Doubles OU Player of the Week #41 - Stax

[ryo yamada2001]

quick message; no interview this week, I havr no time for it, next week I'll have a doubles interview for you all!

 

[ryo yamada2001]

Doubles Player of the Week #12 - Audiosurfer​

1. Hi, who are you and where do you come from?
i'm audiosurfer. i was born in ghana but i'm nigerian and have spent almost all of my life in chicago (i'll be goin to tucson, az for college though)

2. Where did you get your name from?
it comes from the game audiosurf (audio-surf.com). kind of a long story
when the zune hd came out one of the games for it was audiosurf. never ended up buying the device but it made me look up audiosurf, which made me hear about steam, which got me into pc gaming. used to go by a lamer username but when i realized that name was lame i switched to audiosurfer and have been using it or some variation for most of my online activities so yeah that's pretty much it. i think it's worked pretty well thusfar

3. How and when did you get into competitive Pokemon, and why did you stick around?
well i initially played competitive yugioh over at pojo which was where I spent most of my time online, but I stumbled on an IGN article about competitive pokemon (before that the thought of pokemon as a competitive game never occured to me) and i started googling a bunch about it. i first found stuff on serebii (shudder) but my search also turned up an old intro to competitive battling article on smogon so i started poking around the forums and made an account after a bit. i initially started in ou (my first team i remember building was this smashpass team with mixed metagross as a receiver which was pretty fun), but then after spending time buildin bad ou teams i gave nu a whirl and started building bad nu teams. my first nu team was just taking two seperate cores posted in the nu cores thread and slapping them together and then adding a 6th mon lol. i kept getting beaten on the ladder (as hard as that may sound to those reading this) so i signed up for b101 in NU and got DTC as a tutor. he was the one who got me on irc and taught me the basics of competitive battling and everything, and thanks to him i felt more apart of the site and fell in with the NU crowd for a while. that lasted for some months, but during that time i also heard about VGC because of solace (back then the well, which is like an AMA-type thread focused on different users was running and she was the one in it. people were askin her questions which included a few about vgc, so i asked one of my own and i started thinking about trying out vgc.

the issue was that the whole idea of playing it sounded really intimidating. first off, i ddin't have a ds or a copy of black or white. and also all my memories of playing the game involved a lot of dumb grinding to level up pokemon which was really unappealing to me by then, and i didn't want to have to start reading up on breeding and ev/iving and all that sort of stuff. so the idea of playin a doubles format sorta fell out of my thoughts until by chance i saw the thread announcing smogon doubles. at that time it was just a single thread in the om subforum and a few people in #doubles
so i went on there, built a team, and asked someone to battle, i ended up winning that first battle which got me to play some more, and back then they had a leaderboard thing that you could be placed on for making good posts and stuff and i really wanted to be on it. so i started posting there regularly too

so yeah from there i got more and more involved with the tier, was there to help lead it through a ton of its firsts, and made a bigger name for myself on the site in general through my involvement with it
and now i'm here

this is the leaderboard btw: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/doubles-leaderboard.3488975/
and this is the initial thread: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/general-doubles-metagame-thread.3476469/
just a bit of dubs history for the new people who weren't around for it

4. What is your favourite metagame to play outside of Doubles?
well i'm a big fan of the random metagames, so randbats and random doubles (which i made like 99% of the movepools for) mainly otherwise it's strictly doubles unless i'm playin in a tour

5. What is your favourite Pokemon to use competitively, and why?
hmm, i'm not sure i really have one. i've been enjoying using azumarill though. its typing is great, it's strong, reasonably bulky, has nifty priority, isn't too hard to set up with, and is absolutely terrifying once you do set up so it's a great way to apply pressure to the opponent. if your opponent isn't as good or is off their game a +6 azu will just make them misplay since they'll panic and from there you're free to dictate the pace of the game

so yeah #bunnylove

6. How do you feel about how the metagame changed from BW to XY to ORAS?
well i can say i enjoyed bw more because people were newer, if that makes any sense, like now a lot of people seem to have no idea how to teambuild because they just use the most generic, boring-looking teams i've ever seen although users like level 51 are always fighting the good fight on the interesting teams front, but back in bw we would try anything since we were still discovering stuff and it just felt like people were more open to experimentation.i'm sure it led to some pretty weird stuff, but it also led to discovering stuff that was really cool. oras is pretty nice though, i think more people are getting back to trying things that aren't quite so boring, xy was pretty lame though, that metagame i didn't enjoy much.

but yeah other than that there's not much to say except that it's definitely gotten less bulky over time like right now HO is more prevalent than it was back then. not sure how i feel about it though, since i can't say it's necesarily lead to better teambuilding

7. Do you like to play the current metagame? Is there anything you consider is suspect-worthy or should at least get a look at?
i'd say yeah to the first. i've been bored with pokemon for a while now and haven't built teams, but i have built a few recently and have enjoyed playing and testing with them so that's a good sign. with other life developments coming i don't know how much focus it'll get from me in the future but for now it's fun

as for suspects, definitely not. there's nothing in the meta right now that couldn't be overcome through either good building or good playing but stuff that's bein tossed around rn like skymin or w/e aren't even close to suspect-worthy

8. Who are you rooting for this seasonals?
kamikaze17 ofc, only way to be

9. If there is anything you could change about Doubles OU, what would it be?
boring teams would lead to an auto-loss, really though i'm tired of seein teams like kang skymin keld kyub + 2 other generic mons, that stuff is boring. also more people would play it it's definitely the best of the current metagames, i don't know why it's so slept on rn

10. What is your favourite strategy or playstyle to use and why?
well i used to be a big bulky offense type of person but recently my teams have been getting more offensive. i think that building a solid offensive team gives you more control over the match and just rewards good playing, beyond that i really don't use any particular strategy, i'll try almost anything (not like perishtrap or other bad gimmicks though, sorry trains).

11. Do you have advice to new people to the tier?
play a lot, read a lot (we have a huge amount of quality tier resources on the forums), don't be afraid to be wrong
when i'm discussing something regarding the tier (like a non-switching metagame trend) i like to argue my position fiercely to better understand an argument, but when i realize i'm wrong i'll (try to at least) back down and listen to the other person, that also means seeking the advice of others and giving it a fair shake
i'm very big on collaborative teambuilding, not in the initial stages of construction but when editing because i feel like other people will always find cool things you didn't even realize or approach building in a way you didn't consider, which can only benefit you and your team

12. Do you have a team that reflects your playstyle and could you give a brief explanation of it?
http://pastebin.com/CU5pNZm6
built it around mega aerodactyl since i kept readin about skymin + keld (really though people build more interesting stuff) and remembered how i used m-aero in the past and noted that it completely gobbles that core from there i wanted mons that could beat what m-aero got walled by so i had blaziken + azumarill, thundurus was a nice offensive pivot while taunt helped against bulkier mons and t-wave paired nicely w/ rock slide. at this point i realized that plenty of bulky mons would still give me a lot of trouble so i had hydreigon to act as another wallbreaker and help with this, then i had torterra since i thought i was super lando-t and rock slide weak generally and it had wide guard and it seemed fun to try (usin some weird stuff always make a team more interesting and who knows what you'll stumble on). after testing it i found that torterra always did near nothing, surprise surprise (although one game someone didn't think that wood hammer would kill their rotom-w so that kill was very satisfying), so i asked a bunch of people for feedback and decided on rhydon since the team had a big t-wave issue and rhydon was very strong and bulky so it could keep up offensive pressure. that version held for a while but i had to admit that while i love finally's blaziken set, its 80 speed was killng me since it meant i'd have to give up momentum against mons like kang and stuff to protect before it could really be useful, so infernape came in to better handle those faster offensive threats while still more or less handling what blaziken beat, also fake out :)
so yeah that's the team. if you're reading this and have any suggestions, i'd love to hear em

13. What is your favourite game to play outside of Pokémon, and why?
uhh idk, haxball? that's always fun. but yeah i keep my gaming strictly pokemon. one can only afford to waste so much of their life on games, and this is free and can be played on my lousy comp and internet

thanks for the interview, audiosurfer :)

 

[Nudisto]

Audio is the coolest person I've met in Doubles Room. Nice interview

 

[Laga]

omfg the dubs leaderboard

i finally found it

the only thing left reflecting my cc alum :O


anways i also have a question, are u ever going to start playing haxball semi-srs, it's actually rly fun competitively :}

 

[Audiosurfer]

omfg the dubs leaderboard

i finally found it

the only thing left reflecting my cc alum :O


anways i also have a question, are u ever going to start playing haxball semi-srs, it's actually rly fun competitively :}

maybe when i go to college since then i'll have access to decent internet. didn't know anyone played it competitively though so that's news, but hook me up with details and i'm there.

 

[Arcticblast]

maybe when i go to college since then i'll have access to decent internet. didn't know anyone played it competitively though so that's news, but hook me up with details and i'm there.

Decent internet at college LOL good one man

 

[Audiosurfer]

Decent internet at college LOL good one man

this was the result of my most recent speed test: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4522547572

with what i have now i could be playing from yemen and it'd still be decent to me

 

[shrop]

I know you enjoy writing, is that what you'll be studying in university?
What made you get bored of mons?
What have you been listening to lately music wise?
Thoughts on Drake v Meek Mill?

 

[Audiosurfer]

I know you enjoy writing, is that what you'll be studying in university?
What made you get bored of mons?
What have you been listening to lately music wise?
Thoughts on Drake v Meek Mill?

1) Yes, it is. Will be majoring in English and will likely double major in Creative Writing since there's a good amount of core course overlap.

2) Well it's partially that for a while I just wasn't really following the metagame closely enough to make teams that I found interesting, and partially that I just didn't want to be spending the majority of my time playing Pokemon. The more I do other stuff like writing and reading and blogging the more I've just gotten more conscious about the time I spend here and making sure that it's being used in a way that doesn't make me feel like I'm wasting my life. I have been building teams lately though (teams I'm really proud of like the one above) since I've actually been looking at the metagame and thinking of things that I was excited to give a whirl. It's also helped that school stuff is completely nonexistent at the moment. But yeah it's just that Pokemon isn't exactly my life's calling so I don't want to be too involved with it if that makes sense.

3) This. But yeah the new Vince Staples was excellent, Bjork's album from earlier in the year finally came on Spotify so that's gotten a lot of plays too. Julia Holter released a new song which has got me excited for her new album in September (her last album is one of my favorite albums, period). Artists that I've been newly listening to even though their stuff isn't from 2015 include: Tori Amos (Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink), Alanis Morissette (Jagged Little Pill), The Mountain Goats (All Hail West Texas), Devo (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!), Portishead (Third and Dummy), and Pearson Sound (Starburst EP). But yeah my last.fm is the best way to know.

4) Posted my thoughts on my blog. Real talk though the way I see it Meek Mill has two options:

1. Have Nicki ghostwrite a diss track for him (there's no way he's writing a good one himself).
2. Kill Drake. Like legit go to his house and kill him ("Catch these twitter fingers bitch"), although I guess he can have one of his boys do it like Thugga and Birdman did w/ Lil Wayne. This is the only way Meek Mill can regain his honor after 'Back to Back'. A plan a friend and I came up with was that Meek Mill goes to Drake's place, shoots him, paralyzes him (like his character in Degrassi) then writes a diss track about it. If he gets arrested before he can upload it he can have Nicki do it.

thanks for the questions :)

 

[Checkmater]

fmk
Level 51, Stratos, Arcticblast

 

[ryo yamada2001]

fmk
Level 51, Stratos, Arcticblast

could you not shitpost for once

 

[Audiosurfer]

fmk
Level 51, Stratos, Arcticblast

f: l51 since he's so far away I know I'd never run into him again
m: stratos since we have history and he's majoring in computer engineering so he can afford to support me while I sit at home and write
k: ablast since there can only be one doubles player whose name begins w/ a, has 11 letters, and is a dubs room RO

could you not shitpost for once



stratos edit: mad? lol

this is a safe space friend, all questions are welcome here :)

 

[Idyll]

Top 5 Songs to sing in the shower rn
Do you watch anime? If y, which ones? If n, have you considered doing so?

You're a cool guy and your blog is p cool, cheerio nerd :^)

 

[Audiosurfer]

Top 5 Songs to sing in the shower rn
Do you watch anime? If y, which ones? If n, have you considered doing so?

You're a cool guy and your blog is p cool, cheerio nerd :^)

uhh i guess it depends on what i've been listening to. i can do some artists whose songs are sung decently often though:
joanna newsom, sleater-kinney, bjork, majical cloudz, dirty projectors

and no, i don't, nor have i ever considered doing so beyond considering watching flcl. i used to watch anime like four years ago and it's not a habit i'm very keen to pick back up.

 

[ryo yamada2001]

Interviewee #13 - qsns​

1. Hi! Who are you and where do you come from?
What up, I'm qsns and I live in Michigan.

2. Where does your username come from?
oh lord
do i have to answer this

My username used to be "quickscopenoscope" because I used to play CoD every once in a while and I wanted to start on Smogon with something "new." Quickly realized that was a stupid username and abbreviated it to qsns.

3. When did you start getting into competitive Pokémon, and why?
I've actually been playing "competitively" since I was like 10 on shoddy, but I was using shit like BP Ninjask. I stopped playing mons when I was 12ish but decided to pick up XY because the 3d looked really nice. Found Smogon while looking for a breeding guide and I stumbled on Arcticblast's pre-Pokebank Rainroom RMT, and I loved the way it looked. I started joining the PS room occasionally and picking up the meta, and stayed when I won a roomtour with a terrible Hitmontop sun team.

4. What is your favourite Pokémon to use competitively, and why? What is your favourite in-game Pokémon and why?
My favorite Pokemon in game has to be Litwick because it was the first shiny I caught n_n its so damn cute and thats pretty much the reason you see me use finally 's Mega Beedrill TR squad all the time :3.
Favorite competitively atm probably has to be Sash Gengar. It provides amazing support with fast Wisps, Taunt, and Speed Control through Icy Wind, while being a really great switchin to Mega Kangaskhan and Landorus-T. It's a support mon that fits quite well on the more offensive teams that I tend to build.

5. Are you going to participate in the Doubles Open?
For sure, I've been really disappointed with my tournament performance recently. I haven't made it far in any Doubles tour and I think it's mainly due to my ability to choke away literally any game. I've been getting a lot better at calming down during games in the past month or so, so I'm hoping that this can be an opportunity to prove myself as a decent player.

6. Who are you rooting for this seasonals, and why?
Definitely want to see my boi memoric take this home if he uses some non kanga squads, pretty good friend of mine. Wouldn't be sad if Tricking won it too, he's a nice guy who always has entertaining games due to his insane luck lmao

7. What is your opinion about Hoopa and Hoopa-Unbound in the current metagame, do you feel like it is broken or needs a suspect?
lmao I haven't played a single game with Hoopa, I don't really like that it relies heavily on some sort of speed control to be effective. I don't think I'm the most qualified to give an opinion but I don't think it's broken. I wouldn't be against a suspect test, it doesn't hurt the meta at all to at least check it out.

8. There has been a lot of attention for Shaymin-Sky recently, and some people are even talking about a suspect test. How do you feel about this?
I really hate Skymin in the metagame. I really do. It's almost impossible to switch into it thanks to the ridiculous chance of a spdef drop and Air Slash can make any game against a slower mon a dice roll. It's annoying as hell; I definitely want to see a test, but I'm not sure if being a bitch to deal with is enough for me to vote ban.

9. What is your favourite strategy to use in Doubles?
I started out being a bulky offense player because it's the safest way to play but over the months I've gotten a lot more proficient in playing Hyper Offense. The games are quick and fun and I love taking control of the match and putting on the pressure as opposed to taking hits with a more balanced style.

10. If there is one thing you could change about Doubles OU, counting the room, metagame and forum, what would it be and why?
I really get bored with battling some people sometimes because they don't try to innovate or bring anything new. I dislike it when people don't try to advance the metagame and instead bring the same old standard Kanga Offense or some other lame as hell build. I wish the forum was more active too but tbh I don't help with that too much so I can't be the one complaining.

10. Could you provide a team that fits your playstyle and could you give a brief explanation of it?

Hide

yue (Diancie-Mega) @ Diancite
Ability: Clear Body
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 208 Atk / 48 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Diamond Storm
- Moonblast
- Earth Power
- Protect

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 28 Def / 112 SpA / 80 SpD / 36 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 Def
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Rain Dance
- Taunt

Ludicolo (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Swift Swim
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Giga Drain
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Cobalion @ Life Orb
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Iron Head
- Stone Edge
- Protect

Gengar (F) @ Focus Sash
Ability: Levitate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Shadow Ball
- Will-O-Wisp
- Icy Wind
- Taunt

Talonflame @ Life Orb
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 144 Atk / 112 SpA / 252 Spe
Lonely Nature
- Brave Bird
- Overheat
- Tailwind
- Protect

This team is a manual rain offense built around Life Orb Ludi and Mega Diancie. The rain core has been used since the beginning of ORAS, but I decided to take a different approach with it when Stratos said in his metagame blog that rain needs to be more offensive. I originally had Scarftoed as my rain setter when playing, but i ended up switching it into powerful attacks to sack it for the rain lol. I know some people are going to have a fucking aneurysm when they see bulky thundurus in this meta, but I still prefer this set on a lot of teams and offensive rain setter thundurus is complete trash. I don't need Damp Rock on this team because Ludi is really the only component of the team that benefits from rain and 5 turns is all you need with LO ludicolo. Cobalion is something I wanted to try out on rain because it has the ability to deal with Ferrothorn and Kyurem-b while still providing a Steel-type that rain likes to have. As I said earlier, sash Gengar is incredible in Doubles and something that I'm surprised doesn't see more usage because it has the ability to check Kanga and Lando-t while providing some nice support. Talonflame is a Tailwind set because I don't need double Will-o and the extra speed control comes in really clutch. Overheat Talon is better tbh

it's a really interesting team to play with and I rarely get tired of the team bc it has so many options and utilizes some underused mons.

11. What is your favourite tier to play outside of Doubles OU?
I've been really enjoying OU in the past month or so, it's a diverse tier where offense is the best playstyle atm. NU is also a really cool tier to play :3

12. Conisdering you're a pretty big weeb, what are some animes you recommend watching, and why?
u-um, some of my favorites are Shinsekai Yori, FLCL, and Madoka Magica. all of them have a really good story and a solid soundtrack, something I always enjoy in a show.

13. Are there any users you look up to?
I look up to Finally as a player because he taught me a lot on how to think out my turns and he's a pretty funny guy to talk to. The other one's probably Shaian for his really cool and unique teams that are always fun to play against.

A big thanks to qsns for taking his time for this interview, stay tuned for other new cool interviews with new other cool users :]

 

[deoxys speed]

I LOVE YOU QSNS

1)Are the rumors true? Are u racist :o
2)How does cowboy Star Wars end? bc I haven't watched that shit in like a month.
3)Why didn't u c finally when he was in Michigan? >:3
4)Smooth or crunchy Peanut butter? :^)
5)Is it true your wi fi goes off @ 11 bc your brother was doing promiscuous things :>

more questions will come l8r

 

[ryo yamada2001]

5)Is it true your wi fi goes off @ 11 bc your brother was doing promiscuous things :>

is this true

 

[Idyll]

I dislike it when people don't try to advance the metagame and instead bring the same old standard Kanga Offense or some other lame as hell build.

:[

1. fmk Stratos, Ablast, Asurf
2. What kind of music do you listen to?
3. qsns is still a stupid sounding username yn

 

[finally]

why do you harass children when your dick is only 5 inches wide? how do you expect to harass them properly

 

[Level 51]

what exactly is wrong with finally?

 

[xzern]

1) ban skymin y/n
2) whos your favorite user? (other than me of course)
3) what's it like working behind the scenes in al-queda?

 

[Derivatives]

1) how does it feel to have a bunch of joke questions asked day 1?
2) why are you still named qsns?
3) why are you a weeb?
4) are you going to answer that last question?

 

[ryo yamada2001]

i have been recently given a lot of critiscism by some users that I had to interview "some people that are relevant to the tier in some way"* and people have stated they're disappointed at the interviews so

if you have any tips or feedback on how to improve my interviews just tell me, i'll appreciate all feedback also you can pm me users who you'd like to see interviewed in the future otherwise if you are going to critiscize my interviews, please do it with some feedback instead of just bitching about it please ppl

edit:
*this was said by Haruno so don't take it too serious people

 

[Stratos]

Lol haruno is a stupid cunt dont take it personal qsns we love you

 

[qsns]

[18:28] %hashtag smogon:are you telling me that quickscope noscope isnt a joke name
[18:28] %hashtag smogon:you were unironic about that shit

fyi i did do it for the memes, im not that fucking dense lol just didnt make it clear in my interview

ill answer all of these joke questions tonight

e: [18:29] #Audiosurfer:i think it's endearing qsns

sighhhhhhhhhhh