Monday, October 13, 2025

Side Events at Pokémon Milwaukee Regionals 2026

This regional is part of the 2025-2026 season, and is therefore being referred to as the 2026 Milwaukee Regionals (despite being held in October 2025). If you’re looking for information on the previous season’s Milwaukee Regionals held in May 2025, read this article.

Friday

As usual, I took the bus from the UW-Madison campus stop to Milwaukee’s intermodal station downtown. After dropping some things off at my hotel, I went over to the Baird Center to check in and play in side events for the afternoon. Unlike the previous Milwaukee Regionals in May, for this event they had us in the D and E halls on the third floor and as such we had to enter via the north entrance.

I registered for the Hard difficulty of the Pokémon Go Scavenger Hunt, then signed up for the Pokémon Puzzle League tournament. I wish I could tell you I did exceptionally well, but the reality is that I went 1-2, thanks to the skilled competition at the 8-person event. Granted, the typical issues of input lag and worn controllers meant that there were cases where some of my losses didn’t feel like they were my fault, but other participants had to deal with similar issues.

My second event for the afternoon was a TCG Raid. This went relatively smoothly (with far less waiting than what I experienced at Worlds in August), and as usual we were able to defeat the boss relatively easily. Events closed shortly after the raid concluded, so I headed back to the hotel and ordered a meal from the middle eastern restaurant Scheherazade.

Saturday

After donning the latest version of my “Ringo Starr as a Pokémon Trainer” costume (now with a Confined Hoopa plush), I headed over to participate in the Build-and-Battle. This used the “Destined Rivals” set (not to be confused with the anime season “Rival Destinies” from the 2010s), and I was dealt a combination of Misty’s and Team Rocket’s Pokémon. Misty’s Gyarados relies heavily on discarding her Pokémon from the top of the deck, so it seemed like a better idea to go with Team Rocket’s Tyranitar, especially since I literally got zero of Misty’s Pokémon in my packs. Using this setup, I was able to pull of an impressive 3-0 run.

After another TCG Raid, I decided to attempt an 8-person Ditto tournament. This was run using a single pack of cards to build a 20-card deck. Ironically, I did get a Misty’s Magikarp in the pack, which I had no intention of using, instead choosing Team Rocket’s Houndour and Grimer as my basics, and supplementing them with an assortment of Stage 1 cards, and a Stage 2 Annihilape. I was once again able to go 3-0 on this, using that Annihilape in the finals to clinch the win in the finals.

After this point, side events closed for the evening, so I ordered a Mexican omelet from the Omega Family Restaurant and watched the pivotal baseball game (as if there wasn’t enough happening in Milwaukee already this weekend).

Sunday

Having changed into my “Michael Hutchence as a Pokémon Trainer” cosplay (now with Rock Star Pikachu plush), I went to the center and waited for the start of the noon Chaos Cup event. In addition to having pre-made teams (one of which I had to re-enter because it mysteriously dropped off my list between rounds two and three), the judge would assign arbitrary additional rules to groups of players each round. Despite having lesser skills at the VGC than TCG, I was able to finish 2-1.

After turning in my Go Scavenger Hunt results, I participated in the afternoon’s TCG pocket event. I brought in my usual Greninja/Articuno EX and Serperior/Celebi EX decks, but only managed to attain a record of 1-2, and then only by virtue of getting a bye in the second round (which at least that gave me some time to take advantage of the Solosis Community Day in Go). I obviously have some work to do, and probably need to explore some new deck ideas.

Other Observations:

-If Gaming Generations wants to continue to hold retro gaming competitions, it really would be nice if they could upgrade their N64 and GameCube setups to improve the experience. The SNES/N64/GameCube combo adapters may be fine for Stadium and other turn-based games, but for Puzzle League/Challenge and Pinball, faster response times are needed. Games using the Game Boy Player were particularly laggy and difficult. Products like the Rad2x and adapters that use the GameCube digital port (allowing 480p on that system) are available for under $100. If they’re willing/allowed to mod the N64, it seems like there’s a new low-cost mod out there.
-In terms of time taken, there seemed to be far fewer delays at this event than there were at the May regional. I can’t speak personally as to whether they brought in more staff or had fewer attendees, but things ran much better from a time and organizational standpoint.


Sunday, September 7, 2025

Discussing the music of (the game) Detective Pikachu

After the PokePark games, Pokemon pivoted to creating a new kind of Pikachu-centric title. Listen in as Anne from Pikapi Podcast and I discuss the music of this 3DS entry:



Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 79: MadEx 2025/The Music of "Pokken Tournament"

The first segment (1:06-13:40) is a pair of interviews from MadEx 2025*, where I got to meet dub director Lisa Ortiz, as well as a winner of the Super Smash Bros. Doubles tournament.

The second segment (14:57-53:46) is a discussion of the music of Pokken Tournament. Anne from Pikapi Podcast joins me to go over the tunes from this one-on-one fighter. The title may not have gotten as much traction as Pokémon wanted, but we make sure to give it due consideration. As usual, there’s a game discussion after the outro:


*A press pass was provided for this event.

Links:
Pikapi Podcast
Poke Casters Network

Slow Scan TV Information:

SSTV audio an be decoded by a variety of software:

Android
iOS
Windows
Wikipedia

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

Short: Concierge's Successful Score

Pokémon Concierge's score impressed me more than most of the recent animated Pokémon movies. I discuss why with Anne from Pikapi Podcast:


 

Monday, July 14, 2025

Your Favorite Pokémon Music Video?

In an upcoming discussion, we'll be discussing official Pokémon music videos. Do you have a favorite?


 

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Side Events (and More) at NAIC 2025

2025 marks NAIC’s second year in New Orleans. I was excited to visit the city again, but did it live up to my expectations?

Thursday

This year, I decided (based on cost and timetables) to fly out of O’Hare instead of Madison. O’Hare doesn’t really have that many direct flights to New Orleans, but I picked a 10 AM departure on American. Unlike last year, my departure left on time and I arrived as expected in the Big Easy. I decided to get to my hotel using the express bus line to downtown, which unfortunately still required me to walk nearly a mile with my luggage. At least I got some exercise that way.

Column with a wraparound poster of Minun indicating it's the on-demand side event meeting location
Friday

This first day of the event started with a stop at the Pokémon Center. As Psyduck is one of (if not my very) favorite Pokémon, I had to restrain myself from spending too much on merchandise. I ended up picking up a playmat (partially to replace my Psyduck/Slowpoke mat I have yet to locate post-pandemic), a Psyduck light, a pair of socks, and a few other items.

Upon reaching the side event area, I was disappointed (and a bit confused) to find out that they had substituted a six-pack sealed Ditto format due to a lack of Build-and-Battle boxes. I was especially disappointed when I realized the screen I had seen on RK9 on my phone was actually a payment screen rather than a confirmation. That said, I still had plenty of fun in a series of TCG raids and a Puzzle League competition.

Saturday

Having made sure to register properly the day before, I was able to participate in both a sealed Ditto event and a TCG pocket event. Decked out in my Ringo Starr trainer costume (with the socks I had purchased at the Pokémon Center, no less), I managed to go 2-1 with a deck containing appropriately quirky Pokémon like Ampharos and Sudowoodo. I was less successful at the TCG Pocket event at 1-2, but at least my win came from over an actual opponent instead of a bye like in Milwaukee.

Sunday

After suiting up in my Michael Hutchence outfit, I decided I had enough energy to do another TCG raid, so I made that my last side event and cashed out my tickets on an incubator backpack and a Luxray deck box. I also took some time to wrap up some tasks from the Go scavenger hunt, earning myself a Suicune pin and a few other trinkets.

The last major stop I wanted to make was at the Play Lab, which now offers introductions to the TCG, Video Game, and Unite (possibly also Go). Having not played Unite since its release, I decided to give it another chance. Unfortunately, the experience largely reminded me why I wasn’t a fan of the game. Admittedly, our team was beaten very badly, but overall, it just felt like I wasn’t really accomplishing much there, nor did I have much a feel of being part of a group. At least I have more to talk about when we get to discussing this game on the podcast.

Monday

The only major event of my return trip was the 1.5-hour delay in my flight back to Chicago. After that, it was a typical bus ride back to Madison, dinner, and sleep.

Switch 2 demo kiosk showing the updated version of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.
Other Notes:

-There were Switch 2 kiosk set up demoing the updated Scarlet/Violet game. I already had my own system, but gave it a bit of a try to get a feel for the new Pro Controller, which seemed fine.
-I was a bit disappointed at the lack of an anime viewing room at this year’s event.

Overall

I had a great time at NAIC as usual. While they can always use more staff, it did seem to be better than Milwaukee Regionals last month. I do look forward to Worlds in August and (presumably) returning here next year.

Friday, June 13, 2025

Poke Press Digest Podcat: Episode 78-Anime Milwaukee 2025/The Music of "Pokemon Picross"

The first segment (1:10-8:40) is a pair of interviews from Anime Milwaukee 2025*. At this year's even, I was able to talk to a fan running a "Who's That Pokemon?" panel, and the winner of the Smash Ultimate tournament.

The second segment (9:22-end) is a discussion of the music of Pokemon Picross for the 3DS. Despite not enjoying the puzzles themselves, Anne from Pikapi Podcast joins me to discuss this slate of tunes.

*A press pass was provided for this event.


Links:
Pikapi Podcast
Poke Casters Network

Slow Scan TV Information:
SSTV audio an be decoded by a variety of software:
Android
iOS
Windows
Learn more on Wikipedia