[AMA] MCBarrett

MCBarrett

i love it when you call me big hoppa


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Username: MCBarrett
Areas of Expertise: Rate My Team and OverUsed mostly. I also did the CAP Project for a while and I'm starting to get involved in Tournaments a bit.

Background: Most of my time on this site has been dedicated to rating teams. There was a point in time where I was really into it and tried to rate like once a day but that's kinda slowed down since gen 6 came around. Now I spend a lot more time actually playing on PS and you can usually find me in the OU Room or the Competitive Tutoring Room over there. And now I have 500 posts so I thought I'd do one of these n_n

Hobbies: Obviously this is a hobby of mine but outside of Pokemon I play basketball at college and I'm a pretty huge basketball fan in general. I'm also pretty into rap with Danny Brown, ASAP Ferg and Joey Badass being some of my faves.

Favorite Pokemon: Bisharp. Is. Based.

Good Questions to Ask Me: Anything about RMT or the OU Metagame since those are the things I'm most knowledgeable with when it comes to Smogon. If you're at all interested in getting started with Rating Teams yourself definitely ask cause I'd love to help with that n_n. Other than that, feel free to ask me anything :]
 

Jaiho

bandy legged troll
How did you get into competitive Pokemon?

What makes a good RMT (other than a good team of course)?

Opinions on user ShootingStarmie?
 
What's gucci MCB, just had a couple of questions for your sexy ass.

1. How many changes are ideal for one full rate?

2. How long have you been playing Pokemon? (both competitive and non)

3. Best advice to new raters?
 

MCBarrett

i love it when you call me big hoppa
How did you get into competitive Pokemon?

What makes a good RMT (other than a good team of course)?

Opinions on user ShootingStarmie?
1. I got into competitive Pokemon around 4 years ago when a friend told me about EV Training. I looked it up and found out about Smogon and would just use the analyses so I could EV train on cartridge. After a while I found out about battle simulators and before long I was only playing online and posting on Smogon.

2. Other than the team I like to see a few replays of the team being used that shows how it works together and how it handles certain teams. It gives you a better understanding of the team and I like watching replays :]. A lot of people think making the RMT all dramatic or using song lyrics makes it cool but I think it's pretty cheesy tbh. Just some cool artwork of the pokes (Some people make custom banners that feature each poke from the team which is pretty awesome) and a clever Team name are enough to keep me entertained.

3. He's a fgt but he's kinda cute n_n

What's gucci MCB, just had a couple of questions for your sexy ass.

1. How many changes are ideal for one full rate?

2. How long have you been playing Pokemon? (both competitive and non)

3. Best advice to new raters?
1. That's a good question. It's really up to you to decide, as a rater, how many changes should be made. Obviously you don't want to completely re-build the team but the whole point of the rate is to improve the team so you have to find a balance. If you feel that there's no way you can significantly improve the team without making too many changes its best to just leave the team be.

2. I've been playing Pokemon for a long ass time. And competitively I'd say around 2 years now. Its been around a year since I'd say I knew what I was doing lol.

3. The best advice I'd give to new raters is to participate in Practice Rates. This is the quickest way to get personalized feedback on your rates from experienced raters and it's also the best way to get noticed for being a good rater. Aside from that remember to identify common problems that the team has and then don't be afraid to make the appropriate changes to solve that problem. Nothing worse than someone pointing out a problem to your team and not providing any help.
 
Hello MCBarrett,
Here's a couple of questions:

  1. What tools do you use that help you effectively rate another user's team? (i.e. Marrilands Team Builder, Damage Calculator)
  2. Does experience from the Ladder help when giving rates?
  3. I currently broke into the 1600 club in the OU meta game, any tips to get over the "MY POINTS" anxiety lol, and how to overcome the skilled user's on this half of the ladder?

    Any advice you can give will surely help, thank you for you time.
 

Dread Arceus

total cockhead
Sup MCBarrett, meant to do this last night but was too drunk x.x
1. How much time do you usually spend on rates?
2. Is it pronounced "Mick Barrett" or "Emcee Barrett"?
3. Who's that Tesung person, and why do they think they're good? =O
 

MCBarrett

i love it when you call me big hoppa
Hello MCBarrett,
Here's a couple of questions:

  1. What tools do you use that help you effectively rate another user's team? (i.e. Marrilands Team Builder, Damage Calculator)
  2. Does experience from the Ladder help when giving rates?
  3. I currently broke into the 1600 club in the OU meta game, any tips to get over the "MY POINTS" anxiety lol, and how to overcome the skilled user's on this half of the ladder?

    Any advice you can give will surely help, thank you for you time.
1. The only tools I use for rating are calcs really. I firmly believe Marriland's Team Builder is a terrible tool when it comes to rating and building teams since it only focuses on type synergy which is such a small aspect of Team Building. I've found a lot of newer players that use Marriland's Team Builder get obsessed with type synergy and end up not focusing on more important aspects of their team. One new tool I would recommend though is the bReakMyTeam Calc which is basically a sweeper calc that shows which pokes can do the most damage to your team across the board. It's just an easy way to get relevant calcs on any given team but you have to take it with a grain of salt as well. Pokes with fantastic coverage and power like Azumarill and Diggersby are almost always at the top of the list but they may not actually be the biggest threat to the team if said team doesn't allow them to switch in very often etc. It can be used for building teams to see if you have common weaknesses as well so I'd definitely recommend that.

2. Ladder experience definitely helps with rates because playing the ladder helps to keep you up to date with the current metagame. You always want your rates to reflect the current meta and if you aren't playing, chances are you don't know the meta that well.

3. This is actually a great question and I'm glad you asked :]. Laddering can be very stressful if you are worried about your points so my advice is to not worry about them. Sounds like a dumb answer but really ladder ranking isn't all too important in the grand scheme of things. I used to be the same way and would stress about ranking but now I just use the ladder to test teams and try out new stuff. It makes things way less stressful and you are actually focusing on seeing how stuff works rather than on your ranking so it's easier to adjust your team, step back, and try again. Going along with that, to do well in the higher portion of the ladder try out things that you see when you battle players with high ranks. Trying out new stuff is the best way to increase your knowledge of the metagame and a great way to improve your team building.

Finally, since you're probably a competitive person if you get anxiety from the ladder, I'd recommend trying out tournaments to get your competitive fix. This is something I wish I did much earlier in my Pokemon career. Tournaments are the best way to show off your stuff since people care about them much more than the ladder. There's a tournament room on PS! that's has tournaments all the time which is great for beginners and the tournaments forum on Smogon always has stuff going on, as well as some of the most prestigious tournaments there are.

So yea, don't stress on the ladder too much and try out tourneys! Thanks for the great questions btw n_n

Sup MCBarrett, meant to do this last night but was too drunk x.x
1. How much time do you usually spend on rates?
2. Is it pronounced "Mick Barrett" or "Emcee Barrett"?
3. Who's that Tesung person, and why do they think they're good? =O
1. Once you have done it for a while rates shouldn't take very long. Sometimes it takes a bit to organize your rate so it comes across as easy to understand but it's usually like a 10 minute thing.

2. I was hoping someone would ask this n_n. It's "Emcee Barrett" and the "M" "C" and "B" are all capitalized and there are 2 "t's" (I know it seems obvious but most people write "McBarret" ;~;)

3. Idk but he's mean ;~;
 
Hello~ fairly new to the community obviously... I was wondering how i can efficient OU team? I've slapped together a random bunch of pokemon From the OU on showdown and its been not so generous to me :P.
 

MCBarrett

i love it when you call me big hoppa
Makin anymore buzzer beaters?
I actually made one in a scrimmage earlier this year lol

Hello~ fairly new to the community obviously... I was wondering how i can efficient OU team? I've slapped together a random bunch of pokemon From the OU on showdown and its been not so generous to me :P.
A good idea is to check out the Viability Ranking Thread in the Overused Forum. This list does a pretty good job of laying out which Pokemon are the most powerful and the most efficient choices for your team. You can also check out the RMT Forum to see examples of other teams and explanations of how teams are built which can help you pick which Pokemon to choose to put on a team together.

ever been to fairfield county, namely norwalk?
Yea, we have a family friend that lives in New Canaan and I've gone to the Bridgeport area a few times for basketball games. Idk if I've ever stopped in Norwalk but I've definitely gone by a few times. I'm from Middlesex County btw n_n
 
When you finish building a new team and are ready to test it, do you typically start a new alt for it or do you just use an old one? Just something I'm curious about.
 

MCBarrett

i love it when you call me big hoppa
When you finish building a new team and are ready to test it, do you typically start a new alt for it or do you just use an old one? Just something I'm curious about.
Yea I usually test privately. Mostly because people follow me around a lot on PS and its just nicer not to have people scrutinizing my plays when I'm just trying stuff out, but keeping a nice and healthy rank on my main is kinda nice too n_n
 

Trinitrotoluene

young ☆nd foolish
is a Top Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
<3 cute user finally doing an ama!

1. you suck. justify this statement.
2. on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 the equivalent of "absolute shit" and 10 the equivalent of "perfection", what is your opinion regarding the quality of the average post in the ou viability thread?
3. what do you think about the competitive tutoring room on pokemon showdown!?
4. why did you get involved in team rating in the first place? team raters come from all walks of life, and i want to hear your story. please don't respond to this with a snarky one-liner. this is a serious question and i expect a serious answer for this one.
5. favorite playstyle?
6. 10/10 avatar.
7. should i give you a shoutout in my 1k? y/y
 
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MCBarrett

i love it when you call me big hoppa
<3 cute user finally doing an ama!

1. you suck. justify this statement.
2. on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 the equivalent of "absolute shit" and 10 the equivalent of "perfection", what is your opinion regarding the quality of the average post in the ou viability thread?
3. what do you think about the competitive tutoring room on pokemon showdown!?
4. why did you get involved in team rating in the first place? team raters come from all walks of life, and i want to hear your story. please don't respond to this with a snarky one-liner. this is a serious question and i expect a serious answer for this one.
5. favorite playstyle?
6. 10/10 avatar.
7. should i give you a shoutout in my 1k? y/y
1. i don't think i suck ;~;

2. my boi Gary2346 has been comin in hot with some solid posts in that thread lately which bumps it up to a 2 overall imo

3. I think it's a nice room for the most part, definitely an improvement over the old Rate My Team room which was just a nightmare (even though it was fun to mess around in there n_n). The average skill of the player base is a little lower than I would like since I really don't have the time or patience to explain why monotype teams will never be competitively viable over and over again (srsly fk monotype). Other than that though it's a nice room, which I do wish I was more active in at times, and the active staff there is really helpful and patient with everyone in the room which makes my job a lot easier.

4. Wow, this is a tough one since it's been so long since I started rating teams. I want to say that my first post in RMT was actually an RMT that I made at some point in the middle of BW. This was pretty huge since it was probably one of my first posts outside of CAP so I didn't really know what to expect. I think the team had like DD Latios or some weird shit like that, but overall it wasn't terrible. Anyway, I thought it was pretty awesome how helpful the team raters were and I looked up to their knowledge of the metagame so I decided that I wanted to get involved with that part of the site. Eventually I got decent at it and developed a passable understanding of the metagame so people would ask me to rate their teams and that's basically what kept me going with it n_n

5. Favorite playstyle is balanced offense as of right now. Especially in XY it's just the most versatile playstyle in terms of teambuilding which is a big reason why most of my teams fall into that playstyle. Plus there are just so many Offensive Pivots like Aegislash and AV Conk that can fuck over HO and powerful sweepers like Mega Pinsir and DD Char X to destroy Stall that it's just the most solid playstyle overall imo.

6. ikr

7. y n_n
 
1. I am looking into adding a rock pokemon to my team mainly for 3s, what rock pokemon would you recommend and why?
2. What is your least favorite pokemon?
 
ive been wanting to put togethor a ou competitive team for a while, i get frustrated trying to pick what to put in my team however because when i get a idea or find one i might consider i look in the ou section and always second guess when i read the pros and cons because i want to get my team right and not be rng( in terms of what thier starter/team is), so basically i usually abandon before i start (because i see too many holes in it i guess).

so 2 questions,

1.what steps would you take to make a team in terms of what pokemon to pick for your needs( other then pick a theme, tanky stall etc etc)?

2. what is best way to counter the ( in my opinion overpowered and shouldnt exist) priority moves short of running priority yourself?
 

MCBarrett

i love it when you call me big hoppa
1. I am looking into adding a rock pokemon to my team mainly for 3s, what rock pokemon would you recommend and why?
2. What is your least favorite pokemon?
1. golem. he rocks.
2. malamar. its ugly and way too many people thought that it was going to be good in early xy and i had to explain to way too many people that it was garbage.

ive been wanting to put togethor a ou competitive team for a while, i get frustrated trying to pick what to put in my team however because when i get a idea or find one i might consider i look in the ou section and always second guess when i read the pros and cons because i want to get my team right and not be rng( in terms of what thier starter/team is), so basically i usually abandon before i start (because i see too many holes in it i guess).

so 2 questions,

1.what steps would you take to make a team in terms of what pokemon to pick for your needs( other then pick a theme, tanky stall etc etc)?

2. what is best way to counter the ( in my opinion overpowered and shouldnt exist) priority moves short of running priority yourself?
1. Well first you have to pick a Pokemon or two to build your team around. From there you basically just want to support that core by patching up its weaknesses and playing to its strengths while covering as much of the metagame as possible. Plus you want to make sure you have some sort of hazard control (defog / rapid spin) and a stealth rock setter.

2. The most threatening priority in OU right now is obviously Flying-Type between Talonflame and Mega-Pinsir, so you definitely need at least one solid flying type resist such as Rotom-W or Heatran.
 
DIGGERSBYE THO. DIGGERSBYE THO. DIGGERSBYE THO. Let me tell you about my nigga diggersbye this nigga has EARS THAT ARE ARMS. This nigga can be smoking a blunt and reach across the board and pimp slap you. DIGGERSBYE THO. (SHOFU COOLEST THERE EVER WAS)
Ok my real question after quoting shofu is WANT TO BATTLE ON X/Y VIDEO GAME 6 VS 6 single OU RULES
Why is there not a down vote button ?_?
.cry
 
Watch shofu on youtube NOG and you'll get it. I was on the floor almost blew out a lung it was so funny it's like a 12 minute video and don't complain till after you watch it
 
1.) What does a team need to be good? atm I'm running two situationals, an Atk and one Sp.Atk sweeper, and a Def and one Sp.Def wall. This any good, and of not, what should I change?

2.) How important is Synergy in making a team?

3.) Sexiest pokemon. it better be latias or gardevoir
 
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