Oh
Baby, hand me the gun
Me, oh, me, oh
Me, yeah, me, baby
Hand me the gun
I
Oh
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Welcome back to day 3 of Pokemon XP.
I'm Anna here with Rachel, Glitter, and Joshua.
I cannot believe that we're already here at day three.
I don't want to think about it.
We've been talking about summer camp syndrome,
that we feel like we just caught here.
We want to keep playing.
I don't want to go home.
But that's OK.
We have lots of stuff to do today, at least,
just to look forward to.
If you're just joining us, welcome to Pokemon XP.
We're celebrating Pokemon across all areas
of the community.
And our job here is to bring you everything
we can from Pokemon XP straight to your screen.
So that means we have all sorts of videos
where we've gone and checked out some of the boosts
and things that are going on on the floor.
We have interviews with people who are here
and also on this channel,
you're going to be seeing a lot of the panels
that are being presented at Pokemon XP.
So let's take a look at what we have in store today
from our panels.
We have License to Thrill coming up first,
which is visualizing Pokemon beyond the games,
then the Pokemon gaming gauntlet, the cosplay showcase,
they've got to catch them all, game show live,
and closing ceremony tonight, big stuff.
Yeah, we're ending really strong here.
So much great programming here for day three.
I love the game show, I've been watching that all year long.
They've been streaming that.
And the cosplay has been so cool here.
I can't wait to see it all in one place.
Yeah, I'm really interested.
We had the fashion show yesterday,
so I feel like we got a little bit of a taste
of what that can be like watching all these looks go by.
Do you have any cosplay that you're hoping
you're gonna see in the cosplay showcase?
I mean, if we can tie it into what we saw
in our fashion side of things,
I wouldn't mind a Sableye cosplay
after seeing the Sableye fit,
because that was gorgeous.
And Rachel and I are still fighting over it.
Sableye fashion is trending right now, I feel like.
So are it.
Yeah, so are it.
I would love to see the inspiration
coming from these beautiful plushies.
I mean, we got Astro Pikachu,
we got this Charizard with a rocket pack.
So if I see anything out there,
I'm definitely going to give them a big hug and take a picture.
But it's been phenomenal to see the passion that people have
been bringing for their designs.
And it's day three, the final day.
So you've got to bring out all the stops
in order to represent the different Pokemon
and characters in the whole universe.
Now speaking of taking a picture,
we would actually love it if you would take some pictures
and share them with us.
We are watching the hashtag Pokemon XP.
And we have been getting such a fun look at all the things
that are going on from your point of view.
If we started out this week to be like,
hey, we're here to bring you everything,
but you have actually been bringing us things as well.
We've been discovering new things going on at Pokemon XP.
So please take a picture, use the hashtag Pokemon XP,
send us a post so that we can see what you're up to.
And I feel like cosplay would be a great thing
if you meet a cool cosplayer to take a picture with,
ask them their permission,
and then take a picture with them, post it with that
hashtag, we would love to see some previews maybe
of what's happening in the showcase.
Absolutely, 100%.
Yeah, give me all the photos.
What else is going on today that you guys are looking forward to?
Anything in particular?
I know we're all looking forward to the closing ceremony.
I know that's one of the big ones.
We want to kind of see the entire weekend have the final culmination
of all of the hard work and effort and just fun and joy.
And like all of the positive things that have happened all this weekend.
Yeah, to a conclusion, I'm wondering if somebody has never seen
the closing ceremony for Pokemon Worlds previously and now World and Pokemon
Pokemon XP. It has become such a spectacle. I was just explaining to someone you know when I first started hosting worlds 10 years ago
It was it was exciting
We had a video that kind of recap the week and we're like oh
This was so nice and then mystery shihara would come and give us announcements
And it was a so hype and then they would announce usually the location of the next world and
that still happens all of that still happens and
Now dancing and music and spectacle and there were fireworks
and there was an LED floor and an LED screen.
Like there was so much last year in the arena in Anaheim.
And now we're in Chase Arena.
I feel like we're in for such a treat.
It's going to be big.
So they've been able to showcase a number of things
going on right now, but a lot of people are here,
especially to get maybe one or two pieces of merch
that they've been waiting to get for day three.
For me, I'm really excited to see this panel
a little bit later today licensed to Thrill,
especially for a lot of creative folks
that want to be involved in the world of Pokemon.
and maybe they have a dream or an idea and they're able to collaborate with Pokemon
and then the dream comes true. We got to interview a lot of people yesterday about that,
especially with Santa Cruz. We're going to see that interview a little bit later today.
But also talking to Bear Walker yesterday, what a treat that was to see his boards in person
and to really understand the layout of what it takes. I think he said it was like nine layers
of maple wood and then shaves it down to seven. Just to know the woodworking,
the collaborative design and the deceit of the finished product was something really special yesterday.
That was a really cool story speaking of, you know, we're going to see this panel about bringing
Pokemon into other arenas, one of them being a skateboard. The story that Bear told us was that
he was like, I have loved Pokemon so long, I was making these boards, I made one for Pokemon,
and I found them at an event, and I gave it to them as a gift, and I said, please, I would
love to make these with you. And ultimately, that was what started the whole thing. So
That is kind of inspiring as we watch this panel to be like my love for Pokemon combined
with my artistry could become something even bigger than myself.
Yeah, that sounds a little bit like what Toasty Marshmallow was talking about as one of our
singers and it sounds a little bit like what you're talking about with the ending ceremonies.
It's just bigger and growing more and more people who have these amazing skills are
finding Pokemon, bringing them in.
That's how we got to a 50,000 person event this weekend and I think there's plenty
room and Pokemon to keep growing so anyone out there who's been watching
have been inspired by things you've seen or perhaps things you haven't seen
that you would love to add to Pokemon hit us up on the Pokemon XP hashtag we
love to get a preview of it here but over the years it's just going to keep
growing and I cannot wait to see what this becomes next year and onward we
do have that panel coming up soon but we are joined by some new friends here
on the desk we have shown you our Pikachu friends here but we we have
some new friends. We've got our Charizard, and I don't know if you have seen this, but
we have a rocket boosted Charizard with goggles so that the wind doesn't get in his delicate
little eyes.
They're crucial.
I know, right?
His wings have been flapping in the wind. It's so fresh.
I know. And there, I think you can kind of pose him a little bit. Picking this up is
very satisfying. I didn't kind of expect that. I'm really enjoying that. What do
you have over there?
This is currently, I believe, with a backpack or some luggage at the back. So this is
going to be me when I check all these different bags after I've taken this huge haul of merchandise
here from Pokemon. So ready to go, ready to travel, and also a little tip of the hat as
well.
So, seeing a little, hey, how you doing?
What a dandy little hat.
It's beautiful.
So much personality in that tiny plush.
Yeah. I love the way they've interpreted this year in San Francisco. There's a lot
of themes happening here, you know, and they all kind of feel like they go together
in a really fun way.
Do you guys have a favorite of the World's Exclusive Plushes?
Besides Astro.
Yeah.
Oh, man, and besides the Charizard...
I don't have a favorite chest.
This one is my favorite. I'll say it. I'll say it out loud.
I'll say it with my chest. That was my favorite bias.
Also, this is kind of the Pokemon XP mascot.
So I think that we have a special connection to that.
I think there's one element, though, and maybe we can't take it home,
but we'll try. At least, Glitter and I maybe will divide and conquer.
Is the Reqweza giant LEGO piece that we're going to be tracking at the end of the day today?
I have more than enough space in my bag for that.
Call me to I want to see you take that home. I I have this vision of you on the plane with it like in the aisle
Let's call the airline, you know, I'm sure it's totally right
They can fly along outside the plane. I'll make it. Oh, that's actually so true
Also speaking of things that you can find here at Pokemon XP. I think you finally got your hands on some Lego last night
I did it, right?
What'd you get?
I was finally able to get the trophy from the LEGO booth.
It's the little pokeball trophy, so if you guys haven't stopped by the LEGO booth, make
sure you do that, because it's absolutely worth taking the time to not only go through
the story, experience the smart play bricks, which are just absolutely unlike anything
you've ever played before.
But then you also get the little trophy at the end of it, and I was so excited.
You could shake Pikachu after a while, and he gets disoriented, I believe.
That was part of the experience.
He is a fully interactive.
That's insane.
And you went straight to shaking them
Okay, I was like let me see if it does and it works a total
First thing they say when they hand you a Pikachu don't shake it. Don't shake the Pikachu. I'm sorry
I'm sorry Pikachu. Okay. I'm sure it served a function with Lego
And Rachel I saw a really great photo that you took last night. Did you I did I did remind me what this photo
Behind a certain desk. I had a certain booth. I think it's it's coming back to me now
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My desk. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I saw that you took a photo in your office last night
A lot of people in my office down there. Yeah, a lot of people running through the Team Rocket headquarters over at the
TCG pocket booth, but that's fine. We're trying to get you on board
I hope you all have downloaded pocket by the way. Absolutely. I accepted my trade requests
Very good. Very good. It was actually the first thing I did this morning. I opened my eyes
I'm like, open a pack and I'll tell you, my phone alarm goes off, I'll sleep through that,
but I hear that.
I'm like, I gotta pack.
I gotta get it.
You should rise straight up.
Yeah.
And Joshua, I know that you got to talk a lot to Jimmy Page yesterday.
We saw the fashion show yesterday.
Any luck getting your hands on that new jacket yet?
Not yet.
And I'm thinking of what type of costume changes am I going to have to do in
order to sneak my way through the Pokemon Center to pick one of those up.
And I'm willing to trade my jacket for somebody else's jacket
to see if I can get through it.
But no, I will see who I can talk to to maybe get my hands
on a double XL size Mewtwo jacket because that's
my favorite piece.
And when I, Francis Dominic, who
was the model for the fashion show last night,
allowed me to try it on and I took some pictures.
And the compliments that were flowing out of Jimmy Paul
and Francis Dominic were like, oh my gosh, double XL.
Fit you perfectly.
I'm like, OK, I'm sold.
I definitely need to get one.
So Pokemon, help me out.
If not, there's always the future, or maybe next year, but...
I know who would always be able to get the jacket.
So, the Lapras mascot.
So, if we could...
Okay.
I'm pretty sure I can catch up to Lapras and ask, so I'll do my best.
I hope that you saw some of the parade that was happening here on Request the Road,
because we had all the mascots out,
and we've seen...
Lapras actually shares our dressing rooms.
Yes.
No big deal.
We're down the hall from a celebrity.
That's what we're doing when we're not on the desk.
to get an autograph. Yeah, I'm trying to be cool about Lapras. Oh, just staying out
of Lapras's way, you know. But Lapras aside, there were so many. I think I saw a Psyduck.
I think maybe two. I think I saw a Ralts. Did I see a Ralts? Oh, they made that. Yeah,
it was a slow poke. We saw a Lunchlax. There was a Geodude. There was a Lunchlax.
There was a Dragonite. Oh, the Geodude. I forgot. There was a Geodiggs. Yeah.
So if you missed that, I'm sure that they're probably going to do it again today. Do
do stay tuned to this channel. Also, there are plenty of reasons to stay tuned to this
channel. Plenty of drops, plenty of codes. We've dropped them before. You can find them.
I won't bore you with them. You've probably gotten them already, but do stay tuned for
all of that. And for our adventures, are there any videos that we know are coming up
that you guys are looking forward to them seeing?
Yes. Okay, we could talk about the Yerba Buena Guardians a little bit. Obviously, one
of the other outdoor areas for Pokemon XP, and I got to kind of do a tour of
everything going on over there and that was just a blast.
Ravensburger, there is a 50,000 piece puzzle
that's going on at this event right now
and so we got to check out that booth.
I'm super excited for that one.
And then also talking to some of the Santa Cruz guys,
some skateboards that we see some great art
and a number of other interviews I'm very excited about.
Plus we get to talk to a lot of people that are here
and of course we ask them, what's their favorite Pokemon?
Well, hopefully we'll have a variety of different answers
as we've continued that trend here at the desk.
Yeah, so far we have not had a single person
at this desk with a duplicate favorite Pokemon.
And I know that can't last forever.
It's got to happen today, right?
It has to.
Maybe.
But I love what it represents, which
is that there is love for every single Pokemon out there.
Rachel, any last before we throw to the panel,
any last shoutouts of things people should watch for today?
I sure hope we get to go to the TCG pocket booth.
Had a great time out there.
All right, great.
We are going to watch the license
to thrill visualizing Pokemon beyond the games
panel, so don't go anywhere.
It'll be right now.
I
All right.
Welcome back.
Good morning.
Francisco, we are officially starting our third day of the Pokemon XP.
Thank you all for joining us.
We're very excited for our first panel of the day.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to make some of our amazing collectibles?
Join us as some of our licensing partners come to the Pokemon XP stage and give us
a peek into their world.
Let's get ready, get the crowd going, get the noise going!
for our first pillow of the day.
I'm just going out of here and go ahead and sit down.
Hey.
Are they coming?
Come on now.
Thank you for joining me.
Come on now.
All right.
Good morning, everybody.
Welcome to the Pokemon
Licensing panel.
My name is, I'm your host, Amy
Sackleben, and today we're joined by
official partners that create
Pokemon's products for fans
around the world.
First we have from
Robinsburger, we've got Nate
Wiltz, and we have
we have from Robinsburger, we've got Nate Wilton, who's been with Robinsburger on the 2D puzzle team for over six and a half years.
And then we have from Santa Cruz, we've got Tyler Emanuel, who's the art director for Santa Cruz Skateboards.
He helped lead a team of artists and designers on their latest skateboard and apparel line in collaboration with Pokemon and the Pokemon TCG Creative Design Team.
And then we have Doug Wolfile, who is a manager on the Pokemon TCG Creative Design Team.
They're responsible for the Pokemon TCG packaging designs,
and his team collaborates Santa Cruz on the upcoming Mystery Decks.
And then finally, we have from SciShow Collectibles Julian Anzalone.
Julian is a multimedia production assistant who has played a key role in producing the video content
content for all of the Pokemon statues created by sideshow.
So everybody, let's talk a little bit of how did your
partnership with pokemon begin?
So robinsburger has been a puzzle partner with pokemon for
several years now. And celebration journey of the
40,000 pieces puzzles started. There were talks around i believe it was
2022 when it was hey, we want to do something really big for pokemon.
for Pokemon. And what that usually means is a 40,000
320 piece puzzle. So my specific involvement began
in around 2023, because as soon as I heard there was
going to be a 40,000 320 piece puzzle, I said, I'm in.
Like put me in coach, I'm there. So it was around 2023.
Yeah, we started preparing concepts, just ideas, nothing
on paper yet, and then by 2024, we're sharing our first concepts.
Cool.
So Robinsburger just released the world's largest Pokemon puzzle.
What was the process of bringing that to life?
These projects always start as, what can we do?
That probably took the longest to solidify since there are a lot of folks involved
and given the scale of this project and what it represents for both brands.
So a lot of ideas flying around of what kind of story are we trying to tell?
What Pokemon are we going to include?
I mean, so many things.
And we eventually we reached a direction everyone was very happy with.
From a development standpoint, it really followed a similar structure
to how a lot of jigsaw puzzles are developed where you have this idea, okay, so we knew
there was going to be the story with Eevee and Pikachu, and then it starts with sketches
of what kind of environments are they going to be in, rough drafts, then you, in some
instances, go to color, in some instances, you go back to a sketch, so it's pretty
cyclical in that regard where you kind of have to go through revisions.
you might jump ahead with one of them,
because in the context of Celebration Journey,
it's 10 4,000 piece panels, right?
So you're kind of treating it as 10 separate puzzles.
So one of them might move ahead, one of them
might move a little bit back.
It's almost like there was kind of a race a little bit
of which one was going to reach the finish line first.
So it's all part of the process, though,
And really those revisions are because we wanted it to be
the best it can possibly be.
So with so many to choose from, how do you select which
Pokemon get their own puzzle?
So I took a similar approach to how I, when I first started
at Ravensburger, was developing original puzzles, which
that's just an internal way to separate when we're
working on a puzzle with giraffes versus giraffe or eggs,
we, you look at, okay, here's the environment,
what Pokemon makes sense to be there?
So we know we had Pikachu and Eevee
and the Eevee evolutions with a recurring Pokemon
I don't wanna spoil, I hope everyone is able to find it
if you look at our booth.
So you have that as the basis for the environment.
So what Pokemon are native there then?
So we actually first started with it being more type-based.
So like the panel with Vaporeon, where we first
see Vaporeon, it was really focused on water types.
And then it kind of evolved to, OK,
we can really include a very diverse range of Pokemon
on each panel.
So it quickly evolved into being more habitat-based.
We wanted to make sure it was grounded in Pokémon reality.
So I had this document I had put together
that had a list of the Pokémon for each panel.
I had the things like the Pokémon's type
and what region they were from just to make sure
it wasn't too heavy for one particular region,
like, for example, Kanto.
So I think finding that right mix of Pokémon
was a puzzle all on its own.
but eventually the picture became together.
So what's one thing about designing puzzles
that you wish people knew?
This is a good question.
Puzzles have their own rules for composition.
Because you can really, there's almost like a dial
you can turn where you can say,
I would like the puzzle to be this kind of experience
versus this kind of experience.
One more that's relaxing and chill
versus more challenging.
And we really wanted to make sure that this was more
on the chill, relaxing side of puzzling.
So it's needing a lot, a lot, and I cannot emphasize this
enough, a lot of detail into the puzzle.
Because as soon as you have a really similar background
or pattern, that's what leads to a frustrating puzzle
experience.
And we didn't want to have that with this.
Because you have to think, OK.
This image and in the case of Celebration Journey,
each panel is divided into 4,000 pieces, no instructions.
So you have to make sure that experience is something
that people can work through, look for clues in each piece.
I hope that helps people who aren't as familiar with
Jake's poses of what should you look for if you're
wanting to get into puzzling.
So I use this example a lot, a nice pristine beach
with a clear blue sky.
Good luck.
So with that in mind, I'm just really grateful the folks
at the Pokemon Company International,
they were so willing to get as many Pokemon as we did
in each panel to really help fill the composition.
And I think that's what was exciting to see
is as each panel comes together, you
can see people are solving and looking for the Pokemon
to puzzle first.
And that's what we're going for.
So what has surprised you the most
about working with the Pokémon brand?
My entire sense of scaling with Pokémon has been way off.
Way off for probably my whole life.
So this celebration journey really
put into perspective how big some of these Pokémon
are, especially when compared with others.
So each panel, the Pokemon, are scaled to one another.
And so you have to think you have these layers.
You have the foreground, background, and background.
And it's really important to make sure, OK, they all
are scaled to each other.
Because fans will know.
So I don't think that level of scrutiny surprised me.
I think it was, if anything, it reassured me,
the high level of standards Pokemon
has with these kind of products.
Let's talk about Santa Cruz a little bit.
Tell us how did the collab come to fruition?
Thanks, Amy. On the Santa Cruz side, we were in communication
With pokemon soon after our first collab in 2023.
After that release there was a unanimous demand for round two
And we all just seem committed to making that happen.
Really helping pokemon celebrate 30 years was the driving force behind.
Wanted to come on board and get involved.
So what then was the process of working with the Pokemon TCG team?
So I would consider this project to be one of the most collaborative projects I can imagine for two brands to work together on.
We held consistent group meetings where we would all bring ideas and feedback.
And we even got to the point of passing designs back and forth and as we all helped shape the product line together.
Yeah, I think Tyler really summed it up.
It was very, very collaborative.
Folks on both teams were constantly on Zoom calls,
sharing concepts, bouncing ideas back and forth,
really brainstorming things together.
It got to the point where we eventually decided
that to keep things moving forward,
we needed to get both teams together in a room
and actually share a space
so we could shoot things back and forth super fast.
So we ended up meeting for a couple of days
down at the Santa Cruz offices
and really locked in what ended up being
the visual storytelling elements of the different 30 decks.
So obviously this is your second mystery deck
in collaboration with Santa Cruz.
So how did you approach making this partnership
even more exciting and impactful than the first one?
Right, well, even with the unbelievable success
of the first round, we knew we wanted to have
a new design approach for this next round.
So we started hearing hands early on
that there was potential for some unprecedented
opportunities around some of the artwork availability.
And then Shayna got to break the news to us
that we were gonna be able to leverage
some of the iconic Pokemon TCG artwork this time,
which was previously unavailable.
And I know from the Pokemon TCG side,
we really loved the original designs,
but one of the things that we wanted to do
was really create something that was special
by focusing on what made sense to our fans
from the TCG aspect.
So that means not just creating designs
around popular or beloved cards,
but really focusing on including things
that were really popular from a competitive standpoint
throughout the years, like trying to do something
that would be super meaningful to collectors,
as well as players of the card game,
in addition to fans of Santa Cruz.
We really tried to emphasize with each deck
what is unique about each Pokemon
in that given piece of artwork,
in that situation, which is a slight change
from the original co-lab where each deck was kind of following
a similar design.
This time around, we tried to do things completely different
from one to the next to the next to make sure
that we were speaking to what really matters to each fan
of each individual Pokemon.
Doing that, we were able to really honor
the legacy of both brands in a way that I think turned out
really, really well.
The screaming hand logo that you all saw up there earlier
holding the card. I think it's like a perfect example of how we brought those
two things together. So what was the selection process and how did the groups
break out? I mean honestly we really relied on the expertise of the Pokemon
TCG side but I will say we were very happy with the results. Yeah it's
kind of hard to describe what the actual selection process was like
without getting super in depth but really we have some fantastic people at
TPCI that work on the trading card game from a product development standpoint
and they spent a lot of time developing a list of characters and cards that were
really reflective of 30 years of the Pokemon trading card game or sorry
Pokemon brand as a whole but the trading card game and its entirety
something that was reflective of what characters people respond to well and
what cards have mattered during the competitive gameplay throughout the
years. So it's really about the entire history of the card game. There was a lot
of back-and-forth internally and with our partners over at Creatures to refine
that list into something that would really work for a global audience, not
just folks that that are over here in the States or something. When it came
time to design the decks though it was easy for us to see where we could
kind of group some of the designs together to create kind of visual
language around some of the connections between characters.
So if you look at the base set starter decks that are up on the screen now, this is a fantastic
example of how we were able to create visuals that work together across different decks,
but still emphasize what's unique about each of those different characters.
If you have a chance, definitely stop by Santa Cruz up top and you can see all the little
things that we tried to put into the decks that really bring those groupings together
in a cool way.
Great, thank you.
Alright, let's talk a little bit about SciShow Collectibles.
Of course, of course.
Julian, what is SciShow Collectibles?
What is SciShow?
Well, that's SciShow we like to refer to ourselves as a modern day Renaissance studio.
We create high-end 3D collectibles across an array of scales and styles,
from 1.6 which are articulated and poseable to the impressive life-size which are 1 to 1.
We've been making collectibles from beloved pop culture media for over 30 years now.
And it is a real honor that we get to work with a Pokemon company international
and turn their incredible characters into beautifully crafted statues.
And Amy, I would love to show the audience right now a few photos of the statues that we have at our booth.
Absolutely.
Okay, so that is the first statue that we created. That is our life-sized Pikachu.
And it's just a beautiful representation of such an amazing Pokemon. That a Pokemon that
everybody knows around the world and that everybody has just like fallen in love with and
has, you know, just carried the Pokemon like love and to fandom to so many people.
And that is our second life-sized piece, that is our life-sized Eevee, and my favorite part,
a little Easter egg about this piece, the base, the flowers, each individual flower
represents an Eevee evolution. So, and its paw is about to touch a flower, and you can actually
move one of the flowers into this specific rotation so that like oh you
would like your EV2 evolve into a Vaporeon or Jolteon or Umbreon and so
you can put it there. It's really sweet. And that is our first diorama. This is our
Snorlax diorama. It has 10 unique species of Pokemon and actually two
evolutions in there. So we have our Munchlax and our Snorlax and then you
can't see up in the tree. It's our Smovert and our Greedon is right
there below but such a beautiful piece representing like just the
environment that you would find like Pokemon in and just in such a cool cozy
environment with our slowpoke sleeping in the water and their Pikachu and Eevee
sleeping on top of Snorlax's belly. It's so cute.
Nice.
Um, and that is just a full collection shot of the first four statues that we
had and that we created and you can see also our statue of our Charizard which
is a beautiful piece, beautiful representation of just the fiery aspect
of Charizard how just powerful that character can be.
And as we've seen in the gameplay,
for across this whole tournament at Pokemon Worlds,
it's been such an amazing character to see play as well.
And so we wanted to capture that essence
from the gameplay or original animation.
And so yeah, this is the first four
and we have two more that we debuted today at the show
and they're at our booth now.
So, but it's just such an amazing collection of statues
and beautiful Pokemon characters that we got to show off.
So, what is such a process for creating the Pokemon Collectible?
Yeah, so each collectible or each statue is super high-end, super detailed,
and it takes around 10 to 14 months of development for each project.
And so our senior concept designer, she illustrates every single piece that you've seen there in
their photo gallery, and she draws concepts of poses in the base environments.
And so once we finalize and pick out which Pokemon pose or which base environment that
we choose and we want to make into a statue, we hand that off to our sculptors and then
they 3D sculpt that.
We take those digital files, we bring them over to our 3D printers, 3D print the pieces,
have them cleaned up in primes, ready for the painters, and now it's the painter's
job to bring the vibrancy of the Pokemon world to life.
And so that process takes also around a month or two.
And at each step we work closely with the Pokemon team to ensure that every detail is
spot on and it's perfect.
And so as you can see in the photos, like, you get an amazing Pokemon statue.
Yeah.
So can you share some insights on how you take a flat 2D animated asset and then turn
it into a three-dimensional sculpture?
Yeah.
So with the guidance of the Pokemon team, our senior concept designer, she takes
the references they provide and combines it with her own knowledge because she's such
an avid fan of Pokemon for years and so she knows what a lot of these Pokemon would be
like the environments they live in or their types of course and so she takes all that
and what she does is she captures an emotion and story just in this still statue and it's
really really impressive and so but the real challenge is preserving that emotion
and story into the final three-dimensional statue.
And so for us as Saito, it's really making sure
that when you see the final statue, when the collector,
when the fan sees the final statue,
that the character still evokes the feeling and narrative
that is seen in the game's original animation.
OK.
So with so many Pokemon regions, items,
and the Pokemon themselves, how do you decide what items
to create?
It is.
It's tough.
It's so tough.
But first, it's all a part of the collaboration
with the Pokemon team.
That's what helps just figure out,
there's so many different species of Pokemon,
so many unique, there's 1,000 plus Pokédex entries.
And so it's great to have them support us.
The Pokemon Company International supports us
the whole way to make sure that we choose the right Pokemon
to show off to make an statue form.
But also for us, it's actually the scale as well.
So as much as I would love a life-size Onyx,
We can't do that. We have to make statues that fit through your front door.
So that's why we want to highlight characters like our life-size Pikachu and our Charizard.
And for our dioramas, we want to explore the world of Pokemon, just like in the Star
Last Wonder, just like a specific environment, and show them in their natural habitats
or a Pokemon's full evolutionary line, which I'll tease later.
Okay. All right. So kind of a question for the broader team here.
What's the most rewarding part of working with Pokemon?
Amy, it's in the question. Working with Pokemon.
That's the most rewarding part about working with Pokemon.
I mean, like Tyler, Doug, and Julian talked about, you have these meetings
with the folks at Pokemon talking about Pokemon.
It's so exciting. I mean, that's the best kind of meeting you could ever ask for.
Oh, and sorry.
Um, for us at Saito, many of our artists are true fans of Pokemon, and it's been such a pleasure to be
like just brought into this world and be able to make statues for other true fans around the world.
And for me personally, like I grew up with Pokemon and being here at this event and seeing
the amount of people and them enjoying the amount of love they have for specific characters or
or just being around everybody,
it should be so amazing for me.
So like just bring my inner child back
and just be, I don't know, just be part of an amazing fandom.
Yeah.
So what excites you almost
about the future of Pokemon merchandise?
I love when I see merch that digs deep
and pushes what can be put on a product.
I think what Doug and Tyler are doing with,
like, hey, can we use this artwork?
And it's like, we're asking for more.
We've been doing this for 30 years,
and we're still coming out with new and exciting stuff.
And yeah, this hunger for, this is really cool.
What else do you have?
Yep.
You know, and I think even what Julian and Sacho is doing
is bringing these characters to life,
and it's incredible.
We're still going at it, and we're not stopping.
So can anyone tease any upcoming products or collection?
I can't tease anything specific yet,
but I will say, like I talked about earlier, just because
some of the ideas that didn't reach celebration journey
does not mean they've gone away.
That could be revisited for some kind of special collection
or a different kind of puzzle.
For now, I hope everyone has fun
finding all the exciting details and nods and references to Pokemon we put in
Celebration Journey. I look forward to you telling me about them at our booth.
Yep. Tyler and Doug, do you have something to share with us?
So we don't have anything to tease but we were wondering if everybody would
actually like to see us open one of the mystery decks that are coming out
later this year.
Woo!
Yeah.
All right.
We're going to stand up for this.
Yeah, we can use that.
Is anybody guessed?
What do we think it's going to be?
What?
What have you got?
All right.
I got a piece.
So, as you can see, each deck comes wrapped.
Nice protective paper.
Keep it safe.
It also comes with a booklet for those of you who are familiar with ETBs.
You know what's in here.
Yeah.
And then you actually dig into it.
We're just going to rip this.
Got it?
Yep.
Alright.
Moment of truth.
Let's go.
And bail it.
Here you go.
Cardboard.
Ooh.
Yay.
Alright.
So that's an experience that you can expect with everyone of the Mystery Decks.
one of the mystery decks when you get them later this year.
Thanks, everybody.
Very cool.
Julian, do you have anything to share?
I don't have anything physical, but I do work with multimedia
and I was able to personally work on a video
for a fan favorite ghost type trio
that I would love to share with everybody.
Something stirring in the shadows.
Ghastly, Potter, Gengar!
Our first Pokemon piece to capture a full evolutionary line in a single scene.
Rising from a hand-painted base sculpted in stunning detail.
A creepy crooked tree looms over this mischievous ghostly trio.
As Gengar charges up sinister shadow balls
and crafted down to the last translucent wisp of fog.
A centerpiece for the display shelf, not for the toy box.
Thank you.
All right.
Everyone, I would like to give a sincere thank you to all of our panelists if we can please
give them a round of applause.
Thank you so much for coming with us.
Thank you for everything that you do to help bring our products to life.
We appreciate you.
And everybody, please check out all of today's panelists, set their booths and activations
throughout the campus.
And I think with that, we're good.
Thank you everybody.
I
Oh
I
Oh
I
Welcome back to Pokemon XP on this beautiful day three morning here on Rayquaza Road.
I am Anna joined by Joshua and Glitter here on the desk and we just saw License, License
to Thrill.
Very fascinating to see all these different partners with Pokemon and what it takes
to design, implement, and then bring to market these different items that celebrate Pokemon.
But I really enjoyed the sideshow collectibles, especially that Snorlax kit.
And one of the fascinating interviews that we had yesterday with Bear Walker was how
to take a design or a dream and then once it becomes real, realize, okay, this maybe
needs to be changed, maybe rework this, change that color to make it just right.
So shout out to all the town of people that helped make all these different items
come to life.
I actually, I was at the sideshow booth really quick when I was down there and I was, I was
ooing and oing and cooing over a Pokedex sized Eevee statue.
And it was also next to a Pokedex sized Pikachu statue.
And we've been talking about how Pokemon care so much about the consistency and delivering
to their fans exactly what they love about their Pokemon.
And I was like, I thought that Eevee and Pikachu were about the same size.
And they were like, actually Pikachu is measured from the top of their head to the ground where
Eevee is measured from the top of their ears to the ground.
So I learned something new about one of my favorite Pokemon and got to visualize them
as they would be as my pet.
And I would just like to say exactly the same size as my dog.
Just exactly the same size.
So many parallels every time.
She was sent to me as the perfect Eevee that she is.
Yes, absolutely.
And the perfect Pombon that she is.
I could not be more thrilled with the cute fluffy things.
I really hope, we were talking about this a little bit,
but I really hope that you do a side-by-side photo,
do a little bit of dye on your dog to match Pom Pom,
and then just show how alike they are.
I have a photo I'll show you later.
Once we're not up here,
I'll show you a little something that we have in store.
But right now, we actually are going to get
a little bit more of a look into the world of puzzles,
and of skate, and all of the things
that were mentioned in that panel.
So right now, we get a chance to, I believe,
check out a booth tour that you did.
That's right, we have a Ryansburger,
which is a company that's been around for quite some time,
and they've been designing puzzles,
and we have a 50,000 piece puzzle that is here
at Pokemon XP, and all weekend long,
folks have been coming by to try to add
their sections to the puzzle.
I got to talk to Nate Welton from there,
and it was really cool to dive deeper
into the puzzle strategy,
and what it takes to design these puzzles,
and then for the public to have access
to these Pokemon puzzles from Ravensburger.
It's really cool.
I want to take a look at that.
So let's do that right now.
Hey everybody, we're at Pokemon XP
and I'm joined by Nate Wilton from Ravensburger.
Nate, it's great to have you here.
Thank you, Josh.
It's great to be here.
So tell me more about this booth
and this huge puzzle that's going on behind me.
Yeah, we are solving Pokemon Celebration Journey,
Ravensburger's 40,320 piece jigsaw puzzle.
That's huge.
That is huge.
What goes into the design of creating such a huge puzzle like this?
Everything, like what's the story behind it, where the Pokemon going,
what Pokemon are going to be in it, where the environment's going to look like,
everything, everything, all the love in the world went into this.
Now can you tell me a little bit more about Ravensburger as a company?
So Ravensburger is a 140-year-old family-owned German company
based out of Ravensburg, Germany, started as a publishing company
and has since expanded into many categories of toys, games and puzzles.
And what is your particular history with the company?
So I started actually in January of 2020.
So you can imagine how that kind of really shifted.
Oh yeah.
Puzzles were always there
and then went to the top of the world.
And it's just been an amazing journey since.
So I do a lot of art direction with,
hey, this is what we're looking for with the artwork.
So I think with Celebration Journey
was a big collaboration with Pokemon.
Now, how did this collaboration come about
and what's it been like to work with Pokemon?
This has been years in the making
and really started picking up in 2024
and it's just been an amazing,
for lack of a better word, journey since.
Tell me a little bit more about the strategy behind
putting a puzzle together.
There are no real rules to solving a jigsaw puzzle.
There are some go-to strategies
like you might start with the frame or the edges, right?
But sometimes I think celebration journey
is a great example where people are gravitating
towards the Pokemon.
And I think people are understandably looking
for their favorite Pokemon to solve.
and so you can actually see as this puzzle is being solved,
you can see a lot of the Pokemon have already been assembled
and so then it's working on the environment
to build around them.
We take that into consideration, right?
Cause you have to always think these puzzles
are going to be taken apart and assembled, no instructions.
So you, I like to provide guidance
and give puzzlers plenty of details to work with.
And, you know, in the case of Celebration Journey,
it is 10, 4,000 piece pans, right?
You gotta think this is a massive scale.
So even that, you know, you have these small pieces,
give them little hints, help them out as much as you can.
Now, I still go by the edges first, is that okay?
Yeah, you can hurl however you want.
Okay.
There's no judgment in that.
It's like organizing by color in different boxes.
Yeah, that's great.
Those are all great techniques.
Now, you're a huge fan of Pokemon.
Tell me a little more about your journey with Pokemon.
I grew up with Pokemon, played the games,
loved everything about it, watched the shows.
I love Pokemon.
And you'd be able to check out maybe some of the other booths
or some of the presentations and panels we've had here.
Like seeing the artwork, seeing just all the ways
Pokemon is celebrated and loved is incredible.
This is the biggest Pokemon puzzle in the market, correct?
It is.
Dang.
So is there any limitation in terms
of how many pieces, kind of realistically,
somebody can take home?
Or is it really just what can fulfill
the design of what you want to present as the end result
when it comes to how many pieces you want to have?
I think you can really choose a peace count
and then you let the art work
and then you basically arc around that.
Sometimes like if you have a 3000 piece
and often the dimensions change,
sometimes it doesn't work
because you don't wanna crop certain things off
if you're looking at that.
So when you often will start with a peace count
and then it's like, okay,
I'm working around these dimensions.
And then do you see art from the world of Pokemon,
especially from either the trading card game
or from the video games,
you think, oh, that would be an amazing puzzle.
I have permanent puzzle vision.
I cannot look at any artwork of any sort
without putting a puzzle piece,
dialing on it and saying,
yeah, that could be pretty good.
Do you have any favorite memories
from these last 30 years of Pokemon
that has helped influence the designs
when it comes to your puzzles?
There are a lot of Easter eggs
and nods to Pokemon that.
I wanted to make sure we're in there.
Oh, beautiful.
And I hope everyone can find them.
And I think people will.
Have you had any particular Pokemon in the last three years that has become a favorite or do you have multiple favorites?
You know, I've always, ever since I saw Haxorus, I said that has been my favorite Pokemon. Haxorus is so cool.
But I mean, going through some of these, I'll say Panel 7, the jungle one, I have the three Bellossom and that's a reference to the Pokemon Movie 2000, Pikachu's Rescue Adventure when the three Bellossom dance.
To be able to put that and represent that on a puzzle is just really exciting.
It's little nods like that that I think fans will appreciate and I know the folks at the Pokemon Company International appreciate it too.
Oh, that's beautiful. So everybody here at Pokemon XP can come by and actually contribute to putting this puzzle together?
Absolutely, yeah. Come on over and grab some pieces and start solving.
Alright, Nate. It was a pleasure to meet you.
Like wise.
Phenomenal experience here at Pokemon XP.
And we actually have Nate with us here on the desk right now, and I'm stoked about this
because I really want to talk to you about these puzzles, but before we do, I need to
point out, you said your favorite Pokemon is Haxerous.
Yes, it is.
Our record is...
We're still good.
Yeah, we...
Take continuous.
Every single person on this desk so far has had a different favorite Pokemon.
I am not surprised.
I am surprised, but I shouldn't be, because...
There's so many good ones to choose from.
They really are quite a few, yeah.
Talk to us about the collaboration with Pokemon.
Are there other puzzles that people
may have experienced before from Ravensburger?
Are there more coming?
What can people expect?
Yeah, there.
So I talked about this in the panel, Ravensburger.
And Pokemon have been partners for several years now.
But this is by far our biggest endeavor.
And you said on the market, but I can't take home
this this size of puzzle camera. You sure can. I can get it at
robinsburger.com. Can you can you physically estimate how big the
box is that on the wall? Is that how big it was? Yeah. How big is
the box of the pieces come in this big and this tall about 40
pounds? Wow. Yeah. Wow. 40,000 pieces feels like 40 pounds.
I want to wow I want to know how that feels. That's really
really cool. I actually I asked because you mentioned joining
up in January 2020. And I was doing a lot of Robbins Burger puzzles in 2020. It brought
me a lot of comfort when I was at home. So thank you for all your hard work. And lastly,
I know you guys have questions. I'm sorry. You said that there are no correct ways, like
no correct techniques, you know, how to do a puzzle. My grandmother actually was huge
puzzle and huge gamer taught me that you must do the frame first and so I do that in her honor
but I want to know even if there's no right way what do you do definitely frames frame first yeah
okay yeah good flip the pieces well I guess even before that you can flip the pieces
then you can start working on the frames celebration journey is a little bit different because
you don't have every edge on each panel right so panel one only has two edges so then you
You're gonna start with how it connects to the other ones.
So it's a little bit different in that way,
but yeah, I don't think there's a wrong way
to solve a jigsaw puzzle.
Love that.
With your testing out the final product,
has there ever been a moment where like,
there's something we can do to make this either
a little bit more easy to put the puzzle together?
Oh yeah.
Or challenging or trying to find that perfect balance
in between, what is that process like?
It's just as the progression
of the artwork moves along, then it's like,
ooh, we should add another Pokemon here.
Ooh, we gotta add a Pokemon here.
Like, really, I think, especially for the bottom half
of the development of Celebration Journey,
that's when we were really hitting our stride.
I was getting a little more bold,
where I'm like, oh, we gotta have Pokemon here,
add one there.
A lot of it had to do with how we were adding Pokemon,
their interactions, the stories they were telling.
Yeah, there was a lot of nuances of like,
oh, we gotta add a little more detail here,
especially to the environment,
because that was all illustrated.
So we had a lot of control over, and like I talked about,
the dial that you can set for where you want this puzzle
experience to be.
And all the little hints help.
To find the proper contrast to within the colors themselves.
And then working with Pokemon, I mean,
each of these different Pokemon have their specific colors.
So to dial that in is very important.
When you're able to take a look at the entire image,
is there something about the brightness
that maybe you're looking at when it comes to how
the colors pop?
And you have to dial it in perfectly as well?
Absolutely.
There's always those little tweaks of, okay,
how is this going to translate
when you see it as the actual puzzle piece?
So I like to use the idea of every piece
should feel like a little piece of artwork.
So you can really, when you're puzzling,
you're scrutinizing, you're really looking at those pieces,
okay, what are those little patterns that I'm seeing?
And then you're referencing the box or the poster.
Yeah, those little things go a long way.
Yeah, and so I'm always checking, like, zooming in.
I call it the flyby when I'm looking, and it's like,
it really is like, I'm zooming in until I can see,
especially on screen, the pixels,
and I'm like, okay, zoom back a little bit,
and then it's like, okay, is there anything here?
Do we need a little bit more push, push, push, and on?
Even with the 10th panel, when we were wrapping up,
still like little adjustments here and there,
still making those final tweaks.
So does that mean you've had to
to build the puzzle multiple times?
Oh no, no, this was all when we were viewing it
on screen.
Okay, now this might be too into the weeds for us.
Please.
Jigsaw puzzle specifically.
But how, when you're coming up with a design,
are you determining the puzzle piece shapes?
Because obviously there's like the stereotypical iconic
puzzle piece shape that people envision in their mind.
When you think of jigsaw puzzles,
but then sometimes you also get the more intricate ones
with maybe like a pointy piece here.
So when you're creating these puzzles,
how are you determining how that gets designed?
I would say I did not have as much involvement
with the actual designs or shapes of the pieces,
but what I do often do is while in progress,
I will take a piece overlay and lay it over the artwork
and that's how I get the sense of, okay,
how are we looking with this?
And it's like, we were just talking about,
you're looking and like,
ah, we need a little more of something right here.
Let's bring this out a little bit more bright
in this area up, add a little more detail here.
I'm really curious,
because you were talking about how each piece
needs to be its own piece of artwork.
I really love doing puzzles
And I know exactly what you mean when you're like,
oh, I found this piece that has the red and the yellow
that I was looking for in the green background.
Are there any places in this puzzle in particular
where you're like, we did a really fun thing with that?
Or we did that really well here?
I'm excited for people to find those pieces together.
Are there any shouts that you want to give
for specific areas of the puzzle?
I think a lot of parts in the skies.
Really?
Oh yeah, I think there's a lot of the nice little gradients
and subtle color changes because like I talked about
in the panel, when you think about the pristine beach,
clear blue sky, it's like, that's a tough puzzle.
Right.
So even just little, again, it's all
about that dial of adjusting like,
OK, let's add a little more colors there.
Let's change the time of day.
And I think that helps a lot, too, of just, again,
it's just a little hints that give some guidance.
Yeah.
The joy that we feel, too, we finally get that piece.
Exactly.
It's not been your experience at the booth this entire weekend,
especially for young kids coming by and trying to think,
OK, will this actually work?
and it fits perfectly and you see the jaw on their face
and they tell their parents.
And that spanned across all ages.
Kids, adults, everyone, when you find that piece,
feel so good.
Have any pieces become stray, like lost on the floor
and then found here at the con?
It's always my nightmare.
I've been doing rounds.
Good.
And yet you do see sometimes pieces fall.
Because it's almost like you almost
need to be wearing a really like almost a hazmat suit
to make sure you don't actually lift a piece.
Because you have loose clothing,
Backpacks everyone's walking around, but yeah, I've just been I would just do some rounds and I'm gonna be like hey
You got a piece under there right there, but yeah, so far we're doing great. I'm so
Vigilant about that. I have a bigger dog as well. Oh, yeah, my dog ate the last
I finished it and there was just the whole I was like his heart breaking in your stomach now
Yeah
But I also you mentioned the interactions between Pokemon and I think that's really interesting
I know that specific Pokemon has specific ways that they would interact with each other
Are there some favorite interactions or some that you would love to tell the story of?
Panel 9 so that's Sylveon and the meta in the meadow scene
Okay front and center
You have because the EV evolutions they're all joining along Pikachu and EV as they go through so you add more
And then we got to panel 9 and it says beautiful enchanting kind of meadow
And I said, we're gonna have Umbreon here and I said, wouldn't it be funny if Sylveon and Leafeon were having a good laugh because Umbreon, a dark type Pokemon is surrounded in this beautiful meadow so you can see Umbreon is sitting there.
E, Sylveon's winking like and Leafeon's having a laugh. I think that's one of my favorite interactions of just, you have these nice little moments right there.
I love that. Those are some of my favorite Pokemon.
Yeah, and do you see different personalities come out across all different types of medium and artwork but for a puzzle you are
Capturing a very specific moment. Absolutely, and you can add so much with the different panels
What inspires you to find those specific moments?
And what is that process like be it one of the animated films or the video game or a trading card game?
You're thinking I want that all the above all the above
I would say the Pokedex was my friend for this one
So I think there is an interaction with Matang and Nose Pass in the espion panel in the crystal cave where
Matang is actually chasing Nose Pass and Nose Pass is kind of running away a little bit, stepping on a flashlight and ride on there like whoa
What's happening? Like the fun little moments like that that help build a story and I think it's something while you're solving the puzzle
You don't necessarily see right away, but then when you see it all together
And you're just looking through it and doing all those pants, but yeah to your point Joshua like the
that there are just so many little nods of like,
okay, well, we have this environment.
And then it's like, okay, what can we add here?
What makes sense?
So yeah, it's just calling upon the knowledge I had
from growing up watching Pokemon, playing the games,
and just saying like, yeah, this makes sense.
Was there something about Nose Pass in the Tang
that made you pick that scene for them?
No, I think it was trying to have
just a diverse environment.
I'm just looking through.
So like I talked about, I had this document
that just had all the Pokemon I was thinking about
and I'm like, again, it started from type base
and then it became much more habitat based.
So I just said, you know, what else do we have here?
And like, let's read about them
and let's just again, channeling my knowledge
from the games.
Like, well, I remember finding Nose Pass in that cave.
So let's see about Nose Pass.
We're like, oh, okay, you know,
does it make sense to do the basic Pokemon
or should I go to the stage one?
So yeah, it was just this combination of things
swirling through my head.
But yeah, the basis was the Pokédex
and making sure it just made sense
for why those Pokemon were there.
But how did that original list of Pokemon come to be?
How do you make the cuts and decide
who is going to be in the puzzle of the year
when we have so many to choose from?
It just started from type-based
because you had the EV evolutions as like,
they were the foundation.
So I was like, okay, for Flareon,
we had this kind of volcanic desert scene.
And it's like, okay, so volcanic,
so we've got to have some fire type Pokemon,
and then we have this desert area.
Okay, let's try to get some more diversity within that area.
Yeah, it was like the environment helped dictate
what could be added more and more.
I'd love to dive a little bit deeper
into the history of Ravensburger,
especially 140 years of being involved
with toys and games.
What is it specifically about puzzles
that has all of us continuing to be involved
in the world of puzzles when it comes to the design, the strategy,
but ultimately the satisfaction for somebody finally putting a puzzle together.
Josh, I think you nailed it.
It's the satisfaction and it's such a peaceful kind of experience with solving a jigsaw puzzle.
And it's an industry I never thought I'd be in, but it's so amazing to be in it.
And the community for jigsaw puzzles is so wholesome and just it's just a wonderful
experience. I mean I can't think of a part of it. It's like you stressed out,
solve a jigsaw puzzle. It's just, it provides so much goodness in the world. I
mean I think that's why people keep coming back to it. And once you're,
once you've experienced a good jigsaw puzzle, I think it's hard for people
to go back. Absolutely. Have you seen any moments that you've particularly
treasured here at Pokemon XP with families or people coming and putting
together the puzzle? I just think any moment you see someone saying like,
we got it or like people are saying like oh you have the whole community coming together people who
don't know each other have never met before maybe even coming from different parts of the world and
but there's it's a universal language to be like can I have that piece yeah like this goes here yeah
I mean that's that's amazing yeah definitely from your own personal side of things obviously
you know you're doing the panel working the booth but even just from an individual enjoyment
perspective when you're walking around Pokemon XP like what have been some of your favorite
personal moments like what you've enjoyed about being here every bit of it I can't
even name one it's just so amazing I really can't play it's just so hard to
pinpoint one thing have you spotted any haxer us around I have not yeah I might
be one that's a little bit harder to spot I just remember playing when I was
visiting some friends and they were playing pocopia and they went out of
their way for Haxorus to visit them and I thought that was amazing.
Was there any origin to why Haxorus is your favorite?
I think I just saw Haxorus while playing Pokemon White version and I said that is so cool.
And then I saw the shiny version and I said that is really cool.
Now as difficult as it may be for some to put a puzzle together, I think one of the
hardest things to do is after you've completed the puzzle what to do next.
Some people go for framing, others will let it linger on the kitchen table for a while.
folks would be like, I can't, I gotta put it away and they'll come back to it maybe a little bit later.
In your experience, what has been kind of the most popular end result? Have people been framing
it or they put it back in the box? Is it a mix in between? I think it's a mix in between probably more
so. What's cool about jigsaw puzzles is people have their collection and it's like, here's my wall
of jigsaw puzzles. And I think a lot of times some people will save them for an occasion. I
I think like holiday puzzles are really big part of family tradition.
So stuff like that.
Yeah.
I think more people are getting in tune with framing or even just mounting them.
I've seen some really awesome pictures of people who just put wall to wall,
not even framing it, just lining their walls with their puzzles.
They just completed it.
It's really cool artwork.
I, this is a great line for us as we come from the world of competitive
gaming.
So I was looking for the topstracts, you know, and some of the challenges
you face when you're putting together a puzzle are like, when I need to
take a break. Sometimes I need to move that puzzle or when I like you said when
I'm done with it I need to put it somewhere I want to show it to someone
or I need to actually disassemble it really fast and put it back in the box.
Do you have any like favorite tips that a lot of people don't know about
puzzles or like for example I have this really cool felt board that I just
use for my puzzle so I can move them off the table. Any tips or tricks?
I think it's patience and practice.
Okay.
So I think if you want to get into puzzling,
you don't have to jump right away to a thousand piece puzzle.
One of my favorite things to jigsaw puzzles to solve are 100 pieces.
You get that awesome puzzle fix,
and that's how you start to build up speed.
You can work your way up.
So I think that's a not necessarily
a specific technique because I think a lot of times with speed puzzling,
you're doing the same thing just faster.
Right.
But that comes from building up confidence and maybe it's more like,
Okay, I'm looking for patterns as opposed to thinking about
and also settling on, I need to find this one piece.
It's okay, I found a piece, this goes here.
I think that's a big mental shift too,
is instead of setting yourself on,
I need to find this piece too.
I found this piece, it goes here.
That's a big technique
if you want to get into speed puzzling.
I'm specifically asking because I'm thinking,
all right, if I've got 40,000 pieces
after I order them, how shall I start?
Like what would be your recommendation?
do I do panel by panel? How would I go about doing that?
So because the panels come in individual bags and they're labeled, you can choose which
panel you want to start with. That would be crazy. You want just one big bag, and you
have to start with it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That would be my recommendation is you just
choose whichever panel you want and you don't have to start with panel one. I mean,
I think what's cool about Celebration Journey is it is a story progression. But, you
know, you can tell your own story. I like that you guys haven't mounted up on
the wall too. I'm like, that would look pretty cool in my office actually. Yeah, I think that's
the big thing is the sense of scale because people will sometimes depending where they're
coming from to the booth, they'll see the box first. Yeah. And they go, and it's right
over there. And they go, oh, oh, I mean, it's this huge reveal. But yeah, you need
a lot of space for celebration journey. Now you had mentioned puzzle vision that you
have. Yes. And there is a lot to experience here Pokemon XP. Are there certain aspects
of this experience that you've already maybe noted down and decided okay that's
gonna be a really great design. Absolutely. You let yourself absorb everything first
and then it's instant. It really is instant like yep that'd be a cool puzzle.
And then are you limited by size when you think of these different options or
visualizations or do you like try to go big first and then scale down
afterwards or it just depends on the feeling. Yeah I think it is a
feeling but my default vision is usually 1,000 pieces. I like those too.
Because it's so, it is our bread and butter when it comes to which puzzle piece count people go to,
but I would say sometimes I think okay, well if it doesn't work there, then it's like okay, we start working our way down.
Does this mean that you've envisioned the Haxerous puzzle?
Because I know it's hard with just one Pokemon, so that's why I'm so grateful to folks at the Pokemon Company International for just
allowing us to really push. We have at least 40 Pokemon in each panel, and that is a lot.
That is a lot.
Yeah, that is a lot and it's 4,000 pieces. So yeah, it's like to just have one Pokemon as cool as it would be a
No offense to Haxers, but Haxers would not make that great at the puzzle on its own
Is Haxers in the celebration?
It is not. I put fracture in there though. Oh, okay. Yeah, not an insert of the favorite, huh?
It didn't feel right. I
Respect that. Great discipline. Yeah, I did show some restraint of like, ah, I gotta put all my favorite Pokemon
No, no, no. It's got to make sense for the puzzle first because if we were in charge there'd be Lapras everywhere
Lapras in there. Nice. We'll have to tell Lapras. We share a dressing room with Lapras. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's just
Now we're here at Pokemon XP as someone who's been a lifetime fan
Tell us about the experience a lot of people who are watching at home
I haven't been able to be here in person
So share with them how it feels to be here at Pokemon XP and what you've observed unbelievable just the
the
Intensity the love for Pokemon is just amazing
The intensity in terms of like people being stoked what what excitement love just like I mean
How many times have these are lifelong fans who have seen Pokemon in so many different ways and then they're here
They're like there's that Pokemon. Yeah, like it's almost like a soft reset of the brain of like you see them for the first time again
And it's still so amazing
Well, we only have a couple more minutes, but I just wanted to give a chance to say,
you know, what's coming next for people?
What's the call to action?
What should they look for from Ravensburger?
So you can, if you are not ready to brave Celebration Journey, we are releasing each
panel as 1,000 piece puzzle versions.
So the first three panels are available for pre-order.
I believe they are widely released September 1st, and then the remaining panels will
be released at the start of next year.
Oh, awesome.
Very cool.
Okay, great.
So you can work your way up like I was talking about.
You don't have to start right away with the 40,320 piece puzzle.
You can start with the 1,000 piece puzzles and work your way up there.
And if people are here on site, tell us a little bit more about where can they find
you?
How can they participate on day three here with the puzzle?
They can find us at the Robinsburger booth.
We are still working on solving celebration journey.
Yeah?
Yep.
Do you think it'll get solved by the end?
That's hard to say.
That's a lot of pieces.
We have, we're working on three panels right now.
I believe we still have one panel we have not opened yet
and that's Espeon in the Crystal Cave.
We gotta go down and help.
Can we come out?
Yes, of course.
All right, that's where we'll go during the break.
All right, well thank you so much for spending time with us.
Is there anywhere people should look
for you in particular?
Nope.
All right, great.
Awesome, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you so much.
Now we're gonna go take a look
at the Santa Cruz skate park.
Let's check that out right now.
Hey everybody, we're at Pokemon XP and I'm joined by Alex from Santa Cruz, Alex how's
you been going through so far?
Man, it's pretty wild out here just seeing like all the fans coming through, I've never
seen so many Pokemon fans in one place and just for us to have this state-of-the-art
situation here, be in the middle of this just like wild, free day party, it's pretty
exciting to be honest.
So like sea skateboarding come from such a humble roof and then beyond the global stage and it's like massive humidity
You can ask for a better way you can also
Now what initialized the collaboration?
Yeah, totally. So this is actually our second version of our collaboration with Pokemon
We did our first lineback capsule in 2023 had a huge reception immediately fans were just asking for more
kind of waited, ideated for a while, and then this 38th anniversary came about and we thought,
what a great idea to come back. This is our first time working with the card art as well,
which is an honor for sure. I'd love to get into that with you more.
And then for this collaboration, we'll be offering 30 different card variants for the 30 years that Pokemon's been in.
And we've seen a lot of the beautiful card art throughout the last three years.
But what was that inspiration to use the card art?
What was the card art? What was kind of a selective process to find which art you wanted to use for the different boards?
Probably the most collaborative project we've worked on. It was our creative team bringing their experience and their passion to Pokemon along the size of Pokemon team
bringing obviously their expertise and wealth of knowledge and library. We really wanted to showcase kind of the whole trajectory of Pokemon.
Come on, if you take a walk around these ramps
you'll see the 30th area, it's this way right here.
You've got everything from the original grade,
which is near and dear to my heart.
I remember when those came out,
all the way up until like the mega-chars are,
and this is much like newer generational mode.
So we really wanted to make sure that we were aware
of like how wide the fame under-spanning,
and make sure that it's a part of everyone.
How is Santa Cruz today using skateboarding
as a positive force in this year?
Totally. Well, I mean, I would argue that skateboarding is always a positive force in today's youth.
It's something that you can go and do by yourself. You can kind of do it anywhere.
It doesn't need a lot of institutions or construction. A parking lot can be your playground.
But, you know, I think skateboarding, first and foremost, like our responsibility as a brand
is just to make sure, like, you're aware of what the kids are into and what the youth is into.
I think this capsule, this collection speaks to that.
One thing I think is pretty cool, I'm going to pontificate here a little bit.
There, when I was growing up, your identity was really siloed.
Like you had to be a skateboarder or in the like punk crowd during the Pokemon.
What's really cool being here and where we're at I think culturally is that people are really plural in their interests, right?
So I think this collaboration and just kind of like the choices we're making is aware that like we have to, of course,
see what's near and dear towards our favorite culture, but we can also like bring more people in with
properties that may not have been celebrated or may not have like been
something you like talked about as a skateboarder 10, 15 years ago.
I assume Pokemon also enhances that positive force or positive outlet for the youth as well, so it makes sense to have this collaboration.
absolutely yeah you know like our hope is at the end of the day that like fans
first love first and foremost get this i'd love to see some of these boards get
skated we'll see given kind of the the nature of
an exciting business product yeah at the end of the day our hope is that like
we get to do something that the fans aren't really excited about that like
brings more people in to try skateboarding
now you mentioned the third design celebrating 30 years of Pokemon but
are there any designs you'd love to see come to fruition
gosh that's a really good question I'm gonna go like what I mean I'm gonna lean
into a fan favorite I'm big snorlax guy so I'd like to see a snorlax out here
just kind of like all over the skateboard you know kind of taking up the
whole thing so I'd love to see that design out there I mean there's just so
much to tap into it's wild when I got into Pokemon in 7 or 8 there's a
hundred and fifty one of them and now what there's about over a thousand
thousand and 25 there you go exactly so I mean like worlds really are
what is stood with it. One design call out there I'd like to say about the boards is the EV
options are really interesting. Our icon, our branding is the Santa Cruz Dot and you'll see
that on all the boards in different variations of the Dot. But on the EV board specifically,
it has the EV ears and EV tail coming out of the Dot. So just another way that we're able to
kind of like lean into Pokemon is to have those like Easter eggs into the product.
Now you mentioned store locks, I assume. Is he your favorite Pokemon or do you have
Any other favorites?
Yeah, man, I love Storlax for sure.
You know, one board I love up here is Armune Umbreon as well.
I love the Umbreon also.
Man, I just love that you can have the most serious, intense-lipping poking around,
and then you can have something entirely whimsical, like a jigglypuff.
Yeah, I need some jigglypuff to help me go to sleep after all the bruises
that we get trying to skateboard.
Look at that soothing sensation.
Get that nurse Chansey in there too to take care of your bruises.
Right on wall, it's great to see these skaters behind us really shredding here the hype, the half-pipe.
And a huge thank you to you and this amazing collaboration,
so we hope a lot of people check it out here at Pokemon XP.
Come on down, we've got skaters we're handing out exclusively for the event.
Kind of get you one too.
All right, thanks a lot man.
Hello and welcome back to the desk here at Pokemon XSuite right next to the Santa Cruz
skate park and we're joined by some very special guests here on the desk welcome to the desk
could you please introduce yourselves to the people at home tell them who you are and
what you do yeah my name is Doug Wolfile I am the design manager for the Pokemon trading
card game packaging creative team over at TPCI. I'm Tyler Immanuel. I'm the art director
for Santa Cruz Skateboards. And how did you come to meet and create such a beautiful collaboration?
Well, after our first collab in 2023, we knew we wanted to have a round two with Pokemon. So we
were in communication with them soon after that and we're all excited to make it happen.
Yeah, as soon as a number of people in the world of skateboarding, they were very excited
to see that as well. Doug, when it comes to the Pokemon Company International, I'm sure
there's a lot of fans in that world that decided, okay, we definitely have to make this happen.
Oh yeah, for sure. I know for us it was a big priority as soon as we found out that it was
something that we were going to be doing. We wanted to do everything we could to make sure that
not only were we giving the fans something different than the original, but we were doing
it in a way that would really honor both the Pokemon and Santa Cruz brands. That's what
we tried to do with this round of mystery decks.
I see we have some down here.
Can we show them off?
Yeah, so this is one more.
This is one we just opened up on stage in our panel.
It's a Gardevoir.
Yeah.
Beautiful.
And are the, when you say you opened it up,
are they blind boxes, all of them?
Yeah, they're mystery decks.
So you don't know exactly which one you're going to get.
So it's a surprise for the customer.
That is so fun.
Yeah, so we had no idea on stage
what we were going to be opening up.
It was a pleasant surprise to see that it was
Gardevoir and not something that we're not ready to show the public.
Yeah.
That is a pleasant surprise to know.
And I think a lot of people, instead of actually hooking this up,
they will put it up on their wall.
Is that why they're going to buy maybe multiple in order for some to use and some to collect?
Yeah.
We always shoot for maybe buying one to skate and one to put on your wall.
Love that.
The weight is fantastic. Can you tell me a little bit more about the manufacturing process
and what it takes to create one of these boards?
Yeah, so we have a long running history as a skateboard company. We've been around for
over 50 years. So, you know, we pour all that expertise into making the product. But on
this product, we have, you know, we have holographic foils involved and like very
specific printing processes and pro quality products.
I also notice we have a package down here.
Oh, okay.
May I show this off?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think you mentioned that you actually handle packaging type things.
So I want to know about this because I immediately saw it.
I really like ripping packs.
Yeah, she's really lucky too.
It's become kind of the thing that we try to do up here, but I immediately saw that
this looks like a card pack that I could open.
Was that the thinking?
That was one of the goals from the Pokemon side kind of from the beginning.
Since we were doing something with the trading cards, we wanted to make it feel as much like an authentic trading card game experience as possible.
And if you don't know what's in there, what better way to really showcase that than by making it feel a little bit more like a booster pack.
And so we've included a lot of graphics from our boosters onto the front, including our trading card game brand look.
If you look, we have like the eight inch skateboard mark up in the top right there.
That's usually our little 6 plus.
Yeah, we really tried to align it as much as possible with the boosters.
Nice.
It immediately communicated to me what it is.
And then on the back, tell us what we're showing off here.
That shows a quick little glimpse at all of the variants that are available.
30 different boards to celebrate 30 years for Pokemon.
And we see, look for three gold chase decks?
What?
Yeah, we're not quite ready to show those off.
Then no looking, no peeking.
What is the design process like in order to choose the different artwork because there's
so much amazing artwork when it comes to TCG.
How are you able to identify which ones you wanted to use in this collaboration?
Yeah, so in this case we actually have a team within TPCI that specializes in product
development and heavy knowledge of the cards.
And those folks built the original list that we used to start the project.
They wanted to include as much history of the card game as possible.
So we've got a lot of fan favorite Pokemon in there represented, but we also have a lot
of cards that represent really big important moments in the competitive play throughout
the years.
So we wanted to make sure that it would appeal to as much of our fan base as possible
because everybody loves Pokemon.
I also see the eras very well represented.
I mean one of my favorite cards is this first edition dark espion, but we see we
We have a volleyball down here.
We're kind of all over the eras.
Oh, and one of my favorite multiple EVs cards.
So, yeah, I mean, fan favorites are represented for me,
but it looks like also over time
you wanted to kind of show the development, yeah?
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, 30 decks for 30 years,
but we know that our fans come from all eras of Pokemon,
so we wanted to make sure
that there was something in this collab for everybody.
Wow, even like, I don't know if you can hear this.
Ooh.
You know that sound?
Authentic.
snapping sound when you pull the foil.
It's even giving me that vibe.
Do either of you have a favorite of the decks?
I would say the Gengar is one of my favorites.
I really like the Eevee deck.
It just has such a mellow vibe to it.
Yeah.
See, I'd say that one's probably the favorite.
Is that the one that has the Eevee in the Santa Cruz
spot?
So our whole Eevee series has a special Eevee Santa Cruz
dot on the tail to kind of represent that series.
But yeah, there's an EV deck that is like a serene forest scene,
which is really cool.
I love that.
What about you?
For me, the ones that stand out as my favorites
are the ones that really focus on storytelling
and showcasing something about the characters
or about the card that folks might not
have really anticipated.
So I love the Glaceon deck.
The designer that worked on that
did a fantastic job of creating a background that
really feels like it goes with the card
kind of expands upon the story of it in an interesting way and then the Iona's
belly bolt I think is really a really great example of that character not just
the Pokemon but also Iona as a trainer. How did it expand on the Glaceon? I haven't
seen that one or do you want people to just look for themselves? I would love if
people like took a look at it for themselves sure but honestly it's
it's taking what is a scene that's been developed within the card and
and finding a way to take the feeling of that
and blow it up onto a skate deck and make it that size
without reproducing what is already happening on the cards.
We really wanted to honor that original artwork
and that original storytelling by doing something
that just kind of takes that vibe
and carries it a little further.
Now, Tauhto, a little bit more about Santa Cruz
and really the cultural impact that skateboarding has had
because in our generation,
we have grown up with kind of that hand-in-hand video game
and skateboarding, and now we get to incorporate Pokemon as well.
Yeah, I mean, I think skateboarding is part of pop culture, you know, and I think there's easy crossover
that we can always connect the dots between partners like Pokemon,
and we just have a lot of crossover on fans as well, so I think it's like a natural partnership for us.
And we've been having a lot of fans check out the Halfpipe here.
Doug, especially for Poco on XP, what has this event been like for you and to see these decks
come to life, but also people using them here on the Half-Life?
I mean, it's awesome.
Not only getting to see fans interact with them, witness them firsthand, but also then
get to see someone, like a pro skater actually riding on one of the decks.
I think for me it's kind of like a really cool culmination of the entire project.
We expect that some people will buy the decks, collect them, hang them on the
wall.
The fact that we already have people up front before the products even out already writing on them makes me so happy
I just love the idea that we can have collectors. We could have skaters
We could have every fan of Pokemon and Santa Cruz engaging in this co-lab. It just makes me really excited
Have there been any specific tricks or moments or specific skaters that have come through?
You know our friends watching from home may not have actually gotten to stand and watch here at
at ours a little skate park so that have there been any highlights that you would want to share?
I mean, I'm sorry. No go ahead. I was gonna say I mean having pros like Tom Asta and Martin McCoy
here was a huge win for us and then yesterday having all the little kids skate as well was
really cool to watch. Yeah definitely having the littles come out is my favorite moment not
only because you get to see them rip and awesome tricks but also because so many of our fans
are really young and getting to stand around here yesterday and have all of these small children kind
of come up and just be awed by these other kids doing awesome things was really inspiring. I was in
day zero we saw a couple tricks during rehearsal I was like oh my gosh that's happening right behind
us the entire time I'm definitely sticking around and that interview we had with Alex grateful for
his time as well from Santa Cruz I'd like to dive deeper into what your experience has been so
far here at Pokemon XP there is so much to experience Tyler have you been able to go to
to some of the different booths or activations here in San Francisco?
Yeah, it's been an incredible experience.
I've gotten to walk all of the events.
And really, I mean, the biggest takeaway for me
is just the overwhelming positivity
that you feel from all the fans.
Everyone just seems excited and just having a good time.
And Doug, this is the first ever Pokemon XP.
We're on day three.
So far it's been a fantastic experience.
What's it been like for you?
It's been awesome.
I feel like you said it right there.
Honestly, for me, coming from the TBCI side,
getting to see the work that so many people have put in
over the course of years, leading up to this
and getting to see our fans enjoying it
and actually existing in the space
and interacting with it,
there's nothing really that tops that.
Have you had any specific moments
that have really touched you
or that you think are gonna stick with you as a memory?
I think that's, there's so many small moments,
especially with us being back here handing out stickers.
Like we've all, everybody from the TPCI side
and Santa Cruz side who have been working on this co-lab
have been a part of the team handing out stickers.
So we've all had the opportunity to interact
with so many fans over the last several days.
So many people are excited about so many different things.
There's not like one standout moment
so much as just this sea of positive vibes
from different people throughout the weekend.
That makes a lot of sense.
You mentioned stickers.
And I know a lot of people are watching,
trying to make sure that they get a hold
of all the fun things that they may be able to collect here.
Can you tell us what you're giving away?
Our team is giving away a custom sticker
that has the Screaming Hand Pokemon TCG card back design
that we created for this co-lab.
And so those are available near our activation.
Awesome.
Just come up and ask for one?
Yeah, absolutely.
So people be handing them out.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
I'd like to dive a little bit deeper into the design process,
especially maybe the focus group or the feedback
you would get across multiple generations of Pokemon
and multiple generations of people.
So Tyler, is that kind of more on the Santa Cruz side?
We're like, you know what, we really want this character
or does Pokemon take the lead?
Or do you guys just kind of meet in the middle
and think like, everybody wants this, let's make it happen?
It's a little bit of all of that.
I think there's certain aspects
that we really need to lean on the Pokemon side
to be the experts and make those decisions
and know their own sort of history.
And then there's other things
where Santa Cruz wants to make sure
that we're honoring our brand and legacy as well.
And yeah, it was very collaborative.
We would, we had an open floor for positive
and negative feedback whenever we needed it.
Yeah.
You mentioned the Santa Cruz legacy.
And I think we've been spending a lot of time talking
about the 30 years of Pokemon.
But if people aren't familiar with Santa Cruz,
can you tell us a little bit about that history?
Yeah.
So Santa Cruz skateboard started in 1973.
Wow.
we just had our 50th in 2023 when we did our first collab with Pokemon and yeah
privately owned company always has been in Santa Cruz and it's like the longest running like pro
skateboard company in the world. Wow cool. At 30 years of Pokemon I'm sure you have a number of
memories when it comes to Pokemon. Do you have any particular memories that I've stuck with
you throughout this entire legacy?
For Pokemon?
For Pokemon.
I mean, this to me is like the highlight.
Honestly, it's hard to top this whole moment right now.
It kind of overshadows everything for me.
But yeah, I would just say right now, this weekend has been a blur.
Honestly, I can't believe it's Sunday already.
Yeah.
But yeah, just really excited to talk to the crew again about what we could do next.
And now for you, Doug.
Same question.
Across these 30 years, what has been the biggest impact
in the world of Pokemon for you?
I mean, there's so many, honestly,
but I think back to like 2016,
when we had like our 25th anniversary
and Pokemon Go launched,
and it was just such this huge moment for the brand,
and everything since then
has been a little bit of a roller coaster,
but ever since that point,
we've been focusing on what can we do next,
what can we do better, how can we improve things.
And so that particular moment in time
really stands out for me.
2016, we were here in San Francisco for Worlds, I believe,
and a really cool nostalgic memory for me as well.
That was my first time that I came to an event like this.
And there are some people watching at home
who have never been to a gathering of Pokemon fans
like this.
And you mentioned this feeling of overwhelming joy.
I feel like that's been something that's really
been hitting me as well.
If someone at home was like, just tell me what it's like.
Like, what is it like to be there?
What does it feel like?
How would you summarize what it's
I'd like to be at an event like this.
It's fantastic.
I mean, you can't talk this many people coming together
in one place just to celebrate a shared joy
around something positive, right?
It's Pokemon is a brand that is more about
the people enjoying it than it is
about what we're actually making.
Everything that we do in our decision-making
is focused on those people
and how it's going to improve that joy or their ability to share it with other people.
Interesting. That is a really cool concept. Can you expand on that?
Like, what does that mean when you're developing things that is more about how people experience it
than what you're actually making?
Yeah, it's about creating great interactions for the fans, great moments,
great opportunities for them to connect with other people, other fans,
great opportunities for them to engage with folks that maybe aren't fans yet,
but to then take this great positive thing and bring it to them,
and hopefully, you know, enhance their lives,
like bring a little bit of joy to them as well.
Absolutely.
In the interview, Alex mentioned that in the past,
it maybe has felt like our interests have to be very siloed,
like you're either a skater or you're a Pokemon fan,
or the example was you like punk music.
And I think they were saying it's a lot easier
to be all of those things right now,
to just experience all the things you love together.
I've been feeling that way here on Rayquaza Road,
like we're talking fashion, music, dance, skating.
Have you guys experienced that as well?
That it feels like you can kind of be all of the things you
love at this kind of event?
I think so.
I mean, I think looking around, I just
see there's a wide variety of people, diverse backgrounds.
And I think that that plays into what people might also
be into besides Pokemon, besides skateboarding.
It's pretty obvious that it's not just one type of person.
Now, I have some notes here that were put in front of me, and it says, Mystery Deck,
and then someone wrote Open at the end.
That's right.
Is that?
I just happen to notice this note.
Oh yeah.
You have the best luck, I think, of everybody at the desk, so we're going to have to do
the honors.
I'm opening it.
You were just talking about opening boosters, so here's your opportunity to open the
biggest one of the weekend.
I did not.
I did not know.
I genuinely did not know that this was going to happen, and I am really, really?
Yeah.
Okay.
cut it at the top a little bit just to hopefully make it easier.
I'll move it right next to the mic so you can hear it.
Yeah.
Yeah, all right. So I'm opening the foil, such as it were.
Yep.
And then we've got a wrapped board inside.
Yep.
Wrapped inside.
Comes with a booklet.
Yeah, yeah.
So folks that are familiar with the ETBs, you probably have a good idea of what's
inside that booklet.
We've got a checklist in there of all of the decks.
We also have some information on the release the history of Pokemon some great photos. It's it's a fun piece
That is so cool. Should we look through that now or should we open the board first? Let's open the board
Yeah, it's what the people want. It's wrapped like a like a gift. Yeah
That's some strong tape on there. Oh, don't worry
That has been
One of the highlights of this show for me as I say that and I'm like to talk with this piece of tape
I was overconfident because it wraps around it's okay. I've got it. It's it's about the strats. Yeah, the tape's not the meta
There we go the meta of the tape
Well, this is impeccable
Wrapping of course to keep it safe, but also the experience for everybody once they get their board
Yeah, exactly. I want to take a long time opening it. That's what makes it so exciting. All right. Are you ready?
Here's the front
Oh, I freaked. I saw them before you guys. I'm so excited.
I didn't see, I didn't see.
Oh, yeah.
It's Dragapult!
Dragapult is a favorite of mine. I have a whole page in my TCG binder, and in fact just added this card to my collection.
That's fantastic.
It is a favorite of mine. It is so beautiful.
And you mentioned how you went about producing art around the cards that complemented it.
Tell us about the art that's around this Dragapult.
So yeah, we had a group of illustrators and designers
that all contributed across the different decks.
But yeah, this one, like Doug was saying,
it's not just as simple as just taking the card art
and pulling it out.
Some of it is more inspired by the artwork
or by the original artist.
This is so, so cool.
And I think maybe opening on stage with you
is my good luck because-
Perhaps, I'll stick around.
This is one of the ones I absolutely
would have been hoping to pull.
So thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you for letting me open the board.
I really appreciate that.
Where should people look for more
from Santa Cruz and TPCI together?
I mean, for this release,
which will be coming out later this year,
you can go to SantaCruiseSkateboards.com
or the Pokemon Center.
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for spending your time with us.
We really appreciate it.
We hope you enjoy the rest of Pokemon XP.
I will be by for a sticker later.
But right now, we have a little bit of a video visiting the TCG Pocket booth.
Let's check it out.
So I was just walking by the Pokemon TCG Pocket booth when I got a mission from the boss.
Looks like they've got a bit of a puzzle situation over here.
I want to take a closer look.
I'm so, I'm so sorry here.
I'm on a little mission.
Could I perhaps pay you to wait a moment or two?
Sure.
Well, I may be.
Is it all right if I pop into the line here with this piece?
So I'm so sorry to waste your time.
Thank you.
Of course.
Don't tell nobody what I gave you.
We're on a scene, and you can get through it.
I got to get three.
You got to get three.
If you hear the four dogs, all four dogs, boom.
I'm no Voltor.
You're going to tell me where the Voltor is.
Where's the Voltor?
Yeah, but where is the vote for?
You don't want to find it.
You want to get it three and don't go over.
Do I start with two?
No, we don't vote two.
Unbelievable.
You gotta shuffle it like this.
Shuffle it.
I'm not gonna lie.
Shuffle it.
I'm gonna go over here.
Now, watch this.
I just shuffled it.
Incredible.
Yes.
So the boss wants me to add up to three.
Up to three.
That's no problem, watch.
Can you do that?
Let's see.
One, da da da.
All right.
Then two more.
Oh!
All right, give it up.
You got three.
Yay!
Thank you.
High five.
Come on, man.
To the rock.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
That was easy.
That was.
Another player!
There's another challenge?
There is another challenge!
What do I have to do here?
Well, you have to press the start button.
Very good.
What are these?
I'll see if I mentally think of a card and it's shuffle.
Do I have to tell you what card?
You don't have to tell me.
I got my card in mind.
All right, let's shuffle.
Oh, it's a trace.
By the powers of Pokemon,
You will mentally think of your card and click on one of these.
If you're plotting your card, if you're plotting your card, isn't coming up.
That's what I picked?
That was the card that I picked. How did you know that I picked that?
You are amazing psychic.
You are the power of Pokemon.
I'm in trouble. I don't want to go in there.
Just let them calm down for a minute.
He looks a little mad.
Oh, he's gone.
Come on.
I want to show you the office.
He gets a seat.
Ha ha.
Mine the desk.
And see what it's like to be the boss for once.
Looks like the boss has left a couple packs lying around.
I'll spend some of his hourglass, if he won't mind.
Never the first one.
Oh!
Well, that was a pretty productive visit to Team Rocket HQ over near at the TCG.
pocket booth. I think the boss is pretty pleased with me. Back to you guys.
Hello and welcome back to the stage here at Pokemon XP. I am Anna. I'm joined by Rachel and
Glitter. Welcome back to the desk, my friends, and a new friend here. Please introduce yourself
to the people at home. Tell them what you do. My name is Julian Enzaloni and I'm a production
multi-media assistant for Scytra Collectibles.
What does that mean you do?
So I create all the production videos for our marketing department,
and we create high-end 3D collectible statues based on a lot of Pokémons characters.
I have actually been down there at your booth.
I had a great time, a huge fan of what you guys make,
and Evie is my favorite Pokémon.
I was just talking about how I was down there,
And I learned that Pikachu and Eevee being exactly their, I think, Pokedex size.
Yes, their life-size figures. Those are their only two life-size pieces that we've created, and they're beautiful.
They're so gorgeous, and I was so impressed, and I was like,
I thought Eevee was a little bigger compared to Pikachu, and I was explained that
Pikachu and the Pokedex is measured from head to toes, and Eevee is measured from ear to toes.
So I learned from your statues about my favorite Pokémon that she is exactly the same size as my dog.
All four paws, one palm.
Yes, absolutely.
They're so beautiful.
Tell us about the production process of making statues like that.
Oh man, yeah.
We have, it's a very long development process.
So each project takes around 10 to 14 months to create.
And our concert designer sketches out a few statues with their respective bases.
So depending on the environment that she wants to show them in.
And after sketching those out in 2D, we send those over to our 3D digital sculptors.
They digitally sculpt those out, and then we 3D print each piece.
Then we kind of like clean them up, get them primed, ready for paint,
and then it's the job of the painters to bring that vibrancy of the purple wall to life.
And that takes around also one to two months.
And at the end you get the final statues that you have seen downstairs.
I mean, it's such a beautiful representation of each character.
even from the life-sized characters from Pikachu and Eevee to our like Charizard statue or to our new
Presented Gengar diorama. It's so beautiful
Yeah, that's a brand new piece as well as our Mewtwo and I think both statues just capture such a
energy for the Gengar trio or for the trio of Ghost Pokemon and for Mewtwo and then having that little Mew down at the
bottom it's so awesome. I want to talk about each of these because I think you
have been down there as well and seen them but just before we move on from
the production process I think I was talking to your 2D illustrator. Yeah
Rachel yeah. Yeah Rachel and they mentioned that each of the flowers
around the base of Eevee is actually representative of one of the Eevee
evolution. Yeah so Rachel is a huge huge fan of Pokémon and I love that
she was able to incorporate just a little Easter egg and like you said
each flower represents a different EV evolution and you can actually take the
flower that EVs paws about to step on you can change that for a different color
so it like almost like inferring the next transfer into EVs evolution it's so
amazing. If your artist she gets to make decisions like that about how these
Pokemon are kind of represented in the base and in the space what's that
process like her. So for sure she gets to make her decisions but it's all hands on
deck too with working with the Pokemon company International like we cannot
just make anything we want so it this goes hand-in-hand in this companionship
working with them and so she gets references from the Pokemon team she
provides her own knowledge that she has of each Pokemon and so for her it's
really putting her passion and love into each statue as well but that
It doesn't go without, of course, incorporating the Pokemon team into it, but it's truly amazing
to be working with them and to have such, like, just a companionship and just have so
much just love for our statues as well as we do, so it's been really amazing to work.
Just real quick, because I'm obsessed with your statue.
Specifically talking about working with the Pokemon company, each of the flowers not
only are a color that represent each of the evolutions, but she told me it is actually
the Pantone exact color for each of those evolutions
and the center of the flower is the exact Pantone color
of Eevee's fluff.
Yes, yes, yeah, so that's all given to us reference-wise
and our painters are masters at what they do
and it's just amazing to see that,
like just the vibrancy and the different,
like kind of the colors that you incorporate
into each statue, especially with the flowers for Eevee.
It's so beautiful to also like represent more
In the statue, it's not just a one-to-one, life-size EV,
but it can be more in the context of the base.
And so it's really cool to tell more into a story.
Now you can talk about Gengar.
I wasn't even going to talk about Gengar.
I was going to ask because we've
talked to a bunch of different creatives this weekend
here at Pokemon XP, right?
And we talk about how it has to feel
to spend so much time thinking about specific details
and putting passion and entire team of people coming
together to create a product that you then
out into the universe and hope is received really well so what has that reception been
like here at Pokemon XP for you guys at the booth?
Oh my, I think it's unexpected for us because we didn't know what to expect but it's been
so positive and so amazing to be with the fans and just like take that energy from them
and just be like hey what's your favorite Pokemon?
They're coming over to the booth and like oh my gosh I've never seen these statues
before I never even knew you guys who you guys were and so it's been amazing
for us and so gratifying for us to be here at this event at Pokemon XP and just enjoy the
competitions here, enjoy the fan base and just be fans as well. Like I've been in lines like all
day sometimes trying to get stuff. For which ones? I've been at the Lego line, I got to build the
trophy which was amazing and so I walked out and I was like this is all I need, I'm done.
But it's been so cool to be just with people that are so appreciative of Pokemon
and the characters, and everybody has such unique experiences and stories with each one,
and so like, I mean, that's what we're trying to tell in our statues, just like,
we're trying to solidify a unique experience with each Pokemon and just try to make sure that
we're capturing the essence of the game or original animation. And so, yeah, for us,
it's been a true dream to be here. That was so interesting, what Anna and what you brought
up about the flowers for Eevee. Are there any other, when we're looking at the statues
downstairs, kind of little details that we should really be taking note of on any of the others.
Yeah, so we really tried to incorporate in each base, we're trying to incorporate an environment
that you would find each character in, and especially with our Snorlax diorama, which is
really heavy on the different types of Pokemon species that they have in like a grass or a
forest environment, which has been really cool. And so you can see munchlax and gulpin with
the berries, eating all the berries. You can see squelvert up in the tree, which kind
You kind of have to duck down a little bit and see him,
and then you see Greedon kind of running along
and Slowpoke sleeping,
and then even on top of Snorlax's belly,
while he's sleeping, you see Pikachu and Evie sleeping
together, which is really cute.
And then if you turn the base all the way around,
or if you get a 360 view, you see a Sawaddle
right in the corner, and also in the tree too,
not to be mistaken for one of the berries,
you see an Applin hanging from the tree.
And so there's so much,
there's so much to show in these Pokemon,
especially in the dioramas.
It's just such, such an amazing.
I hope we get to do more dioramas
because I love showing off like a world or environment
that we get to help kind of bring to real life.
It's so cool.
What would be the next environment that you would help
that you could potentially do dioramas of?
So we've been talking,
my senior concert designer, Rachel,
we've been talking about creating like an urban environment.
Whoa.
And we've been getting a lot of,
hey, can you like maybe do like incorporate
like a cityscape or even like a fire landscape
volcanic and so we definitely have ideas for how we can incorporate more and how we can show off more
So it's coming down. It's coming down the pipeline
We just did wave one of our Pokemon statues with the sticks that we have and we'll definitely do more life-size and it's been
Yeah, it's been amazing definitely more life-size. Oh, yeah
Do you guys have any life-size characters that you would want as a statue? I mean
Your door something that we got to make it we got to make it small enough to
much like I think much that yeah small challenge I was thinking I would say
life-size game yeah my dangerous that articuno
come down and they're like hey this charge that statue this is I know you're
selling life-size so he's gonna come to my door and life-size I'm like no we
cannot do that the statues all you're getting but it's so amazing but I was
I was gonna say like an Aplen.
An Aplen, life-size would be super awesome.
Big for teachers.
That's super cool.
Oh, I mean, I immediately,
you were talking about a cityscape
and I immediately think Umbreon.
And so then I immediately thought,
then I can get the life-size.
Eevee, what if I had a life-size?
Umbreon, that does get a little large, I'm sure.
That might be a little large,
but I scare the animals too, I don't know.
But it would be so fun.
Yeah, it would be so awesome.
Yeah, in the cityscape,
we're always knocking off ideas,
like maybe it could be like some Trubbish,
like lurking around or maybe even grime or some wiggle coming in or even like a
Meowth perched on like a balcony would be really cute.
Can I get a tongue with her hammer?
Yeah, take a tongue with her hammer. Yeah, that'd be awesome.
What is the Pokedex size of a Mew?
I think it's not much larger.
A Mew? Yeah.
And they're like a little big, right?
I would assume so. Yeah, we have our like smaller scale to MewTube Mew.
But yeah, I actually don't know. I think she would be pretty...
I think the one that's inside the 30th celebration booth might be Pokedex size
And it was it was big enough to hold like a sweet baby child
Yeah, Gary Oak held it in the palm of his hand
You know what I'll take me when any size just send them on you
What you said Aplan, but are there any others that you would love life size man? Okay life size for me personally would be septile
grassland fan. I love Sceptile. I love the design of Sceptile. I'm also like Dawn fan would be awesome.
Dawn fan would be sweet. I love Dawn fan and a character that I for sure know we would not be
able to make would be Tentacruel. Tentacruel would be, I don't know, I don't have a pool so it would
be cool to have them in a pool just like waiting there just checking out. I would be like so awesome.
Are those your favorite Pokemon? Yes, those are definitely three of my favorites.
I definitely have more. It's definitely, yeah, Sceptile, Tend to Cruel, Torkle would be a great...
Oh, what? Torkle is a great list.
Whenever I played Pokemon Emerald, Torkle and Sceptile were my mains to go to. Even Flygon. I love Flygon.
Amazing.
I know everybody likes Salamence, but I'm such a Flygon fan. Man, I've been...
This is amazing. You've listed quite a few.
Yeah.
We asked for like a top three top five were like bracing because so far our record is not a single person even in their top list
Yeah, three days mentioned the same Pokemon really cool. Okay, cool. I really like okay
I hope stuff. I mean except I was a great character and like dawn fan and court or cool
And I know Torquil's like very competitive played and so it's really cool to see like Torquil get some light and like
Oh, that's awesome. I used to use that character a lot like it's super cool
Me and pocopia in my rocky ridges
Oh, yeah, 100%.
Are there any interesting challenges
when you have something like a Tendocruel?
We've got a grimer with translucency,
with different elements of the Pokémon.
For sure.
Making sure that we stay true to the character
and that we can also incorporate some...
just different elements of materials
when we're creating our statues,
like for our Gengar Dio.
We have Haunter coming out from the left,
to Gengar on the front with two shadow ball pieces in this hand
or like the energy.
And then we have Ghastly up top.
And it's really cool because Ghastly's Ghast
is all translucent.
And so it's been really fun to incorporate
some of those type of materials into the statues
so that people can see like, hey, if there's Pokemon,
like this real life Pokemon, you
can see this is what it would look like.
And so that's been really cool.
So even Gengar's Shadow Balls, they're a little bit translucent.
They're painted a little differently.
So then the ball in the middle is a little bit more glowing.
And so, yeah, we have a lot of paint videos
that we take with the artists.
And it's really cool to see the applications
that they use to create this life-like material.
It's really amazing.
It almost glows.
There's so much dimension to the energy balls.
even like new to sidestrike like right in his hand.
It's super cool to see like the blueish glow in the middle
and then the purple like the heavy purples on the outside
to really like just like very eye catching.
There's so much love that is so apparent from you
and your team that pours into these.
And I think that that is why you have such an attraction.
I could not walk away from that booth
and I had to be dragged for the life size.
We see how much you love the Pokemon world
and we appreciate it.
You know what I'm grown up with Pokemon.
It's crazy like to come here and celebrate.
I mean, this year we're celebrating 30 years
of Pokemon and characters and like I grew up with that.
I grew up with like almost celebrating like every year
I would go into a new thing and like a new game
or watching the TV show.
And so for me, it's really just like an honor to be here
and just be part of like such a big community of fans.
And so it's been great, yeah.
Is this what you expected for Pokemon XP?
Is this what I expected?
I actually, no, I didn't.
I expected maybe a little less.
Yeah.
Funny enough, like I know Pokemon is worldwide.
I've seen it.
I've seen it before traveling.
I've seen it with the comments on our posts
when we show off our statues.
But I wasn't expecting the amounts of people here
in the XP, in XP, in worlds, and even outside,
and just like the love for the fandom.
And I love it.
It's so, it's so energizing.
It's like you walk outside.
I'm waking up at seven in the morning.
I'm like, I gotta get my day going.
There's too much to do.
Like, there's times where I'm like,
I gotta go back to the hotel.
And I'm like, you know what?
Nah, just go back to the booth.
You're gonna hang out with everybody.
Like, it's so cool.
It's so awesome.
Has there been any like core memories
that have been made or moments
that were really special to you
or things that happened at the booth
that you're gonna take away
or that you'd wanna tell us?
Yeah, for me, first and foremost,
it's actually with my team members at the booth.
We're a big company, we're a larger company,
but we only were able to send six people down
for the show this year.
And for me, it's getting to be with them every day
and learn their fandom and get to,
because I work in multimedia,
we have someone working in design,
we have someone working in marketing,
I have another person working in project management,
and then another person working in graphic arts.
And so we're kind of scattered across our little building,
but still like, it's so amazing to come together
and just be part of this world together
and learn from each other and learn the fandom
and learn what cards you need
and what Pokemon you wanna trade
and what Pokemon is your favorite?
And I've, it's been so cool.
We have such a nice family.
I really like to use that word at SciShow.
It's such a nice family and I know so many of our employees and for me, I just did a panel
for our licensing and it was so much fun when they introduced me.
I got my coworkers right there and they were like, yeah, they're cool.
It just took the ease out of being on a panel because I've never done that before live
and so it's such a pleasure to be with my family here.
And then another memory for sure would just be talking with fans and asking them
Hey, who's your favorite Pokemon?
Like, what would you like us to do?
If we could do it, we could make a statue for you.
What would you like?
So we've had some great people come up.
I had a person come up and tell me nine tails.
And I was like, oh, nine tails.
That would be awesome.
Such a beautiful Pokemon.
And so elegant and shown off in the games
and in the TV shows is such a majesty.
And it's so incredible.
And so, yeah, it's been so rewarding for us
to be just here and talking to people
about what we can do next.
So that's been great.
Awesome.
Where can people stay in touch with Sideshow?
Where can they follow along?
So Sideshow is on every social media platform.
We have Instagram, YouTube.
And you'll see me actually on the Instagram and YouTube
sometimes unboxing and making instructional videos.
And yeah, we have a lot to share on our social media
platforms.
And so we're going to make more.
We're super excited to make more.
And we're super excited to bring the fans that we've made here and like on our journey.
Awesome.
Thank you for spending the time with us today.
Thank you so much.
This is awesome.
It's been so fun just geeking out with you.
Thank you.
And I am told we have a special shot for us to look at and react to.
Oh my gosh.
They're so sleepy.
Oh my gosh.
Wait, is shiny Umbreon though?
Where is this? How do we get there now?
Okay, now which is your favorite dog Pokemon?
Okay, favorite dog Pokemon? Is that Psyduck?
Is that Psyduck or Pikachu? I can't tell.
Oh, it's a little Psyduck.
Sleepy Snorlax. Snorlax is my favorite.
That's adorable. Umbreon is classic in the journey.
Sheppard is super cute. Jigglypuff looks great.
Grookey looks great. Oh my gosh.
I love the shiny Umbreon actually too.
We have shiny and... oh wow.
Okay, we need a moment to try to pet that doll.
So, can I pet that doll?
So, we'll be right back after this.
What's up, guys?
Glitter Explosion here,
and we popped on over to the Yerba Buena Gardens.
One of the many amazing things
that you can do here at Pokemon XP.
And this one is super unique.
Everything is outside and there's so much you can do here,
whether it's some long games, some live performances,
meet and greet, some education,
a little bit of interaction, maybe a glam booth or two.
So we're gonna take you on a tour of the entire place
so you can see everything, how it all works
and you won't miss a single second of it.
I
Hello and welcome back to Pokemon XP here on Rayquaza Road in San Francisco.
I am Anna joined by Rachel and Glitter here at the desk and we have a new friend as well.
Could you introduce yourself to the people at home?
Hi everybody.
My name is Ed Goldfarb and I have been composing the score and songs for the international
version of the Pokemon anime since 2013.
Wow, that is a long tenure.
We've been listening to you for a long time.
Thank you for everything first of all.
Thank you for everything.
The pleasure is all mine, believe me.
It's the greatest job on Earth.
Take us through a history lesson.
Where did it all start for you?
Well, I mean, I've been playing piano since I was a little kid,
and my mom reminds me that I asked to have,
before I had lessons, I asked for her to move the TV
closer to our piano so I could play along with Bugs Bunny.
Oh my God.
Yeah, it took another 45 years or whatever before that turned into actually making music for cartoons
in a renumerative way, but it obviously that's what I was supposed to do. So we got around to it.
Now that's what I do. There was a spark. There was a spark, but when did that spark catch a
blaze with Pokemon? Well, it caught up around 2013 where I just amassed enough skills
writing both score and songs and just getting into these adorable creatures and hearing the music.
Unfortunately, the music I hear when I hang out with these creatures is the right music.
That they're supposed to have behind them. So every night I don't question too much how it
works. I just know it does. So I can't complain. But then how is it the right music every time?
How are you constantly coming up with a new score anytime the the theme music needs to change?
Well, that's my particular affliction
I'll just you know, I
Yeah, I call it the feed and it's going. Yeah. I mean I'm scoring our conversation
Conversation now if I have an extra pair of hands. Well, the music might not be very good
It might need some tweaking, but yeah, that's that's how I'm afflicted and and we are all the richer for it
We've been talking a lot here at Pokemon XP specifically about how people and their specific
artistry interacts with Pokemon and how it feels great to be celebrating that alongside
other creatives because we've spent so much time loving Pokemon and being like, maybe
I could love Pokemon and another thing and maybe those things could make something
beautiful.
How has the experience been here at Pokemon XP as an artist?
the most exciting to me is to see that because it really is like a design
company on as well as everything else right just all of these creatures and
the the the accoutrements specific to the event is just I you know I've been
walking into stuff because I'm looking at either some some brilliant costume
that someone has put together or just like one of these boasters Pikachu
looks great in hats, but the Spaceman stuff is just another level and all of that stuff
and it's never-ending. The thing with the painted ladies with the houses unique to San
Francisco, all of it, it's just overwhelming. I'm glad that my band rehearsed a lot. It's
muscle memory when we get on stage at this point because I'm just blown away
like we all are.
And you mentioned that you're sort of automatically scoring as you encounter things.
Was it that same way when you first got to Pokemon? You were bursting with ideas?
Yes.
Bursting with ideas that, especially since making music for Pokemon was my first chance
chance to really do the music for an animated entity that apparently I had been setting
myself up to do since I was little.
So especially X, Y is one of my favorite scores because it was my first.
And those three years are just full of tons of ideas like anything that had occurred
to me and then plus what the creatures and the story told me to write.
There's like eight hours of music for those three years.
Is there a lot of absorption that you have to do ahead of time, though, to be prepared
to kind of just have that flow from you?
I think with...
Was there French incoming?
Was there...
Well, with composers, I think you just...
You build up the music through your life and it just gets into your head and then
when an opportunity comes to compose, it's just there.
I don't ask how, but the tunes are ready.
And if I had been writing music for something totally different,
I like to think that an entire different set of options
would have shown up in my year.
It's just kind of how it works.
Would you say you have any musical influences that are,
what are those?
All composers in almost all kinds of music,
especially music for media, music for video,
we all love metal.
Yeah, there's just a certain visceral energy you only get from that.
Because of when I grew up in my particular mindset, I really love Steely Dan.
I love music.
And to a certain extent all Yacht Rock, but Steely Dan has stood the test of time.
It's up there with the great jazz artists or people like Bob Marley where it's just
this kind of thing.
It isn't really like anything else, and it has a very specific set of rules, and I love
it because I find that kids ears, because that's really who I'm composing for at the
end of the day, 8 to 10, they're open to anything.
And you don't need to tell them, you both don't need to tell them and you can't tell
them that something is good or bad, you just, you show it to them, and if it's
cool, then they dig it.
And it could be music for many of the last 500 years,
as long as it works for everything else,
for every other part of the story that you're telling them.
So I'd like to think that I'm subverting these young minds
in the best possible way.
I'm showing them all different kinds of music
and they're associating it with these great stories
and with Pokemon.
And then you just set, forget, see what happens.
And what has that experience been like?
Because we've talked about this a lot
with a bunch of the creatives that we've had up on the stage.
But obviously, Pokemon and music are so intertwined, right?
Like, this is something that people genuinely remember tunes
from 30 years ago.
So as a person who's kind of creating these iconic things
for, yes, children, but then something
that they're going to carry through them
throughout the rest of their lives,
what has that feeling been like for you as an artist?
Well, I mean, it's amazing.
And something that I'm experiencing here
is actually interacting with fans and seeing them sing
the songs, you know, while we're playing them on stage, that's, you know, that's, that's
special. And one of the musicians in my band, Natan Hong, this second keyboard player, he's
20 years old, and he grew up on X, Y. So before I met him, he attended my son's art,
art high school, which is where I encountered him and also Lucas Holmes, our drummer. Natan
had some of my musical DNA because he grew up listening to my music on X, Y. So like when
I voice the Bb7th chord, he's right there with the same voice and just because he's heard
it growing up, which is just in, you know, it's a hard feeling to talk about, but it,
you know, you know, it's amazing. But just getting the feedback from everyone just
Instead of being in my room playing something and then hitting send and that shows up on on your TV or your phone
six months later this this immediate interaction with with the fans to see
You know seeds that were planted more than a decade ago growing
today is you know, just an amazing feeling as an artist real real sense of accomplishment and and and belonging
being a part of this incredible thing.
Are there any particular pieces that are your favorites that you love to see out and about,
or any that you have noticed the fans really hold the tightest to that they love?
Well, there is a...
It all kind of comes down to the red and blue score,
the original game score by Junichi Masuda,
and Gotta Catch em All,
the original theme song by John Leffler and John Seagler.
And so all my work is informed by that.
Those are like the Rosetta Stones.
So everything comes down from that.
And the wonderful thing about it is they wrote,
Lefler and Siegler wrote the bop to end all bops,
where to start all franchises.
And Janish Masuda is one of the original architects
of the game, that music, like every note of that music
is like this is what Pokemon music sounds like.
And you can do stuff that draws from this,
but you also, you need to do stuff that draws from this.
And if you do that, then it should work.
So that's been my experience.
As far as my own music goes,
it seems like the song Evolving again,
which is the current theme for the season of Horizons,
Haven Burton Pascal who sang the version that you hear in the English language theme is in my band
So she's singing it today, and that's eliciting a great reaction because it has a cool high note
and
The song I choose you from the I choose you movie from from years back
Thank you. I have trouble with it with it to getting through without crying
I've heard it more than anybody.
You played it at my wedding?
I know it's been played at weddings and I wrote it for the fandom and for the character of Serena
and for Haven who, both for her voice and because she plays the character of Serena
there's that really cool interaction and I also wrote it for my wife.
I'd love to be able to, for the art to have many facets for you to be able to turn a song around and have it mean a bunch of different things.
And I owed her. Composers, spouses are long suffering.
It's just a lot of quiet.
You've talked about being on stage with a lot of this music. Are you okay?
I'm okay. Okay, just love comes through.
It absolutely does. You've talked about being on stage performing here at Pokemon XP. Can you tell us how that experience has been?
Oh, it's been wonderful. First of all, I've never I've never had a band that sounded really
It's surprisingly difficult. It's almost impossible and so what I've been saying from the stage is that
so much of Pokemon is team building, right? It's one of the things that we really learn and
And so one of the part of the magic of Pokemon
is that these people come together
and you can make amazing things.
So I have this incredible band with this great rhythm section
of kids that I've been playing with for three years now.
And both of my significant singers
who have sung a bunch of the theme songs
from the very beginning of my career.
And then guys in my band playing trumpet and trombone
Akil Gopal on Matty Lou. Akil has been my co-composer since the beginning, so 13 years,
so a lot of the music that people love from the anime is his. And then I have a guest
on guitar, Mason Lieberman, who's a great composer in his own right. So we've just
got a little bit of everything. Oh, and I've got a friend from my hometown who's a very
talented musical theater performer Shana McNulty and I'm like hey you want to come
along and do this and you can sing and play tambourine and and be ready if
anyone forgets their lyrics and you know and so we're just we're all having a
wonderful time. Have there been any moments looking out into the audience
that have really stuck with you or things that people have come up to
and said about the experience here? Yes yes yes and yes yeah a little
two-year-old boy just losing it as soon as we start train your battle x y
it's like a full three minutes it's like that I was I was looking at my drummer
to make sure make sure that that guy doesn't get you so excited that we speed
up little momentary glances between musicians that say so much but we
didn't we kept it together and seeing people sing along with like the whole
set, knowing every lyric for every song. That's a level of dedication. I've got a
chichi.
I've got a lot to learn about, so.
You were talking about the love coming through, Rachel. Was there something that you wanted
to ask?
That was just back, you know, talking to our sculpture artists and finding out how passionate
they are about Pokemon and how passionate they are about other things, their own pets,
they bring into it, and then it shines through. You know, there's a lot of love for
Pokemon a lot of care for the community that is so apparent in talking to you and
obviously a lot of other things that you love in your life is there a song that
you feel like best encapsulates what you would want to give the Pokemon community
that's a that's a that's a great question I mean it's not my song but
gotta catch them all really just means a lot to a lot of people I think my
song be a hero that's that's people something people stomp around to it's
It's a bop. I like to think that it's inspiring me. It's a good message, right?
You know, whatever opportunity, if an opportunity arises to be a hero, it's advisable.
You know, to first do no harm, of course. But, you know, if you can, be a hero.
Yeah. And you talked about inspiration a little bit. Has Pokémon XP given you any new inspiration?
Are there things that you think squirt through your head?
begin. Again, I kind of, I work musically but I think visually, so I'm just parsing everything
that I've seen, you know, get you in the space. Yeah, I can hear that music. We haven't heard that
music. Yeah, but I've heard it, so I gotta kind of figure out a way that I can, I can-
I want to hear it. I know, right? I want to hear it!
Bring that to fruition.
So we have a little tag, a little keyboard, can we do it real quick?
Pikachu in space, if I do where to pitch it I would.
How do we take in our headsets to that music in your brain?
Yeah.
Can you scan it?
It's hard without a keyboard.
Of course, yeah.
Are there any other things you've seen here even outside of the music realm
that have been fun for you, exciting at Pokemon XP
or any things you've wanted to collect or that you've enjoyed looking at?
Yeah, I spent my time at the Pokemon Center and amazing Pokemon Center.
I was in Japan last year and we went to a bunch of them.
Yeah, it was very cool.
But this was like the Pokemon Center to end all Pokemon Centers.
And the San Francisco stuff really means a lot to me.
I have lived in the city off and on for 40 years and so San Francisco is kind of
part of my musical DNA.
I was music director of a show here
that ran for decades when I was in my 20s,
and that's informed my musical sensibility.
It was called Beachbunk at Babylon,
and it had some very Pokemon-esque aspects.
It had a similar kind of antique disposition,
and it set me up well for that.
And San Francisco is a very Pokemon city, I think.
You can be yourself in San Francisco famously,
and so much about Pokemon is about self-expression
and about finding your place on a team and in a community,
and that is what San Francisco is all about.
And that's what I'm all about.
So seeing those things mixed together
on the merch has been satisfying for you?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Cool.
Anna, have we asked our favorite Pokemon question?
Oh my gosh, we haven't!
Yes!
So what is your favorite Pokemon?
My buddy's holding my bag, but Snorlax.
Oh, yay!
Yes, Snorlax today.
What is it you like about Snorlax?
Well, I like that he'll catch you when you fall.
That's so good.
And I just love that's how relaxed Snorlax is,
because Snorlax is aware.
Snorlax knows what's going on,
and Snorlax's response is natural.
And I think that we can all learn from Snorlax for that in that way.
That this is what's coming at Snorlax.
It's what's coming at all of you.
And here is how Snorlax is chosen to work with it.
And I find them very inspiring.
That's just inspiring.
I haven't really thought about that about Snorlax.
I like it a lot.
And if there's one bit of music that I wish I could hear a bit more from,
it's the Pokeflute that wakes Snorlax up.
So I'm looking forward to maybe a little ditty with some fluke sometimes.
Fluke won't need a bigger budget for the band.
Next time I come around, next time I come around I'll bring woodwinds.
And oh yes, we'll get into some jigglypuff and we'll get into a...
Oh, this is sounding great.
Is this a promise?
Look it, look it!
It's official, it's on the broadcast now.
Excellent.
We see that.
Yes.
That plus Pikachu in space.
Yes.
Okay, yeah.
We'll be looking for that.
We will hold you to that.
Yes.
Space Pika.
All right.
And it's been such a pleasure talking to you.
Thank you for your time.
Always been so fun.
If people want to follow along with your adventures or see more from you, where can they go?
You can seek out at Goldfarde Pokemon Composer on Instagram,
where we're doing a whole bunch of, they're doing a whole bunch of stuff,
besmirching my good name in the most delightful way.
So definitely you can check that out.
I do give some insights into my songs.
I talk about kind of how I put them together,
and stuff that it seems the fans are interested in.
I won't waste your time.
And of course, at 2 o'clock and 5 o'clock today,
come on down to the stage. It's gonna be fun.
That war stage on Rayquaza Road, right?
Yeah. Right behind us.
So if you walk in through the Golden Gate Bridge Arch,
just keep going that way, and you'll find them.
Thank you so much, Ed. It's been a pleasure.
Thank you, Ed.
We've got more coming your way from Pokémon XP right after this.
I
Welcome to Pokemon XP here on Rayquaza Road in San Francisco.
We are having a great day.
The sun has just come out.
I am Anna.
This is Glitter here at the desk and we have some returning friends.
Welcome back to the desk.
I'm so glad you guys are here.
Introduce yourselves again to the people at home.
I'm RealBreakingA, I've been a Pokemon content creator for 12 years and I am having the time
of my life right now at Pokemon XP.
Yeah 100% I'm SuperDouberDanny, also a long time Pokemon TCG content creator, so excited
to be here.
This is awesome.
What has happened since we saw you last at Pokemon XP?
Oh gee.
Give us the T.
You've been walking around, we've been sitting at this desk, what have you been up to?
What has happened?
I did so many trades.
Really?
So many trades.
I brought a full trade binder and you have been trading away at the collecting trade.
What's the best trade that you've gotten?
Oh, it's honestly, it's top secret because we're actually doing a challenge where we're
trying to get a better binder by the end of the weekend.
But I have traded for some big ones.
Yeah?
Does that mean you're going to win?
I'm not too worried.
I'm not too worried about it at all.
What's the criteria?
Is it by rarity, by value?
What is the...
It's just whatever you want.
Whatever you like kind of deem as like cool.
I like that.
And we're gonna just mix up the binders
and then we're giving to somebody
and then this person's gonna judge.
Oh.
Which binder they like better,
but they don't know whose binder it is.
I love that.
That is cool.
Do you have the impartial judge already?
No, not yet.
Okay, I like that though.
I like that.
You don't even know who you're making the binder for.
You're just making it.
Oh, that's so fun.
It's whatever you just kind of think is, you know,
gonna resonate with this judge.
I've heard Anna's a really good judge,
so like if you need any help, you know.
I would not be opposed to that at all. I think both of you have really good taste in cards too. I follow along on social media a little bit. So I would be a really good judge because I would really enjoy whatever you guys are thinking about. I'm really sure. But yesterday, Real Breaking Nate, you came out on top in the debate. Tell us, in case people missed that, tell them about the panel you two did.
So we did the battle, Bracket Bonanza, trying to basically fight for the fan-favorite EV evolution
here at the first Pokemon XP. And so we each kind of represented an EV evolution.
And then it bracketed it out down to one winner. And it wasn't us voting, it was the fans voting.
They put a QR code up on the screen and everybody got to vote.
And so it came all the way down to Umbreon versus Sylveon.
Which is a kind of matchup for each of us.
You have a lose.
Good.
Our two favorites.
But unfortunately for SuperDuperDanny,
Sylveon came out on top.
Yeah.
I got smoked in the debate, man.
I feel like you took a debate glass or something.
No, I really didn't.
This was like a full-on debate.
Like we had like rebuttal time.
Oh, man.
Yeah.
You had some good points.
I tried my best, though.
I feel like I'm asking because I heard your strategy was kind of this appeal to friendship,
like you feel the humanity.
Is that the strat for your binder as well?
Do you have a strategy?
Oh, that's actually, I like that connection that you made there.
Yeah.
I don't think it's the my, well, no, I take that back and maybe it is.
I definitely am trying to kind of, I guess, pull at the heartstrings for my binder.
Maybe some nostalgia in there.
Ooh.
He's always playing mind games.
I just want to win that's that's all I just want to win. Are you still looking for some that you haven't found yet for the binder?
Oh, yes, definitely. Definitely. We're trying to get in like every minute we can of trading
So I think we're probably gonna be trading up to like the very last minute possible. Where's the deadline?
There is really no deadline
Do you have a strategy Danny?
I'm looking for honestly like a lot of really cute cards and a lot of illustration rears as well
Both of these are very good strategies playing at the heartstrings cute cards. Yeah, absolutely nostalgia everybody loves
Absolutely, yeah, I hear nostalgia and I immediately want to see what is in that
I brought my trade binder for the first time today. I had it in my hotel room and I've just been so busy
I haven't even gotten to go to the trade area yet, but it is full. It is ready to trade if there are people who are
Coming to trade for the first time
What advice would you give people who are just starting to trade at a big Pokemon event like this? Oh, man
I mean, I feel like just be open to anything
But there are so many options there that it is like a little bit overwhelming
So maybe like in advance come up with some things that you're looking for like types of cards that you're looking for
And really take a look at your cards and like know what you got to mm-hmm
But yeah, I mean honestly just like go in there and have a good time because like there's so many Pokemon fans in there
Just like having a blast right now. So yeah, I think it's good to go in with a goal
Right, I think when you go in and you don't have that goal
You can get very overwhelmed very fast, right?
Because there is decades worth of Pokemon cards at this point
Yeah, and so having that goal kind of like helps you focus on what you're looking for because there is so many cute cards
And just like fun cards in general that yeah, you definitely will
Start sweating after
There's a lot of overwhelm that can happen. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely
When you're trading in general not just for these binders
Do you do you have a usual goal that you're usually looking for either of you or are there usually a specific card where you're like?
This is the new chase
Well, I think for me, I have definitely probably went down maybe the wrong route
And that is I try to collect every single card
Yeah, I literally have what what I call a Pokemon card library
And so I have a binder for every English set that's ever been released every promo generation everything amazing
And so I wouldn't say wrong. I would say challenging
It is fun because I always say it's not about like trying to complete it
It's about the journey of completing it, right?
Like, I don't want to just simply just pull every card or, you know,
I want to like meet people and make friends and kind of like create that connection along the way.
So I actually don't want to complete it because then that means like the funds over.
Your hands are over.
Yeah, the journey's over.
So, but that's why I kind of do that.
So I feel like that's really good advice for new traders as well.
because I think when I first got into trading I was so focused on completing things and then I got that feeling after
I was like, but now I'm done. Exactly.
So I have a similar thing where I'm like, I want to trade for all of these cards or I want to personally open these, you know?
So I think that's good advice.
And I think when you go back and like look at your binder, you'll see certain cards and be like, oh, I traded that at the Pokemon XP 2026 event, right?
Like you you have those memories and you come back and maybe even run into those people that you traded with
And so you're gonna have that like little connection
Even if it is just a card absolutely
So nice
Honestly, like I've really been enjoying collecting like a lot of the cards that I've been pulling from the packs
Yeah, I really really love opening cards and like chasing those very specific ones
I am trying to go for some of the more modern sets. I am not trying to master set all of the old sets
You're crazy.
Yeah, like every single set.
Oh my God.
Yeah, you should see his, he's got like a whole collection of them in the library, like in
like color coded order.
Yeah, color coded.
Yeah, it's like in color.
Yeah, it looks like a rainbow, so it's got that kind of like pattern, but it's like
all in chronological order.
Okay.
I'm imagining you like in like a house coat, like, ah, yes, this is all yours.
Yeah, let me show you this fine vintage book, you know, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Now I want to kind of use you as an example here, but I'm going to ask you guys, do you have any more obscure Pokemon or card types that you're specifically trying to collect kind of on their own standalone collection?
Because Anna specifically has an Alolan Executive Rinder.
Whoa.
I've seen this.
Yeah, I've seen this.
Yeah, it is not large, but it is special.
but it is special.
It exists.
It is something that you like to collect.
And you guys have something like that?
Danny, start with you.
I have.
And this was actually started from our different binder
challenge video that we did together in Japan.
I have a Yukamori binder that I'm building out.
So trying to get all the clay art cards,
eventually it is going to take me ages.
But I got a really good start when we were in Japan.
We went to card stores all over the country,
looking for specific art artists.
Talk about shopping in another country.
What is it like doing something that you love
and then going and experiencing that in a whole other culture
and finding people across the world that love to do that?
Oh man, yeah, it's awesome.
Especially in Japan because there are so many
different card stores and it seems like it's really
like in the culture there.
Pokemon is so in everything there.
We have gone to card stores in Thailand and Peru
and Taiwan and South Korea.
And it really is interesting to see the full collections
of these different cards.
cards are exclusive in different areas that you can't get other places and
like one thing that's common amongst all is that there's always some really
really passionate Pokemon fans in all these places.
Are there any cards that are not English?
Because I think a lot of us primarily probably collect English as a native
English speaker but are there any other language cards that you particularly
like that you're like these are the ones that I go for that maybe other
people don't look at but I love.
In other languages I mean I honestly if there's like regional
Exclusives or those types of cards. I think I generally am just drawn more to those because we don't have them here
Yeah, so I would say yeah cards that are maybe printed in only specific languages
We're like from special events in other countries. I definitely try to get mm-hmm. Yeah, what about you?
Yeah, Japan has so many exclusives. We've been over there numerous times right and we'll just be looking at
Binder and be like I have no
Where did this card come?
I've been looking this card before.
I'd like to look it up.
And Pokemon's done so many fun collaborations in Japan,
and I love having a stamp on a card.
Yes.
OK, yeah, yeah.
I just find it fun for some reason, right?
Because I feel like it's almost like part of history,
in a way.
It's special, because for this specific thing, yeah.
And then if you find it in Japan,
like it's even more special, I feel like.
So I love stamped cards, and trying
get exclusive stuff from any other country, it can be very difficult as well, but once
again it's all part of the journey, right, of trying to complete these things.
I mean if we're talking about commemorative stamps in this case, but just in general kind
of tying it in here to Pokemon XP, what is your favorite commemorative item that you're
going to be going home with after this weekend?
Oh jeez.
Where do we even start with that?
Yeah, I don't know because there were so many special items at the Pokemon Center as well.
There were multiple promo cards from this event.
I don't know if I could pick one.
I mean, a really neat one is I did get a signed poster by Jerky.
Oh, you did it really?
Whoa, that's so cool.
So it's the Drippy illustration rare.
Yeah, you know what? You're so right.
So yeah, we both got to meet a TCG artist.
That was so cool.
one of my favorite artists that's so cool yeah was it down at the kind of museum
area or did you it was at a like a tcg artist signing that had an autograph
room cool but yeah we each got to meet a card artist that was so special it's a
neat little mecha for sure yeah it's a print of one like one of their cards
wow which one did you bring them? Tika Matsuno the mega meganium
he had such an illustration area wow that's so cool and that's another fun
about this event right, Pokemon XP, like you have a chance to possibly meet an artist, right,
these cards that you hold in your hands, like it's actually drawn by people, and to be able
to see them here is just really, really neat, even if it's for a brief moment, right, like
they're creating art, they're creating masterpieces, it's literally all around the world.
Tell us a little bit more about, because I agree with you, I love having a card that
has a story behind it.
You know, I traded for this at this event
or I got this promo because I was there.
Are there any ways that you specifically categorize
or mark those things so that you can look at them
with nostalgia?
Do you just remember them all?
No, so I actually, really funny that you say that
is that I have these little like trade slips
that I have made.
Oh my gosh, I do this too.
I'm so excited that you're saying this.
I have these little trade slips that I made
and I have like their name and like what I traded
and what they traded, what event it was at.
And then I try to take a little Polaroid picture
that fits inside of the binder.
So I put the slip behind the card
and then the Polaroid picture behind that.
And so that way I kind of can remember,
once I get old and I can't remember anything,
I can have that little trade slip.
Enough cards.
It's hard to remember when one was which.
So the picture is a really good idea.
Yeah, it's neat.
And you never know who you're trading with, right?
And maybe you traded with somebody 10 years ago
and then you traded with me then, right?
And you can just kind of see both of yourselves growing up
at the same time.
Yeah, that's so sweet.
Wow, that's so cool.
We actually, we hung out with the Polaroid people
by the Pokemon Center.
And I'm already like, that little film would look so cute
and hanging behind my binder.
Yeah, with the special frames on them.
Because I mean, I'm doing like the lowest end version
of that where I like cut up some computer paper
right in the end like I got this at Pokemon XP 2026 and then I shoved that
behind the card but I like the idea of making a special slip yeah I can I can
learn a lot from you guys I think you I think you should I mean you know
writing on paper is good you remember but now if you want to go that extra
mile you know yeah has it up a little bit yeah all right well we actually are
going to go to a panel very very soon but as we're we're wrapping up day
We're more than halfway through the day of our last day.
What are some of the closing thoughts that you'd like to leave the community at home with about Pokemon XP?
What would you like to share with them about what it's been like to be here
or something that you hope they will take with them from Pokemon XP?
Oh man, I think that it's just like a full community event for any type of Pokemon fan.
Like whatever type of Pokemon fan you are, you're going to have a great time here.
I've had an absolute blast.
It's been fully packed and we still haven't seen everything here.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's something for everybody. There is something here for everybody
I think Pokemon worlds has grown so much even over the past 10 years right now
We have Pokemon XP attached to Pokemon worlds and like even you know, I'm looking at the food over here
And the food is being right every every little detail is
Absolutely amazing and so I
I literally do not think anybody would be bored coming here because like you said Danny
but we haven't seen everything at this point like somebody will say something to us but
have you been here?
We had no idea this even existed.
Yeah.
We've been seeing that through people's messages as well using the hashtag PokemonXP.
We keep seeing things that they're showing us we're like we didn't know that was here.
Thank you.
You know what?
Part of Pokemon is discovery and so that's what you can do here is you can discover
things but most importantly I think making new friends along the way and
you know creating some lasting memories and you know I think it's also
important to shout out everybody behind the scenes that has brought this
together over the past you know year week, hour long it took you know because
this would not be here if it wasn't for everybody behind the scenes being
together. And that is perfect because I am being told by one of those people
behind the scenes that we have to go right now because we are going to
watch the Pokemon gaming gauntlet. Let's do it.
That is great to hear we have a really fun panel coming
up with some awesome players awesome competition. I am Joe Brown. I'm your
host for the gaming gauntlet and the Pokemon World Championships. They're a
celebration of competition at the highest level, right? So whether over in the
Chase Center today here on Championship Sunday, celebrating champions for
Pokemon Unite, Pokemon Go, the Pokemon Trading Card game and the
Pokemon video game, did you know we actually have a secret fifth
Championship happening right here at the Pokemon XP stage.
And that's what we're going to do right now with the Pokemon Gaming Gauntlet.
So these, we're going to have amazing content creators come out to do a series of challenges in Pokemon Legends ZA.
And whoever has the most points at the end will be leaving San Francisco as the Gaming Gauntlet Champion.
We ready to introduce our creators?
All right, turn to the stage, Agent B, Princess Diana, and our reigning champion,
DuRage Dragon.
Make some noise, everybody.
All right, let's go.
There they are.
The competitors, they're feeling confident, they're feeling ready.
We're gonna re-walk in, but only one will be the champion.
How you doing, Joe?
I'm good.
You have to see it.
It's very good.
All right.
So, we're going to have a lot of fun different surprises.
Our competitors do not know what's coming.
They know you're playing on Pokemon Legends EA, right?
Yes.
So, we'll go down the line and do right.
You are the reigning champion of the gaming gauntlet.
Does that add extra pressure here today?
It definitely does, Joe, but, you know, under pressure, diamonds are made.
So let's see how we can figure it out.
That's a great plan.
All right.
Hope to see how you do today V. How are you feeling? I'm a little nervous, but I mean I played legends. Yeah
Moderate amount, so I'm pretty I'm pretty excited. Okay, and Diana. I'm sure you're very locked in on legends
I'm locked in. I'm ready. I'm a little nervous
I gotta make sure I don't make a fool of myself on this stage in front of my friends over here. You'll be fine
We're all winners here today except somebody's gonna be a bigger winner than the other two by the end
I think the best way to start this off is with a three-way battle. What do you guys say?
All right
And remember Pokemon legends DA has a different battle system than the other games right now
Just turn base you're running around you're moving. You're gonna have to try to dodge through different attacks with mega evolution
So once we get that set up here is how it works gonna have all three of our competitors playing
I believe it's three minute battle for the three-way battle here first place
We'll get three points second place will get second and third place will get one
We will continue to keep tally throughout the entire gaming gauntlet
So let you know who is winning through each stage and this is one battle
But of course we're gonna have a bunch of different silly things that they'll have to do running around Kalos and
Trying to accomplish the goal be the gaming gauntlet
How are we getting set up over here, guys?
Well, V's going to create the room, Deanna and I are going to join in.
Alright, so as you're creating that room, do our dragon, I'll ask you, what is your team for this battle?
My team? Well, you know what? I think we've got a mix of my story team and we've got a mix of some of the Pokemon that are going to hopefully take me to my victory.
So you guys will see in a minute. I'm scared about these twos. No, I listen. I'm a VGC player
This is out of my comfort zone. So you guys have an advantage over me
I press two buttons and that's all I need
You know my team is just a bunch of like literally my the team that I went through the story with and they're just like my
Friends and I'm just here to have a good time. We're just here to vibe out
I like that. I think that's a positive mindset to have so whenever you guys are ready to get into the battle
We can get it started our first competition of the gaming gauntlet and go under way
I guess no restrictions
Yeah, go ahead Joe be saying no no restriction over no mercy
The game is setting up here.
Yes.
We have the party.
Now remember, in these odds you choose three Pokemon, right?
I'm pretty sure.
Right when you're playing, I remember everyone was holding on.
You're getting the megastones for Greninja, Delphox, and Chestnut.
Looks like we are all set to go here.
Let's get some noise, our first battle in the game.
Gamers good luck have fun. Thank you guys
I love this year in a competition
Let's see if we're all still friends by the end of the gauntlet
You guys are going to go easy on me right?
Getting into it. Oh! Dragonite I like that.
Oh!
Dragonite!
Our reigning gaming gauntlet champion
You can see on the screen here are three players running around
If you have not played Pokemon Legend ZA,
how the battle royale system works
is you can swap your Pokemon in and out,
you can pick up different abilities or different,
let's say buffs there on the ground
that can make you move faster,
make you do more damage, make you take less damage,
or build up your mega evolution meter.
And that's what I really want to see in this moment.
Who is gonna be able to mega evolve first in gear?
We have a Zernius there on the other side of the fair,
but there's no fairing in the game in this conflict.
Calm mind, Clefable, as well, trying to counteract.
Well, I spoke too soon.
Oh!
Clefable, not around.
One of my favorite Pokemon items in the ZA battle
is Absol.
It's super fast.
It has really fast attack animations as well.
And when you zoom, Mega Evolve
is just like you see in Mega Crawl Slash.
Evolve in this spot.
the asshole can attack and strike really hard.
I'm so I got to hit you behind.
You're so, I'm taking in from that.
What can I say?
Maybe I was underestimated myself.
Oh, there you go.
You found the confidence you need here.
But remember, direct dragon is the champion.
These are familiar battles for him right now.
And it takes three minutes out of it.
We have 90 seconds left in this moment.
And it really does as the momentum starts to pick up.
Every time you get a knockout, you see the points on the side where you see 222 for the three of them.
That is how many points you've gotten in the match.
You can get points from doing different tasks, like picking up different orbs, or getting more knockouts than your other opponents here.
That's Zernius.
But Vega extra drill is not what Zernius wanted to see in this spot.
Looks like we have 60 seconds left and it's still really close.
But just do right. I think oh no. Diana has three points as well right now, but direct with the KO from mega extra drill putting it in the lead.
This is so close. A lot of times when you're playing ZA online, it's like a clear favorite when there's only 30, 40 seconds left like you have right now.
Someone might be well ahead of the pack, but it's just two to four to three. It is anybody's game. Who's going to dodge these last crucial hits?
Who's gonna have the rightly timed mega evolution?
Diana does mega bomb the delt box in the last 20 seconds.
Hand it in your door and get some chaos with the fire attack.
Did he get one?
That's the most the delt box goes down!
That's sticky, right?
Oh, delt box does not have levitate.
It's just ZA.
Not able to fly away from these battles.
Durag and V, both with four points.
Is anyone getting the last second knocked out?
Mega Barbarical goes down right at the last seconds.
Wait.
That was crazy.
What would have happened if it died?
I guess we'll never know.
Bang, you're right.
You're right.
Congratulations to Red Dragon.
He got the dub right at the last second.
Thank you.
How's it feel?
Showing us how great that is.
The question goes on there.
We got it again.
That's it.
I just got to work on this.
Serious trainers.
To be fair, we actually did pretty well against you
You've got legendary poking on.
That's so true.
That is well.
That's so true.
Coming out with some legends over here.
I'm just using my friends.
I'm friends with legendaries.
What can I say?
You're a popular guy.
Legendaries love D-Rag Dragon.
That's it.
Hey, a point is a point.
So we're going to be able to keep Tally throughout the entirety of the gaming
column.
But as it stands right now, we have D-Rag Dragon in first place, then B in second
and Diana in the third.
remember, that is just one challenge in the gaming gauntlet.
So let's get a round of applause for the first battle here.
That was pretty awesome.
Dragon did use Ernie's, but we're going to let it slide.
All right, so now we can move on to our next round
of competitions.
And our competitors, like I said,
they do not know what's going on.
They don't know what each task is going to be.
So it's actually going to be really exciting
to see them scramble, try to figure out
Oh, which Pokemon is in which wild zone?
How am I gonna remember how to do this?
And so we have a bunch of timed challenges
upcoming in the gaming gauntlet.
So these in round two, these time challenges
are going to be 90 seconds each.
They're very fast.
You gotta be locked and ready to go.
I gotta sit up.
I know.
I'm locked in.
Yeah, I did, I did.
You know, after losing the one thing
Now you sit forward, now you're ready to go.
So these are our time challenges, 90 seconds apiece.
The first one will be the trainer
that catches the most yellow Pokemon in 90 seconds wins.
Is that right now?
It's right now!
Oh God, I think is there gonna be a timer production?
Look at how many side quests I have to do.
No, that's so true.
I'm not, this is pretty awful.
No, Joe.
Okay, so we will have a timer,
So get in your head, maybe certain different wild zones
that you're thinking of that will be good.
And 96 is going to go by a lot faster than anything.
So what was that production?
Is it any yellow Pokemon?
Or is it?
It's any yellow Pokemon.
Do they have to be different?
Listen, if they're yellow, they're yellow, right?
All right, fair.
All right, I think.
Okay, let's get it going, let's get it going.
Keep looking.
Turns out the timer is running right now.
So let's see.
We're going up.
What are the wild zones that you think are the best options?
We have running around here.
You can see the different perspectives.
Remember, we have D-Wrek on the bottom with the dragonite
here.
Or no, Diana's on the bottom.
Excuse me.
Diana's just got a Pikachu.
30 seconds remaining.
That's how fast it moves.
We have an account afterwards.
How many yellow Pokemon you have
caught. Wouldn't it be awesome if somebody catches a shiny also at the same time?
That was another question that I had.
We will cross that bridge if and when we get there.
If someone catches a shiny, it might be worth a point on its own.
I think there's only 10 seconds left.
Diana, you gotta catch this Pikachu from Absol.
There we go. Okay, flying around.
I'm yellow.
I don't even know.
That is time.
The Bound Suite is not yellow, correct?
Okay.
There's a little yellow on it, okay?
Alright, so everybody go into your box.
I'll come around and see how many of these yellow Pokemon we have caught.
So, okay, Durega, I see that there were Pokemon
prior in this box, correct?
I don't think you just caught 18 Pokemon.
No, no, no.
I don't know if we count Marie.
For me, it was just the two.
Do we count Marie?
Okay, so do you guys got the two Pikachu?
V did you? Wait hold on, does the Mariep count?
I don't know, I don't think it's been, I'm gonna enhance.
No.
Mariep is definitely yellow, crowd what do we think?
Is Mariep yellow?
Wait thumbs up or thumbs down, yes?
I'm getting some thumbs up, so I think Mariep officially yellow,
you heard it here first.
V with four yellow Pokemon, Diana with three Pikachu's,
one, two, three, last throw.
Spupa, that was from the beginning.
Spupa, oh, okay.
Spupa is adorable, however, it is not yellow.
He absolutely stands to put in that one side quest
that you bought here.
As we are tallying our points up for that round,
let's get a round of applause for V
cutting the most yellow Pokemon here.
That's stressful.
I mean, 90 seconds went just like that, right?
Oh, yeah.
You know, I forgot that you could knock them out
to make it easy.
That's hard to make them easier.
Oh, you were just trying to throw out.
You were just on the run throwing quick balls out there.
All right.
That might be the strategy for some of our other challenges.
I'm not going to give away any spoilers,
but that might be the strategy.
Here is our update here.
So we have Vy and Dragon actually tied right now.
Then Princess Diana bringing up the rear book.
You got a lot of time.
We got a lot of time to come back here.
This is going to be a complex story.
Now, I will give you a moment to try to map this out
in your brain, because our next 90-second challenge.
It's not as simple as what color is these Pokemon.
It is the trainer that catches two Pokemon
with three syllable names first.
Does that make sense?
OK.
So think of a Pokemon that has three syllables
their name and whoever catches two first will win this challenge.
Okay, okay.
All right?
We're all out of second and let's go.
So start running around the map.
You can think there's a million Pokemon that have three syllables in their name.
We had a couple on the screen there, Sable, I, Pikachu, right?
There's a whole bunch, Kipaldon, right?
We're just trying to figure things off the top of my head.
Guard of war.
Is that where Diane is going?
Okay.
Oh, it pops out!
The carnivore always runs away!
Now it's a tough time to see.
They are not yet there.
Malamar, boom.
You gotta spell it out.
That's three syllable.
We're done.
Dragon, you got there?
Yep.
Let's see the box.
Yeah.
Run away, you're good.
Run for these evil hound ours.
You know, they're coming after you.
It was a barnacle or a monkey coat.
Okay.
They have to be the same or do they just need to be so these have to be three syllables where we got we have bar
Bionicle and Magikarp those are three syllable poke a barn
I don't even think that's like 90 seconds guys. That was super fast really
When it comes to catching binnacles drag-dragging doesn't waste any time
time right now. All right. It was an alpha 2. Oh, you gave a half point for him. I was
just going to do a bad measure. If it was a shiny alpha, maybe it'd be worth it. Maybe.
Next time. Next time. But, bro, in the previous round, I got three Pika chews. I'm happy
for you. However, that was to catch yellow Pokemon. You just so happened to catch three
I respect the hustle and I respect looking at the leaderboards right now do you ride dragon's the one that gets the point for that challenge so dragon in first place was four agent V in second with three and Diana I got faith I got faith.
Listen it's not my fault Gordavor didn't want to sing in the ball.
The Gordavor was that was heartbreaking that was really smart to go to wild zone 20.
Perfect and that was a very smart play.
But unfortunately, she's happy for not looking for a big enough house in Pocopia.
True.
Gotta update the habitats here.
Okay.
Now, audience, we are going to need your help on this next challenge.
Are you up to the task?
Alright, that's what I love to hear.
So our next timed challenge, you have 90 seconds to catch the cutest Pokemon.
All right, so how this works is you decide you have 90 seconds starting now go to a wild
zone go wherever you want where you think the cutest Pokemon lives I'm not going to whichever
habitat whichever wild zone it's not going to give you any advice and then you you
can catch multiple and you know in that 90 second time frame and you will nominate a
Pokemon that you deem the cutest that you have caught in this 90 seconds and so
friends in the crowd you got to be diligent you got to pay attention and
vote with your hearts and vote with your cheers on who you think caught the
cutest Pokemon in this time to challenge so we got we got direct in a
fight here oh with the kengis guy on the fur proves with these going up to
wild zone 18. I don't know Alpha Salamence is cute, but to each their own V.
Oh, that's just cute.
Oh, that's true. That's really cute. Okay.
Now, Diana's face off a run-access to Heracross. What did boys do to be a part of this?
I'm just trying to get this fifth one.
Oh, time to get to the Vianne. Okay. Everybody lost a nice beautiful Vianne.
Oh, no. Vianne doesn't like being in the air.
But the leaves fell in the way. How many seconds do we have left?
We have a 20 seconds left, just like that, 10 seconds go off the board.
20 seconds remaining, 15 seconds, remember, you can catch multiple and
you're going to nominate the cutest Pokemon, oh, there's a kisser, 5 seconds left.
Let's throw a Pokemon, Diana!
And that is 90 seconds time!
That's time, I think the Kangas Com was hit before I said time, so.
I hope everybody saw none of them.
Oh, it didn't catch.
Okay.
So, everybody go out to a safe area.
You're out of the wild zone, so they stop attacking you.
So you can go into your box to show it off here.
I have nothing to show.
They didn't stay in the ball.
No.
None of them stayed in the ball.
They all escaped.
I'm not having a good day.
What if we have...
Oh my goodness.
Okay.
So, for anyone who didn't hear that,
We had a bring your cutest Pokemon to class competition and Diana came up empty.
They didn't want to come hang out with me.
I understand though.
That's difficult.
Okay, so can we all get an imaginary round of applause for Diana for her cute Pokemon?
That is the best y'all.
That's the best.
You know, first place in our hearts, right?
It could have been any Pokemon since none of them were caught.
Okay, V, what are you nominating as the cutest Pokemon you've just caught?
You've just caught so I know I fought for my life in that wild zone with the giant salamence to catch that big on and big
On is very cute. We can all agree on this right? Oh, very. Oh
Yes, thank you
But I think I'm gonna I caught this vanilla and I thought you're nominating vanilla
Okay, maybe taking advantage of the summer heat right people might have a delicious a delicious frozen vanilla here
All right dragon. Who are we nominating?
I've got quite an interesting one actually
Okay, I've got myself here a binary, which you know, yeah, ordinarily we know is cute. Yeah, however my binary
No splash
Imagine a binary splashing about isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen that might be the cutest thing
I've ever seen. What does your vanilla do? Um, it gets self-destruct
That's cute! That's cute!
That adorable move, self-destruct.
It's just so overcome with cuteness, it's just self-destruct.
Okay, so, and remember, they're tied right now, right?
This is gonna be a big break between the two of you.
So, audience, we'll start with V.
If you think the self-destructing Vanilla was the cutest Pokémon, cheer!
here. Okay, and now what about the baneery splashing about? How cute is that?
A little delayed. I'm pretty sure the self-destruct does that one there.
And so we...
Is anybody ready?
Anybody ready?
We're ready.
Oh, oh, oh, she's out!
Actually, it's so good.
Oh, my God.
Oh.
Yes.
What a good use of seven mega-shards.
You know?
Absolutely great use there.
So congratulations to V, picking up the point there right now.
And believe that this competition is not over, team.
There's still a lot of time left in the game in Gala.
I'm talking to you Diana. Don't give up hope. I'm trying maybe they'll want to be my friend this time
The sun is literally shining on you and your game. We're gonna try it on here. We are with the points out balls on me
I should have gotten older balls. I'm throwing premier balls. I
Have both balls now tied four points of heats between V and
Dragon we're moving on to our next challenge in the game in garlic
And this is a two minute challenge.
So those extra 30 seconds, they might prove very crucial here.
The first trainer to catch one steel type, one electric type,
and one ground type Pokemon wins the round.
And yes, to answer your question B before you ask it,
these are three separate Pokemon.
All right, so whenever you're ready, start now.
Anyone in the crowd, do they want to remember
There might be a particular wild zone that might be nice to catch certain electric steel and ground types, right?
Yes, so let's see what any of our competitors remember if they if they have memorized the map of Kalos to know which zone is the best.
Oh, Dragon's actually over in the Wild Zone 8 area, right? There's a lot of ground types over there, right?
at your girls for style different things he was running around I thought of
pretty good area oh wait
brown oh my goodness that was the fastest two minutes of all time
I'm sorry I remember where that wild zone was I was I was looking at these
box here we can see the a Iran is this feel tight you know and right the
Healy up tile is an electric type and then extra drill is a ground site.
Wow. Give it up for me guys.
Now what now what wild zone did you go to?
I just remembered it from the map.
I like 14 14.
Okay. That's housing and all the construction and you know, all the different
property was like the left side.
Yes. Like it's over here somewhere. Yeah.
Yes. And it led you that left side led you to victory in that challenge.
So congratulations, we have three points updated for you.
Now, how are you feeling, cause you know,
it was a tough first battle, Dragon got the first couple of
them, but now you've taken the lead.
I think catching Pokemon might be my specialty
versus battling.
Oh, okay.
So you know what, I'll let Dragon have that one for sure.
So you're saying that if there are future challenges
that include battling, you might be in trouble.
I might be struggling.
Interesting.
I wonder if there'll be any more battles
in this game than Gama.
What? Why'd you say that?
Well, you could be a copy of the Almanus or anything.
I'm not trying to predict the future.
So, AGD, currently in first place with five, dragging with four.
And, Diane, I got faked.
You're going to fall off and come back.
You're going to make it close in the end.
So, that was really fast.
Catching three Pokemon like that.
Very impressive.
So, let's keep the good times going.
What do we say, guys?
Let's continue on with the game and go away.
All right.
Now, up next, things are going to get a little more difficult.
You're going to have to use some brain power.
You're not catching three Sylvils.
You're not catching two Pokemon or whatever it is.
You have five minutes to catch one Pokemon originally
from Kanto, Hoenn, Yunova, and Kalos.
Those are four different regions.
They're all represented in Pokemon Legends, ZA.
and they all must be from four different wild zones.
So you can't just run into one
and get lucky and run into them.
First trainer to catch all four will get three points.
Second trainer will get two and last is to get one.
So this one we will continue till all three of you
are able to accomplish it.
So let's get started.
Let's get Kanto, Hoenn, Kalos and Yunova.
So that is the old originals in Kanto, right?
Hoenn the the water based region you know, but we're all very proud of you know
the year in America and then Carlos the reason I'm legend Z. A. So let's come on
over here. Hoenn. See how it's going. Remember all four Pokemon have to be in
four different wild zones. So it's not just about the regions again. I can't
remember that I got you can't oh ho in you know the and call us 1 3 5 6 yes so
now the question is how are you gonna be able to compartmentalize all of these
different tasks be picking up a meta type representing hoeing other any hoeing
fans in the crowd okay while they're getting everything set up now we have to
go flat to another wild zone.
Let's go through our other regions.
How about some Kanto fans, the OGs?
All right, what about you, Nova?
Don't, don't.
Why?
I have a question.
What if you find a shiny Pokemon?
Did you just get a shiny?
I can't.
Oh my goodness, Vikk just got a shiny Vachop.
Catch it.
That's your Kalos.
Is it?
No, it's in my Kanto.
It's my Kanto.
Or your Kanto.
Everyone, Vikk just got a shiny Vachop in the gaming
That's crazy.
You better run away first of all.
You should save your game.
That's more important than actually winning the game in Gauntlet.
That's right.
Oh my God.
Oh man.
The foreshadowing of the gaming ball is great to be said.
What happens if someone catches a shiny?
Oh wait.
Oh no.
No, no.
No, no, no.
No, no.
Respectable on surprise that you know it was actually the the most hype behind it
I mean, maybe that's a lot of black and white where a lot of people first games here. How are we doing dragon?
Well, what's our update right now? Of course everything apart from my counter. I got everything except for Kanto. Okay, there is a
Delaware Jones. I was in say
Diana, how are we looking? Uh, you know, I
Blow it steady wins the race. That's what they always say. That's what they say
We're done! Okay!
You've got it?
Okay.
Did you get all me in the box?
I was done. I was done.
I was done for like 30 seconds.
You've been done for 30 seconds, you didn't say anything?
I was just, you were talking to the camera!
Why are you flapping on me?
No, I'm not flapping!
Actually, we were waiting on you!
Yeah, I was done so quickly, I completely forgot.
I'm sorry, y'all. I'm just busy.
That's okay. All right.
So, Dragon, who did you catch?
We got ourselves a Leiron, representing Hoenn.
We have a Vanilla for you.
Nova, we've got Malamar for colors,
and a Matchup for Cantor.
But isn't a shiny matchup?
Oh, sorry.
That is in fact not.
Shout out to regular guys, you know?
That's right. That's true.
Can we get a round of applause for the regular guys?
Yeah, I like that.
Okay, Dee, who did you catch?
Metatite is from Hoenn.
I got Audino from Unova.
I got Fletchling, which is from Carlos,
and this friend.
No big deal, just catching a Sani live on the PXP stage.
Diana, how's it going over there?
You know what, like I said, I'm a little slower than most,
but it's okay because we're trying.
That's true, that's true.
All you can do in life is try.
See, just like magic harp, I'm just a late bloomer.
I am about to turn into a Gyaradosa.
It's going to be scary.
At the end of this, maybe.
OK, so I do think V did finish first, if we did.
If we had video replay capabilities.
And if there was a tiebreaker, if you guys
cross the finish line at the same time,
catching a shiny matat might be the difference maker.
So I think V wins that round.
Now Joe, usually for people like me who look for shiny Pokemon, we like to guess the nature
of it.
So do you have a nature guess on this Machop?
I'm feeling a little docile.
To me it looks sassy.
Sassy?
What about you?
What nature do you think this Machop is?
This Machop?
Yep.
I feel like it's sassy.
Sassy?
Okay.
What's a sassy?
Sassy?
What do we got?
Impish, oh that was my second game!
There it is, there we go, Impish from Wild Zone 8, that's so sick that we got a shiny.
And also, yeah, I think, is this the first shiny Pokemon caught in Pokemon XP as well?
That's true, giving up the first shiny!
That is pretty awesome, I think I'm gonna nickname it XP.
Pretty cool, can't wait to, can't wait to name that shiny Machop Joe Brown, you know what I mean?
You know what? I'll think on that.
I'll think about it.
Alright, so as we are tallying everything up,
as we know, last round V just got that one,
but the challenges are going to get harder and harder.
They're going to get more difficult.
Maybe some things that V's not as prepared for,
like battling, are on the horizon.
Don't say that.
I'll say the bad part.
What? That's what you do in Pokemon games.
You battle other traders.
Let's just score battling. Maybe I'll be better at that.
I don't know what to say, yeah.
Now, now Dragon, he has taken the lead.
You're used to being a champion, how are you feeling right now?
You know what, I'll tell you this Joe, last time I became champion, I wasn't leading the charge.
I'm a very much an underdog in every way.
Maybe like this time around.
Basically, now I'm getting the underdog status.
He's right where he wants to be, you want the underdog.
I like this.
Okay, so do we have our our graphics available for the updated standings of V winning that
last round dragging coming in second Diana and third there we are perfect okay V building
a bit of a lead remember these are three two and one points right so V and eight Dragon
with six and Diana with the two there okay so now time for round three the round I
I am the most excited about because it's going to get a little funky is going to get a little
exciting in these challenges.
We pull up our first challenge here.
Remember all the points that are on the line.
The first trainer to collect 10,000 points in a ZA infinite Royale wins this round.
So I do think are we all in daytime?
We.
Yes.
Because the word daytime do me a favor.
Go find your favorite bench and take a seat.
You're already in the night time well you might okay
Well, you are yes, you might want to pause just because you're only like a quarter of a night
Okay, yeah, yeah, so we'll get what I ended to two bench reset so you have the full time together
You can go up to whichever as you're you're waiting for it
You go up to whichever wild zone you want for those who have not played legends the a before by the way
You should absolutely incredible game any z a fans in the crowd
That's right. All right. Oh, thank you be appreciate it
So in legend ZA at nighttime there the there are the ZA Royals were different areas of the region that taken over by
Battles and if you lock eyes with an opponent you and your Pokemon are going to battle
You earn a different amount of points off of different things like let's say use three electric attacks for you
knock out three Pokemon before you engage in a battle with them, right?
They're the different things. So this is a battle of endurance because it's 10,000
points, but it's also you want to pick up the good things, the easier to
accomplish things, right? Like just using five super effective attacks or
something like that. Diana, have we reset on the pick? I'm ready.
Pick me when you start scouting about it.
We hit this one to like go are you in the nighttime already or not I can yeah, so yeah
You go go to a nighttime zone sit on your favorite bench because I like to do
All right, we're here now
Okay, so we're getting ready for the battle zones when they come up
We have that scene yeah, you'll see an area gets taken over and I think this is gonna be really interesting
not only for the
Not only for the missions that will come up like use five brass attacks or whatever, but for the strategies that you all have
With your teams. I know
Dragon has the dragon got the dragon right right and that's really good news. So are we ready?
Are we ready crowd?
All right, let's get it started the first to
10,000 points this could take a while or it could be really fast depending on which
on which tasks everybody picks up.
So, Dragon's picking up one with the sneak up
with a steal attack to start a battle, okay?
Okay, so far I'm now.
Taking the picture down,
and you have to go through all of the battles here.
So, if you have not played VA,
it is so much fun when you get,
in the daytime, you can roam about.
You can go get different berries
and go to different cafes and have fun.
But at night time, we get serious in Kalos.
And at night time, we battle it out in these battle zones.
We using the Barbarical against Audino here.
How are we feeling?
You know, as someone who before 11VA did not enjoy
Barbarical, I'm sort of very, like,
I've participated so much.
That's fair.
It's a very good partner to have.
It's grown, it's definitely grown on you.
It's grown on me for sure.
For sure.
Are you in your cup of dawn? I see a victory.
Yes, we do. Yes, we have...
Are we tracking mine? I'm at max.
Oh, maybe we should keep tracking.
I'm chewing so far for 2,500.
Okay, 2,500, okay.
Well, he's 2,500 a piece, so...
Let's see.
Yeah, I need to probably replace this card that has brass titan.
Now, Dragon of the Emades and other battles here.
Ooh, it's Ari though. I think, oh, I think Dragonite's gonna come out on us.
Is this something you did Dragonite when you were playing through?
You're just using Dragonite as a powerhouse to beat through a lot of battles?
Dragonite was just clutched for 35 hours, really quickly.
It's pretty strong.
Really quickly.
And there are only 7500 points.
Okay, Dragonite is at 7500 points.
Right now, Diana you say?
It looks 2500 times 3.
Okay, listen, this isn't a match show, it's a Pokemon show, okay?
I was a little nervous there.
We gotta do math for me.
There's a little something about to do it.
Yes, so Dragon, you are at 7500 if you get, I don't know if you have a steel
attack to sneak up into the battle, but I do, I'm just trying to find some.
Why am I off-tiding from me?
Really?
It is.
And me, how are we doing here?
I have to land his resort, I believe.
I have to get more cars if he comes with me.
Yeah, Z is at 65, I think you're in here.
Oh my gosh.
Oh, he's balkiful, actually.
Oh, Z's barbaric, we're fighting up.
Oh no!
Go there this way!
All right, there we go.
Taking out Barbariclaw, and then let's see it come up.
Fourth link, 2500 points, and...
Now hold on, I got there first.
I've been on this screen.
Oh wait, hold on, Diana.
Also got 10,000 at the same time.
I was first. I love it. It was me.
It was me.
Oh man.
Okay. I'm talking. I have production in my ear right now.
They're going. They're going to video replay and they have determined.
They literally told me as I was saying, oh, dragon had it right before dragon had.
They said, Diana got it. Diana got it.
So Diana picks up the next one.
There's no 50 battling. That's what I can do.
Oh, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. They're saying they got it at the same time now.
I'm sorry I was getting attacked by an entire trainer while we were deciding our fates over
here.
You know what, I'm just happy that I finally did it.
We'll take a dub at this point, right?
You're going to tie for a dub, right?
So, you know, we've had a lot of really fun action here.
We had a shiny, we had a tie in a battle, right?
Like, there's a lot of crazy things going on.
Further proof, further proof that battling is not my forte
in this, but you know what?
That's OK.
All right, our scoreboards are ready to see where we
are tracking along in the gaming gauntlet.
So with that tie in first place, Diana and Dragon both picking up the points.
Gear V did not pick up any points, but you're still in the lead from the last couple of rounds going your way.
I'm just nervous watching. How are you guys going to watch in the game in Gauntlet?
It's a little bit fiery in here.
We've got more battle.
Well, pass over here.
Well, I don't know about that.
Now, this one should be fun because we all love alpha Pokemon, right?
So the next challenge in the game in gauntlet will be for the first trainer to catch four Alpha Pokemon in four different wild zones.
So you can't be silly and just run to wild zone 20 and just keep picking them up, right?
Yeah.
You've got to go to four different areas for this battle.
Are we ready?
Yeah.
All right, let's get running.
Alright, let's make some noise as they get ready for this battle guys
So four different wild zone Diana starting in wild zone three being wild zone 12 or it's very very chilly and then dragon is in
Wild Zone 20 and didn't get the semi-seer
No one popped up here to fight it
And then we don't have their day ruined by this alpha obama snow just me like it's been
It is so hard to catch sometimes.
Oh, oh no.
Oh no it popped out to me.
I made something.
And Diane, you already caught one right?
I thought it was all right.
Diane is moving on to her second alpha.
Okay, you know what?
Dragon doctor, Simi's here, sir, at one.
I usually don't prefer to this, but here we go.
Abomaso's got all his friends here to help.
Zogo's helping, Nova's helping.
Okay, these on the board.
Got one?
Oh yeah.
Let's go.
Now Diane is in wild zone two.
cross over I'm too far are you going for the alpha magic are you are you oh yeah
are you only comes out at night I think okay learning the fun facts here I can't
get over that I was gonna say I know I'm a lot of reviews plan you know I was
giving up we're going to a new wild boar all now dragging the zone with all the
normal type. And it goes for the Alpha Clefairy. Prepare for me to be tough to catch. Is he going to get there? Yeah! Oh no, that's for her never mind. I got excited for a second team. Got excited.
I got a second one. Okay. The Alpha Salamence and the Clefairy is caught. So two apiece right here. Diana looking to catch another Alpha.
I might as well do. I'm entering Wild Zone 20. I'll just go.
I'm just gonna listen you can catch one in Wild Dump 20 you just can't catch both right right right right right so
We got a gore geist
In dragon's way that would be alpha number three, but be very pesky with all the other goat types in the in the wild
Oh
I thought dragon that was gonna clear it
I just run it at us. Oh
Right I take them over the team right there
All the different kinds of comforts, three outfits, 10.
Yeah, yeah, just get any of them, Dragonite!
Papito, please!
Papito, run away!
Oh, Diana!
Have they got my straw?
They don't want to be my friends.
Oh, we're breaking up some mega-clothed fable for this claw chicken!
It's uh, it's a little bit strong.
Oh no, oh no.
Oh my goodness, Slaughter's just hanging out.
I'm like, what is this?
Okay.
Okay, now we can throw.
Slaughter's just getting caught.
It does.
That's number three for me.
That was number.
Hold on.
Alright, let me get out of here.
Wasn't that three?
Am I crazy?
Do I have a check?
I missed the club key so V got that so you guys keep going we'll see who gets who's next to get four alphas
Yep
And then you just got the alpha pad trap what an alpha at that
All right, so
V you're kind of crushing it right now
Were you were you sitting at all I sit in your hotel room just practicing anything very
I love Calo's, I love Lumeo's, yes.
I have like a concerning amount of hours in this game.
Well, let's see. I don't know if anyone can beat this.
188 hours?
188 hours, wow.
Okay, where are we at?
I'm sure there's others that have more than me, but that's still a long time.
That's a lot of hours, that's a lot of shiny items, that's a lot of fun times in Lumeo City, right?
So V gets the victory in that last crowd.
Let's take a look at the standing.
So V, nine points.
We're starting to separate yourself
as we get into the last few things
as a part of the gaming game.
How confident are you going into the tail end here?
As long as it's not battles.
I feel like I'm getting the one getting cheated here.
Battles are my thing.
I was going to say, you're an expert at battling.
So anytime battles close up, I get nervous.
should be nervous. Yeah, you know what? Yeah. You're right where you want to be, right? You're
ready to. I mean, at this point, I don't know anymore. All right, hey, it's still anybody's game,
okay? Especially when it comes to hyperspace. Oh man. Who's ready for some hyperspace gaming
gondola action. That's fair. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready. All right. So let's crank it up. Let's first of all let's get
nice little refreshing snack. Let's have a donut. So we're going to need you all to go back to the hotel and whoever makes the most
sour donut wins this round real quick. So go head to the hotel because there are different obviously different berries have
different amounts of sour in them, right? So if you don't have just the same of eight
hyper berries to get to the highest level, let me come over see who's who likes who
likes making donuts. I, you know what? I have never been more in like burst in the
donut making process before this game. I'd like I will be honest. Okay, that's fair.
I've been in Diane. I saw just crushed together and that was 760 sour. Oh my God.
I spend a lot of time in hyperspace hyperspace. That's where you that's where you're ready to battle. That's that's why they're so
760 sour that doesn't like a delicious donut
Okay
Sours yellow right? Yes. That was yellow
I usually associate it with the color it is okay.
I think listen, I say you lock it in 740 that's good.
It's not 760 last time I checked but it's pretty good.
And then drag it, we're gonna need these donuts.
So even if you're coming for a second and a third,
you're gonna need to make the donut.
So put them in here.
760.
I have a whole lot of Custis berries.
That's fair, that's fair.
Level 108, level 111.
I think those were the berries with my highest.
Dragonberry, oh, there, the hybrid tomato looks pretty good.
Oh, no, no, I was reading the long card.
Hyper, what's wrong?
I've learned all the names of the different berries.
That's true.
I don't know how you guys thought you were so sour.
They're the most sour donuts.
I'm struggling to get the number.
You know, look at the yellow section.
I'm looking at the yellows and I'm not seeing a lot of them.
I think for now, I would just use those kebbi as stuff.
That's it, just a round of that.
That's the kebbi I'll put.
If you're a real refined baker, you've made a lot of donuts in the GCA.
We know all the secret sauce.
All right, so make that donut.
We'll have those.
So Diana had the most sour donut.
So that's a victory.
How are you feeling?
You know what? I'll take it. A win is a win.
And you didn't even have to battle for that.
I didn't even have to battle. Maybe I'm just a very hoarder.
Maybe we will have to use those donuts for something else here.
But for now, so we're all ready for our first hyperspace, Lumios action, correct?
Okay.
I want to make sure we have a fair fight, so in case someone has to reset to find the actual power level of the same power.
our first battle in hyperspace will be the person who defeats the most trainers in hyperspace.
So let's just, like, we're not going to use the donuts we just made. We'll need that for another
thing. Let's just try to find a three-star battle. Like, let's see if we all have that available
to you currently in your...
Gonna heal my Pokémon really fast because that Alpha Salon is...
So Diana found a three-star hyperspace battle.
Oh, is this the closest?
Oh, and you can heal too, if you want.
Oh, yeah, I should heal, I should do that.
And then I would recommend getting up next to the hyperspacing,
because I know sometimes it can actually take, it's a bit of a hurdle.
Right, so once you find a three star hyperspace battle,
start heading forward, start heading there.
Question, has anyone actually ever found a shiny Pokémon in a hyperspace zone?
Yes.
Okay, what did you get?
a
Goalwork, okay, please say it for me you
That's way cooler than goal work. I'm sorry
Goalwork's cool. It's got a mega evolution. I got go look is also this shiny go work
Especially shiny mega go work, right? That's super sick
With all the different colors like the pink splashed in I love shiny mega goaler for sure. So charm and there is charm
All right, have we found our I don't know how to get to that one. Oh goodness. Yes, try to find a
Oh, no, that you have to look for the night time my reset. It's the red one
Hit the minus button and then I'll clear a lot. There you go on the clutter
So yeah, if you fly to the cafe or something, right? Yeah
Okay, Dragon's gonna get us there.
We're gonna have a three star battle.
You have not played Legends EA before.
There are different battles.
The level cap goes over 100.
You're used to, you know, 30 years of book mugging,
stopping and capping at 100.
I might have to go to a new zone.
My day break came.
You ran out of time.
I ran out of nighttime.
That is disastrous.
I know.
Okay, well.
Oh, you got some prize money for that.
Hey, nice.
You got some nice prize money for all those battles.
OK, so as Diana finds a new battle,
I'll continue explaining how hyperspace works.
You have the help of your handy dandy Hoopa,
who lets you go into hyperspace battles.
And you can push past the level cap.
You can push past the level cap of level 100.
As you see, this is a level 140
battle at three stars in hyper space this will be a five minute battle so
production will tell us when you guys go in you might actually be done before
five minutes is it the three star right we'll see yeah how that goes there
Diana how are we looking I am running towards my new three stars now in the
part of me. Okay.
And we have to save those donuts that we made earlier.
Save the donuts that we made earlier.
You have a lot of donuts though.
Oh, so we're not using the donut we just made?
No.
That was probably a five star donut you made, right?
Yeah.
So you can use a four or whatever you're feeling.
So fun fact, all of my donuts are shiny donuts.
Whoa!
Maybe you're going to match me.
Oh, wait a minute.
Whoa, all right, all right, we're all ready to go in.
I'm ready.
All right, three, two, one, let's head on.
Come on guys, round of applause for our hyperspace battles.
Our trainers have five minutes right here, right now.
Whoever wins trainers defeats the most trainers in hyperspace
will win this round.
Ooh, already off to a battle.
I didn't even, I know I'm not even in the area.
Oh, so, oh, so, there's a thing.
There, now you're in.
Now the question is always, when you're running around hyperspace, is it better to just go
right in and go for battles or should you sneak around and try to have the sneak attacks
of the enemies to try to catch their Pokemon off guard?
About one down.
And make sure everyone keeps track for themselves, there's about three screens here so it's
going to be hard.
Do you remember how many battles there are?
Right here it'll say.
Oh and Tru will say good point. That's good point. See?
That's what I think he'd be the big boxer.
Wait a minute.
Very smart.
Who's the boss here?
All right.
Right. Switching over to the X to drill.
Match up the pendant. I like it. There's some fire types.
There was a new QLT in testing.
Come on.
All right. Let's walk through and I'll dump them in.
All right. That's one down. Let's go.
Remember, this is only five minutes, so you're not going to be able to get through the entirety
of this hyperspace battle.
It's just whoever you spin battle out of, ooh, she's got about a fire type going on
here today.
Okay.
I'm going to let it whip those down.
The worst part, I feel like what I'm playing is when you have like a big animation and
then they have to status you in the middle of your animation.
Oh, hey.
I've gotten plenty of time.
Exactly.
And then I'll be like, what's happening?
Diana with the gel fox getting ready now,
but currently paralyzed, all on you now.
Electros is out here doing the dirty.
Now there is no rule that you can't kill yourself
to clean that up, you know?
If you want to wait, if you want to take the time,
five seconds to paralyze you,
that might help you attack faster in the future.
That is, do you remember?
You gotta think about how one battle impacts the next one.
Maybe you need posters, maybe you need a paralyzer,
a full heal.
Maybe you want to use that mega evolution, you know, energy to attack harder and attack faster,
or maybe just using the flush moves as well.
Very interesting because my first one here has access to ice tank and thunder tank throughout my entire playthrough.
It, he seems to be set, we usually get freebies, which is very funny.
It's very lucky. So I froze with limit earlier.
I don't know if anyone thought that, but that was crazy.
That's very, it was very helpful.
Yup, yup.
So these actually taking down five trainers already, guys.
That's really good, Dragon X3.
I don't even see any trainers.
I know, my alps are high.
That's how hyperspace works.
Sometimes it's not a busy day on the roads
in the Romeo city.
There's a Sableye.
If they like to be really pesky in battles,
because you know, it's got a little bit of a fuse there.
I'm gonna confuse me.
Uh-oh, Dragon X confused.
And as you can see, so we talked about how you go over the level cap in Pokemon led 2GA, Dragonite is level 168 right now.
So, did you imagine that when you were 7 years old playing Pokemon and facing a level 168?
When I saw that trailer when they announced that in years, I genuinely did not think that was real.
Alright, production, how much time do we have remaining in this battle?
90 seconds guys 90 seconds
sometimes sometimes it's in the
What should be opponent, right?
If you got a quick Pokemon,
if we Pokemon that are easy for 1 hit KO.
Oh, come on, man.
Oh, man, Mega Dragonite is so cool.
Oh, I got caught.
Mega Dragonite in the finals in the Masters Division
for the Video Game World Championship this evening.
So excited.
So excited. We love Mega Dragonite.
I wonder who's going to take it all in the end.
Yeah, I know, I'm very excited to see how
powerful a bunch of them are.
Out here, these are the seven trainers already.
Looking to take down this Ivysaur trainer.
How much time are we at remaining?
It's getting really close.
Man, but all of my Pokemon are poison.
Ah!
Oh, no, I'm caught.
Oh, I'm caught again.
30 seconds, 30 seconds.
If Diana can try to catch up,
me has taken up eight trainers.
Diana is at six, and Dragon is at six as well.
Sometimes it is just a luck of the draw
of which hyperspace area you entered.
I'm feeling a little confident
that V is gonna come out on top.
10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Oh no, V's not gonna get there in time.
and seven. If we had any more
time, maybe would have caught up,
but agent V with the victory
around everybody. I want a
battling thing. My ops were
hiding. Oh, yeah. The trainer.
Oh, the trainer. I did. I did
like to write that dragon
accountable exercises. You got
to try to just like
You were running through the malls, you were like, oh.
Oh man, V, with double digit points in the gaming bot lane.
This is happening.
And you were nervous at the beginning.
Was it a facade, guys?
Was V playing us?
I think so.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
I'm just nervous because my two competitors
are actually really good at their respective fields.
So I was just like, oh man, battling and that kind
of stuff, I got nervous.
Now, I do just want to check with production if we still have one battle remaining, is that?
Okay, so we are ready for our final battle in the gaming gauntlet. Are you ready, crowd?
Okay, we might have to do our favorite pastime of sitting on a bench, but let's see.
Because we all made donuts, remember? Let's put those donuts to the test, friends.
The final challenge will be whoever defeats a rogue mega evolved Pokemon in hyperspace.
Oh man.
So I know sometimes you gotta find them right, you gotta cycle through, cause it's usually
a five star battle it should be.
There's your, oh yours is mega bonette Diana.
So now you have time, is there fun in there?
You can game plan, you can strategize, figure out your ideas on how you want to take
down that ghost type. And now V, Jen ready, sitting on a bench.
I got my consolation prize money, so that's...
You got some prize money, congratulations. Hey, don't spend it all in one place.
That's right. That's right. Probably for all the Pokeball I used to get a, you know,
I got to stock back up.
All right, so let's see. Do you have... Oh, there you are. On the right side there.
What is that?
I have no idea what that is.
Well, good luck, V.
All right, thanks.
I don't know what that is is it is it like victory now it might be no
Uh, do you what do you know who these days? I
Can you guys suggestions? I don't know if we can full screen the
Maybe I can go to it. I don't know
I don't know who mine is
Felix
It's not heat, man.
Oh, yeah, all right.
We zoomed in for you.
Oh, no.
Here, go back to the V. Go back.
Scroll up to the V.
Oh, no.
Sorry, sorry.
There you go.
Yeah.
Could it be Altaria?
Hey, listen, it should be fun.
That's crazy, though.
It's going to be interesting to find out.
I don't know what mine is.
Oh, camera ops.
Camera
What's mine? What's mine?
That's all you show that looks like all each other. Okay. Thank you crowd. I appreciate the help
So are we ready? Well, if you guys didn't hit pause here, dude, you don't run out of your daytime
Well, it was how good so let's see what it is now
Oh man, I yeah, and both of you guys pause to make sure your timer doesn't run out. I'm good
Now is that
So we're gonna take the donuts that we made earlier the help of hoopa and that's what's gonna be your battle
For that for the robe that are we ready? Okay? Are we ready crowd?
The final match of the game and got one begins now. All right, let's go
Diana's right. She's like I'm ready to count on this matter the next
now, I
This is our final match of the game and got like all the models
Is it? It is back in camera! Let's go!
Okay, B with the barbaric mode.
Tactically, Alperia is a dragon fairly type now.
That's right, and I have poison jab on my hand.
And I have poison jab, I like it.
But I worry, remember, what happens if your lead Pokemon goes out?
At least your cross slash should be really well suited.
Oh, that's also very true, thank you.
process to be very
You're welcome.
I am so fast.
With the mega-binette,
absolute, absolute,
I'll be your lead captain.
It was so fast.
If this is your first half-season
football at ZA,
when you have these rogue mega-dolucides,
you remember, usually you need a bond
with a trainer, right?
To mega-evolve.
You have to mega-brake play,
and that saves you mega-evolve
story line these these singular mega evolutions are running amongst throughout
Lumio City and in their door job team and D represent team of the past to take care
of these roads mega evolution battle to calm the Pokemon down oh yeah I got
getting messed around it's time for mega dragon eggs that is the field
Uh-oh, I like that surf.
Okay, you got surf for the mega-cambrow.
That's four times the effective.
Every single road mega-evolution
has a different attack pattern,
a different attack style of things that you have to dive,
things that you have to get out of the way of,
and there are certain sequences
that you do a certain amount of damage.
They'll get kind of stunned.
I think we just saw it actually happen
on one of the screens here.
And that they'll get stunned
And then you can do a lot of extra damage either in mega evolution or with your plus moves hitting the plus button or non mega to do more damage.
Diana, I don't want to jinx you but you're doing great so far, you're getting the infinite down really low.
Me and Soul have a good bond.
Yes, we would.
As it's greater in mega evolution, the bond between trainer and the Pokemon is getting strong.
And the more damage you do, you can pick up these little hundred skulls that boost your mega evolution meter to evolve and attack faster.
Two more damage to your mega Pokemon, that dragon.
This is tough.
You've got the camera up here.
Remember, you are in striking distance of V to win the gaming gomri right now.
If you win this battle, you might overtake her depending where V finishes in this round.
The camera is really low.
The surf goes in.
Diana has the road break of the neck down to roughly the same amount of AT remaining.
These surfs are doing so much damage.
Surf and earthquake on the drag, they have such an awesome move set.
Such a very moveset as well.
Diana mega evolving again with mega Abol-Z.
The soul, plus then sign free.
What do you want?
Hepamonet is back!
You two keep going, you two keep going.
Yep.
Diana, the battling champion.
Oh no, I'm going to calm down.
The rogue, Megamanet, claim your prize, Diana.
Let's see what berries you get.
Any guesses?
I'm hoping we get more berries for shiny hunting.
That's true.
because any barrier at this point,
we need some sweet ones.
No, no more sourdough.
Who needs a sourdough?
Halfly.
What is poop up?
You know?
Congratulations.
Hey, there we go.
Dragon taking down Betty Chamberlain.
Let's get around to the plight.
Oh, man.
So to recap that last round, first place
was Diana, second place to Red Dragon,
and third place, Agent E.
Yeah.
Altaria.
Yeah, it was kind of nuts, right. Yeah, that was tough. It's a lot of fluff to deal with.
Listen, maybe you should have chosen better bench to sit on. You might have rolled a different road battle.
I think that was a bad bench. Never sitting there again.
Alright, so that is our last battle. So whenever it gets tallied up, we can see the final.
the final. But the time it gets tallyed you know then I'll win but V is still fighting
for her love for oh wait no oh my gosh the altari is still super high okay we got the
standings so Diana winning the last round gets pushed up to six points V with 10 dragon
7 that means here at the first ever Pokemon XP agent V is the gaming
Gauntlet champion
Mega Altaria still is not defeated that doesn't that didn't stop me from winning the whole thing but what
You just won the championship here. What do you have to say to the crowd? Um
Mega Altaria might need to be nerfed in ZA, but uh
I had genuinely such a good time.
Pokemon XP has been so fun and to play with my friends here has been pretty awesome.
Yeah, they've been having me, Joe.
Of course, yeah.
Let's give a round of applause for VR Champion again.
Now, Dragon, you have been dethroned.
However, you've been an excellent sport and a great vibe here on stage.
What do you have to say?
Now, obviously, I just lost to the better opponent.
V was locked in on pretty much every single challenger.
I couldn't have lost to a bad trainer.
That being said, I do have another game show to attend,
so hopefully I can win that later on.
Everybody loves a good comeback story.
You can bounce back and win the next one.
And Diana, I know there were some ups and downs,
but at least you calm down that rogue mega evolution
at the end, right?
Exactly.
I actually crushed that.
It was kind of crazy.
All right, so thank you all so much for joining us here
at the gaming.
Let's get one last round of applause for our awesome contestants.
If you had fun, let them know it.
I want to let you know, I want to let you know I ran out of donut energy.
I couldn't even do it.
You ran out of donut energy.
The Rogue mega-alteria fights to live another day.
Thank you all so much for taking a quick break.
When we come back, don't go anywhere.
It will be the final Pikachu dance party of the weekend.
All right, so we'll be right back.
On a new adventure
No one knows where the road will take us
Already said, cause now it's time to go
Maybe we can finally see
Who meant to be
We start from the way we used to be
Every time you show us who we are
We'll be right side by side to glory
Together you and I will touch the stars
And then, we'll do it all over again
Cause even if we leave our way
We say, here we go
Here we go again
Can't even get it enough time
Here we go
Here we go again
Lever's lost in a lot of time
Everyday, we all will look for our friends
Here we go again
We look around to familiar faces
All of us on the path to the unknown
We control the edge of the ring
We dance, see when we're walking
Make sure you know that dance
We'll do it all over again
Cause even if we win the day
You always say
Here we go
Here we go again
There is nothing left
Take me away
Take me over
Take my life
Here we go again
My fans, we go, we go, we go again.
Have the best song ever! Welcome back to Pokemon XP.
I am Anna here with Joshua and Glitter.
We are at the pxp desk and you just heard here we go again. I
Think I've heard I've heard your voice somewhere
Couple things. Yeah, I think it was on that video. It was on that video
Yeah, this is a this is a pretty good friend of mine actually Nate wants to battle welcome to the stage
Thank you for having me. I wasn't totally aware that the video was gonna play right before so I'm gonna cry on stream
Which is fun. I'm really glad you said that first because I literally had to fight back tears before
before we started this. I want to run with Umbreon around the rings of a planet and with
all my friends. That was a really, really fun song. Nate wants to battle here as someone
who has been on the world championship soundtrack before, is returning this year. Tell us a little
bit about who you are and what you do.
I am Nathan Sharp, as he said, Nate wants to battle. I do a lot of music in the nerdy
things realm, a lot of Pokemon music for sure. This is actually my third time being
on the soundtrack for Worlds, which is a huge honor, and I landed the trilogy, so good.
Is that... that's gotta be one of the most soundtracks anyone's been on?
Oh, I don't know about that one.
It's the most Pokémon soundtracks I've been on personally, so that I can confirm.
Big congratulations, definitely a feat, but it's been so great to get to know you a
little bit better behind the scenes and to see how much talent you have in that
music video and to see your music catalog. But I'd really love to know what really inspired
you to dive deeper into the world of music before you would start to create soundtracks
for some of the best video games and, and IPs around.
I mean, I've been, I've been a musician all my life. I started very, very young. My parents
put me in front of a piano and they're like, Hey, you're not like terrible at this.
You're really bad at sports, but, you know, do this piano thing. I'm like, All right,
so I stuck with it for a while, but growing up alongside music was always, you know, video games,
anime, and Pokemon was always such a huge one for me. I'm carbon-dating myself,
but I started with red and blue and only stepped away from playing for maybe a year,
so I've been, I'd say, somewhat consistent with keeping up with everything. And then
And at a certain point, just combining the two things
sort of made sense.
I tried my hand at, you know, garage bands
and things like that.
And some went well, some didn't.
But just kind of started making stuff inspired
by video games, posting it online,
see what lands, and you know, now here we are.
I know that Pokemon was really important to you
in your childhood as well.
Can you talk a little bit about that?
Oh yeah.
I mean, like I said, it was one of the first things that helped me make friends.
I was a very socially awkward kid, as long as I can remember, and then, you know, Pokemon
did what it did when it landed, all my friends were getting into it, I was getting into
it, and that just led to more people.
It was this cool common ground that was just like, hey, you like this thing, and
they're like, you like this thing.
Let's be friends about it. It's like all right cool
You know like the the trading car game trading trading in the games when you know it was a cable that was like two feet long
You really have to like
Be cool with your friends. Yeah
So then so then talk to us a little bit about how this relationship came to fruition. How did you get to?
Be a musician love Pokemon make them come together and then get to work for
um
I was at the
the Yokohama world, just kind of like hanging out and, you know, I was able to, you know,
meet some of the people who were working on some of the behind the scenes things and word
got out somehow that I was a musician, but also like really, really into this and some
of the music director was like, hey, we really want to give the opportunity to someone
like from the community someone we know not that there's anything wrong with
like you know being the hired musician be like hey sing the song it's like okay
cool but they really wanted to like put an emphasis on we want someone who we
know has that connection has that love has this passion for the games and you
know for for all of it so it was a it was a huge chance that they took you
know betting on me but I'm very grateful to have done it and very very
happy for the opportunity and to keep getting asked back is just insane honor.
They made the right choice. They made the right choice. We can even feel the emotions
watching that music video here and a lot of people got to enjoy it around the
world when we first kicked off the broadcast. It's now day three. You've
been around to see all sorts of different experiences, boosts and
activities here at Pokemon XP. This is the first event of its kind and for all
of us that have been fans for Pokemon for quite a long time, what's it
like to be here and to feel so much of this positivity and energy around
Oh, it's always great the community aspect to be able to like
You know because I
Like I'm here, but I'm really just here as a fan as much as like anybody else is so you know meeting people who either like know me
Just for like my own stuff or even the Pokemon stuff like being able to talk with them about it on like you know
This convention level thing. It's it's so cool. It's so cool to see
how much it just keeps growing and growing like Rayquaza Road's insane and that we're gonna...
Rayquaza Road is such a feat just like walking up and down even like I've experienced what I
wanted to experience and still I'm just like I'm coming back just for the vibes just like the
level of Pokemon immersion is like everything I wanted you know as a child and as an adult.
I was being facetious before saying the Nates are a really good friend of mine, we actually
are married, full disclosure.
Not everyone knows that probably.
That's why I happen to have a very deep working knowledge of Nate wants to battle lore.
But I want to talk a little bit about the process of bringing a song to life for Pokemon.
I know because I was there, in fact, Fun Little Easter Egg, there's some very faint
background vocals in that song that are uncredited.
Might be a voice you recognize, might be.
But tell us about what it's like to make a song like that.
How long does it take?
Where do you have to go to do it?
What is it like when you record?
And then how does it make it all the way
to what we see at Worlds?
It's interesting because it's different every time.
You know, like there have been some songs I've done
where originally it would just be pitched as like a demo,
it's like, hey, just sing this
and we'll see how they feel about it.
And they're just like, yeah, it's all good.
Like just run that one.
It's like, oh, okay, cool.
But then there's other times where we'll record,
we'll do some takes, we'll send it in
and they'll be like, hey, the insert x, y, z thing,
change this, tweak that, this note.
We want a different,
we want it just a different delivery on some stuff.
So it's always an interesting process.
It always piques my curiosity to see what somebody wants
differently from how I envision something.
But this time around, it was really fun.
It was really enjoyable.
It was a pretty smooth process with a lot of how audio and
music production works now.
Like so much is done digitally that you have the time and efficiency
to cut as many demos as you need before landing on a final product
rather than having to worry about, oh, OK, we need to make sure
everyone's in the same place at the same time.
So yeah, overall it was really efficient, really stoked on it.
I'd really like to know between the two of you,
you're both very musically inclined, incredibly talented.
What is it like to collaborate or maybe bounce ideas off each other to see does this sound right?
Maybe we can pitch this differently and are there frustrations when it comes to that point
or do you guys feel like you're on the same page most of the time?
You can go for it.
I mean I think it is true we are both musically inclined.
Nate has a lot of runway on me in terms of like devoting the time, energy
and professional attention to it that he has and so that's been really inspiring for me.
Actually wanting to be involved with Pokemon Musically is something that has been going
on for me since I started with Pokemon Worlds and honestly being around Nate, watching him,
admiring him was part of what got me to put myself forward for that and be like, please
consider me.
I want to be using this part of my artistry and my creativity in the Pokemon World.
So I don't know that I have much to offer him musically other than like that vibe
sick.
You know?
I agree.
The vibe is in fact sick.
Yeah, the vibe is sick, which reminds me, actually,
we were talking to another great musician earlier,
Ed was here, and we were talking about musical influences.
And he specifically said something
that kind of caught me off guard.
He said, all of us around this kind of music,
we all are metalheads.
We love metal.
Does that surprise you?
I don't know if it surprises me.
I feel like, it used to, but as I've gotten more,
like, you know, working on this side of the industry things,
like there's so many metalheads in the scene,
which I think is cool because like I'm definitely
a new metalhead.
So it's fun to like meet these people
who are on the production side of things, like I said,
and just like kind of bond over that, you know,
it's different levels, cause you know,
they're probably listening to metal
that was a little before my time,
but then I'm listening to the stuff
that was obviously influenced by what they grew up with.
So it all comes together.
And also hearing a lot of stuff.
Like there'll be an occasional guitar tone or drum fill
where it's just like, oh, I see that.
I can see the influence.
You should ask him what his favorite Pokemon is.
Is this, OK, I hope this is a good thing.
Then you're obviously, it's part of the trend,
you have to let us know what your favorite Pokemon is.
I'm a little scared now.
I'm a little scared.
My favorite Pokemon is Zoroark.
Oh!
I was just excited that we would keep the street.
What's the streak?
We're just asking people. We've been asking everyone to come up here and chat it with us
And we've not gotten a single repeat yet even out of like if we ask people atop 3 we still haven't got
a repeat for favorite Pokemon. Okay, okay. Which is just kept it.
Why are we going? Yeah. Yeah, nice. Yeah, do you want to do a top three?
I could do a top three, but I feel like that'll ruin the streak. Okay, don't
Actually, no, there's only one. I think my second favorite isn't gonna come up either, but one is Zoroark
Second is Rapid Dash.
I don't think we've had Rapid Dash.
No, we haven't. Surprisingly.
Third, ooh.
Ooh, third, third is a toss-up.
It changes.
You can do four.
I'm going to go in my gut and say today my third is Ho-Oh.
Yep, we haven't Ho-Oh either.
Wow, amazing.
Not a single one.
This is, I feel like this is a blessing.
It is, it is an auspicious omen that we haven't had a single repeat.
Has Requiza been said?
Once.
It has been said as like you've been loving
As a top three, yeah.
Okay, that was almost the third today.
Yeah, you went with your gut. That was a good call.
That was a good call.
Now, tell us about your experience at Pokemon XP.
What has been your favorite thing that you have either run into, collected,
participated in, a memory you've seen?
Well, we just built some Legos,
and that was very, very fun.
I was, I was, I'm still like kind of coming down
because I was really locked in,
because I was told there was a time restraint.
I didn't hear what the time restraint was,
so my brain was like, it's probably one minute,
so I've got one minute to do this.
I was running, we were missing pieces,
so I was running to other tables,
I'm just like, no, I got you.
This is like grabbing buckets everywhere,
and just like, where's the flatbread?
We didn't have flatbreads, we were just like,
where's the flatbread?
The meta is already so deep for all of us.
The flatbreads, we didn't have the flatbreads.
It was specifically a square piece
with no bumps on the top,
that was for Legos spots, so you follow?
Yeah. Yeah. Call it that.
Do you guys want to see the finished product?
Oh, you have it with you? I do, actually.
We, Nate and I kind of tag-teamed a little bit
to help each other out. Wow.
But here's the beautiful box that it comes in,
and then you get to open it up.
And this is over at the craft station,
in case you guys haven't checked that part out yet.
But then here we go. It is a Pokeball inside,
and then it opens up.
Woo-wee!
And they're meant to keep...
Tell us about what's supposed to go inside Glitter.
You saw these in action.
It's the little tags, right?
It's the smart...
So if you guys haven't seen the stuff
with the LEGO with it is, it is the smart tag, they do work with this Pokeball. So,
if you're at the craft station and then you want to go check out the LEGO booth, talk
to them about it, you'll see it also on your instructions when you're looking and doing
the craft itself, so you can get a little bit more information there in the booklet,
but it's very cool. It's very cool.
Nate, we just talked about building LEGOs. We've talked a lot about music. One of
the themes that has come up on this desk is we're noticing how no one has
to really be one thing here. Everyone can kind of be so many things in the Pokemon community
and I know that you also, you love to collect, you love to play the games, there's a lot
that you like. So what other aspect of Pokemon is thrilling you the most recently? Is it
TCG collecting? TCG collecting for sure. Also I've been known to shiny hunt from time
to time. I do like my little sparkles and my different color Pokemon.
Mm-hmm. We haven't asked who favorite shinies are
You're a favorite shiny. Is it different? I do I do. Yes. What is it?
Because everyone has opinions every everyone, you know isn't how to but this one has a blatantly right answer
And it is shiny metagross. It is literally a good one. It is a trophy
It is it is like platinum with a gold X on the front. It's just it's beautiful. It's like it's a
it's a good
Like crowning achievement be like you did here is your trophy of the hope and it's just like beautiful
That was a really good defense of the choice. I was like any time you say there is a right answer
I'm ready to debate you but that was pretty good defense. Thank you. What do you think?
I am a fan of men agros so like I like the shout
I'm not I'm not set about it. I also do like black rickwaza though. Oh, wait, wait
Oh my answer might have changed
All right
Well, you'll have to think about that because we don't have too much more time
But I want to give you a chance to tell people where they can find you on the internet and what's coming up next
What should they watch out for from you? Oh, yeah
Well, wherever you listen to music you can listen to Nate wants to battle. That is me. I'm the guy that wants to battle
I mean next for me. I'm going on tour in Europe in October with a couple other cool nerd
Influenced musicians. So yeah, if you're around check it out
Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Mm-hmm. Don't you guys agree? Absolutely.
It's our best guess we've had. And it's been phenomenal to see how you both
play that best out of each other as well. Aw, shucks. Shucks.
All right. It's true. Thank you so much. And you know what?
We've got even more coming your way from Pokemon XP.
Next up, we're going to see a video from the Who's Your Favorite booth.
Let's check it out.
Hey everybody, there are a number of different activities and boots at Pokemon XP, and one
of my favorite questions, and one of my favorite boots is what is your favorite Pokemon?
Let's go check it out.
I
Thank you so much.
Alright, well over 30 years of Pokemon it really is tough to find a favorite
but we got to see a number of different choices that people have made
so we want to know what's your favorite Pokemon.
Pikachu.
Snivy.
Hedpup.
Pipilup.
Jolteon.
Tommy.
Sableye.
My favorite Pokemon is Lapras.
Arcanine.
Doc's Fun.
Nemiku.
Murkrow.
My favorite Pokemon is Cosmog, Squirtle, Smitem, Nassal, Tondar, Gengar, Tauros,
We're Bombie.
Sopdow.
Malamar.
Clogsire.
Pipla.
Eevee.
My favorite Pokemon is Bolton.
Umbreon.
My favorite Pokemon is Tarachi.
My favorite Pokemon is Clogsire.
Gindar.
Oshawa.
Limkiar.
My favorite Pokemon is Gumi.
My favorite Pokemon is Azumaril.
My favorite Pokemon is Dragonite.
I
Hello and welcome back to Pokemon XP. I am Anna and this is Joshua and Glitter here with
me on the desk and we are joined by another illustrious musical guest. Could you introduce
yourself to the people at home? Hello. I'm Carlos, insane on the rain. Carlos
I play music.
Yes. What kind of music do you play?
I play video game music.
I've been a long time video game music content creator online,
but recently actually shifted to working in the video game music space professionally,
and I worked on Pokemon Legends DA, and I made some music that you are probably very familiar with
if you have played the game.
That's such a cool thing to be able to say, I feel like.
How does it feel to be telling this group of people who have clearly listened to your music quite a bit
music quite a bit that you were the one who made it?
It's like the greatest honor of my life.
I grew up, I grew up literally loving Pokemon
and just Pokemon music is what inspired me to become a musician
and to be able to go so full circle and just, you know, not only
be allowed to arrange some of the songs that I grew up listening to
and loving but also work alongside the people that wrote them which people don't think about
is that there are composers that write these songs that are being
being broadcast at this event that you know in your hearts
and you just take for granted, it kind of exists.
But some people made those and I know of them.
And that's really cool.
So it is a huge honor and I take it very seriously
but also with a lot of fun at the same time.
And there's something to be said, especially about
our generation growing up with video games
and seeing the impact different soundtracks
have had on us.
And we get to talk to somebody,
be like, oh yeah, I really love this game
and I love the music behind it
and they just start to nerd out going,
yeah, in this certain area,
there's certain track that was used.
So within your personal history,
how did that really impact to you back in the day
for 30 years of Pokemon?
And how has that been a wellspring, if you will,
to inspire you to create music today?
Well, I mean, what you're describing is probably,
is like the coolest phenomenon about video game music,
in that when you hear a song, right,
that song activates like a certain part of your brain
and then every memory that you have
that is tied to that song just like comes flooding back,
like the Ratatouille moment, you know?
But it's like, oh my gosh, I remember exactly what this is like.
And I have had so many of those moments in Pokemon.
Like I could name so many of them.
The first one that comes to mind is in Ruby Sapphire Emerald,
you walk into Meteor Falls.
And it's like this beautiful cascading piece of music
that just really makes you realize how big this space is.
And it's just so magical.
Fortree City in Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald,
looks like a town with the little clacks of tree huts
and stuff and it has like this, you know, it just, all those things just work together
to make a beautiful and very meaningful experience when you're playing through the games and
I know exactly what that is like as a fan and I harness all those experiences that
I've had in my life when I work on music, professionally, so.
And there's so much character that can be created in the soundtracks themselves
because sometimes these games they don't have a whole lot of dialogue or voice actors
in certain moments, and so you create a space or a tone or a vibe.
For your expertise, what is it like to try to capture that tone and vibe?
Is there like a number of images or art or renders that, you know, Pokemon or other
company will send you or are you just inspired by being in a physical location or what's
that process like?
I think that my inspiration comes from literally every experience I have ever had in my
entire life, which is the most broad possible answer, but it's the truth, right?
Like when you live your life, you're accumulating a variety of experiences, right?
And when I am tasked with creating a certain vibe or creating a piece of music to match a location,
I'm drawing on where I've like, where, like, I don't know, everything, like physical places I've been,
other games that I've experienced and had a similar feeling, or other music I've listened to
that may not be associated with a video game that makes me feel a certain way, or I think like,
Oh, I could hear this song being in a video game, you know, and I know, I would know exactly what vibe this song would take.
And sometimes it's a mismatch of all those things. I have this concept in my mind of the mental orchestra that every piece of music I've listened to, like every artist, like, lives in this giant concert hall in my mind.
And I think they're all just like little mingling, they're mingling and talking to each other. And then sometimes when I'm given a task of like, for example, like, like when I was working on
the theme for Lumio City Day in the Pogmall Legends DA.
I was thinking about all the different influences of,
like, just the feelings of walking around a city
and feeling just happy and carefree,
but also having a little bit of French influence in there, too.
And all that comes from the people in my mental orchestra
like kind of bumping around, talking to each other.
Then something comes out.
And then you have to have the technical ability
to translate that into a actual piece of music
and produce it and mix it and all that stuff.
So there's a beautiful blend of the emotional inspiration
and also the technical execution of making it.
And that is what I love about music
is that there's emotion and also math.
Lots of math involved too.
That's a really good shout.
I think there are probably a lot of people
who love music, who are watching an interview like this
and being like, I want to be able to do that someday.
Maybe young people who are like, what direction should I
take?
What education should I get?
What kind of advice would you give someone
who is aspiring to write music for Pokemon like you have?
My advice is to pursue anything that makes you excited,
regardless of what that is.
Regardless of what the subject matter of your dream is.
If it's making music, then learn everything you can
about the music that makes you excited.
That's the best thing you could possibly do.
Because as human beings, you get excited for a reason.
Everybody has a little, everybody's unique.
Different things resonate with different people.
And I think as long as you recognize
that when you hear something like,
oh, this is cool, I should learn about this,
if you really dive into it,
then you will learn more about yourself, you will learn more about...
you will just connect with yourself as a better person.
And your music and the art you create is a reflection of who you are as a person.
I really believe that.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.
Did I have anything more to say than that? Just like, do whatever makes you excited.
That's what I've done, and I've ended up here somehow.
Well, that kind of ties into what I want to ask, though, because you're explaining it in such a good way,
because it does boil down to your passion
and something that you're genuinely joyful about.
So does that tie into your creative process?
Like when you're sitting down knowing you have to create
some sort of musical composition, a score here,
for a video game that could potentially be something
that's resonating with an audience
for however many years to come.
Do you have to play some of the old music
to get yourself kind of hyped for it?
Like what does that creative process look like for you?
That's a great question.
Well, so I'm well aware that when I've been tasked
to write some work on me some of these songs for the Sandrax.
I'm well aware of like a lot of people will listen to this.
I'm aware of that fact, but I also don't think about that at all.
I think about, I really think about making my inner child proud
and making my inner child happy,
because I am literally have been in the shoes
of the people who are playing these games
from the vast majority of my life.
And that is my goal is just to make them feel
what I would want to feel.
As for the creative process part, it depends.
Sometimes I'll get things like reference tracks
where other people will send me, like, can you make a song
that's kind of inspired by this kind of vibe?
And sometimes I listen to them and sometimes I don't.
Sometimes I'm just like, you sent me that?
I have a better idea.
I have a different idea.
Let me do my thing.
If you don't like it, let's go back.
Let me cook a little bit.
I'll do my own thing.
So I do that approach sometimes.
And then, the creative mind is so strange.
Is that, and in that, when I create something,
I believe that comes from the subconscious part
of your mind.
And that sometimes the best ideas come
when I'm trying to fall asleep in bed,
when the, I believe it's called the gamma brain waves.
I can't believe I'm saying that phrase.
The gamma brain waves are at their peak at that time.
Some of it might be beta, I'm not sure.
But it's like when all the creative juices are flowing
and I can't fall asleep,
And then suddenly, I'm like, oh, wait, I have to do it this way.
I have to do it this way.
So then I'll either get up, I'll go to the piano,
and I'll play it, or I'll make a voice
and I'll go to myself and say, OK, so this song,
you're going to use them.
Have the oboe lead here.
You're going to double it in the octaves
with the English horn, because you
need to cut through the mix a little bit better.
And make sure you've got this isn't B flat,
but then the melody has to go up an octave
in this one part.
So stuff like that.
It's because I've just spent so much, so many years,
like I said before, pursuing the things I love
and getting the technical understanding of that,
that I can just do it and have fun
and turn those spontaneous creative ideas
into a fixed structure that ends up getting
produced into a song, looped,
and then put inside a video game.
I have had the pleasure of actually running into you
in kind of the musician circles around Pokemon
and I think that's something I really loved observing here
at Pokemon XP is how people of all creative types
get to come hang out, meet up together.
Tell us a little bit about the experience of hanging out with your community and your peers here at Pokemon XP. What's it been like?
Oh my gosh, like it's just it's such an honor. I mean, like there's the there's the community of fans, right?
Who have who have supported me and supported everything I've done over these years and I've been saying hi to fans for like at least an hour after every show
Because without them I would not be here, right?
Like music is about communicating a feeling to somebody else and without that somebody else you can make music for yourself
But I'm trying to I'm trying to connect with others, you know
But also, like you were mentioning, the other creators in the space, the other musicians,
like, there are just so many great people and some of them, like, I met all the people
in my band because of the online creators' base, and some of them have been inspired
by Pokémon music.
But it is just Pokémon is great because it inspires people to do cool things with
their lives and some of that ends up being in music.
And I'm just so lucky to know so many people.
I've been on YouTube since like 2012, very long time.
And my life has taken, you know, twist and turns since then.
But I will never, ever forget where I've come from
and all the people that I've associated with and grown
with alongside over the years.
Like I remember, I think Nate was on right before me.
And I remember knowing who he was on YouTube
quite a long time ago and developing my channel
I'm at my presence like the same time he was our paths didn't cross for a very long time
But I always knew who he was and was like he's doing good stuff. I respect that man, you know
So it's just cool. It's seeing everybody grow and seeing the scene develop
It is it's an honor to be a part of it
We only have about a minute left and we haven't asked the question
We have to ask them everyone. What is your favorite Pokemon and pulling on that was the fastest most sure
I am a water steal type person. There's only one water steal Pokemon therefore. I must be in pulling on
Wow, okay. That's such a strong answer, Anne.
I had a plushie on my stage of a polion.
Wow. Okay, you're very passionate about your favorite.
We have some people that are like, oh, well, I think you're like, nope, this is the one, the best Pokemon.
I love it. I love it, decisive.
All right, well, we need to get over to another video,
but before we do, where can people find you on the internet and also here at Pokemon X-Feed?
Yeah, so unfortunately, my shows are all done, so you won't be able to see any more performances.
But if you search either my name, Carlos, E-I-E-N-E, that's my last name,
you need, or Insane in the Rain on just YouTube or Instagram or any social media platform,
you'll probably find me.
And I would love to have you hear some of my music.
And also, you can play Pokemon Legends EA and hear some of the music I did in that game as well.
Nice.
Sounds very good. Thank you so much.
And now let's take a look at the Pokecology booth.
Down here on the Pokemon XP floor, we have so many exciting boots and things to look
at and I'm stopping now at the Pokecology boot.
This was one that I pushed aside the other hosts because I wanted to check this one out.
I think Pokecology, the concept of it is so cool, but if you're not familiar, let
me introduce you to what's going on here.
Well, what Pokecology has done is it's an illustrated guide to the Pokemon Ecology
that takes real world ideas and science about how the world works, the ecology,
how the nature all work together to survive, and they've taken that scientific learning
and applied it to Pokemon. So I want to show you some of the really cool dioramas that they
made that showcase how Pokemon could theoretically live in the Pokemon world in harmony and
in a way that makes that world make sense. This is one of my favorite ones right off the
of that because first of all we're in the sky that beautiful cell of Stila not
even from our planet as a fit into the ecology you're gonna have to pick up the
poke ecology book to find out but this is not the only beautifully made diorama
here we've also got the forest scene and I did hear some very interesting
science about rebomb me but I need you guys to pick up this book because what's
so cool is that they really take a loving look at all the Pokemon living
together so if you really like to imagine yourself living in that world
wondering how the Pokemon would interact where you would actually find them
here's another great example this is an underwater scene and you'll see
down lies is here we've got the hunt tail we've got so many Pokemon living in
harmony just really helps me imagine myself there and I hope you all enjoy
the book too maybe this is a great opportunity for a science lover in
your life to get involved and find a love for Pokemon or maybe it's a
a great opportunity for the Pokemon lovers in your life to develop a little love for
science.
But however you enjoy it, I do hope you check it out.
I'm going to go take a little further look.
Welcome back to Pokemon XP, coming to you live from Ray Quasarode here in San Francisco.
I am Anna.
I have Joshua and Rachel here with me on the desk and a new face that I'm so excited
to introduce to you.
Please tell the people at home who you are and what you do.
Hello everybody.
Wow, what a legendary desk here.
But no, my name is Evan Hashimoto, Wonder Chef.
I'm a caster for Pokemon Unite.
So our game just got finished over at the arena and I'm over here to see what's
going on and it's amazing out here.
Have you not been over to Pokemon XP?
Have you been locked away over in the arena?
That is the, those are the exact words that I would use.
Have been locked away, whether it's in the arena
or downstairs, I mean, there's just so many buildings here,
so many things to do.
I usually, my friends are like,
hey, what's awesome to do in worlds?
What's really fun?
And I'm like, I have no idea.
There is way too much this year to be able to see.
Oh, it's exciting.
Evan, it's such a great opportunity
to have you at the disc.
You and I go way back.
I have to say how talented you are
to tell stories when it comes to Pokemon and to hear your voice yesterday during the matches
when we were out here at Request the Road was pretty awesome. I'd love to dive deeper
into your history with Pokemon and what really brought you out here to our first ever Pokemon
XP event.
Oh, I mean I've been a Pokemon player for so long. I mean literally my father gave
me Pokemon Red and well Red and Blue for my brother of course so we of course argued
about who got which one but you know back when it released it was a Christmas gift
And it just started from there.
So of course, played every single Pokemon game,
eventually kind of, you know, being able to join
and blend my voice to the circuit a little bit.
I would say about, almost, it's getting close to 10 years now.
Something like eight or nine years
and been able to go to quite a few of the big worlds events.
So I'm so excited that finally we get something cool
like Pokemon XP, which is just such a completely
like extra next, next, next level experience.
Like like one step up, right?
It's like three.
What brought you into Pokemon Unite?
Pokemon Unite, I just, I really do quite enjoy like action games.
I mean honestly I enjoy every single Pokemon game, but just when it had come out, I felt like it was a,
it was just kind of a good time for me to like play a new game and I saw it and saw the animations of all of the Pokemon
and I think it's really fun to be able to watch a lot of Pokemon that you get to see in a lot of, you know,
a lot of different media, whether it be shows or games or anything like that and kind of play out the battles in real time.
It's a it's kind of a unique experience. So I quite enjoyed that and from day one. I was just I couldn't stop
Yeah, it's been so wonderful having your voice covering Pokemon Unite
I really enjoyed the competitors so good and I would like to welcome you over to HP by offering you a plushie to hold
And I do want to ask what do you enjoy within Pokemon outside of Unite currently because you talk about
the Game Boy game, you soon have a knowledge prep and depth of all things Pokemon.
I am, I think what they call a little bit of a nerd.
So interesting.
Yes, yes, like I said, amazing group who here that I get to join, I'm so lucky.
But I mean, honestly, kind of everything, you know, that's the thing about it is
that it's a it's like a hobby that you can enjoy in so many different ways, right?
Even within kind of like each little subgenre of the hobby, different people will enjoy it
in different ways within that itself.
So even within Unite some people will really enjoy like playing the Pokemon that they're like their favorite cute Pokemon
And some people will be very competitive
But it's the same thing with everything you know, but if you're playing the trading card game you can you can collect or you can play
There's just so many different things. So I am kind of spread maybe a little two-thing, you know, and I should probably
not be spending quite as much money on every single thing out here, but
Currently yeah, I would say kind of just a little bit of everything and just experiencing Pokemon
You know, it's always fun for everybody.
Well, there is definitely plenty to experience here at Pokemon XP.
And I know you have been locked away to commentate over the competitive side.
But just by walking through maybe your first or second time,
has there anything that's really impressed you or something that's still on the list
that you want to get to before day three ends?
Yes, kind of a lot of things actually.
Of course, there were a lot of things that were going on downstairs that I saw.
There was the Lego statues that were so cool.
I've been trying to get a photo of that for so long.
I've only had a few chances to play the Pokemon pinball game and that is very very cool
I know one of my good friends is like really into pinball and he's been trying to get down there the entire weekend
But really it's just kind of the spectacle of everything right because some things are somewhat
You can kind of experience them in other places, but I mean things like this back here
It's never been seen before and so even if I didn't really get to like experience anything
individually like just being out here and just seeing what everybody's doing it's
a one-of-a-kind experience. Yeah I think we have some some dancing and music.
We have all sorts of things going on out here on Raycrazor Road.
You are so good at being an aerator especially for high octane moments in the competitive scene.
I'd love to dive a little bit deeper into what really got you into the scene of being a
presenter, being on camera to tell the world about what's happening on screen
because for a lot of people maybe they don't know the game that well but
You're able to tell not only what's happening in the gameplay, but the stories behind the
players and what brings them to these events.
Right, so, you know, of course, like I said, a little bit of a nerd playing a lot of different
games, and so I started myself being a player for a lot of different types of games, and
it really, you know, affected my life for the better.
You know, I think that's a really common thing for a lot of people.
I just got to hear, you know, and say in the ring, a ridiculous person to follow
up talking about how his passion, you know, really, of course, obviously has
driven his life to an awesome place.
And it's the same for so many different people.
So once I got kind of that positive experience,
I realized that there's so many other people out there
that also they use competition as a way to kind of,
you know, like build themselves up as people
and to experience Pokemon and just the things they love
and to meet new people.
And I was like, this is really cool
to be able to talk about this
and kind of be a voice for their kind of path upwards
as well, which is something that I experienced
that was important to me.
I know it'll be important to them.
And I would love for them to have a good experience, you know, like being able to look back on it and being like, oh, look at this, this was the stream and they were talking about us playing and even if we only got to go to one event this year, like they talked so nice about us, you know, so hopefully that's my goal always for every single time.
And if I could make, you know, even one person get that experience, I'm happy.
about the competitive side.
You know, we have lots to talk about over here
at Pokemon XP, but what's the quick summary
of how it went with Pokemon Unite?
Who came out on top?
What was the highlights of the matches?
Yeah, I mean, great storylines.
We had of, so this is the final Pokemon Worlds
for Unite, and our teams actually were a team
of players that were the second place team
in the very first Worlds of Unite back in 2022,
And then the second place team in the last year of Pokemon Unite in 2025.
And so it's two teams that were so close to winning and they had to face each other in the finals to see which ones have got their redemption arc.
And it was a team called Zed out of Japan who the Japanese fans are amazing.
I mean all of the fans from all over the place are amazing but Japan has their own commentators there as well.
And it was really fun to see all the fans and they did manage to get their World Championship win for Japan.
And it was just a very emotional time over there in the arena.
That's so cool. It's been a very emotional time thinking about the last Unite at Worlds because I have to say the casting team for Unite, you guys are iconic, you have created such an aura around you and you have time to do a special address with everyone, but kind of like where are the vibes and feelings at with the rest of the group?
You know, it's always tough to see a game go, but it was a perfect send-off.
Back a few years, I also was commentary for a poking tournament, which was another game that was on the circuit.
I have a little bit of a bad luck streak with that, I think, but we got to the same thing with both those games,
which is the final tournament is such an amazing story, such an amazing experience for everybody.
I mean, everybody who got to come out to this, obviously they got to see XP,
They got to see this just ridiculous experience and the storylines were perfect the matches were great
So there's a bittersweet sadness, but it was the I don't think anybody could have asked for a better set
Tell us a little bit about the community you've built there. I know that you and the other commentators are close
There's a lot of friendships that grow up through both, you know
The production side and the community side of games tell us about that. Oh, there's so many
It's truly amazing. When you get to see especially a community like that started from the very beginning.
Pokemon Unite is not that old of a game. It's only been about five or six years since it began.
Seeing how the community starts and all the people that meet.
The biggest thing for me, as I mentioned before, is it became such an international community.
So I've gained a lot of friends from Brazil and a lot of friends from Japan.
Honestly, a lot of friends that I don't even speak the same language as, but we kind of...
I mean, everybody speaks the universal language of Pokemon, right?
Truly, you can go anywhere in the world and you're like,
well, you see Pikachu and somebody else sees the Pikachu and you're both like, yeah, we're fans, right?
So it's truly awesome. I have had friends for like five years that, again, we don't speak the same language.
same language we just kind of like hugged into it just together in the arena and
it's been like like the community really grew together and certainly they're not
something that's gonna even though it's not gonna be on the World Championship
series anymore they're not gonna like you know just separate directions or
anything like that it's great it's changed a lot of people's lives and
I mean trust me you go online there's a lot of emotions left to people
talking about it but but again we're all very happy still still very happy
You mentioned Pokken Tournament, you know, we talked about the end of the night.
Pokémon is such a long-running universe that we've all shared in.
I feel like it is a universe of chapters.
And every time you close a chapter, you feel like, well, there's another one to start
and then a whole new world to explore.
So looking into Pokémon, are you seeing anything else that you want to dive deeper in now
that you have a little more time?
Unfortunately, everything, like I said, I think I just really like Pokémon a little bit too much.
But I think everybody within like a several mile radius here does, and that's why we're here at Pokemon World's RxV.
So, I don't know if there's anything in particular, but I mean obviously I'm always going to be with Pokemon.
Like some form of Pokemon in my life, it's just kind of whatever, you know, as far as my fancy next.
I mean, Champions I've been playing for a while now, and that's really fun, and Pocket, you know, came out not that long ago still.
It's just, I don't know, there's so many games, too many, I'm overwhelmed!
Well, another leader, we're gonna be taking a look at the arena, especially during the closing ceremonies.
What's it like to be in the arena?
It's unbelievable, so for anybody out there who, you know, has to be able to follow a world specifically,
there's only our second year ever in an arena.
Last year in Anaheim was our first one, and we were at the Anaheim Convention Center, and that is a great arena,
but the Chase Center arena is unbelievable.
I mean it is like nothing I've ever done a show in just gigantic. There are led
There's an LED floor there LED panels all over the place the
Everybody has bracelets in there that kind of shine with the colors of what's happening when the game
Remotely, it's it's truly a spectacle just the giant screens of course all the amazing talent out there that are each doing their own
Individual game. I think we're probably currently somewhere in DCG. I would have to guess but the games are you of course running all day
The, it truly is, even for me who's been going to Worlds for so many years, it is an
unbelievable, like, step up.
It is so gigantic and I know a few of us of course have been to other Worlds and it's
just so cool to see the growth of it.
I can't even describe it.
I'm trying, it's the heart.
Speaking of the arena, just real quick, any little things you want to say about closing
ceremony either telling people what it's like or things you hope might happen during closing
ceremony?
I'm not sure.
There are some for Pokemon Unite.
We actually got to make our announcement already.
We are going to be getting more Pekko, Toxtricity, and then we're actually getting the final
evolutions of Pokemon Unite which is going to be Flareon and Cholteon, sorry, for Pokemon.
So that was really exciting for us.
ceremony. Obviously I'm always really excited to see where the next location is, right? I've
been able to go to Japan for Worlds, I've been able to go to Hawaii and London and of
course I'm myself and from California so I have enjoyed the close trips to these most
recent ones but I'll always just I gotta see what's coming next, right? Because it's
so cool to have this in any big location but I know there's gonna be something
surprising and with how many new things there are I feel like I'm giving a lot
I can't even guess, you know?
Everything is so big, it's hard to narrow down the talk of that.
Pokemon is massive.
Well, we have lots more to see at Pokemon XP,
but in case people want to follow along with you,
where can they find you on the internet?
Currently, I'm pretty much just water chef cooks everywhere.
I'm just going to be there for a while.
Of course, you know, I'm not going to be doing that for just a little bit now,
but I'm going to still be around for your night.
But yeah, that's pretty fun.
And real quick, favorite Pokemon?
They are Pokemon Cramorans.
Cramorans!
The Strikantikus!
The new one.
Easy, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You swear Cramorans are cool.
You talk about liking Cramorans.
Okay, that was just me.
We haven't had a favorite Cramorans in a decade.
We haven't had a single duplicate of favorites of Pokemon yet, so.
That's the thing.
Every Pokemon is somebody's favorite Pokemon, right?
Yep, absolutely.
Alright, we have the 30 years of Pokemon exhibit coming up next.
Thank you so much for coming to spend your time with us and let's check that
out right now.
Welcome to the 30 years of Pokemon Museum.
This was one of the booths that I was most excited to get to because I have been present
for all 30 years of Pokemon's history and I have been an extremely passionate fan.
Even when it was only available in Japanese, things just started coming out.
We heard rumors of Pokemon Green and Pokemon Red and here they have an extra large Game
Boy photo op experience.
Man, that takes me back but we have not yet begun to reminisce.
Right over here we have the very beginning of the Pokemon timeline.
In 1996 was when the first games came out in Japan and shortly after we got them in
the US in 1998.
Snap was one of the most influential games on my psyche.
The very first movie, when that came out in theaters,
they give us the promo cards.
My parents were so kind to get us there very early.
And I'll never forget how excited that theater was
to watch every moment of that movie.
We were locked in.
And there's all those old promo cards there.
Absolutely incredible to see them all in display.
Now, of course, Pokemon got bigger and bigger.
One of my favorite movies from Pokemon
was Pokemon the movie 2000 featuring Lugia and the legendary birds Articuno Zapdos and
Maltras and that movie that music has reverberated throughout my life but we go on because every
year here was an important year for me too and an important year for Pokemon.
Pokemon Forever and Heroes the movies came out and gave us so much.
We got Ruby and Sapphire Pokemon pinball made Pokemon a game that you could pick
up and put down in just a couple of minutes as opposed to playing a whole long RPG story.
Then we got the games on our Nintendo GameCube.
Pokemon Colosseum, Pokemon XD, Gale of Darkness are massively influential games.
And we've seen just a little bit of engagement with them recently, so I do hope we get to
take another look at them in modern times.
Well, come with me.
It doesn't stop there.
The years ago on 2006 was when we saw the games start to come out on the Wii.
We got Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.
Fun fact.
It wasn't a store.
asked me what I wanted I picked this up I showed it to them they said I'm not
buying you that and I burst into tears that person married me and that movie he
bought it for me an incredible look back these are the world championship this
is the DS like world championship edition
Pokemon Arceus jewel of life an incredible movie all the movies were
great. All the games were great. All the art is great on the DS's. And it just gets better
and better as time goes on. You can see they keep coming out with Pokemon games as they
try and change the story to adapt, to try to bring in new elements and to connect to
new audiences. We get all the way to Pokemon Sun and Moon, which starts to change things
up. Usually you play for the Pokemon League. You collect gym badges, but we saw things
change up a lot in Pokemon Sun and Moon and we got some new movies as well with
Volcarona and Hoopa Clash of the Ages. This is starting to get familiar for some
of you I think but I'm sure once I round this wall you'll really start to
recognize a lot especially right off the jump we've got Let's Go Eevee and
Let's Go Pikachu which took a reimagining of the original 151 Kanto
story and gave it to a whole new generation. We also got Detective
Pikachu on 3DS, which was poised to become, we didn't know yet, one of the greatest movies
ever made when they finally came out with Pokemon Detective Pikachu.
That was an incredible theater experience as well, watching it with live action actors
and Pokemon generated in the same scene.
That's where I want to go live, but I can't.
So I'm going to live here, at least for the next day and a half until they kick
me out.
Now, moving on.
I want to say you're welcome for this one.
That's New Pokemon Snap.
Ever since the first Pokemon Snap,
I begged and pleaded with Nintendo.
Every game convention I could,
every time I got on broadcast,
I said, please give me a new Pokemon Snap.
And now finally in 2021,
when we were all stuck
in a little bit of an unhappy place in the world,
Pokemon gave us that beautiful sparkle of joy.
And it never stopped.
There's so many great games here.
And I know the wall ends,
but the story continues inside the museum as well.
That was just the timeline,
but we've got a collection of all the sitting cuties.
We've got a huge wall of cards to get through.
We've got promotions from the dawn of Poké time.
Welcome back to Pokemon XP, coming to you live from Rayquaza Road here in San Francisco.
I am Anna here with Joshua and Rachel who was nerding out in that museum.
I want to go there so bad, they put up like glass up and I feel like I was personally
attacked by the glass. That's really unfair. Let's take it up with someone but
after this interview because we have a new guest here with us so excited to
chat with you could you introduce yourself to the people at home? Hi everyone
I'm Rebbe Hardy here from Queens New York so excited to be at Pokemon World XP.
And what is it that you do? How might people know you? I'm a streamer I also
do online content and I fancy myself a competitive TCG player. Oh you fancy
yourself? I mean that sounds like you just are a competitive TCG player.
We'll go with that.
Yeah.
Locked in.
What first got you into Pokemon?
We're here celebrating 30 years of Pokemon.
Pokemon XB has been an exceptional experience for a lot of different people, but also that
kind of individual connection that people have.
So we'd love to learn more about what is about Pokemon that you love so much.
Absolutely, yeah.
I was a fan since the time I was about 13, the first huge wave of Pokemon, and then
fell out of it a bit, but went into it hard again when my kids came of age.
So now we get to experience that together and it's something we can bond over and travel.
We do regionals and everything together so it's a lot of fun.
Do they all compete as well?
Yes.
How do they do?
He's great.
He's behind me.
He's behind me now.
That is so awesome.
And we had a long list of accomplishments that Pokemon might know you for.
The Pokemon community might also know you as a fantastic dresser.
We've got the Pokeball glasses.
We've got the pants.
We've got the Crusted Necklace there with the Master Ball.
I just got to shout out a good look when I see it.
Oh, thank you so much.
You have a lot of Pokemon fashion?
I do have a ton.
I love this new wave of brand crossover with just everywhere.
It's so mainstream now, so I'm no longer the odd man out.
It's cool to be a Pokemon fan again.
And I'm happy to have been there when it wasn't cool.
And I'm actually happy to be here now that it is.
Yeah, now you have the street cred.
Yeah, right?
Something that keeps coming up here on the desk
is that some of us have gotten the idea growing up,
but maybe you just have to be one thing.
You're either like a video gamer or you are someone who likes the anime or things like that
You're just talking about how you compete in TCG. You love Pokemon fashion
There's all sorts of other ways you might express yourself in Pokemon
Can you tell us a little bit about how that feels here at Pokemon XP and and whether you see that kind of becoming something that?
Everyone is celebrating. I love that. Yeah
I mean what's really cool about being here right now is that San Francisco has evolved into like a
a region of the Pokemon universe and everywhere you look here someone is celebrating it in one way or another.
I competed yesterday in the Sisterhood League which was really great for female and non-binary players
and it's just great to like see people and connect and have something that you can bond over and that camaraderie.
It's really cool and I think the duality in people, you know, sometimes you might think about Pokemon
and you think oh it's one type of fan, it's one type of person, but it really isn't
and Pokemon is for everyone, all ages, all genders,
all expressions.
Yeah, that's absolutely true.
Tell us a little bit about how that came to be.
I've never heard of the Sisterhood League.
Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yeah, it's just celebrating all female
and non-binary players, just carving out
a little space specifically for us to feel welcome
and to kind of have that bond and cheer each other on.
And also, I might add, we have the best setups,
the best play mats, the best views.
point everything is always very fashionable. I mean as a fashion I believe you. Your taste is clear.
Did you happen to catch the Jimmy Paul fashion show? Any thoughts on the styles we saw?
I did. That was so cool. Mr. Mime terrifies me to be honest, but he even got me interested in it.
Right. I was like, that was great. It was a good fit.
I'm still trying to get that Mewtwo jacket. That was my goal by the end of day three.
So awesome. And it was such a great time to interview Jimmy Paul and to feel as Anna was
was saying and kind of a theme of like you don't have to be
siloed into just one thing.
And for us at Pokemon XP, we're able to experience and enjoy
all the different creativity that people have,
the different talents that they have,
and how it's expressed in the world of Pokemon.
And one of those things is cosplay.
And I believe we have a cosplay showcase happening
a little bit later.
So you tell us, well, we're gonna see a number
of different cosplayers around here.
So what's been like seeing a lot of different cosplay
here at the event?
I am so excited for the cosplay showcase.
Last year was absolutely amazing.
I swear, some of the things that I saw
innovated on the stage last year,
I saw at different global stages
at different cons around the world afterwards.
I really hope to see maybe some of the Pokemon's attacks
represented in the cosplay that would be a lot of fun,
maybe some usage of props.
People are so creative,
so I'm just so excited to see what everyone comes up with.
Is cosplay something you've dabbled in as well?
I have dabbled in it, yes,
but I wouldn't put myself on the level
of the people that are competing in the showcase,
because that is just next level.
I have to tell myself I shouldn't be limited
by my broad shoulders and barrel chest
when it comes to cosplay.
There's something that I can do in order to create a template
in order to modify and make it happen.
But what would be some tips and tricks
if you've never done something like that before
in order to get started?
I think cosplay, like everything in Pokemon,
it's for everyone.
And there's levels to this.
You can do a closet cosplay or sort of like a bound
where you kind of just go by the color scheme
of your favorite character or Pokemon.
There you go.
You're doing great.
10 points.
See, I don't need to tell you.
You should be talking to this girl.
I love the conversation and that it's part
of the Pokemon experience now because it started
with focusing on a game and a show,
and now even the game has fashion involved.
Have you played any of the recent games
that let you dress up your characters?
Is that something you've explored?
Yes, I love that.
And actually, not specifically a dress up game,
but Sword and Shield, one of my favorite characters
is the fairy gym leader, Opal.
She's a little bit older.
maybe like me maybe and she's very fabulous very fan buoyant so I take a
lot of inspiration for her from her she just expresses herself and she's loud
and she doesn't care and I'm like okay girl that's love that now you mentioned
your streamer tell us a little bit about your community what is it like to
interact with large groups of people as a content creator in Pokemon it's so
much fun especially to come to large events like this and everyone just sees
everybody else and and says hi and it's so welcoming and and just chatty
and just meeting people in real life is a lot of fun.
I feel like the majority of my friends that I've made
in the last five years, honestly,
have solely been through Pokemon.
So it's really fun to come to these events
and just sort of like have a big meetup of everybody
in real life.
Well, it's a huge meetup, over 50,000 people are here
and so many people watching from around the world.
What's it been like for you to experience Pokemon XP?
Do you have any highlights so far for day three
or day two or day one?
Oh gosh, it's been a whirlwind,
But I think for me personally maybe just sharing the experience here with my son,
Maxle, we dressed up as Team Rocket yesterday.
So, it was great because anytime we did anything naughty, we would just be like,
oh well, that's Team Rocket for you.
So that's been really great just sort of seeing and experiencing Pokemon again
through the eyes of a child with my son.
That's really fun.
Has anything in particular struck you watching it through his eyes?
Gosh, I just think that the wonder of it all,
the characters we saw Lapras waddling about, you know,
or next to us and he was just like, oh my God, you know,
it's just sort of that magic feeling at all again.
Yeah, you got to explore Pokemon to kind of pick favorites,
find things in it.
Now, as your son has introduced you,
you've introduced your son to it.
Have you found that like he's latched on
to kind of some of the same things you did
and you're sharing a lot of the same interests
or is he kind of taking it in a totally different direction?
He is.
We have a lot of inside jokes.
I like to call myself the dragapult of the family
because it's like I'm the mom of dragapult
and my kids are all the little treaties hanging
all over me all the time.
I also play dragapult as my deck, so that's really perfect.
We just launched them right?
Yeah, there you go.
I love that.
Oh my gosh, dragapult's a favorite of mine.
We opened one of these skateboards earlier
that was dragapult on it.
I saw it.
It's gorgeous.
It's so pretty, right?
Do you collect the cards at all?
Are you into any of the Pokemon art?
I do, yeah.
I have almost a complete master set of every new card ever.
Wow.
You was one of the hardest ones.
It is.
Oh gosh.
Yeah.
I'm going into generational debt.
Yeah.
You're going into generational investments.
That's right.
Okay.
Yeah.
The mindset.
What is your favorite new in the set?
Oh my gosh.
Maybe the Korakora.
Yeah.
that one kind of hit me the hardest in the wallet so let's go though.
I was going to say one of the coolest aspects of everything Pokemon but especially TCG is
the art style and what I love to really see and be inspired by are the color schemes
and the color choices.
Does that influence you when you're thinking about fashion or maybe a specific piece
or an accessory like I love that color how can I accent that color or use that
as a base and build from there?
I think I would love to say that I did think that in depth into it.
But my style nowadays is to kind of throw everything all together and and hope it sticks.
Just everything all at once.
That's what I love about Pokemon because in my day to day normal style,
and usually pretty dark.
So when I dress up to celebrate Pokemon, it's the complete opposite.
So just rainbow everything all at once.
That's so much fun.
And when you're streaming, you know, focus on TCG,
talking about competitive play do you branch out into any other areas of
Pokemon or does your stream kind of latch on to your fashion of the day or
anything like that? It's mostly fashion mostly TCG I do venture a little bit
into the video games but I am inevitably really terrible so. Hey there's so many
corners of Pokemon and TCG has so much to cover alone. Now you mentioned you're
playing the dragapult deck what was your experience like who are you
running into when you're competing here? Oh gosh festival grounds festival
lead is very hard for me.
Teal Mask Ogre Palm is a big problem for me.
I guess anything fighting type also,
but you know, it's fun.
It's I think 42.9% of the Masters division right now
is playing Dragapult.
So, you know, that many people got to be onto something.
You're in good company.
Absolutely.
Is Dragapult your favorite Pokemon?
I think right now it is, yeah.
Just because of the drapey connection with my kids.
Yeah.
Have you had a Dragapult yet?
Before? I'm asking the other casters.
Have we had a Dragapult favorite?
Is anyone listening?
No. I think you're the first Dragapult.
We have had almost zero repeats.
The only Pokemon so far with two votes is Kramerant.
Thanks Jack, keeping us on.
Wow.
Dragapult is a top tier choice.
As you mentioned it's a family affair.
Being able to attend different regionals.
What's it like to attend as a family?
kind of the biggest highlight of being able to continue to enjoy Pokemon together with
your son?
I think just sort of when we do regionals going back and forth and who did you play and what
deck was it and did you win and hyping each other up just that sense of having like your
own team your own family it's a lot of fun and it's something to bond over and I think
it will continue to be even as they get older and maybe we maybe have a little less
in common with you know the kids getting older I think we'll always have that commonality
we'll always have Pokemon, so it's something to look forward to.
Bringing your family here to Pokemon XP and experiencing this first time that we're all
doing this, what would you say to someone as either a piece of advice or a piece of encouragement
if they're coming to for the first time?
How can they make the most of or really enjoy something like Pokemon XP?
Gosh, I would say just really take it in, go slow.
There's so much to do everywhere you look and it's easy to get overwhelmed, but
just enjoy the company you're with if you're in a line, you know, talk to
your neighbor.
make some friends. That's the best part of everything. And take lots of pictures.
Have you made any particular memories that you know you're going to really treasure here this time?
Gosh, I think the best is yet to come to be honest. I'm really, really looking forward to the
championships and getting really hyped last year. Me and my son were like, it felt like we were at
the Super Bowl. This is our Super Bowl to be honest. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Are you looking for a
closing ceremony? Oh gosh. Yes. And any potential announcements to come? Very excited
for that as well.
Yes.
Oh, I don't know if you just called that flash of the nails as well.
Oh my goodness.
They're flawless.
Oh, it's a pleasure.
It's a pleasure.
Can I catch up on that as well?
On the thumb.
Oh my goodness.
I can't see from over here.
We got our spectrum on the thumb.
We've got Charmine to Pikachu.
We've got Squirtle Bulbasaur and a beautiful gradient.
Wow.
That glitter's gonna love that.
I know.
Yeah, glitter's gonna be really excited.
Now, if people are like, you know what, I haven't really seen myself as a very
fashionable person but I would really like to maybe they kind of lack the
confidence or they could lack the know-how what would you tell them in how
to start expressing themselves through fashion? I would just say go into it
slow just one piece at a time sometimes one accent is all you really need one
accessory a lot of times even like with my nails like people notice the
smallest thing and it could be the one little thing about your outfit and it
could be something that you know maybe somebody's favorite to make somebody's
day which is really fun something that someone can comment on and have a chat about yeah now is
maxill also getting interested in the fashion aspects of pokemon as well i mean dressed up as
team rocket but is he is he drippy today he's a drippy every day he's wearing his his full he is
blue and red he's all about it i'm so proud of rocket yeah for us guys when we grow a little bit
older we try to think of three pieces maybe sometimes four maybe take one away but when you
and you have the three pieces, be it a vest or a jacket
or a pin, that accent really makes a difference
and it helps build that confidence as well.
So it does help to have a little bit of guidance
and advice, even in the world of Pokemon.
Yeah, absolutely.
More is more if you ask me.
There you go.
I feel like we've been discovering here
that what everyone is looking for is that connection
and we have Pokemon as that connection
but I feel like maybe that's why I've loved
dabbling in fashion with Pokemon so much
because when someone sees something like the nails
and they're like, I like your nails,
then you have an instant friend
that you can chat with, you have something to talk about.
Is that your experience too, that you meet people
through something like fashion?
Absolutely, everywhere I go, it's just,
oh, I love your bag, I love your hair, I love your nails.
And it's really easy to draw inspiration from everyone.
Everyone here has their own style.
And even if we're wearing the same things,
we present it in unique ways.
And it's just cool to get inspiration
from literally everywhere I look.
It's a lot of fun.
And what's the best way to pack when it comes to
keeping everything Christine?
What's the straps?
What are the strategies to that?
Oh man, I brought an additional suitcase just for all the shopping that I knew that I was going to do.
So I finally learned my lesson. Just bring a whole empty carry on and bring it back.
That's the final evolution of traveling to these places as you finally just realize you just need a second suitcase.
How many terms?
Yeah, me too.
Alright, can I ask one more?
Sure, go ahead.
What's the best piece of Pokemon fashion, jewelry, accessory that you've found? Where did you find it?
Did you go to Pokemon Centers Japan? Was it the Pokemon Centers at the events?
Gosh, I'm loving all of the recent brand collabs. I'm really liking black milks black milks collection here
I'm wearing a little bit of it
The bubble bar jewels is so beautiful at Pokemon Center. I gotta go back and get some
Just just everything I love to mix and match just add a little bit of Pokemon and everything that I wear
Love it. I'm taking hints. That was all you can have
We actually have to get to the cosplay showcase very soon
But where can people find you and follow along with your adventures online?
Awesome, you can find me across all social platforms at Rebby Hardy.
Awesome, thank you so much for stopping by, it's been a pleasure and right now, we are
going to watch that cosplay showcase, let's get to it.
Let's keep the noise going, guys. Welcome back to the Pokemon X
to be our final day and one of our final finals.
It's gonna be an awesome time.
This year, we had more applications than ever.
We are so excited to be able to showcase the dedication,
creativity, and hard work of our trainers.
Are you ready to cheer on the magic
that's about to happen on this stage?
All right, well, it's time for the Cosplay Showcase.
Please.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the cosplay showcase at Pokemon XB and World 2026.
I'm evolution cosplay and I'll be your host for today's event.
I had a chance to look at everyone in the back and all the cosplayers look amazing.
So what do you say we get this cosplay showcase started?
So, please welcome our first cosplayer,
Seven Twixas, Cosplay as Lily.
Beautiful.
Seven Twixas chose Lily since she is her favorite character because of her unyielding contamination
for our family and friends.
There are space-inspired elements
throughout the dress molded out
the celestial body of our little buddy Cosmo.
Thank you very much.
Please look into the stage as Alexa,
Tosley, and Gwen.
Beautiful, very graceful.
Beautiful. Very graceful.
Love your hat.
Beautiful, beautiful.
Thank you Alexa.
Up next on our cosplay, we have Anthea.
Cosplaying as Lee from Pokemon Lee Street and Fire Red.
She made her Lee costume from scratch.
From tracks she went to the Pokemon fossil exhibit.
Even the hat is simply self-made from EVA foam and felt.
The fitting Kogadesk props is a 3D print that she purchased
and the shoes are fristed and altered.
Her main reference for the chosen texture
is the rabbit of the shirt
with her super smash gross ultimate artwork.
She chose Lee for her cosplay
because she loves the personality
in the Pokemon Adventures manga.
Thank you, Anvia.
Next up, we have Ash Cosplay as Kerbo.
Look at that swagger.
Kerbo is their second hope of Cosplay after Rika.
The Cosplay was made with the help of their mother and their friend, Lance,
who was very skilled at 3D printing.
This project took about a month to make.
Thank you, Kerbo.
Let's see, look at this stage, Ashley Puffin at the Nopinaga from Kokomot Compact.
She made it all by herself, both the EVA film armor portion and the sewing portion,
where a hand done by her.
The build for this look took several months and the armor look took a long time.
Thank you, Ashley.
On the stage, we have Barbara and Patsy, Patsy and Emma from Legend CA.
Emma was her favorite character while playing Legend CA.
She loves her wits and the partnership she has with Esper, Mimi.
The wig for Emma was made from a recycled Halloween wig
and the hairpiece was 3D printed with the help from her husband.
Thank you, Barbara and Patsy.
Please welcome to the stage, Kenny Chan, possibly as Rosa.
Kenny Chan says that I fell in love with myself at each fun nurse's five entrance and
diameter.
I also hand paint to the divisors, shoes, and bags to match the character.
Thank you, Kenny Chan.
And up next are Cosplay Showcase.
We have Captain Leftovers.
Cosplay at end.
The weight was constructed with many hours of teasing
for volume and a whole can of hairspray.
In total, it took around 10 hours.
Her favorite Pokemon is Pikachu.
Thank you Captain Leftovers!
On stage next we have Cheesecake, constantly at Keck Mania from Legends VA.
Cheesecake wants you to know that her dress has pockets. Both Pokemon are her favorite type.
This Shadler and I beat some of her favorite Pokemon.
Thank you, Cheesecake.
Please welcome to the stage Christopher Cosplay as Blanche from Pokemon Go.
Blanche is both Christopher's team leader in Pokemon Go, as well as Christopher's first Cosplay.
What a time to debate.
We have a new job.
Let's see how CJ is playing as Corvo.
CJ says that the pieces on the glasses
were made of modern clay that he molded and painted.
Look at that detail work, guys.
Thank you so much, CJ.
We have a duo, Collector K and Corey!
Cosplay and the Slash and Spark!
Collector K said Slash is one of the three leaders in Pokemon Go
and is the leader of Sea Mystics where she uses Articuno.
It has taken K three months to show, alter, paint,
and even hand size from batter to the hair of all the Cosplay.
One of her favorite pieces of the jacket and hat she used
and Corey is doing a Spark Cosplay.
Thank you, Pory!
And collecting cakes!
Up next, Kathy Sorceress!
Cosplay and Akari from Pokemon Legends Arcade,
these are fancy Komodo outfits.
This top is all still painted by hand, starting since October of last year.
There are 24 different Pokémons pasting on her Komodo.
Can you find them all?
The Komodo top also converts into a regular sweatshirt.
She's worked lots when she did cosplay, all stealthy.
So wonderful!
Thank you, Castisorceress!
Up next, we have Anne, who's playing as Rockstar, a Rockboro City gym leader!
This cosplay has been to the Pokemon Museum in Chicago to study Pokemon and real-world fossils.
To make sure her representation of this gym leader was rock solid by the cosplay showcase.
Up next, Emma from Tash Jesse Lee, Jesse from Team Rocket.
When she performed in the Talos League's Pokemon Showcase, how appropriate.
Emma's cosplay and Jesse Lee, Jesse's alias used while she performed in Pokemon Cup Showcase
during her quest to become Talos Queen.
The cosplay took a month to complete.
Many of these pieces of the cosplay were twisted or repurposed from past cosplays.
Emma repays her high school character shoes, reconstructed her Renaissance spare vest, and
made her head piece using a juggling scarf.
The fluffy shawl?
It started off a fuzzy run.
There was also Emma's first time making a helmet wig and learning to cut and thin hair.
This cosplay was challenging, chaotic, and incredibly rewarding journey.
Emma is grateful to the cosplay community for all the inspiration and education and
support to make it.
Thank you, Emma!
Please welcome Ezekiel, cosplay as Marshall!
Marshall is his favorite Pokemon in Empolia, but ever since cosplay, Marshall's Hulk,
Hulkator, has been rising in the ring.
powerful stances. Thank you, Ezekiel. Please welcome to stage another partner
to your Julia and Gabe cosplay as Young Couple.
Young Couple is from Pokemon Omega Ruby outside of Sapphire. And a fun fact about
this Young Couple cosplay is that when they made it, they were actually a Young Couple.
Now, they're certainly not part of Young, but they're very happy to celebrate celebrating
Seven years of knowledge.
Happy anniversary!
Yeah!
Up next, we have Ghost Robert Cardi,
cosplay as champion Beedie from Pokemon Masters EX.
Beedie is their favorite character.
They loved cosplay in his various outfits,
and when he became a Neo champion in Pokemon Masters EX,
they knew they had to make this cosplay.
Thank you so much, Ghost Robert Cardi.
Please, welcome Hero-Honda Cosplay as Yellow!
This was one of the first cosplays she made.
It has endured the first to past 15 years.
Always remaining a comfort cosplay as she grew as a Cosplay,
much like how the Pokemon world has been at home for the past 30 years.
As she grew as a person, Yellow is one of her favorite characters in the whole series,
and she hopes she can shine beyond the longer one day.
Thank you so much, y'all.
Welcome to the stage, and next cosplayers, Jesse Lee.
Cosplay as Alicia from Pokemon Left and Right 2.
This is a brand new cosplay she's debuting this year at World.
Alicia's her favorite cheerleader, and she loves Minova.
The headset is green-printed and even lights up.
Thank you just for leaving.
On stage, we have Jonah, cosplay and Justice.
This is his first time cosplay at all.
His wife has been cosplay for 10 years.
Helping the cosplay for him.
Gessus is his favorite villainous team boss where his PCT boss or his floor is his favorite card.
Please welcome Josie Cosplay and Zon!
Zon is the fourth Cosplay Interpreter to Cosplay a trainer from every generation of Pokemon.
It was made with 100% recycled clothes and materials.
She wants to show people that you don't need a lot of money to be creative and have Zon.
Please, welcome to the stage,
Lightless Kite, Cuffing and Red.
He went through three different red hats to make the one he's wearing now.
It's deceptively simple, but he's made a lot of mistakes along the way.
Even the Curbland has a blue-stained awe of red.
He was supposed to get a fork done, but his life extract says that to clean it up at the kitchen booth.
Thank you, Blightless Kite.
Up next, we have Cat Cosmina Canary.
Cat learned several new skills just because she decided to marry me
and to be in this exact innovation picture card.
This one has her very first helmet work she's ever made
and she handpays to the team's Dynamo logo on the back of her jacket
and place each of the jewels one by one.
Thank you cats!
Up next on our cosplay stage is YDLE Cosplay S Clare.
She has been cosplaying since 2014, but this will be her first time on a stage.
Despite cosplaying since 2014, this cosplay taught her a lot about different methods.
close to show that we are always still learning and to never give up.
Up next we have another cosplay duo. Please give it up for Kat and Taka.
Taka is looking at Lippie and Corvo.
Lippie and Porbo are the by far the favorite characters from Legend Z.A.
Amazing job Kat and Sofa, thank you.
Up next on a cosplay showcase, we have Akane, cosplay as Rainie.
She put a lot of care and effort into recreating the characters to suit their hairstyle, especially when making and studying the wig.
It's one of the parts of a cosplay that she is most proud of.
Thank you so much Akane.
Please welcome Nimbley, cosplaying as Tula.
She designed the wings to float using magnets and she can remove or apply them anywhere.
She taught herself how to style curts and makes for the swing and it took two hours.
She's now a certified beautician.
Beautiful. Thank you, Nimbley.
Up next, we have Magouma Paufe as the Lord Champion Leon!
He started planning and making this costume today after Leon was revealed as a character from Pokemon Sword and Shield.
They spent six months...
Six months of hard work making the costume and making each character friend scotch.
Thank you Magouma!
Masha'Lam is our next cosplay on stage, cosplay as Captain Iris!
Masha'Lam has two wigs for this character, one that fits in a suitcase and a bigger one for local conventions.
It's a five years total to complete this cosplay mostly because of fairytale talks to make the wigs.
Iris is here, fans in Pokemon Journeys, once convincing and motivating to finish the cosplay.
We're so glad that you did!
Please welcome my name is Fort Cosplay and I'm as ketchup from Pokemon Journeys this series!
Despite having the disabilities of Braxia and getting nerve-diverses,
my name was Fort completed this in 8 weeks with thanks to friends,
counselors and family advice and with curated some absurd components,
such as charity shop lives, official Pokemon merch,
and other pieces that allow for their reuse and other items.
Making the cosplay is not just fun, but sustainable.
Thank you, my name is Forrest.
Next up, we have Natto the Cosplay as Justin!
All the fabric for Jasmine was purchased from small businesses
businesses and their entire cosplay was put together in five days from start to finish.
Her Amphorosparkey helps to manage the all of my city lighthouse while Jasmine users are
still tense to fight worthy trainers for a gym badge.
Thank you, Nadova! Please, on stage next, we have Peach Pop!
Woo! Huffay of Levain from Pokemon Legends VA.
She has the salinotic ear-ceasing specialty,
Brianna Excite, although her design
couldn't show her face if she had been taken out.
Likely by order of just it.
She also has a tiny joy alga in her pocket.
Gotta show off the little bodies.
Thank you, peachy pops.
Up next on stage, we have Quince Joppe,
Counting, and Professor Willow.
For Professor Willow, he decided to print his own custom milk hat to look exactly like the
research tab in Pokemon Go.
Therefore, even one out at the convention, Professor Willow, can still beautifully hand
out research.
Professor, it's hard work.
Thank you for all your hard work, Professor Willow.
Please welcome to the stage, Ruby, cosplaying as Team Skull Grunt!
There!
Even Baby is on parry!
This is Ruby's first time diving away, and it's always so fun,
but other podcars are straight into the Team Skull Dance with her!
Her favorite Pokemon is Gash for Thine!
Be sure to find it since you go ahead and dance with her, too.
Up next we have Sarah Cosley and Penny.
A fun fact about her Cosley is she chose to Cosley and Penny because so, so many of her
friends told her Penny was Sarah-coded when Scarlett and Violet came out.
Thank you so much Sarah!
We have Samantha Riggs helping us, Lysia!
She's helping Lysia even using Air Dried Clay and Pillow Stuffing to replicate a faria's fluffy wings.
The colors should be found in changes colors between blue, purple, and pink.
What a fabulous outfit!
on stage next we have Sammy the cosplay as Lily some fun facts about this cosplay are
that Lily is one of her favorite characters in the Pokemon franchise and she used to
make how much her base outfit stood out but seeing how through the events of the game
and on her major turning point her secondary outfit gives her a more optimistic and
and bubbly personality, which she tried to embody,
especially while in Cal State.
Thank you so much, Sing-A-Vee.
On stage next, please welcome Stop Cal State at Scisham.
Scott says that this is his first time
styling his own way.
Give it up for the way, guys.
Thank you so much, Scott.
We have another talented duo coming on stage.
Taityla and Elijah.
Taityla is with you and May.
Taityla and Ashley are day-added cosplays
who have been obsessed with Pokemon
since they first started with Denjri in the early 2000s.
Their cosplays were made by Taityla
and special product,
woven with tinsel,
multiple shades of blue and purple
purple to bring the Pokemon concept items to life.
Beautiful, thank you so much.
One kind of bow.
We have in our next costume showcase, Winona Casayna Serena!
Winona, 3D Prince at the Megering, she's way. She's an avid Pokemon fan and it's accompanied
by an Eevee, she has been trained since she was little. It's her favorite Pokemon
and she likes the Swinna trains ones too.
Thank you, Winona!
And finally, we have our last time player
on stage section, at least,
YCO.0X Top Play as Pervo!
This is the third iteration of the jacket.
The first was a simple classic outfit
after seeing Pervo and Legend's VA trailer.
The second use in existing laser was a modified lapel and leg.
And this jacket in its current form
was made from scratch leather and cargo sewage.
Then through you saw shillies,
the two of them braved scum different materials
for the posing drinks, including resin coated fabric.
But decided to prioritize the longevity of the garment
in the end, and all three versions
hold a special place in their hearts.
Let's give it up one more time for our amazing cosplayers!
There you go, let's welcome to the stage, come on!
They've spent so many weeks and months!
Keep it going!
Amazing! It's been so much fun hosting this year's Cosplay Showcase, and we hope you
enjoy the rest of your day at Pokemon XP and the world's 2026!
I
I'm not sure what to do with this.
I'm just gonna wait for the last one.
I'm not sure what to do with this.
I'm just gonna wait for the last one.
Welcome back to Pokemon XP. I am Anna here with Rachel and Joshua on the desk coming
live from Rayquaza Road on day three of Pokemon XP here in San Francisco, California.
I can't believe we're nearing the end of Pokemon XP.
I am so excited that we have had such a great weekend and I am so
dreading but looking forward to the end of today.
Yeah, but I'm so glad we had so much fun together and I'm so glad I talked to so many people
and there's still a little bit more that we get to cover, Anna.
That's right, and we just saw the cosplay showcase and we got a chance to watch a
little bit of that backstage. I want to hear some of your reactions. What were you thinking?
So impressed with how it was almost like just a complete replication where they walked out of the
game or out of the shows or out of the training card game and were there physically, but also
their choreography. They nailed it. And I have to say, my favorite was the background couple.
Oh, that one was really good.
Yeah, yeah. They've been married for seven years. Beautiful story. You could hear the crowd
just going crazy for them. So it was a great showcase. And Evolutions did such a great job
hosting. She did such a fantastic job. And in fact, she's going to be joining us very,
very soon to talk even more about the cosplay showcase. Rachel, what stood out for you?
Well, you know, I'm fond of people who dress as Corbeau. Really?
Point of play, banana. Oh, oh, really? Interesting. I've seen so many great Corbeaus around.
There were two great Corbeaus in the showcase, but one came out with Le Bon,
and they did that little skit. It was so, so cute. And we finally got Corbeau to do the
little post. It was so cute. I loved every minute of the showcase. I love Canary. I love seeing a
lot of Legend Z.A. going on up there. I also thought the end was particularly delicious that
week. The deep cuts. We had Jessie from when she was in her contest arc. We had Pokemon Conquest.
Yeah. We had so many great background characters, like you said. It was incredible to know just
how broad and deep the Pokemon community is just represented by cosplay. And it was so funny.
our reaction to everyone was almost the same like we'd be like oh cool cool that last one whoa
oh wow cool cool cool whoa every single and i kept hitting the pose just like the card like you
said too it was amazing really really fun now we are coming up on talking to evillution's cosplay
and we have just a few moments before we pull them up on stage but i just want to check in with
you guys what has been on your mind what's impressing you today as we near the end of
Pokemon XP. Well besides that Mewtwo jacket, I'm still hoping I can get it on. I am. It has been
another phenomenal day here at Pokemon XP. Positivity has been contagious all the way around,
but I would say to be able to dive in with music and soundtracks and to see very talented people
up here talk about their love of music and for us who've been playing video games for such a long
time before the voice actors were involved in a number of different games the music really
carried the character and the vibe and the setting and how profound that really is and
how much it has stuck with us and to see that continue to evolve in the world of Pokemon
and to see a number of different artists that have really made a name for themselves in
the digital space and to see their talents used and enjoyed by so many people here
at Pokemon XP.
Mm-hmm.
What about you, Rachel?
I was so glad talking to Saichou and Julie who came up who was talking about the process
of how they make the statues down there and to know that every person at that company
who touches those statues doesn't just like Pokemon. They don't just think it's neat and
they don't just want to do right by the community. They truly love it in a way that comes through
and how they tell their stories and how they use every bit of the statue to really bring
the world of Pokemon alive. I'm so much more motivated than I was even before to get my
hands on one of those statues because it means not just a beautiful representation
of Pokemon, but it's kind of an icon of all the work and love that went into
it from the team.
Absolutely. I think Glitter's gonna want to get that Snorlax statue for sure.
Yeah, for sure. I've also been loving, I love to express my love for Pokemon through what I wear a lot of the time.
And that also shows up in all ranges of fashion to cosplay.
And we actually have a nice little video of some of the cosplay you may have seen if you were wandering around here at Pokemon XP. Let's check it out.
All weekend long I've been sitting on the XP desk watching these beautiful costumes and
these incredible cosplayers walk by, so now I'm down on the floor and I'm going to find
some of them to talk to you because I want to see these cosplays up close.
There's one right now.
Can you tell me a little bit about your outfit?
Brilliant.
Well, you know, I got these clothes for my dad, socks for my dad, socks for my dad.
And then the trauma for my dad too.
Yeah, that's true.
Sorry about that.
I'll do it.
I've got two more fabulous outfits, but I just have to ask about the clothes.
Tell me what you're wearing and walk and give us a little squirrel.
We are wearing Pokemon Breeder cosplays from Leif Green and Fire Red.
And they're just characters that are non playable and they are trainers.
You can battle them in the game and they're usually located in your nursery
where you drop off your Pokemon to help level them up and or breed them to get
a new baby sort of thing.
Well, this is a 360 look, so let's see it.
Give us a twirl. Yes, fabulous. So glad you're representing the underrepresented NPCs and you both look incredible.
Thank you.
Of course, while I'm stopping the best dress that I see around Rayquaza Road, I had to stop this beautiful creature right here.
You look incredible. Tell me what you're wearing.
I got some Pokemon colors, custom. I got my rocket shirt.
Nice.
And then I have some Pokemon on my watch.
And that's the look.
Magnifique.
I found another incredible look.
I have to say, you look amazing.
Tell me about your fit.
Now, here is another great outfit that I have seen around Rayquaza Road.
I had to stop you.
Tell me what you're wearing.
Tell me what's far the fit.
Well, we're in the Bay Area.
We got some limited edition kicks.
A lot of black because of Team Rocket, you know?
Lots of pockets for some Pokemon that we borrow.
Borrow.
Well, I would honestly say you look amazing as well with the suit, it's very, very official.
Not like a grunt, but the grunts, you know, someone's got to do the work.
Alright, box, I'm just going super cashed in it with the, you know, soft shorts, walking
shoes, and then got to represent, you know, my corporation, organized crime.
Are these uniform regulation shorts?
Sure, why not?
Got to do that.
And I got to rep the R for Team Rocket.
And of course, the Pokeball, the iconic Pokeball, there's a Zubat in here, because that is also
an iconic team like the Pokeball one, but yeah, that's it.
Looking good.
Thank you.
Get back out there and get to work.
Definitely.
Hello, and welcome to Pokemon XD.
We're having so much fun here chatting about cosplay, and to do that with us, we have
a new guest at the desk.
Welcome.
Please introduce yourself to the people at home.
Hi everyone.
Hello, I'm from Hawaii. I'm evolution cosplay and today I'm cosplaying as
Erica, the Celadon City Gym Leader. And we just saw you on stage at the cosplay
showcase. Tell us what it was and how it was. Oh my gosh, it's just incredible. We
had such a lineup of amazing characters all the way from the beginning from
Ash to all to Legends DA. So to see the incredible lineup of talent and
characters to really celebrate the last 30 years of Pokemon has been
just amazing. I also heard you giving a lot of information about how
people went about making their costumes and I think some people at home may not
be familiar with cosplay they may have assumed it's a skill that they could
never start up with or it may be something that they like they know how
to sew but they're not sure that they can cosplay what what would you say to
someone that that was shown off in the cosplay showcase about how to start
if you want to cosplay well definitely the first thing to start with
cosplaying is to always cosplay the character that you love and that you
admire or that you relate to there are so many people who chose characters
that they personally related to and that love for them really drove them to create the cosplays
that they have. And a lot of the cosplayers were saying that they drifted their cosplays
or recycled materials. So cosplay doesn't have to be complicated or expensive so anybody
can cosplay which is a little creativity and a lot of love.
Love that.
Your cosplay is Erica today. First of all, love it. One of my favorite gym leaders.
But tell us a little bit about your look and why you're inspired to cosplay Erica.
I just love the original one-five, original Kanto series.
That's what I grew up when Pokemon Express introduced me.
And Erica has just always been such a standard character for me.
I loved her how graceful and beautiful she was.
I love the way that she wore her outfits.
And so recently, the TCG of Sandy Carolls
came out with Erica's Tengla.
So I really want to recreate that look here.
You did a beautiful job.
I love the outfit head to toe.
And what a wonderful example you are,
not just in your cosplay, but how you bring the community together for the cosplay community.
No, I really love it.
Cosmic community is just an amazing way to relate to one another, connect with one another
for everybody's love of Pokemon. No one is left out, and it's such a cozy community to be a part of.
You did such a phenomenal job on stage because there was a lot of different cosplay to get through.
Your energy was impeccable.
you were able to really showcase each of these different individuals put so much hard work into their cosplays
I always like to be on stage to be able to showcase all these people that came here at Pokemon XP
Oh, it's such an honor. I'm usually the person on stage walking for that 30 seconds that minute
So it's a lot very, it can be very, you know, stressful, a lot of, it's scary
So to be there the whole time to introduce such amazing talent
talent, both both an honor and just a little bit scary, but I'm so glad with
how it went. You couldn't tell that you were scared. That's okay. I mean for us,
we're on stage all the time. We're able to see a lot of different people both
here physically and from home to interact with them. And so once again, an
amazing job and I'm sure all the cosplayers felt that energy to be
able to be showcased and put all that hard work in front of a live
audience. The audience was fantastic as well. We loved the audience. They were
cheering them on just as hard as we're cheering them at home too. Did
You see anyone in the audience,
because we were watching mostly you,
but you were looking out into the audience.
Were there any shout-outs that you wanna give of like,
oh, I saw a cool hat, or I saw a cool cosplay
in the audience, anything you saw that we might not have?
You know, my eyes always go to anyone
who's right, evolutionist.
So I saw a pair of silly odd ears out there,
and my eye just keeps going to them,
and, you know, that's always in my heart too.
I have seen your cosplays of the EV evolution.
They are fantastic, the way you interpret them.
and you brought some of that to Pokemon XP.
You were doing the workshops of the ears, right?
Can you tell us about that?
Yes, so I had the wonderful opportunity
to run another workshop called the Air Band.
Last year at Anaheim, we had the EV Air Band.
This year we've evolved it.
So I had participants make Umbreon earbands this year.
I've seen so many of them walk around
and I get so much joy every time I do it.
Why did you choose Umbreon?
Well, Umbreon is World's 2026 Pokemon XP.
It's one of the mascots.
We saw it in the drone show, we saw it in the opening animated series, the animated video,
and so, and Umbriash is one of those characters that everybody loves of the evolution, so of
course you might as well bring it here to world because it was so represented.
I think I saw you.
Josh, I have to do it, I have to do it.
I have to because not only is she so phenomenal, it's teachable, it's teachable, this is
of Pokemon that I'm starting to fall in love with as well.
But, Evelish, you are so good at the workshops,
and that was one element here at Pokemon XP
that a lot of people have got to enjoy,
and we were able to enjoy it today.
We've been pretty busy here at the desk.
I've enjoyed every pair that's gone by.
Oh, yeah.
You are so good at what you do.
You're able to teach people to put these together.
And so, what's it like to put together a workshop
to design the different steps
and to lead people through the process?
By the way, I was only able to make that half of these,
and you gave these to me.
So, Evolutions is the one that was able to put them together.
So, overall, what does it take to create something
that people can follow along and have so much joy together?
I think for this particular workshop is
that we really want to keep it accessible.
We want to keep it easy, kid-friendly, beginner-friendly.
We want to use materials that anybody could find at home
that was also easy to work with.
And so, it was really, my background is teaching.
So, I teach younger kids.
So, in my head, I was like, could this be something
that I could teach my students to do in a timely manner and that they could follow
along which is a little bit of help and so that's where it all came about to
making sure that each step each material was able to be accessible and
teachable to all. What is it like watching so many people make something
that you kind of conceived of yourself how does that feel? Oh my god it makes
me so giddy. To see my little umbra on army walking out with their ears all
Each of them have different personalities.
We give them time to decorate however they want it.
We had jewels and stars to go with the Space Galaxy.
We had florals, which is always a hit, with the Yerba grinding too,
to go out there to decorate them as well.
So it just makes me so happy to see them to have so much joy
to be able to experience just a little bit of cosplay,
even if they're not used to it.
I didn't think about how it's almost like in a video game,
you marked them as people that you have seen and talked to.
It's like, ah, yes, all of the people I have touched here
Pokemon XP. That's so cool. I know also that you talked about you have so much
experience with cosplay but you had to look at this like you said and find
materials that people could find at home and things and and really iterate
through it. Was this version the version you started with or did you
did you kind of edit it as you went to make it something that was a fit for
the convention here? What's the situation was that there's no
hot glue. I want to keep everything safe. That's a tool that a lot of cosplays
of myself use back at home, but you know in this space we want to keep a kid
friendly, we want to keep it safe, and so I think that was a little bit tricky to use.
We used double-sided tape that you were able to use. We made our work, and so what I like about is that this was kind of started from the EVA brand last year. We just changed the shape for it for this year. So the step-by-step process you could use for any type of evolution ear or any type of
Pokemon really. So I think that was the beauty of this particular workshop is that
you could take it as a base and then treat whatever Pokemon you're actually
wanted. With running the workshop last year, now running the workshop this year,
have any of your young students kind of graduated to maybe a full cosplay or?
I don't know if anyone particularly from that, but from my years of like
meeting some, from last year meeting them from like a regional, I've had
people come up to me and say that they or see my videos or on my social
that they've been inspired to start cosplay.
And again, it just has to be simple.
It doesn't have to be big,
but just taking that small step first
can always be the challenge,
but it's such a big step to taking your cosplay journey.
And the materials that were used for this,
not to reveal too many of the secrets,
but felt some, I want to call them pipe cleaners.
Pipe cleaners?
Pipe cleaners.
And then, as you mentioned, the glue
and double-sided tape.
But how effective it looks just with those materials.
And so to get started to me,
I was like, if I had these materials, especially
to create a template and then build from there,
I think it would be really good steps to get started.
Are there any materials that you find
to be more difficult to work with?
And maybe after you've graduated through the first prototype
to then go deeper into the design
and the final completion of the Cosquit?
Oh, if we're talking about ears, Beaufer.
Beaufer is the thing that we're going to have to work with.
But that's probably for me in particular.
I try to play Beaufer as much as possible.
So felt is, even though it's a beginner friendly fabric,
It's something that I still continue to use,
even in my more intricate cosplay builds.
And so it just goes to show that you can take
such a simple material and elevate it
to look even cooler in the final product.
You've been around here at, like you said,
Regionals Worlds.
I've met you before at events here
and it's been such a pleasure.
So I would love to hear from you
as someone who has watched these events evolve.
What it's like to be at the first ever Pokemon XP.
How does it feel?
What's it like?
I feel so incredibly fortunate
to be able to celebrate here with Pokemon's 30th anniversary.
Our first, I've been cosplaying for a while now,
but my first world was back in my hometown,
Hollywood World's 2024, and that just opened a flood gate
to see that Pokemon has evolved so much through the years,
different franchises, different communities,
and to see that I can include that Cosplay niche
in Pokemon XP with the Cosplay Showcase,
with the workshop, I think it's incredible
that Pokemon is also embracing Cosplay
as a way for fans to show their enjoyment for the franchise.
Is there a Pokemon cosplay that you are conceiving of now
that you would be really excited to debut?
Oh, I'm in so cosplayed out,
getting bored in cosplays made for worlds.
It's something I love to do.
You know, I would love to do more gym leaders,
more gym leaders, but I also really wanna do
a Saida cosplay.
After EVE's evolution, just put it left field.
Like Saida is one of my other favorite Pokemon.
I would love to see your interpretation of Saida.
That sounds incredible.
What would be the most challenging thing about putting
together a side of cosplay?
It's a little feat, a little web speed.
How to interpret that into a cosplay.
Maybe his beacon bell would be.
So it's also taking those features
that are Pokemon as well truly known for.
And how do you reinterpret that into the human form?
And I'm sure it was surprising maybe
to see some of those interpretations
or reinterpretations here at Pokemon XP.
That's a weird situation there.
The surprise, especially how people
are able to interpret some of these more maybe
difficult aspects of putting together a cosplay.
Oh, it's so incredible to see the creativity.
Some people use their wigs to mimic ears.
Some people maybe use a bag to mimic the tail.
And just seeing even like,
I love different fabric choices.
And so seeing what other people use to recreate like fur
or maybe stales has been so inspirational
to see walking just around here.
And like, oh, I want to use that
for my next cosplay idea.
We also, we've chatted a ton about cosplay because obviously you're such an expert of it, but we know there's other ways you engage with Pokemon as well.
What other ways do you like to engage with Pokemon? The games, Pokopia, TCG, collecting, what do you like to do in Pokemon?
I found, again, since Honolulu World, I found such a joy to be able to go to my local game shops, to go to Pokemon Play Nights, to be able to learn the TCG.
So I'm able, and the people have been so welcoming
if you go to these Pokemon nights
is that they want you to learn how to do the TCG.
It's not, it could seem scary,
but they are so willing to help you build a deck,
practice the deck.
And I just made so many new friends there
that have helped me even make a deck here today.
I wanted to make an Erica deck to play as Erica.
And so I've had friends at those nights
help me to put it together and practice it too.
Yeah, I also, I just happened to know that you also collect TCG because we were chatting online about the black and white promos of the EV evolution.
Yes. Is that right? Yes. I brought something for you. Oh no, what?
And it's been very excited. I have been very excited about it. So this is so cool. There's this particular promo set of the EV evolution. No, you didn't.
black and white from 2013 that I got into collecting and I started posting about it online and then
someone reached out to me and was like I actually have that full set and I think it would bring you
more joy I want to gift it to you. I argued with them I was like please can I trade you something
they're like no please let me gift it to you so I want to pay forward the ones I already had
and you need the lithium right? I do need the lithium. Okay okay wow will you please accept
Oh, oh, oh!
Yeah, are you sure?
Yes, please!
There you go.
I love it.
This will go into my special evolution bider.
I love it. Thank you so much.
Yeah, my pleasure. I'm so glad you like it.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you for letting me gift you something on stream.
I was very, very excited about it.
It's so sneaky!
If people want to follow along with your adventures,
get to know you. Where can they find you on the internet?
I'm mainly known on Instagram evolution underscore cosplay. You see a lot of my builds. You also see my sister. She's here to
Shout out to her at Saratone and she has been an incredible
Support to me here. I couldn't have done this without her. So
Big shout out to her so you'll see both me and her on my channel as we explore and adventure into our Pokemon journeys
Thank you so much for spending time with us
It has been such a pleasure and don't go anywhere because we still have a little bit more Pokemon XP coming your way
Welcome back to Pokemon XP.
We just had a good time saying farewell to Edulition's cosplay.
Love, love that little team, the sister team.
They're so nice.
Phenomenal.
Really phenomenal.
And to see it in person and to see how much effort and energy, especially for young
kids to be able to do the arts and crafts with their parents. I got to sneak in and do a little bit
with them and it just it brought me back to my childhood and also to try to use the little
kids safety scissors. That was a little bit tough but I really hope we get to see more evolutions
in the future phenomenal work. And how great is it that she's like oh I found my nation the
Pokemon community and I'm going to use it to bring all these other people into my nation into
the Pokemon community. So that is exactly what I'm talking about when somebody has an incredible
skill and it matches up with Pokemon, it just brings in more wonderful people and more great
stuff.
You've been mentioning like the next generation of Pokemon a few times and I literally said
to my nephew they were leaving today and I was like you know I've been waiting for
this moment since you were born and he was like I know and it was a weird realization
that was he handing you a pack at the time?
We had just opened a few together.
What a blessing to hear.
you want to rip some packs.
That's why we do it.
Oh my gosh, what a pleasure.
And, you know, we're coming to the end of the day.
Stop saying that.
It's my job. It's my job to say that.
To keep us on track, tell us what time it is.
We still have a lot coming though.
What are you two looking forward to
in the few hours we have left?
Well, let's be honest.
The potential for announcements.
A little bit later today.
Closing ceremonies is going to be a phenomenal event.
event. It's going to be taking place at Chase of Rina. I was super excited to talk to Evan
Hashimoto, Wondershift. Fantastic commentator cast from the world of Pokemon, but to be
able to be at that arena and see the light show, to see the stage, to see the production
quality that this team has put together. That's one of the things I'm very excited
for.
What about you Rachel?
I am actually pretty excited for this game show too. I've been watching the God
on Catcher Mall game shows. I think Brian David Gilbert is the host. We've seen
a lot of great Pokemon creators who have the community kind of come on and it's the
funny moments that are generated, right?
We all love talking about Pokemon, so to watch people kind of compete about Pokemon
as we've seen in some of our competition panels, it brings another level to the engagement,
to the investment, and you're gonna laugh.
I promise you will laugh during this next panel.
Alright, laughs are promised.
Well, let's check it out right now.
Gotta catch them all game show.
Let's go.
All right, who's ready to close out Pokemon XP with style?
Thank you all so much for joining us.
It's been an incredible weekend here at the Pokemon XP stage.
And we couldn't think of any better way than to close out the show with the God of Ketchum All Game show.
Who here is familiar with the God of Ketchum All Game show?
Absolutely.
It's not me trippin' with our wonderful host,
Mr. Brian David Gilbert, right?
Can I let you all in on a secret?
Don't tell anybody.
Brian is backstage right now.
But Brian won't come out.
I'll let you make some noise!
Stop!
If you're ready for the final event of the PXP,
let's get a chant going.
B-D-G.
Everybody, please welcome to the stage Brian Damon Gilbert.
I
Hello, Pokemon XP!
Hello, hello, hello, hello, what a crowd!
Oh my goodness, hello, Trainers, and welcome to the God of Catch-N-Val Game Show Live!
closing out Pokemon XP, how has your weekend been?
Pretty good, pretty good.
Oh my goodness, it truly has been an incredible weekend
and I'm so grateful that you all chose to come out here
and hang out with us as we close it all up
alongside our usual selection
of Gotta Catch em All game show questionable questions.
We will have our three glorious guests,
our amazing audience and at home
We have some terrific trainers on Twitch chat,
and we're all gonna be playing this game together
at the same time.
So, how do we play?
Very good question, very good question.
We've got a quick explainer that previous Bryan
is going to do, so why don't we go ahead
and hit him with that explainer production, shall we?
I've gotta catch him all.
Game show is a multiple choice trivia quiz
with a twist.
Each question has a Pokemon attached to it.
To win the game, you need to have all four
of these victory Pokemon in your collection at the same time.
Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, and of course Pikachu.
The Pokemon you collect in the quiz each have
a one-time effect which can be broken into four categories.
There are supportive Pokemon which have positive effects
that help you shape the game.
And there are disruptive Pokemon which bring
a bunch of negative effects that aggravate your opponents.
Both groups only require a single copy
of a certain Pokémon in your collection to use its effect.
Then we have Victory Pokémon, the main win condition of the game, with effects so powerful
that they require two of the same Pokémon in your collection to use them.
And finally, Magikarp, which does nothing, actually?
That can't be right.
Maybe we should try collecting as many as we can to see what happens.
Once an effect has been activated, it can't be used again, but the Pokémon remains
in your collection until you reach a maximum of six.
From there, you can choose to swap new Pokémon in to get access to more one-time effects.
Each question will have one of these Pokémon attached to it, and players will have to quickly
buzz in to answer and catch that Pokémon.
If the first buzz gets it wrong, the other two can buzz again.
If no one gets the question right, we move on, and the Pokémon returns to the tall
grass.
And the fun isn't just in the studio.
You can play along at home, live on Twitch.
Answer our questions and get ready to make your mark.
have chances to vote on key moments and even help us with some sneaky secrets that could
completely shake up the game.
Got all that?
No?
Well, the best way to learn is to do.
So let's get started.
Thank you so much, past Brian.
It's just a pleasure to work with that guy.
I'll tell you what.
So, that covers how the game is played and how Twitch gets to cause some chaos
in chat.
For our audience, you all also get to play.
So we did have a QR code up there on the screens
if you haven't already scanned that.
That will allow you to access a dashboard
so you can play along on your own devices.
As we play, you can use it to answer the questions
along with Twitch and our players on stage.
And I can nudge you to take control at key moments.
We just wanna make sure the live events are exciting.
We love those twists and turns.
And speaking of this being live,
I know you all know the answers.
I know this.
You're just a whole crew full of Pokémaniacs out here,
and I love that.
These ace trainers are great,
but the show is way funnier
if these three contestants are getting it wrong.
So we're gonna let them flounder.
Do not yell out, just go ahead and answer that
on your phone.
So I think it's time for us to introduce
our amazing guests.
We have three wonderful contestants lined up
who will be vying for the first ever title
of Gotta Catch em All Game Show Champion here at PXP,
Pokemon XP, we are so excited
for an incredibly illustrious prize
that we are giving to our contestants today.
And that is the treasure of friendship.
Or maybe enemies, I'm not 100% sure.
We'll see how this entire trivia game goes down,
but I'm hoping they have some sort
of relationship after this.
Trainers, are we ready to meet our incredible guests?
Fantastic! First up, it's the do-rat dragon himself, it's Josiah!
Come on over Josiah. Next up, we have the one and only party, Arlie!
Oh, and who could be our last contestant?
It is none other than Tony Weaver Jr.
Oh!
Ah!
Oh, the Recoisa is strong. I love this.
This is really, everyone's showing up today.
I love to see that.
It is so wonderful to have you three here.
I am very excited to get this started and I'm sure you are all eager to be assigned your first partner Pokemon
But again, you must be assigned your first partner Pokemon and that is your job audience
You will be voting on whether they get Squirtle, Charmander or Bulbasaur to start this out
And I have asked our three lovely contestants to prepare something for us to help sway your vote
We have asked all three of them to write beautiful haiku about the specific partner Pokémon they want
So I think it's time for you all to sit back and enjoy this literary experience
Josiah, would you like to start with our haiku, please?
Oh
You're burning tell
Shall never be extinguished
For my life is yours. Oh
Very dramatic, very intense Josiah, startin' strong.
But let's see, Arlie, it's your turn, your Haiku, please.
Alright, I did not memorize mine, so that's good.
Also, I feel like I maybe don't know what a Haiku is.
Alright, let's do this.
The carp has my heart.
Three useless fish, a splash, orange, Bulbasaur is cool.
That is a great haiku I appreciate that you just threw in at the end which partner Pokemon
you were looking for.
Okay so we have Charmander, we have Bulbasaur, let's see, let's see Tony, what's your haiku?
paint tail
bold flame
Our brave hearts will never change
Charmander let's game
Very very fiery. I love to see this now. I
Entertainment and culture wrapped into one. We've got some incredible contestants
I think it is time for you trainers to vote on who receives which partner Pokemon in twitch
You will just be writing the Pokemon name
We are going to start with Josiah do rag dragon
Which of the three partner Pokemon will be assigned to Josiah?
We currently have two Charmander hopefuls. So this could this could go many different ways. Oh
Those percentages they keep changing. Let's see
really guys really starting strong here this is it's it keeps changing but
production have we locked anything in we've locked in Squirtle and we take it
we take it it's you're still gonna do great please go back to the blue team
that is now yours let's see if the last two go to the hopefuls it is now time
to choose the partner Pokemon from Bulbasaur and Charmander for Arly. So please vote on Arly's
Pokemon. What was your last line of your haikus? Bulbasaur is cool. Very straight into the point,
isn't it? Ooh, but we could have. It's looking pretty strong there. Yeah, thank you guys. That's
really kind. Oh no, please stop doing that. Hey, it did indeed. Bulbasaur is cool. Please
go to green and that does mean Tony it worked out even though your last you were given Charmander
thank you friend incredible incredible work now that that is settled our players have met their
bestest buds for at least the rest of the yeah I think you are and bubbles are you and Squirtle
we're gonna have a great okay I love to see that I love to see that I think it's time for us to
see our leaderboard, we all have one of the four victory Pokemon required. So we're all
getting started pretty strong, but I think it is time for us to finally say, players,
are you ready for our first question? Let's get this thing started, shall we? Folks,
our first question is for another victory Pokemon. It is for Pikachu. The power of
Spark allows you to select one of three categories for the next question, a very very strong power,
and we actually have a multimedia question for our first one. So everyone quiet down,
take a look at this video game clip, pay close attention to everything. Let's see it.
Let's see if you focused on the right thing.
How many splashes did the player in last place land?
Was it A-15, B-12, C-10 or D-8?
A quick buzz in from Tony.
Which one?
D-8.
B-8 is correct.
Indeed, a very strong start for you there, Tony.
You have two of the four necessary Pokemon.
I know you were worried coming on your,
you were saying, I'm not gonna win this.
I'm not, but it's fine.
I'm having a great time.
You're starting strong though.
Let's see, you gotta keep that bravery,
keep that courage.
And we've got a very important question.
This next one is for maybe the most important Pokemon.
That's why it's Magic Heart.
Again, no powers for Magikarp, but if you collect three of them, it could work out.
I think Arlie is focused mostly on this one.
I want this so bad right now.
But let's see if you focused on the right thing from this weekend, because we have
a Pokemon XP question.
In Pokemon XP's space-themed key art, which Pokemon can be seen on the badge worn by
Pikachu?
Is it A, Minior, B, Cosmog, C, Clefairy, or D, Cosmom?
Quick buzz in from Arly. Which one is the badge?
Is it B? I don't know. I'm guessing B.
You're guessing B and you would be correct. It isn't a positive.
Very strong. You've got that link with Magikarp.
That does mean you have two very strong Pokemon. Only one victory.
But hey, there's Magikarp. If you catch enough of it.
All I want.
That's gonna be great. I did have to cover up this.
I did make sure that any of you could have seen as I was coming out here the correct answer to that one
But let's move on to our next question
This one is for a Porygon. Porygon's ability is conversion
Which allows you to discuss with Twitch and our audience here
What the answer to the question is a very very strong one, especially with this specific audience
Let's see. This one is a TCG pocket question
What attack is known by the following Pokemon in the Everyday Wonders expansion?
These are Growlithe, Rockruff, Yamper, and Fido.
Oh, well, we've got a buzz in already, but let me answer, let me say all these first.
Is it A. Puppy Play, B. Puppy Food, C. Puppy Pile, or D. Growl?
Oh, Josiah cut in right before Arly could have gotten it. Josiah, what is the correct answer?
I mean, it's gotta be D growl.
It's gotta be D growl.
It does not gotta be D growl.
It is not D.
I'm sorry to say it.
Oh, what?
Arleigh, I believe that I saw you buzz in.
Arleigh, it is your chance to guess.
I am guessing.
Is it A puppy play?
It's not.
What?
Which means, Tony, it's down to two.
Is it B puppy food or C puppy pile?
Uh.
Well, you see, Brian, all of the Pokemon mentioned here are puppies, fluffy little boys, indeed.
Vampire is not going to help you get this question, but I do appreciate it.
If they were to do an attack, I think, seed.
You think it would be seed, puppy pile?
You're correct. It is indeed puppy pile.
Very well.
And this is important because the supporter card, Puppy Loving Girl,
allows you to get as many of these from the top four cards of your deck
and put them into your hands to set up.
and there also was a little pop card
in the pulsing aura expansion, which has this move.
So very, very well done there, Tony.
Let's take a look at that leaderboard.
Tony, you got a strong lead so far.
You got two victory Pokemon and the ability
to ask the audience for some help in the future.
And we actually have a question for you all
in the audience.
I need you to vote on the next Pokemon
that will be attached to the question.
So you could be extra helpful.
Take a look at this leaderboard and consider what might be helpful for your favorite competitor.
I don't know who it might be.
But it seems like most people are voting for the Ditto at the moment.
Of these three, Ditto does have a very strong move.
It allows you to use your victory Pokemon immediately if you transfer or if you transform into it.
But it could be either of the disruptive...
Oh, are we locking in?
It is indeed for a Ditto.
We have chosen a Ditto question for our next one.
So this is especially helpful for those with Victory Pokémon.
Again, Transform allows you to copy any Pokémon in your collection
and immediately use the one-time effect.
So let's take a look at this Pokopia question.
Which Pokémon will appear if you build the nothing but Pokéballs habitat?
Could it be Voltorb, Tangela, Galarian Stunfisk, or Fungus?
Tony, buzzed in first.
I'm going to say A, Voltorb.
You're going with A from context, and you'd be incorrect.
It is not Voltorb.
Oh, Josiah, you buzzed in.
I'm going for D, Fungus.
You're going for D, Fungus, another Pokemon
that has a Pokeball, and it's also incorrect.
I'm sorry, Fungus is not right.
Arlie, it's between Galarian Stunfisk and Tangela.
Which one do you think it is?
I believe it is Tangela B.
You believe, and you are right.
And it is indeed a tangler!
Okay, and now can I do this immediately?
You can interrupt immediately, yes.
Make him a Magikarp.
Oh!
I mean, that's a very bold...
You're calling your shot before you even get the next Magikarp.
I love to see it.
I need a Magikarp.
You are, you are...
So I am sorry to say that because Ditto, usually when you transform it
It immediately has to activate so you cannot do it until you have another magic heart
This is so embarrassing
So would you like to pause for now and wait until later?
Should I I just don't want anybody to take my ditto
There's a Pokemon on the board that will let us seal from you yet. I'm not gonna tell you yet
You have my word. I wouldn't take the magic heart from you
I will take the magic heart. The card has your heart. I would never.
Yeah, this is what I was talking about the treasure of friendship. This is where it's it's really working right now
betrays me we're all gonna remember that I would never I would never we will all
keep that in mind all right so we are going to move on to our next question
we'll hold off on that ditto for right now but we are moving into a very special
question next it is a mystery box a mystery gift question so all of you
should have boxes on your lecterns there if you pull up the one that has
the first one go ahead and put it on top for now this next question will
be for an Eevee. Eevee's ability is helping hand, which allows you to discuss with one
of your fellow competitors, and you both would receive the Pokemon. But this one, what we
are going to require from you is that you will be blindfolded as you reach into this
box and procure a plushie. And you will not be able to use sight, you will just
be using the sense of touch to figure out which Pokemon plushie you have. Now since
You cannot see where the buzzer is.
For this one, you will simply say,
buzz when you are done, okay?
And make sure you lift up both your hands
because I can't see you still touching.
If that's the case, I will skip you
and I'll move on to the next buzz, okay?
But are we already, do you happen to have blindfolds there
or are we going to go by,
I think we might have to go with,
specifically just trusting our competitors
to be really, really good, okay?
If any of you, if any of you see any of those eyes open,
You tell me, okay?
All right, you tell me, all right?
Let's go ahead and get, oh, I mean,
that's a very good one, Harley, I do like that.
The glass is off, it's good.
Thank you.
All right, ready?
Go ahead and place your hands on top of the box.
Wait one second, I almost have.
That's all I can see, we're here, Harley.
All right, are you ready?
In three, two, one, procure the plushie.
Ooh, this is a tough one.
These are challenging.
Buzz?
OK, hands up.
Hands up, Tony.
What do you think it is?
Erudactyl?
Tony, you nailed it.
That was incredible.
Oh, my God.
Let's go!
OK, would the other competitors like to guess?
Just really quick.
I'm going to guess Sanchez.
That was correct.
Also, last guess, Arlie.
Am I dumb?
I don't know what this is.
OK, go ahead and take off your bled.
Wait, no, no, no.
OK, one last try.
We'll give it a shot.
What is this thingy right here?
It's a very good question.
Is this... I don't know what this is. What the...
I will... I'll say Gloom is a very challenging one.
You I think were on the left. That is pretty impressive.
Go ahead and place your boxes down below you.
But incredible job. That was so fast, Tony.
I'm very impressed there.
And that does mean, Tony, you also have received an Eevee.
Which means you have two supportive Pokemon here.
Feel free to interrupt at any time again.
You can use that polygon to ask the audience for help.
You can also use the EV to ask your competitors for help.
It's all about help over here.
Nothing is mean.
Everyone's nice.
Everything's great.
And that brings us to our next question,
which is for an execute.
Executability is extrasensory, allowing us
to go into another multimedia question.
We all love watching videos.
It's always great.
This is an animation question.
I think Josiah is the most well-versed in the animation,
but maybe I'm wrong.
Yes, am I?
Maybe just purely by those two reactions.
Yes.
We'll see if we're right about this.
Let's take a look, shall we?
Complete the lyrics to this opening song.
Come with me.
The time is right.
There's no better blank.
Is it A, Pokemon B, Knight, C, Fight, or D?
Team.
Oh, all right, Josiah.
What do you think it is?
Surely be night.
Surely be night?
It is not, then I'm going to...
It rhymes?
What are you going to do if it's not?
I'm going to cry.
OK, get crying.
It's not correct.
I'm sorry to say it is not night.
You can't trust rhymes in this game.
I'm sorry.
Pokemon?
It's close.
OK, it's up to the other two.
Tony, which of these last three words do you think ends?
I'm going to say D team.
You're gonna say D team and that is correct.
That's right, this is from the original.
Come with me, the time is right.
There's no better team.
Does anyone in the audience know the rest of it?
Yeah.
Pokemon, gotta catch em all.
Okay, that's all the time we have for that.
I'm sorry, we can't keep doing it as much as I love it.
I'm gonna get Pokemon XP
to have a Pokemon Karaoke next year.
I've been pushing it.
And it's not just because I want to show off
how good I am at singing the Pokemon theme song,
although that is part of it.
But let's go ahead and see this leaderboard.
We have a very strong showing from Tony.
Still only two of the victories.
But you've got so many options.
Again, feel free to interrupt at any time
if you feel like having a multimedia question.
All right, but before we move on to our next question,
it's time for another vote from our audience.
audience you get to choose what our next topic is of these three contestants
which one would you most like to see?
I'm not going to say anything.
You're not going to jinx it.
Well, looking like it is pretty solidly video games right now.
We have locked it in.
you got what you wanted and that's probably going to get it wrong. Let's see anything can happen.
This one is for another victory Pokemon so it's a very important one. It's for Charmander.
Beautiful. Charmander's ability is fire spin allows you to block another player from answering the
question. Very strong in the late game. Let's see if you can get this video game question right.
From which Pokemon does Slowking evolve? Is it Sheldur, Slowbro, Slowpoke, or Pikachu?
you. Josiah. Slowpoke. Slowpoke, you said so confidently and you are so correct. Very,
very, very clean over there. Look, sometimes you get a video game question. It's a nice
one. We give you some hard ones, we give you some nice ones. On our leaderboard, we
still have two victory for Tony, two victory for Duraak Dragon, two, well, sorry, three
three Pokemon, one victory for Arlie.
That's okay.
Anything can happen.
Lots of options as we move on into our next question.
This one.
Oh, we have an interruption.
I just wanted to know, since I now have a Charmander.
Yes.
Can I take this?
Ah.
No, that's your first partner.
If you manage, I will say,
if you manage to steal that Charmander,
I will allow you to put it onto yours.
I didn't know Team Rocket was a part of this competition.
How do we get here?
Look, again, it's all up to how aggressive you want to play.
And I love to see whatever you do.
All right, our next question is for another poory gun.
Again, we have a very, very strong audience that can help us.
And our next question is actually an audio question.
So I need everyone to listen very, very closely
as we play this audio clip for you right now.
Want to hear that one more time?
Yes.
Alright. Which Kanto region Pokemon is that?
Could it be Dragonite, Arcanine, Drowsy, or Ivysaur?
Alright, Arleigh, buzzed in first.
Which of those four do you think that cry belongs to?
Is it a Dragonite?
It is a Dragonite! Very, very well done!
done. Incredible move there, Arly. Now you have a Porygon to help you if you're ever not 100% sure
on a question. That's a very strong one. How did you know that was Dragonite so quickly?
I just, I feel like I have lost to Lance so many times. He has like 20 Dragonites and so you just
hear it all the time. Yeah, it's in your nightmares is what you're saying. I understand.
I understand. Well very strong leaderboard right now. A lot of things that could happen.
Tony, again, you can feel free to use that execute whenever you want another multimedia
question.
You can use any of those supports whenever you feel like it.
The only support that can't be used right now is Ditto, but eventually we'll see.
So soon.
I can't wait.
Eventually.
Hey, audience, I do have a question for you all.
Contestants, just talk amongst yourselves.
This doesn't concern you.
You're going to have a prompt on your dashboard.
I'm having trouble.
It's just between us, all right?
They don't need to know about this.
Just take a look at your dashboard if you're on Twitch.
Take a look.
You're going to be a little prompt for you.
It's very important that you fill that one out for me
so that way we can have a little fun
in our next upcoming questions.
Oh, while we are doing that in our audience,
I think it's time for us to move on to another Magikarp
question.
Yeah!
OK.
Let's see, Arlie, lock in, because this one
is a Pokemon Center question.
This means I will be reading a review,
and you have to tell me the Pokemon it's talking about.
Okay, for a magic heart,
what Pokemon is this review talking about?
And I do have to yell it because it's in all caps.
He's so cute and comfy and soft and huggable
and he even came with little white claws
on his hands and peeps.
I named him Snoodle.
Now, what could this review be talking about?
Is it Nido King?
Is it Snorlax?
Is it Hypno?
Or is it Weevil?
All right, Josiah, do rag dragon.
Which one do you think this is talking about?
It's Eva, A or B.
I'm gonna go with B Snorlax.
You're gonna go with B Snorlax.
And that's Snoodle, baby.
You know it's a Snorlax.
Well done.
Look at him.
He's got his little paws.
That one comes to us from Sarah,
who thank you so much, Sarah,
for sending in that wonderful review.
It was beautiful.
I love those peats just as much as you do.
Let's take a look at our leaderboard.
Unfortunately, the fish have been split.
We have an unfortunate situation of overfishing
on that side.
We'll see if Arley is, I feel like you've made
an arch nemesis here.
Very mad.
Ooh.
We'll see how this goes.
I don't mind trading, Arley, but that's not part of the game.
Arley, if you get him to be out,
you can steal the Magikarp.
I will do that.
So here's the thing, I would never do that to you.
Yeah, you say that.
You see how he, I didn't even press the button.
I didn't even try.
OK, OK, noted.
noted. That's pretty intense over here. I think it's time for us to give you a
little bit of help here because just because you only have one Magikarp
doesn't mean there aren't other ways to get them. Namely a Ditto. We have another
Ditto question and this is another Pokemon XP question. So I hope you all
have been paying attention this weekend. Here we go. In the EX Delta Species Expansion, TCG
artist Yukamori provided illustrations for 10 cards, all of which featured which Pokemon?
Is it A, EV, B, Pikachu, C, Magikarp, or D, Ditto? Tony, you buzzed in first. Which of these Pokemon?
All right. Hello. We've got ourselves a little interruption. I believe you have...
Are you looking to use your helping hand?
I think I got to talk to the audience.
Oh, you're going to...
Okay, wait a second.
Let's see that leaderboard one more time, shall we?
I'd love to take a look at which Pokemon you have at the moment.
At this moment, you are going to not use your Eevee.
You are choosing to use your Porygon in order to talk to the audience.
Hey, who needs this other ditto?
Let's see that, Portagon, shall we?
Whoo!
Okay.
That's a good catchy song.
I do like the bit of stuff for Portagon.
All right, now, audience, you have a chance to help or hinder.
That's not up to me, all right?
You could vote for whichever one you think.
But go ahead and vote for which one of these answers do you think is correct
to try to help out Tony, all right?
So go ahead on your dashboard.
dashboard. If you're at Twitch chat, go ahead and answer A, B, C or D on which one you think
this is. And I will listen into production to see what our current percentages are.
Okay. Oh, that's very, that's not as good as I thought it would be. We have a 49%
lead. Okay. It's just 49% though. Okay. And it's for D, Ditto. You trust the audience. Do
Do you not trust that sounds crazy for a ditto? They think it's a ditto. They think it's ditto
Because it's a ditto price
You know what?
I feel like the answer is B, but I'm gonna trust the audience I ride with the squad
So if we go down we go down together all right gonna pick D. We're picking D
And you were right to trust them. It is indeed
Thank you friends. I appreciate you Tony. I do want to point out
Yeah, you have managed to evade a team rocket because in that last question
We had our wonderful audience pick and trap one of our answers in that one
It was magic heart
But you didn't choose that one and so you managed to escape it that means team rocket will not be blasting off with any of
Your Pokemon you are safe beautiful and that does mean you have a full roster right now
You've got so many Pokemon to choose from you've already used that Porygon
But you do still have those two victory Pokemon if you felt like using the ditto to transform into one and immediately use it
But I think it's time for us to get a little meaner. Oh, yes
I think it's time to bring in a disruptive Pokemon. Okay, this next question is for one of my favorites
It's drowsy drowsy's disable blocks of Pokemon's one-time effect for the rest of the game
Let's see which one of you gets this, because we have another multimedia question.
Pay attention to those screens, because we're going to be playing a clip for you.
Let's see it.
And now...
Alright, did you pay attention to that vile plume?
How many petals does the flower on top of vile plumes had to have is it three four five or six?
Oh buzz in from do rag dragon Josiah, which one do you think it is?
Six you think it's six and you would be incorrect. It is not six. I'm sorry Arleigh buzzed in which one
Okay, surely because this gloom that I was touching had four. It's four
Shirley it's four. It's not sure
That means it's either three or five.
I'm gonna say five.
You're gonna say five and you would be correct.
It is indeed.
Correct.
It is indeed.
Now, this does mean that you are put in a position.
You have to remove one of these Pokemon
from your team in order to replace it with a Drowsy.
Porigon has been amazing.
Serve their purpose.
I mean, I send the Porigon to Professor Oak.
Beautiful. Goodbye to the PC Porigon.
It was lovely to have you.
It did indeed work out for you there.
So we are replacing that with the nasty drowsy.
Let's see if you're going to disable anyone in the future.
Now, let it be known amongst my competitors.
I am only going to use the drowsy
if you get a Meowth or a coughing.
I'll leave you alone.
As long as you're not going to seal anything for me, I won't use it.
It's fine. I promise I won't use it.
I won't turn it on either of you
unless you get something that can seal for me at which point.
I will use it.
I love to see the politics.
I will do it.
I told you I won't.
And I promise you I will only steal his ditto.
Or no, sorry, his Magikarp.
Oh.
That's why it's Magikarp.
Again, give me your word.
I would do that.
I just want the fish.
I do that.
I just want the fish.
I need another teammate on my side.
You have to be one extra.
You're all alone.
Yeah, I'm fine.
It's worth it.
This calls to seeing what happens when we get three Magikarp
and you say, no.
I'm going to be cool.
I'm going to get the Magikarp.
I have a feeling the treasure of friendship is not going to be working out for these three and I I personally
Here's the thing let's see you might indeed get another friend here because our next question is for another
Squirtle it's not that aqua jet power allowing you to bump ahead even if someone else has buzzed in this is a
Pokemon go question
Which Pokemon's mega evolved forms were introduced during the Pokemon Go Fest events to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary in
2026 is it Raichu, Mewtwo, Lucario or Absol?
Oh Josiah, quick on that!
Wow, here's the thing Tony you are a little too...
Josiah answered first which means no interruptions work anymore. You chose Mewtwo and you chose correctly
It is, indeed, Mewtwo. So close there, Tony.
You gotta be a little faster with the interrupts.
Very well.
But that's pretty impressive.
And that was a... I will say that was a tricky one,
because we did have MegaRitechuX and RitechuY,
but they were introduced a week after that event,
which had the Mewtwo one.
So, you were not tricked by that, though.
I wasn't.
You were locked in.
I play football every day.
Yeah, that's me.
It's beautiful, and I love to see you do indeed have two Squirtle, meaning you can use Aquajet whenever you feel like it.
Okie dokie.
Alright, folks, I believe it is time for a very important vote from our audience now.
This one is for what the next Pokémon will be.
And as we get deeper and deeper into this, into the endgame, any of these could be strong.
Do you choose a victory Pokémon, a disruptive Pokémon, or perhaps...
Let's go!
Perhaps!
No, what I need is a magic heart.
Whenever we go into a vote, everyone
just wants to see the magic heart.
And I respect it.
I really do.
I hate to see.
We love that fish.
Thank you all so much.
I feel comfortable locking that in.
That's a 79% to this next one will be for a magic heart.
But let's see if it's going to be tied up
with an actual question that you think
you can answer, Arlie.
Or if we're going to have a new fisherman's
Supreme over here with his eye.
It's possible.
It can happen.
Here's another multimedia question.
Pay attention.
We're going to play a clip.
How many eggs do you lose if you are shocked by a Voltorb?
Were you paying attention to the right thing?
That's the question.
Is it three, four, five, or six?
Arlie, buzzed in first.
Oh, no, I wasn't paying attention.
I will be guessing.
Surely the game isn't that mean.
Surely it's only A3, right?
Surely it's only A3.
The game's a little meaner than that.
Not three, it's four, five, or six.
That's far.
Tony, buzzed in, four, five, or six.
I am going to say five.
You are going to say five, and you would be correct.
That is how many you lose.
I can't be mad.
Which is pretty impressive.
Now, you have a full party, and you haven't used any of them.
That does mean you have to knock out
one of these Pokemon for a magic card, truly
splitting all of these fish amongst all of you.
We're never going to see this game in tennis,
but let's take a look.
If I impact this, no.
Unfortunately, it can't do it.
We've already caught the Pokemon.
That must leave.
I see.
We all must accept our choices in this life.
Which of these are going to go?
Execute must go.
We hardly knew ye.
Very cute.
Goodbye, Execute.
And welcome, Magikarp.
Oh, very, very strong leaderboards right here.
Again, we do have three victory Pokemon,
but only two unique ones over for Durag Dragon.
Tony, you have two unique, and then, party Arly, you have one.
So, still anyone's game?
Let's move on to our next question and another disruptive Pokemon.
And as a reminder, feel free to interrupt at any time
to use any of the Pokemon at your will.
Feel free.
Our next one's for a coughing.
I love coughing's song, so I hope someone uses it at some point.
It's smog.
It allows you to remove a random Pokemon
from another player's collection.
And this is a video game question.
In Pokemon, let's go Pikachu and Pokemon, let's go Eevee.
You can battle master trainers who specialize
in a specific species.
There are no master trainers for legendary Pokemon,
mythical Pokemon, and one other species.
Which Pokemon is it?
Oh, not quite yet.
We have to wait till after.
Is it Pikachu?
Is it Eevee?
Is it Ditto?
Or is it Lapras?
Oh, yeah, beat.
Okay, now we have an interrupt over here.
What would you like to do, Tony?
The stealing ability of Smog could be too strong
in Josiah's hands.
Okay.
So I would like to use my Charmander along with a ditto
to block Josiah from answering this question.
All right, okay.
But there is no possibility
to describe the power of the bond
that appeared in his hands.
Well, let's take a look.
That means we're using a ditto.
Let's see that ditto footage.
That's a real peppy one.
And then we immediately go into the Charmander.
Shall we see the Charmander?
Oh, this is pretty proven, Josiah.
I'm right there with you.
You truly, they're afraid of you.
This is anything that shows that you're a real heavy
competitor over here.
And that does mean you are blocking Josiah from answering.
So even though you buzzed in first,
that does mean it's up to Arley and Tony now.
I'm gonna read those questions again
and you will buzz in one more time.
Very well.
Is it Pikachu, Eevee, Ditto, or Lapras?
Okay, Arley buzzed in.
Oh, and interrupt as well, Arley.
May I ask the Twitch chat for help on this one?
You absolutely may.
We're gonna use that Porygon right now.
Chat, you are going to help her out,
or maybe not, who could say?
Let's see that, Porygon.
Please help me.
["Porygon"]
All right.
Everyone, please vote for which one you think it is,
and I will go ahead and relay the highest
percentage of the votes.
It is between Pikachu, Eevee, Ditto, and Lapras.
Again, this is for the one that no master trainers use.
Again, not a legendary, not a mythical.
Okay, all right, this one is a little bit stronger.
We have 68% for Ditto.
Okay, that's what I thought it was,
so that makes me feel better.
I feel confident then to answer C. Ditto.
C. Ditto!
Well done, audience, that is correct.
You are right, that does mean
the reason Ditto is excluded,
because you can only use transform,
it doesn't make sense.
But let's go ahead and see that leader board.
Arleigh, you do have the very powerful move.
Oh, an interruption.
Arleigh, what would you like to do?
I want his magic harp.
OK, now, here's, OK.
You are going to be able to disable one.
You won't be able to steal it from him.
Oh, shoot, OK.
Wait, wait, wait, hold on.
Here's the thing.
You still, Meowth is the one that allows you to steal.
Koffing just removes one at random.
So I don't get to keep it.
I made the same mistake.
Take his magic park away anyway.
I don't care.
We're going to.
Well, it's up to it is up to the fates.
It will go randomly.
But let's go ahead and see that coughing footage.
I'm so glad one of you used it.
It's my favorite song.
All right.
And you are which are you activating it against Tony
or against Josiah?
So against Josiah, even if it doesn't take the car,
but he has three victory points.
OK.
Let's see. It's random. Let's take a look at that leaderboard and see which one is disabled.
Oh, it could be. Oh, it was indeed the Magikarp leaving.
Okay, honestly, that does work out for him, but I'm actually happy to not see a carpet in this.
You know, it's all about the vibes, right? You're really here. We're building a story right now.
Can you see how much I'm being attacked?
I do not. I do not.
Now, I do have to say, he is the smartest competitor up here, and we have to take set to protect ourselves.
I believe on all of the dashboard here in the audience, you have something called Flare.
It allows you to show your support for which of these teams you are rooting for.
If you feel like it, feel free to throw up some Flare for which one you're voting for right now.
Who are you? We got some strong Arly support right here.
a bit of blue. We're gonna see if that ends up working out for
you. We're gonna. Move on to another question. This is for
another victory Pokémon. It's Pikachu and it's another
Pokémon center question, so I hope you are all ready for
another beautiful review what Pokemon is this review talking about there's
beauty in simplicity like this blank plush could that be talking about mute
metapod electrode or magneton oh a quick buzz in from Tony which of these four
now didn't work you are so close though it happened the same way Tony you did
get to say metapod and it's okay because that's not right it wasn't
It's one of the other three. Okay, Arly. It's your chance. What do you think it's gonna be?
Um, because it says simple, simplicity. I'm thinking maybe electrode. It's just a ball.
It does seem pretty simple, but that's not what it's talking about.
Oh, my goodness. This is a miracle.
Do you think it's mule, or do you think it's magneton? This is a tough one. Could be...
I
You think it's me and you would be correct
We try to warn you
But I look at that that is beauty and simplicity don't you think that's cute. Thank you so much for those beautiful
Very sparse words Darren. It was a beautiful review. I think it did a great job
But now we take a look at our leaderboard and as we see, Durag Dragon now has three unique victory Pokemon once that Pikachu is added.
It'll take a second. It's coming in. It'll be there we go.
That means that a Bulbasaur is all you need to win it all, Josiah.
How are you feeling right now?
Bro, I can't feel any type of way. Tony still got the drowsy on his side.
Yeah, all these got the got the ditto bro. I'm just gonna wait and see what happens
You see how he is very staunchly in the lead in a second like
I tried to warn you of this treachery. I tried to warn you
I do love that Tony came out hard immediately against you red dragon and then has been proven correct
Love to see that happen. It's it's great
But we are going to move on to our next question, which is for another ditto.
So let's see if you all can answer this Detective Pikachu question.
In Pokemon Detective Pikachu, after Pikachu is injured, which Pokemon does Tim Goodman
ask for help?
Is it A, Psyduck, B, Bulbasaur, C, Squirtle, or D, Mr. Mine?
buzz in from Josiah. Which of those four does Tim Goodman ask for help?
I want to say Mr. Mime.
Alright, you're saying Mr. Mime and that's not right. It's not Mr. Mime. He was not helpful in this.
Arleigh, which of those three left do you think it was?
I didn't have been my buddy, Bulbasaur B.
You're going with me, right?
Bulbasaur.
My friend?
And it was your buddy!
You was! Hey, you're team! Hey!
Oh, you're back! You're back!
You're back! You're back! You're back!
Now, shall we take a look at that leader book?
Now, I have a feeling I know what that interrupt is for, Arlie.
Could I be correct?
I would love to transform both of my dittos into magic carpet.
I can do that!
Alright, we're just gonna see.
Let's see that ditto, please.
This ditto footage.
I absolutely love it when the plan comes together.
That ditto is going, well, both of those ditto
will be transforming into Magikarp.
And as we look at that leaderboard,
what's this?
Could it potentially be a special encounter?
We have three Magikarp here.
Why don't we see that splash?
Oh, no!
Oh, thank you!
Oh, no!
Gyarados, Shiny Magikarp, and the real big Magikarp.
These are the three different Pokémon that could be used for this one-time effect.
Instead of them being added to your collection, it's immediately going to happen,
and then those Magikarp will swim away into the stream.
So, we'll go ahead and see
See if we have the golden magic harp, the big magic harp, or the Gyarados.
It's up to fate!
Let's see which one it is, shall we?
Woo!
Oh!
That's a rough one.
You have Gyarados's Thrash, which means you are allowed to remove a Pokemon from
each of the other player's collection and you get to choose which Pokemon it is, Arley,
what would you like to remove from Tony?
Remember our friendship.
Yes, we are friends.
We are friends.
What did you want to use that drowsy for again?
Oh, you can take it.
Okay, I'll take your drowsy.
All right, you can take it.
All right, we are removing the drowsy and that means you will remove one of these
four victory Pokemon.
Pokemon which one do you think you're gonna remove? I will definitely let him keep his little squirtle
That's very kind of you. Um, I know you look squirrel so much. I'm gonna take away
your
The other squirrels surely cuz I'm gonna take away your charm and
Very very
What's happening
You see, the mind games are up high here.
This is, his reign of tyranny was so strong
that it took a giant Gyarados to keep him in check.
And he's still winning!
Tony, I do want to point out
that you keep saying this reign of tyranny.
Yes. When you started the reign of tyranny,
there was no tyranny yet.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
It was not the start of the gigas pirate.
This is a very intelligent man.
Okay, this is a very intelligent man.
I can tell, I can feel his brainwane.
I understand, I understand,
All right, folks, well, that was a real shakeup.
And honestly, working for the Magic Cart
worked out really well for your arm.
I feel like I won.
That's all I wanted to do.
Amazing.
Oh, that's awesome.
But you are closer now to winning.
So let's see how this continues on.
It was actually a very good choice
that you removed the Charmander,
because our next question is for a Bulbasaur.
It would have been a game point here.
But now it's up to anyone at this point.
So, again, Sweet Sent allows you to select one of three Pokemon to be attached to the next question.
Very strong in this endgame.
But this is a TCG question.
Go ahead.
Tony is ready.
Which Pokemon has a holographic card in base set, but its evolution didn't get a card until the Jungle Expansion?
Is it Clefairy, Polyworld, Kadabra, or Pikachu?
Oh, we're waiting. This is a stumper. No one's but okay. Arlie buzzed in first.
And I'm on as well since I don't know it. I am going to guess B, B poly world?
You're gonna guess B poly world, which is incorrect. Leaving it up to I fairy the Gabbra.
Yes. All right, Josiah, which of the last three do you think it was?
You think it was Clefairy and you're correct.
Whoo!
So, again, very good move for moving the Charmander.
That would have been it right there, but incredible work.
The game would have been over. We would have all had to go home.
You see where she protected you from?
Well, I'm taking a look at this leaderboard.
We once again have Josiah and the lead du-rag dragon
dragon has three unique ones just looking for that charmander that was so
viciously stolen from you. We'll move on to our next question which is for my
favorite little stinker, Meowth. That's right, it's Thief which allows you to
feel any Pokemon from another player's collection of very very strong move
but this one is time for our second mystery gift. You should have another
box under there. Again, we are definitely looking out to make sure that you are trustworthy
and not looking, okay? Take off those glasses, drop on that, uh, that egg, beautiful Togapi.
It really works out great. I think it's good that it has dual use there. All right, all
of you, please put your hands on top of the box and begin in three, two, one, go!
Oh, goodness.
Buzz Gengar
Okay, Tony you nailed it that was the fastest I have ever seen would you like to try to say what?
Mines dragon man
That is impressive. It is actually acting but you were close and then Arley. Would you like to guess?
What is this?
What's going on here?
Honestly, Arly, you are correct.
It is one of the bells.
I cannot believe that you have gotten two of these
very nasty subpoins and gas types.
But, Tony, unbelievable.
In my community there's this word called hyper fixation.
It works to my favor sometimes.
It works out, Gengar.
It worked out for you.
As we take a look at this leaderboard, that does indeed mean that, Tony, you have gained
another Pokemon, and that Pokemon is Mioff, meaning at any point, you can interrupt and
steal another Pokemon.
I wonder whose Pokemon might be still there.
I wonder.
We'll see.
how it goes because our next question is for another victory.
Pokemon, this one is for another Squirtle.
So maybe you could just collect Squirtles over there, Josiah.
Let's see.
It is another Pokemon XP question.
Did you enjoy yourself this weekend?
Enough is really what this trivia is all about.
Which Pokemon is the focus of the sneak peek trailer
for the Pokemon Tales, the Misadventures of Surfetched
and Pichu?
Is it A, Surfetched, B, Wooloo, C, Pichu, or D, Rookie D?
And this is a tricky question, because it was the Sneak Peek trailer.
Oh, Josiah, which of these four?
I feel like in the essence of this British kind of show, it would be a Wooloo.
You're going with your, your home not, you're really trusting it.
You flew all the way over here.
Please.
You are correct it wasn't Wooloo.
You nailed it.
And Galloway loves their sheep.
It's really important.
Yeah, Galarians love sheep.
Yeah, it's very, very important.
That does mean Josiah, you are number one Squirtle fan.
Yeah.
What did I say?
Look at that!
You may have preferred to get a Charmander at the beginning,
but that one got out of there.
Who cares? You're just a Squirtle guy.
Yeah.
I just want to shout out to my boy,
Jen, one of our big man blastoids, you know?
Yeah.
It's beautiful.
It's beautiful, but that means we've got some yeah now aqua jet does mean you can hop in front of anyone at any point
And you'll still have all of your squirtles. So it's still good. Let's move on
Yes, if I still had a drowsy and I blocked the one-time effect of Pokemon
Would it work on all three squirtles or just one just one so the other two would still be useful, okay?
But I do I do notice that you are asking a question about one competitor in particular
I am trying to protect us.
I'm tearing.
Well, let's see how good you are at that because our next question is for a Charmin.
It could all come down to this. Let's see how it goes.
We have ourselves another multimedia question.
Keep those eyes peeled as we play this clip.
That is a very challenging one what how many how many Pikachu are there in I
believe let me double check with production it was that final screen we
saw correct how many more how many not how much oh sorry sorry it's not how
It's how many more Pikachu there are than there are Eevee, so you have to do a little arithmetic
We're giving you a math there was an Eevee on the screen
I didn't even see the Eevee. Let's see if it works out for you if you guess is it 12 10 8 or 4
All right, Arlie buzzed in first how many more Pikachu were there was it's either
I think why I won't say I'd be 10
You're going with B 10, which is incorrect. It was not 10. All right, Josiah
12 8 or 4 12 you're going with 12 and
You're not right. It was not 12 more leaving it with 8 and 4 for you, Tony. I
Didn't even see any easy on
Where was he be on the screen right in the center
All right, we're gonna say C8 and cross my fingers.
I'm gonna go with C8, and it's gonna work out for you.
No, no, no, no!
C8, no, no, no!
Incredible.
Let's take a look.
Yeah.
All right, let's take a look at that leaderboard.
You are gonna have to remove one of these Pokemon, but I am actually hearing at this
point in time, we are running out of time, which means we are gonna have to go to
a very special question next.
Oh.
A one-hit KO question.
Oh.
At this point, it's anyone's game.
Yeah, all right.
We've made it to the end.
Unfortunately, Ziya did not get the Charmander
because he got an interrupt from Tony.
Tony, what would you like to do?
I want just Ziya's Bulbasaur.
Just for fun.
Yeah, just for fun.
Thank you, man.
Production.
Thank you.
I mean, you're going to take it.
OK, before we do that, you do have to add a Charmander
to your collection.
You replace the ditto that is the Charmander?
Yes.
OK, we are replacing that ditto that
was used to be a Charmander with a full Charmander.
And that does mean just because we want to see the clip.
Can we see Meowth, please?
I want to hear that song.
I think it's great.
[? ? ?]
All right.
And that does mean that you can steal the Bulbasaur
from Durag Dragon right now, Tony.
So at our leaderboard, before we move in,
this is truly just an aura farming moment, I think.
You're just doing it because you can.
And I think that that's beautiful.
That does mean that now Tony has a Bulbasaur.
You're going to have to replace another Pokemon
in order to see it.
The Magikarp can go.
He served his purpose.
Goodbye, Magikarp.
Hello, Bulbasaur.
At the end, that does mean that you do have three.
But that doesn't mean anything,
because we're going into an all-in-one-hit KO question.
So unfortunately, we are going to move into that,
but before we do, I would love to just take,
just please humor me,
I'd love to get a picture with all three of you right now,
shall we?
And while we have this beautiful audience,
I'm gonna get a selfie, please everyone,
I'm gonna make it as wide as possible
to see all of us take a look over here,
three, two, one.
A beautiful, great, all right, that was for me,
that was just for me.
And that means we are moving into the final question.
The one that decides it all.
It is a one hit KO question.
No, not that one.
Not again.
We're not doing that one, don't worry.
We're not doing how many more Pikachu there are.
But let me double check.
Count it up, count it up.
We don't want to do math here.
It's been a long weekend.
All of our brains are fried.
This next question is an animation question.
OK.
Which of the following is a move that Ashes Pikachu has never known?
This is a very challenging one.
Which of these has Ashes Pikachu never known?
Is it A, double edge, B, Thunder Wave, C, Agility, or DH?
There! Oh, an interruption from Duregg Dragon.
You just want to say, hey?
Because you can't use any of your moves right now.
Oh, okay, you have to say, hey.
You wanted to, I know what you wanted to say.
I was just saying, hey.
Wait, are we allowed to?
Producers, is that true?
Oh, producers, I'm glad to hear that.
You can interrupt right now.
I can.
You can use all three of those Squirtle Cards.
I can use my Squirtle Cards.
It's, you have worked so hard.
Josiah, it's only right. Let's see that Aquajet footage.
Did you save it for the right time, Josiah?
That does mean you jump ahead and you get first guess on this question.
Which of these moves? Double Edge, Thunder Wave, Agility, or Lear?
Listen before I answer yes, there is no way my goat would ever use this move. Okay, okay
Okay, big words
I'm gonna go with D
Yeah, you're gonna go with D leader
But Pikachu does
That's right!
Oh my God!
Tony, it's your option.
I'm gonna say B Thunder Wave.
You're gonna go with B Thunder Wave,
and you would be correct!
Wow!
Incredible!
Good goal!
Amazing, and with that successful answer,
Tony Weaver Jr.
is the winner of the Pokemon XT!
Come on XT, you gotta catch the ball!
Game's done!
Thank you.
Beautiful, you got a tonguey deep breath.
Some words for your adoring fans.
Please, they've all rooted for you.
I like to think that we all won.
We got to see a Gyarados, okay?
And I love you.
It's all been smoothed over.
And with that, Trainers,
it is the end of our game today.
Thank you all so much for coming out and hanging out with us and thank you on Twitch.
Thank you our amazing contestants.
And remember, if you'd like, go ahead and grab some stickers on your way out.
Don't leave them in the convention center.
Bring them, put them on your luggage.
But we've got some Pokemon.
Gotta catch them all, game show stickers for you as you leave.
And can we also get a huge round of applause for our amazing production staff?
We would love to hear from you about your experience with this game show.
You should have on your dashboard just a little answer if you'd like to throw in there.
And for our Twitch please use hashtag Pokemon Game Show.
We'll be sure to take a look.
And that is our end of both this game show and Pokemon XP.
Thank you all so much for coming out.
Goodbye, Durett Dragon. Goodbye, Tony Weaver, Jr.
Goodbye, Party Arly.
And a big smelly elator from me, Ryan and David Gilbert.
Thank you so much for coming out.
Have a great night.
Goodbye, everybody.
It's been so much fun.
Oh!
It's been so great.
Bye!
Welcome back to Pokemon XP coming to you live from Rayquaza Road.
I am Anna joined by all our hosts, Rachel Glitter and Joshua.
The Gotta Catch Them All game show, Rachel, that last question, I would love for you
to reenact what you said when we saw the options of what Pikachu would never use.
and D-Rag Dragon obviously knows Pokemon very well and and this was a thing that I
thought when he said it because it sounded so true Pikachu would never but
then my brain goes yeah and it looks like
we've all seen this Pikachu gift so I totally understand my forget it was
Leer but came roaring back to me you remember too right? As soon as you did it I was like I know
exactly what you were talking about and now I'm going to re-remember and
never forget it. It's the power of the mean. It sticks with you. I just thought the internet
should have the opportunity to have that gift as well. Oh, that Rachel just... It was actually
perfect to be fair. It keeps on gifting. Yeah, any other reactions from the game show? Givable
ones, please? I think the audience was definitely having a great time. Fantastic hosting.
And even I was taking some notes of going deeper into the lore of Pokémon. So it
was great. I was going to say, I think it's just... It was a perfect representation
of the vibe of the weekend. It was so much fun and they were all there to try to best
each other on their Pokemon knowledge in the most enjoyable and entertaining way.
Yes, absolutely. And like, no shade when you're wrong.
Right, exactly.
There's way too much to know, way too many Pokemon to know everything about. So I think
that's cool when we're able to just celebrate that and show that it's cool to...
You teach me and I teach you.
Did you laugh? I promised you guys would laugh.
Yes, yes.
for sure. Now speaking of play, I think you went down to the Pokemon Play Lab.
I did, I did. Yeah, so we're gonna talk to a number of different people and for
folks that maybe haven't really understood the mechanics yet of the
trading card game. They have a lot of different ways for people to be able to
test it out to learn the mechanics and they have really really big cards there
as well which creates great representation for what the artwork looks
like in a blown-up form. It was really cool to see a lot of people
come up to us and want to know more about Pokemon and what we're doing at
Pokemon XP. So a big shout out to all those folks that came by and said hi and
again just really feeling the positivity all weekend long. And I believe we have a
video of your visit, yeah? We do, we do. Let's go ahead and check it out.
That looks like so much fun, did you have fun down there?
I did, and to showcase what we had down there
for folks ready to learn the games a little bit better,
I just wanted to show some of the artwork here.
And, you know, when we got to see a lot of the different
types of artwork displayed throughout the entire weekend,
it's a little bit nicer to have it blown up.
Yeah, that's really cool.
Wait, do you have lots of those?
I have a couple of them.
Do you have a full deck?
This is playable and I can read it.
Oh yeah, yeah.
Right to the end.
I do not have a full deck,
but we'll go through the cards that we have here.
Let me ask her out of there.
All right.
Oh, Florida got to it.
Do you have the full line, the full evolutionary line?
Yeah, that's pretty nice.
That's pretty nice to read too.
Okay, all right.
With the flowers.
And the energy.
You need the energy to work with us.
Okay, for each Chinese in here.
Our solution.
Everything Josh has learned about going through cars.
I know, I love this.
I love this.
You guys are such great teachers.
What am I?
Queen.
Oh, my queen.
Okay, and that's everything within the deck itself.
Wow, cool.
Just a really nice way for folks to learn.
And also, I wanted to showcase this, so there is a demo deck right here, so you can enjoy
one of these if you stop by Pokemon Play Lab, and you get one of these buttons.
Oh, you graduated!
Oh, congratulations!
Thank you very much.
You should be very proud.
Who's a DPA?
I will.
Um, good enough.
That's what it was.
But a huge thank you to everybody that was down at Pokemon Play Lab.
Again, another wonderful experience across all the different wonderful experiences that
we have seen, heard, and we got to see as well to go check out.
And I can't even believe it's the end of Day 3, folks, and we're coming down to the
wire to the end.
I know.
And there's been so many things to see, like you said.
And we've really enjoyed seeing what you have been up to using the hashtag Pokemon
XP.
Let's check just a few more messages and posts from you.
I'd love to see what you've been up to.
First of all, TGL 1992, just killing time, sitting and vibing at Pokemon World and Pokemon
XP before I leave the city in a few hours.
Just wanted to say how amazing and awesome this weekend was.
I had so much fun and took so many photos and videos, what a time to be a Pokemon fan.
That what a time to be a Pokemon fan is such a good encapsulation of how I feel about
this weekend.
You know, people are always like, I maybe I don't know that much about Pokemon, Rachel,
you're really into Pokemon.
Like there's never been a better time to get involved.
It's never been, you know, so many windows to walk through.
Or doors, even.
You can walk through windows if you want to, you know, do your own thing.
Alright, any more posts we can see from the hashtag Pokemon XP?
Great, look at this, BRC DevGee, last day of Pokemon XP and there's still so much to
do.
Attendees can earn special prizes at the different event activations plus they can
try out recent titles like Pokemon Champions.
Ooh, the photo too. I like that. That's kind of our job. They're summarizing it for us.
They took such a nice photo that I was just like, oh, and they put a logo up.
No, this is the view from the top of the escalators heading on down into the expo floor right beneath
Requizer Road and you can capture it here.
I believe that's the side of the 30 celebrations booth. Is that right?
Yes, no, no, no, you're correct. Okay, cool.
They go down and then to the left and it's right there.
Yeah, yeah, I love that one. So if you have time before things close, go down
check it out. Here's C3Pengie in my element, Pokemon XP. Aw, with the, so cute. That is
so adorable. I feel like all of us have posed with favorite Pokemon we found around the
convention this weekend, yeah? Absolutely. Aw, with the Pokemon Champions in the back.
That kid looking so cute. Alright, Balta says, for the first time I did cosplay
outside of my house, cosplay of Sabrina in Canto. Aw, so cool. What the hell?
This is a perfect Sabrina! I'm so happy to see it! Do you remember that episode when her soul was caught in the dark soul?
Actually, now that you say it, yes.
Oh, the VIP!
Awww, epically Dave says we got to meet our favorite OG Pokémon this weekend and my heart smiled so large seeing my husband get excited at Pokémon XP.
He loves Lapras!
Oh my gosh.
Lapras saw me and nodded at me and that's everything I've wanted in my entire life.
Yeah, that was a big moment. I saw that happen. It was amazing. All right, Rachino says an
unforgettable experience. I'll see you next time, Trainers, Pokemon XP, hashtag Pokemon
Worlds. Where's that?
It's so cute. Look at the mask over Pikachu's face. Such a good photo stop. I'm never
forget that opening video with the space adventures. AndresL1997 says
leaving Pokemon XP one last time. I won't ever forget this event. It has to be my
favorite convention I've ever attended.
Yeah, yeah. Easy same. I don't know about the convention. Sorry guys, not
remember this. No, it's it's true. It's amazing with the gas in the background.
Looks like it was taken down by the wharf's wharf stage too. Yeah. All right.
and PancakeXCat had so much fun at Pokemon XP and Worlds this weekend with CodeStar.
It was so much fun to celebrate Pokemon and meet so many other fans.
And right next to the Umbreon on the rings of the planet, one of my favorite motifs from this week.
I need a picture there.
Yeah, where's that?
I heard it.
I haven't gone past that one either.
I know.
So many cool photos.
Yeah.
The photo ops are amazing.
Alright looks like we have one last thing to check in on and that is the Rayquaza build
We've been watching with baited breath. Will they finish the giant Rayquaza?
Gorgeous oh and a mini right next to it too. I didn't know that example
Yeah, it was it was you they just put them stacked right next to each other. It's kind of like it almost looks like a baby
You can't tell you can't erase that ever again.
This is month one, this is month two.
We got to do exactly what they're doing and get a picture in front of it.
Look at the, I don't know, are these horns that Rikweza has? Ears?
Whatever those protrusions at the top of Rikweza's head are,
I'm amazed how they're constructed out of Lego.
So much care went into this and so much effort from so many attendees.
Yes.
This was attendees assembling it piece by piece, handing it to the builders.
Yeah, and so this is not just an act of love from a couple of Lego builders
This is the attendees a literal community effort to build the Rayquaza on Rayquaza road
It looks fantastic
We were maybe a little worried on that first day where we were not seeing you know
There was a lot of base to build for that Rayquaza, but they really told it out strong foundations
You can build up from there. That's a good lesson learned. That is so true. Very Pokemon too
All right, and I'm really excited about this next video because I have heard all about the Pikachu dance
That has been going on and we have not gone to see it because it's often been happening behind us or on a stage
That we're not at so we have a video of Pikachu dance. Let's check it out
Oh
I
What joy! What joy it brings us! We were yelling Pikachu too.
Oh yeah, we all were.
Okay, but when the jiggle? A little pause in jiggle.
I didn't know about the dream I had to be a dancer with Pikachu in Pikachu Dance, but
I would like to apply. Please let me know where I may audition. I'm very serious
about this I'm not joking I can do a double pirouette please call me I am ready
I am so excited oh my gosh to work with the Pikachu to I know four of them it's
a lofty goal I know but maybe maybe Pikachu will let me audition that was
that was incredible I I hate to say this no I'm not gonna listen I don't
want to see you never say it's not true but just stay here all day luckily
we have a few moments. And with those moments, what I'd like to ask you is, what was your
favorite moment? Or, because I think picking a favorite, I hate favorites. It's really
too hard for me when there's so much good happening. But one of your favorite moments,
and it doesn't have to be the overall impressions. We're going to talk about that in a second.
Sure, sure.
Just like a moment that's going to stick with you that you really loved over this
event.
I'll go first.
Yes. That was one.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Evolutions is so good in the world of cosplay and so good in the world of creation.
And so to be up at the workshops today and to really feel the joy of Pokemon in arts and crafts
was absolutely fantastic and something I was really surprised by today.
I thought I had seen it all, but there's another section at Pokemon XP that I didn't even know existed.
I didn't even think I'd be interested in, but guess what? I loved it.
So that was one of my favorite moments today.
Nice. Nice. Good one. All right.
Favorite moment.
I think one of my favorite moments has to be
getting to go build today.
The Lego Pokeball with all of you.
Is this favorites just today or favorite overall?
I mean, over all, I mean, no, it doesn't have to be favorite.
Does that mean one of my favorite moments from the entire weekend
It was when we finally got to all four go build LEGO Pokéballs together.
Even if we made it a little bit of a challenge, we got to do the activity together.
We were all, and by all, I'm including all of you, equally as obsessed with the LEGOs
I was.
Yes, yes, of course.
So then we got to finally, I was looking for that Pokéball everywhere, trying to
figure out how to get it, and then we got to go enjoy that together.
That's all I needed.
And it was a chaotic group experience.
Yes.
Together was really a factor in there.
little buckets and we had to share and call who we needed and I as soon as we
did it I was jealous of everyone else who'd been aware of it all week and I was like this
must have been so fun! It was really fun how collaborative it was. Yeah. Yeah.
All right Rachel, something a moment that's gonna stick with you.
Production, do we have tissues on hand? I just want to double check ahead of time.
You can take it. Here, my Corbaud jacket is ready for you. Thank you.
the people. Tell me more. No. That's why I'm saying just the favorite, because look,
we're gonna talk about like what's gonna stick with you overall as like impressions of the
event in a second when we will all cry. Before that, just a fun thing that you did. Rachel,
hold it together! You're gonna say all of us off camera. No. Okay, how about how about when
When you went to the 30 Years of Pokemon Museum.
Yes, because everything that Pokemon is is so big at this event and when you go to the
History Museum you see there's been going on for 30 years and you are hit with this time
space distortion and suddenly you're both 10 and 38 and everything's amazing.
So, thank you Pokemon.
That's really cool.
Yeah, no I didn't take it.
I'm not looking at you anymore.
Aren't you full of yourself?
Stop it.
I'm not.
No.
Okay, I will really calmly and coolly pick a favorite moment that's gonna stick with me.
One of the visits that I got to do, I didn't get to do so many visits as you guys did, but
one of them was that I got to go to the 30th celebration booth.
I feel like I've brought it up a million times, but getting to walk into something
that felt like an art museum, giving that much reverence to TCG card art, something
that like I've only gotten more and more into over the past few years and has brought
me some really amazing friends and some really amazing confidence.
Dang it, which of us is not my blame Pokemon here, very thoroughly.
Pokemon has instilled so many emotions, give me so many beautiful moments.
Coming together in an event like this, community, you've made us so so proud with how wonderful
you have done all weekend long and everything you've done for each other.
That's really what does it.
I was trying to just like keep us on the surface for a minute, but fine, let's
go there.
about like the thing you're leaving with the thing you want to leave the
community with as we walk away from Pokemon XP what is really laying on
your heart as we say goodbye winding the clocks back when I was first introduced
to this little guy and to really experience the joy of playing role
playing games back in the day and how Pokemon is able to capture the joy of
a summer day going out and catching bugs and being involved in the natural
world around you and how they were able to capture that and capture the
social engagement of video games and the evolution of that through the animated
show, through the films, through the trading card game and through multiple
iterations and we got to see a number of different ways that these incredible
characters are going to be expressed through film and animation and even more
games and more trading cards. The experiences that I had when I ripped
my first card pack and pulled my first ever shiny Alakazam and I remember the
staff at the gaming store that I picked it up I was like oh there must be
something special about you and that always stuck with me and for me
coming to this event I'm an old 151 OG you know for me new was always my
favorite new too was a little bit intimidating and to feel those same
feeling seeing these Pokemon here and to see these young kids with their
families experiencing that for the first time and the huge amount of joy and
artistry and expression of love and how these characters have stuck with us for
so long and what they represent and how we had so many different favorite
Pokemon here at the desk was absolutely incredible and ultimately I couldn't
think of anyone else better to share it with. Glitter, Rachel, Anna, you are
incredible at your jobs. You made me feel so welcome. The community has made myself and
maybe others that needed to catch up to Pokemon feel so welcome. And also your fashion is
out of this world. I'm phenomenal. So I have to say this is one of my favorite events
of all time. And I honestly feel we're only getting started. I could not think of a
better way to experience Pokemon, but at Pokemon XP.
Let's go down the line, Glitter, it's your turn.
Okay, I'm going to try really hard not to cry.
Is that working?
Yeah, it is.
Immediately it feels.
Obviously coming into this as a new person, I was really, really nervous.
I think, obviously I've loved Pokemon my whole life,
but I think being the new person in a community is a little bit scary,
and you never know how you're going to be received by anybody.
And the community has been so fantastic.
Everybody has been so kind, whether it's Twitch chat,
chat, or you guys just being able to work with you on the desk and being so supportive.
I never dreamed that I'd be able to work with a company like Pokemon, and having this be
my first event ever is actually insane.
This is like the best event to have this be my first event, and I just, I'm filled
with so much gratitude and so much joy for being able to be involved in all of this.
I'm so appreciative.
Thank you for that.
Thanks production.
And you guys are just the best, and you've made me feel so welcome the whole time, and
just thank you to everybody both behind the scenes and from the community for just making
this such an amazing weekend for me.
I don't think there can be a better testament to what Pokemon can do than looking at what
it has done to the four of us in just three days.
I knew how amazing Pokemon in its community was, and I was not prepared.
single interaction I had walking Rayquaza Road, meeting trainers, stopping him and being like,
your cosplay's amazing! And they would stop in their tracks, turn around and say,
thank you so much! I actually, I brought something, I wanted to give this out to trainers.
He gave me a small magnet, I gave him one of my trainer cards, and we're friends now. We,
we had an interaction that was more than any interaction you're gonna have outside of Pokemon
XP. But, as we go out into the world, I really hope that the Pokemon trainers here take that
responsibility to be that example, to be the very best, and take that with him,
Monday and Tuesday and every day onward, until we get to come back and do this again.
What's on my heart? I've been doing this, this is my 11th year, coming to host
Pokemon Worlds and now Pokemon XP, and what Pokemon XP has added to that for
me. I've always, coming in way back then and almost every year, I'm really nervous.
You know, I want to show up and I want to do Pokemon Justice and I want to be
exactly what the community needs and I want to show up giving what the
community needs in order to have the best experience possible. And I last year
thought I couldn't top it because I got to show up not only doing that but
also dancing and singing which are so important to me and I felt like I
I got to speak to so many people to whom that was important, and I felt myself growing in confidence that I could show up as me.
And this year, what Pokemon XP has told me is you can show up in your entirety, you can show up with all of you,
you can show up and you can talk about how you love dressing like Pokemon Trainers,
and you can show up with glue and felt, and that's important to people,
and you can show up not knowing every entry to the Pokedex.
Like you don't have to know everything because the point is that we're all here to talk about it and teach each other and
That has been proven by every guest we had come up here every single one had unique perspectives and unique things that they were
adding to and being inspired by in Pokemon that all of the metaphors that people brought up about
growth and artistry and creativity
It just made me feel very
free to be myself in this community. And I hope that that's what it did for you too,
as we were here covering Pokemon XP. And I hope that you see these tears as what they
are, which I think, I don't want to speak for all of you, but I think what it is is this
feeling of being seen and of being released to show joy. I think all of us in an epicenter
of joy together. It's been it's been some unprecedented times you know and showing up to get to celebrate
together like this has been really healing for me. Hey I want to say thank you to Anna for
guiding this test through XP for bringing that 11 years of experience and the 15 years of hosting
and broadcast that we've done together to the most important IP and the most important
universe and the most important community that I can imagine. I think it is an amazing
use of your skills, of all our skills and I'm so grateful for Pokemon for allowing us
to do this.
Yeah, me too. Before we say our goodbyes and go to closing ceremony, which by the way,
this is the first time I've ever gotten to go to a closing ceremony as a spectator.
I'm very excited. Gabby Durden is over there doing the job that I've gotten to do before.
I'm so excited for her, I'm excited to watch her do that,
I'm excited to see what we find out.
But before we do that, before we say goodbye,
Casual, where can people find you?
What should they look for from you?
Everybody can find me on all the socials,
Mr. Joshua Gray, and I wanna say a huge thank you
to all the interactions, both here and digitally.
And I'd like to say a huge thank you
to production and all the staff.
We couldn't have done this without you.
So thank you, everyone, for a phenomenal time.
And I'll see you online.
What about you, Glitter?
For me, Glitter Explosion on everything.
No E in the explosion.
Twitch, Insta, everything for social media.
I mean, I create content.
I work in a lot of video games.
And now I get to very proudly say
that I work with Pokemon.
Rachel, you can find me online at Seltzer Please
on social media.
And you can find me anywhere.
They let me get close to Pokemon.
is my favorite thing in the whole world
and this weekend has proven exactly why.
I love you so much.
I love you too, Anna.
You can find me at Anna Prosser everywhere
that you get your social media.
I post a lot of content about a lot of different things
but inspired by last year,
I just released my first original song
that was inspired by Pokemon Legends ZA.
So I hope you listen to it.
I hope you enjoy it.
And I hope that you will talk to us about Pokemon
as we spend the next few weeks just thinking about everything
that we've gotten to do here
and re-watching all of the videos.
So speaking of those videos,
you don't know how many people have to work behind the scenes
to make something like this work.
So please send your good energy
and your thanks to everyone who is behind these cameras
and in our ears.
Thank you so much for everything you've done.
And now let's go watch some more artistry of that type
at the closing ceremony.
Stay tuned, don't go anywhere, see you soon!
Bye, thank you for everything.
Hey, everybody, we are here at Requizer Road where 50,000 people from around the world
are ready to celebrate 30 years of Pokemon.
Let's go ahead and check it out.
I
Oh
I
Oh
I
Oh
I
Oh
I
I'm not afraid of anything that's stuck in my hand
All night, smooth sleep, just shy of the plan
This is our time right now
Have no fear, no doubt
No, we won't back down
We could be champions
Side by side
We'll be the star of the world
We can go up high
We're never so low
Never so low
We could be champions
Yes, we're gonna take it all
We're gonna win
This is going to be the first time we've had it before
We could be every step, every turn
It would carry the weight
I'm, I'm, I'm
I'm getting stronger
I feel better when I'm big
Yeah, yeah
This is our time
Right now, hell don't feel no doubt
No we won't back down
We gonna be champions
Side by side, we'll be on top of the road
Thinkin' from up under, down on the ground
Down on the ground
We're champions
Shout it out
Oh, oh, we are
We are the ones that better remember
Remember
We are, we are, we are
We're gonna rise together
Together
We are, we are, we are
The ones that better remember
Remember
We are the real champions
We hold our minds together
Together
Champions
So much so we'll be on top of all
We can go up and down the cuckoo
Get out of the hell
Oh, oh, oh, oh
We can be champions
Yes, you're nothing but a promise
We are free to go anywhere that goes
We're free to go
We can be, we can be, we can be
We can be champions
We can be, we can be
We can be champions
We can be, we can be
We can be champions
I'll get my best hand, don't have a doubt about the outcome
Shouts when you have some money
And don't know how to put my mind to it
I'll get my best hand, don't have a doubt about the outcome
Shouts when you have some money
And oh, I know how to put my mind to the test
And I've got this feeling I'll make it last without a reason
Show up every season, and maybe I'll win this time
Come on, come on, get on your team, come on!
We're all on the line, and nobody can look the way
Don't even ask me why, I'm doing it for the love of the game
Run and go for a ride
Never got to play
You know I'm not gonna stay
I'm doing fine
Another of the days
We're good to keep them fixed on the place
Who knows just when the sun's gonna rise
Another horizon
When an eternal ice up will shine
A miracle will shine
Oh, oh, oh
You know I'm not giving my all
Cause even when we trip, we don't fall
We always search for the call
And baby, no jerking, we don't win
Baby, this time I'm gonna let this shoulder
Put it all on the line
You'll never give up the fight
Don't you ask me what I'm doing for the love of this game
Yeah, I'm not born to be
Never born to be
No, I can't obey
I'm doing all the love I need
I'm getting back on how far we've grown
We've got a very close-and-good, close-and-good ocean
Yeah, I'm not a dear Lord, I'm not a good Lord
Tell me why you can't find me, find me, find me, find me, find me
I'm putting all your life, I'm never gonna survive
Don't even ask me why I do it for the love of the past
Don't do it for me, never pull it out the way
No, I'm not happy, baby
I do it for the love of the game
I want to be the very best
No one ever was
To catch them is my own test
To train them is my goal
I will travel across the land
I'm the same as everyone
It's broken on but you understand
I will dance inside
I can't stop, I can't stop
And now it's my destiny
You can't stop
Oh, you never stop
In the world of the most beautiful
You can't stop
I can't stop
You teach me and I teach you
I can't stop
Catch a ball!
I'm gonna catch a ball!
Catch a ball!
I'm gonna catch a ball!
I'm gonna challenge a long way
Courage and I don't care
I won't battle everyday
To make my life away
Cause at these times
There's no way to try
I know who will be my life
It's always been my dream
Who will be my life
It's always been my dream
Can you tell me what I love to be?
Who will be my life
Oh, you are a strange
Who will be my life
The courage will pass through
In the teachment, I teach you
Gonna catch up more
Gotta catch up more
Oh, gotta catch up more
Gotta catch up more
I'm not a good boy, I'm a bad boy
I'm a good boy, I'm a bad boy
What you like, I catch it on the floor
The moment's my destiny
I
Now that's what I'm talking about!
One more time for our dancers orchestra
our choir
Pokemon and
Lauren already
You are so wonderful, I'm all taken here anyway. You're welcome. So
This is how a community comes together.
And if anyone knows how to do it, it's the Pokemon community.
As we continue with our celebration, it is important for us to take a moment to recognize what brought us all here.
No matter where you journeyed from, at some point in our lives, we all fell in love with Pokemon.
And that shared affection brought us here under one roof to celebrate, compete, and support
one another in the way only trainers can.
And that is something we should truly cherish.
This community is truly remarkable.
And I'd love it if you could join me in thanking all of the people that make it a bet like this possible.
So please, give a wonderful thank you to our judges, developers, production-proof partners.
And of course, the trainers that put everything they had on the biggest stage Pokémon has to offer.
We've witnessed breathtaking competition.
We've soaked in a captivating performance.
And now, friends, let's get loud.
Stop your feet.
Put your hands together.
Make some noise and give your warmest welcome of the weekend to the president and CEO
of the Pokemon Company.
Mr. Sunitazu Ishihara!
Thank you very much!
Happy New Year to all the world champions!
Congratulations to all of our new Pokemon World Champions.
The final matches were incredible to watch.
Once again,
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all of the staff
that helped make this incredible event possible.
And now, I would like to share the latest Pokemon news with you all.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Pokemon Go and since its release in 2016,
2016 many Pokemon and features have been added to the game and of course that evolution will continue into the future
Let's take a look
And as you just saw, for the first time in Pokemon Go,
Mega-Vault Pokemon will be eligible to compete in the Go
Battle Line.
So I'm really excited to see what new strategies will emerge,
as trainers battle with their friends and rivals alike.
And I hope you'll discover your own unique team
combinations and battleshipping.
Mega Evolved Pokemon will become available in the go battle beginning with the go fast mega finale.
So please jump in and experience these new features and enjoy yourselves.
and the Armored Mutual will be included.
Please join us.
And next weekend's event will also mark the return of Armored Mutual for the first time in six years.
Please look forward to that as well.
And to all the trainers joining us here in San Francisco, following this closing ceremony, special mega raids will be taking place throughout the city.
we hope to continue to enjoy raids after the show and look forward to the
special encounters that await you the new West mega-head Pokemon
next I'd like to share news about the Pokemon trading card game
Thanks to the support of fans around the world, the Pokemon trading card game has also reached
its 30th anniversary.
And today, we've prepared a video which offers a sneak peek into its future.
Let's take a look.
What did you think?
The long-glass Z Mega Evolution will soon be appearing in the Pokemon trading card game as well.
We'll also see the addition of a new Mega Attack Rare card,
and the launch of the next following the Pokemon TCC Mega Evolution series,
the Please Stay Chain for future announcements.
Next, we have a very special video that we'd like to share with everyone around the world.
This is a project that will reveal into the world for the very first time.
Please take a look.
...
For the first time in seven years, a new Pokemon movie is on its way.
The protagonist of this story is a Pokemon TCG player who is battling and striving to
become a champion.
Like many of you here today.
And this film aims to showcase a competitive spirit for battles shared by trainers around the world.
We're hard at work on production, and we're really looking forward to bringing it to audiences everywhere soon.
The film, Pokemon Wild Card, will release starting in 2027.
Please look forward to teacher updates.
This year also marks the first time that Pokemon Champions has joined the World Championship stage.
We're really excited that so many of you fans have enjoyed the game so far and the evolution of the iconic battle system.
So now I'd like to share some of the latest news about Pokemon Champions.
You can see a variety of different types of Pokemon.
As you can see, a variety of new Pokemon, including Z Mega Voluctions, will be coming to Pokemon Champions, starting September 9th in Japan's Standard Town.
And we hope you also enjoy the thrilling battle they bring to the battles.
So while our time together here in San Francisco is drawing to the close, we can all wait for
some more adventures together next week.
But where are we at the destination, Dave?
Let's get over on the coast side.
Let's take a look.
So
The 2027 Pokemon World Championships will return to Asia for the first time since 2023 when we had the event in Japan.
We look forward to welcoming all of you to the beautiful city of Singapore.
Congratulations on the new World Championship.
I would also like to thank the fans who supported me this week.
I would also like to thank all of you who have been watching us from all over the world.
Thank you for joining us.
And now, that brings us to the end of our broadcast.
We'll see you again in 2027.
Yeah
I