Hello, and welcome to episode number one hundred and thirty eight of the Cheese,
Steaks and Controllers podcast presented by Fox PHL The Gambler one A two point
five FM fourteen eighty AM, iHeartRadio wherever you get your podcasts, coming at
you live from Philadelphia. I made the mistake of waiting until after Game seven
of the NLCS to record this. I should have known better, so but
I'm going to try and keep the energy up because this is a very good
episode that we have for you today. Recording this on Tuesday night, October
twenty fourth. Wednesday, October twenty fifth, All Elite Wrestling brings AW Dynamite
and Rampage back to Temple University's Lea Korus Center. Tickets are still available,
and we have a great talk with one of the current champions from AW at
the top of this episode, so stick around for that second segment of the
show. I'm going to talk about where I've been for the last two months,
the games I've reviewed, the places I've gone, stuff like that.
Should be a very good segment there. And then finally I'm going to wrap
things up this week with two interviews from one of the big places I have
been recently. We'll get into that talking about a particular games competitive scene and
how they continues to grow in the future. But let's not waste any more
time, all right, our first guest here today. I don't know if
you've noticed this, but we've talked about wrestling here before on the show,
and All Elite Wrestling AW coming back to Temple University at the Leah Korus Center
for the first time in thirteen months. I had not realized I had not
been in this city for that long, but I was at the last show,
and then I bought tickets to this show. I realized, oh,
it really has been a year. Very excited to see them come back.
Not the least reason because the guy we're about to talk to you right now
has been one of the foundations of the promotion since it started, and honestly
one of the steadiest performers this year and a year that's been sort of tumultuous.
I think it's a light way of putting it. This guy right here
has been one of the best to watch, and that is your current All
Elite Wrestling Wrestling International Champion Orange Cassidy Orange. How are we today? You
know, a little less higher than usual. That's good. I didn't do
anything this past dynamite, so I'm killing Okay. That's good. Glad to
hear that. Nice to see you. Like I said before we started recording,
here, get that title back. How's it feeling? I have that
strap back around your ways? Do your pants stay up better? No?
They don't still fall down? I actually have it right here. I have
my back. I always keep it with me. I have like the backpack
right here at home. I would I would never let go of it,
like even even while. Is that is gorgeous? Look at that? Yeah,
nice to see you have that back. Like I was saying in the
intro. There your work in the since you got that title in March up
until when you lost it in September. Uh in what was a rather strange
summer for your promotion, with all of the nonsense going on around you,
you kept it steady. You kept the ships sailing, and I really did
appreciate that. Did you feel like you kind of had to take that on
just to be like the steady, like make give someone keep keep not not
so much keep to yourself, but keep keep a low profile. Just do
your job and you know, let everything else play out around you. It's
just funny that you just said that, because that's literally what I That's what
I do. I just I show up, I do my job. I'm
doing it. You know, I do what I have to do because if
you know me, you know I lived my life by a set of rules.
And the first rule is that there are no rules, and then the
second rule is sometimes you got to do it. So sometimes you just got
to do it. And you know, I have been around with AW since
its beginning, and I care a lot about this place, almost as much
as the International Championship. Well actually they're probably equal, And you know,
I just did whatever I had to do. Now, when you first earned
this title March of twenty twenty three, it was going through a name change.
Used to be all Atlantic, now it's International, and it was sort
of, I don't want to say it was considered a lesser title, because
no title is a lesser title in any promotion, but it wasn't like on
the level let's say, obviously not the world title, and even tn T
was a little ahead of it, and you kind of legitimized it immediately with
the Lutrosaurus match and then Shabbata match later on, you do you take a
little bit of did you want to do that, Like when you won this
title, did you say, look, I'm gonna I want this to be
a long, healthy reign with as many defenses as possible to put this title
on the map, or did that kind of just happen naturally. I think
it just kind of happened because, you know, and I the goal was
always to beat pack and Packards at that time, the current All Atlantic champion,
and the belt was the championship was created with him in mind to have
it and defend it while he couldn't get back in the country. You know,
then once we had it and and I beat him, and I had
it, and it's like it didn't really have an identity anymore, you know,
it was just the Atlantic. We didn't really know what that was.
And in a previous life for i WTV Independent Wrestling, I was there champion
for a while and I just when I had it, I did the same
thing. I'm just gonna defend it whenever I have to, against whoever,
wherever, because that's what I believe the champion should do. And it just
obviously you never want to lose the championship, right you know, like I
never have a I never have an end. I never have an end in
mind. It just so happened I had it for as long as I did.
Uh. Speaking of that loss, have you recovered? That was quite
a beating you? Are you good now? We were back? Were back
in in one hundred percent? Or will you? Is that where there's matches
where you're never quite one hundred percent when it's over. Yeah, I physically
I think I have recovered, and but you know, that match was that
match was really the culmination of however many months I had the championship the first
time, and I feel like that match, I don't know if I've recovered
mentally. I don't know if that's the thing that can happen. But I
don't know if my head's in the right space with this championship that I have
in now after that match, So you know, it's obviously John Mosley is
obviously still on my mind a lot, So that's fair. Yeah, imagine
that's one of those matches you just can't put behind you, especially now that
you have the title back. Because I was a couple of friends watching it,
and man, the things that you went through were admirable and scary at
the same time, so glad to see that you're getting back there. Let's
talk about the opponents you faced during that first reign, A who's who basically
of the of a strong aw midcard with some guests sprinkled in. Is there
a particular match from that reign that you are particularly you think back fondly on,
like whether it's the Forbidden Door match or any of the other opponents that
you face in that time. You know, I never like, you know,
is it is bizarre that I have had so many matches because I just
I don't like to wrestle, So having all these matches, you know,
I don't like any of them, but I would. It was a it
was an honor to be in the ring with Cassio Shabata. It's I still
can't wrap my head around the fact that he is wrestling he wrestling me,
and the fact that he is wrestling now and Jennifer. Obviously, the the
Wheeler Uta matches had a little place that were a little more personal, and
I I've had some time to think back because people would ask me these questions
while it was going on and then right when it ended, and I didn't
really have to reflect. Obviously, the John Mossley match is still in my
brain, but there is another person that the match that I had with Swerve
Strickling, Yeah, is still it's still that that one. I'm I'm still
surprised I got out of that with the championship because Swerve is I'm I'm very
scared of who he targets next. Yes, uh, he has just every
time he comes out, he continues to impress me. I honestly thought he
would make a good next opponent for the world title. And then the the
Hangman Page feud story. Here's somebody goes after the world title and not me.
I hope he doesn't hear the show either. Now that you've said that,
now that you have the belt again, you've you're you're starting to think
about who you may defend against. I know collision recently happened. You have
defense there? Who is on your radar? Who is someone that you would
like to wrestle for that title that maybe you did the first time and you
want to do it again, or you haven't yet and you would like to
challenge yourself with that particular match. I don't know how many defenses I had.
I think it was over thirty something, and there were some repeats in
there. I take I took a lot of pride in defending the championship against
a wide variety of wrestlers, and our roster is so big and there's so
many talented people that I want to continue that trend. I think there are
there's more room for more people to get in the spotlight, and I think
that's what I was trying to do with the championship in the the first run,
and I don't see why I should stop that now. Now, would
you would you prefer if? When? If? If slash when you are?
If you would you prefer to lose the title? It's a weird thing
to say prefer to lose the title because you never want to lose the title,
But last time you lost it to an established name in John Moxley,
Would you maybe, perhaps next time, prefer to be bested, which again
is a weird question. I know, by perhaps an upcomer or like someone
that you could maybe thrust into a spotlight that might not already be in.
Does that make sense? Uh? Well, I yes, it makes sense.
But I obviously I don't want to lose it. I never want to
lose it, right, but I to your point, and to what I
was just saying, I think it's important that I give opportunities to everybody,
right sure, sure established names or non established names, or however you want
to say that anybody on the roster. This championship was really a Hey,
anybody, anybody on the roster can get a shot at this. And I'm
going to keep it that way. So whoever can make me submit, I
quit, or pull my shoulders down for three they can have it. That's
hey, that's that's the perfect way to think about it, honestly, and
so we're I'm going to leave the discussion about the International Championship right there.
I just want to remind everyone Dynamite is coming to the lee Acorus Center at
Temple University Wednesday night tonight. If you're listening to this, it is lot.
This episode's going live that morning, so if you need something to do,
the Philly should not be playing, even if they go to Game seven.
We are recording this early. I don't know what the Phillies have ultimately
done, but Wednesday night is free and clear, So go go up to
a Leacorse Center and check out Only Wrestling's Dynamite and Rampage as well. Should
be a great show always is when that be down. We should definitely say
that. Being in Philadelphia, they have announced a person Rob Dam. Yes
we'll be We'll be teaming with Hook and if you know, come on Philly.
Amazing. Rob van Dam is wrestling in Philadelphia at that place. Every
seat should be filled. That is a great point. I forgot that they
mentioned that on Dynamite Wednesday, and I also forgot that I immediately texted the
two people that I'm going with that, So thank you for saving my butt
there. I do want to switch gears a little bit to something a little
less uh not serious, but a little less a little more fun. This
is a video game themed podcast or show, after all, So I'd like
to talk about your appearances on Alli lad Arcade. Your you're a bit of
rivalry with Adam Cole over that championship that he's hurt obviously at the moment.
So you guysn't been able to redefend that based on what I'm seeing, do
you? Is he ducking you? You think I don't know the champion?
I don't know. At last I saw it was him that held it,
but that that's that was what three months ago that he lost it or that
he beat you for it. And I haven't seen any title changes since.
I'm not sure that title really, you know, fell off once he got
it. That's fine, So that's fine. So I'm still upset about I
mean, if you're talking about the John Moxley stuff this, you know,
Adam Cole, just that I can't wait for my remeasure that guy. Ultimately,
I think it's unfair that you had to defend that title playing his favorite
game in Halo, Like that's all it's the problem is Halo won, you
know, on the on the original Xbox, the first ever Halo. That's
my game. And so I crushed him in that. But then he and
I said, you know, I thought I was pretty good at the newer
Halo, but I guess I'm not. But yeah, I want to beat
him at his own game. He dressed up like Master Chief for a A
and an entrance. Can you imagine I beat him in Halo crush them?
That's true. I think I like him too much to do that. I
don't know, I don't know. Uh yeah, I could see that,
but also too, I mean, you'd have two belts for you need a
bigger backpack. Then what would you do I fit multiple belts in there before.
Oh good, Oh I've tried. Oh that's good. That's good to
know. So what Uh No, I don't know how much time you have
to do some casual gaming at the moment. But are you playing anything interesting
right now? Uh not? Yeah, you know, I dabble with what
I can. Uh there is a you're gonna get an exclusive? This is
I don't think. I don't think anybody. Well, I don't know if
I mentioned this before, but I never said it. There's a lot of
us in the aw locker room that play uh FIFA, but now it's e
A f C twenty four. Thanks, so we we all. Sometimes Evil
Uno will bring a Xbox or something in the locker room, put on the
screen and it gets heated, thought pack and I go at it in the
ring. You should see us somewhere. And Eddie Kingston he just won't shut
up what he plays. That actually that that segues very nicely into a question
I had written down for this interview when we got to this section. Is
there like I've always heard stories of you know, locker rooms with a lot
of gamers bringing in consoles and stuff. Like that, and having these tournaments
sounds like that's happening in aw locker rooms across the country and FIFA is the
chosen battleground. Honestly, not what I would have expected, but now that
I think about it, there are a lot of international talent. FIFA does
make a lot of sense. All those those UK kids they come over and
it's just it's the only thing. They won't shut up us. So I
had to learn how to play it, and then you know, I'm actually
pretty good at it. So who's your club of choice? Uh well,
it's always full of It's always full of okay, just in case that Tony's
listening, and I do I do actually use I do actually use full of
them. But uh yeah, that's pretty much. Yeah, yeah, I'll
go with that. Nothing from nothing but full of mirror matches. When he
walks by, you have two screens just in Casey pops in. I mean,
there was one time where we were playing. It was me and Eddie
and it was like during the COVID era of stuff, where we just we
had to isolate us. You know, we had a we were all stuck
in a room together. Yeah, and you know, Tony did walk you
we were we were something. It was like an off day and Tony walked
and he looked and he goes, you're going with a four three three like
he was upset, like he like he he wanted me to change the formation
and I did. I changed. Did it work? Yeah? That's awesome.
And if and as you said, if Tony listens to this, if
Tony listen to this, first of all, whoa And secondly, hi,
Tony, interesting, FIFA or FC twenty four. As you said, now
is the game of choice. I thought for sure it might have been,
you know, like forever for a little while speaking of well, the thing
that's that was the thing when we had it in the that was when the
game came out. It was we would all be ourselves and play each other
a lot. Like we played that game a lot. I was very fortunate
to play a lot of the builds leading up to it. They because they
know I'm into it and that I got to see all the versions and what
it is now and the game is just it was. We would play for
hours. It was so much fun. It was really really great. Is
there a particular mode that you enjoy or things that you like? I love
the the side missed the side like mini game part of it. I didn't
think there was enough. I think they could have built on it a little
more because I really did enjoy just that, like at the homes. Yeah,
I think there were slowly releasing more like they're they're doing something that I
like where it's like releasing it in pieces, especially like the they're gonna they're
gonna add on to what I should say because I like that because I don't
want to have too many options to start. I like with that homework plan.
So but yeah, every open game, yes, exactly, h rit
Baker and uh, she's not good at the actual wrestling part of the game,
but she is really good at the mini games, so she was the
one that we would play against to try to be that's cool. I haven't
jumped into the Battle Royale mode yet either, just hadn't so much. It
is. It's great. It's great. Yeah, for those who don't know,
they added a thirty player stadium stampede Battle Royale essentially, so you're running
all through this big football stadium, weapons, golf carts, all that stuff,
and the last person course there is a horse and the last person standing
wins. I hate, like I said, I haven't had a chance to
jump into that update yet, but it does sound very very cool. So
I guess I'll leave you with one more question here. When I told my
daughter that I was doing this, she I don't. She watches a little
bit of wrestling, and she knows who you are from your pockets, right.
But she also knows your good friend Dan Housen, who is her favorite.
Loves the guy love he thinks he's the coolest in the world. How
is Dan Housen? I see he has promos, he's finally making his return.
How's he doing. I have no idea. I haven't. I haven't
heard from him. He would just send us DHS tapes and it's like we're
supposed to play these, and a lot of the time it's just like it's
it's him saying hello, not figuring out saying hello, adjusting the camera a
lot. And he definitely recorded over old like it's like family Matters episodes.
And I have no idea. I have no idea. Yeah, oh,
we have to teach him the ways of the of the modern technology very very
soon. But Orange, I will let you go there. Thank you very
much for taking time with me to drop by the current All Elite Wrestling International
Champion, Orange Cassidy, all of All Elite Wrestling will be at the Leakor
Center at Temple University Wednesday night tonight. If you're listening to this and you
haven't gotten tickets yet, you should head over there watch you watch some great
wrestling. Rob Van dam as was mentioned, will be in action teaming up
against Hook against the team to be determined as of this recording, but we'll
hopefully see what's going on there. Hopefully we'll see you there as well.
Orange, one of Philly's native sons, very much appreciate that jersey technically,
but we're not gonna hold that against you. Well yeah, you know,
hey, Yeah, Philly is a very special place to me, and I'm
very I'm very lucky to be here and very lucky to be in this city.
It's really really great and I'm definitely gonna be there Wednesday for sure.
Look for him. Look for the man in the great shades and his hands
in his pockets. Orange, thank you so much for your time. Good
luck to you. Thank you. I'm gonna go lay down appreciate it.
Coming up after the break, I'll talk about where the heck I've been the
last two months. Thank you again to Orange Cassidy for coming onto the show
today. But after the break, where's Jason been stick around? Oh right,
Welcome back to Cheez Takes and Control. This episode number one thirty eight
talking now about you know, where the heck I've been for the last two
months, So it's real simple. Last episode I recorded was episode one thirty
seven, end of July early August, talk to Rick the Hotdo fire from
EVO about the upcoming EVO event at the time that went off without a hitch.
Was a great episode I watched, I'm a great episode, a great
weekend of action from them. I watched the entire Sunday Finals, all four
games from the Sunday Finals from a plane from an airplane with Wi Fi,
and I did that on my way to a place that I have never been
before and one that I was very excited to visit, and that was Tokyo,
Japan. I spent a week in August in Japan, Tokyo and Yokohama
as a guest of the Pokemon Company International talking about I'm Sorry, covering the
twenty twenty three Pokemon World Championships. We got to do a lot of very
cool and fun things while we were out there, see the sites of Japan
cover the Pokemon World Championships, which were very very cool. It was a
trip I will never ever forget. Highlights for me was going to the Shibuya
Scramble Crossing with the Hachiko statue and getting my hatch Co statue and getting my
picture taken there with the statue, and at the crossing itself. Getting to
go to San Kayenne I believe it was called a Japanese garden do it an
official tea ceremony with a tea brewing method that's been used for over eight hundred
years apparently in the country of Japan. Very very good tea, and I
don't normally do tea. Tea iced or hot tends to make me gag a
little bit. Not sure why that is, but it does tend to do
that. This green Macha tea that they served us at this little ceremony,
oh boy that I loved every second of it, So that was very cool.
Got to go see a China town in Japan, which sounds strange,
especially given their history of tension, but this particular China town in Yokohama,
the biggest in Japan, I'm told was very very cool. Great shops,
great food, great you know, nice sites to see and pictures to take.
That was very cool. If you ever in Yokohama, I would suggest
checking that out as well. But the World Championships themselves, three days of
action in the card game Scarlet and Violet Go and Pokemon Unite. I mentioned
at the top of the show that there will be two interviews and the third
segment from this event, and that will be with two of the biggest casters
of Pokemon Unite. That there are Zoinks and Spraggles. We're going to talk
to them, and it's my interview from that show. So it was right
after the Pokemon Unit Finals had taken place, a bit of a time capsule
to two months ago. I do acknowledge that, but you can hear the
way that they speak about how those tournaments went down, where they see the
competitive scene and Pokemon Unite going in the future. Very very cool conversation that
I have with them. But all in all, I thought that the trip
to Japan was a dream come true, and I am forever grateful to the
folks that made that happen. One of the things that really struck me about
the entire trip was how much Pokemon had taken over the city of Yokohama while
I was there. I you know, I've always as a kid, I've
gained my entire life, right, I've been playing video games since I was
three years old, thirty three years now, and I've always wondered what it
would be like to have, you know, mainstream society for lack of a
better term, except the games the way that I do now. That has
happened to a point with certain games, but nothing like what I saw with
Pokemon in Japan. That Pokemon took that city over, absolutely took it over,
particularly Yokohama where the actual World Championships was taking place. Perfect example,
there was a shopping mall that we went to walking distance from our hotel,
and on the third floor of this shopping mall, because they build vertically as
opposed to horizontally like the US malls that I've been into, the entire third
floor featured an art walk where you could walk and look at art, you
know, little art installations as you walk down the pathway. But each each
section of this art walk was a Pokemon card blown up to you know,
be larger than human size, and it wasn't just the art either. If
it was just the art, that would make sense too, right, But
this was like the entire card frame with the art inside and the writing in
Japanese. It looked like they just took an actual Pokemon card and blew it
up in photoshop and stuck it on this display in this mall. And there
were dozens of them all throughout this facility. I found that to be marvelous.
In the center court of the shopping mall there was a giant Pikachu balloon
and a massive Pikachu card on the floor that you could take a picture of
from one of the top balconies. That was awesome. In another section of
the city there was a massive blow up Pikachu that you could take pictures with,
plus other statues scattered throughout the city. At one point, the company
had rented out an actual cruise ship and turned it into the SSN from Red
and Blue, complete with trash cans that I could search quote unquote search for
items, with the most of them saying there's nothing but trash here, and
the last one giving me a great ball. It was amazing how much Pokemon
was able to do in this city for this week, and the and the
and Pokemon thanked them in kind because that event was a rip roorn good time
with a lot of awesome stuff between card game competitions and the game itself and
Unite which was a very very exciting experience. Again. We'll talk about that
more in segment number three. I also found some very interesting little side foible
of this event. Uh So, there's the actual main hall where everything's happening
the pacifica Yokohama in this case, and that's where all the tournaments are being
played and the free play and stuff like that, outside of the main comfort
hall, but still in the building, Like still inside a building was like
a seating areas, vending machines and stuff like that. Well, attendees from
of the Pokemon World Championships turned these general seating areas into massive market places or
like street vendor bizarre sort of things where they had sleeves from sets, box
sets or elite trainer boxes for trade playmats. They weren't using any more cards,
both packs and individual single cards for trade or purchase. On the down
low, you weren't allowed to purchase them that money was prohibited, but some
people were doing it on the sly because you know that's usually what happens in
these sorts of things. But I found the whole thing fascinating. I could
just walk through and it wasn't just like recent modern Pokemon. Some of these
things went back as far as like the black and white era, maybe even
a little further. I didn't really see much in terms of like the original
Pokemon cards of the late nineties that I grew up with. That stuff would
probably not do well in this particular situation because there's so many people and you
don't know where things are coming from and who's passing by and what they might
be able to reach for. I kind of understand that I didn't see much
of that, but just seeing these people like bartering and exchanging and trading it
was super super cool. Also, going back to the cruise ship turned s
S and that they had situated on the dock there in Yokohama, there was
a section entire floor where there were tables that you could sit at that said
let's play or let's trade. They would have a little sign and you could,
you know, switch them at will to whatever you wanted to do,
and it was all about trading card games. So if you put up the
let's trade sign and you had a binder, you could barter and talk about
trades with anybody that walked by. If you said let's play or let's battle,
you would battle in the card game right then and there. One of
the folks that was on the trip with me had a great battle with someone
they had never met before on this cruise ship. If you go to IGN
and look for I think it's a Confessions of a Pokemaniac as the name of
the blog. Joshua Yell, who was on the trip and this, wrote
a great seven part blog diary, like an open diary travel diary of our
trip. There. Everything he described there is what I got to do too.
For the most part, he got to do a couple of things that
I didn't. But it's a very very good read if you want to see
what went down with American contingent. I don't know if they're ever going to
listen to this. If they do, great, If not, you know,
I completely understand we're all very busy, but I really have to give
a shout to the entire North American Press contingent that was with me on this
journey. This was a big trip for me. This was a lifelong dreams
sort of trip for me. You know what I'm saying. This was something
I've wanted to do since I was a kid. And the fact that I
was able to do it, you know, in this manner, in this
method, is not lost on me. And you know, being grateful for
it is not lost on me, I should say, And to be able
to do it with such a great group of people, Casey and Joshua from
IGN, Cody from why Can't I Remember what psite? He writes for I'm
so sorry, Cody, But Cody, you're great too. I will remind
myself before I finished this statement. Christian from Comic Book, Eric from the
Gamer Alex, the PR person who was in charge of all of us as
we were there. It was just a wonderful, wonderful time. It was
really a really screen rant. That's where Cody writes, you dummy, it's
screen rant. So yeah, Cody from screen rant, Joshua and Casey from
IGN, Christian from the Gamer, Eric from Uh sorry, Christian from Comic
Book, Eric from the Gamer Alex r PR person and me, that's seven
right once you see, Yes, everyone was awesome and I am I was
very fortunate that I got to meet these people and spend some time with them
and and grow to appreciate them professionally and personally. They were all very very
great people. We are now connected in a discord uh server, just the
seven of us, you know, sharing things that remind us of the trip
or or you know, just kind of keeping connected. I've already actually done
some work with Casey at IGN, which is really cool too. And I
just really again, I don't know if they're ever going to listen to this.
I don't know if they're ever going to you know, come back into
the archives or what have you. But I really, I really am grateful
that these are the people that I got to spend this trip with. I
was going with strangers, I was going in completely blind. I knew one
of these people before the trip, and they really made the trip better for
me just through their camaraderie and they're being friendly and they're they're essentially hanging out
with a kid from Philly who got to go to Japan by himself for the
first time ever and really lived a dream. So I've just feel very fortunate
and thankful. The group was so good, and I hope that everybody gets
together again soon somehow, some way, since we're all spread out all over
the country and Canada, all over the continent. Even I really liked it.
I really liked the group that I was with. It helped. It
definitely helped being in a strange country without my family, left to my own
devices at certain times, just having these people to hang out with it was
a big thing. But on all after that, after I got home from
Japan, I dumped jump straight into big reviews. I have reviews for Stray
Gods, Starfield, Lord's The Fallen, most recently Mortal Kombat one, I
did see if Stars I did, and just really really building on the absolute
mad rush of games that twenty twenty three has been in general. I was
gonna do a segment at the end of the show about like where it does
twenty twenty three rank in the best years of gaming, and then save the
interviews at the end for next week. But I feel like I should wait
because there's a pretty big title coming out this week, and then there's other
stuff still coming out between now and the end of the year, So I
feel like I'm gonna pump the brakes on that a little bit and come back
next week or the week after with the where does twenty twenty three rank on
the scale of best years for video games ever? Because it's definitely it's definitely
up there now. Whether it ranks up with two thousand and seven, ninety
eight, ninety nine, all the other years I think of, we'll determine
that in a future segment, but for now, it's been a crazy year
for game that it's only getting crazier between now and the end of the year.
Very much looking forward to seeing what else comes out. I know there's
Alan Wait two this week. Later this week, I think Friday is when
that actually launches Super Mario RPG remake, which I don't think I've had a
chance to talk about on this podcast at all, but yeah, maybe a
little bit because it was announced. It was announced in June, I think,
so we might have had a chance to talk about that since then.
But there you go. That's what I've been up to. I went to
Japan, and I've reviewed a bunch of games, doing family stuff. The
Phillies playoff run which ended tonight. I've been paying attention to that, and
now I can refocus on the things that make me happy, not the Phillies
this podcast being a huge one, and then we will go from there.
So that is where I've been the last two months. If you've been wondering
why Chiese Takes the Controllers was on the back burner. But we are back,
hopefully in a more regular schedule now that things are starting to calm down,
and we'll take you into the new year. We'll do the Golden spatuel
As, we'll cover the game Awards, all that good stuff that we normally
do at the end of each year. Coming up after the break my interviews
from the Pokemon World champion twenty twenty three with Zoinkes and Spraggos talking about Pokemon
Unite, where that game's going, where that game is, and everything in
between. Stick around, all right, Welcome back to Chee Stacks and Controllers,
Episode number one hundred and thirty eight, Wrapping things up this week with
two fantastic interviews recorded live in person at the Pokemon World Championships in Yokohama,
Japan. Before we get into that, I do want to thank Orange Cassidy
for coming onto the show. All Elite Wrestling, Dynamite and Rampage hitting the
Leea Course Center at Temple University tonight seven thirty pm. First bell eight o'clock
is when the live show starts on TV. Feel tickets should still be available
now on the Lee Course Center website. Should go down there because one of
the biggest Japanese wrestlers in the world at the moment was confirmed to be coming
to the leea Coorse Center on Saturday at Collie in the day after I recorded
my interview with Orange Cassidy. And if he was holding out on out on
me and I find out about it, I'm just gonna shake my finger at
him because he is a wrestler and he will beat me up. So I
don't want to poke that bear if I don't have to. Moving on now
to our final segment of the show, Spragels and Zoins, two of the
premiere casters for Pokemon Unite, sat down with me back at the Pokemon World
Championships, talk about how that tournament ended, talk about the future of the
the game at the time, and more. We're gonna start with Spragels and
move on to Zoinks. So without further ado, here is Spragels, one
of the top Unite commentators in the world. If you watched any Pokemon Unite
at this Pokemon Worlds, and if you haven't, you should go back and
watch the odds. You definitely heard this man's dulcet tones telling you all of
the everything that's going on and explaining it in great detail. I'm sitting with
Spragels. Spragels, how are you hi? How are you? Can you?
Have you have? You've remember him the whole time? Yeah, Hi,
I'm doing great. That's his real voice, A peak behind the curtain,
hear. So let's talk about Worlds this year twenty twenty three out here
in Yokohama, Japan. Honestly, this is my first experience, so I
have nothing to compare it to you've been. This is not your first rodeo,
I am assuming. So how do you think Yokohama rated as a host
for Worlds this year? Oh, it's amazing. I've been to two now,
so I've been to London and I've been to Yokohama. London was insane.
The stage at London was insane, and it feels like Yokohama they have
just leveled up everything, And I mean, what would you expect. It's
the birthplace of Pokemon here in Japan, so of course everything is just nuts.
You've seen the stage. All of the games are up on this massive
stage. They have literal bridges that you can walk over. They have houses
that open up, cherry blossom trees. It's gorgeous and everything's been really here.
It's been amazing. Yeah, I concur one hundred percent. We got
to go explore that stage a little bit on the morning of day two.
And the attention to detail, even in like places that people can't see,
like behind that Unite desk is a what's it Frey Coco hanging out back there
something like that. I love that. So speaking of Unite this year,
a lot of people coming in thought this was Luminosity's tournament to win, and
then by the end they kind of said, yeah, we know that too.
Talk to me about this team, how they were able to become so
dominant and run through this tournament the way they did. Yeah, it's impressive
what they did. I think, if you know, not to argue with
you a little bit here, but I would say Luminosity was probably looked at
as one of the top teams. But I don't know if everyone thought that
they were going to do that. Well, Okay, you know, last
year a lot of people thought this team is it, They're gonna make it
happen, and they really did. Especially for North America, we thought,
yeah, this team is far and away the best. This year, Luminosity
was really tested throughout the entire region. There were so many good teams in
NA. There are so many good teams across the world. There were favorite
teams for EU that people thought were going to be amazing. Brazil had one
of the best teams in the world, and then Japan. Everyone knew they
were going to show up. But I mean they really showed up. Home
field advantage, home field advantage, and man, they're so aggressive. They
are just they play a really in your face style of Pokemon Unite that clearly
some teams could not adjust to. That being said, yeah, Luminosity,
I would say they shocked the world once again, and specifically with how impressive
their victory was. It wasn't last year. I felt like they had some
really close games. This year, the games were further away. It was
more impressive of the victory. Luminosity played better than I've ever seen them play,
and they are the former world champs, so they've already won the whole
thing. They played even better this year. Yeah, look, no further
than Game three of the Grand Finals, perfect example. We it almost made
me think that they were toying with Abyssian there for a little bit. Yeah,
and then you know, just said, you know what, we gotta
go home. It's time, we're done with this. They knew they had
a ten minute timer. They're like, we're gonna run this thing all the
way down to the ten minutes. But you're right, it felt like one
of those games where they were fully in play mode. You know, they
were just enjoying this. It was a victory lap. It was already over
in their minds. And Amal Abyssinian an amazing team, they played so well,
but I think they felt the same way. I think they felt like
it was over Luminosity's beating us. Sure, so talk to me about the
differences in the meta and how the meta has grown throughout the two years in
Pokemon. You now, we've seen some Pokemon come in and just completely you
know, take over the game, where we have some others that sometimes come
in in a sneaky position, like Talent Flame showed up out and there.
It didn't really do much, but hey, it was worth a shot,
right, So what talk to me about like the consistent champions versus like a
new I'm sorry Pokemon, this isn't that game. We'll talk about that in
a minute, versus like a new one trying to come in. Like New
two came in and shattered things. Yeah, Mew two was massive, Zashian
was insane. Comfe came into the game a little underpowered, and then they
buffed it after release and then that thing was just nuts. That's essentially this
game's you mei ye. So that's just that was a huge factor throughout the
year. You know, as with a lot of MOBAs, newer characters,
Pokemon champions, gods. If you play smikee, newer characters always come in
and I feel like you want them to be pretty powerful, and they sometimes
range to like, eh, kind of underwhelming to really really good. And
Unite had a year of really really good Pokemon and they also had the addition
of draft. So last year at the World Championships there was no draft.
You could have an entire mirror matchup against your opponents, and really it was
down to figuring out what actually is the meta and then basically, if this
is the meta, what can actually legitimately counter it while still being top tier
so last year you saw so many of the same Pokemon. I would say
it was less interesting once people seem to kind of crack the code. This
year, so many different pokemons, so many different strategies. Even if we
had what you would often see as like the top five Pokemon, only you
know, you can get a couple here, a couple there, a ban
on each side, and then you've got to fill out your rosters with other
great Pokemon, but maybe not s tier choice. So do you think the
draft ban system was a smart Obviously a smart addition for if nothing else,
match variety abs absolutely for match variety. And also you see teams lose in
the draft screen. Like the strategy of the game, it gets more intense.
You can't just be really really good with Serena anymore. You know,
you have to have a deeper roster that you have to at least have two
three things that you can pivot to in case your number one choice is not
available for you. And then also, if you get really good on a
Pokemon, you're gonna start to get target banned or counter paid. They're gonna
start taking that away from you. So yeah, you have to be a
better player. You have to be a better team, and it's so much
better for the game. So let's move a little bit to the way that
you approach commentating. So you have a pretty difficult job for someone who maybe
not be watching Pokemon Unite as often as you know people like us who travel
around the world to come see it. Do you try to tailor your commentary
as a balance between like Unite veterans who know everything and maybe like the dad
who's watching with them or the mom is watching with them. That is almost
exactly what I think if for me, a show would be the best show
possible if someone who knew nothing about the game and someone who knew everything about
the game both really enjoyed it. So I try to strike that balance throughout
it, And most of the time I'm providing the story for what's happening inside
of these matches, a little bit of analysis of what's going on, making
some dumb jokes that nobody seems to yell at before, so I guess I
get to keep baking them. And I really do want the broadcast as best
as possible to be something that is accessible for everyone. I want everyone to
be able to turn this on and get something from it. If it's you're
in beginner rank and you're just starting the game. You can grab something and
if you're like me and you played twelve thousand games of Unite, you can
still go, oh, yes, that was actually a really amazing moment,
and it's great to notice that and call that out. Yeah, that's awesome.
So you said you played twelve thousand games of You Night. Who are
your top three? My top three I believe right now it's I think Dodrillo
has surpassed them all. So I think it's Dodrillo. Then Greedn't And I'm
wondering if number three is either Talent Flame Lucar. It's like Talent Flamer Lucaro
from like when the game first came out. I love both of them.
One that's really climbing up the list, that is Intellian. I was gonna
say, so one you'd like to learn, Oh my gosh, I love
Intellian. It's such a good release it And then you know what, as
a Pokemon I do not like Intelian. I thought it was like it was
not my favorite starter. I'm a big water Pokemon fan. I was actually
disappointed when I saw the evolution. But then you bring it into Unite and
all of a sudden, I love this thing. Yeah, it's like my
favorite. Now. How do you feel about the Quaxley line? I love
quest. I'm a huge I'm such a huge Quaxley fan. Yeah, my
spirit animal. You've been bouncing around here all weekend long. It's been great.
Yeah. So one last question for you. If someone plays other mobives
like you said earlier, and want to try and dabble in Unite, what
would be the one piece of advice you would give them as far as the
transition. I take it that this is not quite as That's what I'm trying
to say here, not quite as, not intense, because it can be
intense maybe in depth. I feel like there's a lot, a lot easier
of an entry point, let's say in this game that opposed to other mobives.
Would you agree with that? Yeah? I think so. I think
it's very intentional. They want the matches. You know, they're ten minute
long games, so that's very accessible. You don't have to sit down and
play an hour long match of League or something like that, and you don't
have item buying inside of a match. You could you prep your Pokemon's kit
before a match, so you don't have that level of complexity inside the game
either. I just said complexity where and they said complexity, So you don't
have that inside the game either. But I think a lot of what Pokemon
Unite gives you then is more time inside of a match to focus on the
macro and more time inside of a match to focus on how to play your
Pokemon. Unlike some other mobives no character yet maybe there's one that's kind of
weird. You know, every every Pokemon's a little different, but no character
has like mona system or anything like that. Everything's based around fool down.
So as a new player, I would go in there and just recognize,
you know, they want you to play, they want you to fight,
they want you to use your moves, be aggressive. And the game is
called Pokemon Unite for a reason, it's not called Pokemon. Everyone go their
own way and just kind of figure it out. When you are with your
team showing up to objectives which the game clearly indicates like this, just hit
the map, break ways to just stay out there, go, get go,
get that, show up with your squad. I think moments like that
are what I would look towards if you're new into Pokemon Unite. Just be
with your team, head to the objectives Pokemon Unite, and use your moves
because there's no real reason not to, like, get out there and fight.
Sure, I agree, Spragels, Thank you so much for your time.
Enjoy the rest of worlds and people speak to you soon hopefully. Thanks
Bob, absolutely man. Thanks for having me cool. All right, there
you go. Thank you Spragels for coming on to the show. Very much
appreciated. Looking forward to seeing more of Pokemon Unite from you, my friend.
Moving on now to the second interview of the segment, let's talk to
Zoincs. We're sticking with Pokemon Unite. You just hurt Spragels, But there
is another commentator whose voice is just as iconic calling it being called over these
intense matches, and I, frankly I like to say his name a lot
because it brings me back to a time of innocence, and I'm sure that's
why he picked it. This is Zoikes. Zoikes. How are you pal?
I'm doing really good. Thanks for that great intro. Yeah, I
like the name too. Yeah, I appreciate that. Appreciate the high praise
there. So Unite year two has ended. We have our second world champion
looks very similar to our first world champion, if I do, If I
do, say, were you expecting that sort of dominant performance from them or
were you expecting them to be top tier in the mix but still tested?
Oh? Absolutely not expecting to see an LG. That was last year as
well. I mean, their first year run was extremely dominant as well,
barely dropping. I don't think they dropped the game in that one. They
did drop one this year, but I mean this forum was like unheard of,
completely unexpected from them after a season that was rocky. But I mean,
if any team's gonna turn up on stage, it's this team. A
few specific players just tell are different players when they're in front of a crowd.
Yeah. I with Spragel's too. I went back to the third match
of that Grand Finals. It seemed like after watching that, it seemed like
in the first two they were just kind of like letting them have their fun
and then being like, all right, no time to go. That team's
basically had that in them all year, but it's been a bit of a
challenge. As Spragel was saying to get here, would you agree with it?
Yeah, I do agree with that. They still had an average placement
overall of third place at all the tournaments, and it's a very competitive region
in North America, so it's not like they were having an awful season.
I think the biggest, you know, mark on their season was a not
making a top eight in one of the tournaments, getting knocked out at the
qualification rounds. I definitely had a lot of people turning their heads with surprise.
But I mean after that, definitely coming back up. It was just
tough for them to find that actual win. But they did come away with
two Cups this entire year leading up to World so matching another team that also
got to sure, were there any teams in this tournament as it played out
that's surprise? I know there were a few, like one local to Japan
MJK really impressed a lot of folks, and then the team from the Philippines
that played LG and the Grand Files at Omo Abyssinian. I keep getting that
wrong. There's a lot of syllables in that is a lot more than it
seems like there should be. But were there any teams that stuck out to
you as like, hey, we're going to be seeing these guys for a
long time to come. Oh interesting, Okay. One the biggest surprise to
me is Team Act Jill from Korea. Oka. Korea as a region is
actually extremely small. In bookem on you unit, it's one of our smallest
regions represented and therefore definitely gets kind of looked past by a lot of teams
leading up into it. And well, there's a couple of players that performed
very well in the world stage last year at s Foyl and Shobo, and
they're on that team again and actually had in a crazy tournament, knocked out
a tournament favorite from North America and Almatarasu in the group stage, and then
had a great bracket run, went on at fifth, sixth. But still
that was a big surprise for me. Yeah. Now, conversely, was
there a team that you thought might have performed a little bit better than they
did? And what do you attribute to their I don't want to say subpar,
but maybe like the tournament turning out not the way they expected. Well,
I mean, I'm sure Spregel's already brought up tally Boba believers that European
team. I mean, they were the favorites to win the tournament on paper,
but having such a tough group that was that was a tough one to
move into. Honestly, I think another European team I'm gonna bring up is
Nouns Esports. They were the runner ups last year at Worlds. They also
had a very tough group, and I mean in their group was Omo Abyssinian
as well, so that team obviously having an amazing tournament run. But yeah,
Nowns Esports, I think a lot of people expected a bit more from
them, and I mean it even came down to a match that neither one
of the teams making it out of the group were playing in, and depending
on what team won is what team made it out of the group. So
Nowns Esports definitely, I think we could have seen more from them this tournament.
A few unfortunate performances, and I don't think they're done though. I
think in next year they're definitely gonna be coming back with a venge. Sure.
Sure. Now we're also were talking about the match band I'm sorry,
the band draft that was put in this year. We talked about how it's
a benefit to match variety and there's some strategic elements there. What did do
you would you say that it's a boon to United esports and what's specifically about
it do you like the most. Oh, it's incredible. I mean it
feels like we're actually on the esports stage now like with everybody else. It's
an amazing thing. There is a part of me, I know, you
cover overwatched a bunch that. Like back in the day when when Mirro comps
and stuff like that, we're just kind of picked all the time. It
was like, Hey, what team has the better skill in this situation?
But draft just really sets this game apart. Having another layer of strategy preparation
becomes that much more important to understand your tea, other opponents' strategies and kind
of their tendencies. It's pretty big. Even Luminosity was talking about an interview
about how they were studying not even not only what pokemon are picked, but
the order in which they are picked so they can try to make other teams
uncomfortable. So it's been huge, So just in that it's been able to
have good teams have more skill expression, and I think because of Draft face
we're actually seeing just more competitive teams at the top consistently. We're having a
lot better results that way, and the whole Like, yeah, the powerhouses
in each region are starting to really show themselves and cement themselves at the top
of the of the chain. That makes sense, So let me get you
out of here on this one's easy one. Two easy ones actually. First
of all, who are your top three in unit? I imagine you play
just as much as you guess who are Who are your top three most chosen?
If I was playing against you, who am I drafting to make sure
that you don't get them? Well, one, we need to add draft
a rank, so hopefully that happens. Hope that happens. But if I'm
most played was definitely Snorlax when the game released, I was a one trick
Snorlax to relate that pokemon, but recently it has all been Chandler and Gudra.
I have a love in those two pokemon right now? Is there one
you'd like to try and start learning? Like one that's whether just released or
or don't say YouTube can't same youtwo never but like or one that evnt had
a chance to really dig into. Well, not for lack of trying with
my talent, definitely having a tough time. But every time I watch Overlord,
I just want to play Sorarc so bad. I mean watching that Pokemon
on stage is just ridiculous. And I mean having these teams have a chance
to prove how good and how high of a skill ceiling it is on a
world stage is amazing. So zor Arc for sure, but I mean maybe
my eyes are a little too high on that prize. When I'm looking at
Overlord playing that boe, you have a feeling that's gonna take a lot of
preparation. And then finally, the city of Yokohama. Have you been to
Japan before? No, first time? First time? How did you?
How do you feel it serve its purpose as the host of Worlds this year
compared to London or any other worlds that you've been previously? Pretty incredible?
I mean Pokemon pulls out all the stops this time. And actually, I
think today was my first time to really soak in how much it means to
be in Japan, just because I was so involved with the event the last
two days. But today I was able to go to a park that was
all Pokemon theme but tried magic carp fishing. I mean, there's the ss
han is like out on the water, but this place is so cool.
I mean, this happens in every world, but I think this one in
particular it's surprising because how big an event it is and how wide and spread
out it is. However, the attention to detail and just the are incredible,
credible. Well, it's so cool to see. I agree with that
one hundred percent of zoinks. Thank you so much for your time. Pokemon
Unite coming back strong. You better watch every single match this upcoming season.
You're gonna hear that voice. And if you haven't watched Worlds yet, please
go back and watch the odds the matches are incredible. Zoints. Thank you
so much for your time. Thank you, and there you have it.
Spraygels and Zoints talking Pokemon Unite at the Pokemon World Championships from a couple of
months ago. I do like watching that game a lot. It was one
of the more entertaining games at the entire event. They hea you have a
chance to dip into it. Yet it's on your phone, it's on your
tablet, and it's on your switch and it's free to play, so you
can definitely jump in and start enjoying it at your leisure. But with that,
that is the end of episode number one hundred and thirty eight of the
Chief Takes the ConTroll Horse podcast, presented as always by Fox Pho The Gambler,
Philadelphia, one of two point five FM fourteen eighty AM. I Heart
Radio. Wherever you get your podcasts is where you can hear this voice.
As I say every single time I record an episode, if you are listening
to this part, that means we've gotten to the end, and I appreciate
you for doing so. Means a lot to me that you would spend some
time with me, even after my long unintended hiatus. But I am back
in the saddle, baby, and I am ready to talk about video games,
E sports and anything else that comes up between now and you know,
the next unintended hiatus that I might take. I just need life to slow
down for a little bit. I would very much appreciate that, indeed,
But thank you for listening. As always, I always, like I said,
appreciate that you are here. I hope you have a fantastic weekend.
I hope you have an even better week right behind it. And we will
back me back next week with more of the latest and greatest video games on
Cheese, Steaks and Controllers. See you later clearly out of practice with that
catchphrase at the end. There