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Welcome to the OU Player of the Week Project: Rebooted! For those of you that don't know, this is a project where I interview a tournament player and have you, the readers, leave any questions you may have down below for them to answer. The ultimate goal is to gain insight as to how they play this skillful and strategic video game. If any of you have a suggestion for who I should interview, feel free to VM/PM me, and I will take your suggestion into consideration. Now, enough of this boring intro. Let's get to it!
AM
Most Known For:
OU Forum Moderator, Competitive Tutoring Co-Owner, sarcastic nature, saying "yeah" a lot, being involved with viability rankings, one of the OU tier leaders.
Favorite Pokemon:
Jokingly its Diglett and Spinda, but a nod goes to Hippowdon and Latios, which I use a ton on builds for their consistency with most builds I make.
Most used Pokemon:
Probably Hippowdon. It provides a lot of role compression that I love to have, Stealth Rock, recovery, defensive capability with decent firepower and utility. A masterpiece of Balance staple. We really need female Hippo black model though.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
I'm a 23 year old dude, working fulltime as a warehouse worker. On my free time I like to go see movies with family, listen to music, sleep till the afternoon on weekends, and obviously play Pokemon, more specifically team-building. I also like subtly trolling the OU room auth, they seem to enjoy it though I haven't gotten muted too many times hahaha.
Where did you get your name from?
First and last letter of my name Adam, nothing else.
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
I've been playing the games since Yellow Version, old school I know. I was into a lot of teambuilding around the time of Gen 3, breeding a lot, getting perfect natures, perfecting teams and it sort of lingered on for awhile until XY. The story of me coming into "competitive battling" which is more like joining Smogon these days, was myself using a Mega Gengar to 6-0 someone in-game. He said that Mega Gengar was Ubers and while I laughed I figured it was time to check it out for real. I started off in Competitive Tutoring, where I guess you could say my claim to fame amongst the regulars was being room mod within 3 weeks of joining. This was about a year and a half ago when I joined. I got involved into OU cause it was pretty similar to in-game so I understood a lot of the concepts right away, and a whole lot not so much as I angrily laddered for the first time hahaha.
How do you feel about how ORAS plays compared to XY?
It's really tough to say. I think XY was basically the strongest symbol of 6th gen balance that we'll ever get to witness while ORAS took a more offensive approach in the long run due to the nature of the strong forces currently in our metagame. I personally enjoy ORAS more, although XY was a very solid metagame as well.
To add onto the above, thoughts on the team matchup issue?
One of the most overblown aspects to justify ones loss. Matchup is prevalent of course but to the point where you're 6-0'd straight from the gate is simply from poor team-building and or unawareness that the archtype / build you thought was safe is far from it.
Do you feel that there is anything that is suspect worthy at the moment?
If anything gets suspected in the long run, cause it's not happening now I can say that much, I want it to be Manaphy. Regardless of its placement in viability rankings or other peoples opinions on the matter I believe it is the best, if not that at least top 3, balance breakers we have in the tier right now. Its capabilities isn't so much its individual traits that push it to the limits but its presence provides a restraint to battling and team-building that can dictate the way an opponent is forced to play, thus making the users end game easier. I don't know if the meta will get better with its presence gone, let's face it "better" is an extremely subjective term these days where questionable aspects such as Scald are being thrown on the table as a suspect point, but long term I think it would be wise to keep an eye on Manaphy.
What's your favorite playstyle and why?
Bulky Offense, Balance, and Hyper Offense preferably the two former. The logic most people use in regards to preference of these two playstyles is based on maintaining consistency but most times I'll stick with Bulky Offense as opposed to Balance that has an over dependency on defensive cores. I enjoy keeping offensive pressure with Pokemon that have some sort of defensive utility. Tyranitar, Raikou, Latios, Charizard-X, Mega Altaria, Mega Scizor, things such as those.
What's your favorite generation of OU and why?
6th gen for the fact I've gotten quite involved in the meta. 3rd gen cause nostalgia trip, looking forward to one day learn ADV when I'm not so busy >_>
How do you go about preparing for tournament matches? Does the process differ depending on the tournament?
I haven't really played in too many big tournaments but as far as the tournaments I do play in, normally I'll look into replays of my opponent just to get a feel of what they like to use, moments where they're likely to "panic" is what I call the term, consult with my competitive tutoring peeps to gauge ideas (inevitably turning into a shitpost session with insults by me), then test with a couple of people I'm cool with.
Sort of, but mostly it has to do with the current rules of that tournament. For example in the RMT tour awhile back I just watched replays of some of my opponents, see what teams they liked to use and went off of that to pick an appropriate team to counteract their style. With Gods Among Us though, I'm pretty relaxed. For Round 1 I just built one Genesect team I wanted to use with M-Gard and then used a Hyper Offense team that I thought would do ok against the opponent. Depends on mood and opponent I suppose.
What is it like playing in a team tournament?
Playing in a team tournament is suuuuuper weird but it's been so rewarding in terms of insight to see how they work, and the amount of work these guys invest, Team East, to study their opponents is just nuts. I've been pretty quiet, offering just small tips here and there due to the daily schedules these days, but I'm really glad I got to be part of it. Great group of people.
Thoughts on the newly introduced Smogon Classic? Favorite to win?
It was a great idea and was super looking forward to it when it was announced. Love watching old gen games when I'm free especially with friends to watch. I haven't been really following it though with the exception of trc's beautiful acknowledgement of Valentine's justification for his loss. That was simply amazing haha.
If you could change one thing about OU, what would it be and why?
Meh, I think suspect testing is flawed as shit but you can read on Reymedy's PR thread about it. Some aspect about it needs to change, it's a process that accommodates way too many people for it to provide a real value in terms of acknowledging both tiering philosophy and maintaining objectivity for OU's sake. Not so much limiting the pool of voters, but encouraging higher quality players to actually give a shit, a lot of them really don't which is understandable at times so a more fluid suspect process.
What is it like being the Co-Leader of the OU Forum?
Love and hate thing I suppose.
Like the majority of its more invested community who have a head on their shoulder, hate some of the stigma people establish upon themselves about me just cause of an arbitrary title. I've been scaling back duties as some have may noticed for the sake of my own sanity and the fact solo leadership roles are an absolute nightmare, so having ginganinja co-lead and the others being involved help a lot in the decision making process. It's nice to be able to delete posts I guess and gain acknowledgment once in awhile that you're doing something right.
I think in the end what I hate most about leading the OU forum is that my word is considered some sort of law, as such people bandwagon this mentality and follow the leaders or central figures way too closely without any sort of self thought about their own ideas. This is what I believe caters to the lack of quality sometimes because users will just ride the opinions of more informed users instead of investing time to apply the practicality of it all for themselves, which is the whole point of learning the game in the first place. I looked up to people like alexwolf coming in as a new user but what made me stand out amongst guys like ben gay, or at least what I think did when he told alexwolf to put me on ranking team, was that I had a practical understanding behind my logic outside of all the calcs and bandwagon. Leading the OU forum is pretty much seeing this perspective in terms of its competitive level and its social hierarchy in where you see the informed and less informed players colliding with each other, fighting against each others social dynamics. Guess you can say there's no true middle ground, so that's what leading the OU forum is like, seeing all that and delegating decisions based on that.
I like badge noms though so there's that haha.
Do you have any advice for newer players for playing, and for Smogon in general?
Lurk, lurk, lurk no matter what position you may be in. I can't stress this enough and maybe it's cliche as hell, but it's going to save you in the long run. Don't get distraught over trivial matters, bad plays, bad teambuilding, stupidity you see in general, etc. You learn more from your mistakes and losses than your success and wins, it's part of the game, it's part of life. Acquaint yourself with some people, you learn a lot more as a group than just going solo, as they'll make you aware of aspects you may have never considered. Find your interest and stick with it. If you like team-building such as myself emphasize on that, if you like battling engage yourself in a setting where you can improve on this. If you like roleplaying or something that has been established as weird by an already socially awkward group known as Smogon community, stick with that.
If you could change one thing about Smogon as a whole to make it better, what would it be and why?
More PS related, but a lot of the policy of PS is bad cause it's trying to cater to a competitive player base from Smogon but is run pre-dominately by non competitive players who focus on matters that are truly pointless, trivial, or a massive waste of time most times. So I guess maybe put people into position of powers that can actually address the issues that matter appropriately due to their experience with userbase. The established hierarchy while a thing with a lot of communities, has created this huge rift that globals have put upon themselves which is a shame.
What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
Oh man. I'm good friends with a lot of people from Competitive Tutoring, Challenges, and Overused room so I won't spend 3 paragraphs doing individual shout outs hahaha. I look up to guys like McMeghan, ben gay, TDK, and my favorite butt head TheEnder. McMeghan is a solid as hell player who is also a strong policy guy which you really want more of these days. ben gay is a big teambuilder inspiration to myself and granted he's pretty quiet but he's so influential behind the scenes in terms of analysis and rankings I don't think a lot of you realize how much work this guy puts in. TDK I consider one of the best ORAS builders we have right now. He just knows how to make such consistent teams for whoever and even if there's an inconsistency in it, it's easily accommodated for through playing anyways. TheEnder gets a special mention cause like TDK he's a really solid builder and like myself likes to make stupid emoticons. He's also a Tangrowth in real life so there's that to.
Henry I'll put here as well cause he's a good as hell as ranker on the viability ranking team and he's got spot on analysis when it comes to that and team-building. He's good at exploiting meta trends, which makes some of his teams really hard to beat.
Finally, can you provide us a team that's a good fit for this metagame and reflects your playstyle, with a brief explanation of how it works?
Diancie @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 64 Atk / 192 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
- Protect
Manaphy @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Scald
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Tail Glow
Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Roost
- Defog
Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch
Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Seed Bomb
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Swords Dance
Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP / 192 Def / 72 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 64 Atk / 192 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Moonblast
- Diamond Storm
- Earth Power
- Protect
Manaphy @ Rindo Berry
Ability: Hydration
EVs: 40 HP / 252 SpA / 216 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Scald
- Psychic
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Tail Glow
Latios @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Roost
- Defog
Magnezone @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Magnet Pull
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 Spe
- Thunderbolt
- Flash Cannon
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Volt Switch
Breloom @ Toxic Orb
Ability: Poison Heal
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 12 HP / 244 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Seed Bomb
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Swords Dance
Hippowdon (F) @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 240 HP / 192 Def / 72 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
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Feel free to leave questions below. See yall next week!