Welcome to the Featured Rater project! This is a series of interviews where we ask official Team Raters, new and old, several questions about the RMT forum and their experiences within it. We hope that this offers both entertainment and an insight into their thought processes, which aspiring raters can look to incorporate into their own rates. This project is hosted by Analytic, IronBullet, and myself. Our eighth interviewee is Albacore, one of RMT's newer raters that has shown an outstanding amount of dedication on both the forums and PS!
Tell us a little bit about your life outside Smogon.
I'm 19 years old, and I'm currently studing for a degree in Maths & Computing at the Joseph Fourier university in France. My family lives on the other side of the country, so I pretty much live on campus and only go back during the holdays. I was actually born in England (I have a British father and a French mother), and even though I have lived in France ever since I was 6 years old, I don't really consider myself to be French, in fact, I techincally don't even have the French nationalty. I'm just way more comfortable speaking English than French, which is why you probablly won't ever see me speak french or hang out in the French room on PS!
What is your main tier? Do you rate teams from any other tiers?
My main and only tier is and always has been OU, I kinda just decided on it when I joined Smogon and never played any other tier. I actually tried to build UU and RU teams before, but completely failed since a lot of stuff I automatically go for in teams just weren't there anymore. I distincly remember looking for an offensive fairy in XY UU before realising that such a thing does not exist. I eventually settled for Banded Granbull which, believe it or not, was not very good. So yeah, I won't be rating teams from lower tiers any time soon, the time and effort to completely assimilate a whole new tier just isn't worth it. Heck, I had a hard time transitioning from XY to ORAS, and the difference there is just of a dozen Pokemon!
When did you start rating and why?
I started rating a bit less than a year ago, in November 2014. Back then, I was very active in the PS! OU room and spent al ot of time rating teams. My thought process was that, since I was already rating a ton of teams without any reward, I could just rate teams in the RMT forum instead and get badged for it!
Except that didn't happen at first, after over 3 months of rating around one team per couple of days without any results, and badly botching one of my rates, I got fustrated and stopped rating teams. However, I decided to go back to rating in June of this year, since I had a lot of free time then. I put even more detail and effort into my rates, rated even more teams (I rated 30 teams in June which, looking back, was pretty ridiculous), and eventually got the badge. Nowadays, I would never be able to rate that many teams, and I'm not sure how I even managed in the first place.
Are there any raters who you looked up to when you started rating?
Not really? I kinda did my own thing for the most part. Obviously, I respected both official and unoffical raters like Celticpride, Team Pokepals, Alkov and Mur, but I actually saw them more as competition than anything. They inspired me in the sense that I felt like I had to do better than them, which to me usually meant longer rates (which aren't necessary better, but it's what I eventually became known for). Team rating was a pretty competitive environment back then, especially since I was going for the badge at the same time as 5-6 other people. Obviously, we all get along very well now, one of the reasons I much prefer rating teams in the RMT room than on the forums is that, instead of competing with each other to see who get to rate a team first, we actually work together a lot more, building off each other's suggestions.
What do you most enjoy about rating?
I really enjoy the challenge of rating teams. It's basically a puzzle : you have 6 slots that are already filled with pieces, a ton of other pieces you can use, and you have to cover the most ground possible while changing as few pieces as you can. You also have to take into account stuff like hazard weakness, passiveness, whether a Pokemon can consistently wall another, as well as the general state of the metagame (for instance, 5 months ago, if I were to rate a Weavile-weak team I would just have ignored said weakness. You really can't do that now). Sometimes, there's a perfect solution, and it feels really satisfying when you figure it out. But most of the time, you have to make compromises, and that's up to your better judgement. It's just a very good mental excercise in general.
Do you follow a process with your rates?
What I usually do is this : look at every Pokemon individually, check what its common checks and counters are, and see if those checks and counters are also checked or countered by another member of the team. This enables you to identify the team's weaknesses. If I find that an opposing Pokemon checks more members of the team than it is checked by (for example, a team with Latias, Jirachi and Pursuit Weavile whose only answer to Bisharp is Keldeo), that's also a weakness, though this really depends on whether the Pokemon who checks the opposing threat has reliable recovery, and how easily it switches in on the team as a whole. You also need to check for hazard weakness but that's pretty much a given.
Figuring out what to replace is the hard part. It's always much better to change movesets if you can, but it's rarely going to fix a weakness significantly. Once I identify Pokemon that deals with the list of threats I've created, (sometimes it's impossible to have one that covers all threats, for example if the team is weak to both Manaphy and XZard you really need 2 seperate mons for that), I determine which of these Pokemon is the easiest to fit on the team without either opening up another weakness, or changing the dynamic of the team. The least passive option is always preffered by default, as long as it is reliable enough to work. Some changes are pretty obvious, one I tend to do a lot is suggest Hippowdon over Landorus-T on a Bisharp-weak team, for example, or Latios>Starmie if the team is weak to Electric-types. But there are a lot of situations where have to think outside the box, or just accept that you're going to be weak to something, and make sure that something isn't more common than what you're covering in the first place.
As a current respected team rater, do you have any words of advice for aspiring raters out there?
When you're rating a team, don't try to counter everything; you're not going to succeed. You just need to make sure no Pokemon on the opposing team can easily outlast its checks.
When you suggest to replace a Pokemon, you have to double check that you're not making the team weak to something else in return. If a Pokemon that threatens the team isn't common, don't worry about it too much, it's preferable to be weak to 10 1% usage Pokemon than to be weak to one 15% usage Pokemon.
Always take the considerations of the person whose team you're rating. If they say that a Pokemon isn't working that well for them but that they couldn't think of anything better in that slot, you should sooner try to replace it than any other Pokemon on the team. If they say they specifically built a team around a Raikou+Mega Manectric core, instead of saying that the core is bad and that those 2 Pokemon are redundant, just run with it and suggest Toxic on Manectric or something.
And most importantly, don't give up on rating teams. RMT staff are constantly going through RMTs looking for suitable raters, but the process of badging team raters takes quite a long time, so if you feel like you're being ignored, you're probably already being considered for the badge or your rates aren't quite good enough yet. Don't do what I did and just ignore other raters and rating activites, because they are very useful if you want to improve the quality of your rates.
As an Article Workshop mod, do you think there's a scope for writing regular rmt articles? if so, what aspects of RMT would be cool to write about in your opinion? Are there any previous RMT related articles that you would like to showcase here?
We rarely ever suggestions for RMT-related articles, which is a shame since there's definitely an audience for them. The last RMT releated article we got was this indroduction to RMTs as a whole, while the last actual RMT that was covered dates from all the way back in May, so yeah, we could defenitely have more of those. We get so many articles about Pokemon, playstyles, typings, metagame trends, etc... that actual, concrete examples of teams and battles as they are in practice often get underrepresented, plus it would attract more experienced players which we sometimes struggle with, since most articles tend to explain stuff they already know. For example, IronBullet's article is a great example of how you can use a specific team to represent the metagame as a whole; explaining what recent trends make this team fuction, how to use certain Pokemon effectively, and how recent bans and Pokemon releases affect the metagame (in this case, the release of Sheer Force Feraligatr) through a single team. RMT articles are definitely very welcome, the reason we don't release much is because people just don't suggest them.
As a global moderator who operates a collective of rooms, how do you feel about the current development of the RMT room? Do you have any ideas for potential activities or events that could be run to help improve the room?
I feel like there aren't quite enough people willing to rate teams in the RMT room. This doesn't really apply to OU where there are pretty much raters active at all times, but more so for other tiers where I've more often seen teams go completely unnoticed than not. One way to kinda fix this would be for activity in the RMT room to actually count towards the TR badge, though I really don't know how this could be counted or how much a rate in the RMT room would be worth compared to one on the forums.
As for activities, we already have workshops and that's probably enough. I don't really like that fact that other people can't have their teams rated during the workshop since that means they have to wait, and that then the raters get flooded with teams near the end of the workshop. In any case, I feel like we have enough activities already.
What are your thoughts on the RMT forum? If you could change one thing about it, what would it be?
Honestly, I barely spend any time in the RMT forum since the vast majority of my rates take place within the RMT room. However, I would like there to be more communication bewteen RMT staff and aspiring team raters. I know firsthand that it can be very easy for team raters to get discouraged, and though there are activites and practice rates, a lot of people aren't aware of these, or aren't willing to spend even more time rating teams than they need to. PMing more unofficial raters to keep them informed of these activities, or about the quality of their rates in general, would be a pretty good way to encourage raters to improve and stay active.
Do you have an RMT or a team you could share with us?
Haven't posted an RMT in ages, and recently it's been harder and harder for me to find the time to ladder. But when I have laddered recently, it's been with this team. I absolutely love Sub CM Raikou, it consistently blows apart the lower ladder, and though I can't guarantee that it does as well against better players, I'd imagine the surprise value helps there too.
Lastly, can you give us an example of a rate that exemplifies your particular style?
Yup
Like most of my rates, this one is ridiculously long, in-depth and detailed; and also features multiple viable options for the team. Let it be known that I do not rate teams lightly.
------------
Thanks Albacore for an awesome interview! Feel free to leave any questions you have for him below. See you all next time
I'm 19 years old, and I'm currently studing for a degree in Maths & Computing at the Joseph Fourier university in France. My family lives on the other side of the country, so I pretty much live on campus and only go back during the holdays. I was actually born in England (I have a British father and a French mother), and even though I have lived in France ever since I was 6 years old, I don't really consider myself to be French, in fact, I techincally don't even have the French nationalty. I'm just way more comfortable speaking English than French, which is why you probablly won't ever see me speak french or hang out in the French room on PS!
What is your main tier? Do you rate teams from any other tiers?
My main and only tier is and always has been OU, I kinda just decided on it when I joined Smogon and never played any other tier. I actually tried to build UU and RU teams before, but completely failed since a lot of stuff I automatically go for in teams just weren't there anymore. I distincly remember looking for an offensive fairy in XY UU before realising that such a thing does not exist. I eventually settled for Banded Granbull which, believe it or not, was not very good. So yeah, I won't be rating teams from lower tiers any time soon, the time and effort to completely assimilate a whole new tier just isn't worth it. Heck, I had a hard time transitioning from XY to ORAS, and the difference there is just of a dozen Pokemon!
When did you start rating and why?
I started rating a bit less than a year ago, in November 2014. Back then, I was very active in the PS! OU room and spent al ot of time rating teams. My thought process was that, since I was already rating a ton of teams without any reward, I could just rate teams in the RMT forum instead and get badged for it!
Except that didn't happen at first, after over 3 months of rating around one team per couple of days without any results, and badly botching one of my rates, I got fustrated and stopped rating teams. However, I decided to go back to rating in June of this year, since I had a lot of free time then. I put even more detail and effort into my rates, rated even more teams (I rated 30 teams in June which, looking back, was pretty ridiculous), and eventually got the badge. Nowadays, I would never be able to rate that many teams, and I'm not sure how I even managed in the first place.
Are there any raters who you looked up to when you started rating?
Not really? I kinda did my own thing for the most part. Obviously, I respected both official and unoffical raters like Celticpride, Team Pokepals, Alkov and Mur, but I actually saw them more as competition than anything. They inspired me in the sense that I felt like I had to do better than them, which to me usually meant longer rates (which aren't necessary better, but it's what I eventually became known for). Team rating was a pretty competitive environment back then, especially since I was going for the badge at the same time as 5-6 other people. Obviously, we all get along very well now, one of the reasons I much prefer rating teams in the RMT room than on the forums is that, instead of competing with each other to see who get to rate a team first, we actually work together a lot more, building off each other's suggestions.
What do you most enjoy about rating?
I really enjoy the challenge of rating teams. It's basically a puzzle : you have 6 slots that are already filled with pieces, a ton of other pieces you can use, and you have to cover the most ground possible while changing as few pieces as you can. You also have to take into account stuff like hazard weakness, passiveness, whether a Pokemon can consistently wall another, as well as the general state of the metagame (for instance, 5 months ago, if I were to rate a Weavile-weak team I would just have ignored said weakness. You really can't do that now). Sometimes, there's a perfect solution, and it feels really satisfying when you figure it out. But most of the time, you have to make compromises, and that's up to your better judgement. It's just a very good mental excercise in general.
Do you follow a process with your rates?
What I usually do is this : look at every Pokemon individually, check what its common checks and counters are, and see if those checks and counters are also checked or countered by another member of the team. This enables you to identify the team's weaknesses. If I find that an opposing Pokemon checks more members of the team than it is checked by (for example, a team with Latias, Jirachi and Pursuit Weavile whose only answer to Bisharp is Keldeo), that's also a weakness, though this really depends on whether the Pokemon who checks the opposing threat has reliable recovery, and how easily it switches in on the team as a whole. You also need to check for hazard weakness but that's pretty much a given.
Figuring out what to replace is the hard part. It's always much better to change movesets if you can, but it's rarely going to fix a weakness significantly. Once I identify Pokemon that deals with the list of threats I've created, (sometimes it's impossible to have one that covers all threats, for example if the team is weak to both Manaphy and XZard you really need 2 seperate mons for that), I determine which of these Pokemon is the easiest to fit on the team without either opening up another weakness, or changing the dynamic of the team. The least passive option is always preffered by default, as long as it is reliable enough to work. Some changes are pretty obvious, one I tend to do a lot is suggest Hippowdon over Landorus-T on a Bisharp-weak team, for example, or Latios>Starmie if the team is weak to Electric-types. But there are a lot of situations where have to think outside the box, or just accept that you're going to be weak to something, and make sure that something isn't more common than what you're covering in the first place.
As a current respected team rater, do you have any words of advice for aspiring raters out there?
When you're rating a team, don't try to counter everything; you're not going to succeed. You just need to make sure no Pokemon on the opposing team can easily outlast its checks.
When you suggest to replace a Pokemon, you have to double check that you're not making the team weak to something else in return. If a Pokemon that threatens the team isn't common, don't worry about it too much, it's preferable to be weak to 10 1% usage Pokemon than to be weak to one 15% usage Pokemon.
Always take the considerations of the person whose team you're rating. If they say that a Pokemon isn't working that well for them but that they couldn't think of anything better in that slot, you should sooner try to replace it than any other Pokemon on the team. If they say they specifically built a team around a Raikou+Mega Manectric core, instead of saying that the core is bad and that those 2 Pokemon are redundant, just run with it and suggest Toxic on Manectric or something.
And most importantly, don't give up on rating teams. RMT staff are constantly going through RMTs looking for suitable raters, but the process of badging team raters takes quite a long time, so if you feel like you're being ignored, you're probably already being considered for the badge or your rates aren't quite good enough yet. Don't do what I did and just ignore other raters and rating activites, because they are very useful if you want to improve the quality of your rates.
As an Article Workshop mod, do you think there's a scope for writing regular rmt articles? if so, what aspects of RMT would be cool to write about in your opinion? Are there any previous RMT related articles that you would like to showcase here?
We rarely ever suggestions for RMT-related articles, which is a shame since there's definitely an audience for them. The last RMT releated article we got was this indroduction to RMTs as a whole, while the last actual RMT that was covered dates from all the way back in May, so yeah, we could defenitely have more of those. We get so many articles about Pokemon, playstyles, typings, metagame trends, etc... that actual, concrete examples of teams and battles as they are in practice often get underrepresented, plus it would attract more experienced players which we sometimes struggle with, since most articles tend to explain stuff they already know. For example, IronBullet's article is a great example of how you can use a specific team to represent the metagame as a whole; explaining what recent trends make this team fuction, how to use certain Pokemon effectively, and how recent bans and Pokemon releases affect the metagame (in this case, the release of Sheer Force Feraligatr) through a single team. RMT articles are definitely very welcome, the reason we don't release much is because people just don't suggest them.
As a global moderator who operates a collective of rooms, how do you feel about the current development of the RMT room? Do you have any ideas for potential activities or events that could be run to help improve the room?
I feel like there aren't quite enough people willing to rate teams in the RMT room. This doesn't really apply to OU where there are pretty much raters active at all times, but more so for other tiers where I've more often seen teams go completely unnoticed than not. One way to kinda fix this would be for activity in the RMT room to actually count towards the TR badge, though I really don't know how this could be counted or how much a rate in the RMT room would be worth compared to one on the forums.
As for activities, we already have workshops and that's probably enough. I don't really like that fact that other people can't have their teams rated during the workshop since that means they have to wait, and that then the raters get flooded with teams near the end of the workshop. In any case, I feel like we have enough activities already.
What are your thoughts on the RMT forum? If you could change one thing about it, what would it be?
Honestly, I barely spend any time in the RMT forum since the vast majority of my rates take place within the RMT room. However, I would like there to be more communication bewteen RMT staff and aspiring team raters. I know firsthand that it can be very easy for team raters to get discouraged, and though there are activites and practice rates, a lot of people aren't aware of these, or aren't willing to spend even more time rating teams than they need to. PMing more unofficial raters to keep them informed of these activities, or about the quality of their rates in general, would be a pretty good way to encourage raters to improve and stay active.
Do you have an RMT or a team you could share with us?
Haven't posted an RMT in ages, and recently it's been harder and harder for me to find the time to ladder. But when I have laddered recently, it's been with this team. I absolutely love Sub CM Raikou, it consistently blows apart the lower ladder, and though I can't guarantee that it does as well against better players, I'd imagine the surprise value helps there too.
Lastly, can you give us an example of a rate that exemplifies your particular style?
Yup
Like most of my rates, this one is ridiculously long, in-depth and detailed; and also features multiple viable options for the team. Let it be known that I do not rate teams lightly.
------------
Thanks Albacore for an awesome interview! Feel free to leave any questions you have for him below. See you all next time
