Project Player of the Week - BeatsBlack

czim · Tuesday at 8:14 AM

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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: 27th of October, 2025)

Hey friends and welcome to this edition of ZU ~~Palpitoad~~ Player of the Week. I'm very excited to be doing these again and I hope you enjoy reading these interviews as much as I enjoy making them! This is the project where we learn about some of ZU's finest community members in the form of interviews. In this special Halloween edition of the project, we are interviewing someone who is not only a Room Driver and one of the most profilic ZU Old Gens players around, but also the leader of the ZU Old Gens project and Council member for RBY, GSC, ADV and DPP ZU. Without further ado,

BeatsBlack!!
Favorite Pokémon: :haxorus:

(ZU Old Gens Leader, Room Driver and ZUPL player for the Smeargles)

Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Haxorus!

*haxooooorus*

Hey BeatsBlack! Welcome to the 4th edition of ZU Player of the Week since the project's revival! I'm really happy you're here with me today, specially because it's halloween season! Let's start our interview with a simple question, how are you doing today?

I'm doing pretty alright today, just chilling at work rn on my lunch. It's getting a bit chilly in our area of the States now so I've been bundling up a bit more than usual so I'm pretty comfy right now. How about your day so far, anything out of the ordinary?

Great to hear! Here in São Paulo it has been some very cold months, way colder than usual, but I've been enjoying it! Are you more of a summer or winter person? My day has been pretty standard too, as ordinary as mondays usually go, but at least I cooked a pretty good Chicken Teriyaki for lunch today, so the week started well!

Definitely more of a summer person for sure, although I do like the "shorter" days of Winter. Looking outside a window and it seemingly being the dead of night, when it's actually only 5pm or so, makes me feel like I have so much more time in the day. Glad to hear you had a good lunch lol I usually grabbed something from one of the small take-outs nearby

Yeah, I think that can definitely be kinda depressive. Here in Brazil our seasons aren't super well defined so even when it's cold, it's not that bad and it doesn't get dark super early too. What else can you tell about who you are in real life? Also what did you have for lunch? Can't be that bad

I usually like to keep my name private unless needed, so you'll have to win a money match vs me or something for that haha, but otherwise I live in the very northern-most part of Illinois, just above the Chicagoland area. I am 24 yrs old, having graduated college a couple years ago at this point and I've been doing IT support/work for local school districts for a job. I went to college for CompSci primarily, but had a backup route incase that didn't work out (which with how bad the job market is over here, was a great call) so that's sorta been my current "professional life". For lunch I got a simple burger because they are very cheap at this local joint, but the winter chill got to it before I could unfortunately. Fries were still excellent tho

It's fine, don't worry about it! I just want people to share what they're comfortable doing so. The Chicago area is one of the more famous ones for us foreigners, so I know some stuff about it, like the Great Lakes and the famous Chicago Pizza! I've always wanted to try it lol, is it worth it? Do you like living there?

I don't have deepdish pizza that often, but I like it here and there, since it can be pretty messy depending how much sauce and cheese they throw on it. Anyone who ever visits us always want to try it and they always like it so I would consider it worth it. I never really thought about it, but does deep dish pizza just not exist out of Illinois/Midwest? Where I live, it's generally very quiet and not the easiest place to walk around (lack of sidewalks and stores), but there are tons of nearby towns with nice downtown areas. Chicago itself is about 45 minutes to an hour away by car so I can always go down there on a weekend on a spur of the moment. Going by train is also pretty cost efficient and much more chill, my town has a station not even 5 minutes away from us so that's always an option for me too. Def appreciate where it am since it feels like I have access to going downtown in a big city or just going around to smaller towns or local areas with less hustle and bustle.

I could probably get it somewhere in São Paulo to be honest, we can find food from everywhere around the world here, I just never really tried it, and it'd probably be really cool to try one in the place it's actually from! The big city can be suffocating from time to time, it's nice you have found a middle ground, specially because you have acessible public transportation! Let's talk about your interests now, what do you like to do in your free time?

Truthfully, I spend a lot of time playing video games (a lot of multiplayer) because that's the most common way me and my friends hang out together. I really wanted to spend less time playing the same 3 or 4 multiplayer games because burn-out was beginning to take a toll for once, thus I set a goal to play more singleplayer games. I couldn't remember the last time I actually finished a long-form singleplayer game that wasn't more than a few hours long, and I wanted to have that experience again. I use to be into baseball or basetkabll when I was younger, but gradually dropped them off over time, though I still keep up with them as a spectator (not that deep tho). A thing I picked up recently has been model kit making, although I'm still working on my first one and started off with a pretty intermediate piece for a beginninger lol so maybe I have to spend more time it before I can really appreciate that. I read manga and watch anime with some friends from time to time as well of course

A lot of good stuff here, it's nice to switch hobbies from time to time to avoid burning out and trying new stuff. Let's start with sports then. Do you support (or cheer for) any of the local teams? If so, what's your favorite? I know the Chicago area has some big teams in the american leagues

Growing up I was def a Bulls fan, went to my fair share of their games, and Blackhawks (hockey) were doing pretty well around the same time. Ofcourse then the 2015 and 2016 Cubs rolled around and there weren't many people who WEREN'T Cubs fans during their world series run. When they were down 1-3 to Cleveland, I remember telling my neighbor that they were gonna comeback and lo' and behold. By far the craziest games I've seen as a spectator to this day. Chicago Bears have always been ass and I'm not into football anyway, and the Chicago Fire (football for my non-American friends)

That's cool, american sports have always seemed interesting to me, even if don't understand them at all lol (well, except basketball). I'm also very curious about the model kit making thing, what kind of models are you making? How long do they usually take to make?

I've only got 1 so far that I picked up while on a short vacation this summer, though I only got around to starting it only recently. I had to pick up some paints and other equipment. I def overshot my experience level by starting with a battleship which has a ton of very tiny pieces that need to be glued together or have small holes poked through them. These things can probably be done pretty quickly but since its my first time I've been very cautious with how much work I've done on it. Planning to speed things up since I dont want it to sit there forever but it has been fun when I've gotten into the rhythm of it

Ah, I get it now, that seems really cool! Some of those chill activites can be very nice to take our mind off things and relax in our free time. I used to solve some puzzles a while back too. What kind of manga and anime do you like? Any favourites? Also do you like watching movies and TV shows?

Favorite manga/anime series is Black Lagoon, especially the english dub. That's an instance of dub > sub 100% because they really make use of the setting the show/manga is set in. It's only series I've collected the physical manga of (only 13 volumes atm), though I wish the show caught up to where the manga is rn. Other stuff is anything somewhat action related or that delves into that fantasy world aspect, isekai or not. I don't want anime as much but I do a lot of group viewing with my friends and the main thing we're on is One Piece right now (around episode 680 or so?). That show can def live up to the hype but I prefer pre-timeskip so far. I have essentially cut TV out of my life outside of the occasional sports and I do watch some movies from time to time, especially some older classics, but I usually do that through youtube or netflix instead of a TV. Some of the more recent movies I've seen that I really liked have been Resevoir Dogs and the Secret Life of Walty Mitty

I never heard of Black Lagoon personally, so I'll check it out! One Piece always seemed interesting to me but I just can't see myself watching 600+ episodes of anything to be honest. Reservoir Dogs and Walter Mitty are 2 movies I rate very highly so they're incredible picks, I'll also vouch for anyone who haven't watched those 2 to give them a shot! Let's go back into games now, which ones do you play regularly with your friends? What's your favorite game?

The One Piece grind can be very hard but we've skipped some filler here and there. The pacing is extremely abysmal though LOL 6-10 minutes of a 24 minute episode is recap/filler scenes on average so yea fair reason to not commit to it. The most common I play with friends was CS:GO back in highschool, and sometimes a bit after CS2 came out, but it has taken a backseat when my main group of friends who played it fizzled out due to life stuff (although as of last week, we have started playing again by pure coincidence). Overwatch and League of Legends, specifically Arams, are the other two main games I play with friends; I prefer Overwatch more because I'm a FPS gamer foremost, but I get more chance to play League since the guy's I play that with are always around. My personal main game has always been Team Fortress 2, that's what got me into the concept of online FPS in the first place and basically drove me to build my own PC and be a PC gamer > console. That to me will always be my favorite and most important game to me

Ah, a fellow TF2 enjoyer. I played that game a lot too when I was younger. If it weren't for the bots everywhere I'd probably still be playing today from time to time! Which classes did you enjoy playing with the most? I've always loved Medic, Engineer and Pyro

Within the past year or so the cheating bots have been largely cleaned up, can't remember the last time I've seen one which is a good sign. I have a ton of hours on Soldier and Scout since I love the movement and power they both have, especially rocket jumping oml. I use to play a lot of Engineer when I first started in 2013 because I really liked being on the defending side, and playing engie felt like I was playing tower defense. I have my least hours on heavy and medic, not because I don't like them, but because 1. Heavy movement is not fun :( and 2. I like DM'ing/deathmatching so Medic doesn't mesh well with how I like playing

I've never been able to do Rocket Jumping well lol, I suck unfortunately. Spy and Soldier were the ones I used the least, if I remember right! Nice to hear about the bots, last time I played it was awful and the game seemed abandoned, I might give it a try! You also said you were trying to play some single-player games, and these days most of my gaming is single-player to be honest. Which ones did you try?

Oh man, I can talk a lot of each of these because it's been quite the journey for each, but I will try to spare your time. Near the end of last year I finished up a few shorter games (~5 to 10 hrs in length) like The Messenger, Sanabi, and Sea of Stars. The first two are 2D platformers with some cool combat elements, sorta metroidvanias, while the 3rd is heavily inspired by stuff like Mario RPG. Played the latest Tomb Raider trilogy and the original Ace Attorney trilogy which I've been sitting on for a while. Expedition 33 was an extremely pleasant surprise at the start of the year and is to me a must-play for nearly everyone. That game got me into the RPG grind where I kicked off with Trails in the Sky around June, and that series has me hook, line, and sinker right now. Really brought that feeling of exploring and wanting to talk to every NPC back to me. After I beat the first game, I immediately picked up the 2nd and 3rd games in the trilogy because how could I not after the first game's ending. Just finished those 2 games recently as well so I'm planning on jumping into the fourth very soon.

I've played Sea of Stars (which I found pretty great) and some of the Tomb Raider games, and Ace Attorney and Expedition 33 are currently on my list! I haven't heard of Trails of the Sky though, so I'll check it out when possible! I'm currently playing a couple titles at the moment such as Stardew Valley and Nine Sols, and I've recently finished Alan Wake 2, which became one of my favorite games of all time! Do you have a favorite Pokémon game outside of showdown?

The Trails series as whole is a huge rabbit hole so I would recommend playing the first 2 games to see if you like them before doing anything else. As for Mons, Black and White will always be my favorite since they were the first games I got to experience the launch for as a kid. There's currently a BW nostalgia wave in the general community but I've always loved everything about it from the region to the mon designs and beginning the concept of directly buffing older mons, with hidden abilities in this gen. My first actual Mons game was a completed, hacked copy of Diamond I got from GameStop that I never reset the file for, so BW was also my first time actually playing the story and building my team. Its pretty contentious for people who had played the previous games, but I loved having all new options. The idea of returning mons in a different region wasn't something I was aware happened in the other games until gen6.

BW has become a fan favourite over time, I personally like it but since I am a boomer I tend to prefer gen 3 and 4 lol. I wanna ask about music and/or podcasts now. What genre do you usually listen to? Any favorite artists?

Classic/Alternative Rock are my usual go-tos, but I'm pretty ok with anything as long as it sounds good to me. I listen to a lot of video game OST (instrumental stuff usually) aswell. I don't really follow any artists in the traditional sense, but some bands I have heard songs from and then searched further into have been Heart and Berlin

Heart is an old one, I know some songs from them! Let's switch the topic to mons now! How did you first came in contact with Showdown and Smogon? And how did you end up in ZU?

Prior to 2018, I had only played Mons with a small group of friends from some online forums (not smogon or anything else akin to it). I was familiar with the concept of Smogon because I watched a ton of Shofu, a very old poketuber by this point. Around mid 2018 one of my friends reached out to me about playing in a draft league, to which i eagerly did and got trounced on because I was essentially an in-game player still. This last point is noteworthy because I made a point to try and make "bad" Mons work where no one else would realistically use them. I took a season off to actually learn competitive mons, where one of the guys there introduced me to ZU through a pokeaim vid. That's when I joined the discord later that year and have remained ever since. I was a lurker for quite a while and basically didn't play in any tours until about a year or two later when I finally made a smogon account so I can sign up for BW Zu cup. Have stayed def because of the community, its been awesome meeting and talking to everyone over the years

We all just love bad mons down here in ZU lol, and we are also glad you stayed! Before we discuss more Pokémon stuff, I have to ask a question that some readers might have. What's the origin of your nickname? Was it always BeatsBlack or did you have a namechange at any point?

In 2012-13 I played an iOS game that was basically just a Pokemon clone, albeit very fun and had its own forums/community/small competitive strats and stuff. I went by Razorshell on there, shortened to Razor by my close friends who I still keep in touch with to this day (one of them is the guy who introduced me to draft and subsequently Smogon, I met him through that old mobile game). I did not think this was a good username after I gained awareness and also it just being the name of a pokemon move was like silly to me lol. There is 1 single video of my existence as "Razorshell".

For my current name, one day I was watching a stick figure animation, something I use to do as a kid because that was my version of anime back then lol, and one of the character names was BeatsBlack. It stuck out to me because 1. my favorite color is Black, goes without saying when I try to use those shinies any chance I get, 2. I was really into hip-hop music at the time so I liked the "Beats" part to it and 3. I just thought it sounded cool at the time. This is going to seem incredibly naive, but I did not read anything further than that when I went with this as my name. I'm fine with everyone just referring to me as Beats since that to me is more colloquial anyway. I haven't really thought about name changes, atleast for discord, since I've been apart of so many communities since then that I dont want people to suddenly forget who I was/wonder who I am with a different name. My Steam username does switch around quite often though

That's a lot of lore lol, but BeatsBlack does sound cool! Back to mons again now. Most people know you're one of the most profilic ZU old gen players around, and with you currently leading them I just have to ask, and yes, I know it is like choosing between your own kids. Which ZU old gens are your favorites and why? Rank them from most to least favorite if you want!

BW was the first one I got into deeply, around the time when we still had Machoke/Marowak/Glalie, and Marowak was all of the rage at the time. I dont want to make a crazy claim that "I" popularized it, but I remember spamming Helmet Solrock to hell and back to the point where Smack Down Maro was becoming common. Thankfully got rid of that and Machoke because yea they were dumb. DPP I've gotten more into as well because I like the previewless-gens + item accessibility compared to gen3 and below. Rankings are gonna be tiered because like u said I cant choose one or the other lol:
S: BW, DPP
A: ADV, SM, RBY, ORAS
B: GSC, SS
I use to be a lot more into adv and gsc ofcourse, but I've made it apparent that the shifts for both have put me off of them for some time, though I'm planning on making a return to them at some point

ADV out of S already makes your rank invalid, unfortunately. I've had some fun playing DPP and BW in classic after a long time too. This is a real fresh topic, but PU has updated their Viability Rankings and ADV ZU is set to get Grovyle and Ivysaur while losing Wartortle! Do you think the new shifts could potentially bring you back to ADV ZU? You also won very recently the finals of DPP ZU cup on ZU Classic, what do you think about the current state of the metagame? Any trends people should be catching on?

Regarding ADV, as mentioned in Discord already Ivysaur is a pretty tame drop when we already have Gloom, but Grovyle would be a pretty big improvement on the high end of our speed tiers. 95 is pretty much the best you can get in ZU and it has some nice set flexibility between special attacker, SD, or subseed/endure salac. Would def be a super good mon but cmon base 70 leaf blade. Losing Wartortle would be a big blow for checking Ponyta and other strong fires, among other mons, so but we have other waters who might be able to stand up to the task still. Def will try it out again at some point, but classic just ended for it so it'll be a while til its next individual
DPP is def in a weird state, and not in a bad sense, but moreso because of new sets/team styles and the current top mons being less common than usual. My main gripe with DPP ZU has always been our lack of good rockers, although this can also partly be due to "boredom" of using the same few guys to set rocks. That said, I've particularly enjoyed using SubCM Girafarig. Psychic/Tbolt hits everything for neutral at worst and can be a massive threat if provided the chance to get set up, which it can bluff pretty well due to the threat of Scarf sets. A meta trend that seem to finally have been picked up on is Dunsparce; a fat normal with a swath of utility and a para machine. I put Drud on this a couple years ago and I've been seeing more people bring it more and more since its unironically got respectable bulk

I don't know, I am more scared of Ivysaur than Grovyle! Gloom is already very hard to switch into and Ivysaur takes it one step further with its access to Curse. We will see though, I loved your analysis here! I also liked using Dunsparce in DPP ZU a lot since paralysis is pretty broken in general, it seems like a cool mon indeed, but I'm less versed in DPP! Since your favorites are DPP and BW I'll focus on those now! If you could get a drop from PU for both of these gens, which ones would you like to get and why?

BW: Personally I'd love to use Fraxure because its part of my favorite Mon's line but I'm certain it would be a little broken lol, realistically a mon like Rapidash could be cool to provide some more speed control options + defensive utility into stuff like Simisear or Leafeon.
DPP: As I mentioned, my main gripe is lack of "good" rockers so just give us Solrock back pls. The extra physdef over Luna would make it a decent physical wall alternative and it would have some neat offensive potential with rock polish.

Rapidash could definitely be cool in BW, interesting pick. Solrock is also like a ZU staple in old gens lol, so it'd always be welcome to its usual home! Time for some fun questions, and since Halloween is near, I have a couple of special ones for you! You're going trick-or-treating and you need the help of 3 other ZU players to get as much candy as possible. Who would you ask for help and why?

I'd have to draft those based on their prime qualities

skrimps , because he is quite the artistic fellow so I assume he knows his way around a costume craft or two. I'm sure he could impress everyone with his costumes, providing us with more candy as a result
Much like skrimps, "Blood"ace to me implies some type of relationship with Halloween aspects. A vampire costume perchance? Regardless of what he dons, I'm sure BloodAce would be quite the scary fellow out and about the streets of ZUville. I've seen his GSC play and he can be quite scary to play against, so that much atleast must translate to his scaring skills.
(Stealing candy from other kids) - Drud, because it goes without saying that stealing games and my money is all this guy does around me, so why not add candy on top of that.

Lol, nice picks, I really liked the explanations! Let's go for the next question then! You are now in charge of deciding which Pokémon costume you and these 3 ZUers are using for Halloween! Which ones are you choosing and why?

We could all be part of a falinks group or something lmao but individually I'd have have to go with Me: As a big fan of the fossil mons, Steven Stone or Roark would be up my alley. Roark specifically because Rampardos is def up there for one of my favorite mons in general
Drud: Despite his favorite mon being hydreigon (?), I believe he should live up to his namesake as go as a Druddigon. It'd be the inflatable trex of the group
skrimps: his personal CA.
BloodAce: Golbat would be the closest thing that fits imo, as a blood sucking bat and very good mon in GSC PU, one of his hometurfs (iirc, altho maybe thats NU idk lol)

Maybe Drud should consider a name change, don't you think? I like the idea of the Falinks group! As the final Halloween question, and I swear, the easiest one. What's your favorite type of candy?

Sour candy, think sour patch kids or warheads. And yes, maybe drud can change to something else, maybe “wild drud”?

Sour candy is nice, I like it too! I was forgetting to talk about something, and it's a new tradition here, the pet tax™! Do you have a pet? If so, would you be able to share a picture with us?

I used to have 2 parakeets, both at different points in time, but unfortunately no dogs or cats yet. When I get my own place I do plan on getting myself a kitty tho, because I’ve come to really want one. Both were small and blue feathered, aptly named Aqua and Rio

Pet tax is ruined! But no problem, we will bounce back next week lol (hopefully!). Also Aqua and Rio are very lovely names. I'm assuming it was called Rio because of the movie? How long did you have them for?

Yes, the movie played a big part in that name haha. My family had both for about 3-4 years each, Aqua first and then Rio

I remember the movie, it was cute! Do you have a team you would like to share with us? Add a description if you can!

I plan on going further in detail for a future post but I wanted to use CB leavanny and think this team really works well to its strengths. Luxray was also a Mon I really wanted to experiment with and it’s been a great Mon. I spammed this team to my first individual tour win in last years bwzu cup, undefeated in the process, so it’s been pretty near to me

Leavanny looks cool, a Grass-type that doesn't care about Meganium is huge for sure! We are reaching the end of this interview, so is there anything you want to say? Anyone you want to shout out?

Overall just happy to still be part of this community through the ups and downs, I haven’t been as active as i used to be in past years but I’m still always gonna be around for old gen stuff. There’s frankly too many people to shoutout but firstly would be you, primarily because you’ve played a big role in the past with supporting the old gens during that COVID era (I think it was around that time, old gen of the week and such). Drud has been a great friend who essentially helped me sneak my way into the low tier tour scene in general when before I was hesitant to even sign up for individuals. skrimps/BP/BloodAce/zause/etc are always a pleasure to chat with DurzaOffTopic/Tuthur/S1nn0hC0nfirm3d/Apagogie/czim again/Corthius for being previous ZU leaders to help keep it running as long as it has. Any manager whose ever drafted me despite having next to 0 tour experience for a tier before, which usually works out p well for me lol. And ofcourse, they won’t see this (probably), but all my draft friends and those who introduced me to ZU in general

Old gen of the week was very fun, wish we could get something similar going on in ZU again, who knows? And this concludes another interview for Player of the Week! I want to thank you for being here and I hope you enjoyed my questions (even the whacky Halloween ones!). Until next week!

Feel free to ask BeatsBlack any questions you want!

Apagogie · Tuesday at 8:33 AM

Very nice interview! Very informative, you have been around the tier for so long and took care of our old gens but I actually didnt know you that much. I enjoyed the reading a lot.

For once, I will ask one serious question to BeatsBlack. I might post more later

I saw that you ranked both GSC and RBY pretty low in your rankings. What do you think is lacking to these metagames to make them enjoyable? Is it the current top threats or the lack of options?

Jett · Tuesday at 9:10 AM

I have waited a long time to ask some of these questions so I am looking forward to your answers.

Mons:

You've passed me a fair share of strange looking DPP ZU teams in the past, I wonder is there a particular unmon or unset you've enjoy using the most in that meta and how successful was it?

Favourite metagame of all time and why? (doesn't have to be ZU related)

What team name would you use if you were managing in a ZU team tour?

Will you finally manage with drud in the next Olympiad so that a team doesnt spend half of their money on you alone?

Speaking of drud, can you explain your turn by turn analysis of why it took you until turn 14 to land your second attack in this game against him.

Not-mons:

Have you been watching Worlds this year? If so, thoughts on G2 beating Flyquest? Who is winning it all this year?

How does this clip make you feel?

How many of my ragebaits did you fall for?

Michael Jordan · Tuesday at 9:24 AM

Whats ur favourite one piece arc so far, and your favourite character?

BeatsBlack · Tuesday at 10:00 AM

Apagogie said:
I saw that you ranked both GSC and RBY pretty low in your rankings. What do you think is lacking to these metagames to make them enjoyable? Is it the current top threats or the lack of options?

For RBY, I think it's a decent metagame and at least provides some consistency with stuff like Parasect Spore, whereas every other tier has the potential for you to just miss 5 Sleep Powders/Hypnosis in a row, for example. People will always have issues with crit rates and how some of the mechanics are just entirely unique to RBY, but banning Wrap/PT has alleviated some of that. While I think some of top threats can be a bit overbearing unless you run specific Mons to check them, a ton of those like Magmar, Scyther, and Primeape will simply not be part of the tier when PU does its next shift. If you've been following along with PU trends (which I don't expect you to), then future RBY ZU can expect stuff like Nidoqueen and Machamp dropping, which sounds pretty crazy on paper lol.
For GSC, I just haven't done much in recent time so I'm less familiar with the landscape, but Mantine being banned was certainly a positive. My main gripe was primarily how that Mon was a little too strong and fast with its insane bulk and typing, especially in a tier with basically 1 viable electric, a frail one at that. Charmelon def looks scary still between its Bdrum and special attacker sets, so that will be something I'm gonna be aware of as well. It ranks so low mostly because I haven't played much of its current version. Pre-shift GSC would be S tho, no question.

Jett said:
1. You've passed me a fair share of strange looking DPP ZU teams in the past, I wonder is there a particular unmon or unset you've enjoy using the most in that meta and how successful was it?

2. Favourite metagame of all time and why? (doesn't have to be ZU related)

3. What team name would you use if you were managing in a ZU team tour?

4. Will you finally manage with drud in the next Olympiad so that a team doesnt spend half of their money on you alone?

1. There was that time I brought Chatot vs Drud and won directly because of it which was pretty hilarious, but since that was only 1 time I'll also mention SD Salac Beedrill, which I haven't brought to any tour games but plenty of times in friendlies/room tours. Def low to mixed success because Beedrill lol but it's got the 2 attacks that can beat a ProboCarn core, which is why I liked using it. Beedrill is also just a cool mon design wise

2. I'm kind of unsure -- I like playing a few of the old gen OUs from time to time and my tenure through ZU old gens too. I'd say that recently, the DPP low tiers between UU/NU/PU have all piqued my interest because of the potential to bring unmeta stuff, which works best in DPP because preview-less + high power level. I've played all of them in a tour atp and have enjoyed them all so. If I had to choose a specific metagame, the pre-unfrozen ADV ZU was S+ tier. That had so much flexibility and potential with every mon you could run, every week it felt like you could discover a new niche or set that moved the gears in that tier a bit more

3. The Torterrors idk lol I'd have to sleep on it after deciding on a mascot. I'm of the opinion that mascot > team name, so whatever you choose your mascot to be is what you craft your team name around. Ofc other people do it vice versa which is fine.

4. I cannot confirm or deny anything.

Jett said:
Have you been watching Worlds this year? If so, thoughts on G2 beating Flyquest? Who is winning it all this year?

How does this clip make you feel?

How many of my ragebaits did you fall for?

1. I use to watch a lot of majors but haven't this year, for no particular reason. I searched up the game you mentioned and only recognized like 3 of the players between both teams so lol I would've expected G2 to win based on the G2 I knew in the past, but maybe they're a washed org now? Going 4-17 on Ancient is bad looks tho LOOOL. I'd say Spirit goes the distance prob, just gonna assume donk actually plays like peak donk ig.

2. This is why i hate Brazil and hold a grudge against them. P dope play tho can't lie.

3. In regards to the previous question, been there and done that. Outside of this, definitely have fallen for some without knowing because I can be obtuse at times lmao

Michael Jordan said:
Whats ur favourite one piece arc so far, and your favourite character?

Not my favorite, but Arlong Park is about how far a first-time viewer should watch until they decide whether to continue the series or not. It can feel like a long slog (I think its like 32 episodes until then?) but that's the first peak moment. Alabasta with Vivi and the duck squad are great, and was my favorite arc, but then Enies Lobby hit and like idk man that might be the actual peak of the anime for me lmao. "All downhill from here". Great fights and moments, comes after Water 7 (ignore sea train). Pre-timeskip Franky and Robin are def favorites for me because they both have cool backstories and strong characters on their own. Also liked their introductions before they joined the crew. Not a fan of post-time skip Franky design but maybe it'll grow on me idk lol prob not

BeatsBlack · Tuesday at 10:25 AM

Jett said:
Speaking of drud, can you explain your turn by turn analysis of why it took you until turn 14 to land your second attack in this game against him?

Ofcourse!
Turn 1: I went for a standard Rocks click, especially since I expected a standard Rocks handshake against an Uxie, but he clicked Fling Light Ball. Stupid fish that got rewarded with immediate para, but no problem.
Turn 2: Dumb turn because now I may not even get to click Spikes based on what comes in after U-Turn
Turn 3: Ok well its obviously Fire Blast TTar, or maybe Taunt, but atp I've committed to staying in
Turn 4: is trying to predict or is he just actually bad? Getting para'd again meant my stellar stay in went unrewarded
Turn 5: bro imported an ADV ttar to DPP, and no hazards STILL.
Turn 6: like he would ever miss
Turn 7: CC because frankly I have nothing else to threaten this out immediately. Usually the HAZARDS would helping with this. Forced Uxie in which means maybe I can get some action going with Magnezone because wtf is his last on Rocks/Fling/Uturn Uxie? Surely not Twave if u already have Fling Light Ball.
Turn 8: this guy is so bad
Turn 9: bro had a donphan and still risked being twaved for 0 reason. Goes unpunished as always
Turn 10: Simple switch, gives me a free wisp to maybe get some chip accrued on SOMETHING
Turn 11: Wisping Uxie?! Yes! This is what I need, a way to wear down Uxie quicker with 12% Burn and Sand!!! This will help it wear it down so Luc can KO it easier, and avoid being Flashed!!
Turn 12: I mean come on. It's a special attacker but burn is 12% this gen
Turn 13: no burn damage!!!!!
Turn 14: The Latias would literally be dead after the Pursuit with rocks, sand, and burn chip.

don't forget Turn 20:
Rotom used Will-O-Wisp!
The opposing Tyranitar avoided the attack!

Drud · Tuesday at 11:02 AM

Why do you never reply to my dms?
Do you ever drive without texting at the same time?
What's your best played tournament game? (in your opinion)
What's your most painful loss in a Smogon tournament?
What's your favorite moment on Smogon?
Are you ever going to actually play a fairygen?
Whats your favorite tournament to play?
What do you hope to still achieve on Smogon?
Whos your least favorite person in ZU? (you cant say me)

BeatsBlack · Tuesday at 12:00 PM

Drud said:
Why do you never reply to my dms?
Do you ever drive without texting at the same time?
What's your best played tournament game? (in your opinion)
What's your most painful loss in a Smogon tournament?
What's your favorite moment on Smogon?
Are you ever going to actually play a fairygen?
Whats your favorite tournament to play?
What do you hope to still achieve on Smogon?
Whos your least favorite person in ZU? (you cant say me)

1. Im a popular guy, what can I say (I have our conversation open on one device so i never get the notif on my other one)
2. Here and there, but its so boring so like ofcourse I'm gonna be on my phone?

3. Hard to say, feel free to disagree, but most of the ones that come to my mind are from PUPL X and DPP PL IV; I know you said one but I can't pick lmfao I don't think I've had a "crazy" game where I outplay every turn. I usually play pretty safe and reserved in team tours which is polar opposite of my individual and draft gameplay.
A. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4nu-776037 Everything snapped into place this game and it being the finals, I felt really happy getting this W with whatever pressure I was dealing with at the time. Even at the end I felt immune to any Drifblim bs with how locked down my options were against it, and I didn't try to get cute with hitting Edge thru Para lmfao

B. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4nu-774690 As a prep god, I make the call to bring Fire Blast Nidoqueen for MRise Magneton and Sclaw Sableye for Drifblim. A bit shaky at the start trying to play around Float, but I made up for it by getting really aggressive with my Ninetales shortly thereafter. While it didn't matter I felt like I took every precaution to avoid losing to even the slightest potential set, like Taunting Plume just incase random Sunny Day. Minor thing but it could be the difference between a safe win and a choke

C. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen4pu-781360 Weird game at the start but around turn 8, knowing the Glalie was scarf because of turn 1, I catch a Boom click with Damp and get some momentum back in my favour with a free sub click. Was able to deal with the Rhydon near the end by gradually chipping it down with Purugly and Spikes, which avoided a nearly automatic RP loss. Then Raticate vs Purugly and an unknown last, where get the Sucker click correct and then can 1v1 Missy with Pursuit; am happy this Raticate idea was able to come into fruition, albeit not in the way I imagined lol.

4. First team tour I played, RBYPL about 2 years ago, I lost my game in the finals (not the last game played, but still). Our team ended up going to TB regardless though we still eventually lost. Could've avoided that if I had done some things differently perhaps

5. IK some people don't like drama, but like cmon this site is pretty tame without it. Most ZUPLs have had some form of stupid shit happen. ZUPL 1 was the first team tour I got to experience as a spectator and yea, its not hard to see why I hold this opinion. As such, the incident from about 2 years ago or so where Durza got banned/unbanned and multiple hosts dropped before the week 1 MUs even went up was really funny at the time.

6. ORAS or SM if anything, I've played them here and there before. Boots are cool addition but I think they're a little overtuned + powercreep is pretty bad in 8+. Don't like tera either.

7. Individuals are fun because I can just bring whatever and basically not care for the result, but that's kinda all there is to it. Team tours provide that fun mini community experience with everyone working towards the same goal. I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed my classic cup runs more than tours like PUPL Mags or our DPP PL escapades. So to answer your question, team tours, and specifically the ones were I'm vibing with a ton of friends or funny people. I've had a lot of fun during NUCL 2 as well

8. I mean, not that I have any plans to or am actively work towards it, but getting into playoffs for the official Classic tour would be pretty fire. Community wise, getting more ZU old gens recognized in other tours or official status for the tier is basically the only goal to work towards in my eyes.
9.

only person to have taken my money btw

BaitWiz · Tuesday at 2:29 PM

What was your favorite draft league that you’ve played in or a favorite draft?
Do you have a favorite Pokemon you like drafting more often than not across multiple generations?
What are some of your favorite champions to play in League/ARAM?
And most importantly, who would win between Drud and PDT in a rap battle?

BeatsBlack · Tuesday at 2:55 PM

BaitWiz said:
What was your favorite draft league that you’ve played in or a favorite draft?
Do you have a favorite Pokemon you like drafting more often than not across multiple generations?
What are some of your favorite champions to play in League/ARAM?
And most importantly, who would win between Drud and PDT in a rap battle?

1. Two answers for different reasons. The first draft league I played in is a relatively small, private group that largely haven't branched out to many other leagues barring a few players, but it's basically like my first Mons friend group. It's been on a hiatus for quite some time now but I have plenty of memories of getting good value out of "bad" mons. I ended up winning the last season before it went on this hiatus, so I'm pretty content with that accomplishment. Unfortunately, all of those replays are gone because of the Showdown replay server wipe!! The team I won with though had Baxcalibur on it, in a Tera Captain draft, and I think I used Tera a total of like 1 time out of 10 games. Maybe I was making a statement that I don't like Tera but I think its because Baxcalibur is broken asf. The other draft league I was happy about was for a large ADV draft tour, the one you'd be familiar with. Out of 256 participants, I went undefeated all the way through pools up til Winners Finals, before being felled by a one-two punch from Mana into Hclat. Got a pretty penny out of it though.

2. Jolteon seems to be the consistent pick here. I'm a huge sucker for speed control and Jolteon is flat out the most consistent, no nonsense Mon for the job. Tbolt is great stab off respectable SpA (for early gens) and it doesn't have to rely on any innaccurate moves either.
3. I played a lot of ranged characters because I'm still p bad at the game lol, but Evelynn is a nice middle ground for having some range but able to go in with her Ult. Other characters I like include Nidalee (tossing spears is dopamine button), Graves, and Qiyana.
4. i know Drud listens to a lot of rap artists and unfortunately I'm not too familiar with PDT's repertoire, but I can assume PDT doesn't actually stand for pinkdragontamer -- it must be something else more secretive. Perhaps an alter ego where he's in the upper echelons of the rap game? Drud doesn't have this as an option so I kinda have to default to PDT

risin_glory · 2025-10-29T04:41:25-0400

As a fellow one piece fan I have a few questions:

1) what were ur views on caption Kuro as a character and his power level at the time he was introduced?

2) If u could add 2 more people to the Strawhat crew which of the following would you add: Nojiko, Vivi+Karoo, Zoro's pals from Arlong Park (counts as 1), Bon Clay, Hachin, Kuma (there are more contenders but naming then might be spoiler for u so avoiding)

3) who has been ur fav villain/antagonist so far?

4) who is sogeking?

5) If u could build ur own crew what found be ur crew's name and which ZUers would u pick for Vice Captain, Swordsman, Sniper, Cook, Doctor, Navigator, Singer, Shipwright roles? U are also allowed to give these users any form of haki/devil fruit/other one piece verse powers u desire. The only catch is 1 person outside of u can have conqueror's haki, only 2 can have advanced observation haki and only 4 can be devil fruit users with only 1 being logia type.

6) Any fav one piece fan theory u would like to share?

BeatsBlack · 2025-10-29T10:30:41-0400

risin_glory said:
As a fellow one piece fan I have a few questions:

1) what were ur views on caption Kuro as a character and his power level at the time he was introduced?

2) If u could add 2 more people to the Strawhat crew which of the following would you add: Nojiko, Vivi+Karoo, Zoro's pals from Arlong Park (counts as 1), Bon Clay, Hachin, Kuma (there are more contenders but naming then might be spoiler for u so avoiding)

3) who has been ur fav villain/antagonist so far?

4) who is sogeking?

5) If u could build ur own crew what found be ur crew's name and which ZUers would u pick for Vice Captain, Swordsman, Sniper, Cook, Doctor, Navigator, Singer, Shipwright roles? U are also allowed to give these users any form of haki/devil fruit/other one piece verse powers u desire. The only catch is 1 person outside of u can have conqueror's haki, only 2 can have advanced observation haki and only 4 can be devil fruit users with only 1 being logia type.

6) Any fav one piece fan theory u would like to share?

1. Ngl I forgot who this was because I mostly forgot about Syrup Village atp sorry! From what I remember though, he seemed like a cool character for how early he made his appearance. I just remember my friend hated this arc because something to do with the pacing of the fight, near the beach?
2. Vivi+Karoo and Bon Clay for sure.
3. Pre-time skip has been Crocodile, post-time skip is Don Flamingo. Crocodile was part of one of my favorite arcs and his fight with Luffy, including the "twist" about his power (ig?), made it pretty memorable. I am currently on Dressrosa right now so I can't really speak about too much for Don Flamingo, but I like him more than the fishman island or punk hazard villains.
4. The king of the snipers, of course
5. I'll do my best to answer this, so bear with me for a second.

Vice Cap: Drud
Swordsman: havoc/estra
Sniper: zause
Cook: yovan
Doctor: diegoyuhhi
Navigator: Tuthur
Singer: sleid
Shipwright: TWiTT

6. I haven't really dived into much fan-theory stuff, as I've mostly just talked about the show with the few guys I watch it with. We do theorize stuff specifically contained within the arc/next arc for specific characters, but nothing large-scale spanning across the series as a whole.

BloodAce · 2025-10-29T20:56:50-0400

Seems mons / zu related questions have been largely covered already so as a fellow Trails / Kiseki fan, I'll ask a question related to that. Who was your favorite party member(s) in the Sky trilogy and why? Can put a spoiler tag if applicable.

BeatsBlack · 2025-10-29T23:42:51-0400

BloodAce said:
Seems mons / zu related questions have been largely covered already so as a fellow Trails / Kiseki fan, I'll ask a question related to that. Who was your favorite party member(s) in the Sky trilogy and why? Can put a spoiler tag if applicable.

Estelle is bestelle, one of my favorite protagonists oat. Between her quippy dialogue (Xseed translation moment) and the early 2000s artwork/portraits, she's very enjoyable. A bo staff is a pretty unique weapon, and I love the little twirl animations they do with it. Across FC and SC she has a ton of character growth too, genuinely a great arc. As a unit she has some cool support buffs and S-craft animations. Her back and forths with Joshua are the main source of dialogue for most of FC and they feel pretty natural, with some nice moments spaced throughout.

Kloe is by far the best healer and arguably best magic/arts user as well, so she was the primary side-character I used whenever possible in FC. I like her backstory and friendship with Estelle throughout the Ruan arcs in both FC and SC. Sieg is a cool pet/mascot/however you want to call him lol, and he's VERY useful for some boss fights.

I like her story arc in SC with the hesitation to become next queen, still reeling from the events in FC. The cutscene at the border with another character was super hype, had genuinely no idea what was going to happen atp and was honestly expecting the worst.

In Sky 3rd, I slotted her on my main team for the final act so she's def the most memorable for me out of the main cast.

I did not like Kevin very much in SC, truth be told. My initial impressions were, "Who is this guy being shoehorned in? Why is he coming in out of nowhere?". I didn't really like his initial scenes either since it was kinda odd given the context, so I largely maintained that opinion throughout the entirety of SC up until a specific moment.

I had some suspicions of Kevin given how much random important shit he had with him, but I mostly chalked it up to "maybe that's just how it works here ig". After you beat the final boss, where you see him do a complete personality flip and execute bro behind everyone's back, that for me was the turning point where I became very interested in his backstory. I knew in 3rd he was the main character, which I was somewhat not motivated to play until that scene occurred, so that was a nice hook for me.

In 3rd chapter, he def gained back a ton of points from me. Bro really bossed up time and time again, although he was also being very stubborn (albeit, with reasons). I associated him with some pretty killer tracks as well, some of my favorite in the series so far:

oh yea, his base S-craft is broken and helps carry specific fights. 2nd best healer in trilogy imo

Anelace best character no questions asked

Other characters because I want to touch on everyone, everyone is great in this trilogy :)
Scherazard - Can't lie, I really like how balanced Schera is in all 3 games. I like the "jack of all trades, master of none" type characters in RPG games, so I used her quite often in SC. Ik some people don't like her bit with Olivier, but I thought it was pretty funny lol.

She was my choice to pair up with in SC over Agate at the start of the game, so I had a lot more time with her than some others may. Picked her since I wanted the healing on both of my main party members. Getting to play as junior bracer Schera when she met Aina was really cute. One of my favorite side stories with how deep they went with it. Rare Kurt moment where he doesn't get folded lmfao

Olivier - didn't really use much near the end of FC or much at all in SC outside of Ruan. Amazing character, and gets VERY interesting in SC and 3rd chapter, but I just preferred Kloe as a healer.
Tita - same thing as Olivier, but she had one of my favorite 3rd chapter side stories with Agate lol.
Agate - He has very little time to shine in FC, like criminally low. They make up for it in SC and significantly expand on his character, best glow up between the games for sure. I like his rivalry with one of the main antagonists too.
Zin - carries Grancel lmao he's a really cool character. His intro is prob the best out of all of the main FC cast, with him just dunking on people in the team tournament by himself. Like Agate they expand into his backstory pretty significantly in SC, but also 3rd as well.

Him, Walter, and Kilika surely gotta have some story relevance in the Calvard games. I have a long way to go until those, if they're even a thing yet, but there was so much cool shit going on with them lol. Kilika being goated wasn't anything I expected

Joshua - Amazing character obv. Can't really talk about him without spoilers and I'd rather not even mention them since its pretty integral to the games.

Julia - sick character. Gets a good amount of screentime in FC despite not being playable, and then midway through SC you get to use her for a boss fight?? First time I think you get to use a character not part of your team...for the time being. You get to use her again at essentially the last leg of the game which is just a few short dungeons and boss fights.
Muller - Cool character, just didn't use him much in SC or 3rd. Funny character with Olivier ofc, interested to see future potential. Him and Julia felt like they were thrown in just in case the player messed up their playthrough or something with the rest of the cast, since they were wildly over leveled when I got them.
Josette - glad we got to use her but from what I've read she's just a bad character lol. She's the second character outside of the main duo you get in 3rd chapter iirc for a reason.

Tizio · 2025-10-30T05:20:16-0400

Top 3 Falcom OSTs?

BeatsBlack · 2025-10-30T10:51:45-0400

Tizio said:
Top 3 Falcom OSTs?

Unfortunately I've only played the Sky trilogy out out of all their games, but I snagged up quite a few of the Ys games during a Steam sale around a month or so ago for pennies. When I finish Valkyrie Chronicles, I was planning to play Trails Zero/Azure and then check Ys out next. After all of those I'll have more to talk about, but I can mention the 3 games I have played and the specific tracks that always got me pumped up. Won't be too many town themes/calm themes but just know I like them too.

1. Sky 3rd chapter - Fighting Right On is undeniably Kevin's theme and I'm glad it played as much as it did early on, because they kinda stopped using it in the last third of the game. Some of the early boss fights in 3rd were pretty tough, so Genuine Devil makes a lot of sense given the context of the fight and actually dealing with the fight itself. Beard the Lion in His Den -- I mean come on, they use this twice which is far too low. It's pretty obvious this is meant to be a theme for the army fort part, but you get to hear it during the Le Locle training base as well. First dungeon theme you get to hear after getting Anelace on your team, so also points. Overdosing Heavenly Bliss is pretty on the nose.

Hearing this for the first time against PHILIP of all people, the guy you've known since Ruan in FC, and giving him his own S-craft and all. The S-craft animation always seems to time perfectly as the music swells, and its one of the best animations in the game. Kilika also shares this sentiment, but it wasn't as cool as watching a laser beam come out of a sword and completely demolish my character.

Cry for your Eternity and Sun Door 3 are two peas in a pod. It's essentially a boss rush through some major characters you've met (plus a tank because ig they had to bring it back somewhere) and has what I think is the hardest boss fight in the game/series outright? It's really cool though. They should've made the 2nd fight a bit harder by adding Amalthea or something tho, felt like an oddly easy boss fight compared to the rest of these.

Castle of Illusions is up there for final dungeon themes, starts to really hit midway. All of the chest messages man...that and the song overriding the generic battle theme so it continues to play uninterrupted throughout the entire dungeon. A true sendoff to the trilogy that icl I was getting pretty sentimental over. Dreamy and Boisterous Holy Land is 100% best final boss them of the three and I expect it to hold that spot going further into the series. The initial chaos of dealing with all of the pillars and their incredibly strong AoE, and the bosses absurd tendency to auto-confuse every chance it can. I went in blind so my Joshua didn't have any immunity to status effects and yea that was a source of frustration LOL. During the phase shift, I got wiped multiple times because I just had no idea what I was supposed to do, but it's a crazy sequence. Of course, then I started using Grail Sphere and Earth Wall :p

To meet again Someday:

i've been told i don't meet some of you guys ever again...

2. Sky SC - Rearranged versions of Silver Will, Great Awe (amazing boss fight in Grancel port), and Fateful Confrontation are all fantastic boss themes that really make the fights memorable for me. Fight With Assailant has sick bass and guitars, great opener to SC's story. Sets the tone for the rest of the game as having higher stakes and more ruthless antagonists. Aiming for the Future is another epic final dungeon theme and has a ton of "final stretch" feeling to it. The Fate of the Fairies is super peak, when this switched over to being the main generic battle theme I was ecstatic and just got into fights to let the theme play out a bit lol.

I don't remember how soon it's introduced, as I think it's used in a few one-off fights earlier in the game, but I always remember it when you storm the Ouroboros base in SC and have to fight against Carna, Grant, and Anelace.

3. Sky FC - Despite bottom ranking, it has one of my favorite tracks out of the 3, not counting Silver Will. Recapture is goated af and responsible for my favorite scenes in FC, let alone being the combat theme of the Spec Ops. First time hearing it in the lighthouse fight was banging and hooked me to keep playing the game. The final dungeon and boss fight themes are legendary in their own right, and I loved when they both reappeared in SC. Same goes for Challenger Invited, which was the tournament/arena theme, but they reuse it a few times in SC too. Sophisticated fight is arguably the best generic enemy theme of the set, love its original version. Feels the most adventure-y, "calm before the storm".

Project Player of the Week - BeatsBlack

czim

Apagogie

Zee you later

Jett

arrivederci gobodachis

Michael Jordan

formerly Inferno Monferno

BeatsBlack

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Drud

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BaitWiz

ZU Ladder Achievement Hunter

BeatsBlack

risin_glory

BeatsBlack

BloodAce

mask of false bravado

BeatsBlack

Tizio

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