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!
Living So Zambian
Most Known For: I don't know what to put here lol
Favorite Pokemon: Garchomp or Bayleef
Most used Pokemon: Hippowdon and Clefable
Where did you get your name from? Living So Italian is an unreleased watch the throne track, I just wanted a multi-letter name so I made a stupid bootleg of it, zambia's a poor ass country whereas living so italian means you're living good
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
I started as part of a tutoring program at the Pokecommunity in the beginning of 2011, I played pretty casually and battled a bit on other servers but I was pretty bad, I think I laddered a few times but never got past 1300 at my very best. I came to smogon at the beginning of 2012 and messed around in NU with my friend Zebraiken [who I know as Vrai from the Pokecommunity], but anything I did on smogon was really lowkey. I kind of regained an interest in OU after Ojama fucking thrashed me in Duelist City with toxic invasion and I kind of questioned where the gap was between an Ojama and myself, and what I was missing. I got Windsong as an OU tutor [I actually was tutored by KG in OU in 2011 but I was too dumb to understand what he was saying about gameplans and strategy lol] and he helped me understand the strategy of Pokemon a bit better as I began to take the game a bit more seriously. I also started battling at Serebii around this time since it was pretty active but not as "big" as Smogon and met a few people there [Dragonuser, AB2, Thatsjustpeachy, Kuja20, etc]. I was able to improve with Windsong's tutoring and I got to #7 on a somewhat barren Smogon PO Ladder, dominated at the time by Solar Prominence, Ripamon and Princess Bri with a rainstall I made [Tangrowth/Jirachi/Skarmory/Politoed/Chansey/Tentacruel]. I was pretty happy with this "Achievement" and have been trying to improve at the game ever since.
How do you feel about how ORAS plays compared to XY?
I like XY a lot better, I feel like with the addition of all the new mega evolutions and hidden abilities released in the ORAS era, it's a lot harder to cover everything one game. I think the weight that team matchup holds in ORAS is the #1 thing ailing the metagame but I don't know how you'd fix it.
What are your thoughts on the Megagross suspect test currently going on? Is there anything else you feel is suspect worthy?
I really don't think we should ban Metagross or at least not yet. We're losing a reliable to switchin to Clefable and Mega Gardevoir, who dominated in XY and could really break apart teams with proper prediction. People say Metagross restricts teambuilding but I think that's positive right now since team matchup and the sheer amount of threats we have to cover. I didn't really feel like getting reqs since I'm self-conscious about my record and plays but that's another story lol
What’s your favorite playstyle and why?
Balance or Semi Stall, I started out as a hard core stall player that looked up to Dark Azelf/Sir Azelf and Kevin Garrett, but the changes from BW1->BW2 metagame made stall pretty much unviable. I mostly stole teams in BW2 since I had literally 0 experience with offense but I did learn to strategize with that playstyle a bit more, and began to thrive outside of my comfort zone. Eventually in XY I settled on balanced teams when I returned from a hiatus since they seemed to be the most well-equipped for the meta at that time. Balance is really cool because it helped me be more aggressive/tactical while still having control towers to fall back on so that I can put myself in a position to regain momentum/control. Big fan of Pokes I can use both offensively and defensively.
What's your favorite generation of OU and why?
This one, a lot of the teams I see are cool and building is pretty enjoyable. I really liked BW1 as well, people were making loads of cool sets and teams, IR Rain stall, Chestorest Rotom-W, Mynism Croak. Metagames are most fun when they stabilize and people start to 'innovate' in them.
Favorite and lease favorite moments of SPL?
My favorite week was probably when we played the classiest, the teamwork and preparation was the best it had been all season and it showed in the results. Least favorite was probably the first few weeks when there wasn't very good communication within the team, but we've managed to turn it around.
Favorite to win OST and why?
Hmmm a few guys could possibly take it.
A few people could win I think.
Leftiez: Leftiez is criminally underrated on here and I think he can definitely win the whole tournament if he starts surging, he is really motivated to win it as well
Soulwind: Soulwind's incredibly consistent/solid and his plays have always seemed effortless to me. I rate SW very high and he could definitely take the tour.
Ben Gay: A very good player and builder, I feel an aura watching him play, as Bloo would say
If you could change one thing about OU, what would it be and why?
Ban Shadow Tag
Do you have any advice for newer players, and for Smogon in general?
Let your play do the talking. Stathakis went over this but it's really unbecoming when people start popping off in tournament threads when no one knows who they are; it just makes a bad first impression. If people wouldn't know your name if you said nothing but "won, gg" it's probably better to just pipe down. I'm not saying don't post at all, it's just better to be respectful and not confrontational when you're starting out, don't be one of those 5 post dudes trash talking everyone or trying incredibly hard to be funny and get the precious forum likes.
If you are looking to improve then practicing is really important, whether its on the ladder or battling with friends. I think its also good to analyze replays and matches on youtube to keep your mind sharp and avoid from staying on autopilot in an important game and just get better at deciding the right moves in each situation. If you want to improve at teambuilding, then trial and error is pretty important; it really isn't a good idea to give up on a team early and you should always be tweaking things. Using frameworks in teambuilding can be helpful too. I used to look at a lot of gr8astards teams to give me an idea of what went well with what and how Pokemon would work together.
If you could change one thing about Smogon as a whole to make it better, what would it be and why?
It'd be really hard to make things better with one change, maybe cash incentives or an SPL Minor League.
What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
BKC, Heist, Dice, Zebraiken are all close friends and I respect them a lot as players. BKC is incredibly hard to break and consistently makes good reads, probably one of the GOATs in my mind. Dice's prediction game is ridiculous and he can adapt to/learn new metagames very quickly. Heist is another solid dude who is probably one of the most creative players I've seen.
Additional players I look up to are probably Reymedy and Bloo [also friends], as well as gr8astard and Destiny Device, various people on ladder with teams I liked.
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?
Metagross @ Metagrossite
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Hammer Arm
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch
Chesnaught @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Synthesis
- Spiky Shield
- Spikes
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Soft-Boiled
Latias (F) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Roost
- Defog
Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 220 HP / 36 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Scald
- Protect
- Toxic
Ability: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Meteor Mash
- Hammer Arm
- Zen Headbutt
- Ice Punch
Chesnaught @ Leftovers
Ability: Bulletproof
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Wood Hammer
- Synthesis
- Spiky Shield
- Spikes
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Force
EVs: 252 HP / 144 Def / 112 SpD
Impish Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Earthquake
- Slack Off
- Stone Edge
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 Spe
Bold Nature
- Calm Mind
- Moonblast
- Flamethrower
- Soft-Boiled
Latias (F) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 72 HP / 184 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Draco Meteor
- Psyshock
- Roost
- Defog
Alomomola @ Leftovers
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 220 HP / 36 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
- Wish
- Scald
- Protect
- Toxic
Just a semi-stall I made, it was edited from a team with Metagross+Dragalge so that toxic spikes could weaken Metagross' counters. That team had too many weaknesses so I ended up reworking it into this. Spikes give me some offensive presence while the team can respond to a lot of threats with its defensive backbone. Knock Off/Twave Clefable might be helpful for Heatran and it's definitely worth running, but Scizor is already a pretty huge weakness for the team so I don't know. Ice Punch on meta over GK unfortunately because Gliscor is a huge (BAN ME PLEASE).
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There it is. If you have any questions for LSZ, leave 'em down below. I'd like to thank him for doing this. See you next week!
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