Blast
Favourite Pokemon: Infernape
Most used Pokemon: Shiftry
Most known for: stuff and things.. mostly Man Balamar though
To start things off, where did your username (Blast Chance, Dat Blast, Blast) come from?
Blast: I don't think there's any specific reason for all my names being centered around the word blast other than it sounding cool to my ~13 year old self. My first username on the forums took that a step further to the point of being pretty cringeworthy (which as you can see from above pretty much speaks for itself), but for a while I just rolled with it since it had stuck. I eventually got it changed to just Blast and later changed my PS username changed too with tennis's help.
Shadestep: A lot of people don’t know that much about you. Do you mind telling a bit about yourself as a person?
Blast: I'm a junior in high school which apparently makes me younger than almost everyone I know on this site. Like a lot of other users, I don't have much of a life or too many irl friends which leads to me spending way too much time here. idk, there's really not a whole lot about me that's all too interesting.
Shadestep: When did you start playing Pokemon?
Blast: Strangely I actually started researching Pokemon even before I started playing lol. I remember the first Pokemon-related thing I ever owned was this big 10th anniversary Poke-encyclopedia-like book covering the first 3 gens. I started playing in gen 4 with Platinum and I've pretty much played through every core series game since then.
Shadestep: How did you find out about Smogon, and how did you start making a name for yourself?
Blast: I used to watch a lot of Poketubers when I was younger and had no idea where they came up with the strategies they used. Eventually I found out about Smogon and started lurking for a bit before making an account (although even the lurking didn't help too much since I was still pretty terrible at first lmao). The first thing I got myself really invested into was C&C and things took off from there, though I'd definitely say the first time I made a name for myself was when soulgazer got me drafted for SPL 6.
Shadestep: What do you enjoy doing the most on Smogon?
Blast: My interests have changed a bit through the years, starting from C&C to team rating for a bit to some other things, but right now I mostly enjoy talking and/or joking around in the NU room and spamming joke teams in roomtours. I also enjoy hosting teambats and contributing to teambuilding workshops if I can catch them. So mostly I just like doing more laid-back stuff on PS these days.
Shadestep: After being an NU C&C Moderator for almost two years, do you still enjoy making / checking analyses? Does it get boring or repetitive after a while?
Blast: Yeah I feel like anyone who's been involved with C&C always gets burned out at some point. I still care about C&C and keep an eye on it, but I'll mostly only check analyses when I'm really bored or if I'm specifically asked.
Shadestep: What are some really fun experiences you have had on Smogon, that you still remember?
Blast: I think the best times I've had around here were back when the infamous Skype group was still active and had calls really often, so I could just join and mess around with friends to relieve some stress. Skype's pretty dead at this point though.
Shadestep: How was your experience from this year’s SPL season, on the Tigers? Are you happy with the results, both individually and team-wise? Did you meet any cool new people?
Blast: My 4-4 record was probably disappointing for a lot of people after I left with a positive one last year, which I have to take some blame for. I was mildly burnt out of Pokemon in general during the first half of the season, which resulted in a less-than-spectacular performance for the first three weeks or so. I started to pick up a little after midseason but the damage was already kinda done unfortunately. I didn't talk much in the team chat outside of tests which again is mostly on me, but we pretty smoothly avoided any internal drama.
Shadestep: What is your opinion on the current Suspect test (Speed Boosts + Baton Pass)?
Blast: I'm pretty mixed on it, I still don't think Combusken alone is the "big problem" but I'm more conflicted about the strategy itself. I'm not quite convinced either way about whether /anything/ is banworthy, but there's still plenty of time to decide on that so we'll see.
Shadestep: Are there any promising new contributors in either the NU subforum or the NU C&C subforum that you have noticed recently?
Blast: ~Eternally is definitely a big one regarding C&C, he was just added to the QC team and his activity combined with quality has been something we've needed for a long time. I don't pay as much attention to the main NU forum because there's so much more people posting but PursuitofHappiny is one I see post a lot and I see a lot of potential from him too : O
Shadestep: Which user in the NU community do you respect / look up to the most?
Blast: No one in particular, I think everyone in the community with some kind of "position of respect" brings something to the table in terms of skill or leadership or whatever.
Shadestep: Any fun and underrated sets you like to use in NU?
Blast: NP Shiftry and Sub + Destiny Bond Malamar are two sets I used on a mono-Dark team for King of the Hill but they're actually pretty good even on their own. Dark spam as a whole is a strategy I really like since Dark is one of the best offensive typings in the tier imo.
Another one is Sash spam with cores like Jynx + Vivillon. Neither of those are rare sets on their own but together it's a neat way to give an HO team a "defensive" backbone. The strat somewhat fell into the shadows after Sawk's ban but it still works quite well. Other than that I've revealed most of my other techs in SPL and NUPL.
Shadestep: What is your favourite tier besides NU?
Blast: Does CC 1v1 count? ngl I rarely play any other tiers but now that my finals are over that could change.
Shadestep: Could you post a picture of yourself?
Blast: I was in two NU Smogcasts in the past, you can see what I look like there haha
Shadestep: Lastly, Do you have any life advice to share with us?
Blast: Well one thing is that people need to know when they're taking things too seriously. I use joke teams in the majority of matches I play these days, and if there's anything I've taken from that it's that this site becomes so much more enjoyable when you're actually trying to have fun. Whether it's the game itself or posting or anything else, if you lighten up a little it can help remind you why you're even here in the first place.
that's it for this week! Sorry for taking a bit longer than usual, some irl stuff came up :c Thanks again for your time Blast, and if you have any more questions
