Approved by sleid and Tuthur | Amazing Art by Albatross and butchered by me | Thread formatting stolen from Jett, who I thank for starting this project in the first place
(Interview Date: 06th of October, 2025)
PALP IS BACK, TELL A FRIEND
Hey friends and welcome BACK to ZU
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Doublade!
*blaaade*
Hey estra/havoc! Really happy to be doing these interviews again and I'm glad you're my first guest in this new season of player of the week! You're one of ZU most respected players and contributors at the moment coming of a very strong season in ZUPL after going undefeated during the regular season in ORAS and winning the trophy! Let's start with the basics then. How are you today and most importantly how do you prefer I call you?
hey! thanks for having me. This project sounds like a lot of fun and i'm happy to participate, revivals like this are always exciting too. I'm doing well today, mostly chilling after Monday classes and studying a bit. You can call me either estra or havoc, whatever is easier.
That's great to hear. I'm gonna go with estra then, think it flows better lol. Now for the actual first question, and usually what I start with! What can you tell us about who you are in real life? What are you studying?
My real name is Bernardo, I'm 18 and from Sao Paulo - Brazil. I just got into university and thus what I'm actually studying to graduate in isn't set yet (in my university you do a general "base" course and then pick a specific one after two years, and I haven't decided yet on what I'm picking). STEM field though as you gotta at least choose this when applicating to it.
Yeah, picking a major when we are young can be very hard. What are your preferred options right now? What do you see yourself working with in the future?
Honestly I don't really know. Currently I'm leaning towards some kind of engineering like Energy or Environment (not really usual courses either, another particularity of my uni) but it really isn't something set.
Since you're a brazilian like me I have to jump right into the most important question. Do you watch and/or play football? What team do you support if so (please do not say palmeiras)?
Nah I'm not really into football nowadays. As a kid I used to both play and follow a lot but kinda stopped after like 2020. Nowadays I mostly only watch World Cup really.
Do you believe the Hexa is coming? Are you excited for the upcoming world cup?
I think we can always hope for the best, but truly believing would be going a bit too far. I'm excited for it though! It's always a good time watching the games w friends and family.
I'm also hoping for the best, but it has been a long time since we won one, and you weren't even alive to see it! I'm getting old rip. Anyways, change of topic. What do you like to do in your free time? What kind of movies, shows, books and music do you like?
Yeah unfortunately all the brazilian football glory is story for me. Maybe this changes soon tho...My favorite music genre is rock but especially metal. For the knowers, Dynazty, Bloodbound, Beast in Black, Hammerfall, and Stratovarius are some of my favorite bands. As for movies/shows, I watch quite a lot of those in my free time, usually just netflix/other streaming trending stuff and occasional anime. I usually also watch F1 races. For books, I don't really read much for hobbie but I'm currently reading "A semente da vitoria" by Nuno Cobra.
That's very cool. I'm not much of a metal guy so I don't know pretty much any of those bands. What are some of your favorite movies, tv shows and anime? Anything you recommend to the people reading this?
For movies, The Lord of the Rings series is probably a must here. I'd mention some others like Schindler's List and Gladiator too. Shows is hard because I didn't watch many but I really enjoyed Breaking Bad and was one of the few that I tanked watching 5+ complete seasons lol. For anime, gotta have Attack on Titan as #1 and I'm not watching much nowadays but Apothecary Diaries was also great and one of the latest I watched
You also said you liked F1 races. I'm gonna give it a bit of context here for those who don't know. Brazil had a very strong F1 culture with Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Rubens Barichello and other big names of the sport. But after Massa retired its popularity kinda dropped ( I also haven't watched in years) but now we have a new brazilian pilot called Bortoleto competing. How do you feel about the current state of F1? Any hopes for the new brazilian pilot? Any favorite pilots too? Can be current or old ones. Also have you ever been to Interlagos (the São Paulo race arena) to watch a race live?
I think current F1 has been alright tbh. I got into really watching the sport in 2021 which was probably one of the best seasons of all time w/ they Hamilton x Verstappen rivalry and it was probably because it was so hype that I turned into a fan. 2022 and 2023 felt kinda boring overall though. 2024 was more interesting because Max didn't win everything LOL and this year has also been quite good. Sometimes the ruleset just makes a team insanely broken and the season ends up kinda boring. As for Bortoleto, I think he's promising and doing what he can with what really isn't a good car. Think recognition has been gradually coming too. I'm kind of a Max glazer from the current grid but from all time I really like Vettel and obviously Senna as well, Piquet is also insanely underrated imo. I've been to Interlagos yea! I Went there in 2022 which controversially to the season was a pretty interesting race, I could do some yapping about but that would be extensive. Was a good time though, I'm thinking about going again next year.
That's interesting. I've never been to a race myself but I've been to Interlagos to see some concerts lol. I went to Lollapalooza there twice a while back and saw some concerts such as Muse, Cage the Elephant, Eminem, Mumford and Sons, Bad Religion and so on. Let's change the topic a bit to mons now. How long have you been playing Pokemon and how did you end up on showdown and most importantly in ZU of all places?
Oh yeah, Interlagos is always used as a place for events in general, think my sister went there a couple times for shows like the Lollapalooza u mentioned, so that makes sense. Hope you had fun!Regarding the mons, I can probably say that I grew up with the franchise. I played a lot of the mainline games as a kid on the DS and also watched a lot of the anime on CN (mostly BW and XY).For Showdown specifically, I knew it existed since I was like 9 or something because my cousin who also played on the DS, showed it to me. I think that day I had the "canonical event" of making a horrible team with my favorite leggiesand laddering some matches of Ubers.From that day onward, I might have logged onto PS about fifty times total just to play some rands whenever I remembered it existed. That was until 2023, when I joined Smogon because I was actually looking for a competitive Pokémon experience but didn't want to do the EV training and all that as playing on the console requires you to.I ended up in ZU because I was initially looking for a metagame to focus and try to get good in etc, and after testing the waters, I really liked NU. But then Pokémon Home came to SV and power creep hit NU hard, so I figured ZU would be it haha. That was also around the time of ZUWC 1, where I got to experience/know the community and seemed pretty chill, so I was more tempted to stick around.
Yeah, think we all had that first teambuilding experience where we made the worst possible team ever created lol. It's nice to see Showdown is still attracting some new people and retaining their interest. I personally never liked the grindy aspect of the games either, so Showdown ended up being perfect for me. The ZU community has always been very welcoming and you grew into an important part of it I feel, so it is nice you ended up here! How do you feel about the current state of SV ZU and the new drops? How would you improve the tier? Any pokemon you wish dropped to ZU?
Honestly I think current SV ZU is some hot ass LOL. It kinda got turbo powercrept just like NU did back in the day for me and lost its appeal, which turned me into more of a oldgens guy gradually. I feel like there is potential for improvement though, but I don't really look at how to fix it or anything, been a while since I last got current gen reqs, for instance. I do think the drops we just got this days like Venusaur and potentially freeing some stuff from ZUBL like Porygon2 and Emboar could be interesting, however, but realistically I don't think I will play much of SV anytime soon. For drops, I really enjoyed using both the Qwilfish formes when we had them due to the nice utility and defensive profile, so I would like if we got them back.
Now you're speaking my language and this is the topic i was leading you to, ZU old gens! What is your favorite one? Is there one you want to dive into more?
My favorite oldgen must be ORAS by a large margin, I just have a passion for the generation in general and like the pacing of the metas. I've been also having fun with SM and DPP since a while. SS / BW / ADV are kinda whatever for me, I'd say I dislike more things about them than I like but overall they're fine. Not a fan of RBY and GSC as gens though, and ZU isn't particularly better.
I assumed ORAS would be your answer. Let's talk about the elephant in the room then, your impressive 7-0 score in regular season of ZUPL (that ended 7-1 as all brazilians are unfortunately cursed to but we ignore that). How do you think you managed to get that impressive run? Any mons that you think are underrated in current ORAS zu that should be used more? Any overrated mons? Was Wesleyy your toughest opponent in ZUPL? Too many questions
hmmm I would say it was a consequence of me really liking the metagame. I've been playing it since before ZUPL in Olympiad and just casually building so I was always developing some stuff and polishing teams, which surely helped a lot, mainly because I had some teams ready for when I didn't have the time to build for some weeks. I do think there is a lot of underrated stuff in ORAS that will very likely be trending up soon, to name a few: Ivysaur, Sawsbuck, Pikabelle and Mightyena. There is quite a lot of overrated stuff I find very hard to justify in such high ranks too like Lairon and Gourgeist-Large. My game versus Wesleyy was probably one of the hardest in the matchup and RNG didn't help much. The matchup is my fault for throwing away what I had ready for Ruffles and loading a pretty experimental team.
Do you think anything is banworthy on current ORAS or the metagame is fine? Maybe anything you think that could be worth a retest too?
I'm pretty happy with how the metagame is right now particularly. We just got rid of Huntail and Light Clay which were two broken aspects of the tier imo, and I don't think anything right now is close to be what those 2 were. As for retests, I wonder. Honestly I find Spikes right now to be a insanely risky playstyle and I'm curious by how much did Purugly make them better back then effectively. Removal in the tier is so scarce though that I could easily see it going out of control, so I wouldn't really actually push for a retest. For the rest of ZUBL: Fraxure, Huntail and Regigigas are most likely completely no-gos. Simisear would probably be quite stupid too as it's a much upgraded Magmar which is already good, but from talking to other veterans like Charles he said he was curious to maybe retest it, so I wouldn't say it's impossible to eventually.
Cool stuff. I'm not that experienced in ORAS so it is nice to hear your thoughts on the metagame. ZU old gens are constantly evolving. I wanna change the topic a bit again! What is your favorite Pokémon game outside of showdown? And what are your favorite games overall?
For Pokémon, probably has to be BW2. Great game overall and also one of the first I played so I'm not denying the nostalgia bias. To be honest, I kinda want to re-play some most of the DS Pokémon games to actually try to get a unbiased notion. I re-played Pokémon Y some months ago and it was so much worse than I priorly remembered lol. Other games wise, I've played a lot of RPGs and souls-likes like Elden Ring and Bloodborne recently and it's been great. As of right now I'm re-playing Final Fantasy 6 and also enjoying Sonic Racing Crossworlds with IRL friends.
I've also been enjoying some souls likes recently. Lies of P, Another Crab's Treasure and Sekiro were three games of the genre that I played somewhat recently and enjoyed thoroughly. I also enjoyed my time with the BW games, even if I did not grow up with them! Time for the fun question, I usually do one of those every interview. Which ZUer do you think is the most likely to play Showdown until they are 60 years old and why?
Those seem great. I haven't played either yet but I actually have Lies of P in my Steam library lol. Toto must be the guy for the question as he is already an unc and is lying about retirement.
Toto will never retire, or maybe he will now that he finally has a PL under his belt! Great answer! Talking about ZUPL again, how did it feel to win it? What was the secret of the Morpekos this year?
Was great to win it all after dedicating some time and effort every week. I do think we were slightly favored pre-draft due to the nice retains value but that's how the tournament has been running for seven years now. Imo we held it nicely with the draft picks and generally had a strong team. The atmosphere was great, love you all @bens.
That's great to hear! The retains really seemed broken pre-draft, but at least they paid off! Is it true that fish anemometer cancered or were btboy and toto just being dramatic? The people want to know
Yeah it's true. Girlfriend got to his head... He uncancered in finals and went crazy though, good ending.
The redemption arc! Do you have a team you would like to share with us? Adding a description about it would be cool!
Personal favorite. I wanted to explore Corsola and figured a double regen core with Mienfoo could be cool to keep the stuff healthy without necessarily need to click heal buttons. Corsola also baits Grass-move to Gogoat and Scald can potentially make setting up with Substitute and Bulk Up easier. Dusclops benefits from Corsola being pretty good at absorbing knock off from pretty much any non Grass-type and its bulk is kinda titanic around here if you manage to keep Evio. Standard Persian+Vibrava for general utilities, pivot and removal. I built this team to play Charles A. Theist in ORAS Cup originally and it won.
Cool team, Corsola and Gogoat are great mons and some of my favorites! We are nearing the end of this interview! Is there anything you want to say? And is there anyone you want to shout out?
Was great, really cool of you to go out of your way to revive this project especially when you just came out of retirement. Looking forward to see the ones to come after mine. S/O to the community for being chill.
And this concludes our first interview! Hope you had fun being in ZU Player of the Week and thanks for letting me interview you!
Brabo
Feel free to ask HAVOCKNIGHT any questions you want!
#1 Quagg - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-quagg.3685214/
#2 Toto - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-temporal-totodile.3685701/
#3 Danny - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-daniysb.3686123/
#4 kay - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-kay.3686429/
#5 Tuthur - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-tuthur.3686746/
#6 czim - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-czim.3687175/
#7 Corthius - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-corthius.3687508/
#8 Apagogie - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-apagogie.3687889/
#9 a fruitshop owner - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-a-fruitshop-owner.3688282/
#10 DnB - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-dnb.3689002/
#11 S1nn0hC0nfirm3d - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.3689319/
#12 5gen - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-5gen.3689990/
#13 Sawkasm - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-shwiftyshiftry.3689609/
#14 5dots - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-5dots.3690391/
#15 Greybaum - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-greybaum.3690756/
#16 btboy - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-thebtboy.3691088/
#17 Drud - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-drud.3691425/
#18 SBPC - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-sbpc.3691765/
#19 Twitt - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-twitt.3688630/
#20 DurzaOffTopic - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-durzaofftopic.3692243/
#2 Toto - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-temporal-totodile.3685701/
#3 Danny - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-daniysb.3686123/
#4 kay - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-kay.3686429/
#5 Tuthur - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-tuthur.3686746/
#6 czim - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-czim.3687175/
#7 Corthius - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-corthius.3687508/
#8 Apagogie - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-apagogie.3687889/
#9 a fruitshop owner - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-a-fruitshop-owner.3688282/
#10 DnB - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-dnb.3689002/
#11 S1nn0hC0nfirm3d - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-s1nn0hc0nfirm3d.3689319/
#12 5gen - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-5gen.3689990/
#13 Sawkasm - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-shwiftyshiftry.3689609/
#14 5dots - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-5dots.3690391/
#15 Greybaum - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-greybaum.3690756/
#16 btboy - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-thebtboy.3691088/
#17 Drud - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-drud.3691425/
#18 SBPC - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-sbpc.3691765/
#19 Twitt - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/zu-player-of-the-week-twitt.3688630/
#20 DurzaOffTopic - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-durzaofftopic.3692243/
#21 Jett - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-jett.3692357/
#22 Yovan33321 - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-yovan33321.3692632/
#23 Procrastinasian - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-procrastinasian.3692943/
#24 Landon - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-landon.3693291/
#25 OranBerryBlissey10 - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-oranberryblissey10.3693644/
#26 TBasedGod - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-tbasedgod.3693859/
#27 TheFranklin - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-thefranklin.3694462/
#28 Hitmonstars - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-hitmonstars.3694739/
#29 Terreitor - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-terreitor.3694926/
#30 Mirbro (Christmas edition) - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-mirbro.3695193/
#22 Yovan33321 - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-yovan33321.3692632/
#23 Procrastinasian - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-procrastinasian.3692943/
#24 Landon - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-landon.3693291/
#25 OranBerryBlissey10 - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-oranberryblissey10.3693644/
#26 TBasedGod - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-tbasedgod.3693859/
#27 TheFranklin - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-thefranklin.3694462/
#28 Hitmonstars - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-hitmonstars.3694739/
#29 Terreitor - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-terreitor.3694926/
#30 Mirbro (Christmas edition) - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-mirbro.3695193/
