#5 The Immortal
He's watching
Hey
Hello
Could you give some background information about yourself?
I am a 22 year old man and I have been living in Dubai for the past 10+ years. I have a degree in Finance with programming being my hobby. I like my privacy so won't say any more, haha.
How did you get into Pokemon?
I used to watch the anime as a kid and I got into the games in school when a friend lent me his Ruby/Sapphire. I loved playing it! Around the end of DPP, I discovered Pokemon Online and started laddering there. After a while, Pokemon Showdown was born and a few months into public beta, I found it from Smogon. I did have a Smogon long before, but never was active there. When I joined, most aspects were not implemented yet and there were a lot of bugs. I decided to help implement things and fix bugs. A high ranked user at that time, Marty, noticed my contributions and voiced me. I immediately became more active in the only chat at that time, the lobby. And soon after, I was promoted to moderator. Hundreds of commits to the code, and several months later, I was promoted to leader. Finally, I was promoted to admin last year (on my birthday!) after more than a year as a leader. I would say that my consistent contributions was the reason for that.
How did you get into OMs?
I'm not 100% sure when I got into OMs but I think it was because I had to implement OMs on here and then I got into Joim's Lab and started playing OMs with Snaquaza and the other guys that used to visit that server. I got into the OM room on main last June because I having more free time and I wanted to get more into OMs as well. Before that, I was promoted to OM moderator on Smogon but wasn't really a presence in Other Metas. I also noticed the lack of activity in the room and wanted to improve it.
What's the most influential thing you've done regarding OM's?
I think the most influential thing is probably the ladders. I added most of these OMs to permanent ladders. AAA, STABmons, and Tier Shift are just some of the ladders I made permanent because I liked the concepts and they were active when they won OM of the Month.
What's your favorite OM?
My favorite OMs have varied over time. I like 1v1 because it is simple and quick. But then I got into Almost Any Ability and loved that, until I faced Kl4ng's stall teams. I really hate stall! Lastly, I got into Hidden Type since it was my own OM and I enjoyed it. I haven't been playing OMs recently but maybe I'll make a come back soon! If I look at just recently, probably Last Bastion. There haven't been any top OMs submitted recently.
What's in your opinion the most underrated OM?
Sketchmons. It is a very simple idea, one Sketch for every Pokemon, but leaves a big impact. I'm really surprised it hasn't been in contention for OM of the Month recently.
What's your favorite part about the OM Community?
I don't know about favorite part, but the best thing to come out of being part of the OM community is meeting Eevee General. He is a great and loveable guy!
Why should players get into OM's?
Like the room description says, its something different. There are a lot of fun and interesting OMs out there. Basically, there's something for everyone!
What's your favorite part of the OM Room?
Honestly, my favorite thing about the room are the room mods. They work extremely hard and always want to do more, especially unfixable! Tournaments with the lobby.
What'd you advice new player to do to get into OM's?
As a first step, they should definitely watch a few battles. They should then build a team, even if it will be bad and start battling. Slowly they will learn more and keep improving their team as they do. We also just launched an OM Mentoring Program which is definitely the way to go for learning an OM!
How's it like being an OM Leader?
It's been good so far! Well, the responsibilities are similar to those when I was just OM mod. The first responsibility is moderating the forum by monitoring all the active threads. The second is accepting and rejecting submissions. The third, and definitely my favorite responsibility, is the OM room on PS. I want to add that without my partner Eevee General, these responsibilities would be much more difficult. As for advantages, I guess having to the power to make a difference and keep improving Other Metas!
Which OM would you like to win OMotM?
Since I'm the one that adds the OMotM to PS, obviously I want the easiest to implement to win! If I look at the nominations, I think AAA Ubers deserves a chance. AAA is a popular OM and I'm sure we have all thought about using any ability on Ubers. It might attract Ubers players to the OM community as well.
What's the most fun thing you've done regarding OMs?
Having to manage Birkal's Bedroom Blisseys to win the OMPL! Even though I was no help and lost my matches, I did play a big part in putting the team together every week! I hope to manage in the next OMPL as well!
What's the largest problem you've faced while leading OMs?
I think the reaction from removing Hackmons. It had decent popularity, and the Hackmons players didn't take it well. I was pretty much blamed for it, even though it was a group decision. Eventually the thread had to be locked because it became so bad. After a lot of time, we restarted Classic Hackmons and it has been going fine.
Who do you think is the best OM Contributor?
Right now unfixable is an outstanding contributor! He does so much it's unbelievable.
Who do you think is the best OM battler?
Word used to be the best battler in like every OM, lol, but he is no longer active. Right now, I think Kl4ng is the best battler.
Who do you think is the most underrated OM Contributor?
I think Snaquaza is a pretty underrated contributor. He has done a lot of OM projects on the forum, and has been a hardworking OM room mod for a long time.
Who do you think is the most underrated OM battler?
manu 11 is definitely an underrated battler. I think partly because of his lack of self-confidence.
What's your stance on the recent removal of Monte Cristo as the AAA Tier Leader?
AAA is a ladder on the main server, and should have a leader that shows respect to everyone. Monte doesn't control himself a lot of the time both on the forum and on the sim. That's all I'll say.
What's your stance on Pet Mods?
I am indifferent about Pet Mods. I don't follow them and don't play them.The well thought-out and excellently presented ones. There have been a few "RBY mechanics in current gen" submissions but we accepted Gen Wun because it was both of those above qualities.
Can you leak any updates regarding OM's?
There's one that adds Pokemon Conquest abilities, which I'm excited for. It hasn't received an approval yet but we shall see!
Any final words?
Thanks for interviewing me and I hope Eevee General and I will stay partners for a very long time!