Overdunk
107: Overdunk Ep. 107 Ceruledge and China!
(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Welcome back to "Overnunk" everybody. Your favorite competitive Pokemon Unite podcast. This is episode 107. And my name is Zoinks joined by my two favorite people in the whole wide world. It is Doof Snacks and Bridget. I was gonna say brand brand new world is not how the world works, it's pretty old actually. So sorry everybody. I enjoyed by Bridget and Doof Snacks, Bridget, you were around last episode. So we'll ask you after. Doof Snacks, we haven't talked to you in a couple of weeks. How have you been my friend? - Really, really good. Temperature is kind of great in the Cincinnati area. It's peeking to a little too hot. But the last two weeks, it's been certainly bearable. So yeah, nothing, but I actually got my fusion jersey in. So I wanted to wear that in my first opportunity. - Let's go. - I'm trying not to get upset at fusion 'cause the jersey is so cool. But I didn't fill in the name in the back 'cause I didn't want to name the back. So I didn't fill in the name and do you know what they put? And slash A baby, not applicable. (laughing) So my perfect count is now going to be an A, maybe like that N-A-Y-Y or something like that. Like N-A, we'll see what happens. But that is definitely what is on the back of this. - That is so funny. - I'm gonna spin around and look if y'all can see it. It's pretty tucked into the patterning. - Oh wow. - Okay, yeah, yeah, your camera's tripping a bit, but it is good. I like it a lot. - Oh my God. - Let's go at a Homer pick that is awesome. - Exactly, they know. (laughing) - All that they had to have. - That's so funny. All right, shout out fusion. Also, shout out land hands who's in chat right now, but also gave a community question. We like asked for some Q&A stuff for the end of the episode today. And they asked like, "Dukes, next, what jerseys "are you gonna be adding to your collection this year?" And you came wearing one, which I think is pretty dope. So, that's awesome, that's awesome. - My allegiance that can be bought, we noticed. - Yeah. - It was awesome. All right, Bridget, how have you been this last week? - I've been good. I was staying with the friend last week in Mississippi, so it was super nice. I was telling them all the very exciting details, which is pretty cool. So, I'm back at my apartment now. So, happy to be back and settle them back in. - Yeah, you had a long trip. And I see you end that back to back. - I know, it was a great vacation. - Yeah, it was great, it was great. I don't have a- - I'm sure your dog was very pumped to see you back. - Yeah, she had a good time. She actually stayed with one of my friends who has a dog. And at first she was like, "I don't know about this guy." And then when I came back, they were like best friends. So, it was extremely cute. I didn't come with a weather report for my local area, like doofstacks, but it's been hot. - Fair enough. Okay, weather report for my area, way too frickin' hot. This is coming from a person who has to work outside, though. It's been crashing me when I've had to work outside for long periods of time. But for those of you who don't know, I'm a locksmith, which means I work on doors, which means I usually get the choice if I wanna work on the outside or the inside. That's how doorways work. And so luckily for the most part, I've been able to find the AC. So, only sometimes is it rough. But for the most part, pretty A-okay. But anyway, that's how the three of us are doing. In terms of the episode you're about to listen to, topics that we are looking at, a little bit light on topics around the community right now. Doofstacks is gonna give us kind of their thoughts on any IC and everything that went down there, because doofstacks, you were not able to be on the last episode. After that, we're gonna talk all things, Sarah Lej, the newest addition to Pokemon Unite. And then we might even talk about a few more of the Chinese beta. They could just release us for the second or third time losing track at this point in time. We've got some new details about game modes, potential Pokemon coming to the game. Let's discuss a few of those things. And then at the end, we asked for some community questions and y'all were spotted. So, we'll be talking a few of those. So, lots to look forward to. But first off, Doofstacks, I titled this current topic on stream, any IC Snacks version. So, Doofstacks, please take it away. You went some things to say about how any IC went down a little two weeks ago now. Geez. Yeah, of course. So, first off, I want everybody to know this is the first time I've like written stuff out 'cause I know I can be incredibly long-winded and I wanted to try and get through like a myriad of points pretty quickly. And when I told Zoinks and Bridge at that, they both went (laughs) like in unison, which is a moment I wish we could have all shared together. So, let's jump right in. - It was very impressive. - So, I think the most important thing to set the framework for any IC specifically is to go through the timeline that like led up to any IC. So, this is the timeline leading up to any IC. As I recall, please feel free to adjust. I don't think it'll change much, but to keep everybody honest. Final stretch was announced. Community complaints about who got to participate in Final Stretch. It was announced that NA was getting a Japan, which in this case meant the five teams that didn't qualify from regionals got to play in the Final Stretch. The broadcast days were switched to accommodate this new format. And then the decision was made to have NA regionals aligned with other regions, plus the trip to New Orleans to play on land. And the material pricing was subsequently allocated to the Final Stretch on Saturday, being that it was a unique event. So, the ripple effects from that, in my opinion, are gonna be the following, or have been the following. There's a blemish on the prestige of the regional champs comparatively to what the Final Stretch was designed to be. Which originally it was supposed to be a world-based, everyone can participate to try and get one spot. And what it became was essentially NA opportunity number three, which in fact made it feel like it was just NA teams four through eight were competing for another world spot. So it kind of blemished what NA regionals champion would have been. The fiscal-prizing thing undercut what was otherwise a great weekend of games. It kind of became the highlight of what everybody was talking about when there was a lot of great moments. And just overall, like a really good showcase of our game as a whole, if you take that particular moment. Yeah, and personalities, if you take that particular factor of it out, everything else was really, really solid the weekend. But I mean, that all got undercut, right? By this one thing. And lastly, the last thing that is going to happen now and this I firmly believe this and I'll be shocked if it doesn't. NA is no longer gonna be NA regional, so there's no longer gonna be NAIC. That has just been blown up. It's never gonna happen again. NA is gonna match every other region. It's gonna be at home on the internet. Deal with it as you will. You will get nothing but your money and your trip. That is gonna be what it is. And at NAIC, they're going to do either another AOS cup or the final stretch as it truly should have always been. A full hallmark event where regions from all over the planet can attend NAIC, give a multi-international flair to what is like this final thing. And it'll become its own fanfare as it exists at NAIC, but now truly the sole focus. So if you think being top eight in NA is gonna get you a trip to NAIC, don't count on that. I don't see that happening, but that's just been blown up. There's no way after how this went down that they would ever consider that, especially for how well audience wise, like as a viewing experience, final stretch was ingested as compared to what regional finals was. So that's how that sword cuts and that's just what it is. - Likely, right? Like these are predictions on. - This is what I would do Snacks is saying. There is nothing written in the stars. This is my breakdown of the ripple effects, in my opinion, that will happen as of how this NAIC went. These are just other notes which the people should have on their mind that are just observations and things I've thought of or things that have happened that I think people need to have their attention to. They're not in any particular order, so I'm gonna read through them and just kind of pick them apart on your own time. First off, once they switched the days, there was no broadcast time, money or staff contracted for an extended Friday for the ceremony, the fanfare and the personnel that it's needed to execute that. So when the days switched, you fucked the regionals out of the ceremony. And that is like a logistical lift. That's my opinion because that Friday already went like 12 hours for the individuals involved in working the event, right? When a broadcast company gets contracted by Pokemon, they budget out hours, personnel, amount of time they have to be there, potential over time, potential double time if you're hitting certain thresholds. And when you swap that, all of those statistical things were calculated for a Saturday portion, right? Not a Friday portion, so that becomes a difficulty. Both events should have had a trophy. I don't even think that's up for debate at this point. - Yeah, I know, definitely not. - It'd be crazy if you said so. - Communication being non-existent, led to expectations matching last season in terms of fanfare and physical pricing, which means everybody mentally locked in that the regional champion was going to be getting all those things without, and I think that's pretty reasonable conclusion to come to. Like I'm not knocking any way for that. I also thought that's kind of what was gonna happen. So you know, throw us all under the bridge on that one. (laughs) - Yeah. - There was no misallocation of physical pricing. I'm gonna say that, and that's what I said, ad nauseam at this point. It went, the decision was made that the higher ups wanted the pricing to go to the Saturday portion of the event based on these following factors in my opinion. No other regionals had physical pricing, which means they gave themselves a loophole to say that this one didn't need any. This is a bad assessment because obviously if you're gonna invite all these teams out to play online, you make it a different event, and therefore the expectations are reasonable to be different. - Yes. - That's a bad assessment on the higher ups part, but they get to scapegoat the switch because of the other regionals not having those things, and I think that is a way to double off what actually happened. Again, I mentioned there was no budgeted money, time, or personnel for a Friday ceremony, and I'm not sure how heavy of a logistical lift that would have been, but I know it probably wasn't kept into consideration. So, or it wasn't in consideration when that decision to do what they did was made, and therefore there were no resources to be able to pull together to make that happen, even if they wanted to. That's my personal assessment, just having knowing how some of the background broadcast stuff goes. And it was also because they switched the days, the path of least resistance to still have a moment on the day unite is allocated to have time, and the one with the max eyes on the game, which was Saturday. If you would have made the ceremony on Friday based on the volume of people that were playing in the event, the volume of people that were doing different things, the number of eyes in the venue, and eyes on the product online would have been far lower. It's a way to just scapegoat it onto Saturday. Again, I'm not excusing that there was not on both days. I'm just saying, based on the timeline I laid out before, and when these decisions were made, all of these logistical things and things they need to line up become exponentially more difficult. So then you start looking for paths of least resistance and scapegoats, which is what I think those three bullet points I just said are in this situation. Another thing I want to point out, being at it the decision, it was a higher up decision. Don't bury low level admins or TOs for a decision made miles over their pay grade. Don't shit on the people that are literally sitting on a stage with a laptop in front of them, looking at an Excel spreadsheet. (laughing) - It's just-- - Gotta pay. (laughing) Don't spread rumors or hearsay, and I put in parentheses, mission impossible. - Yeah. (laughing) - One thing I do want to point out though, that everything I said on Twitter, I told to the orange juicers in person on Saturday night when they caught me leaving backstage after the final stretch, and I took the time to go talk to all the higher ups at Pokemon to try and figure out what was going on. So I took everything that was told to me and everything I said online, I told them to their faces, personally, I did that. So, it's what it is. And the last bullet point I have here, is until orange juicers talk to me on Saturday while I was leaving and I dug into what was going on, I thought that orange juicers were getting a trophy for the regional win at Worlds. They did something similar in season one, and if you actually listen back to the Friday broadcast, I actually say that the teams are playing for the hardware about 400 times. (laughing) Because once the top three teams were qualified going for Worlds, there was nothing else to say besides money and trophy. And to me, the trophy feels a lot more cool. So that's the direction I went. So when you listen to that, it just kind of like it like, oh yeah, I would have said that if I knew they weren't going to get anything to make myself look like an asshole. (laughing) - Obviously. - So those are just the things I wanted to lay out. I did not know until I listened back to your old episode recapping it that other casters of other games were accosted. Like that is giga out of pocket. I don't know who did that, but that is a tragedy. And again, the last thing I want to say is you can be disgruntled and very unhappy at the decision. - Mm-hmm. - Would you-- - That was a bad decision. - Yeah. - I agree. I also agree. What you cannot say is that the final stretch winners were accidentally given the regional finals player stuff. That is not true. It was written that they were going to get all of the physical pricing once they started playing on Saturday, and that's just a matter of fact. That's just what it is. You don't have to be happy about that. It wasn't a great decision, at the very least, everybody, you know, the regional champions should have gotten a trophy and a ceremony and their picture taken and their moment unequivocally. I agree. - Yeah, appreciate it. - But please stop shitting on low-level tournament organizers, admins, people that were trying to read stuff. And honestly, if the energy that was brought online and to my face when I was leaving on Friday was brought to an admin, yeah, I probably would have been frazzled looking at an Excel sheet too. And it's like completely unsurprising that they rattled off wrong information or validated whatever you were spewing to just diffuse the situation and disengage from it. Because I'll tell you what, the way I was approached on Saturday, that's not how I think I would approach anybody in that particular situation, no matter how upset I was. And especially at people that have no control over the situation. So that is what I'm gonna do to recap that. The event absolutely whipped ass. For those of you that don't like the single elimination thing that we did for final stretch, well, then you'll never see Unite on Sunday because we won't have the bandwidth to broadcast fast enough to do that. So if you wanna see Unite on Sunday on Championship Sunday for World with every other game, take that pill and swallow it. Also, if you wanna-- - Wait, so hold on. I missed the pill. Single limb? Was that what you were talking about? - Yes, the small elimination structure. - You just gotta swallow that pill and move on because if you want Unite to succeed, it needs viewership, it needs to be on Championship Sunday and it needs to be on the official Pokemon channel. And if single limb is the way to do that, then yeah, that's what we're gonna do. Obviously, a second win games, of course, that's how everything should boil down to. And honestly, this single limb format lines up much closer to every other game than what. So then what we're currently doing. So, worth knowing, if you see Taka, it does single limb also. Yeah, I mean, single limb for a top cut in literally every game. - Except maybe-- - Go does do double. - Go, go, go, go, go. - But they're serving us. - They're serving us. - No, it takes two seconds. - We'll just take seven minutes. So like there's obviously-- - What the do, whatever. - Also, you wanna talk about logistical lifts? You know why you can't do a potential bracket reset, best the five on a Sunday? Because you are opening a window that at minimum, at minimum, has to be an hour long, potentially three. And as we know, that ain't gonna fly in the world of Pokemon logistics. So like, I don't know what to tell you, that's just where we are. Okay, we're done, let's get into today's episode. - Cool. - Bloverstunk is wrapped up. - Yeah, TM191 uproar is done. - Yeah, sweet, sweet, sweet. Yeah, like we talked about last episode though, I mean, and you just mentioned it a second ago, the event was fantastic, it was super fun. Obviously there's a bunch of extra external things and I guess internal, but that like applied, made the event pretty stinky for a lot of people's opinions of it, but overall, I think it was a pretty fantastic event, but I do think it is super fair to say that we will probably not look the same again next year. Foodback, feedback, not foodback. Feedback, definitely been sent over, I'm hungry, is what it is. Okay, so that was any IC. Maybe we'll get your opinion on world structure a little bit later, do snacks, 'cause we talked about that last episode too, which is a huge topic as well, but maybe we'll discuss that a little bit later. First thing we wanted to talk about is some in-game stuff, 'cause we never talk about in-game stuff on this platform. Sarah Ledge is here, a brand new, a brand new all-rounder, I know Bridget is exceptionally exceptionally excited for another melee all-rounder being added to the game, it's a ghost type, so you know I'm already in. I'm pumped about the Pokemon, so do snacks, I gotta hear, where are you landing on this new release? Have you seen it? I know you're probably not-- - It's an awesome release. - Heck yeah, okay. Huge fan of this release, it plays super cool. It plays super cool, it looks super cool. It doesn't make you tear your hair out if there's one on the other side of the screen from ya. It feels like there's good players excel on it and mediocre players that invest the time to learn it, will be able to find success with it, which is a great place to be, like you can feel yourself getting better. - Yeah, true. - Amazing release, I'm a huge fan of this one. - Okay, sick, all right. Following reviews, I think I'm pretty aligned. I have been having a ton of fun with it, I've played it in casual queue, I've played it in ranked queue, I've been having a lot of fun with it. One of my favorite things is that it's an all-rounder that really doesn't feel like you need to stack with it, which is awesome, I feel like a lot of the all-rounders we have right now feel very dependent on attack weight stacks, so you can just play it very differently. In path, you could take some really farm, a little bit safer, and then really start to pop off at five, which I feel like we don't have that many top laners that can really have that to vouch for them, so I'm excited about that. My personal favorite way to play it is with psycho cut and phantom force. I know the flame charge psycho cut was going around for a little bit, I don't like flame charge that much, I like the outplay potential that phantom force brings, so I love it, every now and then you're just like, kind of out of cooldowns and that sucks, and you just gotta like time it really well, if you're ever diving, you gotta make sure you're getting the KO, but it's passive is a speed passive, and I think that's dope, so I don't know. It does, it's in a sea of all-rounders, I get that. However, I do feel like it is kind of quietly unique in a few ways that has made it at least interesting for me to pick up. Well, Bridget, how are you feeling about the Sarah Ledge release in game? - I definitely agree, I haven't played it, I'll probably get it when it's available for coins soonish, probably still won't play it very much, but everyone I know who has played it seems to be obsessed, I do think phantom force, it kind of like reminds me of like Aegislash in a way, that you can really like, it's a really cool skill expression and like, I don't know, form of like dodging, unstoppable, et cetera, et cetera. I think it's really cool, I've just noticed when I queue up in my games, it's like, "Okay, place can battle pass, Sarah Ledge came out, phalanx is broken, G-dar is broken." It's like, oh my God, like they're so like, I just feel like that is like, and I get, I get why everyone wants to play them because it's like, it's just like, yeah, I'm just like, oh my God, I don't like it now with Sarah Ledge, I'm just really good, but it's just, we have a lot of them. (laughing) - We do. - That's really my way of comment on it, yeah. - I totally agree with that. There are so many all-rounders in the game. As a person who kind of mains that role now, I'm not super upset, but as a person who mains other roles, I totally understand. But I do think overall, fantastic release. I guess we're looking at like, the next release being a defender, so, and it feels very pseudo support with Ho-Oh, being an EX and all this stuff. So, I don't know, we'll see. Maybe that'll open up some new options for players on the ranked queue, but overall, I think it really is just solid. I do see Gex saying in chat that it does feel like a speedster. I would agree, it feels like one of those Pokemon that like, if you press all your buttons and everything is not dead, it is a little upsetting. So, that in that way, it does feel like a speedster, especially it's like, your Unite moves usually use as a finisher, and I really like that. I got my first quadra with the Unite the other day, and I almost jumped off my couch. I was so like, it's just one of those Unite moves that just makes you feel awesome. And that is the one thing that since the start of this YouTube channel and Twitch channel, we have praised this game for, is just great design of the Pokemon. That is what this company does incredibly well, is you feel like you are playing this Pokemon when you were playing it in-game. They just do a great job of flavor and character design, and it's awesome, so huge fan of it. But, like you mentioned Bridget, the rank ladder is a little stuffed with popular and powerful all-rounders right now. So, actually, it was wondering, last two episodes ago, if you're listening on the podcast feed, like a few hours ago, my bad. We talked about the rank changes coming this season. EX Pokemon are back unless you're, there's one master's in your lobby, then only one EX Pokemon per team, and then draft being pushed back to 1,400. Now that we've had a little bit of time to play in this ranked season, how are we feeling about these changes? So, Bridget, we'll start with you. - I, you know, may have just updated the game and started playing the season like yesterday. So, I may not be the best judge, I've played about maybe 15 games, but I mean, I'm an ultra four, I'm doing great. - That's right. - I mean, other than like, I mean, I don't hate that everyone wants to play, like, tanky all-rounders, because I'm usually playing a support or a mage anyway. So, I don't mind like, filling that role, it's just something I've like noticed. I'm like, wow, we are not fighting over jungle the way we used to, like, what happened to this game? I'm just kidding, but I haven't minded it. I mean, I haven't played it too much, but I'll be interested to see like, how much I care to play, knowing draft is probably a little bit further away for me than the people who are already like hitting sticker. So, I know that really incentivized me to play last season, so, and I really wasn't grinding for it in previous seasons when draft was as high. So, I don't know. I don't mind the meta though, overall, despite the EX's being back. - Yeah, yeah, EX's feel like the least of my concern in games, I think. I messed around a little bit with the EXP share tank Mewtwo X build. I don't know if people have played that at all. I find it so fun, where you like grab future site, you like basically blitzcrank poll people in with like his little poll move and you've punched him a bunch, I don't know, it's a very fun method of tank. So, every now and then I'm like, yeah, I mean, he's got the cool skin, I'll do it. (laughs) So, I haven't been minding the EX licenses this time around too much. Every now and then, a electrode different ride on comes into my game and my phone goes about six feet across the room, but, you know, it is what it is. - Yeah, I just wanted to do a Mewtwo Y with like a pocket, I was like, all right, well, I'm not having any fun. - Yeah, this game is brutal. I'm on my path and I'm at zero, like this is crazy. - Literally. - Anyway, all right, well, maybe we do hate it, but so far I have found myself missing draft the most, even, well, actually to be fair, I like, just on the edge of Masters. So, I guess I have found myself craving draft the most and knowing that I won't get it upon hitting 1200 as a bit of a bummer, I just would really love to start banning Felix and a few of these games. I think that is what I would really enjoy to do. But, dupes next, how about you? Have you been, I know you're a frequent five stacker. Have you been doing that at all this season and how's it been looking? - Yeah, so I'm Masters 12, 12 right now. So, just over the edge. It's been a ton of fun because, you know, five stacks, I still feel like there's almost an unwritten rule that like, if you're five stacking, you're not picking any X anyways. - Yeah. - So, like, even though we're not, I'm not getting ranked games right now, they aren't particularly egregious. - Okay. - And I've, like, what's even funnier is it almost seems like players decide to like, lean forward in their chair if somebody does do like the cringy X thing on the other side, because they just want to destroy the person so badly. Which makes it a ton of fun, but for me specifically, I've been able to play like, like a very Japanese style Sableye of like less scoring, more like engagement tools. So like calling out engagements and stuff, which is really fun. It's really fun playing that way. 'Cause it's, you know, you're almost like, okay, calculated exchange, Sableye versus what diesel target can get on the backside. So oftentimes it's like going for a huge flank, but actually being the last engager, right? So after like everybody uses all their moves, and then you have like the guardy fading back or the Delphox fading back or the Venusaur, like Beamsaur fading back, is when you actually come in and full combo them. And by then you have just enough moves on your team to like close the door on their big carry, and then you just start smashing through fights from there. So that's been like a very fun, unique way to play. It's kind of put a breath of fresh air into a character I already really love to run around with regardless. So I'm pretty much just going, a lot of Hoopo, a lot of Sableye, a lot of Lizzie, a lot of Elder Goss. Pretty much every support but mine, 'cause I'm dog water at that one. - Egg. - And then, oh, I did have a sick sing dazzling lean dance, which was reminded me how much fun playing Wiggly Tuff with some coordinated individuals could be. - Love Wiggly. - I got DM'd on Twitter after a Wiggly Tuff game of mine, by the way. - Someone reached out to me, I was like, was that you in my Wiggly Tuff? I was like, yeah! - I was crushing, I was having so much fun. I played it like ton from Champion Lord with the double slap sing. I was having a banger time. - It's so fun. - It's kind of anti synergy, but double slaps also pretty good right now. So it's like, whatever. It's just kind of fun. I have been having a great time with Wiggly Tuff. - If my mind, I always picture Wiggly Tuff's dazzling lean, like a double barrel shotgun, the way it like. (laughing) - Yeah. I'm just picturing Wiggly Tuff, just pulling out the thing. - Get off my lawn to Rayquaza. - Yeah, it's pretty good. (laughing) - Hitting him with, what is it? The Clint Eastwood in that movie, where he's like a Grand Torino, he's like, just like fake shooting children. That's a horror, he's saying it out loud. It's not like that at all, actually. (laughing) You know, whatever, there goes our ads on this episode. - Yeah. - Right. - Yeah. - Oh, our money. (laughing) - Oh no. - I will edit that out in post. - Yeah. (laughing) - Awesome. That's dayin' in. That's super funny though. I've been really enjoying Wiggly Tuff too. It feels really fun and in a very heavy all-rounder meta, Wiggly feels frickin' awesome. - Real. - Defense drop off swing, just general slows, whether in my case, double slap, or we're seeing like a strange theory. - Chew charm. - Chew charm is, people hate it. (laughing) It's so funny. - It is so funny. Shout out to someone who was involved at EDIC. She got to go up on stage, had a recent birthday and a charity stream husky. She put out a YouTube video of like, a video talking about passives in Unite and how they're being like power crept out by newer releases, because some of the old school passives were just garbage. Which was actually really interesting. I did like a bit of a reaction to it on stream. Wiggly Tuff though, huge arm still holds up. If only for the rage inducing material that it can do. So, shout out that video, go check it out, but shout out Wiggly Tuff for being an OG and still holding it down. Lax passive is the worst. I think Gengar's passive might be up there in the worst. It's pretty bad. Machamps isn't great either. It's like special. It's like they went too hard in flavor on some of the old ones, I think. - Yeah. - And then eventually they started being like, okay, let's make the passives about this game. (laughing) Then, and earlier on, they were like, we're gonna go like, Machamp, we saw special conditions. We'll go up and damage. And you're like, sometimes I'm poisoned, maybe? Like, no, it happened so rarely. So anyway, I thought that was bad. But anyway, cool video to check out, but. So overall, I think we're actually enjoying the meta. I think we all, the three of us are uniquely very into draft mode, which obviously the entire community that is not aligned all on that same issue. I think it's pretty 50/50, or at least that's what the vibes I get from social media and stuff like that. But still in the game, something to drive and aspire to. So I think that'd be pretty cool. One thing I wanted to shout out, 'cause last episode, I don't know if this was the case, this is kind of about NAIC, but just general live events for Pokemon Unite. Just a bit of a selling point for them, I suppose. I have played this game since release since Canada Beta, actually, that was on the Switch. So like, what is that, three years at this point? Maybe three years plus, almost. But three years of playing Pokemon Unite. My wife, Natalie, has not touched the game my single time. She went to one event, well, she's been to a couple of the events, but at NAIC on Saturday, she stayed the whole day. Washington the crowd, met a bunch of my friends, made some of friends of her own. She has played the game every night since NAIC. She has been grinding. She's a Delphox A92 trick right now, just unlocked Sylvie on tonight. So it's really enjoying attackers, having a blast with it. So if you needed any selling points or if Pokemon needed selling points to have Unite at in-person events. I mean, case right there. Exhibit A, Exhibit A is my living room for the last evening, every single night of these last two weeks. - Does she play on console? - She does play on Switch. She's played a little on mobile because one time she was at a friend's house and she convinced her to play and she was on a Switch so that she was playing on her phone. But for the most part, she plays on console, which is great because then she and I can like duo queue and I can be on my phone on the couch and she can be playing on the Switch. It's a great date night. It's a lot of fun. You'd be shocked, Unite, great date night. So, but anyway, it's pretty cool. So go ahead in-person events, I guess it's the end point of that. But also it is very interesting to see like the game from a new player's eyes. Like a lot of the time, I'll like spend a lot of time explaining something and like I can see it in her eyes. She's like, she already knows that. Like she's got a glaze over, she's like, yeah, obviously, I know that. But there's like other things where I'll be like, what do you mean? And she's like, well, I don't know where the goal zones are. And I'm like, oh yeah. I guess like you've never seen this map of like, I've spent weeks of my life in terms of hours living on this map at this point in time. And she's like, I don't know. Like, oh yeah, you're right. You need to score. You need to go here and here. And like, this is the path of like, don't go here. Like that kind of stuff. I'm like, oh yeah. Anyway, very interesting, random rant, probably worth a podcast episode itself about is unite for beginners or not, or whatever. But maybe one day we need some content between now and worlds. Maybe we'll have her on for an episode. - Yeah, that would be so fun. - That would be fun. I think she'd be down. - Yes. - But okay, let's move on topics. So technically we're still on the Sierra ledge topic, which I don't know if that is necessarily where we're at anymore. Let's talk about China, shall we? The China in the room, if you will. Yet another beta. - You're ready to learn Chinese, buddy. - Yeah. (laughing) Sorry, I'm sorry. - Oh God, fuck that meme. It was so good. Yet another frequency of the data minds has swung in from everyone's favorite data minor, El Shiko Evie, about the game. But I also think that China is starting up a new beta, yet again, if it's not already live on Billy Billy, like a lot of streamers are streaming on Billy Billy. If it's not already live, it is to be happening pretty soon. And in this one, the data minds seem pretty focused around some new mini games and technically, or maybe not technically, potentially some assets for new Pokemon, maybe, in the game. And maybe some Doom signs for Pelipper, potentially. So let's get into it. I mean, Doom's next is gonna fight the allegations already. We'll see, we'll see. Okay, so we're looking at El Shiko Evie's Twitter. First off, a few assets they got put in. This Snorlax and Combe's mode is actually the one looking forward to the most. We're gonna talk about that a little bit. Mil tank asset, very cool. Delhi bird giving presents. I feel like this was similar in the tower defense game mode they put out. And then here it is. Pelipper holding a box could be a asset for like, I think Spraggles on his video was saying that maybe it's like a gift exchange menu option or something, could be a new playable Pokemon, could be a wild Pokemon that drops boxes on the map. Doom's next. Are you heartbroken? Are you excited? Are you terrified? Where are we at? - So I literally just reached out to El Shiko Evie. And I said, tell me what this Pelipper thing is. And they said it's part of a game mode, so. - Okay. - Aw. Bit of a bummer. We'll see. I mean, they have Snorlax in this mini game, right? So like, I can't theoretically get too bent out of shape. - Oh, yeah. - I hope so. It was a long shot to begin with. So maybe just, you know, the whole, at least it's included in some form or fashion. Yeah. - I have a dub. - You know, I'm trying to stay positive. It would be, it would be a bummer for me personally, but you know, it is current NAIC champion in VG. So I think it's disrespectful to treat it like it's just a mini game Pokemon. But you know, if that's direction, they decide to go, whatever. - All right. Fair enough. We also got some other assets. This was a little confusing. El Shiko Evie on their Twitter was saying that this T_circle, when denoted in the game files, usually refers to a playable Pokemon. However, this is a flamewheel straw. I can guarantee it's not gonna be a playable Pokemon, even in the Chinese version. Yeah, the tumbleweed will not be a playable Pokemon. Unless Bramblegast is coming, and this is their terrible. If this is their terrible drawing for it, that is criminal. However, you can see in the mini game modes, you literally turn into a giant tumbleweed. So that is what this is referring to. So who knows? Maybe this isn't a Pokemon being entered the game, but the options listed here would be Gimmy Ghoul, and I guess the expectation would be Golden Go. However, Gimmy Ghoul is already a part of a mini game we can see in a video, so I'm most likely gonna be crossing that off the list. The other ones, Beware, Laurentis, and Miltank, all possible options. There's no way Miltank's a supporter. It's absolutely an all-rounder, so sorry, Bridget. (laughing) It really does feel like all of these Pokemon are all-round. - It'll be bizarre to have Miltank not be a defender, in my mind. - Really? - Which literally has the word tank in it, and it's like defensively, relatively high. - Yeah. - That's true, but you give it rollout. Yeah, so Miltank is an NPC. It's another one of the NPCs that we saw in one of the game modes. It looks like it's kind of specific to Miltank. Doesn't necessarily mean it won't be a playable Pokemon, but so far it's a Pokemon that has history that is kind of a death nail, if you will. Some of the game modes are kind of cool. My personal favorite is this one. I can pull up on screen right now. It's like kind of hungry, hungry hippos with Snorlax and combies, and I think that's super fun. Obviously, I think you'd wanna level up so you could get blocked would make this simpler. But I don't know how one does that, so flail them. So I'm a pretty big fan of that. That sounds like a fun game mode that I would keep up for, but I don't know, just, I think the sheer amount of minigames are kind of the fun part. Here's footage of the tumbleweed one. A lot of eggs on the battlefield that this seems like most likely an Easter related event, I would think. But I don't know, China, regional, I'm not sure if that's like a regional holiday or what the deal is, so who knows. The more tumbleweed and eggs being seen, lots of other points. - I like this one, yeah, it flies. - So what is this? (laughs) - I don't know, I just like that he's getting some beans, and I thought it was funny he flew up in the eggs. - Okay, so those are kidney beans. Okay, interesting. Yeah, this one looks like, honestly, you know what, all these minigame modes kind of like give the vibe to me for. This is the gimmy ghoul coin one, by the way. - Oh. - This, all these minigames feel like we're making Fall Guys plus Pokemon Unite. Does anyone else get that vibe a little bit? Like, that's kind of the vibe I'm getting. - I was just getting like, almost like Pokemon Stadium minigame. - Yeah, Pokemon Stadium minigames. - Like obviously, like having a baby with Unite, but it does kind of give me that energy, which I am kind of into. - Uh-huh, yeah, like they sound fun. I mean, I'm not gonna spend hours on these, but I definitely try them out and play around. This seems like, honestly, a really fun thing for like streamers and viewers to mess around with or something, or maybe some after dark streams after you have a few beverages or something like that. This, this sounds like a be good type. This is kind of cool. It's like Fae Sky Ruins, but mini. And then there's this, so many of these. Also, I don't, what was that? Hold on, what was that little pedestal they jumped on? What happened? - Oh, yeah. I don't know. - Okay, well, here we go. - I don't know, really? - So it goes on the pedestal, and then it like revealed the location of their allies. So I don't know what that does. Anyway, this sandstorm has been shown in a bunch of different ways. I imagine, maybe it's not allies, maybe this is like a, yeah, I was, Battle Royale would potentially be like what I would call it. Like, but just like a deathmatch kind of mode. You know, it puts you in there with like four enemy Pokemon, and then this dust cloud or sandstorm slowly takes over the map and forces you all into like closer proximity. As you can see, the dust storm is doing true damage as indicated by the white numbers on the screen. So, that's kind of cool. But yeah, I mean, just so much content. It's been no sacred for a long time, but I think it is abundantly clear why our updates on the main game have been very, very slow, and yeah, dev hours, personnel, all of that. Clearly been, I mean, they're going all in on this game, which is exciting. Hopefully we get some or all of it preferably. That would be pretty awesome. But yeah, anyway, check out Billy Billy. If you want to catch any of those streams, sometimes you got a VPN, I don't know. This website's weird. But if you want to go check out some of the Pokemon Unite China action, I think it's a really cool spot to do so. Obviously, the thing I think I would be most inclined and excited about is if we get that like 500 points ends the game, game mode, I don't know, like the traditional mobile look that they were doing, I think that would be really exciting. But the mini games too are pretty cool. Anyway, any more thoughts from the two of you on China and all these mini games? - I just, I know they're putting a lot of dev resources in the China version. But yeah, we also reap some of those benefits, right? Hopefully they just trickle down to us. - Yeah, true and not economics always works. - Oh, no, don't say it like that. - Oh, we're doomed. We're doomed if you say it like that. - Yeah, in that case, we will get nothing. (laughing) - I did want to sew those on the stream. These were, this is actually my favorite one. One of the assets that Evie was finding, and they weren't sure on this, but they found these kind of title cards that are like graphically shown. And then they showed like League of Legends examples of like maybe these are like KO streak graphics that go on, or like Ray Quiz the capture. Like for example, this League one, where if you put the diamondy thing, Garen when he gets a pentakill, gets this whole like glossy glow up when they get pentakill. So like if you get that, that would be awesome. They're so cute to keep, I just KO streak a five, but it's like, I'm a Sunday on the beach. (laughing) I think that's hilarious. And obviously, I think that'll be a really cool realm of customization to go into. I have to imagine it would be on other things. Like if you capture Rayquaza, or knock out Rayquaza, you get it. I feel like that would be kind of fun. There's also like text box ones, some like you could change your profile picture in this version. So it's not just your face. - Oh, nice. - So they have like the Kanto starters and Evie. I'm assuming it's like if you get masters or something, I don't know. So some cool, cool options in there, which I'll see them neat. So anyway, cool stuff to look forward to for another version of the game. Hopefully, hopefully we get the rule. - Yeah, that's real cool. I hope we get some. - Oh man, that'd be neat. - Yeah, I'm hopeful we do, but. - Yeah, Bridget, how about you? Any thoughts on the China version before we transition to our Q and A segment? - I'm excited to actually see like the, the fruits of their labor, even if it isn't necessarily in my video game, like it can be a little disheartening, not really knowing like exactly what's been happening or, you know, what are they doing? So just having like tangible proof. Like, oh, okay, they're definitely doing something over there. So yeah, I just feel like we're in a period of like what is gonna happen next. I feel like we do usually like thanks to Leakers, it's not really communication, like kind of know what's gonna happen. So shout out Chico for giving us some information, but I hope, yeah, I hope it's, we get some for, the game I play specifically. - Yeah, my version could use some work. - Yeah. - Okay, well, let's move on to our Q and A section of the episode before I change the title card though. We got one in from relic. Go to caster, cast over there on the battle hub channel. One of the co-owners over there does a great job. Did the B stream for EUIC, you know from there, maybe. But relic said, would a Unite 2.0 release do enough to restore good will with the larger community? I think they're referring to the people that every single update ever and every video that's posted are like fixed ranked matchmaking. What can I use my fashion tickets for? By extension, does it feel like the Chinese release is actually make or break for the game's long-term future? This is a great question. Is that definitely a rhetoric that is going around? Is that China releasing is make or break for the game? Do Snacks, what are you thinking? - So for the first question, is it going to do enough to appease people? No, nobody's ever happy, that's evident. There's always going to be somebody to piss them on about it. So what I think it will do on that aspect, it is if it becomes a global version and that's the version we go with, then it'll certainly have a huge influx of players just to find out what this new version is 'cause that's what Pokemon does, right? Is it make or break for the game? In my opinion, yes. - Okay. - I think so. The esports specifically, I think, I don't want to say hinges on, but I think it is rocketed to the sun if the release in China is successful and we end up with some sort of global stage with them included. Literally, it's kind of unfortunate as you and I are the casters for NA and EU. NA and EU are like specifically lagging behind in understanding the potential of this game, which is a little face rolly in my opinion, which is why other regions with maybe less global success are finding a lot of support because Pokemon is Pokemon and there's intrinsic value being attached to that IP. So long story short, I think it is going to be make or break for this game because it looks like EX licenses are going to persist. We're still trying to figure out ranked mode and all that and this legit is like an oh shit red button, right? That they just get to slam and from there, it's like, you know, the Narcan shot to the chest, right? - Cool. - Like you're resuscitated and what are you gonna do in those first moments is going to be what's actually imperative. So I think honestly, what brought this doom on or this doom and gloop scenario, like, is this the last hope? Is the fact that we all know it exists and it feels like it's so much cooler than what we're dealing with. So it's like naturally like, you know, we have Pokemon United Home and Pokemon EI Home is the version we're playing, right? On a daily basis. - Real. - So I think just understanding the China version exists is what brought us to this point. So now we need it to be successful to keep going forward. - All right, fair enough. Bridget, how about you? - Definitely like, I don't know. I guess like by Pokemon Unite 2, you just mean like this, like big revamp of-- - Yeah, that's the thing. I think the first part of the question, I think it's pretty fair to say people are not going to be happy no matter what or the very minimum will be mixed opinions. But I think the second part of the question is like, the interesting discussion topic of, do you think that the Chinese release is make or break for the game's long-term future? Do you think the Chinese version releasing impacts the lifespan of this game in a meaningful way? - Oh, yeah, I think even like I am definitely not, you know, I haven't been playing MOBA's my whole life, but I think it is very obvious how big of a MOBA market China is just kind of period across any IP and I know Nintendo is done. I mean, not just like this, but like many things over the years to like get them Pokemon games, like releasing special consoles like in China just to have that IP there as well. So they've made an effort to not only grow like the Pokemon IP, but now combed with this like MOBA market, like, yeah, it feels like a pretty important and just like, we knew this was what they were spending their time on or like in theory. And now that we're like, you guys were saying, finally kind of seeing it. It's like, oh, they are, they're putting their whole Pokemon Unidosy into this one. And yeah, they should be, they should be. - We're never going to spoil it. I didn't think of anyone who has other ways of saying it. That's what they're doing. - Yeah. Oh my gosh, that is very funny. But yeah, I think that's fair. - I'm aligned with the two of you. I think it would very, very long time. Do we succeed after China is released? For various reasons. One of the easiest things to point to for an example is Wild Rift is released in both Whizball as a worldwide client and a China client. The China client, we don't have exact numbers on income revenue gained, but China brings in four times as much money for that game as the global version does. Which, I mean, you just point at the scoreboard. Like, that's all it takes, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, it's absolutely going to do. That is like keeping in mind, even if the game like fails globally, like we'll still extend the timeframe. Maybe not as long as we all hope, but even if our like the global version doesn't get updated at all the China version, which by the way, I think is quite impossible. But maybe, who knows? Even if it doesn't get updated at all, I think it will still extend the lifespan because income will allow the game to still keep operating in some capacity. You can point at other doomer examples, Arena of Valor is probably the best example to point at. Now, they are with Arena of Valor that's a Timmy product that succeeded in China, failed globally and got canceled globally. And it all stemmed from China. Now, that is your removing TPC and TPCI from that equation, which are two organizations that will want their game to succeed long time because they're trying to make it a mainstay of their competitive circuit. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But anyway, there's other factors there, so I will like concede the counter-argument of Arena of Valor is a real one, but clearly I could talk for hours about this, but overall, yes, I do think to answer the question, Chinese release will absolutely extend the beta. - Can I touch on the global thing real quick? - Sure. - So we are always, like never forget that we operate in silos. So like NA is a silo, EU is a silo. The game is whipping ass in a lot of other regions. Japan, it's crazy in India, Latam, like just because our, like in this moment right now, feels like our player pool is dwindling, that's not a static thing around the world right now. - Right. - So that's important to notice, or important to note, and also China being involved by proxy of raw human beings that play mobile games, by Timmy in that country, is going to just blow it up immediately. That's why I'm saying it's a red button. Like it is an, oh shit, like in case emergency break glass, they've just always got that now. The problem is we know how cool breaking the glass and pulling that far alarm is going to be. You think it's to empty the building out because it's on fire, but really it's like this badass rave that's going to like kick off. So like, let's get this rave started. - Let's get this rave started. - Yeah. - The dude's likes analogies are hitting today. - Yeah, we've had quite a few of them. I'm kind of here, not a lot. - A fat baby. - Random, not breaking news, but in the most esports fashion of all time. It's an announcement of an announcement. But also a bit of a look back at an announcement that did happen. Japan, I'm glad you mentioned to do this next, is absolutely popping off in the esports division. That side of things. Japan has three teams going to worlds right now. Champion Lord, formally copy chance, we'll get on that in a minute, and reject JSB. Reject an incredibly large Japanese esports organization. They primarily deal in mobile games. So in the west, we don't have that many popular mobile games in terms of competitive esports. You might have not have heard of Reject. If you're in the esports at all, I guarantee you heard of Zeta Division who picked up copy shots just recently. They announced that like last week, I think. They picked up that team. They're like, the number, did we talk about this last episode of "Bridged?" I actually don't remember. I know like, I think we talked about like afterwards, 'cause I don't think it was like official, yeah. - Okay, very cool. Well, Zeta Division picked up copy shots, which is awesome. They are the number two organization in Japan in terms of esports. I, breaking news. I'm just seeing it by Twitter feed right now. Pee from Champion Lord, just tweeted out the infamous contract GIF, the esports contract GIF. So we might have all three teams from Japan getting signed, which is crazy. That is actually so phenomenal for, I mean, obviously for those players who would love to be sporting a pretty epic jersey go in this event. So that is super cool, great for the scene, but honestly, the biggest thing it does is shine a spotlight that Japanese organizations are seeing the popularity within their own region and they're investing in it, and that's awesome. Hopefully, as it extends past just this kind of investment just for the world championships that we've had in many years, but that's no stranger to so many different esports, it's not like it's foreign in any way. So hopefully we see some more long-term investment, hopefully some investment in the west, but we'll see. Anyway, just an exciting thing I wanted to share because I think that's really, really cool. And I think esports contract GIFs are hilarious. Okay, let's move on to some more rapid fire questions, 'cause I think that'll be kind of fun. First off, who do you think deserves the battle pass the most next season, do snacks? - Which existing character deserves the battle pass next? - Yes. - Eldegost doesn't have a premium holo where you. - Okay, okay. And then they both leave throwing it on. So win, I'm so win. Bridget, how about you? - I was definitely gonna say Eldegost too. I think it's the only OG that doesn't have a premium. - Interesting. Well, yeah, 'cause Slowbro getting the purple one soon. We'll fix that, right? Okay, yeah. - Any support? - All right. - I'd even take a tank. - Great. - You know? - Sorry, mine is, oh crap. Uzi just said Greninja and actually that makes so much sense. You know how many battle passes they would sell if they put a battle pass for Greninja in there? Oh my gosh, I think that would be so good. I was gonna say Mimikyu and then you just buff Trick Room. I think would be kind of cool. And I just think Mimikyu's a really fun Pokemon to design Hollowware for. So that's my vouch. But honestly, Uzi bringing up Greninja's a great point. I think that would be an awesome, an awesome Pokemon to go in and then you buff surf again. Please, I think that'd be awesome. Okay, awesome. Mike Lowry asked if we only have two poison Pokemon in the game, which is true. We only have Venusaur and Gengar. What poison type do we want to see on the Unite roster? Maybe the Pokemon and the role. Gosh, there's so many that I think of. So do this next. You go first. - File plume support. File plume support, okay. Bridget? - The first one I thought of is playful poison. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - That guy. - Okay. - Whatever the, yeah, my god. I always say, I'm scared to say Pokemon names now because I'm like, I'm gonna say it wrong. - Is he right? - I like that guy. - Yeah. - I don't even know what he would be, but I think that'd be cool. I like it with the Ultra B slot. - Yeah. - Okay. Another Ultra B central. Gotta be so broken. - Seriously. - I think, I think there's two Gen 1 vouches I'll give. I'll say my for real answer though will be Muck Defender. I think that would be very, very interesting. I would love to see Muck Defender. Another option out of Gen 1. I think you put Nido King or Nido Queen in this game. People would go nuts. - Yeah. - So. - And what if you got both? Like what if like you controlled like two, like ice climbers type shit? - So I've been saying this. I've been saying, wait. That's actually so sick. Your Unite moves like a tag team. And they like slime 'em down and they'll leap into the sky. And another one like comes down and slams down their arms. - Whoa. - Or even if it's just a Unite move and all of a sudden two of them show, no, the whole family. Both Nederan and Nederan, Nederino. And then Nederan F and Nederan male. And all five, six of them or whatever, just pound somebody and they're like, (laughing) Oh gosh. That'd be awesome. - No, that's good. - That's good. We're putting that in the notes. We're putting that in the notes. - I think that would be a lot of fun. There's a lot of cool posing types. You could, you could worth a crow bat. It would be a fun option. But yeah, family assault. Yeah, I think that'd be a good one. Okay, use the next, you already answered this one by saying you have a fusion jersey on right now. Land Hans was asking what the next Unite team jersey would be. - Yes, I do have an answer for that. - Okay. - I already have this one, but you know, which one am I looking at? I think the question was, which one I'm looking to cop at world. - Uh huh, SAUL without a bell. - Ooh, yeah. - They have great jerseys. - I've been trying to get in All Might's ear to try and make that happen. And then, you know, Coby Johns hit me up, tomato and muffin. - Get that Zayde Division jersey, yeah. - A lot of no. - Please. - I apparently, I wanna go for the trifecta of Japan jerseys. That is what I would love to have. That'd be awesome. Okay, do you all think Unite will ever have Dota like UCS battle pass that contributes to the world championships prize pool? I think it'd be cool. I personally don't think it'll ever happen. That is my opinion on it. However, they do put like, esports branded stuff in the game, like not Orgs, but they put like Unite Championship Series merch or ACL merch in the game. So clearly there is a more of an inclination to that in this Pokemon game compared to any other, but my hunch is still probably no. They'll never do that to increase prize pool. Either of you agree or disagree? - I agree. It's not gonna be a thing that pays to prize pool, but if they're smart, they would start doing something to actually generate money in a financial fashion that makes sense and gives people the things they want. What they could emulate from Dota is like caster packages, right? Like imagine a Japanese player logs in and they can hear their Japanese caster and they can choose from that. You know, you sell that for a dollar. The joke that I keep running on and every time I think about it, it just gets like a better and better idea. Literally take, you know, like a zoint jacket, dupes next jacket, a sprasal jacket, and then like the Kramer insured that Chef wears and make that a thing. You can buy it for your trainer for a dollar, right? Or a dollar's worth of gems, right? Like just shit like that. - It's a great idea. They would charge $40 for it. - I would pay it $40. - But like, at least it stitches in at the competitive aspect to the everyday player aspect. And that's something that Dota does really well, is even if you just log into Dota, you are automatically pulled into the connection of competitive through these types of items, which naturally leads itself to more people checking out the competitive product and for Pokemon especially, where it's as a huge casual audience, I think it's almost a free monetized way to get more eyes on the thing. Or even do a set, right? Like, you get two of them, you get the other two with you. If we're talking about the jackets in this example, right? And we kind of wear some dope stuff. So even to the casual viewer, it kind of looks cool, but then when you find out like, oh, the snack suit, you're like, well, who's that? What is that? And then you like, it kind of turns into its own rabbit hole thing. That's how the internet works anyway. So like, why are we making real money out here? Why are we making real money out here? - It's gotta be like licensing, right? - Of the like, specific clothes? Like, would they have to pay the company that like made the suit? - We have to wear all stuff that isn't branded that can't be identified and what the brand is to begin with. - Yeah, I guess that's true. - Yeah, I don't know. - And like, most of it is patterns, it's not, yeah. - That is true, that is true. - And then the one thing that is identifiable to a product is Pokemon's own design that they own. So like-- - They just need to add like your guys' mustache. - True. - Is. - And then-- - It'd be big. Also, yeah, give me facial hair options for mine. - Yours is already-- - Zoint's mustache is already in game. So we've got him covered. - All right, my cast is over. Thank you, everybody for shooting in. Super fun episode one on seven. (laughing) - My bad, I just have to have hope. - No, it was fair. Okay, yeah, those are all cool options. And then your idea is that they would donate to, they wouldn't even donate to the prize pool, but they would just-- - No, it's just attention to-- - Because then, I mean, the game needs to be financially viable because it is one of the freest to play free play games that exists in the market at the level at which it's at right now. So you have to get clever with that type of stuff. And it's not always just hollow-er. Like there's so many-- - True. Okay, cool. Yeah, I get with that. Okay, then the final question of land hands and it kind of feeds into a couple more of these. A support Pokemon. A supporter that we want to see in the game, Bridget. Do you have any ideas for supporters you'd like to add it to the game? - Oh, you know you would think I would. But I'm so desperate I would take anything. - Yeah. - I'm really not even sure like who exactly I would want. I'm trying to think of like supports in the mainline game. Dude, just give me like, instead of support. - Oh, get out of here. - Just let me be alive. I need this. - I'm so glad to just-- - I'm so glad to just-- - I deserve it. - Good suggestion to chat. Danko, of course, what's mouse hold? Uh, Danko wins the card, Amundus. Celebi would be a very cool EX. Ditto support, Bridget. - But did it be a support? - That would be all rounder just to curse you. - Exactly what he would be. - I've already thought about it. - Yeah, I actually, what did it, it would be the first like non-rolled Pokemon because it cuts the cop out of yours. - That'd be kind of sick. - That'd be a lot of fun. I'm gonna, I just think it will happen. So the, I think Vaporeon support is happening. I don't know when. - For real. - I just do think it will eventually happen. So that will be kind of cool. I've had so many of these that I've thought through. Other than that, I thought like Rabambi had some cool vouches. A lot of people were coming up with good ideas there, but I do think Whivzakot, pretty cool, pretty cool option. Do something about you. - Yeah, of course, I'm gonna say Peloper, that's what's out of doubt, I say, every single time. But I do think the game needs more, like status-based support characters, which is kind of where I went like with Vileplume, the supports and support, right? Like status effects, slows like almost like a, like in the vein of like a wiggly tough type situation. So I would think something along those lines. I did think, I also like the idea of things that don't textually feel like they would be support being support characters I think is kind of neat too. So like Koffa Grigas, I think would be kind of interesting. Which is another just kind of like reach down, like stun, bind type support character. And even you can have like, you know, like you have players that can like, maybe your passive is like similar, not on this cool down, but like a magic, like the magician pole, like Barry pole, where like a player on your team, you can hit your passive and like put them in the coffin. And they can't move, you can't move, they can't take damage, but you heal them up while you take damage instead. - Put them in the coffin. - And like you just like, you cough and cover them and then you can let them back out. Just like, but like, like just, I think there's like clever things you can do when you take unexpected characters and like suit them for different roles. - Okay. - Yeah, definitely. - Cool. - Yeah, I don't hate that. Those are those are so cool. - But I'm like all in on this Niteran male and female climbers thing, like I just made that up on the fly and that sounds super dope. - So it's broken. - Yeah, it does sound fun. I think RFI I would be a fun like non-healer support. The way I think about supports in the game, because they've been pretty clear about the fact that they, they're not tripping over themselves to release supports in the game. So the way I see it is that they're looking for niches to fill or at least they want them to be relatively unique. We saw that with Sableye and Comfi. They are unique designs akin to the rest of the roster. Obviously Comfi is just you and me from League, but like you get it. They are creating things that feel different than the other supporters at the moment. I think things that we're missing are a totem based healer. So someone that puts something onto the map and then that AOE becomes a healing area. Basically another goal zone that you pop down to the ground that would be able to heal. Or a Pokemon that when it does damage, heals in an AOE around it. So a brawler based healer. This would be a similar to like a Brigitte in Overwatch. Something like that, which is like terribly designed hero and I don't necessarily want this in unite, but it feels like a role they would put in. I feel like Rillaboom would feel that second role quite well as like he like makes noise on his big jungle drum or whatever as he does damage and moves around. And then like because of that he like gains healing or whatever and pick whatever grass type you want to be able to put down totems on the ground and create grassy terrain and heal. Tapabulu would be awesome. Give me Tapabulu in game and they'd be a lot of fun. - I love the tapas. - I love the tapas. I do think they should be a map objective though. I think Tapu Koko on top side, Bulu Finney and Lele on bottom side. It just makes sense. - Oh yeah. - Can I pitch an idea that actually while Spriggles and I were getting an Uber to the airport that I pitched to him and he didn't hate it, which I think is a success. - That's a long way. - That's pretty good for him. - So like weather manipulation Pokemon, of course I was just gassing a Peliper in a different way, but it has two sets, right? So you have like coyote roost. - Oh, it's still Pelopon. - Okay, okay, hold on, we went back to Pelopon. - Whatever, it's drizzle or whatever its ability is. But what you do is you have elemental Pokemon where their passive is like, so Pelopon's would be drizzle. So every water Pokemon around it has an increased attack on both teams. So then it becomes a draft around on whatever's around it. So do you want more Pokemon on your side to get a buff, but also the other team could start picking water type Pokemon to kind of get like, and you don't make it egregious, but like small stat buffs. But then you can also do things along like, cranking up the effects of your attacks based on how many matching Pokemon are in that sphere. So let's say whatever, weather ball. Pelopon has like, and it's a tacking kit, we'll say, as weather ball. So like, if you have two other water Pokemon around you, or there's an enemy water Pokemon, like weather ball in drizzle does more damage. But if it's just by itself, it's pretty paltry with no other water Pokemon to like kind of boost it. So it kind of becomes like an extra layer to draft dynamics for both teams, 'cause it's kind of like a global terrain effect like within the sphere of Pelopon's range, which you can start doing for every Pokemon, that has like sunny day and stuff like that. Like it just kind of becomes like this super extra level. Of course, the draft timers have to be a little longer, but I think that's like a super cool concept that could be like the next direction of passives that we move. And anyways, that's the last thing I'm saying. - Do you see Gexa, you can check some effects, some of the Chinese game mods from have RNG weather effects for the game, which shows up in champs like. So that's pretty interesting. I wonder what will be cool. - Yeah. - Yeah, cast work would be a good option. That'd be a lot of fun. I mean, there's so many cool ways they could design Pokemon, whether you design from the bottom up on the Pokemon's design or top down, you take like another cool MOBA design and you make it like my pitch, my favorite Pokemon is Benet. So my pitch forever has been, you give Benet something similar to VA goes ALT in league, but basically it's a damage execute move. And if you KO a Pokemon with that move, it's single target, and I think something similar to Emerald 2-Step, but obviously feeling a little bit different to make it feel like the rest of Benet's kit. But if you get a KO with it, then for the respawn timer of that Pokemon, probably shorter, maybe five to 10 seconds, you control that Pokemon on the bat. You like puppeteering. So like, Benet kind of goes like ghostly and like you can't damage Benet at all on the back of the enemy Pokemon as you run around as like the Garchomp UKO or whatever, and you run around and do damage. And all of a sudden you force like a five on four by getting that KO and you also control one of their big damage dealers. I think that-- - I don't, broken. - It kind of does, but like Benet's not doing anything, right? So it's just like, it's the same as getting a KO, but it's like, I would, Benet would probably be in this case like a more support-y kind of option, but then it turns into a damage dealer by stealing one of their damage dealers. Is it broken? Yeah, probably, but you know, it's my favorite. So yeah, some good options there. Someone asked what we think of the Cinderace support lane. I mean, we're in NA. There's a decent amount of support Cinder believers. Look at you ignorance. (laughs) Definitely some looks. So other people asking, okay, what EX Pokemon do you think would be cool? Any EX Pokemon that people think would be fun? So only, they're saying only restricted legends, so Mythicals and sub-legends technically wouldn't be, but I think for the case of the Cinderace, yeah. - I'm pretty sure I saw that they posted a link, which for me specifically, I need to know which ones are on the-- - Oh, yeah, they're basically like the box legendaries. - Yeah, here we go. - Open them up. - That means to be taken to you. - I got them on screen. If you can take a look. - I don't know, man. Like, none of them should be in the game. - Right. (laughs) - They just all make you mad. - Like. - Look at these guys. You know what I mean? - I always thought, like, you're a Tina, but not in the chubby dog form. Like, I don't know whatever that is. - The origin form, yeah. - Do you want the worm? - Give it a worm. - Yeah, it's like way cooler than whatever that thing is. - Chubby dog. - That's what it's a chubby dog form. Is that zachroms? Zachroms pretty dope? - Zachroms? - I don't want anything. I don't want anything. (laughs) - All right, fair enough. Fair enough. - How about you, Bridget? I don't care. (laughs) - How about you, Bridget? - I like Xerneas, but knowing what it did-- - I think great boat gear support would be good. - Yeah, let me geo-mancy in this game, man. I've heard this. - It'd be like a team-wide heel to full-age boat gear. (laughs) - What are these? - What are these? - What are these hurdles? - What are these hurdles? - What is this weird Terapagos? - It's three forms. - What's the? One in the middle looks like a potion bottle or the one at the end. What is that? - That's both the turtles. That's his terra form. - Yeah, so he's got a-- - Do you know what terras are? - I wish you had me on camera because the other looks are huge and have on my face. For a second, I was such stun-locking. What are you talking about? - You know what? Don't worry about it. - Yeah, don't worry about it. - That's kind of a final answer. - Fair enough. I think Xerneas would be my vouch for in-game. Xerneas or Solgeleo? God, I'd love to put Solgeleo. - Yeah. - Solgeleo would be awesome. - I would love to be Cosmog. - Yeah, that would be very fun. - I wonder if they would even put it in the game and try to just know you're Solgeleo. - But like that, look at me, the dog looking one with the green collar, whatever. That looks insane. - Zygarde. - So, the lore on Zygarde, dude. - Yeah, we don't want that guy. - I don't know, you know, that so Zygarde, he's like, he's the cell Pokemon. So, in X and Y, you like co-collect Zygarde cells. You gotta collect 100 of them. But as you collect them, you could get like 50% Zygarde. And then like 70% Zygarde. And then 100% Zygarde. 50% Zygarde is the dog. - Okay, cool then. You put 50 cells. Like, what are you talking about? - So, I've talked about this. I've talked about this before. I think, 'cause we don't have this yet in game. We don't have a map mini game Pokemon. Where just by picking it, it alters the map slightly. It has little mini objectives for the Pokemon to get to power up. Skarner was like this in League of Legends before it got reworked. Zygarde could have little cells around the map. And if he collects them, then he can slowly level up. But every time he gets KO'd, he like, reverse form. And then they get scattered back out on the map. And Zygarde's got to go around and pick them all up or whatever. - I think that'd be kind of fun. - No, it'll be, it won't be-- - It'll be broken. - I said fun. I said fun. (laughs) - All right, does that mean good? - Does it mean good? It doesn't mean good. Okay, I think that brings us to the end of our Q&A. Thank you so much, everybody, for throwing in those questions. It was a lot of fun. - That was really fun. - Yeah, we might have to make that a regular thing, especially where we don't have a lot of tournaments to talk about and things like that. At least in UCS-wise. That being said, a bit of an announcements for the next coming weeks. We are headed into grassroots tournament bonanza. There is going to be so many events. I've heard of like Battle Hubs running there ongoing series, Unity clashes ongoing in like every region on Earth. Engage like the esports organization, basically the Europe, I believe, is running their own tournament series as well. You know, I've actually got something cooking up. There is like so many events happening over the next couple of months in kind of this lull period for UCS. So if you're looking and interested in competitive Pokemon Unite, you should already know the places to look. We'll be talking about a lot of those tournaments, I think, on this podcast. At least to keep up with the meta and the competitive gaming scene as a whole. And it'll be kind of like the good old days, talking about grassroots tournaments every week. I'm pretty excited about that. So that'll be a lot of fun. I guess that's my section of plugs. So as we close out the show here, Bridget, what do you want to plug before we end the episode? - Um, I don't really think I have anything right now, which is kind of, kind of nice. - Hey, that's wonderful. Okay, Zeus next, what are Bridget's plugs? - That's me. - Uh, follow Bridget on Twitter @bigbridget. We are, and I think we have dates, pseudo finalizer, we're gonna talk about after this, but there is gonna be a Unite Mike's mayhem happening in July. So we're gonna try and hammer those final dates down. We've got some of the money we made from the factor thing. - Yeah. - I know I'm not financially involved, but I know that a kind of fit kind of fat wants to give us like T-shirts to give away. - Oh. - During our rock test. - Okay, I love you. - And then a code, like a discount code for our viewers to use. - To use. - The chat really wants to sponsor an episode again. - I can't let him do that. Like, it was awesome when we didn't have the final dates, but we actually are like for this one in a position where we like none of us like hang out of pocket to make it happen. So that's just a unique thing. - It is gonna be devastating to have to tell chat, but he's not allowed to sponsor it. - I've sold him like four times in person already. - All right, well you're not devastated by it. - I don't know, I was sending money, sending money. - And then potentially one more. We'll see how that shakes out once we finalize our dates. We might be able to make some more moves on that, but you know Mike's mayhem, I'm super excited that it's gonna be back. - Yeah. - It's been a minute. - Yeah. - That's gonna be awesome. If anyone is like tuning in to our thing for the first time, it's not seen the prior four seasons of mayhem. If you're watching on YouTube, you're already in the best spot. We got all of those vods up on the channel, but it's basically our four week invitational series with a monetary prize pool, single elimination, four teams every week, just a lot of fun, just really quick action each evening. I think the players really enjoy it because it's not a super big time commitment, but it's a lot of fun, a lot of great unite because it's invitational, we're trying to get a lot of good teams. So I will be reaching out to a lot of players in the coming weeks to try to get sign up. So if you were listening to this episode, you're a player that wants to play probably just Lattam and North America based right now. EU grinders, I love you. We'll see. If I got space, maybe. For you, late night EU gamers looking at you, Wrecker. We'll see. But anyway, other than that, thank you everybody for tuning into the episode. If you are watching on YouTube, which I already talked to you, but if you're still watching, one, thanks for making the end of the video, blah, blah, blah, but leave in a comment beneath this episode. What kind of Pokemon that you want to see coming into unite and what role you'd like it to be? Because honestly, that was a really fun discussion and I hope we have those more because I love pitching new Pokemon. But until then, we'll be seeing you all next week for another overdunk episode. See y'all then. Bye bye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)