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Welcome to the Featured Rater project! This is a series of interviews where we will ask official Team Raters, new and old, several questions about the RMT forum and their experiences within it. We hope that this will offer both entertainment and an insight into their thought processes, which aspiring raters can look to incorporate into their own rates. This project will be hosted by Steve Angello and me. Our second interviewee is Celticpride, RMT's newest moderator and one of the most dedicated contributors we've had in recent times!
Celticpride
I'm a 20 year old college student majoring in business, living in the Boston area. I'm not really a serious gamer outside of Smogon; most people know me as a sports stathead irl. Big Boston sports fan and I also love college basketball.
What is your main tier? Do you rate teams from any other tiers?
I just rate current gen OU at this point. I'm trying to slowly learn some other tiers like UU and NU but I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to attempt rating in those tiers at this point.
When did you start rating and why?
When I start posting on Smogon I was just your regular OU poster. Eventually I felt like I needed to do something more substantial outside of just posting my thoughts in OU. RMT stuck out because you don't need credentials to start rating, unlike B101, and rating is generally a laid back, at your own pace structure, unlike C&C. So I started rating around December 2014 and it just clicked with me and here we are.
Are there any raters who you looked up to when you started rating?
People like Honus and TNT were super helpful when I was getting involved in RMT, so I would say that I looked up to them when I started. When I started rating there weren't many active OU raters so most of the people I interacted with around that time were alumnus, so there wasn't really anyone for me to model my rating style after.
What do you most enjoy about rating?
I really enjoy helping people. I also like meeting newer users and there's a ton of them posting teams. For example, I met user Bludz when he posted a RMT as a new user and it's cool to see someone like that start as a new user and get to where they are now (he recently got Community Contribs). Actively rating also helps keep your metagame knowledge up to date as well as apply that metagame knowledge, which is always nice.
Do you follow a process with your rates?
Generally yes, although I do try different approaches from time to time. First I try and identify two or three Mons which are the most important to the team and see how the rest of the team functions relative to that. For more offensive teams, if I can identify the main sweeper, look into how a team wears down checks to that sweeper. Maybe throw in a lure or two to try and get some chip damage on a key check they need to break through. Feeling out pace is a big thing for me. If a team has mons that thrive off of gaining momentum and forcing switches, you want to make sure that the whole or most of the team can keep that momentum.
Congrats on becoming RMT's newest moderator! You've been one of our most consistent and dedicated raters over the past few months; do you have any advice for the aspiring raters out there?
As far as advice use the resources available. There's a ton of them that go underused like Rating Practice Teams and the Rating Basics thread. People who use those frequently to improve themselves tend to become great raters quickly. I think Enki, Pokepals, Alkov, and Snowy all went through recent Rating Practice Teams rounds so the track record speaks for itself. Also ask questions to Team Raters, we're a super helpful group! It seems intimidating to ask people for help at first but it really shouldn't be.
As a staff member do you like the direction the RMT forum is taking at the moment? If you could change something, what would it be?
Yeah I like the direction we’re headed in. We've got people who are willing to put in time on all sorts of projects which is always a good thing. As far as changes, I would try to reach out to people in other parts of the forum more. Someone like Albacore, who frequents the OU subforum, is a great and knowledgeable TR and I would like to get more people like that in the fold. The same could be extended to tournament players; there's a ton of smart ones and getting more of them involved would be great. Not that our current group is lacking or anything but there's tons of smart people out there who could only make our staff better.
Lastly, can you give us an example of a rate that exemplifies your particular style?
This is an example of the pace feeling off in my opinion. I think I mentioned this earlier. Gross + Keldeo + Hydreigon can all cause a ton of switches, and I felt like Clefable and Zapdos just didn’t do enough to keep up that momentum. Overall I felt like the core was more offensive but some pieces just leaned a different way, and two relatively small changes I think really benefitted the way the team worked.
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Thanks Celticpride for a great interview! Feel free to leave any questions you have for him below. See you all next time
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