude, they're right there in front of me.
ShadowPrime34Exactly.
David HernandezAnd they're so chill and everything. It's like hard not to sometimes, especially when you've grown up just seeing 'em on the video or listening through the ears, like you said, like it's surreal when you're real fan of these guys.
ShadowPrime34Yeah. And it's awesome. And they're so cool, they're just like, "Hey, yeah, how's it going?" And it's just like I'm over the moon. Yep. This is it. I'm good.
David HernandezWell that's very good. I'm glad y'all enjoyed Selves during GoFest, but I need to ask you this for the listeners who may be on the fence about going to GoFest, if somebody is on the fence about going to a Go Fest or even a Safari zone, what would you tell them?
ShadowPrime34Absolutely go. Just give it one, shot. When you're talking to people in the discord, like you're sending meme, sending gifts, and doing battles with them, like that's fun, but it's just a name. But you actually get to spend time with that human, we're both catching these imaginary monsters, like it's so much fun, like the connections that we got to make, the laughs, the stories like the itty bitty Airbnb that we were splitting. I honestly thought that was a 15 outta 10 chefs kiss for me, so if anyone is on the fence,
David Hernandezoff the charts.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, absolutely off the charts. If anyone is on the fence, give it a shot, it is definitely worth it. When we walked into Seattle Center Park, the Space Needle, which is actually on earth, not in space.
David HernandezRight. And fascinating. Right? Yeah. It sounds so deceptive.
ShadowPrime34Yeah. But yeah, we walk into the park and like you, you walk in, it's just hundreds of people like in their pogo gear and like all their stuff ready to go and all the chargers, and then you like see this giant jiggly puff and you walk through, you have all the, team tents, like the Valor, Instinct and Mystic, and then like you see a snorlax sleeping, it was just like cool to experience that. I would absolutely recommend it for anyone that's on the fence.
David HernandezSo you're part of the faction for the B.T.W Part Deux or part two.
ShadowPrime34Yeah.
David HernandezHow's your experience in factions been so far? What is your role?
ShadowPrime34So it's a lot of fun. I hadn't really done any faction stuff before, I had been a few months deep into Silph doing the monthly battles. I kept hearing all the news about the factions and I was toying with the thought of starting a Round Table one. And then, the B.T.W, they were like, "Hey, we're gonna make a second one." So I hopped in and honestly I like it as much as regular Silph, but it's like a different version of it because you're going in as a team. So like it was really cool just cuz you can battle with your team and some really good battlers are in the faction as well. So they'd message me, "Hey, let's do some practice." And like we would build my team and then we would face our opponents and like, okay, I know how to handle this because I was practicing with this person" and it was really cool just to put the battle skills that I worked with my other team members to the test and see how well I could fair in battle.
David HernandezNow I need to confirm some rumor that I heard. Ooh, so this is about between you and your co-host. I heard that you're not the best batter between the two.
ShadowPrime34Um, so that's not a rumor, that's a lie.
David HernandezReally? You're calling your co-host to lie on this podcast!
ShadowPrime34Well, he is really good at coming up with some really spicy teams. Pokemon that you don't really expect or they have move sets that completely catch you off guard. I'm pretty decent at running meta teams and knowing how to use those. When it comes to PVP, we're kind of like polar opposites with our battle styles. I knew he was gonna set up a prank in here. I knew it!
David HernandezNo. So he told me that he has, between y'all two, he has the longest win streak.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, that's true. So yeah, that piece is true but yeah, he, I just found,
David HernandezI found the tease for this episode. I'm gonna put that in the tease for people to listen to.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, he does, because what he would do is especially when I was on like my, P V P kicks, like I'm in the thick of it. I would be like fighting for expert rank and he was like, I don't care about pvp. And then as time went on, like we're like a month and a half, two months into the season and he is like, "okay, I'm gonna start my battles now." He would battle all the people that weren't really sure about PVP or not sure certain mechanics and he would just walk through them. So yeah, he got a 32 win streak and I was like, "oh, huh, must be nice."
David HernandezHe said 37.
ShadowPrime34Oh, 37. Yeah. Forgot about, yeah, the extra five Originally it was 32 and he's just like absolutely killing it. I'm like, "Hey, I just broke 13. So yeah, he's, yeah.
David HernandezBut speaking of John, you and John have such good chemistry on your podcast. Whenever I listen to you guys, y'all have such a good chemistry, I think that's why y'all are so interesting to listen to because you can sense that whenever we listen,
ShadowPrime34Yeah.
David HernandezAnd we gotta know the origin story behind how y'all two met. So like how did y'all two meet each other?
ShadowPrime34We went to the same school in our sophomore year, like they put us in like a bigger house, not house, a bigger apartment. And it was just kind of like,
David Hernandezdamn.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, I know, right?
David HernandezI was like a house? Wow. What college did you go to?
ShadowPrime34Must to be nice. All kinds of money.
David HernandezRight.
ShadowPrime34But yeah, they put us in a bigger apartment cuz the freshman had four people to a room and then the sophomores and up had six people to a room. It was much bigger, a lot more spacious and my roommate from freshman year, I was like, "oh, I definitely wanna live with you again, whoever else we get, it's whatever." And we got matched with John. I was saying a pun as we were like moving in and everyone else just kinda looked at me inside and John like chuckled. I was like, Okay, there might be something there, okay, this is good! As we would talk, like he would like say the same puns or I'm about to say a pun, and he beats me to it and I'm just like, oh, okay, this is, yeah, this is good stuff." We became best friends and ever since then.
David HernandezJohn upgraded from a whatever to a lifelong friend, it sounds like.
ShadowPrime34Absolutely. Definitely one of my best friends.
David HernandezY'all eventually moved outside of college, but y'all kept in contact and at some point y'all started a podcast,
ShadowPrime34Right? The old round table. Yeah.
David HernandezThe old round table where the table's not around one, but we believe it is.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, it's square. But that's a, that's insider secret.
David HernandezWell, so what made y'all wanna like start a podcast?
ShadowPrime34One day he was picking me up, because we would go and do Pokemon Days and Community Days and stuff. He picked me up and I opened up the car door and I heard people talking about Pokemon. Before this time last year, if you had have told me anything about podcasts, I was like, "no, I don't want anything to do with podcasts. I don't wanna listen to people talk. Like, no." But I opened up the door and he was listening to Pokemon Go Radio, and they were talking about Pokemon Go and I was like, "wait, this is actually really cool. I love Pokemon Go. this is awesome!" After that kind of like exposure, I was like, I wanna listen to more. So I started listening to them every Sunday and I was like, this is great. I stumbled across, GoCast podcast, started checking them out. And then from there I was like, I need more. I kind of felt like Guzzlord in that sense, where I was like, give me more podcasts. more, more So, um, more, that's exactly it. So I was talking with John, I was like, "wait, what if we did that?" And he was like, "yeah, that, that'd be funny." So I mentioned it to a few people. We were like in an international group chat thing and one of our friends in there, I was like, "Hey, what if we did that? That'd be funny." And she was like, "no. you should absolutely do that, like do it."
David HernandezWow.
ShadowPrime34So we mull over it a couple of months and then I was like, "you know what? Do it, like, let's, let's pull the trigger. Why not? Let's go." So, my wife actually made our logo for us. We took all the steps that we needed to take to get it going. And I was like, John, let's get some names." So we actually went out to dinner and got IHOP cuz you can never go wrong with IHOP but
David HernandezThat's true.
ShadowPrime34Yeah. Just breakfast food for
David Hernandezopen 24 hours, by the way.
ShadowPrime34Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Like Yeah. You get it. Yeah, So we, we went there and he kind of came up with pretty much all the names of our segments. And he was like, "oh, like we can do a peak of the week." And I was like, that's genius. And he was like, studs and duds. And I'm like, that's even genius, sir. Like this is great. So so like we just put together like a rough skeleton of what the show would look like, and we were like, all right, let's do this, The Round Table Chat(ot). And then we did our first episode and "Huey, episode zero is definitely a, Treat So yeah,
David HernandezThere's a reason why it's called Episode Zero.
ShadowPrime34Yeah. Oh yeah. So really rough
David HernandezSo there's a lot to unpack in what you just said, so I'm gonna try to do it piece by piece.
ShadowPrime34Okay.
David HernandezSo you and John, met to talk about a podcast and it sounds like at first you were hesitant about the idea.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, we had just toyed with it and I was like, I'm not sure if he would actually wanna do that, I'm not sure I have the attention span to do that, I don't know.
David HernandezWere y'all just not sure about if y'all were really wanting to do it committed wise or was just more like the jitters of doing it?
ShadowPrime34Yeah, it was just really kind of like committed, but I was also like comparing what we would do compared to like GoCast or B.T.W like all these other podcasts are like established and ready to go. And I was like, I'm not sure if we can do that, but I, I don't know." But people are like, "no, I've seen you guys talk, you guys are both incredibly annoying and super funny. So just talking to a mic and record that."
David HernandezSo y'all eventually decided to do the podcast. At the time y'all were trying to plan the name of the logo. So you said your wife made the logo?
ShadowPrime34My wife is actually a teacher, so she's was like, "oh, I got this. what are you looking for?" And I was like, "okay, let's do like a Pokeball, but it's like a table, and then let's put three chairs at the bottom, so it's like a table." And she like threw it together for us and I was like, "yeah, this is great." And then we just took it and then like played with some colors and everything and we're like, we have a logo, let's do this." I'm super thankful that she did that for us, cuz I was gonna attempt it, but I was like, okay, how am I gonna be like in case like legal stuff, like I don't wanna like copyright infringement and all that good stuff. She saw me struggling and stepped in.
David HernandezHow did y'all decide the Round Table Chat(ot)? Did y'all have different names by chance y'all were considering it all?
ShadowPrime34John is like, the naming like guru. He is so good at it. And I was like, right. And we called each other huge. I was like, right, huge. come up with names. So he would just like shotgun names at me throughout the day and I would like Google them to see if they already were podcasts. We were looking at like the meta podcast and that one was taken, and he came up with a bunch of 'em. I'm like, ah, that one's already, a YouTube series. Like this is that, this is that. And finally he sent the Round Table Chat(ot) and I was like, "oh, I really like that actually." So then we were playing with our slogans and as we evolved, we were like, "yes, let's do the Round Table Chat(ot), this is it.
David HernandezSo now we're at the point to where, you know, y'all released. Yeah, I've already done episode zero. You know, you did it on the iPad. Do you remember how your very official first episode went?
ShadowPrime34Oh, it was, it. Whoa. It was super rough, I was super nervous cause, I was like, "okay, people are gonna listen to this." I'm tripping over my words and I was like stuttering over myself and I was like, what are my opinions?" So it was a lot of nerves, like with like first time anything right? We sound like we recorded this inside of a gymnasium using tomato soup cans. So we definitely got things cleaned up a lot
David HernandezAnd then one of my favorite recent segments y'all are doing, it's the color thing y'all are doing. What is it called? Do you remember?
ShadowPrime34A Rating Rainbow!
David HernandezRating Rainbow. Another one right there. I need to tell you this directly like your voice literally sounds like the guy who used to do the original Poke Rap.
ShadowPrime34Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah the, come on back for the Poke Rap.
David HernandezElectrode, Diglett, Nidoran, Mankey, Venusaur, Rattata, Fearow, Pidgey, Seaking, Jolteon, Dragonite, Gastly, Ponyta, Vaporeon, Poliwrath, Butterfree!
ShadowPrime34That's awesome! Oh, that's amazing! You just gave me hardcore nostalgia vibes and, oh, that, that feels good.
David HernandezI prepared that on the side. I was like, I gotta do this when he does it. So it was perfect.
ShadowPrime34Well, good. Come on next week for the next part of the Poke Rap!
David HernandezGotta catch em all. Gotta catch em all, all, all.
ShadowPrime34Oh man,, so good.
David HernandezIt is. They tried to do. Yeah, I just wanted to throw that. I was hoping to get you to do that so that way I could throw it on you.
ShadowPrime34Oh yeah. It, I'm smiling ear to ear right now. This is great. Oh, that was awesome.
David HernandezThat's the highlight of the night for sure.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, definitely!
David HernandezSo, so, you talked about how you already had the name started, y'all already had Episode Zero passed out, You eventually, apparently created a room to record. Is that true?
ShadowPrime34Oh, yeah, Yep. our studio is a room in John's basement. He had an extra room and he's like, "we just record here, come over." We got our equipment, we got things, the table set up and it was like a table that was about a foot off the ground. So we're both sitting in chairs that just kinda like leaned forward talking to the iPad. And after that episode we're like, "okay, we need to get mics and stuff." We got a pod track, we got our mics, and everything, and headphones, and it started to evolve a little bit better than we put some soundproofing up as like episodes went on. So now we're, semi-professional
David HernandezYeah. And I think y'all are the only podcasts. Well, I can't say that, y'all are one of the few podcasts who, both people are in the same room together.
ShadowPrime34Yeah.
David HernandezI'm sure that probably helps in regards to just both the creative prize and also just being able to produce the podcast. Right?
ShadowPrime34Yeah. It's, really nice because lots of times we don't type out what we're gonna say typically, we just kind of like, whatever my brain says. I'm just gonna say it."
David HernandezWait, y'all don't have anything written ahead of time When y'all produce these episodes?
ShadowPrime34Not too much. We have like bare bones, so we'll do like, we need to do studs and duds" and like make sure we talk about the news or I'll congratulate the winner of this tournament, but we'll do basic bullet points and we just fill everything else in with our brain words.
David HernandezIncredible! Like I have to plan my episodes out and I have to detail a little bit what I'm saying like I said, I'm not good at puns. I have to usually look up stuff and try to figure things out, but the fact that you're telling me that it's bare bones to where y'all have a list of topics, but all the interactions you'll have between each other, it's not planned, it's just remarkable.
ShadowPrime34Yeah. It's, definitely a lot of fun and that's typically about 90% of our conversation like every day. It's just like we're talking and then he'll say a pun and I'm like, it's so bad and I just like collapse on the ground. And I was like, I'm just gonna lay here for a second.
David HernandezI need to recover from the pun.
ShadowPrime34Yeah. I'll say one. And it's so bad. And he's like, get outta my house.
David HernandezHelp. I fallen and I can't get up.
ShadowPrime34Exactly. yeah, that's, that's a lot of our, our, our pun world.
David HernandezSo my last question in regards to just the podcast in general, if somebody had any interest in starting a podcast, what would you tell them?
ShadowPrime34So I would absolutely say just do it because like especially with ours, we noodled on it, I think it was the end of October. We were like, we could totally start a podcast and we just sat and just were on the fence and we were like, you know what? Let's just do it. That's the only way it's gonna happen. If we don't like take a step, it's not gonna happen. I know a lot of people are like, "I want this like beautiful, crisp product, right away," Like, you learn from mistakes, you learn from messing up, trial by fire, trial by error. So it is just like a lot of like, okay, what is the next thing I can do right now? Some of the advice that, Wildcat from B.T.W. actually gave me was, lots of times he forgets that they're even talking to people. I'm like, yeah, just talk about the thing that you love and like your enjoyment will bring people in. And I was like, okay, I'm not too worried about numbers, but this is good, like, just talking about those imaginary monsters that we catch every Community Day and get the poke ball plus in catching those. So just, just do it, and have fun while you do it, that's what I would say.
David HernandezI don't know about imaginary but this Pikachu next to me is real. Okay.
ShadowPrime34Hey, sometimes you just gotta, catch real Pikachu
David HernandezSo we got one last question, the el finale, the, I don't know what else. The cherry on top.
ShadowPrime34Yeah.
David HernandezSo with everything that's going on from when you started Pokemon Go in 2016 to going to go fest to doing stuff with John, with the podcast. In your opinion, what has been your greatest accomplishment when it comes to Pokemon Go?
ShadowPrime34Ooh, that is a good question. So I would say the fact that we, took the chance and made a podcast. and that we stuck with it cause knowing me sometimes I'm just like, oh, okay, I'm done with this. Moving on." But this one we set aside Tuesday nights, we get together, we record. Wednesday, I edit, and then Thursday we release and it's been that like pretty consistent schedule, which has been nice for me cuz sometimes I'm all over the place. Before I used to be like, "oh yeah, I play Pokemon Go." Now. I'm just like, "yeah, I play Pokemon Go, I have the Pokemon Go podcast." And people are like, "what?" Like I used to kind of be like, I'm keep that under wraps." But now I'm just like, "oh yeah, yeah. I play Pokemon. Check it out, check out my podcast."
David HernandezWell, very cool. Jt, thank you for coming on the show. Before you do go, if people want to check out your podcast or anything, how can they contact you, please plug away.
ShadowPrime34Absolutely. So be sure to follow us on Twitter @RTChatot. You can also go to our crisp new website. That's one of the new crisps in Hollywood Crisp new website.
David HernandezCrisp with a K, by the way.
ShadowPrime34Yeah, crisp new website. So that is actually roundtablechatot.com. We have a bunch of competitions and tournaments going on right now, so you can win some RTC swag. We also have our Discord link, which is absolutely free, so if anyone is interested, just come on in. Great place with even better people. We also have our email if you just wanna do some, good old fashioned email, rtchatot@gmail.com. And then I believe that's just about it.
David HernandezI'll make sure to include all links to the Discord, website, and Twitter in the description notes for today's episode.
Thank You For Listening! :)
David HernandezThank you for listening to another episode of As The Pokeball Turns. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your podcast streamer of choice. If you wanna support the show, consider becoming a Patreon by going to patreon.com/asthepokeballturns turns, or by sharing the podcast with your friends and family. 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! On the next episode of Trainer's Eyes.
