"Community Became Electivire’s Motor Drive" ft SaiyaRan | TRAINER'S EYE #190

SaiyaRan 0:00

My name is SaiyaRan and this is my Pokemon story

David Hernandez 0:41

Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where every trainer has a story. I'm David Hernandez, and I'm joined by SaiyaRan, here to save my tech issues one issue at a time. SaiyaRan, welcome to As the Pokeball Turns. How are you doing?

SaiyaRan 0:55

Hey, man. Hey, hey. I'm happy to be here. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me

David Hernandez 0:59

Absolutely. Absolutely. And SaiyaRan, you know, you have such a unique journey because you also went outside the Pokemon space, we call it the gaming sphere, so you will. And you've also had the privilege of being the Pokemon Worlds, the DreamHack convention, Twitch streams, everything. I wanna start with this question: What's the one moment that comes to mind that makes you think, "Yep, this is why I love this gaming community"?

SaiyaRan 1:20

Oh man, that's a great question. I'd have to say specifically, when I was at DreamCon and I did a TCG night with another creator named Miss Jordy. And so we did a TCG night and it was great. We had a lot of people there. We had a, we had a much bigger turnout than we thought we would. we gave away Pokemon cards. We gave away One Piece. We gave away everything. People brought cards to donate just to give to the community. And it was a moment where I just stopped and looked and I said, "Wow, these people came out here because they have a love for this one particular thing." But that, that piece of cardboard was the connector. It wasn't necessarily the actual... It wasn't the reason they were there, really. They were there because of the community. And so the Cards in Community TCG night was like, like I got home after DreamCon, like the days after. This is like, this was on Friday. I got home Sunday and I boo-hoo, I bawled my eyes out. I was crying 'cause I was like, "Wow, I got to tell people that they mattered, and the thing they cared about mattered because we were connected through this piece of cardboard, this thing." And, and I like TCG. I'm not a huge TCG guy, so I felt kinda like a fraud almost, like I was like tricking them to to come hang out. but I wanted the community. I wanted the community to come out and know that, you know, despite it being maybe it was an anime convention or whatever convention, whatever we were doing at the time, they still matter, their interests matter, and I wanted to be the person telling them they matter. So it was great. That was the moment I was like, "Man, this, I, I love this, and I need to grow and be bigger and do better so I can do more and reach more people."

David Hernandez 2:39

I mean, just hearing that, it sounds like you were easily overwhelmed to emotions, you know, afterwards, but you didn't even expect that many people. It must have been humbling just to think that, you were able to kinda create this experience for the community, don't you think so?

SaiyaRan 2:54

Yeah, it was humbling. It was, it was something that I don't take for granted. And, and I, as I saw people, 'cause again, this was on Friday, this was the first like, well, day two, whatever, the first official day of the convention, you can think of it like that. And to see these people later on and remember my face and talk to me and then thank me again, like, "Hey, that really, that was such an amazing time. You know, that hour and a half we had in program room six, that mattered so much." And, I don't know, man, it w- it was just, it was truly humbling, and I, I never wanna take that for granted. And so it motivated me to just be better and lead by example better to make sure that I could care more about people

David Hernandez 3:25

And I think that says a lot about who you are because, you know, as I was researching you before I inv- sent you the invite, you know, I was looking through your content and the one thing that always kept over again is people or community. You know, one of the two words. And I kinda wanna go back to the beginning of before you became, you know, who you are today, before the events, before the content. Where does the root start when it comes to Pokemon for SaiyaRan?

SaiyaRan 3:45

So Pokemon started for me when I was just a young kid. I was probably three, four. but I was playing Pokemon Yellow, and so that was the first Pokemon game I actually played, that I remember playing. I'm sure I played Red and Blue, but my brother was, my brother is seven years older than me, so to him, these are, like, really cool games on the Game Boy, you know. And so, but to me, I was like a dumb kid playing around. I couldn't even read the, I couldn't even read the text. In fact, the only way I knew what moves were what was because of the anime, and I would hear Ash say, "Tackle attack." So I was like, "That must be a really good, that must be a really good move," and I would keep tackling all my Pokemon. And it wasn't until I was older and I understood, like, base power and things like that, where I was like, "Oh, this move actually stinks." Um, but but, but, I, I always attribute my love to Pokemon to my brother and feeling, feeling connected to my brother, and him opening my world. Like, a lot of the game franchise, there's only, like, maybe one or two franchises that I like that he don- Like, I like Zelda. I love Zelda. I have a Zelda tattoo. That means a lot to me because my brother doesn't care about Zelda.

David Hernandez 4:44

Wow. Okay

SaiyaRan 4:46

but Mario is huge for me because of my brother. Pokemon's huge for me 'cause my brother. Donkey Kong, so a lot of Nintendo franchises and Sony franchises are huge to me because of my older brother. but Pokemon is one of the ones that, like, he introduced me to that. He showed me Pokemon. I learned how to read by playing Pokemon. Like, that had, that was such a huge foundation of my life

David Hernandez 5:03

You mentioned how your brother's such a huge, I'll say catalyst for this journey. In what ways did y'all, connect with Pokemon? Like did y'all play the games together? Would y'all battle? Like what did that look like, you know, in those early days and even growing up?

SaiyaRan 5:15

So I was the dumb little brother, so I would always just like sneak his Game Boy and try to play, and eventually Game Boy Advance came, or Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, other Game Boys came out, so I would get some of his hand-me-downs. And so, I remem- I remember how I would have to, kinda, 'cause I couldn't read, you know, f- really fully, so I didn't really know where to go in the game. So a lotta, a lot of the, a lot of the games I beat, my early days of Pokemon, I beat by muscle memory. Like I know, I know, Mount Move cave, cave because, or not Mount Moon cave, the one after Mount Moon. I know the cave, but you need Flash because I just stumbled into the wall so many times that I learned the pattern. but I remember, you know, I would get stuck. My brother would help me with this battle. He would help me with this Pokemon, or I want to complete the Pokedex. Like, I didn't complete a Pokedex by myself until Gen Four, and that's why Gen Four is probably my favorite gen, because that was the first time that I, by myself, completed a Pokedex, and I didn't need my brother's help, 'cause he was, he was into girls, and he was, he was getting into trouble. He was doing all that stuff.

David Hernandez 6:08

Dude, I feel you so much. It's the Rock Tunnel, I believe is what it's called, to

SaiyaRan 6:12

Rock Tunnel, yeah.

David Hernandez 6:13

Navigate without eyes, 'cause I was too stubborn. I didn't wanna teach any of my Pokemon Flash, especially during Gen 1.

SaiyaRan 6:17

Definitely not. Nah.

David Hernandez 6:19

I'm just gonna figure it out and just kinda go blindly," and that way you can see a little bit, but I understand. Definitely respect that kind of tenacity you had

SaiyaRan 6:25

Yeah. also I remember something silly. I used to call it MT Moon, and my brother was like, "No dummy, it's Mount Moon. It's a mountain." And I was like, "How was I supposed to know? I just see MT dot, and I know that word means moon." And so it's just, it's just like really funny random things that come, come to mind. especially with the anime because we would watch the anime together. Dragon Ball Z is another thing. I love Dragon Ball Z. That's where my name comes from, Saiyan Ran, the great Saiyan man, but I'm the great Saiyan Ran. And so, even that comes from my brother. So my brother is a huge part of, part of my life and like my, my nerd, my nerd culture, my anime, my gaming, all that stuff

David Hernandez 6:57

You mentioned how Gen 4 was your favorite region,

SaiyaRan 7:00

Yeah.

David Hernandez 7:01

Pokedex. Like, what is it about Gen 4 that sticks out to you? Like, what do you remember about playing Diamond, Pearl, Platinum specifically?

SaiyaRan 7:06

So outside of playing the actual games, I'll say this first, that was the first video game I ever, like, saved up money. Like, I was like, coins. I remember I had like 34, 3456 or something like that in coins. I dumped it to the coin machine, and I looked at my mom and was like, "Please, please, I, I really wanna play Pokemon Diamond. Please, please." She was like, "I, I'll help you with the rest." She didn't even know I was doing it, you

David Hernandez 7:28

Oh,

SaiyaRan 7:28

And so, that's, that's like a core memory of me, like, my love for games and, and what I wanted to do and how I wanted to, to connect with games. And so the reason I love Gen 4 is because of that, but also Electivire is my favorite Pokemon. I think it was cool how Gen 4 gave so many Pokemon, like, extra evolutionary levels like Magnezone, Electivire. it w- it was just really cool seeing those Pokemon get those extras, and I really like that mechanic, I guess, I guess you call it mechanic or, or that gimmick, I guess. I really like that about Gen 4 and, and it's still exciting today when we see, like Farigiraf. Farigiraf is, is a really-- It's probably one of my favorite Gen 9 Pokemon. One, it's annoying just to competitively. but also it's, it's so cool because Girafarig was a Pokemon that was like, eh, and then now you have Farigiraf and it's, like, ready to turn up and ready to, to-- So I think it's cool when they add more Pokemon or they kinda do a callback from when things when I was a kid, because, I mean, me and Pokemon are the same age. We're, we're 30. You know, you're, when you're calling back on Gen 2, it's like, "I remember Gen 2."

David Hernandez 8:30

Yep, I always feel old when people say, Gen 4 was their first game. They were playing it at three years old. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, you are so young right now."

SaiyaRan 8:37

That's crazy

David Hernandez 8:38

But I love how you said like... It, it's true though, because Game Freak does bring back prior Pokemon. You, like you said, Girafarig was a perfect example. Who remembered Girafarig before that, before it got its evolution? It, I for sure forgot all about it, and I love when Pokemon kind of brings it back. I loved how they did Corsola. I love the story behind that one to where

SaiyaRan 8:56

Oh, yeah

David Hernandez 8:57

you know, it has a very deep story for those who know, and just all the other stuff. You think of Sirfetch'd. Farfetch'd was so useless for the longest time. We've been begging for evolution, now we get Sirfetch'd

SaiyaRan 9:06

Yeah, no, that's, that's-- I think Sirfetch'd was really cool. a- again, back to Farigiraf just being one of, like a meta threat. when you look at, when you look at so-- There's so many Pokemon that, like, need extra love, and then they, they did it with the Megas too, just giving, giving these Pokemon Megas. Like Barbonacle, like why?

David Hernandez 9:22

I know,

SaiyaRan 9:23

He needs a Mega? Like what? but then we got some, some, some Pokemon that still need stuff, like Flygon. We, we gotta, we gotta show love to Flygon, man.

David Hernandez 9:31

Flygon.

SaiyaRan 9:33

but I, I do like that they do that because what it does is it ties people like me who've been playing the games forever, it ties us. Like, I don't feel as attached, and I know people say this all the time, I don't feel as attached to specific-- like the starters of Gen 9. I don't feel so attached to, you know, Fuecoco like other people do. I love Quaxly, that was my starter, but I don't feel so attached to Fuecoco. But I feel this really weird strong attachment to, Farigiraf because it reminds me of Girafarig and that's, you know, that's that nostalgia. So I, I think that, that Game Freak has a really good balance of kinda, I don't wanna call it nostalgia bait, but it kinda is like nostalgia baiting you and, and kinda getting the people who are my age who are, who remember these Pokemon and grew up with them and maybe had them on their team years ago and now they're on their team now. and also you have these new people, like my kids love Fuecoco, and I'm just like, "All right, cool. Fire croc, whatever, yo."

David Hernandez 10:21

Now you mentioned at the time how you were getting interested in gaming and you were just very diving into the nerd culture and everything. Did you have ideas of becoming a content creator at that point, or was it still a little further down the road?

SaiyaRan 10:33

Never ever did I imagine I would actually make content. The most I had done, like, in college when I would go on trips, I would do, like, a little, like, funny travel vlog or, like, I'll just put, like, a track behind it. Like, I'll put, like, a Drake song behind... I went to Toronto, I put West and Roll Flows on it, and then I did, like, this little movie and showed it to my friends. They thought it was dope. Like, that was the most. So I learned how to edit, like, in college.

David Hernandez 10:50

Mm-hmm.

SaiyaRan 10:51

I learned the basics of cuts and timing and, and this and that in college. And so when I started to really create, it was really kind of going back to people and community. It was... I didn't have people to talk to about these games. I had, like, pre- or... The PS5, I saw the PreS5, PS5, I think, let, let me go back. I think it was the Spawncast, some of you have heard of that podcast. They had, they were doing the episodes and I was like, "This is pretty interesting," gaming guy. I was watching Spawn Wave talk about gaming news. PS5 pre-orders went up. I was at work down the street from a GameStop. I said, "Let me just leave work and go pre-order it." I left work, pre-ordered it. I didn't think it was that big of a deal 'cause people were like, "I can't get one. How'd you get one?" I was like, "I walked in the store." So, so I was... I had PS5, I had Call of Duty, I had Spider-Man. Played Spider-Man, had some friends over, and I was playing Spider-Man, Miles Morales, I believe it was, and all my friends were like, "Are you watching a movie or are you playing a game?" I was like, "I'm playing... This is a video game." They're like, "What?" And so it was crazy because I didn't have anybody. Like, my best friend in the world, he plays on PC, so he couldn't play Spider-Man. He, he was playing League of Legends. Ew. So he couldn't, he couldn't talk to me about those games. And so I was like, "Well, I wanna talk to somebody about it," so I started talking to the camera. And so that's how content creation happened for me in this particular sphere. but yeah, I think it's interesting where just having this, thing in your heart that you wanna talk about, that you really enjoy, can really take you

David Hernandez 12:06

I think that's the best part of how content's evolved that gets kinda overlooked. You know, I think about myself, you know, when I was into gen three, I was a Pokemanic. I'm still honestly a Pokemanic. But I was really into it, but a lot of my friends were into Halo, Call of Duty, first person shooter games. I didn't care about that. But the best way to be able to connect with people was over, and still is honestly sometimes, over the internet. And it's kinda cool to see, like now you can kinda be that voice and people can kinda connect with your views and what you think about the games. Do you ever kinda feel that connection with other people?

SaiyaRan 12:33

Oh, absolutely. And I have this mantra in my head is, community over keyboards. Like, there is a community over the keyboard that you develop, but also when y- when I go to these cons, I'm in these conventions and I'm meeting people for the first time face-to-face, and I'm looking them in their eyes and we're talking about this favorite game or we're talking about this random, you know, moment in VGC they remember. We were talking about, you know, Astro Bot on the PS5 because we're the only two people in the entire room who've played it because we both also play games that aren't Pokemon, you know? So, I think it's super important and it's very magical when you can talk to someone about this shared experience and you don't know anything else about them. There are people I've met who they're from the other side of the world or other side of, the country but we have this one thing in common, whether it's Pokemon or it's games or it's fashion or it's music or whatever it is, and now we have this connection and when I see them, I love them. It's like, "Oh my God, that's my guy," or, "That's my girl," you know? I think that's so, that's the most magical thing about gaming and the internet, and there's some weird and toxic things about it, but when we kind of bring it back to what it's all about, it is about, hey, this is, this is a connection because we have this shared interest.

David Hernandez 13:34

Now I know, Diamond and Pearl was your favorite generation. What did you think about the remakes? I gotta get your opinion on that. Like, do you like them? Do you hate them? Did you kinda loathe them? where does SaiyaRan fall into that?

SaiyaRan 13:44

I was indifferent. so the art style was something I did not care about. I know people didn't like the art style. I didn't care about it. I thought it was a really interesting way to kinda bring what... When you think about Diamond and Pearl, they weren't pixel art, you know? They kinda were these more smooth, characters, but also they were still on a, you know, not that powerful of a device being the DS, so they couldn't have these full, you know, full models. So when you bring that to modern times, I was like, "Okay, cool. That makes sense. I get why they look chibi." And then when it transitions to a battle, they're like full size. I get that. I'm not hating on that. The things that annoyed me about Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl was that they did not bring in the Platinum things, 'cause Platinum is what I like loved. Platinum was the reason I loved Gen Four, 'cause Platinum was like going to the Distortion World and finding Giratina like that was mind-blowing to me. And so they didn't do that. Okay, whatever. You're not, you're not gonna do Distortion World. Okay. Make it a mystery event or something. Do something, you know, because that's such a cool concept. Didn't do that. the Pokedex was still lacking. The Underground was cool. it wasn't as strong as I would've liked for it to be. there are a lot of things I appreciated about it, and I played it, but like after the Elite Four, I was like, "I'm not playing this anymore." And I never not, like, play a Pokemon game. Like, I, I play them because it, it just makes sense. I, I put it down. I think I still have my save on my Switch 2, and I'm just like, "Mm, yeah. All right." I remember playing Gen 4 for the first time and talking to every NPC and just like s- being so excited to play a Pokemon game. And when I played Brilliant Diamond, Shining Pearl, after maybe the second gym badge, I was like, "Uh, something about this, something about this is off." And the horrible part is that we got ORAS and so like I love Gen 3 as well, but we got ORAS and so now we have like Gen 3 which is peak and then you have ORAS which is peak and then it's like for us Gen 4 we're like, "All right man we s- I guess we got Legends Arceus." Like

David Hernandez 15:36

I mean,

SaiyaRan 15:36

I guess that's how...

David Hernandez 15:37

Legend Arceus, heck.

SaiyaRan 15:38

Yeah, that's how pieces are just falling, you know?

David Hernandez 15:41

Well, you know, as you, the games progress, you know, you talk about Legends Arceus. We got Pokemon ZA now at this point of this recording. You got Pokemon Champions. How do you think your relationship with Pokemon has evolved with these newer games compared to the old ones?

SaiyaRan 15:53

So originally I was really only into the video games, not competitive, but the video games. And so as a kid, going back to my brother, he collected cards, but I wasn't allowed to touch his cards because that was the one thing he was like, "Nah." 'Cause he had like, he had like holos, he had like Japanese cards, like he traded them on, you know, at school. So he had like really, really nice cards.

David Hernandez 16:12

a shadowless

SaiyaRan 16:13

I remember this...

David Hernandez 16:13

a rich man, I'll say that much right

SaiyaRan 16:15

Ah, I don't think he has that.

David Hernandez 16:17

okay, I had to, I had to just throw that out there, you know?

SaiyaRan 16:22

and, and so I never really got into the TCG. I think my big introductory to TCG was TCG Pocket, 'cause I was like, "Okay, I really enjoy Pocket." And so that kind of grew me from playing, you know, games on my Switch to now I'm playing games on my phone for Pokemon. And then, you know, you had these mini games come out. You had like, you know, Sleep or Unite or, Pokemon Duel. I did, I play a lot of mo- mobile games. Pokemon Duel was one of my favorite Pokemon games. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. it's a very unique game. it's kinda gotcha, but they have, they have this really strategic way you play the match. You're trying to get to the center. Every Pokemon has like combat points and, you know, if you're a five and you beat the two, you have three left and you're still trying to get to the middle, so if they have a four, they beat your three. It's very strategic. It's, it's, it's kind of like a board game. Pokemon Masters EX, there's just so many games that I just began to like be more open to aside from traditional, you know, the, the traditional video games. And so as my relationship with Pokemon grew, I began to love all facets of Pokemon to where it's like, "Okay, well, I do like the cards. Oh, I, I do like, Unite. I do like these other areas of the, of Pokemon because I love Pokemon." And unfortunately, I am biased, if you, if it's a game but you like put Pokemon in, I'm like, "I'll give it a try."

David Hernandez 17:37

I mean, that's how I feel with, Pokemon, TCG Pocket especially.

SaiyaRan 17:40

Mm-hmm.

David Hernandez 17:41

learned to kinda just love that game, and I'm not even a serious battler, I'll be honest. I'm more of just the, I like opening the packs. I don't know what this is. Every morning we'll open, I'll open the pack in the morning, and then at the night I save with my girlfriend, and we open it together. And then I also do the, I'm drawing a blank on what it's called, but the one where you pick the random card. I'm trying to remember what it's called.

SaiyaRan 18:00

Oh, the, Wondershare? Wonderpik, Wonderpik, Wonderpik, yeah

David Hernandez 18:01

So the Wondershare, I'll... Wonder Pick, thank you. The Wonder Pick, I'll, we'll do that every night, and I have her pick the card, and then she

SaiyaRan 18:07

Yeah

David Hernandez 18:08

pick hers. And it creates this kind of ritual that's around Pokemon that people kind of underestimate, especially when it comes to mobile gaming. Don't even get me started on Pokemon Masters EX. Like, I've loved that game. Don't play it as much as I should, but I just love the story behind it and how much more depth they go with the characters

SaiyaRan 18:21

Yeah, it has voice acting, which is insane.

David Hernandez 18:23

Mm-hmm

SaiyaRan 18:24

so, I think Pokemon Masters EX came out, like, right after Pokemon Duel, and after that one, that game shut down or whatever. And so I was like, "All right, cool, another Pokemon game." And, and so there was a gap in my Pokemon journey.

David Hernandez 18:35

Mm-hmm.

SaiyaRan 18:35

Gen 4, for some reason, I don't know where my brain was or what I was doing with life, but I didn't play Gen 5, Gen 6, or Gen 7. So I skipped those three. I've replayed them now, but I re- I skipped those and then I came back with, So I remember I went to a GameStop and they had Pokken Tournament, Pokken Tournament on the Wii U, and I said, "This game is awesome." And this is probably during COVID. I was like, "Man, I really wanna play that, that Pokemon fighting game. Where, what is it?" 'Cause I love fighting games. I went and I bought a Switch and I bought Pokken Tournament, E- DX, whatever, the deluxe or whatever, and I played it on my Switch. And I was like, "Man." And then, I was working with a fr- with a old friend. We were, we were coworkers, and I said, "Yeah, I've been playing Pokken Tournament DX." He said, "Have you tried Sword and Shield?" I was like, "What?" Bought Sword and Shield. Had me back. They had a DLC. I'm playing ladder. I'm like, "They got me. I'm back, I'm back, I'm back." And then when Gen, when Gen 9 came out, I was like, "Yeah, it's gonna be a whole thing. We're about to, we're about to turn up with this." Yeah, it was great

David Hernandez 19:31

What was it about Sword and Shield that kind of brought you back? 'Cause like what is it about that generation that you

SaiyaRan 19:37

So because my, my point of reference was Gen 4 for a traditional video game and mobile games, those are my two points of reference. So going from that, and that's the thing that people really don't understand about Pokemon, how Pokemon to the Pokemon community makes gradual incremental increases of quality that if you, if you play other games, you might not be able to recognize that way. But for me, going from playing Showdown, so that's a browser, playing, playing the mobile games, and playing Gen 4 years and years and years ago to now I'm playing Gen 8 and the character's in full D. The wor- I can walk around this little open zone area. I can see Pokemon in the open. Like that was, that was like, "Oh crap, this is what I've always wanted in a Pokemon game." And so I think Cinderace or Scorbunny. Scorbunny's my first starter 'cause I pl- I play multiple. So I think Scorbunny's my first starter 'cause if I don't know, I just default to fire just like everybody else. so I had Scorbunny and me and my Scorbunny tore that game up. I had a Corviknight. Corviknight's one of my favorite Gen, Gen 8.

David Hernandez 20:39

I love

SaiyaRan 20:40

I had a Toxtricity. Tox- Toxtricity is so cool. Late game, I got a Dragapult, and I- Dragapult and I said, "That's my guy." Dragapult was pew, pew, pew. Dragon dart and everything, man. Zacian, Zacian was cool, but I, I, it was, it was really those four. And I, I remember thinking, "I don't like the shared EXP," because I was used to kind of like grinding every Pokemon individually. That was kind of what my mindset was. But now, as a person with like a job and things to do and videos to like, yeah, give me the, give me the shared experience. Yeah, my God. but Gen 4 just brought me back and there were so many cool things and even the things that may bother people like, "Oh, there's no voice act." I wasn't thinking that when I was playing Gen 8 because I was just happy to be back into the magical world of Pokemon. So Gen 8 brought me back and reintroduced me to this thing I really loved. Like I still remember type interactions and I was like, "What's this fairy type?" And I learned those interactions and things like that. And so it, it was, it was really cool, playing that and, and Gen 8 just... Gen 8 was a really good introductory, especially with it being on the Switch.

David Hernandez 21:45

You know, I will relate to you on that experience for all. I know that it's very, hot topic, but I actually like it. I played Leaf Green when, you know, it came on the download for the Switch, and you know, of course you're going back to the old school grinding and I'm like, "I don't got the time to grind these Pokemon as I used to. I've got too much

SaiyaRan 22:01

No

David Hernandez 22:02

or too much stuff to do." You know, I do a podcast and I do a lot of stuff out of this. So for us adults it works. don't like

SaiyaRan 22:10

definitely

David Hernandez 22:10

That's all I'm gonna say on that

SaiyaRan 22:13

So I had, played through Fire or yeah, Fi- FireRed. Yeah, I played through FireRed as a bug-type, trainer, so I only had bug types, and I went through the entire game. And towards, when I got to, the end of the game, I was like, "All right. I am 12, 14 levels under level. Do I want to go grind?" And I spent, like, two hours grinding. I said, "No, I'm just gonna keep trying till I, till I beat the Elite Four. I can do it." I went, I forgot, I hopped on, I forgot who was my flying Pokemon. I hopped on that guy and went back to the league, and I said, "We're just gonna try this." And it took, took me about 14 tries, but, but my Scyther, man, I hit, I hit, I hit, four Double Teams, four Swords Dance, and swept.

David Hernandez 22:50

Well, that's something I was actually wondering, 'cause I noticed that and you also did a bug ranking to get to masters. What was it about

SaiyaRan 22:56

Yes

David Hernandez 22:57

that made you choose that? Was there a reason behind it or just

SaiyaRan 23:01

Honestly, I thought that would be the biggest challenge because bug types are so bad, but I actually ended up loving them so much. Like, it's kind of become my thing. And so I had always said, because, you know, these ports were rumored for years back on the original Switch, you know. th- these, these ports were rumored. So I told myself, and I had said, I was like, "If they, if they ever bring FireRed/LeafGreen, I will just do a bug type run," because I think it'd just be... I mean, it's Gen 3, you got the old rules. The, the bug types in that gen stink. Like Pinsir doesn't even learn, learn a bug type move with that crazy attack stat. and so it was like, all right, I'll do that. I think that'll be really fun, like piece of content. And so I had always said it for years, and then they did it, and I was like, "It's time." And I, I streamed it every day, and then I would, after I got off stream, I would clip the whole thing, like the whole, the matches and everything. I would clip all these pieces, and it created this really unique story of me trying to beat this game with bug types using these older mechanics that I knew as a kid, and I knew the interactions as a kid. Like, I knew that all normal type moves were physical, so I could put Hyper Beam on my, on my Scyther, and it was just gonna obliterate because I had, you know, two Swords Dances set up. so yeah, it just was a random thing I had thought of one day and, and it quickly became my thing. And then when I did the, to, to, to master Master Ball in, Pokemon Champions, that was so tough. I almost gave up on that one. It was literally 24 hours left in the s- in the season, and I got it with like 12 hours left. I was, I was struggling.

David Hernandez 24:28

Mm-hmm.

SaiyaRan 24:28

my... Th- 'cause it's just Rock Slides and Zard. That's all I was going up against. And I was like, "Man, I can't, I can't, I can't do this. This is so hard." But I got there and, and I, I love that team. That team is like forever s- cemented as like an amazing team. But I was, I was in this seat right here sweating, and I was like, "There's no way. I'm gonna fail." And I was like, "I can't fail. I can't give up."

David Hernandez 24:51

Well, you mentioned how, you know, you make clips and content out of this. Of course, you started your content creation around late 2020 after the pandemic. You started to find people who were interested in what you were doing. I wanted to know, like, since starting content creation then to now, what have you learned most about yourself?

SaiyaRan 25:06

That's interesting. I learned that I am a perfectionist and I am ambitiously lazy. so I'm perfectionist in a sense that I was watching people like Bob Wolf, some people that I'm, I'm able to shake their hand if I see them in real life because we've been able to be in the s- I've been able to be in the same rooms as them. people like Bob Wolf who has these very intentional videos with these intentional shots and things like that, and you never see a frame extra or a frame less of what you need to see. And so that was like my standard and I was like, "I'm gonna do it perfect." And then I got to a point where life just got busier. became a full-time dad taking care of my boys, back in office and so I'm like, man, I only really have a solid three to four hours every night to like lock in. Like can I really afford to be a perfectionist or can I just put out quality every single chance I'm able to? And so I had to change that mindset and even with some of my content there's still like some perfect, some things I was like, "That's perfect." But there's a lot of times I put out a video I'm like, "That's good enough," and then it, it does well. I'm like, "All right, cool. They didn't notice." They didn't notice this random weird thing I did that I would notice but nobody else would notice 'cause they're not me. but I had to, I had to really learn that and like self like look at myself because I said, "You know, you could be, a WolfieVGC who puts out a video once a week, or some other content creators put out a video like once a month and it does very well 'cause they spent their whole month on this one video." I was like, "Or you could just put out the things you love and make sure that they're quality and, and do that." And I decided that I would go that route

David Hernandez 26:36

I think that's the hardest part because, you know, I relate to you as a perfectionist to where before when I started this podcast, I would like, if I hear a weird whisper or weird word, I would cut it out. Like, I was very meticulous. And like you said, it's just not realistic to maintain that unless you've got all the hours in the day, which, you know, for your life as a dad as well as a career, then, you know, I, I'm an employed person, we don't got that time. We gotta work with

SaiyaRan 26:56

Yeah

David Hernandez 26:57

and it's the hardest barrier I think a lot of people run into when it comes to content because we are our biggest critic, but we also gotta know when to step away, and it's so difficult sometimes

SaiyaRan 27:06

Absolutely. the great thing about being your biggest critic is that no one can out-critique you. I love that because if I, I- I'm proud of every video I put out. Even if I'm not 100% sure people will get it or they'll like it, I'm still proud because I made it. And look, I've been on Twitter since I was 12 years old, so I'm, I'm already knowing, like I've seen the trolliest of the trolls. I've s- I, I was on Twitter before I could drive. And so when people try to troll people try to troll me or anything like that, I'm like, "You're gonna have to try very hard." I'm also from Alabama, like Birmingham, Alabama, born and raised. Like, you gonna have to troll me very-- I got real thick skin over here.

David Hernandez 27:40

Mm-hmm.

SaiyaRan 27:41

that's the great thing about being your biggest critic, and that's why I allow myself to be my biggest critic 'cause it's like whatever critique you have about this video, I've already probably critiqued myself on it. 'Cause I post my videos and I will watch my videos 10 times and I'll be like, "Okay, what can I do differently next time?" Because hey, it's processed, it's out there, I'm looking at the comments. What could I do a little bit differently to be just a little bit better? So yeah.

David Hernandez 28:03

Do you have any inspiration of like people you looked up to when it came to figuring out your content pattern or type of content you want to make?

SaiyaRan 28:10

Yes, yes, yes. So I already mentioned Bob Wulff. Bob Wulff was huge. I loved Bob Wulff's intentionality, his scripting. I loved his, his shots, his B-roll, things like that. I love his humor. and even in real life, like just being able to like, say, hang around him and, and other people. just his genuineness shows through his videos, even though his videos are more intentional. and then he's also off video, you know, whether it's on Twitter or on his, on his, Twitch streams, he's very, very authentic, very, very New York, very him. So that's someone I look up to. BeatEmUps. I think BeatEmUps is a master content creator, and I think that BeatEmUps is so authentic, and I aspire to be that authentic. Like Beat... I, I remember BeatEmUps making videos about, you know, just these things that are happening in his life, and I'm just so locked in because he's such a good storyteller and he's such a good... He's such a, he's a, he, he As you should, as a creator, you should lead into that parasocial just a little bit because, you know, that's good. You know, it's like build a community. but he's, he's just so good at, at telling a story and connecting people. And I really love that. So shout out to them because they actually, my, Switch One Joy-Cons, I got them to sign it at PAX East, like 23, 24. Like I missed their meet and greet and I ran into, one of the producers for, for Bobo's podcast. And he, I was like, "Oh, you're, you're E." He's like, "Yeah." I said, "Oh man, I wanted to get to sign my stuff, but I missed it. So it's whatever." He was like, "Oh no, come with me. We'll go meet him." And he like walked me to him and I was like, "What is my life?"

David Hernandez 29:37

What are my odds?

SaiyaRan 29:40

so those two are huge inspirations in Nintendo space as far as tech and how, I like Linus Tech Tips. I like his frequency of videos. I like how he will get the video out. He will get out the stuff you need to know and he will cut the video. And it's very intentional with your time as a viewer because he understands that you're a consumer looking for some education on this thing. So I appreciate him. MKBHD, I like how simple his videos are, but they're so, they're so damn good. They're cinematic. They're interesting. I remember I would sit, like he would drop a video. I would stop what I was doing. I would pull it up on the TV and I would sit and I'm like, "This guy is good." and then probably my last one would be, it's an Apex Legends creator actually. his name's Sofar. And I love Apex Legends. That's what I started creating first. That was the first... I used to, I was making videos on Apex Legends first and I was like, "This, this ain't, this ain't working. I'm not, I'm not good enough." but I like Sofar. I like his videos. I like his personality. I like his energy. he's someone who uploads every single day. and so looking at someone who uploads every single day, you can kind of get the mentality of how he can put out content on the same thing for a season or seasons or whatever. And so when I think about, okay, I know I do variety, but let's just say I want to lock in specifically to Champions for the next two, three weeks. How can I do a different video on that every single day? Just like this man has done a video every single day on Apex Legends. So yeah.

David Hernandez 30:57

That's

SaiyaRan 30:57

Yeah, those are my five. That's my Mount Rushmore.

David Hernandez 30:59

it still crazy dedication, especially 'cause, you know, Pokemon Champions is what you're doing right now. That, that must be kind of difficult though to think of that much content at a time, or you just got used to it?

SaiyaRan 31:07

You know, my brain has gotten used to it. but when I go to events like Pokemon World to NAIC, and I'm with these, like I s- Durag Dragon, that dude, shout out to him, man. He's, he's in the UK. That dude, I swear, I thought he was cr- I said, "Why he keep talking to himself? What's wrong with him? Like, why is he not vibing?" He was making videos in his head

David Hernandez 31:27

Oh,

SaiyaRan 31:27

the whole time we was together. Yeah, so we, so we did a, So at Anaheim last year, there was a Pokemon TCG Pocket tournament. It was the first one, and I entered, and it was like you had to put up like 25 bucks to get into it. It was a prize pool. I won packs. I came in 55th. I was like, "I'm, I'm good." But I played him. He was my last, he was my last person, before we, we did top cut or whatever. And so the whole time I'm playing, I'm sitting across him, we're playing, I'm like, "Why is he muttering to himself? What's going on?" He was making videos the entire time we were sitting there like in his head. And so when I see people like that, it's like that's where my, that's the switch for my brain. Also, Powder, Powder, does, the, the daily pack challenge, and he does, the, the, the cards. Powder as well. Those guys, guys like, when I'm around those guys and, and they're just like, their brains, I'm just like, yeah, I always have to be thinking about content. So personally, I have more content ideas than I do time, but that means I always have a content idea. so it, it may be hard, but, like, I have a series I wanna start with champions leading into Pokemon World, so I'm really excited about, you know. So stuff like that, you know, you kinda just gotta... It, it comes naturally after you, like, force your brain to just be creative like that, but also not overwork yourself, 'cause a, a really good video could be 10 seconds. Like, I did a video where I just handed packs out to my favorite coworkers, and I posted it, and I was like, "Who cares if it does well or not? It's wholesome. It's nice." You know, whatever. It's a personality piece. but you know, that's just something I randomly thought of when I was walking into work and I had some packs, and I was like, "You know what? Let me, let me pass these out to, to X, Y, and Z."

David Hernandez 32:49

Well, SaiyaRan, before we go, I wanna finish on one fun, question. And the question's this. If somebody was gonna come battle you, six on six, what six Pokemon would you bring to the battle?

SaiyaRan 33:01

All right, cool. I'm bringing, shiny Gyarados. Gotta bring big red. I'm bringing Electivire. I'm bringing Scizor. I fell in love with Scizor.

David Hernandez 33:10

Yeah

SaiyaRan 33:11

I'm probably gonna bring Pelipper, set up some rain, bring Corviknight. Got to.

David Hernandez 33:17

you go

SaiyaRan 33:18

And, because it's popping right now, it's in my brain, Mega Swampert. But I, I, Swampert was my Gen 3 starter, so it's not like, I'm not like, I'm just doing this. Swampert was my Gen 3 starter. Like, I have a save file on my desk right now of Ruby and Sapphire, and they both have Swampert, so, probably Swampert. I think that'd be a really fun, really fun time.

David Hernandez 33:36

Thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns, where every trainer has a story. If this podcast or if this episode resonated with you, share the episode with a fellow trainer and follow the podcast for more voices, more, more journeys, and more memories. David Hernandez, and remember, your next Pokemon adventure begins here