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 IronBullet and myself. Our fourteenth interviewee is galbia, a respected rater and the newly official PU tier leader.
Tell us a little bit about your life outside Smogon.
Hey I'm a 18 year old italian guy from northern italy about to hopefully graduate from high school by the end of the year. My main interests are definitely music and cinema since i have to admit i haven't been too keen on many videogames in the past years and outside of a few exceptions like this one i spend my time in different ways. i also follow sports to an extent but nm really
How did you come up with your name?
combination of names ive had in school and on the internet in the past years.
What is your main tier? Do you rate teams from any other tiers?
well considering i lead PU this might be considered quite an obvious answer but in reality there is just more reasons to play RU more seriously especially considering its representation in tournaments and the fact that I've been into it since i got active on smogon a little more than a year ago. I used to rate NU teams as well in the past but not anymore
When did you start rating and why?
i think i started last summer because i used to take building ideas from posted teams and a lot of the time i just felt like there were so many OBVIOUS fixes to team to make them objectively better. As i got better at the game itself i kinda took it to a superior level than just improving sets and seeing how cool the fist looked like i just went on.
Are there any raters who you looked up to when you started rating?
there weren't many people rating ru and nu teams when i started but i tried to keep it similar to the rates soulgazer and molk made since they were the most active ones a the time i started. ium also helped me a lot :)
What do you most enjoy about rating?
when you get to find the pokemon that is the solution of all problems and makes the team better without changing up half of the team structure and goal
Do you follow a process with your rates?
well first of all i optimize the existing movesets to get an idea of what the real flaws of a team are like (this is especially important for the mediocre teams) and then i proceed to analyze its matchup against the most common pokemon and playstyles (for example in ru against hazards stacking teams and bulky passive teams) while also checking for a few red flags such as key resistances and switch ins a team needs to have in a particular metagame. it is also very important not t change the original goal of the team
Do you have any words of advice for aspiring raters out there?
dont be afraid to rate a team that has already been rated by someone else even if you think its a catch all solution. when looking for rates people like trying different options and trying to solve issues with a twist will definitely improve your metagame knowledge and make your rates less plain and repetitive.
Another error i often see is MAKING LONG RATES THAT TAKE UP THE WHOLE PAGE. Being concise is one of the most important things while rating and a lot of the time it doesn't take more than two three lines to argument even the most controversial change. I dont get how long af = better in any way ever and it just makes me mad to see someone make an essay on how Clefable should use Thunder Wave over Flamethrower xd
Do you like the direction the RMT forum is taking at the moment? If you could change something, what would it be?
i see a lot of new faces around these days rating and that is definitely appreciated. the organization regarding the scouting of potential new raters to reward good contributors better is also something i really like so props to the leaders and reymedy for that. not a fan of IronBullet [puke]
Do you feel the addition of PU as an official tier and the introduction of a PU tag has helped expand the tier's RMT community and improve the quantity and quality of rates and teams posted?
well it improved its presence from nearly zero to at least something. Some quality teams keep being posted by people with experience in the tier and there are a few promising raters as well so we can hope for the best at the moment.
As a PU and RU rater do you have any thoughts on how we could expand activity in these tiers, seeing as the former is a new addition and RU activity has been dwindling lately?
I dont believe much can be done project wise since the active rating community around those is incredibly small and they would never gather enough for it to be worth it or in general to involve new people. I think rewarding the best contributors is the most effective thing we can do as a badge is usually enough of an incentive to newer raters.
As a PS mod how do you feel about the current development of the RMT room? Do you have any ideas for potential projects that could be run apart from the current ones?
Again for the aforementioned reasons it is quite hard to have an active rating community in lower tiers and in general people prefer talking to the respective room for help in RU and PU so my activity there has been quite limited. I definitely appreciate the work that is being done for OU however, with many workshops and a lot of people that started rating on the forum from PS.
Do you have an RMT or a team you would like to share with us?
The main metagames i play have been through massive changes in the last few weeks so it is kind of hard to give out something that has been used multiple times effectively but this PU team I have built kind of as a joke around lure Audino + Pokemon that dislike Steel-types has been a blast on the ladder for some reason and is definitely a lot of fun to use. http://puu.sh/lMBdP/b9a979cb5e.txt
Lastly, can you give us an example of a rate that exemplifies your particular style?
This one in my opinion is a good representation of a concise rate that goes to the point and fixes the few flaws of a Sticky Web team.
------------
Thanks galbia for a great interview! Feel free to leave any questions you have for him below.
Just a note that this will be the last interview for 2015. We'll be taking a break from this project over Christmas and will return with a new and revamped version in the new year. Till then, take care and enjoy the holidays!
Hey I'm a 18 year old italian guy from northern italy about to hopefully graduate from high school by the end of the year. My main interests are definitely music and cinema since i have to admit i haven't been too keen on many videogames in the past years and outside of a few exceptions like this one i spend my time in different ways. i also follow sports to an extent but nm really
How did you come up with your name?
combination of names ive had in school and on the internet in the past years.
What is your main tier? Do you rate teams from any other tiers?
well considering i lead PU this might be considered quite an obvious answer but in reality there is just more reasons to play RU more seriously especially considering its representation in tournaments and the fact that I've been into it since i got active on smogon a little more than a year ago. I used to rate NU teams as well in the past but not anymore
When did you start rating and why?
i think i started last summer because i used to take building ideas from posted teams and a lot of the time i just felt like there were so many OBVIOUS fixes to team to make them objectively better. As i got better at the game itself i kinda took it to a superior level than just improving sets and seeing how cool the fist looked like i just went on.
Are there any raters who you looked up to when you started rating?
there weren't many people rating ru and nu teams when i started but i tried to keep it similar to the rates soulgazer and molk made since they were the most active ones a the time i started. ium also helped me a lot :)
What do you most enjoy about rating?
when you get to find the pokemon that is the solution of all problems and makes the team better without changing up half of the team structure and goal
Do you follow a process with your rates?
well first of all i optimize the existing movesets to get an idea of what the real flaws of a team are like (this is especially important for the mediocre teams) and then i proceed to analyze its matchup against the most common pokemon and playstyles (for example in ru against hazards stacking teams and bulky passive teams) while also checking for a few red flags such as key resistances and switch ins a team needs to have in a particular metagame. it is also very important not t change the original goal of the team
Do you have any words of advice for aspiring raters out there?
dont be afraid to rate a team that has already been rated by someone else even if you think its a catch all solution. when looking for rates people like trying different options and trying to solve issues with a twist will definitely improve your metagame knowledge and make your rates less plain and repetitive.
Another error i often see is MAKING LONG RATES THAT TAKE UP THE WHOLE PAGE. Being concise is one of the most important things while rating and a lot of the time it doesn't take more than two three lines to argument even the most controversial change. I dont get how long af = better in any way ever and it just makes me mad to see someone make an essay on how Clefable should use Thunder Wave over Flamethrower xd
Do you like the direction the RMT forum is taking at the moment? If you could change something, what would it be?
i see a lot of new faces around these days rating and that is definitely appreciated. the organization regarding the scouting of potential new raters to reward good contributors better is also something i really like so props to the leaders and reymedy for that. not a fan of IronBullet [puke]
Do you feel the addition of PU as an official tier and the introduction of a PU tag has helped expand the tier's RMT community and improve the quantity and quality of rates and teams posted?
well it improved its presence from nearly zero to at least something. Some quality teams keep being posted by people with experience in the tier and there are a few promising raters as well so we can hope for the best at the moment.
As a PU and RU rater do you have any thoughts on how we could expand activity in these tiers, seeing as the former is a new addition and RU activity has been dwindling lately?
I dont believe much can be done project wise since the active rating community around those is incredibly small and they would never gather enough for it to be worth it or in general to involve new people. I think rewarding the best contributors is the most effective thing we can do as a badge is usually enough of an incentive to newer raters.
As a PS mod how do you feel about the current development of the RMT room? Do you have any ideas for potential projects that could be run apart from the current ones?
Again for the aforementioned reasons it is quite hard to have an active rating community in lower tiers and in general people prefer talking to the respective room for help in RU and PU so my activity there has been quite limited. I definitely appreciate the work that is being done for OU however, with many workshops and a lot of people that started rating on the forum from PS.
Do you have an RMT or a team you would like to share with us?
The main metagames i play have been through massive changes in the last few weeks so it is kind of hard to give out something that has been used multiple times effectively but this PU team I have built kind of as a joke around lure Audino + Pokemon that dislike Steel-types has been a blast on the ladder for some reason and is definitely a lot of fun to use. http://puu.sh/lMBdP/b9a979cb5e.txt
Lastly, can you give us an example of a rate that exemplifies your particular style?
This one in my opinion is a good representation of a concise rate that goes to the point and fixes the few flaws of a Sticky Web team.
------------
Thanks galbia for a great interview! Feel free to leave any questions you have for him below.
Just a note that this will be the last interview for 2015. We'll be taking a break from this project over Christmas and will return with a new and revamped version in the new year. Till then, take care and enjoy the holidays!