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Welcome to OU's Player of the week, a thread where I interview well known players to gain insight on how they battle, as well as get to know some things about them. The goal of this thread is to have these high level players give insight to other players in this community in hopes of creating a better overall experience in the OU environment. As always, if theres someone youd like to see interviewed, feel free to shoot me a PM. So without further ado, lets get to it! (Just a note: Anyone tagged in this post was tagged in the interview by Bloo)
Most Known For
Winning the Smogon Frontier & my Smogon Tour performances | "The administrator who actually plays Pokémon" | Using all kinds of teams from others | Being a big undercover troll and frequent user of sarcastic forms of flattery among those who know me.
Favorite Pokémon
This is a hard question for me to answer actually! I always have these periods where I fangirl over a certain Pokémon and then move onto another one that takes reign as my favorite for however long. As such, choosing a favorite is harder than it should be for me. Nonetheless, after much consideration, here are some I've narrowed down below. I have a ton of other Pokémon I really like besides these. Feel free to ask which others I am a fan of besides the ones below and I'll happily answer.
As a child, I was a big fan of the Pokémon anime. Dragonite was one of the very first Pokémon I saw in the anime and I remember thinking this thing looked really cool. As I kept watching, I grew in love with how gentle, caring, and yet at the same time, powerful Dragonite was depicted in certain episodes of the show. From there, I've always had a place in my heart for Dragonite as one of my favorites. In fact, when my parents purchased Pokémon Gold and Silver for me, one of my main goals was to catch and train a Dratini into a big, strong Dragonite of my own. I trained it all the way up to level 98 and accomplished my goal; however, I allowed one of my friends to borrow my Game Boy one day and when I received it back, my Dragonite was gone - he traded my Dragonite to his own game. Long story short, I never got that Dragonite back and was very upset, and still am!
As for Gardevoir, I was also a big fan of Ralts in-game. Ralts was such a shy Pokémon from what I can remember, and I love how it evolves from a timid little thing to a more confident and powerful Pokémon like Gardevoir. I featured shiny Mega Gardevoir as the sprite above because I really love the design. Black is my favorite color and her black dress makes her look really classy and formidable in general.
With Mew, I just think it's one of the most adorable looking Pokémon ever made and if we could have Pokémon in real life, Mew would probably be my pick tied with Latios. I love its playfulness and intelligence and think it's just an awesome Pokémon design and personality-wise. It's also one of the Pokémon I use the most competitively where it's available to me (XY OU and BW OU). The thing rarely fails to put in work.
Most Used Pokémon
No doubt about this one: Tyranitar. It's just so good and useful across generations and always finds its way onto my preferred teams given just how many roles it can take on.
Does your name have anything to do with Bloo from Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends?
Yup. When I was signing up for Smogon, Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends was actually airing on the television near my computer back then. Bloo was on the screen and I thought it'd make for a cool username given its simplicity. Bloo was also my favorite character of the series, so that played a part in the decision as well for sure!
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
Around 2007, I was playing the generation four games a lot and one of my friends told me he was into the game as well. He wanted to battle me one day and so we did. He defeated me pretty easily and stated he started reading strategies online, which looking back, I could notice given how "advanced" his team was compared to mine. I thought that was very cool and asked him to show me where he was learning from. He took me to a computer, went to Serebii and showed me around the website, and I was fascinated. Thinking this guy was the greatest Pokémon player of all time, I asked him to battle someone other than myself and he went to a chat to ask for challenges. He found a battle and got massacred himself.
The individual who defeated him said "gg" to him and neither of us knew what the term meant at the time. We asked this individual to explain what "gg" meant and so he did, stating it was the saying competitive Pokémon players say to each other at the end of a game out of respect, and that's where I realized there had to be a whole different side to this game that I wasn't aware of. Fast forwarding a bit, when I went home that day all curious and the like, I started searching Pokémon related things like crazy on Google and eventually came across "Shoddy Battle." I downloaded the program and began familiarizing myself with it.
Initially, I dabbled on the ladder with my in-game team of Gyarados | Electivire | Steelix | Infernape | Dusknoir | Roserade. I was rocking GyaraVire, so you already know I was reading up on strategies prior to this. I thought this team was really legit, but alas, I soon learned otherwise. In my first battle, I was paired with a guy named Brian McCann, who was extremely good back then. He ended up 6-0ing me with little effort.
I didn't give up, though. I continued playing to get a feel for the game and eventually met a user known as Chii on Smogon, a player I and many others held in high regard when he was active. He practiced a lot with me and I learned so much from him. I eventually felt confident and knowledgeable enough to hit the suspect ladders on Smogon thanks to the things he taught me and was able to fend for myself against great players. From there, I continued laddering under various forms of the name "immortalis," where I met great people like reyscarface and Haunter on ladder and began to become known and make friends.
The rest is history, although I didn't start playing competitively in Tournaments until 2011 on Smogon partially because I was scared of them. I'll never look back on joining Tournaments, though. It's by far my favorite section of the website and arguably the greatest contributing factor to the player I was able to become today. If it weren't for a few people pushing me to join them, I doubt I'd still be here.
What is it like being known as one of, if not the best tour players around, right along with McMeghan?
My reasons for playing Pokémon have evolved a lot throughout the years. Right now, though, my main reason for playing is to be known as the person people refer to as the best player of my era. Even though there will always be debates regarding who the best player of a certain era was, you usually see similarities in the responses people give. For example, when people discuss fourth generation players, I rarely see anyone mention someone other than Earthworm as the first "best player" of his era, with others usually being mentioned second.
When discussing "best players" in our current era, I usually see myself as the second mentioned. I still feel like I yet have something to prove and it's my main motivation for playing Pokémon and something I hope to accomplish in the near future. To answer the "what it's like to be known as one of the best players" portion of your question - it's the thing that motivates me to continue playing so that I can be the best (even if such a thing doesn't exist in Pokémon), not one of the best, whether it's through my own perspective or others, because I personally don't feel like I'm the best.
Don't get me wrong, though. I definitely don't want any of that to sound selfish at all because I don't meant it that way. I appreciate that people see me as one of the best players, but I am just an extremely competitive person by nature and always strive to be the best at something I put forth lots of time toward, and as silly as it may sound, the aforementioned is just a little personal goal of mine! It could be ping pong or whatever - if I put a lot of time towards an activity, I want to come out known as the best to do it. I've developed plenty of healthy and fun rivalries this way that keep me going. After all, the whole point of Pokémon is to "be the best there ever was," right? After I accomplish my "final goal" on Smogon, one of my main intentions is to take a mentor role and impart my knowledge about Pokémon to people aspiring to get better at this game as a way to give back to the community. In that way, I like being known as "one of the best," because it gives me the confidence knowing I can help others improve when I take on that role.
With that said, I definitely enjoy seeing people recognize the things I do as a player and am very appreciative of the fact of the nice things they say. Sometimes I wish I was under the radar like I was when I first started playing Tournaments because people don't know what to expect from you, which isn't the case for me anymore, but being a big player also has just as many advantages as being unknown. It's very interesting to think about the perks of both, and I can expand on this more if anyone is interested.
What is your mindset going into a big tour match?
Although I used to, I don't get nervous at all anymore; however, I actually go into every big game of mine thinking I am going to lose. I don't know why I do this, but I very rarely go into a match thinking I am going to win, partially because competitive Pokémon has made me quite pessimistic for various reasons. Regardless, when the actual game begins, those thoughts fly out of the window and I focus on disproving my thoughts of "I am going to lose" wrong by paying 100% attention to my match and working myself towards the path I can take to win. I never play Pokémon without listening to music (usually rock) as I've found it helps me concentrate, so that's another thing that helps my mindset when it comes to finding the path to victory. Feel free to ask me some tunes I play while battling too!
Also, the week leading up to my big games, I try to make myself mentally feel like I'll want to play Pokémon on the day I am scheduled (usually weekends because they're less hectic). My mood is probably the #1 factor in how I play, and if I don't feel like playing or am scheduled to play on a day or time I know doesn't suit me well, I know I won't care enough or be in the mood to play as well as I could.
My emotions and mood play a very large role in how I play, so feel free to inquire more about them if you're interested.
Whats your favorite playstyle and why?
My favorite playstyle is balance and bulky offense. I feel these two playstyles provide the most room for me to play around everything I need to while allowing me to opportunity to pressure and maneuver around my opponent at the same time if I'm in a bad position. I love having a solid defensive backbone to fall back on, accompanied by one or two hard hitters to break my opponent down and this style of play is the one I've found the most effective for myself throughout the years. I don't feel as if other playstyles like Hyper Offense and Stall provide the same breathing room that balance and bulky offense do and tend to stray away from using them in big games because they are more susceptible to match-up, which I always try to minimize with my team choices. Balance and bulky offense are very diverse playstyles and open up many routes for you to take when team-building, making it difficult to exactly "counter team," a very useful attribute in Tournaments.
Whats your favorite tournament, Official or Unofficial, that you’ve participated in?
Even though it's very time consuming and frustrating at times, Smogon Tour is without a doubt my favorite tournament to both host and play in. I love the live aspect of it for various reasons:
- You can see who wins within a few hours instead of having to wait months to see who wins a particular Tour.
- Everyone is on and available at the same time so there's no scheduling aspect to it, which is a godsend considering how terrible people in Tournaments are with scheduling times with each other.
- You are able to watch many great players live, something you can't really do with non-live Tournaments unless a particular player announces when they're playing each time and you can be on during said time.
- Crazy things happen during Smogon Tour that I and the other TDs have to unfortunately deal with, but it's fun to look back on and laugh at, say, people faking screenshots of them winning against someone when they actually lost (has happened more than once!) and other such things.
What upcoming tours are you looking forward to?
If I'm honest, the only tournaments I ever really look forward to on Smogon are the Smogon Tour seasons and I don't care as much about all of the other official tournaments. I still participate in them regardless, but I don't hold them in the same regard that I do with Smogon Tour. Regardless, if I'm on a team in say SPL, I'll definitely put in the work expected of me. However, if we don't end up winning it all, I can move on pretty easily and not be as upset as I would be when losing in Smogon Tour for example.
As for unofficial tournaments, I hold the same feelings. I stopped joining these long ago. I don't really gain anything from joining these anymore and so I very rarely, if at all, participate in them, especially considering how time consuming they are - the less Pokémon I have to play, the better! Unofficial tournaments are a good way to start getting used to tournaments and making yourself known, though, which is a reason I participated in them earlier in my PokéCareer. Aside from that, there are some unofficial tournaments I appreciate conceptually though, such as the Reverse Tournament, which I think requires a lot of thought to win and pull of well.
What was it like being a Frontier brain during Frontier season?
Pretty bad honestly. Being a brain combines everything I dislike into one big boiling pot of misery: being spammed with private messages from annoying people who have no concept of courtesy and respect for our role as brains and having to play far too much Pokémon. Additionally, dealing with all the cheaters this year was a huge pain and definitely didn't contribute to making being a brain any better. Regardless, I like playing BW OU and wanted the title and symbol of Pike Queen, so I went through with it at the end of the day.
What is it like being the Head Tournament Director, and have there been times when you wish you weren't?
As head TD, I consider my main role guiding conversations and bringing up the issues we have to settle. Some people have this misconception that being head TD means I can overrule any decision I'd like from another TD, but that's not true at all. We all work together as a team to sort out issues and make rulings and almost always consult each other before doing things.
Speaking in terms of being a Tournament Director, it's not a very easy job. We have to make decisions and it's impossible to make everyone happy with a particular decision. Tournament Directors get a lot of flack, but I sometimes wish people would sit back and think about how hard it is to make some of these decision at times and how much there is to consider when making them. I'm sure if many of the whiners were in our shoes, they would have a very hard time coming to the fairest decision, particularly because a lot of the whiners are incapable of putting their own biases aside when it comes to resolving an issue.
The lack of respect people have for us at times is pretty disheartening and I've actually offered my spot as Head TD to others twice at points where I was really frustrated with being one, but it is what it is. If there's anything I love about having been a Tournament Director, it has been learning the art of ignoring people (thanks Earthworm), a trade I've mastered by now and one that is very useful when dealing with dumb nuts.
What players do you look up to / are really good friends with?
Earthworm is probably the single player I admire and look up to the most. A lot of the player tendencies, philosophies and general mindsets I have about Pokémon are based on his, and he's definitely the player that has influenced me the most. I left him a visitor message regarding how he's influenced me, which if you're interested in reading, CLICK HERE. Although the VM is written rather trolly, I genuinely mean everything there. <3 wormy!
gr8astard, who I will refer to as Hugo from here on in, is another player I look up to very much. The reason for this is because I've never been very good at team-building. However, after working with him a lot, I've learned a lot about building teams. With regards to teambuilding, most people just throw pastebins of teams at me. Hugo does something most people never do with me, and that's guiding me through the decision process he takes when deciding on slots to develop any particular idea I have instead of picking everything for me. I feel I've learned a lot from him due to this to the point where I can follow through making teams of my own, although I by in large prefer building with others because it's more enjoyable. Even though everything I use is seen as "not mine," many of the teams I use are actually made from me working with him on developing ideas I had and I love seeing how successful some of them turn out to be. All in all, him and I are always discussing new ideas together and it's very fun working with him.
Finally, CrashinBoomBang deserves a mention as well. I used to be a pretty linear player who would typically go the safe route during my games. However, CBB has really helped me break out of that shell to make me a much more aggressive player. I think I was able to reach a new level as a player after playing him a bunch of times and watching him play because I've learned not to be afraid of making the double switches and aggressive plays that I need to in order to pressure my opponent and ultimately win a match. All in all, I think I was able to grow much more proficient at this game than I ever was thanks to him.
If you could change one thing about OU, be it through a ban or unban, what would it be and why?
Like the players in the weeks before me have stated, I think the XY OU metagame is very balanced and honestly wouldn't change anything about it. XY OU is my favorite metagame to date because of how much room for creativity there is in teambuilding and how much here is at your disposal when deciding what you would like to use against a particular opponent.
What are you most hyped up about come ORAS?
I only become hyped with initial releases of new mega evolutions and after a few days my hype dies down, so I can't really say. I was initially really excited about Mega Beedrill because of how hilarious it is to envision Beedrill having use in something like OU and how crazy its stat changes were, but my excitement for it has since died down after realizing a lot of its flaws.
If there's anything I am looking forward to though, it's Mega Lopunny and Mega Diancie. Lopunny is actually a Pokémon I really like design-wise and its competitive potential with its newly gained upgrades looks pretty good. The same goes with Mega Diancie. I love how its offenses increased substantially and am a big fan of its design, giving the Gardevoir I mentioned above competition in the dress department.
I also hope Hoopa turns out to be a form instead of a mega evolution. It has great Dark | Psychic | Fighting coverage with Deoxys-level offenses, something I would have tons of fun spamming until people complain about it being broken!
Do you have any advice for players who are aspiring to play in major tours (like me)?
As I mentioned earlier in one of my responses, I was really scared of joining Tournaments initially. Seeing all these good players participating was very intimidating to me, especially when I was considering how much better they were than me. I mainly stuck to the ladder and was known as a ladder player for a long time, but eventually this became boring and unsatisfying because it didn't allow me to become as known as I wanted to be as a player after.
At some point, you have to face the fear and tell yourself that you're going to participate in those big tournaments if you feel you can make a name for yourself and improve your abilities as a player, and that's what I did. By playing in major Tournaments, I got a completely different feel for the game by facing players of all kinds of levels, which really went a long way in helping me improve. You honestly just have to jump in and try it and see where it takes you. For me, the second Tournament I won on Smogon was the Smogon Frontier a month and a half after starting Tournaments. I am not saying this to brag, but as a way to convey that you never know where joining major Tournaments will lead you. You may end up winning it all, making new friends that will help you improve your game with their knowledge, and so on.
Remember, a lot of the players considered the best today and in the past wouldn't be considered that way if they didn't say "let's do this" and join those major Tournaments you're hesitating to partake in. Join in on the fun and don't give up if you fail at first. Learn from your losses and use them to become stronger.
Do you have any advice for players who are newer to the XY OU metagame?
The best advice I have for people new to XY OU is to just hop on the ladder and get your feet wet with the metagame. Nothing beats experience. As much as people criticize the ladder, playing on it will allow you to familiarize yourself with the way a particular metagame is. Once you test the waters and get a feel for what you're dealing with, go ahead and read up on strategies from the countless sources we have on Smogon. Take advantage of them and the various threads we have in this forum by reading what people are saying about the metagame. Watch other people play and develop your overall knowledge of the metagame. Supplement all of this with actual playing of your own, as that's the best way to put everything you've learned to use and heighten your knowledge. You will win some and lose some. Learn from both, especially your losses. People have a tendency to brush aside their losses to luck and any other excuse they can come up with, making them lose focus and give up instead of reflecting on things they could've done better to win. Luck does play a significant part in some losses, but a lot of times its impact are overstated.
Finally, is there a team that you could show us that reflects your playstyle that is a good fit for this metagame with a brief explanation of how it works?
Charizard-Mega-X @ Charizardite X
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 216 HP / 16 Atk / 100 SpD / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Roost
- Earthquake
- Will-O-Wisp
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
I alternate Sludge Wave between Hidden Power Ice and Calm Mind sometimes.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Grass Knot
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
- Scald
Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Roost
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Leech Seed
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 216 HP / 16 Atk / 100 SpD / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Roost
- Earthquake
- Will-O-Wisp
Tyranitar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
Landorus (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Sheer Force
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Sludge Wave
- Earth Power
- Focus Blast
- Psychic
I alternate Sludge Wave between Hidden Power Ice and Calm Mind sometimes.
Slowbro @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Bold Nature
- Grass Knot
- Slack Off
- Thunder Wave
- Scald
Latios (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Roost
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Defog
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Stealth Rock
- Protect
- Leech Seed
This is a squad I worked on with Hugo and was the main team I used in XY this Smogon Tour season. It reflects everything I like to incorporate into a team: a good defensive backbone and offensive presence to pressure whoever I am playing.
Ferrothorn and Slowbro provide your general defensive coverage against a lot of metagame threats, while the remainder of the team attempts to cover as much as possible while still maintaining offensive presence. For example, we have Charizard-X to help deal with Scizor, an additional Charizard-Y answer in case Latios is trapped, and things like Mew, which would otherwise destroy the team. In addition to covering various threats, Charizard-X contributes offensively to the team given how strong the thing is. Tyranitar gives us a means of covering Pinsir and Talonflame, while supporting the main powerhouse of the team, Landorus-I, by trapping Latios and Latias. Our own Latios rounds off the team by serving as an additional answer to Keldeo and other 'mons like Charizard-Y. Latios also provides some added to Speed to an otherwise slow team, giving us a fast Defog option to clear rocks away for Charizard-X.
The biggest weakness of the team is by far HP Fire + Dark Pulse Greninja. I've managed to win matchups where I faced this variant of Greninja, but it murders practically the entire team alone if it comes in when things are weakened slightly (non-full health Tyranitar and Charizard-X mainly). Other than that, I think the team can play around most threats and has served me well. Below are some replays of me / Hugo using the team in Smogon Tour this season:
1. Replay 1
2. Replay 2
3. Replay 3
That's that. I know my replies are horrendously long, but hopefully you guys found it an interesting read. Feel free to ask me any questions you have and I promise I'll reply to your inquiries with as much as I wrote here
!---
So there it is. If you have any questions for Bloo, feel free to ask him in the thread. I'd like to thank him once again for doing this. See you next week!
