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Welcome to OU's Player of the week, a project
where I interview well known players to gain insight on how they battle, as well as get to know some things about them. The goal of this thread is to have these high level players give insight to other players in this community in hopes of creating a better overall experience in the OU environment. As always, if there's someone you'd like to see interviewed, feel free to shoot me a PM. So without further ado, lets get to it!
Adam
Being sexy and free.. like glitter is raining on me. Now that we've established that I'm gay, I 'made' my name ( despite playing since RBY/GSC and being one of the smogon elders ( I've known Chaos for over what.. 10 years now? ) after WCOP ( Playing for Asia 5-0 ) and Last SPL ( wolfpack 1st in OU )
Favorite Pokemon:
That's a difficult question, but I'd say.. Mew / Gastrodon!!! :-)
Most used Pokemon:
Some people will definitely say it's Gastrodon hehe, but, it really varies.. lately it's been Raikou and Celebi and I've been horny for TalonFlame.
Where did you get your name from?
I was born this way.. However, my initial nickname, ( back from 2005, was Yusuke - YuYu Hakusho - )
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
It just really.. happened. I remember a friend brought his gameboy and was playing this cute game ( NO COLOURS and he was using a Venusaur - ) I got really excited and interested... suddenly I was watching the cartoon and playing RBY.
When I stopped to think of it, I was on mIRC " Bot battling " ( Again, 2005-2006 ) with Fanha - Chaos - Celia - Syberia and MOP and others.. It was fun and a nice way to kill time. I was also involved in Nintendo tournaments and was featured a few times in their official magazine. I took a break for real life and got back during BW period.
How do you feel about how ORAS plays compared to XY?
Here comes the ' booooo '.. I actually think it's fun. The idea that you ' can't really counter everything ' is what makes it exciting and pushes you to be creative. If you look back at some of my teams, most of them had that ' element of surprise ' that made a difference. Read: Sub Hp Fighting Latias when Bisharp was super common.
To add onto the above, thoughts on the team matchup issue?
That has always existed. Maybe a bit more intense within ORAS scenario, BUT, as I mentioned above, that's when your creativity should come to play. I noticed my team was extremely weak to Landorus and Zard X,- Latias would help a bit, but then, I'd be eaten alive by Bisharp.
Sub Hp fighting worked really well and actually made me win the game.
A well-built team ( with evs and time invested ) should give you a nice coverage or a ' work around/way to deal ' with your threats, at least the most common of them.
Stay out of the super obvious and have fun with not so used the pokes, people won't know what to expect and you might end up having a huge advantage - if you do end up using top 40's, play with their sets a bit, you might be surprised how the ' team matchup ' won't matter as much and the surprise factor might win the game.
Is there anything that you feel is suspect-worthy?
At the moment, no. ( Boo from people trying to suspect Landorus I ? )
What's your favorite playstyle and why?
People think of me of more of a ' stall/balanced ' player, but, I've had lots of fun going full offense/mixed.
I like bulky offense a lot though :)
What's your favorite generation of OU and why?
I have to say ORAS is probably the one I've enjoyed the most so far.. so much you can do if you think a ' bit outside of the box' and the ' I only got 6 slots, so I have to be creative' kinda feeling is really nice too.
How do you go about preparing for tournament matches? Does the process differ depending on the tournament?
I tend to watch a lot of replays - Not necessarily of my opponent, but of general trends - ( This I how I saw Bisharp being used so much ) and then I have 2 options:
1: Use specific pokemons that could technically ' handle the trends / current metagame well ' ie: everybody's using CM Mega Slowbro, let's use Celebi to help there
OR
2: I use a ' regular / top 40s' team but with ' surprise ' sets that could counter the trends/metagame, and as I don't get tired of saying: Latias with sub hp fighting.
Then it becomes about EVs ( I'm crazy about them and will spend long time working on it and calcing damages from multiple common things ) and variations, and testing with some friends I trust.
It's a formula that has worked and continues working well ( for me at least )
Favorites to win OST and Smogon Tour?
Thoughts on the newly introduced Smogon Classic? Favorite to win?
What is this? Help?
If you could change one thing about OU, what would it be and why?
It would be nice to bring HP back to its original base power, increase the acc of a few moves ( w-o-w and Draco Meteor I'm looking at you ) aside from that.. not much.
Do you have any advice for newer players for playing, and for Smogon in general?
HaVe FuN!! Watch replays, build-rebuild , make smart connections and don't be a twat. It's easier than you think. Take a look at some RMT's / SPL / WCOP teams and go from there.
Build your network! You'll find that some people are not that hard to approach and will be willing to help, as long as you're willing to listen :).
If you could change one thing about Smogon as a whole to make it better, what would it be and why?
The attitude/behaviour of some people..
I do have to say that I received an amazing amount of love and support due to my accident and I'm forever grateful - The messages made my day and gave me so much motivation! - #foreverlove
And that's what makes me believe in this community.
If we got rid of the ' rotten apples' imagine how incredible it would be!
What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
This is a difficult question, I really am friends with lots of people and would be unfair for me to name a few and end up forgetting some when it comes to ' being good friends with'. With that in mind, I usually have more ' interaction - Including IRL' with Hugo & Joe ( Gr8astard and Aim )
Finally, can you provide us a team that's a good fit for this metagame and reflects your playstyle, with a brief explanation of how it works?
http://pastebin.com/JvxKJfnd
It's a nice " bulky offense" with some interesting " surprises ". I had fun using it during SPL and substitute gave me a nice advantage :)
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As usual, leave any questions you have for Adam down below. See you next week!
