"Wooper After The Haze Clears" ft. Adam Woodward from Sky Arrow Club | TRAINER'S EYE #191

Adam Woodward 0:00

Our name is Sky Arrow Club, and this is our Pokemon story!

David Hernandez 0:43

Welcome to As the Pokeball Turns, where every trainer has a story. I'm David Hernandez, and I'm joined by Adam Woodward, organizer for Sky Arrow Club, New York Statewide. Adam, welcome to Ask the Pokeball Turns. How are you doing today?

Adam Woodward 0:58

Doing pretty good. I appreciate you having me on the show

David Hernandez 1:00

Absolutely, and I'm always a fan of having organizers who build up Pokemon communities. It's the backbone of why I started this podcast, and Before we even dive into anything, let's start with that question. What is Sky Arrow New York City Statewide for those who don't know?

Adam Woodward 1:14

Yeah, so, Sky Arrow Club is a group that I created with a couple of friends back in twenty twenty-five when we were planning for a meetup at Long Island Retro Game Expo downstate. It's a group that I made to specifically focus on the retro Pokemon games, and one of the things about that is the fact that if you go to a store or, you know, you just pick up one of the games just, like, on, like, a marketplace website, you'll realize that if you get a legitimate copy, they cost a lot of money, and you're usually buying them alone, so you probably don't have a whole lot of people to play with if you're buying them like that. So, I noticed this in, like, the various retro game stores where I'm from in Rochester, New York, and I decided that it was probably time to start to make like a meetup group where people can, once they buy the games, they can come and find us, and we can, you know, do things like trade, battle, do any of the mini-games in any of the games that have that, any of the side activities like Fun Fest. in fact, Fun Fest in Black two and White two is actually what originally brought us together because before it was Sky Arrow Club, it was just a random meetup that we did in twenty twenty-four in Long Island Retro Game Expo for the Fun Fest missions in Black two and White two. And we've been growing ever since we've hosted those.

David Hernandez 2:26

I mean, it's amazing how you just saw a need because retro games, well I guess they're retro to us now, the old Pokemon games are very hard to find, as you said. And a lot of people may have a couple of the games while missing some of the more important ones. I guess starting with that, like what's been the experience in starting this club? 'Cause you said you started with Black and White for Fun Fest. What's been the experience about building on top of that?

Adam Woodward 2:47

Well, it's been challenging because there's a lot of different people that are looking for a lot of different things. Like for example, there are some people that you get the people that still swear by the Game Boy games, they're the best ones. They never moved on to the Game Boy Advance. You get some people that they're really casual, and they don't necessarily wanna do battles because the competitive nature of things, it's a little daunting, uh, it's very hard to train in the retro games. well, that's actually one of the things that we try to assist with because in our events we actually have rentals that we give to people. They're not really rentals in like the traditional sense. They're allowed to keep them. We kinda just call them rentals as if they're rentals like in Pokemon Stadium or Pokemon Stadium 2. But they're

David Hernandez 3:25

Right.

Adam Woodward 3:25

Them, and they're battle-ready Pokemon that they're able to use in battle events. And then you've got people that like, you know, all they wanna do is like, they might just wanna trade, they might just want a shiny hunt. So really balancing that is one of the really big challenges that we still are kind of working through. But at conventions, 'cause we do local meetups and we do convention meetups, usually at conventions we're a little bit more on the competitive side. And two weekends ago we actually hosted a Journey Across America Gen 3 tournament at Long Island Retro Game Expo. yeah, and that was rarely important because we actually had one of the previous winners of one of those come in to our tournament, and One of the things that was interesting about it too is the fact that This was also the, I think it was the 20th anniversary of that format to begin with. So we were very lucky to have hosted that. And once again, we provided the rentals for people that may not be the most like apt in like RNG manipulating or just outright just fully training their Pokemon. So that's what we kinda do to make sure that we bridge that gap while still providing a fun experience for people that, you know, they might not be the most competitive, but they still wanna battle, so

David Hernandez 4:27

That's fair. I mean, you touched on so much history of Pokemon, but let's start with a fun question just to get your experience behind it. If I was just to hand you a Game Boy and told you you could spend the entire night playing one generation of Pokemon like we were kids again, which generation are you picking and why?

Adam Woodward 4:41

I think Gen 3. Gen 3 is probably my favorite generation, and it's just because Gen 3 has a lot of little niche things that happen. I mean, the thing is, is it depends too, because I, I look at these games not as like a single player experience, but a multiplayer experience, and Gen 3 does a really good job at that with the record mixing. even things like the Battle Tower, you mix records with someone and their team shows up in the Battle Tower. But even without that being the case, like let's say like, you know, like single player or like someone else, I would probably still say Gen 3, not specifically say Emerald. I've probably sunk the most amount of hours in my game time in Emerald. I actually did like a-- it was a couple years ago, I did a one hundred percent playthrough of Emerald, so I did the Battle Frontier

David Hernandez 5:22

wow

Adam Woodward 5:23

manipulation or injection. Yeah, that took me three and a half years to clear but that's probably what I would play and continue to play

David Hernandez 5:32

I mean, you mentioned Battle Frontier for Gen 3. What else sticks to your mind when it comes to playing Pokemon Emerald specifically? What do you remember about playing that?

Adam Woodward 5:39

Well, I remember when I was a kid, I remember the legendary hunt, you know, trying to go and figure out the Regis and then at the end of the game, you know, you, you get Rayquaza of course before the, Elite Four, but after that, when you're searching for Kyogre and Groudon, it's like, you know, you go to a random route and all of a sudden you see the intense sun and you figure out like, "What the heck, what the heck am I looking at here?" in Gen Three there was the like, the legendaries, they felt legendary and that was such an awesome thing to have. I also think about all the secret events and all of that. A- any of our events, we try to distr- distribute these events so that people can actually experience them on cart. So I'm talking like the Deoxys event, the Ho-Oh Lugia event. Granted, I didn't get to experience those as a kid, but I knew they existed

David Hernandez 6:20

Right

Adam Woodward 6:20

always, for me, there was like a, extra layer of like mysticism to these. I mean, you know, Mystic Ticket, Aurora Ticket, and you know, one of those Pokemon that like, it's a mythical, so it's in the name. But, I think the presentation of it all was so good. And, you know, I, I even look at, you know, Ruby and Sapphire, I mean, for me, Gen Three was an era where Game Freak was absolutely trying to find unique things that they could put into the games. And I don't, I don't wanna say anything bad about like the, the newer games too. I think that they serve a purpose too. But I mean, you look at things like the e-Reader, you look at like the interconnectivity, especially with that record mixing. Pokemon Box RS. I'm actually a lucky owner of that

David Hernandez 6:58

Wow, that's a rare one. Yeah

Adam Woodward 7:00

So, you know, being able to experience like the whole ecosystem. Colosseum and XD, I mean, I have to bring them

David Hernandez 7:05

Oh yes

Adam Woodward 7:06

and XD, I mean, um, I thought they were fantastic follow-ups to Stadium and Stadium Two just in the battle mode alone. But I mean, a lot of people, I know really enjoy the scenario. One person specifically really loves Colosseum. But this is all to say that, you know, like that whole, that whole ecosystem in Gen Three j- just seems like everything they did for it, they wanted to make sure it succeeded and they wanted to make sure that they were, they were adding in things for everyone. Even, I mean, even contests, right? You

David Hernandez 7:32

Mm-hmm.

Adam Woodward 7:32

So

David Hernandez 7:33

I think you bring up so much because on one hand you're right, Gen 3 has so much untapped multiplayer functions that unless you actually had people who played or a lot of group of people who played Pokemon back in the day, but let's be honest, a lot of people didn't because Pokemon kinda dived in popularity at that point, you really easily missed that part. Like, you brought up, the Battle Tower where you mix records. You brought up mixing records, which also brought up your secret bases where your friend's secret base from one game could be into another one. And we're not even talking about the berry hunting from Leaf Green and all the mini games they had in there. There's so much that was introduced into that game that I think a lot of us miss it because maybe I think Pokemon was still trying to figure itself out at the moment compared to now it's more of a mature brand. But I think a lot of that exploration was both felt in the game as well as the people who made it

Adam Woodward 8:21

It was experimental. It was experimental for sure. They wanted to see what stuck, and I mean, I think they found like, you know, secret bases. Eventually they still made it into Gen Four, but it was like in a different sort of feel. And then like, of course, they had the Battle Frontier again, contests again. But, uh, yeah, going back to like what you're saying about a lot of people didn't experience that. This year the first year of my life where I was able to find four people, due, due to Sky Arrow Club, due to the club I made, I was able to find four people that were able to make perfect Pokeblocks, and we made them. And now it's just, contests are just pushovers now because we made these perfect Pokeblocks to max out our... And like we did it all legitimately. We grew the berries. We, you know, actually like made sure we played the mini game efficiently. So, that was rewarding, and I, I, I look back at that as just like a very like a small sort of like win for like the overall like purpose of my group, you know?

David Hernandez 9:15

I mean, when you think about that moment, just about getting perfect Poke Blocks, because for those who don't know, it's four players both hitting Poke Blocks. I think you have to hit the double circle if I remember correctly, but all y'all have to do it at the same time. What was that feeling like for you to finally experience that without, you know, having to use the NPCs?

Adam Woodward 9:31

Well, it felt like I had unlocked some sort of like console command that gave me God mode in contests. It se- seriously, like this happens and It almost is like the moves you choose barely matter. Like, yes, they matter in like Master Rank, but it's unreal. And the thing is, we still have not yet, at least in Rochester, we haven't had a, contest event.

David Hernandez 9:51

Oh

Adam Woodward 9:52

like the mini-games so far. We've done our own battles. We actually did a Safari Week shiny hunting event. It was a general, shiny hunt event, but the focus was mainly on like the Safari Zone. stuff like that, essentially just being able to do that with people. But you know, going back to your original question though, it just felt like what I'm doing for the group is paying off, and this is all to say too. I tout myself as like the admin of it, I'm not the only person that like hosts events. I have a lot of helpful people, downstate. I think like Mosquito, VGC, Ricky, they've been helping out downstate while I've been trying to get things moving upstate. Uh, I think downstate they have a lot more success 'cause there's just generally a lot more people. Upstate, we do find people, but it's a lot more sparing and we usually our events are a little smaller, and our conventions upstate are a little bit smaller as well. Which isn't bad 'cause, I mean, eight to 10 people is still a good amount of people to really like dig into these multiplayer features.

David Hernandez 10:46

Now you said doing conventions, so do y'all like host these conventions for people to come, or is it something y'all partner with? Like what does that look like?

Adam Woodward 10:51

we, what we do is we normally partner with the conventions. Like, for example, coming up shortly, we're doing Retro Game Con in Syracuse, New York. And, our current plan for that is I'm actually going to be volunteering for a majority of that convention. And basically what I'm gonna be doing is I'm going to be running a handheld lounge, and essentially what we're gonna be doing is we're just gonna play a whole bunch of handheld games. But there's specific events at certain times, and one of the events is going to be a Gen 4 tournament where we bring in two Nintendo Wiis with Pokemon Battle Revolution, and we just, play Gen 4. And, it's kind of funny because last year, to go off on a little bit of a tangent, we learned something very pivotable, uh, piv-pivotal about the Nintendo Wii. in 2025 or in 2026, if you bring a Nintendo Wii to a public area with a lot of wireless devices with, like, cell phones and all that, turns out that the connection doesn't really stay consistent and gets a lot of interference. one of my friends who is, like, the tech guy of the group, Mechdival, he helps out with a lot of the tech stuff, and right now what he's trying to do is he's trying to mod an antenna into the Nintendo Wii by basically stripping it down to the, just, like, the bare board and putting, like, basically hooking up an antenna and then putting it all back together so that there's a stronger antenna that's attached to the Nintendo Wii, so we don't get as much interference. 'Cause last year we tried to do this too when we were in the free play area, and, we just could not use our Pokemon Battle Revolution setup, so we had to do it all on cart. Which fortunately we were able to do, but it was still very much so like, "Oh, we wanted the spectacle of Pokemon Battle Revolution, but we couldn't do it." So

David Hernandez 12:23

Well, I was wondering, 'cause you mentioned how much, you know, you're into older games or retro games. What do you think it is about the older games that has changed or maybe been lost compared to modern Pokemon games nowadays? Like, why go back to the past?

Adam Woodward 12:35

yeah. A lot of it I think has to do with how they've moved things over to online play, and I think that there's nothing inherently wrong with that. This is like a prime example. If you go back to Gen 6 or Gen 7, you get locked out of a lot of content because those servers are offline now. Like, you get locked out of friend safaris for people that you add online, you get locked out of any of the festival plaza stuff in Gen 7, you get locked out of like the main trading in that, you get locked out of all the, Viv- Vivillon patterns. I always... I, I forget what the actual name of that. The,

David Hernandez 13:09

The villain, yeah.

Adam Woodward 13:10

Vivillon. Yeah, I don't, I don't know the

David Hernandez 13:12

It's okay

Adam Woodward 13:12

It's, it's weird. I'm sure you probably get that from time to time where it's like you see the names, but it's like I've never actually said the name out loud, so I

David Hernandez 13:18

All

Adam Woodward 13:18

how it's pronounced. But, you miss out on that in Gen 6 specifically because you can't trade people globally. you miss out on a lot of the past tournaments and all that they used to do. So it's very finite, and the thing is these required online features, and If you look at Gen 8 and Gen 9, it's kind of more of the same. I mean, you do have local wireless for, you know, like the camps and stuff in Gen 8. But this is all to say that I think that the older games, when they were developing these extra features, they were doing it in such a way where They were unique, right? Like they were... It wasn't just like... 'Cause Festival Plaza is basically just Join Avenue, it's just a little bit different. And then, the Friend Safari, like, yeah, the extra shinies are cool, but like, it's not anything that's like super unique. It's not even really a safari when like, in terms of like the definition of like how that was before. so for me, like the, the allure is, is definitely just... And you know, I'm not even going to say like, you know, the 3DS gens are bad. In fact, I love the 3DS gens. But as time went on, especially in the Switch generation, I think a lot of the experimental like, "Oh, we need to try to move this forward in some way," I think it kinda got lost. There were some things, especially in Gen Eight that, were interesting like you could host your own battle competitions, like locally. is something that I've never heard about like someone doing. The only reason I was able to do it was because I was also an admin for my, Pokemon's, uh... Well, I was an admin for my college's Pokemon club. So that club, the RIT Pokemon Club, we would do a beginning of the year event, and actually it's around the time where they're gonna do that. I think it's gonna be in two weeks again. And, we hosted a 30-person... I think it was 30 people. It was either like 28, 32, something around there. that many people, we hosted a tournament to determine who the eight gym leaders were for that year.

David Hernandez 15:05

Oh, that's awesome

Adam Woodward 15:07

do that every year, like they do it every year. And basically it's, it's a modified, format where it's basically you get- you have to choose five of the same type, and then you get a wild card. And the reason I bring this up is because we hosted this with a Gen Eight like live competition, like local competition in person system that was built into the game because Gen Eight really seemed to be like the competitive push for Pokemon in some ways, like where they really wanted to push it and like try to, you know, make it mainstream. Then COVID happened, so you couldn't really do that a whole heck of a lot in person. So I think that's really why I haven't heard anyone else ever use that feature. But, there are still features in the new games that exist. Like I think about right now they're still doing raids, like the seven-star raids in Scarlet and Violet. But to me they're not an experience in and of themselves, it's just something that they kind- it felt like they kinda just threw in. Whereas doing like secret base stuff where it's like, "Oh, I'm gonna make a secret base. I'm gonna have a themed team so that someone can, you know, can find my team and have a good time battling them," I think that's really cool. Or like another feature, for example, I love this feature, the Poke Walkers,

David Hernandez 16:08

Yes.

Adam Woodward 16:10

and SoulSilver. I always bring my Poke Walker to any convention I ever go to, and I always make sure I have a fun themed team for people to battle. And that's because, you know, it's one thing if it's just like, oh, this is just a team where it's just a Sandstorm team lead with Tyranitar, then Heatran comes out, Garchomp comes out, and then like I have to worry about everything in the back, but it's a Sandstorm team so it's super hard to go against. No, I think my latest team that I, made for Long Island Retro Game Expo, mainly just, it was a Colosseum themed team, and it was mainly not fully evolved Pokemon, 'cause it's just like, well, that's cool just to have a themed team. And I did like a Team Snagem cosplay with two of my friends.

David Hernandez 16:46

nice

Adam Woodward 16:47

yeah, so you know, I look back at that and I, I look back at like all the teams that, you know, when I connected my Poke Walker to other people and I got their teams, I look back at that and I'm like, "Yeah, that was a really fun weekend." And, you know, I'm able to still kinda remember people just by battling them in the, trainer house in Viridian City. So that stuff, it felt like it was more like thought out, like it was, it was more unique, 'cause otherwise, like you wouldn't really be able to battle anyone otherwise, or like you wouldn't be able to see like a team like that. so you know, and with competitive play, I don't wanna, I also don't wanna like talk bad about competitive play, 'cause I also do appreciate competitive play. But I mean, there's a lot of centralizing things depending on what meta you're playing, so you don't really get to see that where it's just like a cool creative themed team

David Hernandez 17:25

You know, it kind of remind me of back with Black and White, uh, 2 I think specifically, where we had the Union, uh, Tunnel or whatever it was called, where if you had your DS connected w- uh, with you and you walked by somebody, you get a character that you can potentially recruit. And I always enjoyed that to where,

Adam Woodward 17:39

Yep.

David Hernandez 17:40

you know, it made Pokemon feel more alive because you didn't know who it was sometimes 'cause it was always secret. But it was kinda cool to know that there are people who like Pokemon out there, right? To where I could build my own little tunnel out of people and kind of invite them in. I always look for specific ones. But that's just the fun part about Pokemon. Then you mentioned the Pokewalker to where it's on the go, to where you can battle. I don't remember much of the Pokewalker anymore. It's been years for me. But I just remember it being a lot of fun to where it felt like, oh, I can carry my Pokemon with you in a way

Adam Woodward 18:06

Yep, exactly. That's exactly... When I was a kid, that's exactly how I felt. I felt like legitimately the first time I had it on me, I was pretending that Totodile was behind me. I was probably a little bit too old to be doing that, I'm not gonna lie, because, like, it came out, what, 2010? So I might have been, like, 12 or 13. But, all to say that, uh, I definitely, it definitely felt like I, you know, it felt like a... I, I mean, a lot of people, I think a lot of people felt that way when Pokemon Go came out. That's the best way I kind of, like, refer it to, because I didn't really play Pokemon Go when it came out. I was busy playing other games,

David Hernandez 18:40

Sure.

Adam Woodward 18:41

Strike, but other games. so really it It was, it was kinda like the predecessor to Pokemon Go in a lot of ways, 'cause it's like, yeah, I just have this, like, basically, like, really minimalized experience of Pokemon, like, on me when I'm walking around. So I liked that, and once again, I mean, the connectivity of it was stellar. You know, you connect to someone else with Pokewalker, transfer teams, and, like, you get just, like, one of the rarest items on, like, whatever Pokewalker route you're on. So awesome feature. then they don't do that anymore. Like, they can do that in, like, a phone app. They coulda done that with a 3DS, 'cause the 3DS has a step counter. They don't necessarily even need to, like, retread the same area. Like, they can build it into the game and make it, like, a little bit more. But I think the only thing that they did with the step counter, and this is exactly the point I'm getting at though, the only thing they did with the step counter in the 3DS games is in specifically Gen Six, you can speed up the O Powers that you could

David Hernandez 19:31

Yeah

Adam Woodward 19:31

by walking. That was really it. Like, that was... It, it just felt like, like, there wasn't any StreetPass stuff for X and Y. They built it into Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire by doing, like, the record mixing stuff, and that's great. But then Gen Seven they went a little bit too overboard with, how powerful the game is. I don't know if you know this, but in Gen Seven specifically, for the DS, I don't think this happens on the new DS, 3DS, but I know this happened on the original. they actually have to power off the main 3DS operating system just to make sure that Sun, Moon, Ultra Sun, and Ultra Moon can run,

David Hernandez 20:04

Wow

Adam Woodward 20:05

you, can't really StreetPass if you're in game like that, because there's no, underlying operating system supporting the StreetPass connections. So that's why there's actually no StreetPass tags in Sun and Moon. They mention it in the game, but it's only if you're in game. What ends up happening is they run their own version of StreetPass. It's like Gen Five where, like, you have the DS on you, and if it's, like, on Sun and Moon, it still connects to other people that have Sun and Moon on them. But that's a lot more rarer than just having a 3DS in the general sense. So but that's also kinda what I mean by, like, they have this feature, or, like, even, like, Play Coins on the 3DS, and they just, they, they, they, they don't touch it

David Hernandez 20:43

Now, you talk so much about different generations of Pokemon. Clearly you've been invested with Pokemon for a long time. what brings you to Pokemon? What makes you come back to this franchise?

Adam Woodward 20:52

Well, I will say, let me tell you what originally brought me back. It was about 2013, 2014, I just started playing pretty much what I would consider to be my favorite game of all time. 'Cause if you can believe it, Pokemon actually isn't necessarily... It's up there, but it's not my favorite game of all time. My favorite game of all time is Counter-Strike, and, uh, I started playing it in tw- like, competitively in 2013. I played Counter-Strike: Source beforehand, but like 2012, 2013 is when Counter-Strike: Global Offensive came out. I went really hard into that. Like, I was in high school. I thought I was gonna be a professional, and there's a lot of reasons, like I see there's a lot of overlap into why I got so much into Counter-Strike and then why I came back to Pokemon. Because for me, what brought me back into Pokemon was the same thing that I originally went into Counter-Strike for. It was the fact that in terms of competitive play, there was a lot I was learning, but in terms of just like going around and meeting people, I really enjoyed doing that. and these games, after high school, I kind of, uh, went around a little bit. I was kinda focusing on that. I didn't go to college right away, but when I did go to college, they had a Pokemon club. So I was like, "Oh, I'm definitely gonna check this out." And then when I checked that out, I'm like, "Oh, I'm getting really into Pokemon now again." And, I would say that, like, the shift really happened during the pandemic, where I started to really dig into-- I was playing-- Uh, that, that was the point where I was playing Emerald, but I was really playing it a lot more as the pandemic went on, 'cause, you know, when you're stuck inside, there's not really a whole heck of a lot to and, Counter-Strike, the thing about Counter-Strike was when I was at college, it was distracting me from my grades Like, that's how good-- For me, that's how good of a game Counter-Strike is. If it start, if it, if it's a game that starts to distract me from every, like, everything real in life that I need to do, and it's so good I can't play it, that's how I know it's like, oh, it's, yeah, it's probably my, like, favorite game But this is all to say that, once the pandemic kinda ended and we started meeting in person again, I realized that I, I was really going to miss this community that during my college years I'd hung out in on Discord during the pandemic and, when y- we came back and we started to do in-person tournaments and all that. I was really gonna miss it. So, that's why I started my own thing, and I think with my own thing with Sky Arrow Club, one of the big things is I carry with me a lot of the same things that I enjoyed at the RIT Pokemon Club, as well as things that I enjoyed when I was a Counter-Strike player, and I would travel to go to tournaments and all that. You know, seeing the same faces in different cities, going to different tournaments, and seeing how different teams play and all that on, in Counter-Strike. that to me, carried me into doing this and is really what excites me. The fact that Meeting other people that are really passionate about these games, in different ways too. I mean, I've met someone who's really into shiny hunting. I've met someone who isn't necessarily the most into battles, but like she, definitely is like interested in it and a welcoming environment. And like I, you know, I've met people that They have really just kind of been more on like the casual side of things, but they've wanted to try out some of these events or even just like to hang out too, you

David Hernandez 23:45

Mm-hmm.

Adam Woodward 23:45

So, That's really what brought me back, is just the fact that playing the Pokemon games, and this is, this is what Pokemon Go did. I like to, uh, I, I didn't really play Pokemon Go a whole heck of a lot. When it came out, I didn't even have a phone. But, this is all to say that, you know, when that came out, the one thing that it did really well that I don't see anyone ever really talking about is the fact that I think Pokemon is intrinsically a social game due to its DNA. I mean, even back in Gen One, even like pre-Gen One, when they were developing it, the developers... Wasn't it something where it was like, one of the developers said like, "Oh, like it c- we came up with this because we were playing Dragon Quest," and someone got two rare items, and they were like, "Oh, that'd be cool if I could trade this to when Pokemon became a thing, and the, the importance of it was, you know, trading amongst each other and battling, they intrinsically laid the, the foundation to have this DNA, which was interconnectivity with other people. So that's essentially how I view it. I view it as a very social game where there's a lot of, self-expression in like team building or just like what you do in it, and there's a lot of, skill expression in the battling. I tend to gravitate to games that typically have like high skill expression. that's always, like been interesting for me as well and, that's really what keeps on bringing me back and keeps on making sure that this group that I'm running now and once again, with the help of other people. I can't, I can't like, understate how much like that downstate help is, for the group. But, this group that I'm an admin of, it's just that's, that's why I keep back. That's why I keep sh- I, I make sure that this group is healthy, you know?

David Hernandez 25:16

Do you remember what it was like to run the first ever group for your, area? Like, what was the emotions like for that?

Adam Woodward 25:21

So in my area, we actually started, while the group has existed since last year, in fact, we're coming up on the one-year anniversary, I had just got enough people to really start doing things around like... I wanna say March. What we did was we actually just did the Gen 3 mini games for our first event. Once again, it wasn't that I was nervous, it was just more so like Cause one of the things with the Gen 3 games is you still have to have things prepared. it was that, and it was making sure that the hardware works well. A lot of this hardware, since it's older, we had to use the, so we did the Gen 3 mini games, which are only on, like, the wireless adapters. Doing those, it was really funny, 'cause there's still pictures of us, like, all hunched over, like, really close together across, like, this giant table, because the connection was just so loose that it was very hard to... Not loose, but it was, it

David Hernandez 26:07

Very narrow, I think, right? Yeah

Adam Woodward 26:09

Yeah, it was so weak, and we had five people playing, or, like, four people playing, depending on the mini game. But we had, like, the max number of people playing. It was just very hard to make sure, like, the connection stayed in place. I mean, we all had a good time and I got to meet people that I hadn't met before that I had just talked to online, so that was great, too. actually, I guess our first local event technically was, like, a convention event, 'cause we actually did do Tora-Con. But it's the same sorta thing, where it's like, going in, I've hosted other events before, and my experience with the RIT Pokemon Club and hosting events with them, made it so that the skills transferred almost, like, extremely well. Like, there was no hiccups really. so I wasn't, I'm not really nervous in the least bit in terms of just, like, the hosting skills and all that. It's more so nervous about the hardware, making sure it cooperates, 'cause it's a little bit on the old side now. Um-

David Hernandez 26:55

bit, maybe 20 years, give or take.

Adam Woodward 26:57

Yep. I think the most nervous I was, and this is a true story 'cause this is a really cool event. In Rochester every year we have something called the Lilac Festival. It's when there's this park, well, actually it's really like when lilacs kind of bloom. But there's this one particular park where there's a whole lot of lilacs, it's like the, the city's flower, and, they all bloom, and basically they, they made a festival around that. And it was my dream for years, I'm talking about even before the pandemic, it was my dream for years to do a Gen 6 tournament at this festival where it's certain type of Pokemon only. And this year was the first year where I had enough people to where I could actually do that. But one of the things was because it was a public event I was very nervous about like, oh, are people going to be able to find where we are? Are people going to have teams ready, or are they gonna know the meta? is it going to rain? 'Cause this is outside so it's like, are we gonna get rained out and I'm gonna have to reschedule? That's the most nervous I've ever been for an event, coupled with the fact that I've always wanted to do something like that. The actual meta was awesome. it was no legendaries, but it was grass types, fairy types, and bug types only. ah, it was so fun. it's something that I think we basically, we all agreed like we're probably gonna do this every year, like the same exact format, the same exact generation. We're gonna do it every year. it was just a good time, and, like I said, like, it was like literally one of my dream events. And we had enough people to where it was more of like a free play event. We didn't really do a tournament, it was just more so like whoever wants to battle can battle. Other than that, like just a general like street pass Gen 6 meet up. we had a really good time, and unfortunately the only failing was I had to cut it short because that was also the weekend that the NASCAR race was happening in Watkins Glen. So I actually had to drive closer to the Finger Lakes that, that weekend just to get down to the racetrack. But all to say that we had a good like three or four hours where we just kinda battled. It was a good time

David Hernandez 28:50

And you mentioned how this was just a dream event for you, like this is something you envisioned. Did it feel surreal to actually have it happen during the moment when y'all were battling, like to actually see it come to place?

Adam Woodward 28:59

it absolutely was. I didn't think that I had to be the person to go and, like, really go and plan this stuff. I just kinda thought down the line I'd find other people that, would just, like, intrinsically just... They would just be interested in the games. So for me, really, it was a sign that what I've been doing... 'Cause the thing that-- One of the things I haven't mentioned is I've been putting a lot of just, like, general resources, mostly monetary, 'cause what I do is I try to get the help of other people in my life. Like, we have these flyers, right? And, one of my best friend's girlfriends actually designed the flyers. She was, like, a graphic design major. She actually just graduated. But all to say that she did like a phenomenal job. She's looking for like a career now. She asked me if she could use me as a reference. I'm like, "Absolutely." Because the flyers that she made, pretty much in every retro game store in Rochester or around the area. These flyers are hung up, because I've talked to the owners and like I've been a pretty good patron of a lot of these stores, so they were like, "Oh yeah, no problem. You can put up, you can put up a flyer." So there's been a lot of resources and time that I've put in, like putting up these flyers and, like, you know, spending the money to, like, get this stuff made, getting these flyers printed. of course, like, there's, like, the managerial, like, monitoring our Discord and, like, making sure that it's set up in such a way that's conductive to, you know, doing meetups and making sure everyone's safe. there's been a lot of things that I've put in, and this is all to say at the end of the day, having that event made me realize that what I am doing, I'm going in the right direction, I'm the person

David Hernandez 30:20

It was like confirmation for you

Adam Woodward 30:22

Yes, exactly. It's like enjoying the fruits of your labor, know?

David Hernandez 30:26

I mean, you mentioned how it's not just you doing this, that you have people behind you who do different roles, whether it be the Discord, the person creating the flyers. How important is it for you to have those people behind your back doing that hard work to kinda make sure your event succeeds?

Adam Woodward 30:40

I think it's everything, to be honest with you. for me, a lot of times it doesn't necessarily feel like I should be the one that's necessarily in the lead here, you know? I've thought about it multiple times, 'cause once again, there's a lot of just moderation, there's a lot of administering and like a lot of like layout things I have to do for the Discord that I have to like really focus on and really make sure that it gets done. And you know, it's hard 'cause I, I have a desk job too, so it's like, you know, I get out of my desk job, and then I'm immediately thinking about like development things or things where I need to improve for the group. Or like, if I'm like planning like a meetup that's happening, like I have to plan that as well, make sure everything's all set for that. I have to kinda come up with the formats that we're gonna be doing, the general activities. and even like for a while, I think it was like location was really difficult. I want these events to be free, so it's like, do I spend my own money if I'm like renting out an area? And normally I do. Or is it something where it's like, can I like meet someone like at a festival or at a park and, do that? But all the other people that have helped me out, whether it be... I call them the regional representatives. those are just people that are spread across the state. So like some people like, like I said, like Mosquito VGC, Ricky downstate, Lemugrub, who, is gonna be looking more towards Buffalo. She helps me out with a lot of stuff too. once again, that's everything. And in some aspects it feels like... I don't know. Like it, it feels like to me, maybe I shouldn't be the guy for this because it seems like sometimes I am kind of taking a back seat, especially to like the downstate stuff. But, I know that without my support, the people downstate wouldn't necessarily be able to run everything they're looking to run and make sure that it's in like an organized manner. So, there's a give and take and I'm very grateful for everyone who's helped out with this. And like my, my tech guy, my friend Zach. I'm glad that he puts the time into, you know, some of the projects that I might not have the time for

David Hernandez 32:22

I mean, you've talked so much about your experience, but one thing we gotta know is what's your favorite Pokemon?

Adam Woodward 32:28

Wooper.

David Hernandez 32:28

Really? Why Wooper?

Adam Woodward 32:29

Pokemon is Wooper. 'cause he's just a little guy. I don't, I don't know, axolotls are generally just pretty cute and I remember specifically I like Wooper because in Pokemon X, I was playing through the game, and I used to not like the Kalos games at all. Like, I, I hated X and Y. But rougly around the time I went to college, I was like, "Oh, yeah, I'll try, I'll try X and Y again. I'll try X, I'll see if I like it." And one of the things I did was I was in that route, that, that swamp route that I think is, like, directly north of Lumiose. I can't remember if it's... I think it's north. I just found a Wooper, and I'm like, "You know what? I'm gonna use this Wooper on my team." And I decided I wasn't gonna evolve it. I was just gonna give it an Everstone and see what it can do. And, yeah, it needed some support, but I mean, I went through the end of the game with it. And after that, I decided to start collecting ribbons with it, and I think right now I have... I think I have, like, 29 ribbons on it. Obviously, it missed out on a lot because you know, it's not like it can go back into like Gen 3, 4. And I also think I missed out on some of the ribbons in BDSP j- by virtue of, like, it was already level 100 by the time BDSP came out, so I can't do, like, the footstep ribbon or whatever. slowly but surely, Wooper became my favorite Pokemon because before that, it was kind of just like, I don't really have a favorite, I kind of just like the Ice type. But now it's just like, "Nah, Wooper." Like, without second question Wooper.

David Hernandez 33:52

But it sounds like the ice type's your favorite type though, but Wooper's your favorite Pokemon?

Adam Woodward 33:56

Yeah, so, I like the ice type, a lot, 'cause for me it reminds me of, upstate winters that are brutal, where we get multiple feet of snow. and, I was an ice type gym leader for the RIT Pokemon Club, 'cause I'd place high enough in those tournaments to where three out of the four years I participated in that I was a gym leader.

David Hernandez 34:17

Well, we're coming towards the end of the interview. I want to finish on this last question because I think it's important, especially for what you do. If Sky Arrow isn't remembered for the battles, the trades, the in-game events, what do you hope people remember about how it felt to be there?

Adam Woodward 34:29

I'm hoping that... There's two things that I'm hoping that one, actually three things. A couple of years from now, I hope we still exist. I hope I'm doing this as long as I possibly can, and if not, if I have to step down, or if it's something where, you know, I just can't run it anymore, I'm hoping someone else picks it up. So that kinda like leads into like the first actual, out, out of the two, the first actual thing that I want people to, be reminded of and like kinda like the legacy of it. This group in of itself, I don't think would exist if I didn't have a, long time ago, more than a decade ago, there was a group for Counter Strike that, I didn't manage, I just, attended. It was called Rochester LAN. That particular group was for Counter Strike, and it was a good community, and we all would just come together once a month and just play Counter Strike. And yeah, it was competitive in some aspects, but at the same time It would still be chill. Like, after the games we would go out from like the LAN center, and we'd kinda just like chill right outside the doors, and then like when the next game was ready to go, we'd come back in and all that. And you know, we'd go and like get meals together and just kinda like talk about like the pro scene and all that, the current happenings, the news, the updates, the patch notes. So this is all to say that I think that a lot of that life has kind of been repurposed into Sky Arrow Club, and in that same vein, in the same way that I look back at those twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen times where I went to this LAN center and just played Counter Strike with a whole bunch of people, I'm hoping that a lot of people still keep that fondness when they look back at it and say, "This was really cool." You know, the fact that this particular person was able to amass a good amount of people to actually like experience these multiplayer things again. and then, I don't know, like maybe that takes the form of something else. Maybe that someone's like, "Oh, well, I really enjoy," I don't know, off the top of my head like, "I really enjoy Quake." So then like they go and like they do like their own like Quake live meetup group where they just go and just play, like go to a LAN center and play Quake. Pokemon's a little bit easier since it's all on handhelds for the most part. But, all to say that I really hope that it inspires people to kinda just see what out, what's out there. I mean, for even like the listeners right now, I mean, even for Pokemon, One of the reasons that I like to do these podcasts is I just kinda like to get the word out. Like, you know, see what's out there. You know? Go on like your, town subreddit or something, or like go on like a Facebook group for like Pokemon in your town, you know, to see if, see if other people are playing these retro games and like meet up and enjoy them again, you know. cause they're so much better with other people. that's one of the things though that if people look back at this and just see all the, all the work that, you know, the regional reps put in and that, you know, me and other people put in to make sure that these events are unique, they're, lively I really hope they look back on that, and I hope that they look back at that with such a fondness that they try to recreate it.

David Hernandez 37:08

I like that. You wanna be the inspiration for others down the road

Adam Woodward 37:10

Yeah, exactly. That would be my legacy for this group. Like it somehow went away for some, whatever reason, I would want people to kind of pick up where I left off, you know?

David Hernandez 37:20

Well, thank you for listening to As the Pokeball Turns, where every trainer has a story. If this episode resonates with you, share the 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!