Intro to the Monotype Room
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Art by LifeisDANK.
Introduction
The idea of playing as Gym Leaders do has been in the minds of players since the original Red and Blue versions were first released. Monotype has been a popular way to play Pokémon throughout the years. In July 2013, Monotype was first introduced as an OM of the Month on Pokémon Showdown! and was quite popular. That same month, the Monotype room on Pokémon Showdown! was created; it was then supported as a permanent OM on Pokémon Showdown! the following month. Due to its popularity, Monotype finally gained its own subforum here on Smogon in February 2016. Recently, in September 2017, Monotype was recognized as an Official Metagame by Smogon and joined the ranks of other supported metagames! As of now, the Monotype room on Pokémon Showdown! is one of the most popular on the simulator, typically only beaten in user numbers by OU for metagame-based rooms.
The room itself
The Monotype room is a dedicated place to have Monotype discussion. Considering the high activity of the room, there is constant discussion of points such as specific Pokémon, teambuilding, and the metagame itself. The room is also a great place to receive feedback on teams you have built, with many users willing to help out; all you have to do is share a pastebin of your team. While the forums are a great place to review Monotype resources, there's nothing quite like a conversation to help with your teambuilding! The Monotype room has four scheduled official tournaments per day at 1AM, 7AM, 1PM, and 7PM GMT, which alternate between Generation 6 and 7 Monotype, as well as a few Monotype OMs. The Monotype staff also frequently host tournaments between scheduled ones, including a multitude of Monotype-based metagames. Feel free to request a tournament of your favorite Monotype metagame when there isn't active conversation going on!
How to contribute
The best way to contribute to the Monotype room is to be helpful and active there. People of all experience levels in Monotype frequent the room, asking for help with teambuilding, asking for help with problem solving, or just looking for general metagame discussion. Engaging with these players is a great way to contribute towards the room and overall help benefit the metagame. Aside from helping out users, we always welcome discussion on happenings in the metagame, whether it be upcoming sets and strategies, major threats and their counters, or anything in between! In addition to being helpful in the Monotype room on Pokémon Showdown!, there are plenty of forum-based projects that you could contribute towards. There are metagame-based projects such as the Sample Teams and Viability Rankings threads, which are great resources for teambuilding, as well as the Metagame Discussion thread to discuss various Pokémon in the current Monotype metagame. If you're looking for some fun-oriented projects, you could participate in Victim of the Week, where you list various types' checks and counters to the Pokémon of that week, or the Teambuilding Competition, where you're given a Pokémon to build a team around then people vote on their favorite team.
Discord
The Monotype Discord (found here) is another place to go to have Monotype discussion. It has a small but growing community of regulars and is a more relaxed place to come to hang out and chat about almost anything than the Monotype room on PS! itself. Conversation isn't limited to only Monotype, so come on over for some fun conversation! The Discord server can also be a great place to talk to Monotype staff, who are almost all frequently on the Discord server. It even has its own news channel for quick reference to happenings in Monotype.
Room Owners
The Monotype room currently has three Room Owners: Acast, Eien, and Torkool. Acast is one of the Monotype subforum moderators and a former Monotype council member. Eien is one of the Monotype Tier Leaders, a Monotype subforum moderator, and the Monotype C&C leader. Torkool is the newest addition to the Room Owner list and is also a Monotype C&C QC member. All of the Room Owners are very active in the Monotype room, are active in the Monotype Discord, and have been huge contributors to Monotype as the years have gone by. They are all very friendly people and would be more than happy to help out any time they're available. Feel free to send them a PM if you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns about anything Monotype. They're no different than any other room staff member; we're all here to ensure everyone has a great time in the Monotype room!
RO Interviews
Click a Room Owner to read their interview!
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Acast
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Eien
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Moosical
Why and when did you first start playing Monotype?
Acast
I guess there were two separate times I got into Monotype. The first was before Showdown even existed. Smogon used Shoddy Battle as its primary simulator at the time. I was around 15 years old and mostly played OU, but someone introduced me to a league. It was called Verda and I eventually became an E4 member under the name "Vine", but I specialized in monocolor teams. I tried a mono-Ghost team at one point, but I couldn't make it work.
Years later, after I got to college, I found Showdown and got really involved in the Tournaments room. After spending so much time there, I got bored and went looking for another league to feel some nostalgia. I stumbled across the Frost server and found the Imperium League, which I joined as a Ghost-type specialist.
Eventually I got bored of the league politics and migrated back onto the main server, which is how I got involved in the Monotype room.
Moosical
What's your favorite Monotype metagame and why?
Acast
I'd have to pick early/mid ORAS monotype. That's when I was at my peak in terms of battling ability and when I had the most fun battling. I have an awful memory, but I think I remember there being more type diversity around that time. Late ORAS and the current SM metagame both seem to lack any sort of surprise. It's mostly the same sets on the same teams doing the same things.
Moosical
What do you look for in potential voices(+)?
Acast
I consider a lot of things when looking at potential voices, but I guess the biggest one would be the ability to admit you're wrong. There's nothing bad about being incorrect as long as you're able to admit the mistake and move on from it. We get people that will swear up and down that Ice is a top 5 type, and they'll never give in. That reflects really poorly on them. It's an oddly specific trait, but I place a lot of value in it because it shows they don't just care about showing off. They care about being in the community and doing what's best for it. Beyond that, I also look for the basics like chat activity and overall metagame knowledge.
Moosical
How did you become Room Owner?
Acast
Honestly, I just stuck around long enough and ended up in the right place at the right time. I've never been exceptional at battling, but I knew the metagame thoroughly, spent plenty of time in the room, and understood how to lead the chat, so when they were looking for a new Monotype RO, I guess I happened to be the best choice.
Moosical
What do you think the future holds for the Monotype room and Monotype in general?
Acast
Now that we're an official metagame, the future looks very bright. I'm expecting our playerbase to grow and develop quite a bit in the future, so major tournaments such as the seasonals and Monotype Premier League will be even more intense than they were in the past. It's an exciting time for Monotype!
Moosical
Any closing remarks?
Acast
Weebs are people too.
Everyone should play Fate/Grand Order.
Don't let Bondie convince you to watch/do anything. His culture created the toast sandwich. Their ability to judge quality is questionable.
#FreeMegagross
Moosical
Why and when did you first start playing Monotype?
Eien
I first started playing Monotype in October of 2015 when a friend I played Town of Salem with casually mentioned Pokémon one day and that piqued my interest, as I had some experience playing competitve Pokémon casually in the past. It was an interesting idea to only use one type, so I decided to at least give it a shot. (I almost quit when I found out Mega Lopunny couldn't be used on Fighting teams. I'm lucky I didn't!)
Moosical
What's your favorite Monotype metagame and why?
Eien
My favorite non-standard Monotype metagame is Monotype Almost Any Ability. I loved building for that metagame back in ORAS, and I've dabbled a bit this generation too. Giving your Pokémon almost any ability has some really cool implications when it comes to building a Monotype team, so I find it to be one of the most fun metagames to build for. My all-time favorite metagame in Monotype, though, would be the ORAS Monotype Hoopa-U suspect #2 metagame. This was the only time Hoopa-U was banned from ORAS Monotype, and it was the most fun Monotype has ever been for me. Unfortunately, the community didn't ban it, so I pretty much never get to play it anymore. For actually playable metagames, SM is way too fun to build new stuff for. Every week I feel like I find somethig I should have figured out months ago. With so many types and Pokémon viable today, we've never seen such diversity or balance. Now really is one of the best times to get started if you're interested!
Moosical
What do you look for in potential voices(+)?
Eien
My ideal room voice candidate knows what they're talking about. I love activity as much as everyone else, but I live by "quality over quantity," and that's what I value the most. It's really easy to spot out users that say something really intelligent in the chat, so once I've seen them, I keep that in the back of my mind. I'm really most worried about whether they have solid metagame knowledge and whether they're active in the chat. Personally, I would love for them to be active on our forums as well, but that's really just a plus (do check out our subforums, though!).
Moosical
How did you become Room Owner?
Eien
When our former Room Owner scpinion left, I was already in a lot of positions that made it a bit lucky for me I guess. A lot of his responsibilities fell to me to keep up with, and I would guess that combined with my high activity as probably the most active room mod? You'd honestly have to ask the other two because I'm still a little shocked myself, since they had been keeping things running just fine! (If anything, the real question is how someone who never spoke in the chatroom got room voice to begin with!)
Moosical
What do you think the future holds for the Monotype room and Monotype in general?
Eien
We're more recognized than ever, what with being elevated to official tier status, which I'm incredibly grateful for and on some level still shocked by. This was something I've been working on for nearly half a year now and something scpinion had been working towards forever as well, so it does seem like we've finally made it to the goal line. However, I don't want us to just stop here. I think Monotype is only going to continue to grow and expand. This includes the room. I'm always happy to see new users popping in, and it really is a blessing that we have a public room so active that we're often one one of the largest public rooms on the main server. I believe we can keep that up and make a few more friends along the way!
Moosical
Any closing remarks?
Eien
In closing, I'd just like to recommend everyone at least give Monotype a try. I know the metagame seems very matchup based and uncompetitive, but when you really dig into it, I think those initial misgivings often disappear because there's a hidden level of skill that isn't as easily noticed. We'd always love to see you in our room, so stop by and say hello! Also, please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions regarding anything to do with Monotype at all; I'm always here to help in any way I can!
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