Banner by Skarm™
Welcome to OU's Player of the week, a project
where I interview well known players to gain insight on how they battle, as well as get to know some things about them. The goal of this thread is to have these high level players give insight to other players in this community in hopes of creating a better overall experience in the OU environment. As always, if there's someone you'd like to see interviewed, feel free to shoot me a PM. So without further ado, lets get to it!
Leftiez
Most Known For:
Smogon Tour 17 finalist and well known competitor
Favorite Pokemon:
Eevee
Most used Pokemon:
Keldeo
Where did you get your name from?
To be honest i had no real intention when i took this name, i noticed one day that i was putting Leftovers for all my pokemons (yeah i wasnt using choice/berry because stall player). So i wanted a name that could confirm me as a leftovers user (lol) so i chose lefties and then to make it more stylish i changed "s" for "z". :D
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
I started pokemon on a french forum called pokebip in dpp (2011) under the alt : LiL TOoùpiiT, then after an awesome battle against a guy named Noctunoir96, he made me join TPO "Team Pokemon Officiel" i stayed like 1 year then i joined French Spirit which is French Time Community. One day i saw McMeghan posting a link in the PO chat, that was a smogon tour (BW) so i created an account and played it under the alt "Dark Stone" and i got fucked by MDragon R1 with his fucking rain stall (.salt)
Then after this i chose to stay in smogon and improve because for me that was the best way to get good and quickly (I was right).
How do you feel about how ORAS plays compared to XY?
I appreciate more ORAS than XY, because i feel like oras is more balanced for playstyle, i mean XY was only balanced team because that was incredibly strong while oras can fite with all playstyle Balanced/HO/stall which is less boring for me (and also more innovation such as Hp fire ferro ofc).
What are your thoughts on the Megagross suspect test currently going on? Is there anything else you feel is suspect worthy?
Metagross is definitly a powerful pokemon, i cant deny it, but i don't think he's worth a ban, i can compare metagross to landorus/thundurus-i in XY, they were better than metagame but you could still handle it even if that was hard for most of playstyle.
Bar Metagross, I don't think there is anything that is suspect worthy.
What’s your favorite playstyle and why?
I used to be a bulky offense player especially in ORAS since i think thats the best playstyle you can play, since there are too much threat i feel like balanced/stall team are too match up based while Bulky offense/HO can still do well with mindgame even if they are in bad position.
What's your favorite generation of OU and why?
Black and White because i really started competitively in this tier and also because i improved a lot with this.
Favorite and lease favorite moments of SPL?
Raiders winning his first week !
If you could change one thing about OU, what would it be and why?
OU is good, i've no reason to change it.
Do you have any advice for newer players, and for Smogon in general?
Don't give up, we all started as bad/noob player, i played a lot in ladder in the past and also i joined a ton of tournament. (You may also join Battling101 which is a good start)
If you could change one thing about Smogon as a whole to make it better, what would it be and why?
If i had to change one thing on smogon it would have been to invite ppl to be less arrogant and obnoxious, also unban sweepage and ban CTC.
What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
I've respect for ppl who achieve amazing results in tournament and that are not cunt.
Im more talking about ppl like McMeghan , Bloo , BKC , SoulWind , Tesung and Masterclass.
For my friends :
Lyconik : Even if without me he's nothing but an heliolisk, he's still a nice guy and strong af.
Evuelf : Why the fuck are you even here, but you're still a cool guy when you want to be.
Shoka : Probably one of my best, i met him on french time, and i've no regret, don't let your spl's games get to your head man, you're a strong player.
Prankster. : Best friend, love you bro, thx for all your support. I hope you will do well from now in your tournament games.
Rockhp : Even if u're dead u're still a nice guy and i enjoyed talking with you.
Chirac / Cicada / iMeridian / Vinc2612 / Vohlt / Twin Citiez / BahaWin / Unamed / Steve Angello / Team Raiders / McMeghan / Hot N Cold / Danilo ect.
Finally, can you provide us a team that’s a good fit for this metagame and reflects your playstyle, with a brief explanation of how it works?
Tyranitar @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 SpA
Relaxed Nature
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Counter
- Stealth Rock
Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 172 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Energy Ball
- Healing Wish
Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 216 HP / 76 Atk / 76 Def / 132 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Roost
Keldeo @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Scald
- Secret Sword
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 SpA
Relaxed Nature
- Pursuit
- Fire Blast
- Counter
- Stealth Rock
Excadrill @ Life Orb
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Earthquake
- Swords Dance
- Rock Slide
Rotom-Wash @ Leftovers
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 172 Def / 88 Spe
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Hydro Pump
- Will-O-Wisp
- Pain Split
Latias (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Draco Meteor
- Energy Ball
- Healing Wish
Scizor @ Scizorite
Ability: Light Metal
EVs: 216 HP / 76 Atk / 76 Def / 132 SpD / 8 Spe
Impish Nature
- U-turn
- Bullet Punch
- Swords Dance
- Roost
Keldeo @ Leftovers
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Substitute
- Scald
- Secret Sword
This is the team i used against Reymedy for week 6, i wanted to build around excadrill SD since age and i finally did it, Excadrill doesnt need many support especially SD version that can handle all its checks, then i chose to add a volturn core (Scizor/Rotom) that could allow exca to get free switch and setup SD easier, Keldeo sub cm is my win condition in case of Exca get hard countered thats why im also using pursuit on ttar.
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There it is. If you have any questions for Leftiez, feel free to ask them below. I'd like to thank him for doing this. See you next week!
