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UU Player of the Week #19: Sam
- Thread starter Manipulative
- Start date
Thanks again for the mention :).
Assuming I don't retire/take a long hiatus post Slam, would you buy me in SPL?
Did you think Portugal deserved to win the Euros?
One of my best friends is from Lisbon and keeps telling me how amazing it is there. I'm not sure where in Portugal you're from but can you confirm or deny?
Dream holiday destination?
I'm relatively new to UU, but multiple people have told me you're the best team builder in the tier. How do you feel about such lofty praise?
I notice you like a lot of my posts. Is my content top notch or are you just very generous with your likes?
Assuming I don't retire/take a long hiatus post Slam, would you buy me in SPL?
Did you think Portugal deserved to win the Euros?
One of my best friends is from Lisbon and keeps telling me how amazing it is there. I'm not sure where in Portugal you're from but can you confirm or deny?
Dream holiday destination?
I'm relatively new to UU, but multiple people have told me you're the best team builder in the tier. How do you feel about such lofty praise?
I notice you like a lot of my posts. Is my content top notch or are you just very generous with your likes?
I'm recycling questions because I'm creative.
What did you like the most about your (relatively) recent SPL and UUPL experiences?
What do you think your strengths and weaknesses are as a player and how do you emphasize your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses?
What qualities do you think make a player great?
Who are some UU players that you believe will find success in upcoming UU tournaments and why (i.e. the standard "who are the underrated/up-and-coming players" question)?
How do you think that the UU community and Smogon as a whole can more effectively nurture emerging talent? I ask this because UU specifically lacks regular tournaments and it's difficult for new players to get exposure (our only major individual tour is UU Open, which is just a component of Grand Slam, and most slots in UUPL go to established players. Very few new players get the chance to participate in UUPL and even fewer find meaningful success. No one takes the ladder seriously, so the only other avenue available to players who want to join the ranks of UU's top players is... gimmicky subforum tours).
How did it feel to go 41-0 on the ladder with Mamoswine + Beedrill stall?
Who is the superior dog: Shiba or Amarockruff?
Recommend some fun, action-packed anime for me. No boring weeb stuff. I want blood.
What is Pikachu Girl and why does your kind love her so much?
What anime do you consider genre-defining and why?
What are your favorite guilty pleasure anime?
Do you like to read for pleasure, and, if so, what are your favorite books/genres?
Do you follow the League of Legends competitive scene at all? If so, what team(s) do you support?
Which season of League of Legends was your favorite and why?
If I reinstalled League of Legends and transferred one of my accounts to EUW, would you suffer through games with me? I promise to feed your lane and flame you over your voice chat program of choice.
Closing statement: since you're a scumbag Fizz main, I hope you fall down a flight of stairs and land on filthy Shaco player YABO, now like my post.
What did you like the most about your (relatively) recent SPL and UUPL experiences?
What do you think your strengths and weaknesses are as a player and how do you emphasize your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses?
What qualities do you think make a player great?
Who are some UU players that you believe will find success in upcoming UU tournaments and why (i.e. the standard "who are the underrated/up-and-coming players" question)?
How do you think that the UU community and Smogon as a whole can more effectively nurture emerging talent? I ask this because UU specifically lacks regular tournaments and it's difficult for new players to get exposure (our only major individual tour is UU Open, which is just a component of Grand Slam, and most slots in UUPL go to established players. Very few new players get the chance to participate in UUPL and even fewer find meaningful success. No one takes the ladder seriously, so the only other avenue available to players who want to join the ranks of UU's top players is... gimmicky subforum tours).
How did it feel to go 41-0 on the ladder with Mamoswine + Beedrill stall?
Who is the superior dog: Shiba or Amarockruff?
Recommend some fun, action-packed anime for me. No boring weeb stuff. I want blood.
What is Pikachu Girl and why does your kind love her so much?
What anime do you consider genre-defining and why?
What are your favorite guilty pleasure anime?
Do you like to read for pleasure, and, if so, what are your favorite books/genres?
Do you follow the League of Legends competitive scene at all? If so, what team(s) do you support?
Which season of League of Legends was your favorite and why?
If I reinstalled League of Legends and transferred one of my accounts to EUW, would you suffer through games with me? I promise to feed your lane and flame you over your voice chat program of choice.
Closing statement: since you're a scumbag Fizz main, I hope you fall down a flight of stairs and land on filthy Shaco player YABO, now like my post.
tough call. in all honesty, i feel powerless AF as a manager sometimes (like when your players choke massively and you know that wouldn't have happened if you were in their place), which makes me wish i could play. on the other hand, playing can be really stressful, but it's also tons of fun as long as you're not forced to play a metagame you despise. all things considered tho i think that managing is the appropriate role for me, considering i'm good at being that person who supports everyone else from the sidelines (and before you start thinking about that time when i nearly lost my shit because of marshall.flaw, please keep in mind that it was the only time i ever publicly "raged" at a player of mine and still feel like it was 101% deserved), and also because i'm deceivingly good at making tough decisions. one minute of silence for our brothers bluwing and nelson who were victims of that trait of mine
pretty similar reason to why i prefer managing over playing. i'm a good listener and like to help people out whenever they're in need (even though i think i'll probably prefer investigating human behavior to clinical psychology), so it was a logical choice, but also because, and if i'm making any sense here, i believe that being sensitive is a trait that should be valued way more, and i feel like by choosing this career path i'll be able to understand myself and the people around me a lot better
as a self-proclaimed like whore, it pains me in a way that can't be put into a 1-10 scale
competitively, leftovers is the item i use the most on my mons for kinda obvious reasons. aesthetically, griseous orb is cool as hell and for meme potential there's also snowball when held by cobalion
uu: ict will wreck next spl, manipulative and amaroq are fine players too and then there are all the other uu mains that did reasonably well in slam, those being sam i yam, warzoid and killintime
tour community: poek97, some of the lesser known ou starters in wcop, lysergic and i bet there'll also be some ladder hero in olt who's gonna make a big impact, but i can't say who it is for sure yet
i'm an assman, so i'm not too bothered if the girl's poppa size doesn't really meet my likings. with that said, medium is best :D
yes! i also knew that dragalge isn't an optimal charizard x counter as well. now all that's left is for me to master the art of defensive spiritomb + yanmega hyper offense in dpp ou, but i don't think i'll ever be able to reach such pinnacle of perfection. alas!
i think he already has. not i did anything wrong to begin with, rihanna is flawless
pepe is around 0,75 teals handsome
alobliss wins by default
waking up at 3 am (my time) to watch tesung play a decisive match just to find out the game was already over and he 6-0d in like 15 turns in spl6. there's also the firebot falcons hunger games (from spl6 too) which myzozoa curbstomped. from this year's spl: watching joey's semis game vs hikari, smacking fv 10 test games in a row with rotom-big-fan, seeing ortheore pushing this game's rng to its very limit among other amazing moments. i hope this year's wolfpack will be equally amazing :D
i work real hard to make my accent bearable for those who call w/ me :D
so here's the deal: i'm terrible with shounen recommendations since i'm more of a romance/mystery guy, but fma:b and fate/zero + fate/stay night ubw by ufotable are both must watch for y'all action addicts out there. and i know i'll get a lot of hate from my fellow weebs by doing this, but i actually liked rakudai kishi no cavalry and would also recommend it despite its flaws, considering it does a lot of things right (the episode it goes full shaft artstyle-wise hyped me like crazy, no lie). other recommendations: clannad + clannad after story (almost everyone loves that one), nagi no asukara (breathtaking art direction + ost, likable characters etc), ore monogatari (i watched this one as it aired and it completely healed my soul, but it's kinda repetitive so i wouldn't recommend binging it) and hyouka (good art and slice of life moments. it's a little unconventional in a way and some people find it unbearably boring, but i personally enjoyed every second of it)
i haven't watched non-anime tv shows in centuries man, but house m.d. was my n word
head!
hey! managing in spl was a really wild ride and i'm definitely ready to do it again. there are a lot challenges related to managing that some players just will never be able to experience to the fullest (like telling friends you're not interested in buying them pre auction, holding the team together through tough losses, making controversial line up decisions and so on), but the pros outweight the cons by a large margin, especially considering that the squad nails and i drafted had a lot of sociable and interesting people, even if some of them didn't live up to the hype on the battlefield. with that said, i wasn't deeply involved with the draft plan; the credits for that go to nails and the people we drafted early in the auction mostly. our draft plan was basically "pick up as many us east players as humanly possible and fill the gaps with trustworthy players" and i feel like the main reason why it worked was because we got a lot of momentum thanks to our lucky breaks in early weeks, since some of our slots were kinda lacking (our lower tiers were fine except for lc post midseason because our esteemed little cup player decided to up and disappear on us, bw wasn't necessarily terrible but it was kinda shaky at crucial times and we had no trustworthy player to hold the gsc/rby forts until we got bailed out by scoots giving us bedschibaer for 1k). so basically: i wasn't entirely satisfied with the team and feel like we can do a lot better this year, but it was still an experience that helped me grow both as a pokemon player and as a human being, so i'm kinda glad it turned out the way it did
and this is all for today! tomorrow i'll be answering omfuga's, stallion's and amaroq's stacked questions to close my potw in a good fashion n_n
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Pearl Good luck in college dude! Anything in particular you're looking forward to? Will you be staying on campus?
Favourite generation of UU?
Favourite UU Pokemon across all gens?
How has your overall experience been managing in SPL and WCOP? Do you find it difficult to consistently maintain harmony and motivation in the team? I've considered applying to be one but I always thought it'd be too stressful and take up too much time lol. I can imagine it must be very rewarding though.
What do you think is Crobat's most effective set and spread in this metagame? I've been using a defensive version because I think it needs the bulk to be able to reliably check Sylv and Conk, but I wish it had more firepower. I also believe Defog is wasted on Crobat and Taunt is so much better but I use it anyway because UU hazard removal options suck :(
Do you have any long-term goals on Smogon as a competitive player or contributor? I hope for one that you continue contributing to UU C&C next gen because your checks are awesome :D
who is the cutest smogon user and why is it pearl
It's time...
note: I eventually came to the conclusion that it's impossible to cover every single threat with AloBliss as a starting point, but that's not really relevant to the question.
That aside, I'll have to admit that Rihanna would be perfect if she didn't run suboptimal hairstyles 99% of the time (redhead Rihanna is literally flawless, although blonde is acceptable too). There's also Mariah Carey during the 90s (yeah, even when she was conservative as fuck with her clothing. I happen to have a thing for subtle beauties), but she has ruined her appearance since then, which is quite unfortunate.
As to whether I like the system or not: I don't necessarily hate it, but as long as it can be improved I'll try my best to make sure that happens. Also, I believe that councils should be made by people who actually play this fucking game (and by playing I don't mean getting a couple of low ladder matches every now and then; I'm talking about tournament play here). Maybe we'll see improvements once that happens. Also, I disagree with what some tier leaders do with their suspect votings a.k.a. making it a lot harder to get voting requirements than it should be. I think enforcing game/GXE limits is totally fine, but having 2 different suspect ladders for a single vote is completely absurd for obvious reasons. I think that's all!
Also, and I feel like I might get some hate for this: Facebook randoms getting mad at Smogon's decisions shouldn't be a reason for Smogon to stop halfway through. Dunno if this particularly relevant, but it's still worth mentioning because I think I've heard people saying Scald is never getting banned because people on Smogon's Facebook would go crazy.
LU UU.
Also, keep Old Gens please. All ORAS/S&M next year I guess would be boring as shit and would remove a lot of the tournament's depth.
Also, managing is a lot less stressful than playing (and also a bit boring), but the amount of time it takes from your schedule depends on how invested you are. You can go full tennisace and ask someone to draft for you just to up and disappear as soon as SPL starts (note: I don't actually know if this is true, I'm just stating rumors here) or you can lurk in your team's channel/group all the time (a.k.a. the no life approach). The best way to do it (in my opinion) is to make sure you're there whenever the team needs it the most: keep track of your team's scheduled games (Nails and I used the official spreadsheet for that) and try to be there if your own schedule allows you to. Besides that, watch replays of games you missed, make Skype highlight you whenever someone asks something relevant to you (so you don't have to go over 2000 messages that might not even matter) and talk to your co-manager often. Good luck if you decide to manage in SPL this year!
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- U-turn / Taunt
- Defog / Taunt
Defensive Crobat sounds nice on paper but it doesn't actually check what it's supposed to due to not being able to hit hard enough. Sky Plate's power boost allows you to damage stuff a lot harder, even if it means your switch opportunities are reduced.
Ssh, stop disclosing my draft plan. Why not? You obviously know your stuff and already have a lot of experience on top of that.
I'm amazing at choking won games! I'm usually good (I think) at playing games in which I have a match up disadvantage (unless it's a 100% unwinnable match up) and my gut calls are out of this world (even though I unfortunately don't follow them all of the time). As for weaknesses: I get distracted and let my emotions get the best of me easily, which leads to the aforementioned chokes and to me playing games in a lazy fashion. To mitigate those weaknesses I usually use teams that force me to plan ahead and to stay focused at all times.
I've started formatting my answers differently ever since you posted this and you didn't even drop a single like. You didn't like my post on that thread with Beyonce's tracks rankings either, so I'm assuming there's a completely different motive behind your disapproval.
I truly think so. The problem is that some particular playstyles (talking about offense here, by the way) only have around 8 viable Pokemon to choose from or else they're food for any Choice Scarf user or even the overrated Pokemon known as Mega Aerodactyl. The fact that every good offensive team dodmen makes looks exactly the same proves that (there are also all of those random times when I'm forced to slap a random Sylveon onto my team just to make sure it doesn't become Hydreigon food, but what can a regular human being do about that?)
Here's the deal: I think Alomomola is a stupid Pokemon (not stupidly broken, just designed in a stupid way) no matter the tier it's used in. The ability to heal its teammates back to full HP while staying healthy itself promotes lazy plays and makes it a lot easier to win games on autopilot against people who aren't as knowledgeable about the tier. With that in mind, I started crafting a couple of teams with it to see if it was possible to make an unbreakable team that didn't have to resort to stalling the shit out of people as a wincon to get free wins in UU open, and that's how my AloBliss team was made.
note: I eventually came to the conclusion that it's impossible to cover every single threat with AloBliss as a starting point, but that's not really relevant to the question.
My waifu if she was real. That's not really a satisfying answer, but you know what they say: "Woman of my dreams; I don't sleep so I can't find her".
That aside, I'll have to admit that Rihanna would be perfect if she didn't run suboptimal hairstyles 99% of the time (redhead Rihanna is literally flawless, although blonde is acceptable too). There's also Mariah Carey during the 90s (yeah, even when she was conservative as fuck with her clothing. I happen to have a thing for subtle beauties), but she has ruined her appearance since then, which is quite unfortunate.
A mixed bag. It's a beautiful country with a lot to offer for those who decide to visit it (for real, Portuguese gastronomy is top notch), but at the same time it's also drowning in debt and unemployment thanks to the incompetence of those who run it (and I'm not even talking about our current government; Portugal's been like this ever since 1700 or so), so it's not so nice to live here (Europe's constant pressure doesn't help our situation either, but I doubt they'll ever realize that).
LC is my second favorite! My favorite is UU, so sorry for having an incorrect opinion. UU > LC > OU > Doubles > NU > RU > PU > Ubers IMO
I'm sure most of them couldn't care less about the suspect test's result and just want to get TC requirements ASAP, but I'm glad broken shit gets banned nonetheless and I'm sure that's not gonna change anytime soon because I can just manipulate people's minds with my pro ban memes if voting no ban ever crosses people's minds.
Already explained most of my thoughts on that Pokemon while answering your first question. It's a million times worse in RU because that tier doesn't have anything that can break it without needing to boost to at least +4 behind a Substitute, which is exploitable as fuck for obvious reasons and becomes even worse when you consider that most of the Pokemon I'm referring to aren't even viable outside of setting up on Alomomola. It would probably be manageable to an extent if it didn't have the ability to fish (no pun intended) for Scald burns against most of its supposed counters, but alas. [insert obligatory passive aggressive remark about chaos here]
As someone who used to fight against filthy dictators back in XY (obviously joking, but I got pretty damn mad when the request for a Moltres suspect test didn't swing my way lol), I feel like TLs shouldn't be as powerful as they currently are, with their respective councils receiving some of their power to make definite decisions. This obviously doesn't fix all of the issues related to Smogon's tiering system, and it definitely does 0 if the council members are incompetent (you know what I'm referring to here), but it's an improvement for sure and a huge part of why I liked the kokoloko tiering system, although the main reason why that worked (arguably) is because the tier leader was willing to listen to other people's feedback and take risky decisions as well.
As to whether I like the system or not: I don't necessarily hate it, but as long as it can be improved I'll try my best to make sure that happens. Also, I believe that councils should be made by people who actually play this fucking game (and by playing I don't mean getting a couple of low ladder matches every now and then; I'm talking about tournament play here). Maybe we'll see improvements once that happens. Also, I disagree with what some tier leaders do with their suspect votings a.k.a. making it a lot harder to get voting requirements than it should be. I think enforcing game/GXE limits is totally fine, but having 2 different suspect ladders for a single vote is completely absurd for obvious reasons. I think that's all!
Partially answered this question above, but kokoloko's system was close to flawless, only missing out on a few crucial parts a.k.a. letting Zygarde and Mega Alakazam stay in the tier by the end of XY (and keeping Victini in UU for way longer than it should have too), but it was better on paper for sure.
Senior Staff should (probably) have the ability to veto completely absurd decisions, but there's no way they should be able to invalidate decisions that were thoroughly discussed and made by the members of a community (like invalidating the Mega Gengar ban in Ubers because it's not supposed to be a "real tier" to begin with just to make it a tier officially a couple of months later because of Mega Rayquaza).
Also, and I feel like I might get some hate for this: Facebook randoms getting mad at Smogon's decisions shouldn't be a reason for Smogon to stop halfway through. Dunno if this particularly relevant, but it's still worth mentioning because I think I've heard people saying Scald is never getting banned because people on Smogon's Facebook would go crazy.
OU is my favorite, but since that's not an acceptable answer in this circumstance I'll just say
Already answered the first part of this question in a different post (think it was ZoroDark who asked it). As for the second part, winning feels good so I'd like to win more, but I just can't keep the chokemaster within me asleep for an entire SPL season, so yeah. Also, I'm not that good at this game to begin with, but I feel like I'd probably be able to get a better record if I played in SPL again.
I feel like trapping abilities are broken by nature, as it was possible to observe with Gothitelle in OU (and also Dugtrio single handily winning weather wars in BW2 I guess), since the ability to remove very specific threats without any possible counterplay aside from either slapping a Shed Shell on your vulnerable Pokemon or simply not ever bringing it into the match until the trapper is removed can really break a metagame's balance (either by breaking a group of Pokemon that benefit from having A or B threat removed or by making a playstyle so dominant over others that there's not really any reason to bring anything else other than that playstyle or hardcore counterteams). So yeah, I would ban them.
I hate WCOP, but I feel like my opinion is incredibly biased, considering my first experience with it was a little complicated in spite of Team Europe's awesomeness. With that said, I feel like something such as an online "World Cup" will always be flawed no matter how hard you try, since there will always be people who cheat to get on teams they don't really belong in and that some regions don't really have the same amount of talent as others, leading to some lack of balance (on paper at least). However, I wouldn't abolish the tournament entirely for "historical" (using this word to describe a Smogon tournament feels idiotic but I don't really think anything fits best here) reasons and also because team tournaments are awesome :D. I would, however, try to find a more suitable host for it and also make the rules more consistent from year to year if I'm making sense. This year's WCOP was incredibly tight, so the lack of competition isn't really a viable argument to take it down (even though it's impossible to deny that some games are a pain in the ass to watch, but that's Pokemon for you).
Also, keep Old Gens please. All ORAS/S&M next year I guess would be boring as shit and would remove a lot of the tournament's depth.
Inherent mechanics for sure. Some council decisions might make the game slightly worse, but I doubt they're enough to make lower tiers vastly inferior to their old gen counterparts. Defog completely changes the hazard control game (I don't actually know if that's a good thing or not though), so some Pokemon/strategies completely fell out of grace, Knock Off is disgusting, Entei getting Sacred Fire is equally disgusting and Mega Evolutions introduce some unnecessary power creep (note: I don't actually dislike the concept behind Mega Evolutions, but the execution on some of them was totally ridiculous).
For sure, LOL. Game Freak couldn't care less about balance (at least from my point of view). All they wanna do is spice the game up and rack up some $$$ in the meantime while Smogon picks up the pieces and tries to make their games playable at a high level.
Help! Game Freak has lost its damn mind!
If you asked me this question a couple of months ago I wouldn't hesitate to call Smogon a big joke due to the various ghosting scandals, but I feel like thanks to the TD's efforts and all of the recent punishments it's steadily improving. Grand Slam hasn't reached playoffs yet though, so it might be too early to tell! That aside, I like most of the tournament community and most of my fellow contributors, and the friends I've made on this site are the main reason why I still play this game, so it would be unfair to say I dislike Smogon, even if it's corrupt or retarded at times.
The answer to this question would be yes even if he didn't win Smogon Classic. He's proved his worth over and over (even if people often undervalue accomplishments in team tournaments), so he totally deserves to be called a top 10 tournament players, even if he's a filthy team stealer.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to give much of an answer to this because I don't play ORAS OU all that often (played a couple of test games during WCOP, superstars and Cycle 1 of OLT). From what I can see though, I like that there are so many viable Pokemon and strategies, even if that means it's impossible to cover every single one of them when building. Mega Sableye feels restricting as fuck and Clefable is high key busted, but neither will ever be gone so all we can do is accept their presence and move on.
Thanks :D
I don't know any anime girl called "Miura Shiodome". If you're referring to Miuna, however, I'd definitely choose her over Pikagirl, considering that I don't actually know much about Pikagirl except for the fact that her design is the most adorable one I've seen in years.
Thanks! I'm not staying on campus because I was able to get into a college near home. As for things I'm looking forward to, the Praxe has to be #1.
Good luck in college dude! Anything in particular you're looking forward to? Will you be staying on campus?
No matter how many times Kushalos beats the living shit out of me, DPP UU will always be my favorite tier ever.
I don't know if it literally has to be UU or if it only has to be usable in UU to count, but my top 3 (usable) Pokemon in UU across all gens would be DPP Walrein, BW Drifblim and Venusaur in both DPP and ORAS (Bibarel Pass is also a sick strategy I swear). As for Pokemon that are UU by usage, then my favorites are DPP/BW Hitmontop and ORAS Aerodactyl (aesthetically, I don't actually use it on my teams often).
Already went over most of this in other posts n_n As for the specifics: maintaining the team motivated and free of conflicts depends a lot on the kind of people you're dealing with (and also how your draft plan went). It's very important to be careful when drafting people who beef with other users often and to make sure your scouting reports aren't limited to people's ability to play this game: try to figure out what kind of people that person you might draft would like to work with, how he/she deals with losses and bad luck and all the other stuff that could possibly influence the whole squad's well being.
Also, managing is a lot less stressful than playing (and also a bit boring), but the amount of time it takes from your schedule depends on how invested you are. You can go full tennisace and ask someone to draft for you just to up and disappear as soon as SPL starts (note: I don't actually know if this is true, I'm just stating rumors here) or you can lurk in your team's channel/group all the time (a.k.a. the no life approach). The best way to do it (in my opinion) is to make sure you're there whenever the team needs it the most: keep track of your team's scheduled games (Nails and I used the official spreadsheet for that) and try to be there if your own schedule allows you to. Besides that, watch replays of games you missed, make Skype highlight you whenever someone asks something relevant to you (so you don't have to go over 2000 messages that might not even matter) and talk to your co-manager often. Good luck if you decide to manage in SPL this year!
Crobat (F) @ Sky Plate
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Roost
- U-turn / Taunt
- Defog / Taunt
Defensive Crobat sounds nice on paper but it doesn't actually check what it's supposed to due to not being able to hit hard enough. Sky Plate's power boost allows you to damage stuff a lot harder, even if it means your switch opportunities are reduced.
The main reason why I play this game and keep in touch with Smogon is because it's fun to me, so I guess it's safe to say that I don't really have any personal goals related to this game (aside from building a team that can win SPL). However, I do like to help people and contributing is fun to me, so I plan to contribute to C&C for the remainder of ORAS and S&M :D Glad to know you appreciate my work, by the way
The cutest user will always be qsns and I'm ashamed I forgot to give him a shoutout in this thread
All good n_n
Here's the deal: I'm (usually) not an avid football/soccer if the word football used in this context rubs anyone the wrong way, but I watched all of Portugal's games in Euro and feel like a lot of the criticism I've seen regarding Portugal's win is undeserved (like this one fellow in Team Europe's Skype Group who keeps saying that Portugal played "anti football" in finals). If they actually deserved to win it or not, I'm afraid I won't be able to give a satisfying answer due to my lack of knowledge, but even if barely, Portugal still won its games, so why wouldn't it be considered a deserved win?
Already (kinda) answered this in my reply to one of Omfuga's questions. I live in a city near Porto and despite our economic situation, I feel like Portugal's pros (good weather, nice beaches, pretty girls, awesome gastronomy and awesome views) outweigh its cons by a lot.
My family and I can't afford travelling much, but I'd like to visit Canadaland and some parts of Japan (sorry if this is an unsatisfying answer, but I have a really hard time shutting down the weeb within me). Also, does the Raiders Frat count as a holiday destination? Cause I'd really love to meet my Smogon friends :D
I feel like it's undeserved praise at the moment. I also used to consider myself the best builder before, but right now the kind of teams I build are pretty one dimensional and I can't really come up with good offensive teams I like anymore :(. I'm glad people still respect me as an UU team builder in spite of that, but I feel like Hogg is the best teambuilder in UU right now (with dodmen as a close second and ict being #3)
As a self proclaimed like whore, I just want to share the joy of having your posts receiving likes with other people. Just kidding, but I'm usually generous towards people whose post content I typically appreciate and you happen to be one of those people
fuck off why did your post have to be massive as well
Already covered my SPL experience in other replays and I'm not in the mood to do it again. UUPL was boring because the ORAS metagame was dreadful at the time and the team I ended up on had a big lack of interest towards the latter weeks of the tournament. I guess UUPL just isn't my tour...
Strengths:
Aside from the really obvious things, two things mostly: The ability to withstand pressure (both before and during the match) and unlucky breaks and also the ability to respect the opponent (I went over this in one of Sam I Yam's questions I think). Other things that people often overlook: being willing to learn from your mistakes, building your own squads even if you don't always use them and having the motivation needed to improve.
Already answered this.
This is the kind of question everyone would expect me to say "make more serious tournaments lol" to, and while that's not an incorrect approach, I feel like Smogon (and the tournament community mostly) needs to change the stigma around forum contributors. It's a fact that most people who spend more time clogging up the forums with shitty posts are dreadful players as well, but there are also some really talented users who started out as good contributors and I don't really see many of those in UU/RU anymore. If you don't believe me, just check out the NU community, as I feel like this is something they do better than every other subforum community: most of their top contributions actually play this game and end up getting exposure by sharing their metagame knowledge with others, which is pretty damn cool if you ask me.
I lowkey felt bad because I was afraid of slowly turning into an even bigger meme than I already am after that happened (note: I'm not even joking)
Shiba inu :D
Already answered this as well. Read my reply to Bouff's questions
PikaGirl is a character from Danganronpa 3: Zetsubou-hen (Despair Arc). I love her because she is super duper adorable and didn't deserve what happened to her :(
She was part of Enoshima Junko's (the big bad) first killing game and got backstabbed by this one ugly fuck after begging for her life
Kind of a lame answer, but Kanon is the show/Visual Novel that started what people now know as Clannad-esque romance anime (guy meets girls, helps them solving their problems, people suffer and cry but end up living happily ever after yada yada)
Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, Ore Monogatari, Himouto! Umaru-chan and Punch Line
I enjoy reading but I don't do it often :( Sorry for being an uncultured fuck. I like Portuguese poetry though (Fernando Pessoa is the best to ever do it IMO. Bocage and Cesário Verde are fine too)
Competitive League is kinda boring to me now, but I was a massive Origen supporter last season (to the point where I'm still using my Origen mouse pad even now). My favorite NA team is CLG (with CLG.EU being my all time favorite and Moscow Five my second favorite) and my favorite player is Froggen :D (I've actually played with him twice back when he was on EUW and that's probably my biggest accomplishment in that game aside from carrying Gross Gore on stream once)
Season 3 because it's the season when I managed to climb all the way up to Diamond III from Silver I. Last Season was really good too
No, I don't play with feeders. Sorry n_n
like my post too
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Thanks, Pearl, for all the effort you put into your interview and answering questions (and all the likes) :D!
This week I've got yet another really great interview for you guys! I'll leave it down below, but feel free to find it in the OP as well.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Man I've answered this so many times :P Latest version: I'm a 22 year old British guy living and working in London. I've currently got a job in IT but I'm hoping to get into finance in a few years' time, which is my true passion and what I did my degree in. In my free time I enjoy playing tennis, reading comics and fantasy novels, playing guitar, and obviously aimlessly browsing Smogon. I'm a huge fan of classic / progressive British rock music, particularly stuff like Pink Floyd, Smiths, Beatles, Stone Roses and Radiohead.
Most known for?
In UU - for my extensive involvement in the community for a long time (about 5 years now not counting my 2012-14 hiatus), whether through playing tours, modding the subforum / C&C, or participating in discussions and projects around the forum and on IRC. Sadly though I haven't had much time to do any of these things over the past year with all the other stuff I do on Smogon combined with my job and studies. Outside UU I'm probably known around the community for co-leading RMT and being part of the B101 staff.
Favorite Pokemon?
Pert :D My first game was Sapphire and starter was Mudkip. When it finally fully evolved it was love at first sight <3
Most Used Pokemon?
Whimsicott unsurprisingly. I slap it on teams so liberally since it adds so much in one slot - Fairy typing, Water check, ton of speed, a way to mess up setup sweepers and stall, and just a great "oh shit" button.
What brought you to Smogon and competitive Pokemon in general?
Back in 2008 I came across a teambuilding guide on gamefaqs which mentioned stuff like EVs, IVs, competitive battling, and competitive terms like sweeper and wall which meant nothing to me. Through the guide I found out about this whole new side to Pokemon that I never even knew existed. It mentioned Smogon a few times so I decided to check the site out. I was pretty amazed that there was an entire website devoted to competitive battling! I ended up downloading Shoddy Battle, made a team that I was using in-game, and started battling.
Needless to say I got my ass kicked several times, but eventually through studying the strategy dex and testing countless teams I got a reasonable grasp of it. After a while I actually found that I didn't like DPP OU much, so I started playing UU instead and found it really interesting and fun to play! I played it almost exclusively for a long time. I lurked around the UU forums for a few months and then started posting and contributing, gradually getting into the other tiers and becoming a better and more experienced battler along the way. I've stuck with UU through every generation since :D I do love some OU gens though, namely ADV and DPP OU.
What is your favorite Generation of Pokemon and why?
DPP UU > all. I grew very fond of it during my initial two years here and I've never become tired of it. I love how stable it is and even though it's centralised around Milo and Venu, they're not overly dominant and there's still plenty of opportunity for being creative with building.
What made you want to take a break from UU and/or competitive battling? What are your thoughts coming back to the current metagame of ORAS UU?
My activity initially waned last June when I started my Masters thesis. Once I finished my course I was then busy with job applications. Both these things left little time for me to continue playing tours considering my other responsibilities around the forums. Then I started a full-time job this April and with moving + settling into my new role I had even less time and motivation to continue playing the tier at all. I kept myself updated throughout all the metagame changes though and now that my job's settled I've been getting back into it. I don't think I'll be playing any tours until SM comes around though.
I don't think it's a bad metagame at all right now with Zam and Mence gone. I really wish we had better methods of hazard control though; relying on Tenta / Forry for spin or having to go with Defog all the time kinda sucks and restricts building in that sense. I also definitely think a Hydreigon suspect would be a good way to wrap up ORAS and see what the community thinks of its impact, given that it singlehandedly pressures you to include a Fairy in your team. Personally I'd be really excited to at least test what a Hydrei-less metagame would look like.
What is your favorite playstyle?
My preferred style has always been bulky offense. I feel that it it provides the best balance between covering as many threats as I can defensively while still allowing me to go on the attack and put my opponent under pressure at any time. It's very important to have a defensive core to fall back on when things go wrong, and at the same time to have a way to break down my opponent's own core. I feel balance provides the best of both worlds in this sense. It is also very hard for my opponents to know what to expect when you're running balance as there are so many possible options to consider when you're building a balanced team, while other playstyles like hyper offense and stall are pretty one-dimensional and your opponent will usually know what is coming.
Do you think any playstyle is blatantly dominant or weak in the metagame?
Honestly I think all playstyles are capable of adapting to a metagame and it's the same in this case. Some have admittedly gotten weaker, but with clever teambuilding you can still make almost anything work. It's clear from Open though that the most popular team builds are bulky offensive ones, the majority of which are focussed around that Celebi + Sylveon + Krookodile core. It just matches up so well against most other playstyles thanks to their ideal mix of offensive and defensive capabilities.
Are there any specific Pokemon that you think are unhealthy for UU and may be deserving of a Suspect Test in the future?
Hydreigon, as I mentioned before. I can't say for sure that it's 100% unhealthy but there's no doubt it puts a lot of pressure on you to include a Fairy-type or at the minimum a solid Draco Meteor absorber. It's just that threatening. Having said that its Scarf set is an excellent glue for many teams and helps to keep a lot of threats at bay, so it's also a healthy part of the metagame in that way. I do think a suspect should definitely be done though to at least see what a Hydrei-less metagame looks like and finally determine whether it should stay in the tier or not.
Celebi is another Pokemon to potentially look at. It's a very powerful and unpredictable threat with its access to multiple boosting moves and Baton Pass to simply transfer the stats to a teammate if it can't sweep by itself. The NP set is notoriously difficult to reliably counter as everyone knows. Celebi doesn't put as much pressure on teams as Hydreigon does though thanks to Hydrei's greater immediate wallbreaking power, but it's definitely one to consider.
What are your thoughts on UU Open this year, and who do you think has a good shot at taking it?
I've been following Open closely and am really happy to see my old friend Stallion and buddy Kink make it so far. I'm rooting for one of them to win it all but I can't rule out Teddeh and Vinc as they've definitely proven themselves throughout the tour. Kink having probably played the most UU out of the current participants could give him a slight edge. It's going to be a really exciting finish regardless!
Do you think you'll be sticking around to play UU in the coming SPL? Also, who else do you think should be starting in UU this SPL?
I might sign up depending on how intense work gets. If it's relatively chilled around that time then I might give it a go since I'd have finished my finance exams by then. I do hope so since playing in SPL has been one of my best experiences on Smogon. Regarding who I think should be starting apart from the usual suspects from previous editions, I definitely think you've proven yourself as a great player and deserve a spot. Sacri, Tony and HT are others who I reckon could do well given the chance.
Who are some of your favorite people in the Smogon Community?
Pretty much everyone in RMT and B101 are people I really enjoy interacting with on a regular basis. Several of my teammates from UK and previous SPLs are also good friends of mine. Then there's the usual UU peeps - teal, Hogg, Christo, Kink, Sam, dod, r0ady, Pearl, Fuga, Clarion, yourself etc. Love all you guys n_n
Finally can you provide for us a team that you think reflects your current playstyle with a brief explanation of how it works?
This is a bulky offense team I've been using in recent weeks. It perfectly represents my preferred playstyle, containing a solid defensive core alongside some powerful wallbreakers to put the pressure on my opponent when needed:
CB Krook is as monstrous as always and is the main wallbreaker. Sceptile hits hard from the special side and together with Krook they significantly threaten most playstyles. Crobat takes up hazard control duties (crucial for Arcanine to function well) and is a great secondary check to Sylv and Conk. Everyone knows what that Cobalion set does - it compresses the roles of SR setter, wincon, and a check to so many dangerous threats all into one package, which is what makes it such a fantastic team player. Slowking + Arcanine is a really solid defensive core, and really it's Arc's special bulk that makes it very hard to break. Arc can now take on the likes of Mega Sceptile, Scarf Hydrei and Celebi quite comfortably and Sylveon even more so, and even stall out annoying Milotics with Toxic. The drop in its physical bulk is made up for by Slowking which takes a ridiculous amount of abuse as usual.
The team's strategy, as with a lot of my builds, doesn't go far beyond defending and counterattacking repeatedly until the opponent's core breaks down and you find an opportunity to sweep, typically with Sceptile or Cobalion. I like relying on resistances and strong attacks to swing momentum in my favour and open up holes in the opponent's defences, and that's pretty much what the team aims to do.
----------
Thank you for your time and the great interview, IB! If you have any questions that you would like to ask him, feel free to leave them below. I'll be back next week with another interview!
This week I've got yet another really great interview for you guys! I'll leave it down below, but feel free to find it in the OP as well.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Man I've answered this so many times :P Latest version: I'm a 22 year old British guy living and working in London. I've currently got a job in IT but I'm hoping to get into finance in a few years' time, which is my true passion and what I did my degree in. In my free time I enjoy playing tennis, reading comics and fantasy novels, playing guitar, and obviously aimlessly browsing Smogon. I'm a huge fan of classic / progressive British rock music, particularly stuff like Pink Floyd, Smiths, Beatles, Stone Roses and Radiohead.
Most known for?
In UU - for my extensive involvement in the community for a long time (about 5 years now not counting my 2012-14 hiatus), whether through playing tours, modding the subforum / C&C, or participating in discussions and projects around the forum and on IRC. Sadly though I haven't had much time to do any of these things over the past year with all the other stuff I do on Smogon combined with my job and studies. Outside UU I'm probably known around the community for co-leading RMT and being part of the B101 staff.
Favorite Pokemon?
Pert :D My first game was Sapphire and starter was Mudkip. When it finally fully evolved it was love at first sight <3
Most Used Pokemon?
Whimsicott unsurprisingly. I slap it on teams so liberally since it adds so much in one slot - Fairy typing, Water check, ton of speed, a way to mess up setup sweepers and stall, and just a great "oh shit" button.
What brought you to Smogon and competitive Pokemon in general?
Back in 2008 I came across a teambuilding guide on gamefaqs which mentioned stuff like EVs, IVs, competitive battling, and competitive terms like sweeper and wall which meant nothing to me. Through the guide I found out about this whole new side to Pokemon that I never even knew existed. It mentioned Smogon a few times so I decided to check the site out. I was pretty amazed that there was an entire website devoted to competitive battling! I ended up downloading Shoddy Battle, made a team that I was using in-game, and started battling.
Needless to say I got my ass kicked several times, but eventually through studying the strategy dex and testing countless teams I got a reasonable grasp of it. After a while I actually found that I didn't like DPP OU much, so I started playing UU instead and found it really interesting and fun to play! I played it almost exclusively for a long time. I lurked around the UU forums for a few months and then started posting and contributing, gradually getting into the other tiers and becoming a better and more experienced battler along the way. I've stuck with UU through every generation since :D I do love some OU gens though, namely ADV and DPP OU.
What is your favorite Generation of Pokemon and why?
DPP UU > all. I grew very fond of it during my initial two years here and I've never become tired of it. I love how stable it is and even though it's centralised around Milo and Venu, they're not overly dominant and there's still plenty of opportunity for being creative with building.
What made you want to take a break from UU and/or competitive battling? What are your thoughts coming back to the current metagame of ORAS UU?
My activity initially waned last June when I started my Masters thesis. Once I finished my course I was then busy with job applications. Both these things left little time for me to continue playing tours considering my other responsibilities around the forums. Then I started a full-time job this April and with moving + settling into my new role I had even less time and motivation to continue playing the tier at all. I kept myself updated throughout all the metagame changes though and now that my job's settled I've been getting back into it. I don't think I'll be playing any tours until SM comes around though.
I don't think it's a bad metagame at all right now with Zam and Mence gone. I really wish we had better methods of hazard control though; relying on Tenta / Forry for spin or having to go with Defog all the time kinda sucks and restricts building in that sense. I also definitely think a Hydreigon suspect would be a good way to wrap up ORAS and see what the community thinks of its impact, given that it singlehandedly pressures you to include a Fairy in your team. Personally I'd be really excited to at least test what a Hydrei-less metagame would look like.
What is your favorite playstyle?
My preferred style has always been bulky offense. I feel that it it provides the best balance between covering as many threats as I can defensively while still allowing me to go on the attack and put my opponent under pressure at any time. It's very important to have a defensive core to fall back on when things go wrong, and at the same time to have a way to break down my opponent's own core. I feel balance provides the best of both worlds in this sense. It is also very hard for my opponents to know what to expect when you're running balance as there are so many possible options to consider when you're building a balanced team, while other playstyles like hyper offense and stall are pretty one-dimensional and your opponent will usually know what is coming.
Do you think any playstyle is blatantly dominant or weak in the metagame?
Honestly I think all playstyles are capable of adapting to a metagame and it's the same in this case. Some have admittedly gotten weaker, but with clever teambuilding you can still make almost anything work. It's clear from Open though that the most popular team builds are bulky offensive ones, the majority of which are focussed around that Celebi + Sylveon + Krookodile core. It just matches up so well against most other playstyles thanks to their ideal mix of offensive and defensive capabilities.
Are there any specific Pokemon that you think are unhealthy for UU and may be deserving of a Suspect Test in the future?
Hydreigon, as I mentioned before. I can't say for sure that it's 100% unhealthy but there's no doubt it puts a lot of pressure on you to include a Fairy-type or at the minimum a solid Draco Meteor absorber. It's just that threatening. Having said that its Scarf set is an excellent glue for many teams and helps to keep a lot of threats at bay, so it's also a healthy part of the metagame in that way. I do think a suspect should definitely be done though to at least see what a Hydrei-less metagame looks like and finally determine whether it should stay in the tier or not.
Celebi is another Pokemon to potentially look at. It's a very powerful and unpredictable threat with its access to multiple boosting moves and Baton Pass to simply transfer the stats to a teammate if it can't sweep by itself. The NP set is notoriously difficult to reliably counter as everyone knows. Celebi doesn't put as much pressure on teams as Hydreigon does though thanks to Hydrei's greater immediate wallbreaking power, but it's definitely one to consider.
What are your thoughts on UU Open this year, and who do you think has a good shot at taking it?
I've been following Open closely and am really happy to see my old friend Stallion and buddy Kink make it so far. I'm rooting for one of them to win it all but I can't rule out Teddeh and Vinc as they've definitely proven themselves throughout the tour. Kink having probably played the most UU out of the current participants could give him a slight edge. It's going to be a really exciting finish regardless!
Do you think you'll be sticking around to play UU in the coming SPL? Also, who else do you think should be starting in UU this SPL?
I might sign up depending on how intense work gets. If it's relatively chilled around that time then I might give it a go since I'd have finished my finance exams by then. I do hope so since playing in SPL has been one of my best experiences on Smogon. Regarding who I think should be starting apart from the usual suspects from previous editions, I definitely think you've proven yourself as a great player and deserve a spot. Sacri, Tony and HT are others who I reckon could do well given the chance.
Who are some of your favorite people in the Smogon Community?
Pretty much everyone in RMT and B101 are people I really enjoy interacting with on a regular basis. Several of my teammates from UK and previous SPLs are also good friends of mine. Then there's the usual UU peeps - teal, Hogg, Christo, Kink, Sam, dod, r0ady, Pearl, Fuga, Clarion, yourself etc. Love all you guys n_n
Finally can you provide for us a team that you think reflects your current playstyle with a brief explanation of how it works?
This is a bulky offense team I've been using in recent weeks. It perfectly represents my preferred playstyle, containing a solid defensive core alongside some powerful wallbreakers to put the pressure on my opponent when needed:
Crobat @ Black Sludge
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Dragon Tail
- Psyshock
Arcanine @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 164 SpD
Careful Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Morning Sun
- Toxic
Krookodile @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Earthquake
Sceptile @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
Cobalion @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost
Slowking @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Slack Off
- Dragon Tail
- Psyshock
Arcanine @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 96 Def / 164 SpD
Careful Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Extreme Speed
- Morning Sun
- Toxic
Krookodile @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Knock Off
- Pursuit
- Superpower
- Earthquake
Sceptile @ Sceptilite
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Giga Drain
- Leaf Storm
- Dragon Pulse
- Focus Blast
Cobalion @ Shuca Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Swords Dance
CB Krook is as monstrous as always and is the main wallbreaker. Sceptile hits hard from the special side and together with Krook they significantly threaten most playstyles. Crobat takes up hazard control duties (crucial for Arcanine to function well) and is a great secondary check to Sylv and Conk. Everyone knows what that Cobalion set does - it compresses the roles of SR setter, wincon, and a check to so many dangerous threats all into one package, which is what makes it such a fantastic team player. Slowking + Arcanine is a really solid defensive core, and really it's Arc's special bulk that makes it very hard to break. Arc can now take on the likes of Mega Sceptile, Scarf Hydrei and Celebi quite comfortably and Sylveon even more so, and even stall out annoying Milotics with Toxic. The drop in its physical bulk is made up for by Slowking which takes a ridiculous amount of abuse as usual.
The team's strategy, as with a lot of my builds, doesn't go far beyond defending and counterattacking repeatedly until the opponent's core breaks down and you find an opportunity to sweep, typically with Sceptile or Cobalion. I like relying on resistances and strong attacks to swing momentum in my favour and open up holes in the opponent's defences, and that's pretty much what the team aims to do.
----------
Thank you for your time and the great interview, IB! If you have any questions that you would like to ask him, feel free to leave them below. I'll be back next week with another interview!
What's the origin of your name?
If you could change anything in the viability rankings, what would you change and would you change/reorder S rank?
What do you think is the most restrictive Pokemon in the tier after Hydra and Celebi?
If you could change anything in the viability rankings, what would you change and would you change/reorder S rank?
What do you think is the most restrictive Pokemon in the tier after Hydra and Celebi?
hi ib :D
how long have you been playing the guitar for?
do you like instrumentals? if yes fav one?
what kind of comics do you read?
funkiest set you've used recently?
me or kreme?
thoughts on bad user eyan?
do you ever get tired of the amount of shitposting in the ct Skype chat? why do you never take part in it? :[
how long have you been playing the guitar for?
do you like instrumentals? if yes fav one?
what kind of comics do you read?
funkiest set you've used recently?
me or kreme?
thoughts on bad user eyan?
do you ever get tired of the amount of shitposting in the ct Skype chat? why do you never take part in it? :[
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Top 5 Beatles' albums / songs in your opinion?
Favorite progressive rock albums?
Favorite progressive rock albums?
The suffering I put Pearl through has convinced me to have mercy and not subject you to endless questions.
What Pokemon do you have the most difficulty accounting for when you build?
What do you think your strengths and weaknesses are as a player and how do you emphasize your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses?
What qualities do you think make a player great?
Who are some UU players that you believe will find success in upcoming UU tournaments and why (i.e. the standard "who are the underrated/up-and-coming players" question)?
How do you think that the UU community and Smogon as a whole can more effectively nurture emerging talent?
Do you prefer individual or team tours, and what do you like about each?
Do you plan to play or manage next UUPL?
It seems to me that, as an RMT leader and Battling 101 staff member, you have a vested interest in encouraging community contribution. Do you feel that Pearl is correct when he says that there is a stigma associated with forum contribution, and, if so, how do you believe it should be combated?
Will you play DPP UU with me sometime? I'm kind of meh at it, but it's a fun meta and I want to get more into it.
What are your favorite fantasy books/series?
What Pokemon do you have the most difficulty accounting for when you build?
What do you think your strengths and weaknesses are as a player and how do you emphasize your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses?
What qualities do you think make a player great?
Who are some UU players that you believe will find success in upcoming UU tournaments and why (i.e. the standard "who are the underrated/up-and-coming players" question)?
How do you think that the UU community and Smogon as a whole can more effectively nurture emerging talent?
Do you prefer individual or team tours, and what do you like about each?
Do you plan to play or manage next UUPL?
It seems to me that, as an RMT leader and Battling 101 staff member, you have a vested interest in encouraging community contribution. Do you feel that Pearl is correct when he says that there is a stigma associated with forum contribution, and, if so, how do you believe it should be combated?
Will you play DPP UU with me sometime? I'm kind of meh at it, but it's a fun meta and I want to get more into it.
What are your favorite fantasy books/series?
Hi old friend!!
Thanks for the support with the open :). Were you surprised to see me playing opens at all after I'd been pretty much retired from individual tournaments for years?
Do you remember the epic DPP UU battles we had back in the day? I think we even faced off in the inaugural SPL if my hazy memory serves me correctly.
What's your dream finance job (that you could realistically get as a grad)?
I've wanted to come to London for ages, mainly to check out places like Fabric but also just cause it's meant to be one of the most amazing cities in the world. If I went it'd probably be sometime in January/February next year. Would you get a beer with me?
Are you aware that your posted team is 6-0ed by Sub DD Gyara?
What's kept the passion for Pokemon burning just as strong as ever after all these years? I know a lot of people who started playing when we did lost the fire after a certain amount of time, but you seem to be just as passionate as ever!
Have you been to Australia before?
Thanks for the support with the open :). Were you surprised to see me playing opens at all after I'd been pretty much retired from individual tournaments for years?
Do you remember the epic DPP UU battles we had back in the day? I think we even faced off in the inaugural SPL if my hazy memory serves me correctly.
What's your dream finance job (that you could realistically get as a grad)?
I've wanted to come to London for ages, mainly to check out places like Fabric but also just cause it's meant to be one of the most amazing cities in the world. If I went it'd probably be sometime in January/February next year. Would you get a beer with me?
Are you aware that your posted team is 6-0ed by Sub DD Gyara?
What's kept the passion for Pokemon burning just as strong as ever after all these years? I know a lot of people who started playing when we did lost the fire after a certain amount of time, but you seem to be just as passionate as ever!
Have you been to Australia before?
Haha yeah Mega Aero indeed. Well it's been the best Mega probably since the inception of ORAS and I think it's simply because it's so consistently brilliant at what it does and nothing else has managed to challenge it. It's faster than the entire unboosted metagame which makes it unmatched as a revenge killer and late-game cleaner, it has underrated bulk and a really nice typing with key resistances of which there is a distinct lack of in UU, it keeps many top sweepers and opposing Megas in check, and it also makes a decent sweeper with its solid Attack stat and ability. Not to mention it can also run cool support sets such as Pursuit and Taunt + Toxic.
Most overrated for me is Mega Sharpedo. I've never found it difficult to handle, and whenever I've used it it's been rather underwhelming. It might just be down to personal preference though since I like to use Pokemon with at least reasonable defensive stats and Sharpedo has the bulk of a wet tissue. It can't be argued though that Sharpedo has problems with power before Mega Evolving, and if it has to switch out after evolving then it loses its speed boost, so you need to time it perfectly to use it well. I just feel like it doesn't offer enough offensively to make up for its complete lack of defensive capabilities.
Most underrated is a tough one, but I'll go for Diancie and Arcanine. I really think Diancie doesn't get the attention it deserves with the amazing support it provides with one slot - SR, Normal + Flying + Fire resist, the best Entei counter in the tier with Heal Bell, and a Fairy typing for Hydreigon to top it off. With Sylveon dominating it's not surprising that Diancie isn't used much but I think it can still be a cool choice with its role compression. Arcanine has been increasing in popularity but it's still rather underrated I feel. Fire Pokes have never been better defensively in UU than they are now, and Arc is the best of the lot. The specially defensive set especially is one that I think truly has a lot of potential with its ability to completely counter Sylveon and check Celebi effectively too.
Iron Maiden + Bullet For My Valentine n_n I'm not as much into metal now as I was back then but I still love these guys!
I'd probably bump Arc to B+ and Escavalier to A-. I think where they are doesn't do them full justice in terms of how effective they are in the tier right now. I would put Celebi in second place in S rank but it looks fine otherwise.
Most restrictive has to be Suicune - it's the main reason I consider a Water immunity or a powerful Grass / Electric type on every team.
Cynde :D
I've been playing for 5 years now. My main instrument is actually piano and I've been playing that for over 10 years.
Yes I love them! Not surprising considering Pink Floyd is my favourite band haha. Favourite instrumental is The Great Gig In The Sky, easily. Yes there are vocals but they're wordless and Torry pretty much uses her voice as an instrument so I stand by it :P If you want purely instrumentals then my top 3 are probably Floyd's One Of These Days from Meddle, Radiohead's Treefingers from Kid A and The Smiths' Oscillate Wildly from Louder Than Bombs.
Mostly just Marvel nowadays, I'm a big fan of their universe. I used to read a lot more comics when I was younger and had more time - Tintin, Archie, Pokemon Adventures too hehe.
Vapo
Eyan's cute stfu
Haha no I actually enjoy reading it! I don't participate much because I just can't spare the time to chat in there consistently, but I like randomly popping in occasionally as I'm sure you've all noticed :P
Agh Beatles lists are always impossible but I'll give it a go.
Top 5 albums: Abbey Road, Rubber Soul, Revolver, A Hard Day's Night, With The Beatles
Top 5 songs: In My Life, And I Love Her, Here Comes The Sun, Norwegian Wood, For No One
Favourite prog rock albums: Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd, Melt - Peter Gabriel, Aqualung - Jethro Tull
Mamoswine
My strengths are that my teams are pretty much always solid and cover a vast majority of the metagame, which means I give myself the best possible chance of getting at least a decent matchup. I'm also good at taking a long-term view during matches and keeping calm during pressure situations, which is huge in big tours. I typically play conservatively which can be both a strength and a weakness. Strength in the sense that I don't take unnecessary risks and I can also take my opponent by surprise when I do decide to go for the ballsy play, and a weakness in that it makes it tougher to take a game by the scruff of the neck. The fact that I also rely on solid balanced teams most of the time makes me predictable in a way, which is of course another weakness.
I try to mitigate my weaknesses by making it a priority to try to mix things up and force myself to take risks during matches when I can see that they might pay off in a big way, but they don't always work since natural instincts take over.
I think the most important qualities for a player are:
- Being able to take a long-term view and focus on plays that further your team's overall goal, even if it requires the sacrifice of other Pokemon
- Keeping a cool head
- Building solidly at least, if not spectacularly
- Versatility in teambuilding
- Knowing when to make the ballsy play and when to take the safe route
Manipulative and Sacri are two guys who I'm really confident will do well. I've personally seen them develop over the past few months and not only have they been playing really well in tours but they've shown a lot of intelligence in their posts and displayed a keen understanding and knowledge of the metagame. Plus they're great team raters and as we all know UU TRs are the best players n_n Rate more Sacri' dammit :(
I think the best way to nurture emerging talent is give them a platform to hone their skills and test their abilities against the best, and I can see the regular official UU tours we recently set up playing a big part in this. Giving these players a taste of high level competition will do wonders for their experience and potentially their reputation if they do well. I'm especially excited about UU Majors for this reason. A lot of UU TRs have told me that they learned so much more about the tier through rating, so I think that encouraging emerging players to contribute to sections like RMT, C&C and B101 would also help a lot. Discussing teambuilding, movesets, and just the metagame in general would I think really help these players' development.
I prefer individual tours when it comes to battling, just because you only face your own disappointment if you lose and you can move on from it relatively easily. In a team tour though it's a lot more stressful since you have the hopes of all your teammates pinned on you, and losing just feels a hundred times worse. But apart from that I undoubtedly prefer team tours more. SPL has been one of the greatest experiences I've had on Smogon and with good reason. Chilling with your buddies, building friendships, messing around - that's the best thing about these tours and what makes them so much more fun than individual ones. You also have many points of view when it comes to teambuilding which has really helped my experience.
I honestly don't know yet. I'd love to play DPP but I'm also itching to manage at some point. Guess we'll see haha.
I agree with what he said about bad posters, and it's true that a lot of top players nowadays stray away from contributing. Many tour players are cut off in their own world and don't have any interest in it. When I first joined in 2009-10 many top players were also big contributors, but Smogon's culture has shifted massively over the years and I don't really see how the change can be helped. It's unfortunate for sure, but that doesn't mean that Smogon has suffered massively because of it. For every bad poster there is a quality contributor, and there are still legions of them out there. The quality of contributions to sections like RMT, B101, C&C etc. continues to be high, and plus the number of contributors will only continue to grow with the onset of a new generation. The best thing we can do is to help the poor posters improve and encourage top players to contribute where we can, but the sheer increase in Smogon's numbers mean that we probably just have to accept the change in culture.
Sure, I'm always down for a DPP UU game! Hit me up whenever you see me on PS :)
Favourite fantasy series is The First Law, and I'm loving The Stormlight Archives right now!
No problem dude! Yeah I really was haha, felt like you just came out of nowhere to boss the tour. Good luck for the semis :D A finals of you vs Kink would make it impossible to root for someone lol.
For sure! I actually didn't play in the first SPL but I definitely recall battling several times :)
My dream is to be a portfolio manager in a private equity firm. Unfortunately I didn't land that role as a grad but it's a highly competitive job market and my background isn't purely in finance. I'm happy where I'm working now but I'm currently working towards financial qualifications that will hopefully help me get the role a few years down the line!
For sure buddy, that would be awesome! We can drink and reminisce about the good times in DPP UU :')
Lol I actually did face one but I managed to constantly break its subs and phaze it out with Slowking. Luckily I had rocks up to pressure it enough, but yeah it's definitely a massive threat haha. Protect Sceptile y/n :P
Well my passion for the game actually died down in 2012, which was why I took a long break. I came back in late 2014 to a brand new generation and metagame and was itching to get back into it, but after SPL 6 my interest started waning again. That's when I discovered that I actually prefer contributing to playing tours, and that's what's kept me going over the past 1.5 years! I largely play casually now but I still love the game, and I think not playing tours has actually helped that in a sense because playing tours comes with plenty of stress and can make you forget to actually have fun. Anyway I don't really have the time to commit to tours right now. I might get back into them at some point though, maybe early next year once I'm done with my financial exams.
I've been to Sydney and Brisbane but I was around 8 at the time so I don't remember much haha. I do recall having a lot of fun at Sea World though!
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream
Favorite burger toppings
Favorite color
Chocolatey kinda desserts or like fruit kinda things
Salami or pepperoni
Do favorite way to cook burgers / steak (like rare medium)
Beyoncé or Shakira (there is a correct answer)
Brexit?
Favorite burger toppings
Favorite color
Chocolatey kinda desserts or like fruit kinda things
Salami or pepperoni
Do favorite way to cook burgers / steak (like rare medium)
Beyoncé or Shakira (there is a correct answer)
Brexit?
Best XY/ORAS UU rater you've seen?
Villain you would want to see in Daredevil season 3, not including Wilson Fisk?
Are you ever going to change your avatar?
Villain you would want to see in Daredevil season 3, not including Wilson Fisk?
Are you ever going to change your avatar?
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Do you still enjoy playing the piano as much, even after 10 years? I played the piano for about 7 years but eventually stopped because i really wasn't entertaining myself and basically forced myself to play.
What's your favourite Beatles song?
Beatles or The Stones?
Will you ever change your avatar?
What's your favourite Beatles song?
Beatles or The Stones?
Will you ever change your avatar?
YOUR top 5 radiohead songs
Which is better: Swords Dance Celebi Pass into Mega Sharpedo or Nastypass into Hydreigon, and why is it Hydreigon?
Who are your current top 10 UU SPL picks for this season?
Out of all of the instruments you play, which is the one you believe resonates the most with who you are as a person? Does each instrument have a different place in your musical soul? Is one higher than the other? For me it was always Piano before anything else... what about you?
When I visit you in England, how many selfies will we take for Smogon Photo Album?
And, as always, Chocolate or Vanilla?
Which is better: Swords Dance Celebi Pass into Mega Sharpedo or Nastypass into Hydreigon, and why is it Hydreigon?
Who are your current top 10 UU SPL picks for this season?
Out of all of the instruments you play, which is the one you believe resonates the most with who you are as a person? Does each instrument have a different place in your musical soul? Is one higher than the other? For me it was always Piano before anything else... what about you?
When I visit you in England, how many selfies will we take for Smogon Photo Album?
And, as always, Chocolate or Vanilla?
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Cookies and cream
Barbecue sauce + onions
Red
Combine the two = fruit kinda desserts (banoffee pie <3)
Salami
Medium well
Neither?
Total shambles
It's hard to pick a best rater since there've been plenty of fantastic ones, but teal does stand out to me simply because of the ease with which he picked rating up. He was a complete natural at it and was badged with less quantity than what was required because his rates were that good.
Bullseye!
No, unless I find a better one :P
I do actually, mainly because I don't have to practise exam pieces anymore haha. I don't play much classical stuff anymore though since I finished all my grades and can't find time to do a diploma. Nowadays I mostly just play covers of rock songs which I love doing and is what keeps my passion for the instrument going!
In My Life
For me it's Beatles hands down obviously but even objectively it's hard to argue for the Stones; they just weren't as influential. I do appreciate the Stones though. Moonlight Mile is my favourite song of theirs and an absolute gem.
No, unless I find a better one!
I like you
I work as a business analyst actually; I don't really want to work in IT long-term. This is a good first job though and the role involves a lot of financial analysis, which is ideal for me. My aim is to hopefully land a role in a financial firm in a few years' time.
Slowking + Diancie is a pretty solid core and one I personally love using
The Bends, Airbag, Kid A, Give Up The Ghost, Daydreaming
As I said before I just personally dislike using Sharpedo due to its frailty and the need to time the Mega Evolution well. Hydreigon is just a more solid Pokemon and so damn threatening already without an NP boost on top of that :o
In random order: dod, Hikari, teal, Christo, Pearl, yourself, Icey, Hogg, Manipulative, Fuga
Definitely piano! I love playing the guitar but damn there's no better feeling for me than nailing a classical piece or figuring out the perfect chords and accompaniment to a song I'm trying to cover. I've also been playing it since I was 8 so it's always been a really special instrument for me.
Enough to put the Kardashians to shame
Chocolate <3 Especially dark chocolate ahh. Just typing about it makes me crave some lol.
cm entei or sd sceptile?
