Hello again and welcome to our next Player of the Week. This thread hopes to increase the visibility of prominent NU players to the community and the outside world while promoting both users and the strategies that they find to be effective in the metagame. If there is someone you would like to see interviewed, feel free to drop me a PM.
Aladyyn
Favorite Pokemon: Roserade
Most known for: choking away battles in spectacular ways and being in the nu qc team
Most used Pokemon: Feraligatr
xzern: So tell me, Aladyyn, why is your name what it is?
Aladyyn: Because my name is Aleš and the disney char name resembles it and 11 year old me thought it was cool and then I butchered it with the 2 y's for ps and smogon to make it cooler and now nobody can spell it right.
xzern: Favorite generation of pokemon?
Aladyyn: probably gen 3, I haven't actually played any of the gen 4-6 games because I don't own the consoles but I still play through RSE and FRLG a ton. it's just the familiarity I guess and gen3 starters are the best of any gen so that contributes too.
xzern: How did you come to competitive battling/Smogon?
Aladyyn: Basically thriving a bigger challenge than just in-game pokemon. the game is obviously pretty deep and playing against ai is for trained monkeys and little kids. My first contact with competitive battling was a couple years back on shoddy. I knew nothing about competitive pokemon so I put together a team of 6 mons and then proceeded to get completely smacked by some guy with a jolteon and I was like "screw this" and never played on shoddy again. But last may I got the urge to try again. I found PS and smogon, got tossed again, and quit again. only to return a few months later in late bw2 in its final stage. first I lurked a lot on forums and irc and built my first proper team which I basically used throughout bw2 with some variations then I became a regular in the ps nu room where I became one of the goto guys for advice because thanks to stalking good players on forums and irc, I knew a bit about the meta.
xzern: What's your favorite part of NU?
Aladyyn: I have to say it's the community surrounding it. we have a lot of great people contributing and they're all a lot of fun. I'm not one of the people that want to use quirky stuff all the time, so that's not really an aspect that attracts me to the tier now but it certainly influence my decision on what tier to get into back when I started out on PS.
xzern: If you could ban or unban one thing from NU, what would it be/why?
Aladyyn: I don't think there's anything that should be banned, well, except scald because it's been getting on my nerves a lot lately. But, I'd like to see some more drops. I really want whimsicott because it's like liepard but cool typing and more utility. (also hitmonchan blows and we don't need it when we already got a great spinner in kabu)
xzern: NU player you most admire?
Aladyyn: I admire every player that can just go and build a good team because I always struggle with that :(. for specific mentions, I have to say Teddeh and QueenOfLuvdiscs because they went into XY HARD and pretty much defined the ladder meta with their teams (and the ps room tours too) and they're both cool guys as well. Also obviously all the greats like zeb, flcl, ras, sg etc. The player I admire most is QQ because he innovated air balloon shedinja.
xzern: Do you have any advice for people new to NU?
Aladyyn: My advice for people new to nu is: don't try to do too much when you start out. I know there are a lot of cool mons, but a lot of them just suck or are very hard to use effectively. So before you take the ladder by storm with your silly gimmick, familiarize yourself with the metagame by using more standard stuff. Once you get the hang of that, go wild.
xzern: Could you give me something like a mini RMT to conclude the interview, one that demonstrates your teambuilding style?
Aladyyn: everyone knows I suck at teambuilding, but here's a team I'm really enjoying right now
Aladyyn
Favorite Pokemon: Roserade
Most known for: choking away battles in spectacular ways and being in the nu qc team
Most used Pokemon: Feraligatr
Aladyyn: Because my name is Aleš and the disney char name resembles it and 11 year old me thought it was cool and then I butchered it with the 2 y's for ps and smogon to make it cooler and now nobody can spell it right.
xzern: Favorite generation of pokemon?
Aladyyn: probably gen 3, I haven't actually played any of the gen 4-6 games because I don't own the consoles but I still play through RSE and FRLG a ton. it's just the familiarity I guess and gen3 starters are the best of any gen so that contributes too.
xzern: How did you come to competitive battling/Smogon?
Aladyyn: Basically thriving a bigger challenge than just in-game pokemon. the game is obviously pretty deep and playing against ai is for trained monkeys and little kids. My first contact with competitive battling was a couple years back on shoddy. I knew nothing about competitive pokemon so I put together a team of 6 mons and then proceeded to get completely smacked by some guy with a jolteon and I was like "screw this" and never played on shoddy again. But last may I got the urge to try again. I found PS and smogon, got tossed again, and quit again. only to return a few months later in late bw2 in its final stage. first I lurked a lot on forums and irc and built my first proper team which I basically used throughout bw2 with some variations then I became a regular in the ps nu room where I became one of the goto guys for advice because thanks to stalking good players on forums and irc, I knew a bit about the meta.
xzern: What's your favorite part of NU?
Aladyyn: I have to say it's the community surrounding it. we have a lot of great people contributing and they're all a lot of fun. I'm not one of the people that want to use quirky stuff all the time, so that's not really an aspect that attracts me to the tier now but it certainly influence my decision on what tier to get into back when I started out on PS.
xzern: If you could ban or unban one thing from NU, what would it be/why?
Aladyyn: I don't think there's anything that should be banned, well, except scald because it's been getting on my nerves a lot lately. But, I'd like to see some more drops. I really want whimsicott because it's like liepard but cool typing and more utility. (also hitmonchan blows and we don't need it when we already got a great spinner in kabu)
xzern: NU player you most admire?
Aladyyn: I admire every player that can just go and build a good team because I always struggle with that :(. for specific mentions, I have to say Teddeh and QueenOfLuvdiscs because they went into XY HARD and pretty much defined the ladder meta with their teams (and the ps room tours too) and they're both cool guys as well. Also obviously all the greats like zeb, flcl, ras, sg etc. The player I admire most is QQ because he innovated air balloon shedinja.
xzern: Do you have any advice for people new to NU?
Aladyyn: My advice for people new to nu is: don't try to do too much when you start out. I know there are a lot of cool mons, but a lot of them just suck or are very hard to use effectively. So before you take the ladder by storm with your silly gimmick, familiarize yourself with the metagame by using more standard stuff. Once you get the hang of that, go wild.
xzern: Could you give me something like a mini RMT to conclude the interview, one that demonstrates your teambuilding style?
Aladyyn: everyone knows I suck at teambuilding, but here's a team I'm really enjoying right now
Swoobat @ Salac Berry
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Stored Power
- Substitute
- Heat Wave
Gurdurr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Knock Off
- Bulk Up
Liepard @ Black Glasses
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- U-turn
Golurk @ Colbur Berry
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dynamic Punch
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Kabutops @ Lum Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Jet
Roselia @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Calm Mind
- Stored Power
- Substitute
- Heat Wave
Gurdurr @ Eviolite
Ability: Guts
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Knock Off
- Bulk Up
Liepard @ Black Glasses
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Encore
- Knock Off
- Sucker Punch
- U-turn
Golurk @ Colbur Berry
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Dynamic Punch
- Stone Edge
- Earthquake
Kabutops @ Lum Berry
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Rapid Spin
- Waterfall
- Stone Edge
- Aqua Jet
Roselia @ Eviolite
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 72 HP / 252 SpA / 184 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Spikes
- Giga Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
