Podcasts about gamechops

Episode 205 – Dragons Rule the World Special Conditions is back! After a longer-than-planned break, Adam and Justin catch up on what's been happening in Pokémon, collecting, card shows, and life before diving into a huge weekend for the Pokémon TCG. Adam jumps back into competitive play at a local Worlds Celebration event and immediately walks away with the win using Garchomp. We break down the deck, why Unfair Stamp was so effective, some of the matchups he faced, and how a last-minute Switch inclusion literally saved the tournament. Then it's time for the 2026 Pokémon World Championships. We talk about Dragapult's continued grip on the format, some of the more interesting decks and plays we caught during the weekend, the difference between watching Dragapult and the slower formats of the past, and some of what PokémonXP brought to the Worlds experience. Plus, Justin catches everyone up on his recent Star Wars costuming adventures, Adam opens a pile of Prize Packs, and Adam's Vending Corner returns with lessons from another month of card shows—including why being the vendor who can find someone's random 13-cent reverse holo might be more rewarding than selling the expensive card. Question for the listeners: If you had played in the 2026 Pokémon World Championships, what deck would you have brought?

Lured Up Podcast 406 - Happy Trails Live Streamed on - 8/26/2026 Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  When the pacing of the game is nonstop, even a slow down feels like a break. While we had the wrap up of the Water Festival, the kickoff of the Worlds event and Mega Starmie over the weekend, we still know that the road to the finale is upon us. We will be swimming in events and activity over the next few weeks, so it's time to prepare both on and off screen. The news cycle never cares about how exhausted we are with the announcement of the next season in Pokémon GO, Twilight Trails! While we have the key art and a few bits of information, it will likely be a few weeks before we can really start to get the vibe of things. It brings up the discussion of the importance of seasons, and if they are necessary to the game anymore. We don't really see any narrative, and the events just flow into each other. We would love to hear what you think about seasons and what you want out of them. Wayfarer is having a major update that moves it further to being an independent tool outside of Pokémon GO. Beginning on September 1st, you will be taken to the Wayfarer Website to manage nominations and all of Wayfarer, rather than remaining inside of Pokémon GO. The reaction is mixed, with more casual Wayfinders being reluctant to want to move, and the experienced map-makers loving the decision.  We wrap up with a Professor's Principle about “Protecting your peace”. There are plenty of things within the game and community that can have an impact on your mental state. We see tons of anger and negativity online every day. That has a negative impact on your peace, as it drains some energy out of you that could have been used for something positive. We discuss how finding things that being you joy while letting go of things that drain you is a fantastic approach to shifting your energy. Rather than needing to find more energy (we are already exhausted), we talk about releasing energy that we are spending in a negative way, and reallocating it to something that supports your joy and peace. Pokemon XP & Worlds Events Starmie Super Mega Raid Day Twitlight Trails Wayfarer Update GO Pass: September Ken on Incensed LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2026Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Scopely ExploreLured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 405: Live Streamed on - 8/18/2026 Publish Date - 8/20/2026 We got back to basics last week, so we get back to gameplay this week. We start with a recap of the last week including having a week off of events, Nickit Community Day, and the kickoff of the Water Festival. Adam worked a card show but was able to squeeze in the final hour, and Ken was able to play in Red Bank with a solid group of Trainers. The Water Festival is a pretty awesome event, with new Pokémon, boosted Shinies, and some solid Tier 1 and 3 Raids. This week is also a great one to put in some grinding as we earn more and more XP and Stardust bonuses as we progress through the event. That week off was a nice break but Lunala and Mega Starmie mean that it is time to get back to Raids.Lunala's Shiny debut will be a popular one for sure, and a Super Mega Raid Day for Starmie will be 6 hours of Mega Raid goodness. We take a look at both Pokebattler and GO Hub to put a little Raid Guide and Battle Party together for them both. We will likely see plenty of Mega Mewtwo Y in the lobbies as it is a top counter for both bosses. We have some time before the end of month push with XP, Worlds, Mega Ascension, and the Mega Finale take over our lives for a bit. This week is the perfect opportunity to perform your Pokémon storage and item maintenance. It has been a struggle for many to recover from GO Fest, so you should have awareness now if you want to make sure your GO Plus can run non stop during the events. Is buying box storage the answer? It is really only a short term solution because if you don't have an inventory plan, you will end up out of space very quickly. We wrap up with our Professor's Principle of the week, which takes a look at how important it is to position yourself in a way to achieve small victories. From setting fun and unique personal challenges in the game, to letting Party play guide you, there are ways to keep momentum pushing forward to make a gameplay session more fun and engaging, without needing a big reward at the end. It parallels well with life too. Pride is an awesome feeling that is helped along when you feel accomplished. Finding a process that includes small and achievable goals is an awesome way to keep yourself feeling driven and motivated to press on. Nickit Community Day Water Festival Starmie Super Mega Raid Day Pokebattler Lunala Counters GO Hub Lunala Counters Pokébattler Mega Starmie Counters GO Hub Mega Starmie Counters Pokémon XP & Worlds Events GO Fest Mega Ascension & Finale Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2026Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Scopely ExploreLured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 404: The Plan All Along Live Streamed on - 8/13/2026 Publish Date - 8/14/2026 What a week, am I right? Seriously though, this week has been a wild ride as Scopely Explore dropped multiple massive news bombs this week. While we start things off recapping the Summer Marathon, it isn't long before we spill into the larger news stories. The first being the details of the Mega Finale, which have come to little to no fanfare. Trainers are not too happy with the Raid lineup of the event, as we won't be able to grind the Kalos Mega Starters and we will once again have Mewtwo in the mix. That is of course, after everyone in the game just got a free Hundo Mewtwo with a background. Trainers were shocked to learn about a free Timed Research that rewarded a Hundo Mewtwo, and of course the internet was ablaze with reactions. From Trainers thinking it is the best thing since sliced bread, to some that somehow found a way to still be upset about things. At the end of the day, this was an unprecedented move that opened up a lot of questions. Was this a reaction to the online community's complaints or was this the plan all along? While we will likely never know, there is plenty of speculation flying around. The final big news drop was that the Explorer Gadget has now rolled out globally to Trainers level 20 and above. While not a direct replacement for the GO Plus+, the tool is a bit clunky and cumbersome to figure out, with limited explanation of how it truly works for it to be effective. We are sure that Trainers that do not have autocatcher hardware will love it, for those of us that have a GO Plus+, it just doesn't stack up and isn't the tool we hoped it will be. Adam feels like it will evolve over time, so we will have to see! Our Professor's Principle this week is about Expectation vs. Reality. With so many Trainers online being upset about the Mega Finale, it really comes down to them being upset about something they never even had. It opens a discussion about how to balance standards against expectations to find a place in the middle where you leave room to be flexible. The journey is part of the process and when you allow some uncertainty to the outcome, it allows you to adapt to manage emotions and ultimately disappointment. Let us know what you think! Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  Summer Marathon: Arctic Embers GO Fest: Mega Finale Hundo Mewtwo Explorer Gadget LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2026Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Scopely ExploreLured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 403: Back to Basics Live Streamed on - 8/5/2026 Publish Date - 8/7/2026 Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  The last few weeks have been non-stop ups and downs over events, tickets, and the need for a break. This week we take a step back from that conversation to discuss some important topics about what made us originally fall in love with this game. It was likely NOT buying every event ticket, having every weekend consumed with events, and min-maxing every single mechanic in the game. It likely had to do with exploration, having fun exploring to catch Pokémon and spending time with fiends. We look into how important those basics are to keep your personal motivation and excitement over the game alive. We get back to basics with conversations about the not so exciting but exceptionally essential to your success. Things like managing Pokémon storage, item inventory, and goal setting are important crucial to maximizing the time you do get to play. Our talk helps navigate some things to keep your eye on to make dedicated gameplay sessions as efficient as possible. There are two in-game events to unpack this week, first the Spring Marathon and then the XP/Worlds event. Taking a look at the Marathon event, we are sure that Scopely has learned a lot about how the online community feels about Research with walking tasks. Spoiler alert, they don't like it. Not surprisingly, we love it, and hope more Trainers can see how Walking is not only a core part of the game, but a mechanic that improves our experience by suggesting healthy choices. The XP and Worlds event is still three weeks away, there are some dates to put on your calendar. There will be 4 different Twitch drops during the Worlds weekend including a Timed Research exclusively available from co-streamers like us! Stay tuned for a date and time that we will be co-streaming during Worlds! We wrap up with our Professor's Principle of the week in a discussion about how when you lose your way, it's best to get back to basics. The onslaught of events has burned a ton of Trainers out, and with it comes less motivation and drive to even open the game. Putting effort into finding what brings you joy and rediscovering it can help you get your groove back in our current post, GO Fest burnout phase. In life, things are a bit less tangible. We lose motivation to do the small things, which can be getting good sleep, eating right, drinking water. Returning to those basics will undoubtedly have a positive impact on other parts of your life. The little things are vital. Little Things make big things happen. Summer Marathon: Arctic Embers Pokémon XP & 2026 Worlds Event LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2026Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Scopely ExploreLured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 402 Live Streamed on - 7/29/2026 Publish Date - 7/31/2026 We talked last week about the dust settling after the back to back flurry of the 10th Anniversary Event in NYC and GO Fest: Global. Trainers had a long week leading into the event and an even longer weekend of non-stop Raids. We have absolutely seen a shift lately from a focus on catching and grinding at events to Raiding. With the feeling of success from Raids being at the mercy of RNG, the return doesn't always line up with the investment. This can really lead to fatigue, which is our main topic of the episode. Every year after GO Fest, there is typically a window of events that seem like they drag. Each event seems to be trying to recapture the magic of GO Fest, but can't actually pull it off. Blend this with the crazy pacing and relentless schedule of events, Trainers are feeling a bit drained physically, mentally, and financially. It is hard to be motivated to play when faced with this type of exhaustion, so when the Mega Finale was announced as a two day event, Trainers were gasping for air. We take a look at what we would want from an event calendar, and how just a weekend off can make all the difference. This leads to a conversation about expectations, accountability, and finding joy in the things we do. That convo leads to our guiding principal of, “Just because you can, doesn't mean you should”. Ken shares how over the last few years his decisions were dictated by circumstance. Saying no to things was done out of necessity, not out of desire. As things changed over time and life stabilized, his ability to say yes to things returned, however it became an issue. Saying yes to everything put undue stress on his health and finances, with a side order of guilt if he said no. Navigating one's ability to say no to things as a choice, is an example of empowerment. We examine that empowerment and discuss the parallels between decision making on and off screen. Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  GO Fest: Mega Finale Shadow Giratina (Altered) Counters: Pokébattler Shadow Giratina (Altered) Counters: GO Hub Summer Marathon: Arctic Embers LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2026Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Scopely ExploreLured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 401: The Highest Bidder Live Streamed on -7/21/2026 Publish Date - 7/23/2026 Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  The dust has finally settled from the 10th Anniversary Event in NYC and GO Fest Global Weekend. We have a ton to unpack and discuss as the community has had some time to respond to the madness that was the last week. It was pretty wild to see the community turn on itself in anger. The creators were up first to feel the flames as it seemed the Community Ambassadors would come out untouched. Then… The Times Square Mewtwo hit eBay and things went nuts. People forgot about being mad at creators and turned on the CAs and their communities. RaspberryWeiner broke some news about finding out the in-game name of one of the sellers who even came forward to apologize and say that he didn't know selling a Pokémon on eBay was against any rules. It was wild to watch as the internet delivered another reason for the X-mob to dislike the event. We stuck around NYC to play GO Fest Global, where we put ourselves under a massive challenge to walk all the way from Bryant Park in Manhattan to Industry City, Brooklyn and back. Let's just say our dogs were barking and we were just about out of gas when we got back to Bryant Park. Huge shout to LeBro for making the journey with us to Brooklyn. We were very surprised by the gameboard at the Community Celebration, as it seemed to be 90% Gyms. You could feel the lack of Lures as the spawns seemed pretty thin. It was a pretty cool setting, but definitely was a departure from the park style play that we have seen before. Scopely Explore did have a first this week, and that was the announcement of their first make up event under their new name! In all seriousness, the community is buzzing in a positive way about the make up GO Fest Raids being a global make up. They are even throwing in a bunch of Raid passes to boot.The Scopely Effect is becoming more and more noticeable, and we are loving that even when parts of the community can feel a little rough around the edges, the masses online still seem to be rowing in the same direction as the developer. The pacing and event calendar for the rest of the month into August is already looking packed. With Ultra Unlocks, new Shinies, and plenty of things to do, there is definitely no rest for the weary. The focus on IRL play with a consistent spattering of very remote friendly events have created a nice balance for different types of Trainers to come together.  Before we wrap up we have a few listener emails and a voicemail to play, with SerAmanda bringing a banger of a protip in the settings. We close with our guiding principal of the episode being: Everyone is playing a different game. Trainers with different goals and process can meet on the same gameboard and navigate an event together, even if they are concerned with very different things. In life, we interact with people every day and never really know what they can be going through.  Ultra Unlock: 10th Anniversary Edition GO Pass: August Gigantamax Rillaboom Max Battle Day Summer Marathon: Arctic Embers Fire and Ice Hatch Day Ultra Unlock: Water Festival Ultra Unlock: Starmie Super Mega Raid Day GO Wild Area 2026 LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2026Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Scopely ExploreLured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 400 Live Streamed on - 7/10/2026 Publish Date - 7/11/2026 We recorded this special episode from our hotel room in NYC in order to address our thoughts on the social media fallout about the 10th Anniversary Event in Times Square. While we had the times of our lives unlocking core memories, the online community was at serious risk of imploding on itself. It seems as though the online community was not a fan of how Scopely Explore handled the event, and subsequent reward from being in attendance. Be sure to let us know what you think and tune in to next episode as we continue the conversation! Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 399: Monday Madness!! Live Streamed on - 7/1/2026 Publish Date - 7/3/2026 GO Fest: Global is on the horizon, but the game is still chugging along with a ton of content as July unfolds. This weekend in particular has an incredible 3 hour window of gameplay, that we highly recommend you take advantage of. That is of course, if you don't have Fourth of July plans, as PGO is a global game, this weekend may be tough for US Trainers. If you can make it out to play on Saturday from 2-5pm, you get to double up on two events, Sobble Community Day and the 10th Anniversary Party. With 4x Catch XP and Stardust all weekend, on top of quarter hatch distance and massive spawn volume from Sobble Community Day, it will be a very efficient window of gameplay that can yield massive results. As we move into July, the GO Pass brings Pokécoins and a Ho-Oh encounter, which can be hit or miss with Trainers. One thing that the GO Pass does well is keep Trainers engaged, and if coins are on the line, it could motivate many F2P Trainers to complete the first half of the pass to collect those coins. The Deluxe version of the pass steps up to 1,400 Pokécoins, which can translate into some great items in the shop. The Road of Legends will keep most Trainers very busy next week, as Niantic stays true to their annual pre-GO Fest: Global event that will likely wipe out a whole bunch of consumable items. It will be absolutely imperative to figure out your priorities between the Road of Legends and GO Fest: Global. Figuring it out can be a slippery slope, especially next Monday when the Raids will be completely ludicrous. If you fail to plan, you will surely plan to fail.  After discussing how the temperature on X seemed oddly positive, due to the game being in such a great place (GBL not withstanding), the mobs finally found their prey that could allow them to bust out the pitchforks and torches again. We saw OG content creator, Mystic7 in the mob's crosshairs, as infographic G47IX posted how his honeypot laden graphic seemed to be Mystic ripped off. The community jumped all over it and seemed to air out years of pent of feelings about Mystic7, only to have him double down on his position. It's been a wild ride over the last week, and while things seem to have been settled between the two parties, the community is clearly not going to let this go that easy. We wrap things up with another guiding principal that can be applied to both life and Pokémon GO. We look at the phrase, “Comparison is the thief of joy” and how we can draw parallels on and off screen. In life, some comparisons can lead to feelings of sadness or depression. Feelings of wanting what others have is powerful, because it has the same power to motivate or demotivate you. When you make decisions based on what others think, you put yourself in the back seat, which will limit your ability to grow and prioritize your own well being. In Pokémon GO, comparison to others can cause FOMO, which can not only lead to being demoralized, but also can influence some poor decision making. I've seen plenty of Trainers go from, “Just one more Raid” to “I have to stop Raiding because I'm broke.” Finding balance in using your environment to empower your growth and motivate you to succeed can be challenging on your own. It highlights the importance of having a support system that can be a cheerleader for you, to keep you making the right choices that are in your own best interest. Sobble Community Day 10th Anniversary Party July GO Pass Road of Legends GO Fest: Global Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 398: Be Present, Not Perfect Live Streamed on - 6/25/2026 Publish Date - 6/26/2026 First off we wanted to share a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who wrote in, shared feedback, and offered support after last week's episode! It is truly amazing to see the community come together and rally around each other. It means the world to us and we are proud to be a part of this incredible scene. We follow up on last week's topic, share some feedback, and look at the practice of being present, not perfect. It's a powerful sentiment and absolutely has parallels to Pokémon GO. In the gameplay space, it is all about IRL gameplay. With 6 new City Safari events being announced, the community will have a lot of opportunity to come together to celebrate the game. Adam and I will be attending the Boston City Safari, and we hope to have the opportunity to play along side of you! More info to come on our plans and what we have in store for the Chicago locals and inbound Trainers. We touch on our Frigibax Community Day experiences and look forward to Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day, two events that are better when played with the community. From Community Day's non stop gameplay to the volume and demand that Super Mega Raid Days present, we encourage everyone to get out to experience this game with others. We also look at how the Giovanni mechanic has changed and no longer arrives via balloon. This forces Trainers to get out there to track him down, adding difficulty, immersion, and some commitment to the process.While some Trainers and creators online hate everything about this change, we are all about it, as it encourages the exploration element of the game, and makes the hunt unique. IRL Events July Content Update GBL Update Road of Legends Frigibax Community Day Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day Flying Taxi Flying Taxi Taken Over Be Present, Not Perfect Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 397 Live Streamed on - 6/19/2026 Publish Date - 6/20/2026 This has been a WILD week! Not just in game and on screen, but in real life too. Ken opens up about a serious health scare, and how it is a wake up call not just to take care of yourself, but also each other. With June being Men's Mental Health Month, it is an important reminder to understand how your mental health can have a direct impact on your physical health. Stay tuned to the end of the episode to hear Ken share his feelings, and offer advice on how we can all do better at looking after on another. In-game, the news has been completely bonkers. The Road of Legends event is by far and away the most packed event the game has ever seen, even making the upcoming GO Fest: Global pale in comparison. With a ridiculous amount of Raid Bosses in rotation, some great bonuses, and the ability to EliteTM Adventure Effects, this will be one for the record books. We still have a few weeks before the event kicks off, but we make our first pass through the blog and call out the highlights. IRL GO Fests may be behind us, but JUne still has a lot of life left! We scan through the remaining events of the month including Frigibax Community Day, Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day, and Flying Taxi. We also had some updates to Daily Discoveries including clarifications about Friendship Friday, and a very cool direction for Scenic Sunday. Spotlight Hours also make a consistent return including the much missed Double Transfer Canty bonus. We also look ahead to what we know for July including Raichu Super Mega Raid Day and Sobble Community Day. Also, an upcoming partnership with Lego Stores in select Countries will bring us a Stamp Rally, and special Lego Background Pikachu, exclusively obtained at Raids in-store. Check the links for the Lego Store Locator and plan an outing! One last note from Ken - Thank you to our entire community for supporting Lured Up for 10 years. We love what we do, and we are so proud to be able to have such a loyal and engaged audience. Your presence in our streams, comments, and at IRL events is the fuel that keeps me positive and motivated. Take care of yourself, take care of those around you, and keep things positive. Your energy is valuable, and should be treated as your most important currency. Thanks again! Road of Legends Frigibax Community Day Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day Flying Taxi Flying Taxi Taken Over Updates to Daily Discoveries 10th Anniversary Party Lego Partnership Find a Lego Store Raichu Super Mega Raid Day Sobble Community Day Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Special Conditions, Adam and Justin keep things lighter with a Pokémon life catch-up. Between travel plans, podcast chaos, collecting fatigue, and the constant stream of Pokémon news, this episode is more conversation than deep dive. We talk through the current Pokémon TCG vibes, the 30th Celebration reveal, NAIC 2026, reported changes around graded slabs and high-dollar vendor items at official events, and whether the hobby still feels fun when everything turns into a chase. Plus, we check in on Pokémon GO Fest Global, Justin going to Japan, promos, and the eternal question: what Pokémon thing is giving us joy right now, and what Pokémon thing is exhausting us? Pokémon 30th Anniversary Hub:https://30.pokemon.com/en-us/ Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration coverage:https://www.pokebeach.com/2026/06/30th-celebration-set-revealed NAIC 2026 TCG Results / Decks:https://limitlesstcg.com/tournaments/518 Current Limitless TCG deck trends:https://limitlesstcg.com/ Reported TPCi graded slab / vendor restriction story:https://www.pokebeach.com/2026/05/tpci-has-banned-sales-of-graded-slabs-and-pokemon-center-products-at-events Pokémon GO Fest Global 2026:https://pokemongolive.com/gofest/global Pokémon Mid-Year Celebrations:https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/mid-year-celebrations-return-to-play-pokemon-stores-on-june-15

Lured Up Podcast 396 Live Streamed on - 6/9/2026 Publish Date - 6/12/2026 To all the new listeners: WELCOME and THANK YOU for checking out LURED UP! We are back home from GO Fest Chicago and we are both in agreement that this was the best IRL GO Fest that we have ever attended. There is plenty to unpack to back up our sentiment, beginning with how the introduction of different gameplay “Districts” put you right into the gameplay, as soon as you stepped off the plane. It was an amazing feeling to have the event come to life as soon as arriving in Chicago, and the barrage of geo-based Timed Research kept Trainers tied to their games as the grind through a flurry of tasks. Even moving from the airport to our hotel kept us immersed in the game, making the gameboard come to life. If really make Trainers feel like they were looking at an in-game world map at their feet. The geo fencing of districts paired with associated Timed Research had players covering a serious amount of territory. If this is any indication of how IRL events can curate and shape real life gameplay behaviors, than this is just the tip of a very exciting iceberg. We had a full weekend of gameplay, including countless Raids and an insane amount of walking. Both of our Adventure Sync numbers were above 120km. In typical Lured Up fashion, we had stuff going on all weekend. On Friday nights we hosted our meetup at Monk's Pub, the same place as our 2019 meetup. You all SHOWED UP and we had double the turnout than we expected, and we are so grateful to have been able to spend time with all of you. Next year we will need a new venue! Saturday night was Adam's idea, with a Pokémon themed Pop-Punk night. All of the bands on the bill were incredible, with Midway Down headlining and absolutely brought the house down. It was so much fun to hang with the community in that setting. We will absolutely be incorporating live music/entertainment into our plans next year! Finally on Friday we met up with our good friend JT Valor for a final push of Raids at the end of the weekend. In typical Raid Train Fashion, we ended up picking up Trainers at every stop. It was VERY cool to see JT in action. He gives so much of himself to his fans and spends heaps of time with everyone. JT's combination of hardcore gameplay, travel, and approachability is PGO video content at its best. In typical live-service fashion, it seemed that about as soon as we stepped on the airplane to come home, new news was dropping about the events happening through the end of the month. We blast through the news and cover all of the new event info released post-Chicago. GO Fest Chicago Lured Up in Chicago Lured Up on Fox 32 Chicago 100 Thieves Team Leader Summer Quests Frigibax Community Day Skarmory Super Mega Raid Day Flying Taxi Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast #sponsored Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 395: Forward Progress Live Streamed on - 5/27/2026 Publish Date - 5/28/2026 We are less than 2 weeks away from GO Fest Chicago! This window of time is the funky period where some are getting ready to travel to GO Fest, while the majority of others are still ready to play and grind at home! We break down some of the details of the Chicago event as well as the Team Leader Summer Quests that we will have globally over the next few weeks. Being a live service game, Pokémon GO definitely doesn't have time to rest on its laurels, as Season 23 of the game has been unveiled. Forever Forward will be our next season, and by the look of the promotional video, Niantic is doubling down on their core value of exploration. From Trainers walking an adventuring, to images of remote Pokéstops, the game has positioned itself as a key motivator in keeping Trainers moving forward. We unpack what we know so far, and how GO Fest season will drive the first few weeks of the season, leading right into Global in mid-July. We also have our June Content Update, bringing back some Raid favorites like Necrozma and some Ultra Beasts. Frigibax has been announced as the June Community Day Pokémon, and we have a few events called out for the month. If IRL GO Fests are not in your future, there is still plenty to do in game and from home, which can be considered a long, winding road to GO Fest Global. We cover some random notes like the Pokémon Fossil Museum in Chicago and the release of Excavator Pikachu. This will likely be on all Chicago Trainer's bingo cards for the weekend. Pokémon GO has once again partnered with 100 Thieves to release some killer Mewtwo merch. We are hoping to get our hands on it, and ultimately give it away to the community.  We also run through our announced Chicago plans so far, including our Podcast Community Mixer with the GO Cast Podcast and our Pokémon Pop Punk night. We hope to have even more news to share by next week, and GO Fest will be here before you know it! Finally we reflect on how it has already been a year since the Scopely acquisition. We discuss our experiences working with Niantic and how our confidence in their goals has only increased since Scopely came in. If their 1 year promotional video doesn't get you going, I am not sure what will! GO Fest Chicago Team Leader Summer Quests Forever Forward Forever Forward GBL June Content Update Frigibax Community Day Pokémon Fossil Museum 100 Thieves Lured Up at Chicago GO Fest Scopely - 1 Year Later Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 394: That's a Lot of Raids Live Streamed on - 5/19/2026 Publish Date - 5/22/2026 Video podcast now available on SPOTIFY! The Community is split on how they feel about the sheer volume of Raids we will be seeing during GO Fest Global. With 50 or so different Raid Bosses, Trainers were feeling like they may not have the amount of opportunities to Raid a specific Pokémon as they would like. Plus, with Mega Mewtwo only showing up at Super Mega Raid eligible Gyms, some min/maxers are a bit annoyed with the deep roster. This led to Niantic announcing that each of the rotating, 3 hour habitats will have a specific Mega and 5 Star Raid Pool. Even with this news, some Trainers are still feeling like the Raids will be overwhelming to manage, especially if they really have their sights set on Mega Mewtwo. Coming off the heels of successful Community Celebrations in cities like Philadelphia and Washington DC, Niantic is bringing a major wave of Celebration events across the globe. New York City is going to be a blast and both Ken and Adam will be in attendance on Saturday! It's going to be an incredible day of gameplay and we hope to see you there! After the break we jump into some gameplay including Community Day Classic: Deino and the upcoming Falinks Super Mega Raid Day.For the latter, we put together a little Raid Guide and Battle Party, with a flying spec Mega Rayquaza coming in as the best counter. Be sure to tag us on social using #BattleParty so we can see what you are bringing, as well as your best catches! Looking ahead in the calendar we have a trio of weekly events being announced with the Team Leader Summer Quests. We will see events run through the IRL Go Fest window, each themed around a different Team Leader with different spawn pools for each. One thing worth noting is that the first of the three events takes place in what many presumed was another event-less week in May, but, SURPRISE! Niantic has blocked out the week, which reminds us of how great it can be when the game can actually surprise us. Sometimes, it's better to not know all the information up front! GO Hub: GO Fest Global Raids GO Fest Global: Community Celebration Community Day Classic: Deino Falinks Super Mega Raid Day GO Hub Mega Falinks Pokebattler Mega Falinks Team Leader Summer Quests Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Magikarp promo in Korea drew a massive crowd, led to the Pokémon Mega Festa distribution being shut down, and quickly became another example of how strange Pokémon promo hunting has become. We start this week's episode talking about that situation, the frustration around limited promos, and why trying to get special cards from places like GameStop or major events can feel more stressful than fun. From there, Adam catches us up on his recent card show run. We talk about what it was like vending and buying, the cards he was hunting for, the deals he found, and the moments where walking away made more sense. There are vintage pickups, VS Series cards, Shining Steelix, dollar-bin goals, pricing frustrations, and a lot of talk about what the card show floor feels like right now. We also get into a few collecting rabbit holes, including hidden cameo cards, Growlithe showing up where Justin did not expect, artist collections, GigaDex-style collecting, and different ways to enjoy Pokémon cards in 2026. To close things out, we touch on Chaos Rising prerelease weekend, the LA Regional meta, Dragapult's huge share of the field, Adam's case for Cynthia's Garchomp, and a few ACE SPEC cards that have quietly become much more expensive. Competing and collecting collide every week on Special Conditions. 0:00 Adam Returns and Promo Frustration 4:41 Magikarp Promo Chaos in Korea 10:34 Justin Sends Adam a Surprise 12:45 Ascended Heroes Pack Battle 18:37 Adam's Card Show Adventures 36:38 Hidden Cameos and Weird Collection Goals 51:42 Chaos Rising and LA Regional Meta 1:07:00 ACE SPEC Prices Are Spiking  LINKS https://youtu.be/CcjC9i13kM8?si=TO1SoahuvFa89UAU https://www.pokebeach.com/2026/05/pokemon-mega-festa-shut-down-in-korea-after-40000-crowd-turns-chaotic-over-magikarp-promo

Lured Up Podcast 393 Live Streamed on - 5/5/2026 Publish Date - 5/8/2026 Listen to this episode ad free on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  We are very excited to welcome LandorAlpha back to the show! We have known Joe for many years and have been a major fan of his from the beginning. His dedication to creating content that combines entertainment and information with incredible production value and a positive focus has earned him the respect of many core Trainers in the community. He covers the game with a positive lens, focusing on gameplay, community, and of course, the grind. We start of by learning about his approach to content, and how he has recently added a community focus to his gameplay experiences, which in our opinion, is the perfect compliment to his content style. Capturing the community experience, along with creating memories off camera, brings an organic feel and a relatable perspective. Like us, Lando feels that the future of this game is in the hands of new Trainers, which is why being there to foster a great experience is so important. You wouldn't expect it after watching some LandorAlpha content, but he is creating part time, as he still works full time outside of his content. This brings a unique motive and workflow that makes you think and consider things differently. When TikTok was off the app store for a few days, it was a direct blow to his content. This created an epiphany of understanding that while you may be creating the content, it is the platform that holds all the chips.  Enter, Spawn Point, LandorAlpha's weekly Pokémon GO Newsletter. A project that not only provides valuable info to Trainers worldwide, but one that is completely owned an operated by Joe. This security is important and shows the street smart approach to protecting content. We relate to this and admire how he has rolled this project out, making it exceptionally easy for Trainers to sign up. The newsletters provide complete game and event information for the week, while also aggregating all relevant and important links in a single place. After the break we talk GO Fest and how the IRL experience is like no other. Looking back on some of our favorite GO Memories and GO Fest stories. We rate our favorite park and city experience cities, and start the hype train for Chicago.  Make sure you connect with LandorAlpha on all of his platforms, and be sure to subscribe to the newsletter! LandorAlpha's Links - https://landoralpha.tv/ Subscribe to LandorAlpha's Newsletter - https://landoralpha.beehiiv.com/  LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com | Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/LuredUp  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 392 Live Streamed on - 4/9/2026 Publish Date - 5/4/2026 We spent some time with Ashlee the Artist to discuss the state of the game, different gameplay styles, and of course, Wayfarer! We did in to her history with the Pokémon franchise, and how a career in digital marketing transfers skills to content creation. Ashlee shares what her favorite ways to play the game are, and how understanding gameboard mechanics create a better environment for everyone to play in. The importance of Wayfarer is present in most of Ashlee's content. We discuss how Wayfinders end up having “Wayfarer” goggles on at all times, and when out doing some standard grinding, everything can be a potential Wayspot. She highlights how a single Wayfinder can have a dramatic impact on a location. It speaks to how important Wayfinders are to the overall game board experience, and how more Trainers should get involved in the process. This episode will be the first in many of guests coming on to Lured Up this Spring! Stay tuned for more details and dates! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 391 Live Streamed on - 4/28/2026 Publish Date - 5/1/2026 Listen to this episode ad-free on our Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/PokemonProfessor  This week we dig in to an interesting juxtaposition in the Pokémon GO Community. It seems the divide between sentiment towards the game is widening. One one hand you have the Trainers that spend a lot of time on platforms like X. They may not have or do not engage with their local Campfire Communities so much of their PGO social interaction is actually para-social. This crowd has been sharing feelings of being unsatisfied with the state of the game. With monthly content updates going from a full disclosure of the month's events to having as few as one announced, is festering feelings of boredom and stagnation. Talks of the game feeling dead and not exciting will show up in most PGO feeds on X, even without searching it out. On the other hand, you have exceptionally robust in-person communities with active Campfires and plenty of meetups. In NJ we are seeing meetups increase in both frequency and turnout. Trainers are engaged and active and the vibes are always excellent. So how could both of these completely opposite takes exist at the same time? On paper they seem as if they are talking about completely different games? There is plenty to unpack and we do our best to find validation where it is warranted. From a news perspective, we have a TON to get through as we speedrun through the May calendar. We have Entei Shadow Raid Day this weekend, followed by the Spring Marathon and Community Day Classic: Deino. Phalanx Super Mega Raid Day takes us up to GO Fest Japan, making this month still pretty packed with action. We also had some fresh news from Niantic about a new branching Timed Research that Trainers will get for free during weeks without an in-game event. Things like Skill, Exploration, and Raiding will all be options to pursue in this new Research. While we don't expect the rewards to be anything crazy, we do think this will be a nice push to supplement some Evergreen Week gameplay. The big news of the week is all about  the debut of Mega Mewtwo at GO Fest. It will set a new precedent for split Mega Evolving Pokémon, which will soon require require specific Mega Energy for each evolution. We now have a ton more info about GO Fests including the rotating spawn pools by type during extended, 9 hour event gameplay days. Things are beginning to look incredible and we are still over a month away. We are so ready for GO FEST! Mega Mewtwo  GO Fest Global Updates May Content Update GO Pass: May Entei Shadow Raid Day Spring Marathon Community Day Classic: Deino Falinks Super Mega Raid Day Pokémon GO Map Play! Pokémon Orlando Statement Firestar73 Statement LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Justin is joined by guest host Lane for a wide-ranging episode of Special Conditions covering the collector side, the player side, and the “wait, what just happened?” side of Pokémon TCG. Lane shares what it's like working at a card store during modern product drops, while Justin talks Collect-A-Con pickups, Arcanine binder goals, and the continued explosion of Pokémon 151 prices. Then it's time to look at the post-rotation format. The crew talks Okidogi single-prize decks, Festival Lead, Dragapult's early dominance, upcoming Regional Championships, and the rise of “Slop Box” — or as Lane puts it, Good Stuff: The Deck. They also dig into Chaos Rising preorders, Pokémon Center queue survival, and why getting product online still feels like its own competitive format. Finally, Justin and Lane discuss the Orlando Regional controversy, the difference between the Pokémon TCG and Pokémon GO incidents, and why competitive Pokémon rulings keep spilling into the wider gaming conversation. 00:49 Lane Joins Special Conditions 04:47 Pokémon Market Shifts Beyond 151 09:52 Justin's Arcanine Binder Quest 14:00 Chinese 151 and International Exclusives 21:00 Post-Rotation Deck Testing 28:18 Dragapult and the Early Meta 41:38 Slop Box vs. Good Stuff Decks 50:15 Orlando Ruling Controversy

Lured Up Podcast 390 Live Streamed on - 4/14/2026 Publish Date - 4/17/2026 As we make our way out of the first of two, “no-event” weeks in April, this would be the perfect time to start talking about GO Fest prep. Nothing will be worse than showing up to GO Fest unprepared. We run through our best recommendations for both on and off screen prep.  When it comes to in-game prepping for an in-person event, you will likely be spending some real cash, so it will be important to identify a budget that you feel can carry you through a weekend of serious gameplay. Look for deals and take advantage of boxes that have the items you care about. Start thinking about ball maintenance and stockpile A LOT of balls. Depending on your gameplay, you will likely have plenty of opportunity to restock. Your effort now will pay off during GO Fest when you don't have to spend any energy on it during the event. Utilizing the tag system will help you stay organized and manageable. Finally, make sure you plan your Park Experience gameplay to fit your needs and style. Remember that the bulk of your weekend gameplay will happen outside of the Park, so you will want to be as efficient as possible. Off screen prep is extremely important. From things like sunblock to having comfortable shoes and extra socks, there is plenty to think about now to get prepared. Battery packs, charging blocks and cables, and even things like phone coolers can be important over your event weekend. If you run hot you can consider a neck cooler, which offer a silent and hands free way to drop your overall body temperature. Don't forget about food, and remember that things will likely be more expensive than you're used to. Finally we run through the current event announcements that take us into early May. Sustainability week will have us on the new Pokémon and Shiny Costume hunt. This weekend brings Replay: Rioulu Hatch Day. Next week we have another event week off, but you will need to save your energy for the GMAX Battle Day coming next weekend. Keep Training Trainers! Tinkatink Community Day Sustainability Week Replay: Riolu Hatch Day Pokémon GO x MLB Lechonk Community Day Learn the Metro System Neck Cooler Power Banks Phone Cooler LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 389 - Unsportsmanlike Live Streamed on - 4/7/2026 Publish Date - 4/10/2026 What a wild week in the Pokémon GO Community. While PvP isn't something we typically dig too deep into on the show, this weekend's drama from the Orlando Regionals was not only shocking, but has the community rallying. We saw Firestar73 claw his way through the losers bracket to an incredible final table run, where he defeated Nighttimeclasher, or so it seemed. Shortly after the match, Firestar73 was handed a loss for an unsportsmanlike celebration, which gave the championship to Nighttimeclasher. This is not sitting right with the bulk of the community, and many are speaking out. First things first, there was nothing unsportsmanlike about his celebration. He tossed his headphones on the table, gave a fist pump, and immediately extended his hand to shake Nighttimsclasher's hand. After a few short moments, Firestar73's dreams were crushed, and Play!Pokémon is yet to make a statement. When things like this happen, they don't fade away quickly, instead, they fester, amplify resent, and damage the brand.  Orlando actually had a few controversial rulings, making Trainers question not only the integrity of the tournament series, but also the overall demeanor of the sport. If Pokémon GO was to ever share the stage with other competitive games, this is not the way to do it. Could these rulings sterilize future events and squash the excitement? We hope not, however things are not looking good. After the break we rip through the news and talk about how April still has plenty to offer. Even with two weeks of vanilla spawns, the calendar is still healthy as we learn about the event slate that will carry us into May. We are also speculating on how Memories in Motion got its name, as we are seeing 2 more Replay events with Riolu Hatch Day and GO Bigger. Is this the new normal for the middle months of a season, or is it unique to April? Time will tell as we get through the rest of the month! Be sure to let us know your feelings about the Orlando Regionals situation, we are eager to hear from you! ItsAXN Tweet about Orlando Firestar73 Nighttimeclasher Hungrybox GO Hub IGN Coverage Ethan Chen - Junior's TCG FishNugget4 - TCG Guest Lineup A Shockingly Good Time GO Pass: April Sustainability Week Replay: Riolu Hatch Day Replay: GO Bigger Steeled Resolve Steeled Resolve: Taken Over April Content Update GO Pass April Fashion Raid Day Replay: Riolu Hatch Day An Egg-cellent Adventure Sustainability Week Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 201 of Special Conditions is all about Justin's trip to Houston Regionals, and he's joined by fellow Texas Pokémon player and Star Wars nerd Mitchell Le to break it all down. From tournament prep, deck choices, and brutal matchups to the reality of best-of-three pacing, this one is a full weekend recap from the player perspective. Mitchell talks through his Zoroark run and finishing just one card away from Day 2, while Justin reflects on a day full of ties, time management lessons, and why some matchups felt way tougher than expected. But this episode isn't just about the matches. The guys also get into the fun side of the event: retro side events, exclusive championship merch, carnival-style games, Pokémon pinball, raid battles, vendor finds, and the food stops that helped keep the weekend alive. The back half turns into a relaxed pack-opening session with Destined Rivals, making this one feel like the full Regionals experience from start to finish.  00:00 Intro 01:23 Houston Regionals begins 06:12 Mitchell's run 13:59 Justin's run 22:03 Side events and merch 28:45 Raid battles explained 39:08 Pack talk 42:10 Pack opening 51:45 Houston visuals and venue 59:19 Food stops 01:06:45 Event highs and lows 01:11:38 Final thoughts

Lured Up Podcast 388: Pokémon GO Anonymous Live Streamed: 3/24/2026 Publish Date - 3/27/2026 Listen to this Podcast ad free on Patreon! We jump head first into this episode's deep dive as we explore some of the symptoms of gaming addiction. Pokémon GO does have some systems in place that make it difficult for players to disconnect. We discuss the line between being an avid hobbyist and someone obsessed or addicted. From not wanting to stop playing, to over spending, to neglecting responsibilities, having this game in our pockets could be a slippery slope. We also take a look at the topic of how the game has been heralded to have therapeutic qualities. It's no surprise that this game can be a great platform to use while exercising, exploring, or in some cases, escaping. We look at how escapism and addiction can cross paths, by posing the question of how being locked out of the game for 24 hours would make you feel. For most of us, it would be a pretty rough day. We want to hear your perspectives on the topic, and encourage everyone to join the conversation. Let us know how the game makes you feel, and if you ever have concerns that you are putting the game ahead of your responsibilities. Our live chat did an incredible job of opening up and sharing stories. We would love to hear more of them. After the break we recap the last week of gameplay. We had the conclusion of the Bugout as well as Water Research Day this past weekend. The April Content update has been released, and we will be sing the return of many legendaries, but the release of a few new Pokémon. Will next week's A Shockingly Good Time event satisfy our Spotlight Hour fix, or will the flood of Pikachu lose its spark a few days into the event? Let us know your thoughts! Video Game Addiction Hanke CNBC Interview 2019 Class Action Lawsuits Bug Out Replay: Water Research Day GMAX Pikachu A Shockingly Good Time April Content Update Sustainability Week Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 387 - Clutch Your Pearls Live Streamed on - 3/17/2026 Publish Date - 3/19/2026 We switched up the show format this week as the community news was too good to hold off on discussing. Social media was on fire thanks to a hit piece style tweet from a non-credible source was viewed over 20 million times. It shared the horrors of Niantic building a network to train automated pizza delivery robots using data collected through Pokémon GO. The pearl clutching and fauxrage was rampant with so many feigned gasps of air coming mainly from X. We look at the actual article that sparked interest in Niantic Spatial's dealings from the MIT Technology Review. We discuss how Niantic's vision for a complete 1:1 digital to IRL map of the world has always been the goal. Could we have known that pizza delivery robots would be amongst the fist to benefit from the map? Of course not but it is amazing to see Niantic's vision start to be realized. The VPS is an amazing tool and LLM that Pokémon GO, Ingress, and Wayfarer have always been a part of. Wayfinders and keepers of the Gameboard have been enthusiastic about being a part of this process. Anyone saying they had no idea that this GPS based game is tracking our GPS data is simply feigned ignorance.  We run through some wishlist ideas that we have for the game, where the gameboard and environment is the focus. From persistent AR instances to the introduction of HMs allowing you to traverse different terrains, the gameboard truly is paramount to our experience. The question is, with Niantic Spacial separating from the Niantic brand which was acquired by Scopely, will we ever see the technology behind the VPS be utilized in PGO going forward. Finally we recap the last week of gameplay including the Pokopia Event and Scorbunny Community Day. We have some new Event announcements and nao everything out on our Google Calendar.  Newsforce Hit Piece MIT Technology Review Dexerto Article Niantic Spatial VPS Pokopia Event Scorbunny Community Day Fashion Raid Day April Community Day Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How Card Show Vendors Actually Make Money | Special Conditions 200 Episode 200 of Special Conditions is a real behind-the-table conversation with two guests who live the hobby from the vendor side. We're joined by Zach and Niche from the New England card scene to talk about how they got started, what made them fall in love with vending, and what the card show grind actually looks like once you're the one buying, pricing, trading, and trying to keep inventory moving. This one isn't about fake guru advice or hobby mythology. It's about the stuff that actually matters: why repeat customers matter more than squeezing every percentage point, why sticker prices and presentation change the whole buying experience, and the mistakes you only make once if you're lucky. The stories about bad buyouts, early inventory mistakes, and learning how to price for negotiation make this one especially good for anyone who has ever thought about setting up at a show. On top of that, the episode wanders exactly where a good hobby podcast should: Whatnot growing pains, 151 spikes, Prismatic frustration, Japanese cards, oddball collectibles, and the kind of side quests that happen when four cardboard degenerates get talking. It feels like hanging out at the table after a busy show — which is probably why it works so well.  00:00 Intro + guest setup 01:30 How Adam knows the Zachs 06:00 Why card show vending is a volume business 06:45 Whatnot selling, shipping headaches, and singles 13:30 Buying strategy: moving cards 15:30 Dallas spend vs New England spend 17:15 Pricing philosophy at shows 18:45 Big trades, slabs, and hot table stories 29:00 Could Pokémon ever do serialized cards? 32:30 151 spikes, Prismatic, and current market talk 40:00 How both guests got started in the hobby 45:00 Biggest mistakes new vendors make 48:00 Why sticker prices matter 55:00 Show layout, traffic flow, and vendor setup 01:00:00 Slab guards and deal friction 01:10:00 Growing as a vendor  01:20:00 What actually belongs in the showcase vs binders 01:27:30 Rapid-fire advice for new vendors 01:42:30 Why Pokémon's community keeps people in the hobby 01:46:00 Final thoughts + where to find everyone

There was watching and there was playing! Big week for games for all three of our cohosts, with Pokopia, Final Fantasy 8, Slay the Spire 2, and Scott Pilgrim EX! Scrubs is back, and The Pitt is still good. Plus, our lives were cool! Check it out! Explicit language on this one. "Snowdin Shopkeep Theme (Remix)" (Toni Leys - via GameChops - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fA6Pptogw) Find the show on iTunes, Google Play Podcasts, Spotify, and Simplecast.fm Find the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QoHk8iEsVGTpd2qdTlH-g Follow us @CharacterReveal on Bluesky, Instagram, and on Facebook! Dom is @brothadom on Bluesky, tweets, tumbles and generally on the net Steph is @captainsteph on Bluesky and Twitter, @hella_steph on Instagram, and @thesnowqueer on Tumblr Eric is @TindiLosi on some places on the internet as a whole, like Bluesky Find everything at: https://linktr.ee/characterreveal

Lured Up Podcast 386: The Highs And Lows Live Streamed on - 3/10/2026 Publish Date - 3/13/2026 The 30th Anniversary Event is a perfect example of how the changes being delivered by the game can impact Trainers differently. Even with the basic wild encounter pool during an event can be dissected in countless ways. We saw Legendaries in the wild for the first time, but super low catch rates and super high flee rates, the experience was soured for some. March has been really strong so far, and the upcoming events look to continue the trend. Pokopia, Scorbunny and the Bug Out will keep us busy for a few weeks, while Pikachu will join us at the end of the month. We are also seeing more GO Passes, which aren't that much different from the amount of Event Tickets that we were previously seeing. We will need some month over month data to really determine how the shift has impacted our spending habits. The GO Memories campaign is underway and Niantic is looking to hear your best stories and memories made through Pokémon GO. We live for this stuff, and can't wait to dig into some of the stories that are shared. Also, you can win an all expense paid trip to any of the three GO Fests! Be sure to share your favorite GO Memories with us! Finally we dig into how the game is evolving and changing with Memories in Motion. The Scopely Effect is becoming more and more noticeable, but we can't tell what the Community thinks just yet. Multiple GO Passes a month sounds scary at first, but once you realize that it is the same frequency of cost as the now retired event tickets, you can see that the value is actually greater. We have PLENTY to unpack here! 30th Anniversary Event Pokopia Celebration Scorbunny Community Day Bug Out A Shockingly Good Time  GMAX Pikachu Max Battle Day GO Memories Monk's Pub Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey! What do we have? Media controversies and gaming demos. That's...sort of it, right? Steam Next Fest happened, World of Warcraft got an expansion, and Steph has another Book Report! Good times! Check it out! Explicit language on this one. "Snowdin Shopkeep Theme (Remix)" (Toni Leys - via GameChops - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fA6Pptogw) Find the show on iTunes, Google Play Podcasts, Spotify, and Simplecast.fm Find the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QoHk8iEsVGTpd2qdTlH-g Follow us @CharacterReveal on Bluesky, Instagram, and on Facebook! Dom is @brothadom on Bluesky, tweets, tumbles and generally on the net Steph is @captainsteph on Bluesky and Twitter, @hella_steph on Instagram, and @thesnowqueer on Tumblr Eric is @TindiLosi on some places on the internet as a whole, like Bluesky Find everything at: https://linktr.ee/characterreveal

Lured Up Podcast 385 GO Tourist Trap Live Streamed on - 3/3/2026 Publish Date - 3/5/2026 The last week of gameplay has been some of the best Raiding the game has seen. With multiple chases and backgrounds, this week was either a collectors best dream or worst nightmare. One thing was for certain, and that was how both the Road to Kalos and the GO Tour itself were set up to accommodate spending. We both had a different approach to the event, but we both felt the pressure of spending throughout. March is shaping up to have some great events. Blogs have been released covering the next three weeks of gameplay. This comes after last week's March Content Update felt very light on info. The 30th Anniversary Event brings an ambitious amount of Pokémon to the gameboard, with plenty of availability for Legendaries. After the anniversary event we get a one-two punch from the Pokopia Celebration Event and the Bug Out! The schedule may be structured, but it hasn't slowed down at all. Details for each of the IRL GO Fest events has been released and Mewtwo and Zeroara are leading the charge. The event will switch up the habitat style for this event, and even offers a stand alone city experience ticket. If the Early Bird ticket sales are any indication, this year's GO Fest is going to be sold out across the board. We end the show with a discussion about how the Road to Kalos trained us to be prepared to spend, only to be followed up with an even bigger weekend of Raiding. We discussed the Scopely Effect last week, and we think this may be another side of that coin. It looks like a future “Global” events could be increasingly more demanding on our wallets! Kalos Tour: Global GO Pass: March 30th Anniversary Event Pokopia Celebration Bug Out Festival of Colors Replay: Water Research Day GO Fest Early Bird GO Fest: Chicago GO Fest: Tokyo GO Fest: Copenhagen GO Fest: Global Ticket Comparison  Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2026 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Back on track? More likely than you'd think! We go over even more of the Olympics, because they continued to be fun, even to the conclusion. Then we talk about a lot of video game stuff, like Final Fantasy VIII, Slay the Spire 2, and what we're playing. Then movie stuff, like the Sonic 4 casting, yay! Honestly, a quick one, but a good one. Check it out! Explicit language on this one. "Snowdin Shopkeep Theme (Remix)" (Toni Leys - via GameChops - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fA6Pptogw) Find the show on iTunes, Google Play Podcasts, Spotify, and Simplecast.fm Find the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QoHk8iEsVGTpd2qdTlH-g Follow us @CharacterReveal on Bluesky, Instagram, and on Facebook! Dom is @brothadom on Bluesky, tweets, tumbles and generally on the net Steph is @captainsteph on Bluesky and Twitter, @hella_steph on Instagram, and @thesnowqueer on Tumblr Eric is @TindiLosi on some places on the internet as a whole, like Bluesky Find everything at: https://linktr.ee/characterreveal

Lured Up Podcast 384 - The Scopely Effect Live Streamed on -2/24/26 Publish Date - 2/27/26 Happy Pokémon Day! This episode is releasing on a very important day, and we hope everyone has an excellent time. Niantic has given us an incredible amount of information, not just about events, but about the new Season and some significant changes that are coming! We start with a recap of the last week of gameplay including The Lunar New Year Event and the kickoff to the Road to Kalos. If you have been feeling like things have been building towards something, you have been feeling correctly. We will be seeing major changes to event and scheduling structures, a move away from event tickets to GO Passes, and some fun QOL updates like the ability to catch evolved form Shinies in the wild. Memories In Motion will be the potential dawn of a new era, with all of the announcements kicking off with the start of the new season. ITL Kalos Tour gave us a preview of the new Mega System. Link Charges have caused a stir online, however we feel strongly that they are a massive win for Trainers as a no cost option to Raid.  The March Content Update has been met with mixed reviews. Niantic's new strategy seems to give us even less news than before, which was already a sore spot. With the top secret debut of Mega Dragonite, it does feel good to be pleasantly surprised.This all feels very calculated, and we will keep a close eye on it over the Season. Our final discussion takes a macro look at the upcoming changes. For better or worse, the Scopely Effect is beginning to take shape. Is the Community ready to embrace the change, or will they form a resistance? Time will tell, and we are exceptionally here for it all. Lunar New Year Road To Kalos Early Bonus Road To Kalos New Mega System Memories In Motion March Content Update Scorbunny Community Day Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, this was a weird one. And with rolling timelines...nevermind. We talked about the Olympics and the various Halftime Shows from the BIG GAME! Then, okay, Discord news, Riot layoffs, Highguard layoffs, and other rough news. Then the Playstation State of Play, and Cartoon Network stuff. So, balanced? Check it out! Explicit language on this one. "Snowdin Shopkeep Theme (Remix)" (Toni Leys - via GameChops - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fA6Pptogw) Find the show on iTunes, Google Play Podcasts, Spotify, and Simplecast.fm Find the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QoHk8iEsVGTpd2qdTlH-g Follow us @CharacterReveal on Bluesky, Instagram, and on Facebook! Dom is @brothadom on Bluesky, tweets, tumbles and generally on the net Steph is @captainsteph on Bluesky and Twitter, @hella_steph on Instagram, and @thesnowqueer on Tumblr Eric is @TindiLosi on some places on the internet as a whole, like Bluesky Find everything at: https://linktr.ee/characterreveal

Lured Up Podcast 383 - The Long Way Live Streamed on - 2/17/2026 Publish Date - 2/20/2026 The love in the air is starting to disperse, but not before we recap the Valentine's Day event and our Raid and Max Battle double-feature over the weekend.After SerAmanda's voicemail last week discussed how were to get just a single Spinda encounter (or so we thought), we were all pleasantly surprised that we had Spinda galore. It opens a great conversation about how harsh the community can be when if comes to Niantic sharing info, and how it actually feels really good when they can pull off a surprise. Therian Anamorus and GMAX Meowth kept us busy and spending money, even though Furfrou and Luvdisc tried to take the spotlight. It was an interesting weekend of activity, but one that brought the community together twice, which is never a bad thing. The Lunar New Year event runs through Saturday and gives us all a chance at Shiny Gimmighoul and a whole lotta luck when it comes to gifting and trading. Kalos Tour IRL is taking place this weekend and we have additional info on the event and a little bit of new info for Global. Ken and Adam will both be out on the grind during Kalos Tour, so make sure you stop to say hi if you see them! GO Battle League has been completely rebuilt from the ground up and this could be the update that the Battlers have been demanding for years. I think we should all put in some time behind the wheel before jumping to conclusions, however the early sentiment seems to be that some of the long standing issues with the system have been addressed. Let's check back in on this during next week's episode! Finally we have a fun discussion about how spending time on the toilet can be a great catalyst for gameplay. We run down our top 5 things to do while we are on the toilet! Make sure you contact us to share your toilet habits! We want to hear from you! Valentine's Day 2026 Therian Enamurus Raid Day GMAX Meowth Max Battle Day Lunar New Year New Kalos Tour Info GBL Update ItsAXN GBL Update Video LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, we continue to be here, as planned! I mean, it's mostly tv and another book report! But we also mention the "Big Game," the associated show, and also some nonsense in the real world. We keep it chill though.Check it out!Explicit language on this one."Snowdin Shopkeep Theme (Remix)" (Toni Leys - via GameChops - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fA6Pptogw)Find the show on iTunes, Google Play Podcasts, Spotify, and Simplecast.fmFind the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QoHk8iEsVGTpd2qdTlH-gFollow us @CharacterReveal on Bluesky, Instagram, and on Facebook!Dom is @brothadom on Bluesky, tweets, tumbles and generally on the netSteph is @captainsteph on Bluesky and Twitter, @hella_steph on Instagram, and @thesnowqueer on TumblrEric is @TindiLosi on some places on the internet as a whole, like BlueskyFind everything at: https://linktr.ee/characterreveal

Episode 199 feels like a classic Special Conditions hang—one part “this card rules,” one part “how did that just happen,” and one part real-life hobby grind. We start with Flamigo as the Card-of-the-Day and why United Wings is such a satisfying little engine when it's clicking. Then we get into the moment that basically defined the episode: Adam hits an Iono to 3, thinks it's over… and still ends up watching the comeback line appear anyway. From there we talk what Sydney and Santiago might be telling us with EUIC around the corner, swing behind the booth for the Whatnot recap (wins, losses, lessons), and finish with Justin ramping back into competitive mode for Houston—plus a few budget “sleepers & steals” we like right now and what's been on our content radar lately. 00:00:30 Patreon + Show Intro 00:03:15 Card of the Day — Flamigo (United Wings) 00:07:45 Burned or Learned (TCG Live story) 00:19:15 Meta Minute — Sydney + Santiago results 00:30:45 Break + Patron shoutouts 00:32:00 Behind the Booth — Whatnot + show plug 00:47:30 Leave it or leave it — Road to Houston / deck choice talk 00:51:30 Sleepers & Steals — budget picks 00:58:15 Pack opening + card talk 00:59:15 Status: Recommended 01:14:15 Wrap

Lured Up Podcast 382: We Love This Game Live Streamed on - 2/9/26 Publish Date - 2/13/26 Love is in the air during the Valentine's Day Event! We start by recapping the last week of gameplay and how Oricorio Catch Mastery overlapped with the Carnival of Flamigo. This type of double event format gave Trainers flexibility over the day to play when they could, without creating FOMO. Let's hope that this is something they do again in the coming seasons. Valentine's Day weekend brings us Raids and Gigantamax Battles as we take on Therian Enamorus and GMAX Meowth. Taking a look at GO Hub and Pokebattler, we put together some parties to take them on, with some usual suspects and some unique Pokémon making appearances. Between event tickets and consumables, this will likely be an expensive weekend for the hardcore. We had an update that no one asked for, but many are happy is here, with GO Snapshot getting a significant update. Partnering with Pokémon's 30th Anniversary campaign, “What's Your Favorite” looks to create some social buzz by having Trainers share pictures of themselves with their favorite Pokémon. The interface is easy to navigate and the features are pretty cool so we recommend giving it a try! Niantic will be hosting Community Celebrations across the globe including in Washington D.C.! Ken will be attending so if you plan on being there, send us a message! He will be giving out codes and stickers throughout the event! Our final discussion is a recap of some critically important settings and features that you may not even know about! Did you know that there are two different ways that the game measures walking distance? Do you know if you are running at 30Hz or 120Hz refresh rate? We hope you can find something to take away from our discussion and start using today! Carnival of Flamigo Oricorio Catch Mastery Valentine's Day 2026 Therian Enamurus Raid Day Therian Enamorus Battle Party GO Hub  Therian Enamorus Battle Party Pokebattler GMAX Meowth Max Battle Day GMAX Meowth Battle Party GO Hub GMAX Meowth Battle Party Pokebattler What's Your Favorite Community Celebrations Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2026 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey! Happy Late New Year, which means it's our big celebrate, have beverage, and answer listener questions! We respond to the questions you sent us! Additionally, we talk about some of our best-ofs from the year and other stuff we liked!It's a celebration, and we had fun!Check it out!Explicit language on this one."Snowdin Shopkeep Theme (Remix)" (Toni Leys - via GameChops - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fA6Pptogw)Find the show on iTunes, Google Play Podcasts, Spotify, and Simplecast.fmFind the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QoHk8iEsVGTpd2qdTlH-gFollow us @CharacterReveal on Bluesky, Instagram, and on Facebook!Dom is @brothadom on Bluesky, tweets, tumbles and generally on the netSteph is @captainsteph on Bluesky and Twitter, @hella_steph on Instagram, and @thesnowqueer on TumblrEric is @TindiLosi on some places on the internet as a whole, like BlueskyFind everything at: https://linktr.ee/characterreveal

Lured Up Podcast 381: Three Flamigos Live Streamed on - 2/3/2026 Publish Date - 2/6/2026 Last weekend brought us a double header with Vulpix Community Day and DMAX Ho-Oh Max Battle Weekend. This weekend brings Carnival of Flamigo and Oricorio Catch Mastery. Double dipping may be the best way to get the most out of the game. With next season's Saturdays being blocked out, we think it safe to assume there will be some weekends with overlapping events. We have two annual events making their return this month with Valentine's Day and Lunar New Year. Adam thinks that with Enamorous and Luvdisc not being in the announcement, that there will be more info coming. Lunar New Year will be your next chance for Shiny Gimmighoul, which will likely lead the charge of the event. It's been a while since we last visited Reddit to find some interesting Pokémon GO posts. We picked some of our favorites and enjoy the sweet vibe of Reddit and how it is so different from X. We look back to the old avatar aesthetic, the Meowth Balloon, and hear two great stories from the community. Finally we wrap up with a discussion on game-work-life balance and how we are currently approaching the topic. We share what we are doing right and wrong in the daily battle to find balance. We also want to hear from you! What are you succeeding or failing at when it comes to balance in your life? Into The Depths Community Day: Vulpix & Alolan Vulpix Ho-Oh Max Battle Weekend Carnival of Flamigo Oricorio Catch Mastery Valentine's Day 2026 Lunar New Year Old Avatars 6 Year Gym Defender Meowth Balloon 50 POI in 25 days LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh! We're back! It's the new year with new episodes! The end of year episode is coming next, but in the meantime, we've chatted recently. We've been watching stuff, like Taskmaster live, The Pitt, and Fallout. Eric is checking out movies! Steph is checking out events! Dom is checking out a souls-like game? It's fun, it's fun.Check it out!Explicit language on this one."Snowdin Shopkeep Theme (Remix)" (Toni Leys - via GameChops - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_fA6Pptogw)Find the show on iTunes, Google Play Podcasts, Spotify, and Simplecast.fmFind the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QoHk8iEsVGTpd2qdTlH-gFollow us @CharacterReveal on Bluesky, Instagram, and on Facebook!Dom is @brothadom on Bluesky, tweets, tumbles and generally on the netSteph is @captainsteph on Bluesky and Twitter, @hella_steph on Instagram, and @thesnowqueer on TumblrEric is @TindiLosi on some places on the internet as a whole, like BlueskyFind everything at: https://linktr.ee/characterreveal

Lured Up Podcast 380: Daily Routine Live Streamed on - 1/28/26 Publish Date - 1/30/26 This week was packed with gameplay as we saw Precious Pals get Taken Over, Shadow Raikou Raid Day and Into The Depths! These events delivered a diverse menu of gameplay styles, with Raiding, Shiny Hunting, Routes and more. This weekend brings us Dynamax Ho-Oh, which may be hit or miss with Communities and might require more coordination than usual to get Trainers together. You will however, have a relaxed pace with many hours of the day available to track down Ho-Oh. Next week looks even stronger with Carnival of Flamigo kicking off on Tuesday and stretching out over Oricorio Catch Mastery Day. This will make grinding next Saturday a fantastic time to play so block out your time now! The Road to Kalos event is just ludicrous with how much it has going on. Plenty of costumes and backgrounds will make this either a collector's dream or worst nightmare.  Wayfarer had some big updates this week with the release of their official map! Wayfinders will no longer have to use third party tools or work with outdated maps. With the forums blowing up over it, I think Wayfarer may have a winner on their hands with the Community. We also saw the expansion of Niantic's Street Corner experiment to all 50 US states and the forums are melting down about it. We hope this will make underdeveloped/populated gameboards receive some POI that don't have to follow criteria that would normally make them ineligible. Finally, we wrap up with a conversation about daily gameplay routines, and how they can bring some consistency and efficiency to your play. We discuss our morning, afternoon, and evening routines and how it impacts what we do. From inventory maintenance to gifting strategies, developing loops for your tasks can help you stay focused and on task. That is until you accidentally forget to do it, making the entire day's progress a bust. Let us know what you do in this game, day in - day out! Precious Pals: Taken Over Shadow Raikou Raid Day Into The Depths Ho-Oh Max Battle Weekend Carnival of Flamigo Oricorio Catch Mastery Road To Kalos GO Hub: Road To Kalos February GO Pass Wayfarer Map Street Corner PokéStops GO Hub: Street Corner PokéStops LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New year = new segments! In Episode 198 of Special Conditions, we roll out Burned or Learned, Behind the Booth, Sleeve it or Leave it, Sleepers & Steals, and Status: Recommended—plus a festive Card of the Day to kick things off.

Lured Up Podcast 379 - Solo Leveling Live Streamed on - 1/21/2026 Publish Date - 1/23/2026 New week, new show! January is chugging a long after an active week of gameplay. High Zaptitude, Grookey Community Day, and the start of Precious Pals has kept us busy over the last few days. With the Taken Over portion of Precious Pals landing this weekend, we will see a ton of activity in-game as it overlaps with Shadow Raikou Raid Day. This week gave us a little bit of everything, and we are loving it. Into the Depths is coming up with the release of Flimmet, however its Evolution, Glimmora is nowhere to be found. Will we see more Megas from Legaends Z-A being announced? With the announcement of Mega Victreebel and Mega Malimar being added to GO Tour: Kalos, it appears so. Let's hope the Mega meta continues to develop in a positive way, while allowing the game to stretch its legs and release things over time. Our Save the Dates for next season are here, and what we are already seeing is event EVERY Saturday. We speculate on what this sudden structuring of events could mean, and how it blocks gameplay from those that work on Saturdays. With event announcements rolling out leading to and after the Seasonal announcement, we could see the most packed event calendar yet. We dig into the listener mailbag with a voicemail, text and email. From new listeners to great ideas to feel good stories, the mailbag delivered big this week. After the mail, we discuss how different group sizes and gameboard environments have a dramatic impact on gameplay. We touch on Solo grinding, car grinding, and small and large scale Campfire events. There is no wrong way to play this game, and we want to hear from you. Hit us up and let us know your favorite ways to play the game. We also ask, is there any difference from how you WISH you can play the game vs how you ACTUALLY play the game? Let us know! High Zaptitude Community Day: Grookey Precious Pals Precious Pals Taken Over Into The Depths Shadow Raikou Raid Day Dynamax Ho-Oh Max Battle Weekend Mega Victreebel and Mega Malamar Community Day: Vulpix & Alolan Vulpix Season 22 Save The Dates Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 378 Live Streamed on - 1/12/2026 Publish Date - 1/15/2026 This week didn't finish too strong with some Trainers in the Community. While Pinch Perfect and its rotating Timed Research was a blast, Kyurem Fusion Raid Day left a bad taste in some Trainers' mouths. The inclusion of Reshiram and Zekrom in the Raid rotation hurt Trainers with less developed gameboards, as some reports saying that all the Raids in some rotations were not White or Black Kyurem, making the event fall flat until the opportunity arises to try it again during the next rotation. Adam brought up a great idea of putting Fusion Energy in Field Research for defeating Reshiram or Zekrom. This week brings High Zaptitude and a double release. Wattrel and Shiny Tadbulb make their debut during the event, giving two different Pokémon to chase that are available in different ways. You'll have to work to unlock Wattrel, as it is a Level 2 Reward of a Global Challenge, which confused some Trainers that didn't read the fine print. In all, this is a solid double header and a fun Electric event. Precious Pals and Precious Pals Taken Over will keep us busy in the week ahead, with Giovanni bringing Shadow Incarnate Forme Thundurus. We also have boosted Shinies for catching Goldeen, and hatching Espurr or Fidough. Make sure you remember to TM away Frustration before the event ends! Weekly Challenges added matchmaking and a bigger invite list this week. With the leveling grind being so popular, Weekly Challenges are a great way to fast track to Forever Friends. The Challenges themselves however, pose little to no actual challenge for moderate to hardcore Trainers. We spitball some ideas of how this mechanic can be developed to provide a tougher challenge while targeting Trainers of different skill and dedication levels. Finally we drop our top 5 gameplay loop lists and talk it through. From the Friendship Grind to Adam's Max Battle obsession, we dig into what keeps us engaged with the game and coming back for more. Pinch Perfect Kyurem Fusion Raid Day High Zaptitude Grookey Community Day Precious Pals Weekly Challenges LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Grab some merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/professornetwork  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 377 Live Streamed on - 1/6/26 Publish Date - 1/9/26 We are back from our holiday break and ready to get back on the grind! We hope everyone had a great end to 2025 and a positive outlook on 2026. From everyone at the Pokémon Professor Network, we hope you have the Happiest of New Years. Trainers woke up this week to a major spawn point shuffle, with reports of house spawns updating from 10 to as few as 2. Keep in mind you will hear more about the bad stuff than the good, but there have also been reports of spawns increasing in other areas. Our best hunch is this could either have been influenced by an update to the game's feed from Open Street Map or it is Niantic slash Scopely trying to influence where we play the game. We will have to pay attention to the community to find out if increases are to be found in parks and rural areas.Unfortunately, Niantic Support has been spreading some seemingly incorrect reasoning for the updates, which will only add to confusion and upset Trainers. This week brings a new Dex entry with Klauf and a new Shiny with Dhelmise during the Pinch Perfect event. Field Research should keep you busy looking for the Win a Raid task which could bring you either of the two of the event's featured Pokémon. This weekend is going to be great with Kyurem Fusion Raid Day. Thanks to GO Hub, we will run through the best counters for each of the four Raids from the event, with four separate Battle Parties, as well as a single party you can use for all of the Raids during the event. The January GO Pass is here with the major reward being a Lucky Trinket. End Game Trainers may think it has a little less value, as the post 70 Lucky Friend grind is bringing Trainers multiple Lucky Friends a week. The total rewards as a whole still give the GO Pass great value, with the free version still providing some fun and consistent and daily gameplay. We wrap up with a chat about some of our plans for the new year, including some IRL short form video and some travel for events. We can't wait to roll things out soon! Spawn Point Shuffle New Year's Event 2026 Piplup Community Day Pinch Perfect Kyurem Fusion Raid Day Black Kyurem GO Hub White Kyurem GO Hub Reshiram GO Hub Zekrom GO Hub January GO Pass Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 197 – Special Conditions (Pokémon TCG) This week's Card of the Day is a full-on vibes pick: Mega Manectric EX full art—loud colors, chaotic Mega-era energy, and the kind of card you love because it rules, not because someone on the internet said it's “a smart buy.” That “collect what you like” energy keeps showing up all episode: Adam talks card shows, trades, and the kind of personal chase cards that hit harder than market comps—like the Ditto Charmander promo that instantly time-travels you back to your first big events. If your binder's been drifting into “what's hot right now,” consider this your reminder to steer it back to you. Build the collection you'd still love if prices didn't exist. 00:00:00 — Cold open: Delibird show survival + Whatnot glow-up? 00:01:15 — Episode start + what we're getting into 00:04:30 — Card of the Day: Mega Manectric EX (taste over value) 00:07:45 — Freeport, ME show recap (brewery vibes + room to browse) 00:11:15 — Ditto Charmander promo = core memory collecting 00:19:15 — Why is everyone hunting Mudkip? 00:24:30 — Danvers, MA show recap (New England Cardhouse energy) 00:29:00 — TGA slabs + trade talk 00:30:45 — Prismatic product reality check 00:35:30 — Anime Frontier finds (artist alley Pokémon heat) 00:40:45 — Whatnot learning curve: awkward starts, pacing, bids 00:42:45 — Giveaways + keeping viewers engaged 00:51:00 — Buyers, shipping, and stream momentum 00:58:00 — Holiday stream idea + time management panic

Lured Up Podcast 376: A Ticket For Every Event Live Streamed on - 12/16/25 Publish Date - 12/19/25 The game is overrun with costume Pokémon which has to mean that the Holiday Season is upon us! Are you Team Sudowoodo or Team Charjabug? One thing is for sure, we know Adam will be out catching every Delibird he can find! With two weeks of Holiday events ahead of us, we start things off with a recap of the last week of gameplay including Well Armed, GMAX Snorlax, and Citi Safari events. With the Well Armed's Global Challenges powering extra Candy XL for GMAX Snorlax, Trainers had good reason to get out there and grind over the last week. The Holiday events kicked off this week and brought a GO Pass along with it, but the rewards may not be the strongest this time around. Will a Snom Beanie be enough to sell the GO Pass? We don't think so but Trainers may be in it more for the process at this point. Part 2 of the Holiday Event picks up on Christmas Eve and brings back some past costume Pokémon as well as the debut of the Rolycoly line. The Winter Weekend mini-event opens the GO Pass progression up and adds a Timed Research as well. While Niantic hasn't shared the January Content Update yet, they are giving us plenty of event blogs to get us excited. Of course we will have a New Year's event which will bring back some popular costume Pokémon and some fancy avatar boots to boot. Grookey has been announced as the first Community Day Pokémon of the new year, while Piplup will show up during Community Day Classic. If that wasn't enough of a January preview for you, Kyurem Fusion Raid Day is also on the docket, which will will surely be a strong IRL and remote event. We wrap things up with a discussion about the state of the game, and how even with some performance issues like crashes and dropped frames, the game overall is in a really good state. Trainers have tons of options of how to spend their game time, with multiple mechanics taking Trainers down different types of experiences. One thing we have noticed, is that with increased item and Pokémon storage available, inventory maintenance has become a long and monotonous task that takes up a lot of our valuable screen time. Well Armed GMAX Snorlax City Safari Miami Celestial Research Day Winter Holiday Part 1 Winter Holiday Part 2 New Year's 2026 Piplup Community Day Classic Kyurem Fusion Raid Day Grookey Community Day  Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 375 Live Streamed on - 12/9/2025 Publish Date - 12/12/2025 Temperatures are dropping for Ken and Adam in the Northeast, but that isn't stopping the game from keeping things hot! In the last week we journeyed to Paldea, recapped the year's Community Day lineup, as we continue to grind through the GO Pass and the leveling update. The announcement of Forever Friends has rekindled old friendships and has remotivated Trainers to get back on the gifting grind.  This week also brings us the Well Armed event with the release of Clobbopus along with boosted Shiny rates for DMAX Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan. Well Armed's Global Challenges will be the perfect complement for GMAX Snorlax this weekend, as rewards include increased Candy XL from Max Battles. Niantic has been doing a great job with events supporting each other, and allowing for some great stacking of bonuses. Forever Friends brings Remote Trading, which is a feature that Trainers never thought they would see. With a slick interface and a fair trading process, this will keep Best Friends engaged and interacting. Having a Prestige based leveling system will make Forever Friends earn their namesake, and worth keeping on your list. The Friends List will also be increasing from 450 to 650, rolled out in waves of 50. While there hasn't been any announcement about increased gifting ability, the additional friends are still a huge win. December still has a lot of fight left in it with the Winter Holiday events and Celestial Research Day coming soon. We also can't forget about the City Safari events happening this weekend as well. It's pretty wild to think how aggressive the pacing of the game is and how it keeps packing out the calendar. We also have confirmation on GO Fest locations, with the confirmation of Chicago and the announcement of Tokyo and Copenhagen.  We wrap things up with a conversation about remote play, and how Niantic has done a great job in rolling out remote features, without it having a big impact on IRL play. Smaller communities will still feel a sting if they lose 10-20% of their attendees, but the remote accessibility can at least make up for the gameplay elements, allowing the smaller groups to take down the tougher bosses. We wonder if there is anything left to add to the remote lineup, or if we have seen everything there is to be done already released! Journey to Paldea December Community Day December Content Update December GO Pass Well Armed Forever Friends GMAX Snorlax Winter Holiday Part 1 Celestial Research Day GO Fest 2026 Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lured Up Podcast 374 Live Streamed on - 12/2/2025 Publish Date - 12/5/2025 It's officially Delibird season and Adam already has a laser focus on the delivery Pokémon. He will have to wait a little longer, but there is plenty to do in the meantime, with December looking to be very strong. We kick things off with a recap of the last week of gameplay, which kept many Trainers very busy. Final Justice closed out Tales of Transformation, with DMAX Lugia Max Battle Day and Pikipek Community Day caring us right to the launch of Precious Paths. With Precious Paths kicking off, we immediately see notice the shift in wild encounters as we are thrust right into the Journey to Paldea event. It brings the Nacli line to our Pokedex, and brings some pretty solid Three-Star Raids. Shadow Raids will be a focus for many this month, as Shadow Heatran slides in, whose typing and heavy DPS will make it very usable in PVE. Thanks to GO Hub and Pokébattler, we put together a little Raid guide and Battle Party, whoop-whoop. We take a peek at the December Content Update and plot everything out on our Google Calendar. With no new Tier-Five or Mega Raid Bosses, we will let the events lead the charge. This upcoming weekend's Community Day round-up will get things going as we wait for the two part Holiday event to come in a few weeks. A new month also means a new GO Pass, and the Timed Incubator returns, which will help out a lot of Trainers that need to hatch eggs to level up. The Well Armed event and GO Tour details round out or event coverage and get us to our episode discussion. We take a look at what the ideal event would feel like. What types of gameplay would you like to see in an event, and what would keep you engaged? Do those desires change when playing in different geographies or with different size groups? Get in touch with us and keep the conversation going? What would make up your perfect Pokémon GO event? Final Justice Dynamax Lugia Pikipek Community Day Precious Paths Journey to Paldea Shadow Heatran GO Hub Shadow Heatran Pokebattler December Content Update December GO Pass Well Armed GO Tour Stay up to date by adding our Google Calendar to your account! LuredUp@PokemonProfessor.com     Voicemail and SMS: 732-835-8639  Connect with us on multiple platforms! https://linktr.ee/PokemonProfessorNetwork  Hosts Ken Pescatore Adam Tuttle Writer and Producer Ken Pescatore Executive Producer  Xander Show music provided by GameChops and licensed through Creative Commons ▾ FOLLOW GAMECHOPS ▾ http://instagram.com/GameChops http://twitter.com/GameChops http://soundcloud.com/GameChops http://facebook.com/GameChops http://youtube.com/GameChops http://www.gamechops.com Intro Music Lake Verity (Drum & Bass Remix)  Tetracase GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/ https://soundcloud.com/tetracase  https://soundcloud.com/MegaFlare0 Break Music National Park Mikel & GameChops GameChops - Poké & Chill http://smarturl.it/pokechill https://twitter.com/mikel_beats Outro Music Vast Poni Canyon CG5 & GlitchxCity (Future Bass Remix) GameChops - Ultraball http://gamechops.com/ultraball/  http://soundcloud.com/cg5-beats https://soundcloud.com/glitchxcity Pokémon And All Respective Names are Trademark and © of Nintendo 1996-2025 Pokémon GO is Trademark and © of Niantic, Inc.Lured Up and the Pokémon Professor Network are not affiliated with Niantic Inc., The Pokémon Company, Game Freak or Nintendo. #pokemon #pokemongo #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 196 – Special Conditions (Pokémon TCG) In This Meta Shouldn't Be This Open… But It Is, Adam, Justin, and Lane dive into how strangely wide-open the Pokémon TCG feels right now—on both the tabletop and Pokémon TCG Live. Lane talks about grinding the ladder while waiting for Phantasmal Flames legality, hunting for underpriced singles, and falling in love with one-prize decks again. Adam shares stories from vending at New England Cardhouse, getting showered in DeliBirds, and chasing graded Mega-era cardboard on a budget, while Justin recaps Collect-A-Con Fort Worth, the surprise dominance of One Piece, and finally snagging a long-time grail Skyridge Arcanine for the binder. From there, the crew breaks down results from the Smart Series charity event and why the top decks prove this meta “shouldn't” be this open, but absolutely is. They highlight the wild Festival Grounds / Seaking list that surged into third, multiple takes on Goldengo EX (including off-the-wall techs like Picnic Basket), and the brainy Alakazam / Dunsparce Psychic Draw engine that can one-shot while drawing a fresh hand. Lane then spotlights his new favorite rogue: a Conkeldurr “Gutsy Swing” one-prizer that swings for huge damage while effectively ignoring its own energy costs. To close things out, the hosts swap Phantasmal Flames pre-release stories, talk about new event software headaches, and celebrate some seriously spicy Charizard and Toxtricity pulls. They also chat about starter decks, trainer toolkits, and why dollar binders might secretly be the best way into the format right now. If you like card shows, rogue lists, and metas where almost anything feels playable, this episode is your jam. 00:02:15 – Waiting on Phantasmal Flames meta & Live ladder grind00:04:30 – DeliBird cosplay, Mega DeliBird hunt & $2 bird pickups00:08:00 – Vending at New England Cardhouse & ranking local shows00:12:00 – Collect-A-Con Fort Worth: Skyridge Arcanine grail acquired00:18:00 – One Piece everywhere & discovering the Life TCG bird game00:24:00 – Smart Series charity event results & Festival Grounds Seaking00:31:00 – Goldengo EX deck talk: techs, Picnic Basket, and matchups00:36:00 – Alakazam / Dunsparce Psychic Draw engine spotlight00:40:00 – Hydration break & Patreon thank-yous00:41:00 – Conkeldurr “Gutsy Swing” one-prize deck breakdown00:50:00 – Mega Absol toolbox, Monkey Dory spreads & open meta talk00:54:00 – Phantasmal Flames pre-release stories & big Charizard pulls01:00:00 – Starter decks, toolkits, dollar binders & Poké Ball reverses01:04:00 – Charizard UPC, Chinese Arcanine tease & outro