"Lucario UNITES His Aura By Close Combat" ft. SteelAgentKyle | TRAINER'S EYE #195

SteelAgentKyle 0:00

My name is SteelAgentKyle, and this is my Pokemon story.

David Hernandez 0:42

Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where every trainer has a story. I'm David Hernandez, and I'm joined by Steel Agent Kyle, here to share us his love for Pokemon Unite and his Pokemon story. Kyle, welcome to As the Pokeball Turns. How are you doing today?

SteelAgentKyle 0:57

Oh, fantastic. Thank you for having me, and really excited to talk about this

David Hernandez 1:02

Absolutely. And, you know, for the first question, I think I kinda wanna know what the name's about. What's the meaning

SteelAgentKyle 1:07

Sure

David Hernandez 1:08

Age and Kyle? Where did that come from? Tell us about that.

SteelAgentKyle 1:10

so, long story, but I have some hardware in my leg. So I basically shattered my tibia in my right leg doing something very dumb. I think the statute of limitations is, is, is gone by now. I was with a friend, and we, jumped into somebody's pool. Not our pool, but jumped in the pool. We were delinquents and we had done this many, many times, this exact pool many times, it was, like, almost a, a nightly routine. I'm so surprised that we never got caught. This is way before Ring cameras existed. this one time, a- after how many other times, we jumped out. there was a fence, obviously. You know, people, you have to have a fence when you have a pool. outside of the fence there's like some bushes, like, some shrubbery. And you don't really have to clear that. I cleared it many times before, no problem. But there's, like, the shrubbery, and then there's, like, a little bit of an incline, too. So, like, just this one time, I jumped over it, cleared it, no problem, and then my ankle just gave out.

David Hernandez 2:18

Oh my gosh, really?

SteelAgentKyle 2:20

It just gave out. And my friend, we were, we were trying to get away. I tried to stand up, and nothing. It just completely gave out. I said, I said to my friend, "Please help. Aaron, help. I hurt myself." And, and he, and he carried me on his back, like, like piggyback ride, like, and we ran back to his house. So, so yeah. Anyway, had to have surgery, have a plate and some screws in there. So that, that's where the Steel comes from. And Steel's my favorite type. I've always liked, like, Steel Pokemon. Lucario's my favorite Pokemon. and the second part of it, and obviously, like, if you're a Pokemon fan, everybody I assume that's listening here is probably a Pokemon fan, there's, like, the certain trainers in the mainline games, they'll have, like, a title, like Swimmer David, Ace Trainer Johnny, uh, Hiker, Backpacker. The Steel type one is called Depot Agent a lot of the times. I, I hated the way that sounded. I didn't want to be Depot Agent Kyle. That didn't sound cool, so I just changed it to Steel. So that's, long story, that's the full story behind the name.

David Hernandez 3:32

know, I think you're the first person to ever admit they committed some kind of crime on the podcast. I kind of love that. And I'm, I mean, beyond that I'm not too worried about it. I think, you know, it's a long time since that's happened. I'm sure they can't connect two and two

SteelAgentKyle 3:43

it's way past, yeah. They're not g- it's also in like a different state that I'm in now, so like they're not gonna like extradite me back to back there or anything. It's fine. It's not a different country, but they're not gonna... Yeah. Anyway, past the statute of limitations for what would it be? Like, just, uh, trespassing.

David Hernandez 4:00

Long time ago.

SteelAgentKyle 4:01

yeah.

David Hernandez 4:02

Well, I love

SteelAgentKyle 4:03

Fine. We're fine

David Hernandez 4:04

'cause that's also my favorite type, too.

SteelAgentKyle 4:06

Oh, nice. I love that

David Hernandez 4:08

What makes steel your favorite type? And then I'll share why mine is

SteelAgentKyle 4:11

I think it's just like, the defensive nature of things. like growing up I was into like battling and I loved being able to like stall out battles because like there's just so many resistances. I always thought that was really cool. and just like most of the designs are awesome. Like Metagross, before Lucario came out, Metagross was my favorite Pokemon. so a little bit of a culmination of those things

David Hernandez 4:36

the same for me, except I like the adaptability 'cause, well, more so

SteelAgentKyle 4:39

Yeah

David Hernandez 4:39

fairy type was introduced, you can use steel for both offense and defense.

SteelAgentKyle 4:43

Yeah. True

David Hernandez 4:45

I meant offense, it, they used to learn other types of moves before, I guess, steel got better to use offensively, but I digress. But I just

SteelAgentKyle 4:52

Yeah

David Hernandez 4:53

the defensive, the resistances, and the steel types just have such unique designs. Like, they look sturdy. Some of them look kind of goofy. Like, I loved Skarmory, I loved the Steelix, Metagross, like you mentioned.

SteelAgentKyle 5:05

I love Skarmory.

David Hernandez 5:05

Um, I like, believe it or not, Galarian Stunfisk, despite how weird its looking it is, it still looks kind of sturdy in its own way, and I kind of

SteelAgentKyle 5:13

Yep

David Hernandez 5:13

it amazing. So you said you used to battle growing up. So were you in competitive

SteelAgentKyle 5:17

Yeah.

David Hernandez 5:17

like what did that look

SteelAgentKyle 5:18

Not like super serious. Like I would, I would play like a lot of like my friends were in it. I worked at Best Buy for many years, so like a bunch of the people that worked there would also like do battles and like... 'Cause this is what- At Best Buy there's always just a bunch of nerdy people, so there's always someone that wanted to play video games, and I was like, always battling like friends and stuff like that. But nothing like ever like super serious. Like it wasn't as popular back then, so I didn't have... I mean, this was like 2011, '12-ish when I was like battling more. I would just like do it on like the online stuff, like on the DS or whatever, like you would find it.

David Hernandez 5:58

Oh, it's like the random

SteelAgentKyle 5:58

But it wasn't like anything... Yeah, it wasn't like anything serious. But it was just more for fun

David Hernandez 6:05

Now you mentioned how back in the day you got into competitive battling. Where did you s- first start to get into Pokemon? Where does that start for your journey?

SteelAgentKyle 6:11

Ooh, my chi- early childhood. So I'm 36. A lot of people do- are like, they don't think I'm 36 just because I look on the younger side. But no, I, I grew up, with Pokemon. My eighth birthday party was Pokemon themed, and yeah, I just, I loved it. Ever since I was a little kid, I had, I had Blue. that was my first game on my Game Boy Advance, not even Game Boy Color. So I had a Game Boy Adv- a blue Game Boy Advance, and I had Pokemon Blue, eventually I got a Game Boy Color, and then I had, like, the trading card game on the Game Boy Color. I had every, every Pokemon game that came out as a kid, I was all about it. My comforter was Pokemon, so I just, I loved everything about Pokemon as a kid, and I just never really stopped. I mean, there was probably, like, a brief period in, like, middle school to, like, early high school where I wasn't as into it, and I would, like, have to, like, hi- not necessarily hide it, but, like, I would have to, like, "No, I'm gonna play Madden," or, "I'm gonna play MLB and not, and not Pokemon," because that wasn't as cool. But, you know, you find the right friends, and then they're like, "Yeah, Pokemon's still cool."

David Hernandez 7:30

I mean, I find it interesting how you went backwards because you started like, "I played with the Game Boy Advance, then I went to the Game Boy Color, but I had a Game Boy Color game"

SteelAgentKyle 7:36

Game Boy Advance. I'm thinking Game- what was, uh, before the Game Boy Advance. It was just... No, no, no, before the Game Boy Color. It wasn't the, it wasn't the gray one. It was a blue Game Boy

David Hernandez 7:47

I thought that'd be the game of color, wouldn't it? 'Cause that's when

SteelAgentKyle 7:49

There was like the Game Boy SP. Yeah. No, no, no. There's, before the Color, there was between like the really large Game Boy and the Game Boy Color, there was, there was a smaller version of the Game Boy that was almost the body of the Color, but it wasn't a Color

David Hernandez 8:08

Oh, you talking about the clear ones?

SteelAgentKyle 8:10

I had a, it was like a dark blue. I can't remember what it was. Maybe it was a color because I had a, maybe I had a blue one. I had a blue one and then I had a, a light green one too. So I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think what it was then. maybe it was just a, a, a second color. Maybe I was, I just had two Game Boy Colors.

David Hernandez 8:28

That's all I could think of. I didn't know that they had a third one, if I'm honest. But I mean, I'd be lying if I said I'm the expert of Game Boys. Somebody's gonna be telling us, "It's this Game Boy. How do y'all not know this?"

SteelAgentKyle 8:37

I know, right? I mean g- to be fair, this is like almost 30 years ago. Game Boy Pocket, that's what it was. It was Game Boy Pocket, not Game Boy Advance.

David Hernandez 8:48

Pocket? What?

SteelAgentKyle 8:49

figured it out. We figured it out.

David Hernandez 8:52

Wait, what?

SteelAgentKyle 8:53

So yeah, it, yeah, it, there's a Game Boy Pocket. Yeah, it was a smaller version, or smaller than like the, the big brick Game Boy

David Hernandez 9:04

so those were Game Bo- okay. I didn't know that they were called... I thought those were just different Game Boy colors. I didn't know that that was Game Boy Pocket. Okay

SteelAgentKyle 9:11

Yeah, Pocket. I, I, I got, I said Advance, but I couldn't remember what it was called.

David Hernandez 9:16

okay.

SteelAgentKyle 9:16

But yeah. And it was, it's 30 years ago. I, I need some grace in not remembering all those details.

David Hernandez 9:24

So what was it about Pokemon that kept you engaged early those years? What did you enjoy about it compared to, say, an MLB or a Madden or even Call of Duty or any other type of game?

SteelAgentKyle 9:32

Yeah, I, I think gaming in general has always been, like, a fun outlet for me, just, a way to connect with my friends or just other kids back then. Because I play, I mean, I play, I still, like, play games with my friends that I grew up playing games with, to this day. Like, two of my best friends that I play Unite with, I still play. I grew up with them in, like, a high school, so we would always play, you know, Halo or Rock Band back then. This is, like, 20 years ago. so, like, it's just, like, a way to connect with people. But, like, Pokemon in general, or, or specifically Pokemon. It's hard to describe, because I feel like there's just, like, a certain person that's drawn to Pokemon that and this is gonna sound terrible. There's, like, always something, like, a little wrong with someone that likes Pokemon, and myself included, and I think that's charming You know? Like, you're just, like, a little weird. Like, it's... And that's cool. To me, that's cool. Like, Growing up, like, people would make fun of, like, the kids that were, like, nerdy, and this is just me being, like, 36 at this point. there was always, like, the, the jocks that would always make fun of it. But, like, Pokemon was always like, "No," like, "I, I enjoy this. It's just something I like, and you can't take that away from me." So I, I, I think that's kind of what draws me into Pokemon, continually and you still get that to this day. There's still always people like, "Oh, you're too old to like Pokemon." And I'm like, "I... Who cares?" Like, "What's it matter to you?" There's always those people. So I think, like, maybe, like, a little bit of, like, this counterculture type of thing that, like, you know, I kinda like too. I don't know. There's so many things

David Hernandez 11:19

I see what you're saying because, you know, for us, you know, we grew up where Pokemon was uncool for a period then, you know, it got cool again, then it got uncool. And even now, cause I'm around the same age, I still get weird looks like, "You still play

SteelAgentKyle 11:34

Yeah.

David Hernandez 11:35

Like, that's something my, uh, little brother or nephew or whoever, have you, plays, and it's like they try and portray like, oh, that's too kiddish.

SteelAgentKyle 11:45

Yeah.

David Hernandez 11:46

There's a lot worse

SteelAgentKyle 11:47

Yeah. Yeah. I could be committing cri- I could be jumping in pools, like

David Hernandez 11:55

be a ravage pool jumper still to this day, but Pokemon redeemed him.

SteelAgentKyle 12:01

Pokemon has kept me off the streets and out of your backyard,

David Hernandez 12:05

Unless you talk about Pokemon

SteelAgentKyle 12:07

I don't know.

David Hernandez 12:07

a different story. But for the most part, out of the streets in the Super Bowl

SteelAgentKyle 12:11

it keeps... That Pokemon Go keeps me in the park, so

David Hernandez 12:15

It keeps us contained

SteelAgentKyle 12:18

yeah, yeah, yeah, especially on community day

David Hernandez 12:21

But back to, you know, your story of Pokemon, Is there a particular set of games or generation of Pokemon that you really resonated with compared to all the other ones?

SteelAgentKyle 12:29

Ooh, that's a good question. And I never can answer this, this question straight because I don't really have a favorite generation because I feel like there's always something good about every game that comes out. And that's such like a political answer. Like, it's like the, the such non-answer, but I, I, I honestly believe that. Like, there's always something good that I could find out of something and maybe that's just like how I look at things and in the world and to fault of my own, like maybe that's a good thing, maybe that's a bad thing. But I always try to find... Yeah, I try, I try to be. I'm not always an optimist but I try to be. But no, I think there's always something that I can find that I really like about each game because there is something that's always different. And yeah, obviously there's the monotony of the, you know, you go around you get your eight badges, you go to the Elite Four, you beat the champion. Obviously that was pretty monotonous so like when they started changing things I did like that a lot. but as far as like a group of generation it's hard for me to pick one because I like so many Pokemon for different reasons and I think like I always try when I'm playing a new game, you know, you always try to keep like one of your favorites on your team. But I always try to play with the new Pokemon that are in that generation because like it's, I don't wanna just like, all right I, I don't wanna have Lucario, Metagross on every team that I play with. but I think maybe like, the better way to answer the question of like what's my favorite game. I feel like there's a lot of people that like this game too but Legends Arceus like really made me fall, like re fall in love with Pokemon like main series games. And maybe it's not technically main series but I loved the switch up that they did. It was so different from anything that they've ever done and yeah there was obviously, wasn't the perfect game, there's, you know, some issues with like graphics and animations and stuff but I love that game. I find myself like going back to play that game more than any other like mainline game

David Hernandez 14:41

I could see that 'cause it just, it was enough change to where it wasn't so jarring compared to like a Alola, where Alola received a lot of flashback because of the way it changed things. But there's still a lot of familiarity and a lot of... I think if Pokemon was ever to go a different direction, I think Legends obviously with Legends ZA afterwards, is kind of the way they're going now. And I think it kind

SteelAgentKyle 15:00

Yeah

David Hernandez 15:01

Pokemon so well with what we know to turn it into something new, if that makes sense

SteelAgentKyle 15:05

Yeah. Yeah. I, and I love, I love that type of, like, storyline. I thought that was really cool. I think any, like, any good storyline, will hook me in. So, like, that's why I kinda like, I like, I loved Black and White, like Black and White 2. Those were fantastic games. And like I know at the time, because I remember this so vividly, that people... Like, obviously we have, uh, the situation where the, the Dexit, right, where, you know, certain Pokemon were not available in, in some of the newer games for like the first time ever. and people talk about Black and White in such, like, good ways now because they were fantastic games. Start to finish, the storyline was great, but when that game come out, came out, people hated it because you couldn't play any of the other Pokemon in the main story, right? Like, people hated that. Like, "I, what do you mean I can't get Charmander in this game?" Like, you could still get it, like you could transfer it in. But you can't catch one. You can't catch, you know, any of those Pokemon. But people hated that.

David Hernandez 16:14

Mm-hmm.

SteelAgentKyle 16:15

People were outraged at that time. Like, I remember the Reddits. Uh, like the Reddit posts, people hated it. But now, like, you l- you know, looking back, people love that game, and I think justifiably so. So like that game, I think of any, made me like really get back into Pokemon because I was, at the time I was working at Best Buy, and I had my Nintendo DS. But yeah, I remember playing that. I got it on launch day on, on that Sunday, because back then they came out on Sundays, and I just played it. Uh, I played it like all, all Sunday. It was so good. It was such a good game

David Hernandez 16:55

when it came out, I remember this is back before Discord and social media was more ramp- less rampant, I should say.

SteelAgentKyle 17:01

Yeah

David Hernandez 17:02

posts because people were like, "How can I use my favorite Pokemon anymore?" 'Cause this, we were forced to use those. And I remember me and my friends, we actually went to midnight release. It was, uh,

SteelAgentKyle 17:12

Yep

David Hernandez 17:12

friends, and we waited till midnight. We got some sodas and some snacks. We came back to our

SteelAgentKyle 17:17

Of course

David Hernandez 17:18

and we just played Pokemon, trying to get as far as we could as possible. I think we played till, like, 3:00 to 4:00 AM, if I remember correctly,

SteelAgentKyle 17:24

Yep

David Hernandez 17:24

and it was just such a fun experience at that time 'cause it was my first time for me personally Pokemon alongside some friends. Because for me, like you said before that, it was just closeted. You didn't really share it too much. But this one,

SteelAgentKyle 17:36

Yeah

David Hernandez 17:37

journeyed together before it became a big thing and later on games, obviously

SteelAgentKyle 17:41

Yeah, I... Remember midnight releases? Speaking on that, remember midnight releases? We used to be a proper country.

David Hernandez 17:49

What happened to us?

SteelAgentKyle 17:52

I, I loved midnight releases, e- especially, like, you, like, looking back on it, Cause I, I was i- in the gaming department at Best Buy. we would have the midnight releases. I would always, like, hate them if I had to work them, but I loved doing them, because, like, everybody was so happy. Like, I hated having to go in because I knew that meant that I wouldn't be able to play the game, but everybody was just so nice on those nights. It was just, like, an easy, chill night. Everybody, the, the lines were crazy. You just got everybody, everybody's like, "Yeah, we got the game." everybody was in a good mood. Like, those days, looking back, they were so fun. They were so fun. I hope that we do midnight releases more. we had the midnight release for when the Switch 2 came out, but outside of that, there's not really any midnight releases, like, frequently anymore

David Hernandez 18:43

me it's not the same when you do a game

SteelAgentKyle 18:45

It's not

David Hernandez 18:46

to a game because,

SteelAgentKyle 18:47

true

David Hernandez 18:48

yes, you'll get the Nintendo fans, I guess. I mean, I've never done a game system, I mean, at least, so I guess I shouldn't speak on it too much. But to me, I think there's something different, whether it be Pokemon, Zelda, or whatever have you. something different when you have just a game that people are just excited to play, and they're lining up and they're talking about it. Some get competitive. You got some who are casual. You got some... You know, you just get a whole mix of crowd to me

SteelAgentKyle 19:09

Yeah. I think that's, um, a beau- the beauty of gaming is that it brings people together

David Hernandez 19:15

Now, you've mentioned Lucario's your favorite Pokemon. It replaced Metagross. What is it about Lucario that made it your favorite? Like, why is it number one?

SteelAgentKyle 19:22

So it's, it's kinda cheesy, but I love

David Hernandez 19:25

I love cheesy

SteelAgentKyle 19:26

and like obvious- obviously the The term has been kind of co-opted by the newer generation a little bit more. But like Lucario's the aura Pokemon, right? And it like is able to sense, it's, y- right, like now it's like aura farming is like the,

David Hernandez 19:46

Lucario

SteelAgentKyle 19:46

thing with, that the... Lucario did it before it was cool, right? Like, but no, he's like the aura Pokemon being, being able to sense like other people's like feelings. And I've always felt that I've done a really, like, like one of the things that I tend to do is pick up on like people's emotions usually pretty, pretty easily, and I'm like very cognizant of that. And I, I think that's kind of a, a cool thing about Lucario, so I've always kind of resonated with, with him being that aura Pokemon

David Hernandez 20:17

now, people primarily know you from Pokemon Unite, and Unite debuted back in 2021. I wanna kinda go before we debuted, what was it like when you first heard about Unite? Were you excited? Were you indifferent? Like, what was your reaction hearing Pokemon Unite coming to the Switch?

SteelAgentKyle 20:32

I was a little slow to it. Like I had been playing all the Pokemon games obviously so like I was gonna try anything. I was like, "What is this? Like a team Pokemon game?" I was like, "That sounds fun." but I didn't really understand MOBAs. Like they call it a t- it's technically a team battler. That's what they call it, and that's what they make you call it when you're doing Pokemon broadcasts. It's a team battler. It's not a MOBA. but like I saw it, I was like, "That seems like fun. I just need to find some friends that would wanna play." And I was still part of a local community for Pokemon Go. pretty big into, into Go. I still am. play that every single day of my life since 2016.

David Hernandez 21:11

I'm proud of it

SteelAgentKyle 21:13

but yeah, absolutely. we have a, a pretty good-sized community over here and a bunch of friends like during the pandemic that we would do game nights, specifically like, Jackbox or Among Us or what- whatever other like pandemic games that you could think of that you would play with like a bunch of people. We would always do that. A few of them specifically had played like Dota or other MOBA-type games. and they were like, "Oh, I definitely wanna play this." and I was like, "I've never played, but I'm down. Like I'll, I'll try it out." And I was so bad at it right when it ca- But I was excited to like play with people and, and play with friends and, and, and all that. So, got to playing that with, with a bunch of them. They eventually stopped playing it as much or at all because they just weren't having either fun or they got busy with their lives. I think a c- a couple of them had kids and then different jobs or moved away, so they just weren't playing as much. So, but yeah, I, I, I still... Like I loved it so much that like I was like, "I need to keep playing, getting better and all that." I think about that so fondly of like the start of, of like learning something. It's been like such a big journey.

David Hernandez 22:27

do you remember what Pokemon you gravitated towards when you first tried to figure things out?

SteelAgentKyle 22:30

I mean, it's Lucario. It's Lucario. It

David Hernandez 22:35

I just want to be

SteelAgentKyle 22:35

it was always Lucario. I mean, I played that thing... I, I played it so, so god-awfully like looking back at it, I was, I was so bad at it. Like I, I still have like a, a good win rate on it. If I knew what I knew now when it was that good, oh, I would've probably had like a way higher win rate on it. But no, I played a lot of Lucario. I actually ended up playing, a lot of Crustle too, like when we weren't playing Lucario and the team needed a defender, I'd play a lot of Crustle. but those are the two Pokemon I, I liked playing the most

David Hernandez 23:09

I mean, you're so familiar with Pokemon. You've played the games, you've played some side games, you've played Pokemon Go. What do you think it is about Pokemon Unite specifically that gives you something that other Pokemon games don't? Like, what makes it so

SteelAgentKyle 23:19

It's the team aspect. It's the team aspect, of course. I- there's no other game in the entire franchise that has that type of team aspect. Sure, there's like other things that you can do in different games that are more team-oriented, like obviously Go has the raid function, and the three different teams for gyms, but it's, it's nothing like Unite. This is a live real-time battler where you have to coordinate with, if you're playing like the standard format, you need to coordinate with four other trainers towards an objective, and that objective is to win the game. How you get there, uh, we could go into it a little bit more if, for those that aren't, aren't super familiar with it. But there's no other game in the Pokemon franchise that makes you actively coordinate with people to that extent to win a game or beat a game or whatever you wanna... Achieve a goal. What- whatever you wanna call it. And I think that's what draws me and a lot of the people that are in the Unite community to Unite, because it's, you can play other Pokemon games, but a lot of them are very siloed in the sense that like I'm, you know, maybe I'm just gonna go sit on my couch and, and load up my Switch and play by myself. I mean, maybe I, I, I need to like trade with somebody, but there's no other game where it's like, Hey Johnny, I need to, you know, I want, I wanna play some games. let's jump in voice chat and let's hang out, and play some game. Let's play some Unite." to me like the best part of it is just getting to hang out with your friends

David Hernandez 25:00

I think you have a good point because the Pokemon games specifically, a lot of them play solo. You know, if you play with other people, it's usually within the raids system. And I mean, even

SteelAgentKyle 25:07

Yeah

David Hernandez 25:08

Go, you alluded to it, it's also raids. know, solo play is also possible with Pokemon Go. You can't really play solo in Pokemon Unite. That's correct, right?

SteelAgentKyle 25:17

I mean, you can. There is a solo mode, but that's not what people play Unite for.

David Hernandez 25:21

experience as playing with other people

SteelAgentKyle 25:23

yeah. And then there's, like, solo queue where, you know, you load up by yourself, but you are teamed up with four other people, but they're random people. it's not as fun. No one likes solo queue. Everyone hates solo queue because... And this is my, this is me on my soapbox as a commentator, and also as a player, is everyone that plays solo queue thinks that it's their teammates that are the problem, but never themselves. I have said this, too. I'm not, I am not innocent by any stretch of the imagination. I have been the problem many times. But yeah, it's, it's just different. It's just different. So, like, I think why people continue to play Unite is, being able to play with people, for better or for worse. For better or for worse, we'll say it that way

David Hernandez 26:16

Now, you've mentioned how you started casting, and specifically I remember you talked about how you met DoomSnax and Spragels back in 2020 through NAIC, and you kind of

SteelAgentKyle 26:24

Yeah

David Hernandez 26:25

two casters who inspired you to wanna cast Unite. I guess,

SteelAgentKyle 26:28

They did

David Hernandez 26:28

it about meeting them specifically that made you wanna cast, and what was Kyle like beforehand? Were you just not interested at all? Were you just teasing the idea?

SteelAgentKyle 26:37

Yeah, so that's, that's a fantastic question. So, I live in Columbus, Ohio. I, uh, I'll dox myself for a second.

David Hernandez 26:45

so you know where to

SteelAgentKyle 26:45

2023

David Hernandez 26:46

serious pool s- s- a serial pool person, you know where to go. Columbus, Ohio. Go find them now. I'm just kidding.

SteelAgentKyle 26:55

Um, and NAIC in 2023 was in Columbus And I wanted to go. At that point, that was about two years into Unite. It was the first time Unite had ever been... Or I guess second time. 2022 was the first world championships, and that was the first LAN event for Unite ever. And I got to watch that on Twitch. I thought that was super cool. Before that, they had all of the tournaments broadcasted on Twitch on th- on those channels and everything, and I always watched them, and I always enjoyed it. I thought they always did a really good job. it was very engaging. It was super fun. But I never had an experience like that a- as I did in 2023 watching NAIC Unite. the best way I could describe it, I wouldn't even say it's like an out-of-body experience. it was just such a fun experience. Like, for those that don't, I guess, understand, I'm also, I'm a huge sports fan. I love sports. I gr- I grew up watching sports, playing sports, everything. The best way to describe it for those that are familiar with sports but not maybe as familiar with esports, it was like watching my team win the World Series. Maybe not to that extent, because I, we just talked about it a little bit ago, that a big Cubs fan, and watching that, that was, like, one of the, one of the greatest things I've ever seen in my entire life. But watching NAIC for the first time and watching, Dube and Spragels commentate, watching the team TTV, who was the team at the time, which is comprised of, like, Ender, who was, like, the bi- one of the biggest YouTubers. Probably still the biggest YouTuber outside of, like, maybe, like, Chrisheroes for Unite. But Ender was, like, very big into, like, content creation and stuff, and I had watched his videos from the inception. He helped me learn so much about the game, and watching his team win, it was so hype and it was so fun. And growing up watching sports and watching sports my entire life, my wife, she has always told me, 'cause, like, we'll watch sports, and I will talk when the things are happening. I'll explain things, or, like, so a play happens, and I'll say something, and then five to 10 seconds later, you hear the commentator on the TV say that exact same thing. And it would happen all the time. Like, every game that we watch, something would happen, and, almost word for word, the commentator would say it. And my wife, Kelsey, she would always just say, Why don't you just, like, do that?" I'm like, You don't, you can't just get into that. You can't just be a sports, you know, commentator. You have to, like-" Be a former athlete or do this and that and whatever. And then, like, when I watched that competition at NAIC there's just like a light went off in my head of like, Why don't I do that? Why don't I get involved in that?" I, like, I don't know where to start, where to do any of this. so I didn't really have an idea. I had, like, just started... At that point, I had, like, just started, streaming on Twitch, like, a little bit here and there. so I'm like, All right, let's, let's take this a little bit more seriously. Like, how do we get there?" but watching them do that was, like-- and getting to meet them and, and, and chatting with them, it set something... It, like, changed something in my brain. I can't really explain it, but it changed something in my brain of, like, you should do that. That was hype. You can do that. And I was like, "All right, let's, let's do it." So that's kind of how that inspired me

David Hernandez 30:29

And I guess I gotta go from there. What was that first attempt at trying to cast like? Was it as easy as they made it look like, or was there some kind of rough be-

SteelAgentKyle 30:36

Oh God, no. It's so hard. Um, it's like, it's like anything that you do, right? Like, it, it takes practice. I look back at, like, the first casts, that I've ever did, oh, and they were terrible. I would ramble too much, I wasn't get to the point, and I was trying to be too funny. Whatever it was, It was very rough around the edges. The, the idea was there, but it was very, very rough. it took quite a bit to, like, find my voice, find the style that I wanted to do, and just kind of find who I was as a, as a commentator and, like, where I can, like, fit in. So it took a lot of practice. how I actually started, probably like how most people, I would imagine, start, in the commentary space, is I would just watch VODs, mute the VOD, and then I would talk over it. I would do it. I wanted to be a play-by-play guy. I wanted to be Doobs N- I wanted to be like Goob Snacks. So, like, Spragels is more of, like, the color analyst, would kind of explain, like, the big picture things, intricate details of how things work, macro strategies, that kind of stuff. But Goob Snacks, Goob Snacks is, like, the hype man. I was like, "I could, I could be the hype man." but that, that was kind of, like, where I wanted to, like, fit in, and it didn't always quite work that way because, you know, there's a lot of different casters within the, the community, so sometimes you have to fill, like, one type of role, sometimes you have to fill a different type of role. So I kinda had to learn a little bit of both. I can't even, like, explain to you how much, how much practice, goes into, you know, trying to be good, good at casting, for sure.

David Hernandez 32:22

say, it sounds like you took what you learned from Unite how you always want to do card, but sometimes you had to shift over to Crestle sometimes. You gotta do that in

SteelAgentKyle 32:28

Yeah.

David Hernandez 32:29

way.

SteelAgentKyle 32:30

Sometimes you got a crab when you wanted a dog, you know?

David Hernandez 32:33

Well, what's the best piece of advice that you got in regards to casting that kind of changed your approach?

SteelAgentKyle 32:38

the best piece of advice that I got was from Doob Snacks. So I actually took, Doob Snacks had, I'm not sure if he still does it, he might still do it, so shout out Doob Snacks. he had a Metafy coaching, that you could sign up for. Obviously pay money, it is well worth it. whatever the rate was, was well worth it. but he would, he asked for, like, some VODs to look at, so, me casting whatever it was at the time. I think it was, like, one of the grassroots leagues, like Articuno League or something. So casting that, I'd send him the VOD. He would watch it, and then he would take some detailed notes. the best piece of advice that Doob gave me, and it's actually gonna be two different pieces of advice. the first one was, Be yourself. You're never going to be Doob Snacks. You're never going to be Spragles. Be who you are and find your voice, because that is going to be the most important thing that you ever do in the commentary space. Because you will never do what somebody does better than that person. So just be yourself." And I thought that was, like, to me, like, okay. If I, if I just try to be Doob Snacks, I'm never going to be Doob Snacks. If I try to be Spragles, I'm never going to be Spragles. Spragles is very funny. Doob Snacks is incredibly intelligent and very quick and sometimes very subtle on some references and stuff, so I think that's really cool. But, just finding my voice, I think that was the biggest thing that I wanted to do at, at that point. The second piece of advice that he gave, and this was, not necessarily specific to me, but the other piece of advice was, he did, like a dual coaching session with my commentary partner and I. and his advice was like, Just market your g- like, market yourselves." Like, you are the duo. He was always very encouraging of use each other. Be each other's, like- that person. And that was well heard because I think once him and I, or once we talked about that, Husky and I really took it onto another level. Like, we would be very specific and strategic about how we would do and how we would handle certain things Cause you can be an amazing caster by yourself, but there's two people in the booth. There's alway- there's always two people in the booth, and sometimes it's like doing the tango. You don't wanna step on anybody's feet, so learning how each other, flow, learning how, certain intonations to understand, like, when it's time to take over, when to hand it over. so, like, learning each other's ins and outs, I think that was, like, the second piece of advice that he gave that, really hit home because that was, to us, I think the biggest thing that helped us get, like, onto the main broadcast was being really, like a good partnership, and I- I think that was the biggest piece of advice. Because, yeah, like he said, you can be yourself all you want, but there's always, like you said, there's always two people in the booth, and you gotta be a good partner. As, as good as you can be by yourself. The sum of the whole is greater than the parts or wh- whatever the say- there's a saying, right? Like, the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts or wh- I can't remember. I don't know how it goes. There's a saying, but the two is greater than the others separately. Yeah, that's the one.

David Hernandez 36:21

I think I mean, you touched on two things. You know, one, you, this difference between the first lesson you learned was there's between imitation and finding your own voice, like you said. A lot of us get inspired by people we look up to, and for you it was, um, Doobs, Stoop Snacks. You wanted to be like him, you couldn't be like him because there's only one him. you had to kind of, I don't say borrow what it has, but kind of put your own spin on it. And that's something a lot of us who ever do anything voice related or any content creation, we have our own inspiration, but we can't be like them. We gotta kind of find what that looks like for us, and it's such a hard to learn.

SteelAgentKyle 36:57

It is. it so is, and it's the best lesson that, that he ever gave me, for sure, because he's so right. and I think the cool thing is, and you just touched on it, is there's so many amazing things that each of the Pokemon Unite commentators do well, and I think for me it was like, I would always pick their brains of like, "How do you handle this type of situation?" Or just even like watching them or listening to them on how they describe things, I think that's so valuable because you can learn so much from so many people, because there's such incredible talent on that roster, whether it's Dupsex or Spragels or like Sof or Kelo. They're all amazing in their own way, and I think there's just so much to learn from all of them. So trying to imitate one of them it's never gonna be enough, so you have to find your own way to differentiate yourself. You have to find your own way to provide a little bit of value and, you know, you just have to, you know, keep going

David Hernandez 37:59

Now, we heard the news from Pokemon specifically that Pokemon Unite was not gonna be part of the Champion Series moving forward. I wanna ask, like, how did that news hit you, and where did you go from there once you heard it?

SteelAgentKyle 38:10

Yeah, it's, it hit me like a moving train. it was tough to hear. Uh, when I, when I saw the news, uh, my immediate reaction was dread. as I imagine most people that play or watch Unite felt. And it sucks. You know, the World Championship is one of the coolest things that Pokemon does, and to not be part of it definitely hurts. I could, take it being, you know, okay, maybe it's not at the ICs or this or that. That would suck surely, but still being at Worlds would s- would be okay, fine. We can, we could take that consolation prize. It makes sense because, you know, it... the logistics of getting a whole team together has been one of the tough parts of Unite in the LAN specific category, has been always a challenge. You look back at the history of, Worlds, and it's always been a challenge to get the full roster, to this Worlds or that Worlds, whether it was in Japan or whether it was in the US. Obviously, the US has been really hard to get people in because of obviously like visa issues and stuff like that. So that, that tends to be a bit of a challenge. So it's just, it's, it's always been challenging to get all five of the rostered team to an- another country, because they have to go through those processes. so it, it, it's understandable, but it hurts. but knowing that we're going to a different country next year, I thought maybe they were like, "Oh, we don't wanna do, we don't wanna go with Worlds because it's always gonna be in the US, and it's hard to get visas there." But then when they said, "Okay, now we're going to Singapore for next year," I was like, wait, okay, that doesn't sound... That makes it sound worse that we're not getting Pokemon Unite at Worlds ever again, which I think is probably the reality at this point. I don't think it'll ever come back unless it gets rebranded to a different name or gets a second version or something, or something happens. Who knows? It... You never say never, but right now it doesn't look good. but yeah, it hit, hit me like a, moving train. it sucked. No one liked it. there is a little bit of like, we'll call it hopium for this Aeos Crown Tournament, but I mean, I think the jury's still out on that one. There's a lot, a lot to be excited about. We just got news on that too. But there's still a lot of unknowns, so I think a lot of people are kind of like waiting with bated breath right now

David Hernandez 40:42

sounds like you went through the stages of denial and then

SteelAgentKyle 40:45

Yeah.

David Hernandez 40:46

you kinda got hope again. So we don't know. We'll see. But what about your dream to eventually be a caster there? I mean, that door kind of been shut. Like, do you still try to be a

SteelAgentKyle 40:54

Yeah

David Hernandez 40:55

Or like, have you thought about that?

SteelAgentKyle 40:56

that's, that's tough. So, after what happened to to me earlier in the year, I'm not sure how realistic it is. for those that don't know, I was slated to be on the official broadcast, and then we were promptly cut off from that because of a criticism of a patch that Unite put out. So, they pulled me from air, which sucked. Uh, that was not a good feeling. So I don't know, if/when it'll happen, but you know, I'm always hopeful. The door's always open, I guess. I've told the producer, and the producer was always like, "You know, for future seasons, we'd love to have you back." It was just like, "Nah, I call it this time." so hopefully maybe possibly, there's always potential, for like that official stage, but who knows what the future holds. I think for me, the important thing and the number one thing has always been and always will be the grassroots community because that is the backbone of the Unite community. Yeah, the pro scene is, fantastic and all, and the high-level play is, is, great, but like that's not the majority of the Unite players. The majority of the Unite players are like grinding it out on ladder or grinding it out in the grassroots leagues, like the lower tier leagues than like the top eight. and that's kind of what I have always, put a lot of my stock into of, working with Bina and Lordy, who are the two other people that help run Underdunk with me, and just continually putting out those tournaments for the community because there's always going to be a need for people to like get practice in for any of the other tournaments or just like have fun in general. Like, we always try to like make the tournaments fun and, and fair and everything. So having that consistent place where players can know, "Okay, on Thursdays we're gonna, do the Underdunk." so I think that's always been my focus and, and it'll continue to be my focus until the game shuts down because I'm not going anywhere in that. If I get another opportunity to cast an official event, absolutely I would take it. but my allegiance and my priorities are always to, my community on Twitch that tunes into Underdunk every week or the players in Underdunk that continue to play and show up and do well on the official stage too. So that's really cool, And rewarding getting to see some of, like, the players that, like, put in, like, the weekly work, at our tournaments perform well at the, at those, LAN events is like a really cool thing. It makes me feel pretty good. So, maybe we'll get where, get there someday, maybe not, but I'll continue to have fun with my stuff anyway.

David Hernandez 43:38

For those who aren't familiar with Underdunk, can you, like, share us what it is? What is its role in the Unite community?

SteelAgentKyle 43:44

Yeah, so Underdunk is our weekly, sometimes biweekly depending on our availability, Pokemon Unite tournament. Sometimes a player is generous and puts down like a bounty for like $100 for whoever wins. Like, last week, one of the players was like, "$100 to anybody... $100 Canadian to anyone to the team that wins, but there's a caveat. You have to have a Canadian on your team." So, so like, like, yeah, sure. Why not? Let's do that. so that's our tournament. So we've been running it... there's been a couple, like, leadership iterations. So Underdunk is the longest-running grassroots tournament in Pokemon Unite. it's Thursdays. so s- some people have school, some people have work in the morning, so we try to, like, get it wrapped up, sooner than later so we can run it. But it's the longest-running tournament series. free to enter. It's been so fun. Originally it was run by Martine, who was a competitive player. He came from Smash Brothers. and then eventually Martine retired from being the TO, and then handed it over to Lordy, who is now the head TO. And then Lordy asked, because the broadcast was previously with, Unite Mics, but, that, which Unite Mics was, Zoinks and Goop snacks. Th- they have very busy lives, obviously, with just what they got going on, plus all the official stuff, so they weren't able to do it as much. And then Lordy was like, "Kyle, do you wanna run it?" I was like, "Yep, I'm down." So I, I learned how to produce, with the help of some of the other people in the grassroots community. Shout out Shivam. but he helped me get, like, some of, like, the overlays set up. We had an artist, we commissioned an artist to help with our graphics. but yeah, we have, like, a, a really nice thing going. Last year we ran a first step program. we're looking to maybe run that again at some point, but that was, like, to get more people, familiar with the competitive format. Because there's a lot of people that play Unite but have never, like, dipped their toes into, like, competitive. so we have, like, a, a wide range of players. So we have on every given week, we have maybe like a couple pros that enter in, But then we also have, people that might be new to competitive, like this is their first time playing on a team. so we have a wide range and, and we encourage everybody to play, because it is always so much fun. but yeah, it's, it's been a, blast to run stuff like that. We always try to, like if there's a team... And that's al- also a bit of the feedback that we get, so we always love to change things based on the feedback from the community. we had feedback that some of the newer teams were getting, as much practice because when we are running double elimination, they would go 0-2 in their first set, and then, the lower bracket would be best of one. They lose that game. So they played three maps, and then their tournament was done in 30 minutes essentially. so that's why we started running Swiss, so that teams at the very least would get three or four rounds of matches, of best of threes. So like... And then as you like advance, so like if you lose the first one, 0-2, well you're going to be playing against another team that lost. And if you lost again, you'd be playing a team that lost twice just like you. So like as you get on, you would, you would end up playing, more, equal caliber teams. So it was, it's like a better way. I think people are having a little bit more fun with that. So yeah. Underdunk has been fantastic. my favorite thing to do on, on Thursdays when I'm not working.

David Hernandez 47:26

Well, SteelAgentKyle, you've been a wonderful guest. I'm gonna finish this interview on a fun question, and it's simply

SteelAgentKyle 47:30

Ooh

David Hernandez 47:31

If somebody was gonna come battle you, six-on-six Pokemon, what six Pokemon would you bring to the battle?

SteelAgentKyle 47:36

I mean, it would all, it would all be steels, baby.

David Hernandez 47:39

Let's go.

SteelAgentKyle 47:41

It would all be steels. and then I think that I have them all up here.

David Hernandez 47:45

Oh, he even has a list.

SteelAgentKyle 47:46

I have

David Hernandez 47:47

Oh, it's

SteelAgentKyle 47:47

Yeah, so I have, I, I got my Luka, obviously. Have to have Luka. we're gonna go regular Luka even though his mega son is there. Look how many Lukas I have over there.

David Hernandez 48:01

a lot

SteelAgentKyle 48:02

and then I would probably go mega Metagross.

David Hernandez 48:05

okay

SteelAgentKyle 48:06

Gotta go there. and I can only choose between one of Corviknight and Skarmory. I'm going Skarmory. That's my OG. Um,

David Hernandez 48:14

Hmm.

SteelAgentKyle 48:16

you have to have Empoleon. It's a rule. 'Cause yeah, you have, you have to have at least one first partner Pokemon on your, on your squad. Plus, how else am I gonna deal with the fire types, you know?

David Hernandez 48:29

say, I, for Pokemon Diamond or Shining Diamond when it came out, I did a steel only run because Piplup was a starter

SteelAgentKyle 48:35

Yes. Perfect. That's where we get a little more... It's, it's hard to choose. I think, I have to go Tinkaton

David Hernandez 48:43

Oh, yeah

SteelAgentKyle 48:44

because it's my favorite new generation Pokemon.

David Hernandez 48:47

one.

SteelAgentKyle 48:48

so cool. Corviknight's up there, but I can't take that and Skarmory. and that, I think that's just a rule. After that, I, I think I would have to go Aegislash, so I think that's, I think that's my six

David Hernandez 48:59

a tough six, I'm not gonna lie. So since I like steel types, I'm gonna try to choose my six. I haven't done this before.

SteelAgentKyle 49:04

Okay

David Hernandez 49:04

So I'm definitely going Tikiton, and I like Corviknight.

SteelAgentKyle 49:07

Yeah.

David Hernandez 49:08

actually my favorite Pokemon, so

SteelAgentKyle 49:09

I do too. It's so good

David Hernandez 49:11

I don't know how they're gonna get along, but hopefully they do. I don't know.

SteelAgentKyle 49:14

They won't.

David Hernandez 49:14

I know.

SteelAgentKyle 49:15

I think that's also why I couldn't pick 'em. I mean, they're, they're on the shelf. Sometimes they just fall over. I think they're battling each other in the, in the middle of the night, yeah

David Hernandez 49:24

Uh, besides that, Magneton.

SteelAgentKyle 49:27

Oh, love Magneton

David Hernandez 49:29

Now this is where it gets tricky for me, part of me wants to choose Metagross. I love Metagross, but I love Steelix as well. I don't think I could have

SteelAgentKyle 49:37

Felix is so good. Yeah

David Hernandez 49:40

shoot. I'm gonna go Steelix for five, and for six... Cause I love Ferrothorn too.

SteelAgentKyle 49:47

Ferathorne's so good. It's so, it's so silly

David Hernandez 49:51

to choose the next one because there's so many good steel types and some I'm probably forgetting right now. And I'm not even trying to do the legendaries, forget about that. Ooh, Lord, that'd be a

SteelAgentKyle 49:58

Yeah, you can't

David Hernandez 50:01

I'd have to go Ferrothorn. I love Ferrothorn. Grass-steel, you can't go wrong with it. But I mean, I could

SteelAgentKyle 50:05

It's pretty good

David Hernandez 50:06

I leave out... Well, I ain't gonna choose Wormadam, but still, I'm gonna leave out Scizor. Like, it's so hard to choose six steel types

SteelAgentKyle 50:12

Wormadam's awesome. I love Wormadam. I don't know why, I just do. He's so dumb.

David Hernandez 50:20

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