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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! See my status for my excuse as to why this week's edition was late D:
FLCL
Most Known For:
Playing NU and being a weaboo
Favorite Pokemon:
Rotom
Most used Pokemon:
Rotom
Where did you get your name from?
It's one of my favorite anime
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
I stumbled upon Smogon back in 2008 or 2009 while looking for in-game information about Pokemon and stuff. The idea of playing on a simulator and being able to use anything you want intrigued me and it wasn't long before I started messing around on Shoddybattle. At first I was pretty occupied with other games and only laddered sporadically in various DPP tiers, until eventually I got bored with said games. Despite my join date, I only started posting and becoming active in the community in early 2012, althought I did lurk a lot before. I dabbed a bit with RU and NU before finally settling into the latter tier
How do you feel about how ORAS plays compared to XY?
I don't remember a whole lot about late XY, but I think it was overrun with Greninja and Bisharp offense and was generally a pretty shitty metagame to play, so ORAS definitely brought some nice changes. However, I think the current ORAS metagame is really matchup related due to various Pokemon such as Metagross, Altaria, Manaphy, etc. which can really punish the opponent if they don't have solid answers to them
To add onto the above, thoughts on the team matchup issue?
It can't be helped unless a lot of bans are made, which isn't the way to go in my opinion. More Pokemon means more things to deal with and that's just something players will have to get used to going into the future. With that being said, team matchup doesn't just turn games into 50/50's like some would imply. Good players using good teams will win the majority of the time
What are your thoughts on the Aegislash suspect test currently going on? What about the proposed King's Shield Ban?
I don't feel like the metagame has gotten any different since the last time Aegislash was around, but I didn't find it to be that big of a deal personally. As for the King's Shield ban, it will nerf Aegislash considerably, probably to the point where it won't be that effective
What's your favorite playstyle and why?
I don't really have a prefered playstyle, but I like to use teams where I can get the upper hand easily, through making predictions, so probably something with hard hitters (either bulky offense or HO)
What's your favorite generation of OU and why?
Recently I've enjoyed playing DPP and ADV OU, as they are interesting tiers and the lack of team preview makes things exciting
How do you go about preparing for tournament matches? Does the process differ depending on the tournament?
I'm very lazy and a lot of my losses come from lack of preparation more than anything. I generally just pick a team I like and stick with it while doing as little test games as possible
Favorites to win OST and Smogon Tour?
Previously Style but I don't think that's very likely anymore due to certain events that have occured so I'll say WhiteQueen. For Smogon Tour there's always yearly favorites like Ojama and Heist but I think top Youtuber PDC has been doing pretty good lately, so I'll go with him
Thoughts on the newly introduced Smogon Classic? Favorite to win?
It's pretty cool :D! Hard to pick a winner since theres so many tiers, but McMeghan is as solid as they get
If you could change one thing about OU, what would it be and why?
Ban Manaphy
Do you have any advice for newer players for playing, and for Smogon in general?
One thing I really enjoyed doing when I was new was reading RMTs and it helped me a lot teambuilding wise. Also if you often feel as if you have no clue what you're doing then you should ladder more. It might not be the most pleasant experience, but it takes time to get good at this game. Not everyone can be a Style!
If you could change one thing about Smogon as a whole to make it better, what would it be and why?
Stop being mean to each other D:
What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
There's a lot of people I talk to on irc and skype that deserve a shoutout here. Shoutouts to you guys!!!!! :D
But two people I'd really like to give props to are Raseri and Zebraiken who've been my friends since I first joined the Smogon community. Thanks for sticking around in this sucky place with me for so many years :D
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?
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Ice Fang
Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Overheat
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Reflect Type
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Zen Headbutt
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Ice Fang
Manectric @ Manectite
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Overheat
Skarmory @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Brave Bird
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
- Roost
Starmie @ Leftovers
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Scald
- Reflect Type
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
Victini @ Choice Band
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- U-turn
- V-create
- Bolt Strike
- Zen Headbutt
Tornadus-Therian (M) @ Assault Vest
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- U-turn
- Knock Off
- Hurricane
- Heat Wave
A pretty bulky team based around hazard stacking and pivoting around and getting kills with Victini. It deals with Pokemon such as Metagross, Diance, and Manaphy better than most other balance teams.
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There it is. If you have any questions for FLCL, leave em down below. See you next week!
