"Sableye Shadow Sneak Into The Spotlight" ft. Lundberger | TRAINER'S EYE #194

Amanda Lundberg 0:00

My name is Amanda Lumberg, 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 am joined by Amanda Lunmberg, caster for Pokemon Go. Amanda, welcome to As The Pokeball Turns. How are you today?

Amanda Lundberg 0:56

I'm doing well. Happy to be here. Happy we could get this lined up and ready to kinda talk about the Pokemon stories

David Hernandez 1:03

Absolutely. And Amanda, your story has such a unique, origin, 'cause you didn't start with Pokemon. You're not experienced with it. But I kinda wanna start with just a little fun question to kinda break the ice, okay?

Amanda Lundberg 1:12

All righty

David Hernandez 1:13

right. So you hand- you're handed the microphone for the first ever Pokemon battle in real life. Think like there's a warp hole that Pikachu drives through, or whatever Pokemon it is, and you can choose two, you can choose any two Pokemon in existence for this matchup. Who are you putting on that battlefield, and give me your opening call?

Amanda Lundberg 1:30

Oh boy. Pokemon that are coming into battle I'm picking Sableye obviously, 'cause Sableye is my favorite Pokemon. But then I gotta think of something that is good against its counters, 'cause I don't want my boy to get completely smashed on the battlefield. So let's see, he's dark and ghost type, so let's go with, some fairy type coverage. No, maybe like a I'm going Great League, 'cause I am a Pokemon caster. People will laugh at me about this. Let's go with Wigglytuff. How embarrassing.

David Hernandez 2:01

Not at all. Not at all. And I kinda find it cool that you chose your favorite, Sableye. What makes it your favorite Pokemon? where did that begin?

Amanda Lundberg 2:08

it began in Pokemon Go actually, because it was the first Pokemon game that I had played. And I remember when, the Halloween event came out, it was the first time that Sableye was introduced, and I was looking at it and I was like, "I don't know if I like that Pokemon. That, it does this weird twitchy thing. It's kinda..." And then by the third one that I encountered, I was like, "No, this, this Pokemon rocks." I was just like, "Oh." It kinda grew on me over time

David Hernandez 2:32

So at first it was just, it was weird to you, but as you used it in p- Pokemon Go PVP or Go Battle League, you kinda got accustomed to it. It kinda became your partner Pokemon in a way?

Amanda Lundberg 2:40

Yeah, definitely, definitely. It's definitely my partner Pokemon

David Hernandez 2:43

So in regards to just your origin part of it, how did you miss the Pokemon train? how did that happen?

Amanda Lundberg 2:48

maybe I was just, even a hipster child, I was like, I don't like that 'cause it's too cool, it's too trendy." I have no idea how I missed the boat 'cause it was like definitely in the age range of people around me were playing it. And I remember I was babysitting a kid once and he was like not that much younger than me and he had a whole deck, and we ended up playing some cards. I think he stacked the deck in his favor, 'cause he immediately won after, six tur- and I was like, "Okay, well, I don't understand this game. It's not that fun." but yeah, over time, it just became something in the background and something that I recognized, like the key characters, like Pikachu, and Jigglypuff, Bulbasaur. But it was never something that I was really a part of until Pokemon Go came out.

David Hernandez 3:29

What was it like those early days when Pokemon Go first came out for you?

Amanda Lundberg 3:32

seriously, I mean, I'm sure as you remember too probably anywhere around the globe, everyone was just like gathered together and looking at their phones. But there was people out in droves. And so I just remember like looking around Antwerp where I live, and I was like, "Wow, this is, like, something, something, global phenomenon is happening right now." So I had asked online, Hey, what is this game that everyone's playing?" And tons of friends wrote back. They're like, "Playing Pokemon Go. You have to play Pokemon Go." So I downloaded it. I originally wanted to be on Team Instinct because yellow is my favorite color, but all of my friends were on the blue team, Team Mystic, and so they said, "No, you have to be on Mystic," so I joined them. Now I think I'm like the only one of those who is not, a casual player anymore, but now I'm dedicated to Team Mystic, so I'm not switching over.

David Hernandez 4:17

I mean, you avoided Pokemon for so long. What made you say, "This is the game I want to download?" Like, why download Pokemon Go after going so long without it?

Amanda Lundberg 4:25

honestly, I don't know what was stopping me before from playing Pokemon, 'cause I'm a collector at heart. I'm, like, even in Pokemon Go I have a living Pokedex, and also a lucky Pokedex, and a sh- So

David Hernandez 4:35

Wow

Amanda Lundberg 4:36

at least three of each one. my Dex is completely full. I'm always buying new storage when it comes out because I like to keep them. And that was, like, the cool thing about Pokemon Go was, okay, so they were, like, completely new creatures to me. And so I was like I don't know if you remember when it first came out, but there were footsteps, and you could get, once you knew you were getting closer to a Pokemon, and I remember going, halfway across, our town here just to find it was a Hypno. And I was like, "What is this Pokemon?" And so I was, like, really, actually paying attention to the Pokemon entries and the Dex entries, and all the different ones. And it just became like a, not an addiction, but something really fun to fill in, my extra time

David Hernandez 5:15

I remember those footsteps because you saw the three little footsteps or two footsteps or one footsteps. And I remember one time I was in my, apartment and I saw a Venusaur. It was like one of the first early days, and I'm like, "It's two footsteps away." And I'm like, "What's the chance of this being nearby?" So I go outside, and then all of a sudden it goes to one footstep, and I'm like, "Uh-oh, I'm getting very close." So I run, and I'm trying to go, ooh, trying to find it. Oh, please be here, please be here, 'cause there's a gate that keeps apartments away. And thankfully

Amanda Lundberg 5:39

Huh.

David Hernandez 5:40

up. And I'm like, whoa. 'Cause, it was the final evolution of the starter before I could even

Amanda Lundberg 5:45

Yeah, exactly.

David Hernandez 5:47

But that's what was so fun about those footsteps back in the day. That kinda, I guess, gets missed nowadays, I guess, but it's

Amanda Lundberg 5:52

Yeah.

David Hernandez 5:52

sure

Amanda Lundberg 5:53

I remember too, when I was like trying to fill out the first Kanto dex, I was missing Snorlax and I was missing Lickitung. And I was sitting at home, with my husband and we were watching TV and I was just like, of course, playing Pokemon Go as well, and I was all of a sudden I was just like, "I gotta go." And he was like, "What?" I'm like, "There's a Snorlax at the PokeStop." I was like, "It's it's like I'll be back, I'll be back in five minutes." And then it took a little longer than five 'cause it's kinda hard to catch.

David Hernandez 6:18

Just a little bit, yeah. I'm surprised he stuck around, 'cause sometimes they would run away, and that'd be so

Amanda Lundberg 6:22

Yeah, that's also true. I think I caught it right at the probably the best spawn point.

David Hernandez 6:26

Now, you're known for the PVP side for Pokemon Go. and Pokemon Go PVP wasn't introduced till about 2019, 2018, around that time. I guess, what were your thoughts whenever it was first introduced? Was it something you were looking forward to, or just something that you also just tapped into and just tried?

Amanda Lundberg 6:41

Yeah, honestly, I just fell into it by accident. I used to be, like, a little bit more of a competitive person, even playing, board games or things like that at parties. I remember a lot of people would joke around that my best friend and I couldn't be on the same team because we took it a little bit too competitively when everyone else was just wanting to have fun. but for me, never playing a Pokemon game before, it became like a learning activity. So I was like... I really didn't understand the typing stuff right away, so I would take, notepads out, and I would be like, "Okay, I wanna play these Pokemon. so this typing is good against this typing." And then I would, write down all of the different, potential Pokemon that I would see, that would be bad against it, and this was, like, how I was learning. And then Silph was a thing. So the Silph Road was something that documented, like, where spawn points were happening and stuff, and then they started making PVP tournaments. And you could host local ones within your area. So I remember looking up to see if any Silph tournaments were happening, and that's actually how I met, a decent group of my friends here in Antwerp originally, was, some people who had, like-minded interests all showed up for this first Silph Cup

David Hernandez 7:50

That's awesome. So you got to meet people because the Silf Arena actually hosted these cups that would rotate, I think every month, if I remember correctly,

Amanda Lundberg 7:56

Yep, every month. And every month it would be a different, meta as well. So they'd be like, "Okay, this month it's only these typings." so then you had to choose a team of six. And at the very first cup I remember, you could have multiple of the same Pokemon. So it was, I think it was called Boulder Cup. And so everyone was coming in with two Skarmory and two Medicham. And already from the beginning, David, I was a purist. You know? I was like, "No, no, no. It's going to be one of every Pokemon for me." And I remember, I studied up quite a bit, and then this kid rolls in on this, like, monopod wheel- like wheelies before they were cool, jumps off of it, kicks it over his shoulder, and I was like, "That kid's winning the tournament." He did end up, well, we t- we tied originally, but then we had to go to a tiebreak around and he did end up winning, the tournament. But he became a good friend after that, so

David Hernandez 8:47

I think just to add some context for those who maybe are not familiar about those old early days. So the Silph Arena, they learned why, species clause exist. At the first tournament they didn't have that, so you could run up with I think three Skarmory, you could run up with basically a full team. And that's why I think you said the winner had two Skarmory and a Medicham, 'cause that was I guess the optimal team or one of them to have at the time, right?

Amanda Lundberg 9:08

Yeah, yeah, they're, I think they had two, yeah, two Medichams on their team, two Skarmories on their team, 'cause they're a, a best of six. And then I can't remember what the other ones were. But everyone was running, yes, some variation of two Skarmories or two Medichams. And, yeah. but it, but it's like once I was there I w- I was absolutely hooked, and I met, a lot of really cool people, some of them still playing the game, some of them more casually. But a lot of them, like I remember... it's like kind of where you find your people, especially living abroad. It's harder to make friends as an adult, especially friends that maybe don't speak your native language to begin with. And then on top of that, finding people that you share a common interest with

David Hernandez 9:46

Did you stick with PVP or with the Silph Arena at the time afterwards with Twilight Cup and all the following Cups afterwards?

Amanda Lundberg 9:52

Absolutely! once the cups were announced the kid who ended up winning the tournament... It was actually very funny. I was researching the next cup that was coming out, the Twilight Cup, and I saw on Reddit, because the Silph Road had that originally, and I was just kinda like, "What are good counters, or what's a good team to bring?" I saw someone from Belgium saying, I'm looking for team ideas for the Twilight Cup. I'm pretty sure my biggest rival is gonna be running a Qwilfish." and I was like, I sent him a screenshot of that, and I sent it to him. I said, "Is that me? Am I your biggest rival?"

David Hernandez 10:23

wow.

Amanda Lundberg 10:25

And he said, "Yes, yes, I was talking about you. I didn't realize, uh, yeah, that you were also on Reddit." So we had a big, laugh about that. But, I think I played all of the cups. I was, qualified for whatever their higher thing was. I can't remember now. It was, like, the regional qualification, so if you made it to a certain, level, then you got invited to, the invitationals and stuff. I never did that great at any of those, but we traveled around quite a bit. We did one in Belgium, and also there was a bigger one in Germany, and we ended up traveling there to hang out at the park and meet a lot of people, from different areas of Europe as well.

David Hernandez 10:58

I mean, it must have been very... I don't know how, what kind of feeling, what kind of feeling did pop out of you when he said, "I'm your rival"? That must have

Amanda Lundberg 11:04

Yeah.

David Hernandez 11:05

or feel like,

Amanda Lundberg 11:05

Yeah, I was like, oh, I was like, yeah. I guessed it was me because we had tied originally, in the first one, so I was like, "Oh, it'd be weird if he was saying someone else." And he did know that I was bringing a Qwilfish, 'cause I said it, that day, 'cause I said, does Qwilfish count for this?" it's one of those also things where iron sharpens iron, right? He was a lot better than me in general because he had the the background already of, the different Pokemon that were good, because he knew the typings and everything, and he was also a math genius, so he w- understood the counts before anyone else really was into that. but that also made me a lot better, too, 'cause we would play, over our lunch breaks at work and everything. And so we'd be like, "Okay, let's do Boulder Cup. P- first we'll do a best of three, then we'll do the Twilight C-," and then we just would keep doing that, for most of the breaks. And I would get so frustrated because he was so much better than me. but in hindsight, that also made me a much better trainer, too, 'cause I got to learn the counts better, I got to see good strategies of, how to not just blindly pick three Pokemon that you think would do well, but actually analyzing the other person's team and seeing how your team compares

David Hernandez 12:09

You mentioned earlier how, Pokemon Go's your first game. For people like me who grew up with it, we know the type chart like, our favorite menu. We know it like our favorite food. But for you, you have to take, you mentioned how you take notes.

Amanda Lundberg 12:19

Yeah

David Hernandez 12:20

you had to kinda learn it the way you did, that made it easier for you to better at explaining PVP to other people and even maybe affect your casting in the future?

Amanda Lundberg 12:28

That could definitely be a big part of it, because I'm not coming in the game as, someone who is so seasoned or trained in not only Pokemon, but, any sort of, competitive online, gaming system. I d- I hadn't really done too much of that before. So when I am casting, I am trying to think of the people who are maybe just tuning in that don't really quite understand the mechanics as much or don't really understand what it is they're looking at, and still making it engaging overall for them. Because it's super engaging, especially when you start to learn a little bit more. And I think, like anyone, once you get past that starting point where you're like, "I don't understand this," to where everything starts to click, it becomes a lot more fun

David Hernandez 13:10

I mean, some people, they guess they get str- they get discouraged because sometimes they would lose constantly or they had the wrong moves. they had the one bar moves. What would you tell somebody who's losing constantly at the first to get over the hump to keep going?

Amanda Lundberg 13:22

I would say depending on, because I have a lot of friends who do play the game, but they're not really super competitive about it. the best way to learn is to find, let's say, three meta Pokemon that complement each other well. So maybe doing a little bit of research and finding, or maybe even two, but one Pokemon that you really like, and learn how that team works with each other. So learn between the type differences, what that type is good against, what it's not, and then just keep battling with those. Yes, you're going to lose, but take each loss and think about why you lost that battle. Was it because you, didn't swap fast enough? Was it because you misread what they had in the back? Was it because you lost count of, where the opponent's energy is at? And then take those lessons and apply it to your next one. Because, over time, whether or not you recognize what you are learning exactly, there's so many, Houndooms you're gonna face before you recognize, okay, Houndooms right now are running, Incinerate as its fast attack, and it has, Foul Play or Dark Pulse and Trailblaze as their charge attacks, just 'cause you start to see it more often. but if you don't play it often enough, you're not gonna pick up any patterns that people are playing or learning what you can do to get better.

David Hernandez 14:38

Now as we transition along your journey, eventually you become a caster, but there's a period before you do that. I think you're a part of MyPvP Academia, is that correct?

Amanda Lundberg 14:44

Yeah. Well, yeah, I was, yeah

David Hernandez 14:46

at the time, I think your role was like contributing your video editing skills. You were behind the scenes. I guess describe what you were doing at that period and how'd you kinda lead up to becoming like a pre-caster at that point, 'cause I think that's when you started, getting familiar with it, right?

Amanda Lundberg 14:58

Yeah, definitely. So because of like the Silph Cups and all of, learning about, PVP, was able to meet, quite a few people within the Belgian community. And then there was this, other grassroots tournament thing called Gym Breakers, and I don't know if you're familiar with the Gym Breakers format, but Gym Breakers is a team-based format, and it's by country. So there was, like, the Belgian team, and we would play against, one of the Americas teams or against Brazil or against, France, which was one of our biggest, rivals for quite a long time in, Gym Breakers. And some of the members on the Gym Breakers team, also from Belgium, were Count Zavius, who is a trainer who, lives in Brussels, but he is originally from India. And then Spleen Lejeune, who also lives in Brussels, originally from Portugal or France, depending on, where his loyalty lies at that time. but we were all playing on the team together, and they knew each other, and they had been talking about, "Oh, it would be really cool to make, videos about PVP, to help explain, the different, cups that are coming up, you know, and so the different metas, maybe just explaining some mechanics to help people get better at the game." And I said, "Well, I'm a video editor," 'cause I had that, background for my job, and I do a bit of graphic design, "So if you guys end up wanting to do this, I'm more than happy to help out with some of this background stuff." So I've made, a bunch of Twitch, screens. I made a lot of the... I made all the thumbnails and edited the videos together for all of those things. And we tried to put out different videos per each cup so people could go and they could learn, the most, the meta Pokemon and then what they were good against, and so on and so forth. So that's sort of how that started for me. It was also, during COVID, so, I was locked in the house pretty much, so it was good to have some excess way to get rid of some extra energy and still talk to people and keep that, part of my life going on.

David Hernandez 16:52

At the time, were you more comfortable being behind the scenes than, I guess, being a face?

Amanda Lundberg 16:56

Yeah, I was, I was always used to being behind the scenes in general because when I went to a university, I studied electronic media originally, so I was part of the TV production team, but I was normally always behind the scenes. So I was, directing our student-run shows or helping edit together news packages, but I was never someone in front of the camera. But when we started doing Twitch streams, sometimes we were looking for other casters for the Gym Breakers events that we had started doing. and then someone, would not be able to show up last minute or we were still looking for someone else, so I would help do some of the announcing while I was also running the scenes and also doing some of the casting over some of the battles that they'd given us the battles so we could cover the footage for tournaments and everything.

David Hernandez 17:42

what motivated you to kinda wanna give so much of your time to this at the moment? Because it's so easy to think the other way to where, "I've got too much going on. Eh, I don't really wanna w- do work on top of work." What made you kinda wanna step in and do as big of a role as you did at the time?

Amanda Lundberg 17:55

Yeah, I remember I was working with, Abi Cantizanos on one of the things, and It wasn't live, so we were recording it, and he had stopped it, right through. He's like, "Amanda, you gotta talk, more." He's like, "I'm talking the whole time, and we have to, like, balance it out a little bit." And I was like, "Oh, yeah, that's, that's true." i- if I'm also going to be, like, quote, a face of it, then I should probably actually put in a little bit more face time and a little bit more effort. So I don't know what exactly made me want to get into it. I think I have the habit in general of getting into projects and getting very deep right away, like contributing a lot of ideas, and then, wanting to see this, thing launch off. But also, regrettably, a part of my personality is I lose interest in projects very quickly as well. And Pokemon is actually one of the few projects, I would say, that I have not really lost interest in yet, and maybe it's just, my, eight-year-old self saying, "Okay, finally you recognize this. Let's, let's catch up for some, some lost time."

David Hernandez 18:54

Well, what was it like the first time you casted for them? Like, you were nervous? Were you, shaking, or were you kinda confident?

Amanda Lundberg 19:00

I was a little bit nervous. I know that they had, like originally, they first did the broadcast for EUIC. That was like the first one that was ever done in Europe, and it was, Will, Speediest Chief, Caleb Peng, Zyonic, and Butters were the four casters for it. And I had never played like a in-person tournament before. I'd only played like Silph or like the Gymbreaker stuff online. And I can't even remember what it was, but it was like I didn't even hear about this tournament thing in general, the whole like actual Pokemon Go competitive circuit, until quite a bit later. And some guy who had been working for the company who does the European broadcast had put out on X, If anyone is interested in being a Pokemon Go caster, please, fill out this form and show us, us some examples of your work because we're looking to start streaming the Go broadcast as well." but he was just really based in the TCG more. He didn't really have any Go followers. So I completely m- just missed all of these messages, but some people started sending me messages saying, "Amanda, you should, apply for this. You should put your hat in the ring." And so I looked it up, and I was like, "Okay." You know, I already have a bit of a reel because I had been doing the Gymbreakers stuff. We had been doing My PVP Academia, and because of both of those things, knew, like Will, and Caleb, and Butters, and I asked them if I could use some of the clips of things that we had done together in the past to make a reel to present, for this. And so immediately when, I sent it in, the guy sent me back a message saying, "Hey, I think you really fit this, quite well. when would be your first available one that you would be able to do?" And that one was in Stuttgart, Germany, and, that just took off from there.

David Hernandez 20:42

Was it kinda surreal once you guys got accepted into becoming an official caster? Like, did it feel, like prestigious?

Amanda Lundberg 20:47

Yeah, it was a little bit different in Europe originally because... So it was like Pokemon were sponsoring the streams, but they weren't official Pokemon broadcasts yet. So we were in this like gray zone. So they had hired a company called CSL, and CSL was putting out their broadcasts onto different channels. So it was like Victory Road for, the, the video game. I can't remember what it was for the TCG game. I think it was Limitless itself, which was the name of like their company that they were doing, and then Narelcar for Pokemon Go. And so he was a German trainer who did a lot of like raids and walked around the city and everything, so they knew him because, the, it's a German-based company. But also it wasn't something that was like big into PVP yet, so we were still trying to completely grow. And it's probably, in my opinion, like it was less stressful that way because we came into it immediately and we're like, "Okay, well, it's, it's still going out to quite a few people, but it's not an actual like official broadcast yet." So we have some time to learn and to make mistakes and while they're keeping an eye on us to make sure that we're doing okay, I think it allows for a little more wiggle room to figure out, "Okay, yeah, they do like this sort of thing. let's steer clear of, other PokeRaps." Apparently, they don't like PokeRaps and

David Hernandez 22:04

Aw.

Amanda Lundberg 22:04

other, other things like that.

David Hernandez 22:07

I like the PokeRaps.

Amanda Lundberg 22:09

Yeah, me too, me too.

David Hernandez 22:10

Well, regionals and regionals, but there's something different when it comes to Pokemon Worlds. What

Amanda Lundberg 22:15

Yeah, for sure

David Hernandez 22:15

when you sit behind that desk at the World Championships that you don't experience at a regionals?

Amanda Lundberg 22:19

like honestly regionals are, and I need to be careful 'cause I don't want my producer to cut me from Worlds, 'cause Worlds is definitely amazing. Regionals are fun though, because you actually have more time to hang out with the community. And so like the, the thing about the regional events is they're, in different countries usually every month, and then all the players are trying to get their championship points to qualify for the world championships. but so it's in the scrappy earlier stages, so you get to see like the, progression of how a trainer is doing throughout the year. are they at this event? Oh, they top cut this one, but they didn't do so well in this meta. by the time you get to Worlds, you get to see the best of the best perform against each other. So while maybe like day one of a regional competition there's maybe some more beginners or s- you might see some mistakes that are made that, by the time that you're at the world championship, every single game is pretty much a banger. Even on the beginning of day one, chances are you have some former regional champion playing up against the world champion of the previous year. there's a, a lot more big names, and just a lot more potential upsets because you've been watching these players' storylines through the whole year and you're like, "Wow, Doonebug won three events this season, you know, in one thing." And then he, he doesn't do so well that, that season at Worlds, and it's like, wow, okay. Like it truly is anyone's game.

David Hernandez 23:43

Do you kinda get emotionally invested sometimes 'cause you see these people over and over and over? Do you kinda get emotionally invested into their storyline? Because, I feel like that would be kinda something hard to separate as a caster.

Amanda Lundberg 23:52

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I would say a side note of that, one of the harder things to do is, like Martijn, Inadequance, is when he's a caster, we call him Martijn because it keeps the, the caster synergy, but when he's competing, we call him Inadequance. And it's just it's a rule of thumb. It's not necess- so horrible if you don't follow it, but the thing is, of course, you get invested in players, but you also wanna be, like, a little bipartisan, right? You don't wanna favor any player to win an event because as a whole, that's sort of against the, the casting part of it. You wanna try to stay, as a, a blank. this is what's happening. This is why it's huge, but not be like, "And cheer for this player."

David Hernandez 24:32

to add onto the question, you know, we're going on 10 years of Pokemon Go at the time of this recording. You've had a chance to see basically PVP evolve into what it is now. I guess what does that leave you when you look back on the grassroots day when you're doing two Skarmory's and Medicham, to now you've got a production and you're casting, What is it like to see how PVP evolved and to be a part of that?

Amanda Lundberg 24:52

Yeah, it's crazy. I feel very honored about it, especially to your point, like you said, this has been 10 years of Pokemon Go. Worlds in San Francisco, was the 30-year anniversary for Pokemon as a whole game, five years for us on the competitive scene, and it is, it's really cool to see how far the game has progressed. I know like anyone, there's always a little bit of, Oh, man, I wish the game would be better here," and there's definitely prime examples of it that you can see when you watch broadcasts even, that of course the game doesn't always act as, it's intended to act. But as a whole, I think if we take a step back and we recognize, man, like this is something that just started out as a, joyful side thing for so many people, and now people have the opportunity to win quite a bit of money, to have some prestige, and to be a part of this grander scheme of things. Like 50,000 people were at the World, not only Championships, but at the XP event. it's really stunning to think how far, it's been going. And to your point, I guess I have a lot of gratitude to be able to be a part of it all.

David Hernandez 25:56

Well, Amanda, to finish off this, I wanna ask a fun question to kinda ease the moment If you had your dream Pokemon team, six Pokemon, what six Pokemon would you bring?

Amanda Lundberg 26:04

Okay. So we talked about a little bit earlier on, Sableye would definitely be on the team. This might not even be a competitive team. This just might be my favorite, Pokemon. So I'm gonna g- I'm gonna go with my six favorite Pokemon. I'm gonna say Lapras is also on there.

David Hernandez 26:20

a good

Amanda Lundberg 26:20

Lapras, it's so coo- like, truly, as someone who's just coming in, not just coming in now, I've been playing for 10 years, but, when the Pokemon first come out, it's always interesting to see which ones you gravitate towards, right? Like, for me, I've found that most of the Pokemon whether in design or their, description or coloring and everything, seem to usually only be ghost or ice type Pokemon. Those are, like, typically ones... So they're not gonna make a very strong team if we're up against, like, a, a fairy or steel type. But I also love Froslass. Froslass is one of those Pokemon, not really used so much in actual competitive PVP now, but was really popular for limited meta cups that we had for, Silph or, gym breakers and everything. And, I think that one's pretty cool, so we'll put Froslass on the team. Foxes are my favorite animal in general, I would probably say Alolan Ninetales, 'cause it's just so majestic and pretty. But since I'm having, again, only ice and the ghost type Pokemon, it seems I- I'll go for the regular Ninetales, 'cause foxes just in general are cool.

David Hernandez 27:30

you could have both if you really wanted to.

Amanda Lundberg 27:31

that is, that is true. You're trying to limit me, I see.

David Hernandez 27:36

I'm not trying to limit you, I'm just trying to expand your potential, you know?

Amanda Lundberg 27:39

Good point. okay. And then let's see here. Man, That's usually how, how far I go. Umbreon I also really like. it's my favorite Eevee evolution.

David Hernandez 27:50

Oh, wow. I expected to

Amanda Lundberg 27:51

Yeah.

David Hernandez 27:52

on that one, but

Amanda Lundberg 27:52

Yeah.

David Hernandez 27:53

fair

Amanda Lundberg 27:53

Glac- yeah, ex- what is your favorite, Eevee evolution?

David Hernandez 27:57

Espeon, hands

Amanda Lundberg 27:58

Espeon?

David Hernandez 27:59

I love Espeon, yes. I love the little circle on its head. I love how it's very relaxing in a way whenever I see it, even in, battles. I don't know, it's just something that, it relaxes me whenever I see. It's one of my top three easily.

Amanda Lundberg 28:11

And then let's see. I'm gonna try to think of something, an actual like maybe like a legendary or some big Pokemon. when I w- I was on Charlie Merriman, he's a VGC casters, podcast once, and he asked me what Pokemon he thought, or I thought I would be.

David Hernandez 28:27

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Lundberg 28:28

And I think I picked, Galarian Articuno then, because I just like the, the look of it and its kind of majestic-ness. So I'll throw that onto the team as well

David Hernandez 28:38

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!