Pokegym Roundtable 9 - Pokemon PTO Deathmatch

[bulbasnore]

On this week's PokeGym Roundtable Big Daddy Snorlax talks with Premier Tournament Organizers (PTO) for the Pokemon Trading Card Game from around the US. Learn what makes these folks love the game, the players and what they do!

Pokegym Roundtable Podcast

Episode 9: "PTO Deathmatch"


Thanks to tonites cast for sharing about their life and views as PTOs:


Big Daddy Snorlax - Richard Walkoski - Oregon
Gym Leader Blaine - Tymon Martindale - Georgia
Lex Luthor - Susan Bartlett - Northern California
PokePop - Mike Martin - New Jersey
PT&E1 - Karl Batdorff - Southern California/Nevada
Team Cook - Mike Cook - Texas
Tom Shea - New England


Technical notes:

This podcast is longer than usual ... you are strongly encouraged to get some podcast client software or use iTunes to listen. This way you can navigate the chapter markers and jump around between the questions.

Also, we found a problem with the audio when 8 persons are on... the computer can't compress the audio fast enough and it really glitches the sound. Jump ahead to the 12 minute mark if the initial audio is too hard on your ears. Nice to discover that recording with no compression solves this with 8 people because it will help us with sound quality when recording fewer cast members as well. We compress the podcast after editing.

Speaking of compressing, the mp3 is now at 32bits/sec compression which makes it a bit smaller. mp3 users can give feedback on that next week when we have an episode that doesn't change recording in the middle.

Want to get the podcast? To tune in you need some podcast client software!


You can get the Windows or Mac version of iTunes as a free download (http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/) and get all the bells and whistles of images and links that play along with the podcast.

If you have your own favorite audio player and just need the Podcast downloader, try out another Mac or Windows free download - Juice (http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/).

To access the podcast AFTER you have iTunes installed, click this NEW link:

Pokegym Roundtable Link for Podcast clients (itpc://pokegym.net/forums/external.php?forumids=70)

The enhanced version of the Podcast that plays in Podcast clients has episode art, chapters and links that you can see and interact with as you play the podcast.

If you need toenter your feed URL manually, then paste this URL into your podcast client:

http://pokegym.net/forums/external.php?forumids=70

If you don't use a podcast client, can't play mp4 or want a file only 80% the sizes of the normal one, try the plain MP3 version of the podcast at:

http://pokegym.net/podcast/pokegymroundtable009.mp3

If you use Digg - 'dig this podcast!': http://digg.com/podcasts/The_PokeGym_Forums_PokeGym_Roundtable

[Prime]

For some reason, when I click update on the pokegym podcast, it doesn't show #9. Any ideas why not?

[Angry_Altaria]

Awesome, my PTO Lex Luthor is in here. :cool:

[bulbasnore]

I forgot that when you make edits vBulletin drops the podcast info. The podcast version/updated is working now that I've re-entered the info!

Enjoy!

[Prime]

The audio sounds so much better at 12:00. I almost couldn't understand the people anytime before that.

Thanks to all the PTOs that took time out of their day to do this!

[CyberManectric]

For some reason, I'm still downloading podcast #8 for iTunes instead of the new one. :confused:

[ryanvergel]

Next evolution:

Reader suggested questions!

Make a poll and have a bunch of options of what people feel we should discuss, and the top 3 voted are included in the next cast.

[PokePop]

Next evolution:

Reader suggested questions!

Make a poll and have a bunch of options of what people feel we should discuss, and the top 3 voted are included in the next cast.

For the most part, these were member suggested questions.

[BJJ763]

Too bad the "What was your biggest tourney?" was not asked....

[eI_at10s]

i'm such a n00b...
Does Susan Bartlett have any relation to Dan or Dean down in SoCal?

[Lex Luthor]

No relation, tho we have met several times at various tournaments. They are a very nice family and our sons have had to play against each other a few times.

[Team Cook]

Thanks for asking me to be a part of this, it was fun. I learned a few things myself. I never knew who Tom Shea was till now. I also learned Tymon plays hearts and spades on his laptop while his players are in battle. But why does Susan have a smiling donkey?

Thanks again.

[Lex Luthor]

It's a goat.:tongue:

[Epyon0015]

I always wonder myself about the goat

[bulbasnore]

Reader suggested questions!

Make a poll and have a bunch of options of what people feel we should discuss, and the top 3 voted are included in the next cast.

Ryan the idea-man strikes again. I like your idea, but I'm too lazy and polls are very very messy.

Counter-proposal: we comb through the hot News & Gossip topics of the week and use those as the topics?

[DarkJake]

Ryan the idea-man strikes again. I like your idea, but I'm too lazy and polls are very very messy.

Counter-proposal: we comb through the hot News & Gossip topics of the week and use those as the topics?

Sounds hot.

[Phazon Elite]

BDS!! <3

Now i can hear him whenever I want! XD

[Lawman]

I enjoyed the podcast. Nice to hear from folks that are PTOs in other areas. We all seem to get used to the PTO or 2 that we have in "our" and not elsewhere, except at Nats or Worlds.

Keith

[Muk Man]

This is just what i needed seeing how i might be moving to an area with no PTO

[Lawman]

Memphis has a PTO Muk, unless you have a job offer we haven't heard about. Clay is the PTO in Memphis.

Keith

[Archaic]

I've just noticed that these new versions of the podcast download as .m4a when I download them through iTunes, which my iPod then refuses to actually accept without converting to mp3. Might be worth checking why it does that.

EDIT: Okay, gone through and checked this...and the file format, etc, all checks out fine. iPod should be compatible with AAC in M4A...so why isn't it allowing me to put it to my iPod? Anyone else got the same problem?

[Mew]

Hmm, Well this is a general statement.

On Itunes there is an option to find other shared librarys.
Well Somebody is acctually sharing, and they had the Pokegym Podcast.
I have no idea who it is, but it's kinda interesting.

[bulbasnore]

Okay, gone through and checked this...and the file format, etc, all checks out fine. iPod should be compatible with AAC in M4A...so why isn't it allowing me to put it to my iPod? Anyone else got the same problem?

Should be a setting in iTunes. I suppose you could somehow force all the non-protected AAC to mp3, but ??? I'm mystified. Not happening to me.

[Archaic]

Converting it to MP3 wouldn't be a problem, but that would reduce the quality somewhat. It does seem *very* odd that it won't transfer though. I haven't had that problem with any other m4a files.

[homeofmew]

whats with the poor quality :(