WEBVTT
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We are the community ambassadors in Ukraine,
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and here is our story.
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Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where we interview people's experience about Pokemon.
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My name is David Hernandez.
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I'm joined by the community ambassadors from Ukraine here to share their experience with Pokemon.
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How they built their Pokemon Good community and how Pokemon's kind of helping them with what's going on in the world.
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I'm excited to dive into this episode.
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Welcome to the episodes both of y'all.
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Thank you for inviting us.
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And first off, thank You'all for being the community ambassadors.
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I know it's not an easy job.
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and I can't imagine like how difficult it is to do it this time.
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But I want to ask like, when did y'all start playing Pokemon?
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Go.
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Let's start there.
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Okay.
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my story, could be like a bit long.
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Maybe, maybe we should start like with Nikita and, uh, go from there.
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So.
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Story can be long too.
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as many of, uh, as many, uh, like Pokemon Gold players, I started playing in 2016.
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I dunno about you guys, but the first week of, the game.
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and Ole we can talk about, game in Ukraine.
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It'll be similar to other worldwide communities before, I don't know, maybe before covid times.
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And maybe in Covid times, like in any other country, we had pandemic issues and we were sitting at homes and maybe we can talk about something that it is in Ukraine that no other country Like, Ole, do you remember February, 2022 and
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Yeah.
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Yeah, I, I remember, um, the.
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the third day of the full scale invasion and rocket heating residential house in here in Tiv and Tanks, uh, storming iv.
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everyone in the world were catching Corsola, Heracross and we were sitting at homes in panic and fear and like you had no, time even to open Pokemon Go.
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Just scroll and doom, scroll and use it
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Yeah.
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a really, really crazy time.
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I had
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Yeah.
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I.
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for, uh, and,
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too.
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didn't know what to do with it.
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But, I should say like, good thing about, Niantic because, as Nikita said.
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Full invasion in Ukraine started like several days before this Johto a lot of trainers have bought tickets for, uh.
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This event.
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And
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And when the.
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Niantic actually refunded all of these tickets, to Ukrainians.
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we were very appreciated for it.
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And they also shown, us that, Niantic know about us.
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Like despite the fact like, the game is not released here officially.
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They know
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They know.
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Ukrainian, Player base.
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they know we are like buying, buying stuff, they know our political, let's say, situation, our issues.
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They can, uh, refund, tickets, uh, before, like they actually know that we, can't, play, play this event.
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And, I still remember this.
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And, uh, it shows, us that, Niantic supports us.
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It's gotta be kind of, I guess, startling because for me, I remember Johto Tour.
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It was a time when I met with my friends here in the States where we just went and traded like another day.
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But for y'all, y'all remember it so differently'cause it's the time where.
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Y'all gotta deal with Russia, invading Ukraine.
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How did y'all kind of, I guess, come to terms with playing Pokemon Go while also dealing with the conflict that's going on right now?
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Yeah,
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Yeah.
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was the time when I, uh, moved from Kyiv.
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I'm not originally like from IV and, uh, not originally from Kyiv.
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I am, from the south of Ukraine.
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Mm-hmm.
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hometown is, uh, now occupied by, Russians.
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But when the war started, like I was, living in Kyiv.
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Have a study there.
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I was a part like of Kyiv community.
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we had like no ambassadors for, that time.
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and I'm not sure if we, did know like, each other with Nikita.
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but, I think we like, the same events.
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but.
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don't think we knew each other like personally.
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And that wa that was the time, when I moved to Liv.
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Liv is a small, uh, geographic lesson.
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it's on the west of Ukraine.
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like considerate, relatively safe, place.
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'cause it's like far from the eastern border.
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It's, Like very close to the Poland, like European, union border.
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It's like 100 kilometers from here.
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So it's, uh, considered relatively safe and, that's why we can like, play here with live almost, how it gets like, normal, lives and, be, thankful, for this, opportunity and, let's say privilege.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So that was the time when I moved here and, started playing here and meeting Local players it became like, I guess we I guess will talk
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we'll, we'll talk.
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it, transformed into me being, here,
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Mm-hmm.
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when I am even originally from, from w.
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If I can add a little, Pokemon
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By all means, go for it.
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Yeah.
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helps us to forget a little, a little, a little about, everything that we read in youth, like in the first month of, invasion, you couldn't, think about anything else.
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Our first Community day, it was Sand slash Community Day in March, and it was first, sun Days, uh, warm days.
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And me with my girlfriend, time, walked into a nearby park.
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We saw like two or three other people, no, not PokemonGo players.
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And uh, it was our maybe first, uh.
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Time when we tried to forget for an hour about the war and, just played and it was different,
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Yeah, I see,
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I see.
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I.
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the same like, with our, players in IV when they attend events, it's like, Some kind of, relief.
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Like it's an opportunity to spend several hours, like normally play a game like, let's say real law at rest.
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have a coffee together, with, uh, community, discuss the news maybe.
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And, it's not always about the game.
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it's more about, uh, the community and, having time together
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When it comes to just playing Pokemon Go and you're setting up the events, what made y'all wanna become community ambassadors and how has that role changed with what's going on now to back when y'all first started?
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Like, Ole said he moved from Kyiv at the beginning of the full scale invasion, but he was not alone.
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A lot of people from east of Ukraine and from Kyiv moved to the West and from Ukraine, immigrated to Europe or us.
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We lost a lot of people and our communities were shattered basically.
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for maybe one and a half years, community war we had no, like big central community, I dunno.
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But in the beginning, at the beginning of 2024.
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started to see many faces in our telegram group were asking like, where to go to play Pokemon, go in Kyiv, do you rate, where do you spend community days?
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And I started to think like, Hmm, maybe I can, gather these people in one park to help them to rate, to catch some new Pokemon We began creating our community from scratch.
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but then I saw news about ambassador program and I thought, let's try,
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Yeah, my, path, started even earlier because when I moved here to leave, first time, I wasn't interested in playing.
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I had like other issues like, to leave, job, like a lot of other issues.
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My family My family was like on occupied of, at the at the time uh, uh, a lot of other priorities, uh, I guess except the game and a
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and
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who had like, uh, the same situation.
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and several.
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when everything was established, job was okay.
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I.
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My family was safe.
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I decided to uh, like, uh, what we have in here, like in w what is the player base and stuff.
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at that time there like, uh.
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There are like several, several chats.
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Several chats, but were not very active.
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Like as I said, people have different priorities, like different issues.
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And, player base wasn't very active.
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at the time I, uh, met several players.
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from became like, core players of our community during e now, they, they are the core players.
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And we started like, gathering for radars and read events.
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I remember, some kind of literate, in 2022.
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Maybe Hoopa.
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Hoopa.
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That was Yeah.
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uh, our Yeah.
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like, let's say huge, whi quotes, gatherings.
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we had like seven, maybe eight people.
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That was like huge gathering in ViiV at the time.
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And then we started like consistently doing rate hours and the different, rate events for, for some reason, reason.
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our community.
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Uh.
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Always bothered like about race, like community days.
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We are not really community days, uh, uh, raid events.
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Uh, uh, I, me like to, to gather, uh, like for raid events.
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and we did it consistently, let's say for a, for a year, then Then I.
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the community ambassador program I looked through the description for, through the requirements, and, I said, oh, we already doing this.
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Let's, let's apply.
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it didn't even change anything like in our events.
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playing, hosting, like remains the same.
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but we started to took photos because like, for application.
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you need like several photos of events.
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you have hosted, there are requirements.
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Like you, you should have like 10 people.
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for that event.
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And, honestly, I didn't expect like from those, that application because at that time, game wasn't released, officially.
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Like we didn't, have any ambassadors and, I had no, expectation from it because.
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Come on, would they, uh, uh, accept, uh, a community ambassador in the country?
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They didn't even have officially released game, but it happened.
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How it happened for some reason, uh, me and Nikita accepted.
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and then, then.
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uh, we have three for now, ambassador in Ukraine.
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Right?
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Yes, yes.
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and we have, uh, several communities in different cities, who also on top apply.
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I try to, to help them, to go through the process.
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So waiting like for our communities to grow
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It's interesting'cause you've mentioned how you can officially get Pokemon Go in Ukraine.
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I remember, I think Pokemon Go ceased, support in Russia.
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Did that also co, I know that covered also part of Ukraine, right?
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Is that kinda what you're alluding to or?
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I guess, can you gimme some insight on what you're talking about when you can't physically get Pokemon going in the area you got?
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No, no, no.
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Yes.
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in Ukraine, in Ukraine, in any city, you can play Pokemon.
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Go catch Pokemon, look for pocket stops.
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Even in those cities that currently under occupation,
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yeah.
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you can download the game from Ukrainian App Store, app store and uh,
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You
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Play.
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in our, uh,
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Yeah,
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Yeah, so
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are problems with downloading the game and, don donating like, uh, making payments inside the game.
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but it works when you download it.
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It is gotta feel weird starting a community Pokemon Go no less.
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During wartime, what kind of reaction did you get from people trying to do this?
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Like were people for it against it, indifferent.
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I can't say they.
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against it because, this, community and this gatherings, are needed for a lot of people.
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For example, here in Liv, because as I said, can be called like a relatively safe, city.
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There are many refugees and people who moved here, like people who moved here from other cities as I did.
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And, those people, maybe don't have like a lot of connections here.
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maybe don't have like enough, social let's say, except their jobs and something.
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Joining any kind of community, even if it's, Pokemon Go community, it's, an opportunity for them, like to communicate, to socialize.
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It's not, not even about the game.
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It's, about, having a community where you can.
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Go, like every Wednesday you can join an event.
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You, you can grab a coffee, like with those people, discuss something.
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it became, a tight circle of close people which can go to the bar together.
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they can travel together with some.
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We had, several, trips it became, a community of people.
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I can invite them for my birthday, we can go to the bar sometimes after events.
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We have some kind of after party when we can go somewhere.
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Even like, without the game.
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Yeah.
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So, I, think it has, positive reaction.
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And, for those people who decided not to play during the war, there are a lot of them because like people have, their spouse, personal issues and game like is not a priority.
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They just don't play.
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And, uh, that's it.
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And, it could happen that they return and they always know where to go because, we have those, events.
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eventually people People come back and.
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didn't play, since the beginning of the war.
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now I decided like I want to join.
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Interesting enough that, we are something different from iv.
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We don't like, raiding too much.
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mostly gather on community days or Saturday or Sunday, meetings.
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almost every time I see face, like some someone, uh.
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Just started playing.
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Like a goes on our meeting and, Someone like, Having time to play Pokemon Go And, next day they are, going to the front lines.
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our community is not like, close circle of friends.
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We have, many people, like someone we know closer, some, someone is like first time.
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almost everyone said that, community ambassador program is a big deal for Kyiv because if there were no ambassador program, wouldn't know that by anyone in Kyiv place.
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They would have no motivation to go on rate days or community days.
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And I can say maybe 75% of our players that go to our meetings joined us just because of ambassador problem.
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I want to ask, Nikita, from what your, a colleague here said, he says that you're very big into the PVP side of things.
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Yeah.
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What do you enjoy about PVP and how is the PVP seen over in Ukraine?
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Okay, let's dive in some history.
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we started our, PVP tradition, in 2019, when PVP was introduced in Pokemon Go and, Silph Arena website was created.
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began our tournaments every month.
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Our first tournament had maybe 10 people playing and I won the tournament.
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Um, yes.
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Yes.
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and, uh, we had every month, one and maybe two tournaments, and our biggest tournament was, February, 2020, weeks before shutdown, and we had 50 players.
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Six winners of the tournament, five of them, for them.