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: 17th of November, 2025)
Hey friends and welcome to this edition of ZU
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Hakamo-o!
*hakaaaaaa*
Hello BloodAce and welcome to another edition of ZU Player of the Week! To start things off, a simple question, how are you doing today?
I'm doing pretty well, winter is definitely fast approaching here but its still been warmer than usual so can't complain. Hope you are doing well too.
I am doing fine too, as far as mondays go lol. Does winter get very cold where you live? Does it snow?
Yeah, I live in New Jersey so its gets pretty cold over the winter. For the non-americans, its near New York City and is south of Canada. Not as much snow these past years, its been pretty dry overall, but still get 6+ inches at least a few times each year.
Ah, that's cool. Do you enjoy living in New Jersey? I remember visiting New York as a tourist like 12-13 years ago. Also do you enjoy when it snows? As a Brazilian I am kinda curious, because it seems annoying to deal with
The cost of living is pretty insane here (over $2000 USD a month for rent) but there are benefits such as more work opportunities and pretty much anything you need nearby. Most importantly though, my family is here so I probably won't leave for some time. Overall its not the worst. I still enjoy the snow, a bit less so since we gotta shovel it off the sidewalks and everything but the flexibility to work from home if needed on those days helps.
We always hear about how expensive the area around New York is, but $2000 USD a month is a lot of money! What else can you tell us about the Bloodace in real life other than where you live?
I'm 24 years old and graduated with my Bachelor's last spring. I have gotten my first "professional" job working in finance, which I've been at for about a year now. I'm pursuing my Master's degree as well, should be done with that some time next year hopefully. Aside from that, I grew up on Nintendo games mostly, including Zelda & of course Pokemon. First game I ever got was Pokemon Diamond which I sunk thousands of hours into. Less time for games these days but I very much still enjoy puzzle games like Picross and RPGs like Trails when I have the time.
That's cool, some stuff for me to work with here. Do you like working in finance? Is it related to your studies?
Yeah, I've been enjoying it and its a solid, ever-growing industry to be involved in. I primarily work on the operational side rather than investment, and while I didn't study finance specifically, alot of the job ties into data and business analytics coursework I've done.
So it is not completely unrelated then, nice! What is your master's on? I don't know how it works on the US, if there is an specific topic or so
Its a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) which is somewhat of catch-all that covers most functions in business. You also can declare concentration areas where you do a bit more focused coursework, which I am doing in data analytics which involves working with and analyzing data to make business decisions.
Ah, that sounds cool! Very related with the work you do. What else can you tell me about your interests? What do you enjoy doing on your free time?
Aside from playing video games and obviously being involved in smogon communities like ZU, I enjoy taking walks with our two dogs, they are both about five years old now. I'll share some pictures. They are rescues and we have had them for probably about four years now.
Another big win for the fan favourite pet tax™! And this time I didn't even have to ask! They are so cute! What are their names? I especially love the picture of the one sitting on the couch contemplating life lol
The white and brown one is Aspen and the black one is Poncho. Those are the names they came with and doesn't feel right to try and change them when they are already accustomed lol.
I like these names to be honest, especially Poncho lol, sounds cool! How did you guys adopt them? From a shelter? Also what are their personalities? Aspen looks more chill than Poncho
We got them both from the same shelter, we got Aspen when he was a puppy, he originally came from Texas. A year later we got Poncho, who was from Georgia. Poncho was originally neglected and left outside by previous owners so he can be a bit more defensive at times but they are both great and we are happy to give them a good home now.
That's really nice to hear. I love that you adopted your pets! What kind of music and/or podcasts do you like to listen to? Any favorite artists or genres?
For genres, mostly jazz, funk, R&B, breakcore, and japanese city pop type of music. Some video games soundtracks too. Don't have any particular favorite artists but Freddie Jackson is a pretty good R&B artist for whoever likes that type of music.
Cool genres, far from the usual stuff people listen to. I never heard of Japanese City Pop, but I'll check that genre out! Do you have any favorite movies, anime or tv shows?
For TV shows I enjoy pretty standard popular American dramas like the Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, House MD, etc. Mostly prefer longer shows with over-arching narratives and character development. Don't watch too much anime recently but I did watch Lazarus earlier this year, which was pretty good. Its made by the same guy as Cowboy Bepop and was pretty enjoyable, even if only one season at the moment. Definitely recommend it.
Good recommendations, can't go wrong with those highly acclaimed shows. Let's talk about games now. You mentioned some of them already like Zelda, Trails and some RPGs. Which ones are your favorites in general? What is your favorite Zelda game?
For zelda games, its very close between Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask for me. Both fantastic games for different reasons that I don't think have been quite matched since. I very much enjoy the modern games like BotW and TotK too but more as great open world games than great "Zelda" games, if that makes sense. I also very much enjoy the Ocarina of Time randomizer which adds replayability by shuffling around item locations and such, can be a fun challenge. JRPGs and strategy games I also love, Trails series is phenominal throughout, early fire emblem games I very much enjoyed, and final fantasy tactics just had a great remake that I played.
I am in the minority where my favorites are the Oracle of Ages/Seasons games lol, loved playing those when I was younger! What is your favorite Pokémon game outside of Showdown?
Haha those games are solid too, you have good taste. Probably BW2, I think it did a great job building on base gen 5 games, having alot more content and new storyline. I love gen 5, Oshawott line is one of my favorites. When I joined smogon I was mostly interested in finding a metagame where I could use Dewott which is how I found NFE and ZU. (Dewott unfortunately didnt have any niche in ZU until early Gen 9 but I stuck around anyway lol)
My next question was actually going to focus on this point! How did you first find out about Showdown and Smogon? Since we already know why you went to ZU, I'll give a different question. Is Dewott your favorite Pokémon?
Its definitely one of them yeah, I love the samurai inspiration, looks very cool, and while I wish Samurott didnt change the body type so much, its still a great mon. I found ZU through a flying press article about "Gen 6 FU" (the old name of the tier for those unaware), and definitely found idea intriguing of being able to use some underrated pokemon such as middle evolutions. I think I joined back in Spring 2018, just a couple months after ZU got its private room.
Yeah, I remember you were around for the old days, but I remember you got more inactive and then came back more recently. Why did it happen? Do you think you just got burned out of mons back then or did life get in the way?
Some of both, my real life got busier and it was somewhat of a lull period between generations when I was taking a break. Have been enjoying this current gen though, if even if certainly not perfect.
Good that you brought SV ZU up, because it is a topic I want to focus on, especially with you being part of current gen's council! What are your thoughts on the metagame at the moment?
I feel like its in a decent spot at the moment. Action has been taken on alot of the most controversial threats and sun being nerfed recently eases team building a bit. There are still threats some people are concerned with such as Jolteon and Spiritomb. Its been a bit volatile this gen with all the mons we have lost to NU and PU. Don't have mang solid dark resists anymore without Brute Bonnet and Qwilfish-H which can exacerbate the pains people feel trying to handle Spiritomb for example but I feel like the metagame has largely been able to adapt considering.
If you could, would you personally ban or retest anything? Why?
I dont think retesting anything currently makes sense, I feel like most of our banlist is there for good reason. Bellossom, Venomoth, and Alcremie are all pretty insane setup wise. Bellossom is perhaps more manageable with Venusaur in the tier but it would have to use acid spray to actually beat it which is suboptimal.If I had to ban something it would be maybe like Spiritomb? But currently I don't think its completely unmanageable and banworthy even if very good.
Not even Porygon2? I've seen some talks of bringing it back! If you could get 2 drops from PU, which ones would you pick and why?
Porygon2 could be a bit more intriguing to revisit now that we got a couple more knock off users but it still feels like it would be really tough to reliably take down given all of its tera options. Feel like the overall power level would need to go up before I'd comfortably agree to it. For mons I'd want from PU, Hisuian Qwilfish is a huge one. It was a phenominal glue mon with alot of utility when it was here and SD sets were pretty fun too. Would certaibly help make mons like Spiritomb and Plot Mespirit more manageable.For a second mon, could be something like Cramorant or Coalossal. Hazard control this gen is pretty cooked and would be great to get more options.
Solid picks, ZU desperately needs more hazard control options to make building more diverse. ZU Classic playoffs have arrived and you're playing OBB for round 1! To get into the tournament's spirit, can you rank every ZU old gen from your favorite to your least favorite?
Currently is probably thisSS = BW > DPP > SM > ORAS > ADV >> GSC >>>>>>>>> RBY
RBY is definitely my least favorite. Just not really my style, I find it pretty uninteresting and luck dependent and very limiting. Alot of the mechanics are janky imo, perhaps I am biased because I have lost a tour set to 1/256 explosion miss vs opponents last mon though.
GSC can still be fun at times but has gotten worse since unfreezing with alot of new threats to account for. Baton pass through Araidos seems very powerful, Charmeleon is pretty constaining, and previous defensive staples like Croconaw have become too passive to stand up to the current metagame effectively. Its a shame because I very much enjoy GSC PU and enjoyed the previous gsc zu metagames. We will hopefully be looking at discussing some tiering actions to take after classic but there isnt any one fix.
ADV is pretty fun, I just haven't played it too much. Clamperl seemed pretty controversial so maybe I'll try to get into it more now that its gone.
ORAS is another one that is pretty good but I just don't play it too much. I'd say its "better" than SM and DPP in terms of balancing but not as fun for me.
SM is alot of fun with z-moves but it can definitely be unbalanced at times and prone that having games that are won and lost at MU, which can be tough for team tour bo1s especially where it is most played these days. The gen holds a soft spot for me though as it was current gen when I joined ZU and had alot of fun on council.
DPP was probably first ZU oldgen I really got into and I like chance of pace the dynamics of no team preview brings. DPP and BW carried me on by Classic run.
BW hazard game can be pretty controversial but I feel like overall the gen rewards skillful play, making positioning very important. Gems feel fun and balanced most of the time, definitely more so than z-moves or tera.
SS, being ZU's most recent oldgen, is the most developed and arguably the most balanced. There is a solid mix of hyper offense, balance, and more stally builds used and the games feel the most skillful. Aside from sun, there aren't too many controversial threats that overly constrain or centralize teambuilding.
Oh, that's a very detailed answer! While still talking about classic, did you schedule your set already? Would you be willing to do predicts for us of the other sets?
I haven't scheduled with OranBerryBlissey10 yet but it will probably be weekend given timezone differences. I believe all the Classic MUs this time around will be pretty close, looking forward to watching them all.
I would say Chungler > Cnidaria given Cnidaria hasn't been playing too much this year afaik and Chungler is more well rounded across all five gens. The gen 4 and 5 games between then should be the most fun to watch.
Sleid vs Diego I'd have to give Diego the slight edge as he had a more well-rounded run. Id say Sleid wins BW, Diego wins ADV and is favored to win DPP, and then it comes down to whoever does bettern in GSC and RBY.
Tizio vs MJ, id favor MJ slightly once because he got more points that Tizio in 3 of the 5 cups.
Seems like fair predictions, I feel like the playoffs are very stacked this year too! Hope we both make deeper runs in the tournament! Time for some fun questions now, and I'll start with a more simple one! If you could have one Pokémon as pet, which one would it be and why?
Hmmm, shaymin seems like it would a cute pet. Doesn't seem dangerous and unmanageable to take care of unlike 95% of pokemon lol
Shaymin is cute for sure. Do you think your dogs would enjoy having a scented hedgehog as a housemate?
Haha I'm not sure, might have to keep them seperated to be safe.
It probably wouldn't be too bad, they seem like good boys! Now for the second question. Since you are working in finance, you might be the correct person to ask! Which ZUer is the most likely to be hiding to be a billionaire in real life?
It might have to be Zpice given he has earned - or more likely bought up the TL spot in two ZU oldgens over the past week....In serious though, congrats to him, he is definitely someone I know works hard to contribute to resources and is overall a chill guy to talk to.
Makes sense, instead of hoarding his wealth, he is hoarding ZU old gens! Now for the final one, and just something I liked asking past guests (even if Halloween is long gone by now). What's your favorite type of candy?
I like Ande's chocolate mints and M&Ms. Swedish Fish are also pretty good
Great choices! Do you have a team you would like to share with us? Adding a description would be great!
Absolutely, I'll share this fun SV ZU team I used last week in the prestigeous UM farm league vs pannucotta. Its a fairly standard hail team build around a copycat SD Grafaiai set. The idea of the team is to force early progress vs stuff like Mespirit, Regirock, Orthworm, etc with the hail mons to give Grafaiai on opportunity to sweep. Hattrem keeps hazards off, Sandslash can hazards and spin if need be, lanturn can slow pivot stuff in and the combination of dazzling gleam, lefties protect, and tera fairy can be useful vs spiritomb in a pinch. The star of the show is Grafaiai. Tera Dark can boost Knock Off damage vs something like Tera Steel Mespirit and dodge opposing prankster encore or wisp. Prankster boosted Copycat allows Grafaiai to get +1 priority on the last used move. So after SDing and KOing something with Gunk Shot, you can spam priority boosted Gunk Shots at +2 and completely bypass opposing speed control to sweep. The item is customizable, I went for lum here but air balloon, covert cloak, etc are all fine options. Fun team to use on ladder and cheese some wins.
Looks great, I especially love using Hattrem, so I'll give this a go eventually on ladder! or a room tour! We are nearing the end of this interview so, as usual, is there anything you want to say? Is there anyone you want to shout out?
I could spend hours doing shoutouts but they all know who they are already. I'll keep it brief and say I am very thankfully for the ZU community, there have certainly been ups and downs but the passionate and dedicated community members have made it a great experience and gotten ZU to where it is now. They should all be very proud of what they have accomplished and looking forward to the future of ZU. Very appreciate you for having me today and great to have you back involved with the community this year.
That's a great shoutout for the community, and I just want to say it's been really nice doing these interviews again! This concludes another edition of ZU Player of the Week! Thank you BloodAce for being here and for everyone who reads these interviews every week!
Feel free to ask BloodAce 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/
-----------------------New Season-----------------------------
#31 Havocknight - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-havocknight.3772165/
#32 BaitWiz - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-baitwiz.3772484/
#33 sleid - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-sleid.3772823/
#34 BeatsBlack - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-beatsblack.3773153/
#35 wooper - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-wooper.3773469/
#36 plznostep - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-plznostep.3773799/
#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/
-----------------------New Season-----------------------------
#31 Havocknight - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-havocknight.3772165/
#32 BaitWiz - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-baitwiz.3772484/
#33 sleid - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-sleid.3772823/
#34 BeatsBlack - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-beatsblack.3773153/
#35 wooper - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-wooper.3773469/
#36 plznostep - https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/player-of-the-week-plznostep.3773799/
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