Project Doubles Community Spotlight: Stratos

ryo yamada2001

ryo yamada2001
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
art by 13ulbasaur

Community Spotlight
rip fire emoji
The Doubles community has a bunch of prominent players and personalities, each unique in their own right. Community Spotlight attempts to get us know each other better in the way of lengthy interview with a split focus on competitive Pokémon and personal life.

We attempt creating meatier and more interesting interviews personalized for each interviewee, with other community members contributing with potential questions and other fun tidbits.

If you have any questions to ask the interviewee, feel free to just reply to the post doing so! Community interaction is a large part of the fun and allows for more informal and humor than the main interview does.

The Archives
Below are all the interviews, player of the weeks, and community spotlights conducted over time. Give them a read! They're fun time capsules...

May 2019 - Kiichikos (by DaWoblefet)
April 2019 - lord death man
April 2018 - GenOne (by miltankmilk)
March 2018 - SMB (by miltankmilk)
December 2017 - Level 51
September 2017 - Snake Draft
August 2017 - nvakna (by Toxigen)
July 2017 - frania (by Toxigen)
June 2017 - EmbCPT (by Toxigen)
June 2017 - Charlotte (by Toxigen)
May 2017 - Matame (by Toxigen)
May 2017 - Mishiimono (by Toxigen)
May 2017 - DaAwesomeDude1 (by Toxigen)
April 2017 - Demantoid (by Toxigen)
April 2017 - I Am a Rookie (by Toxigen)
September 2016 - stax (by Toxigen)
September 2016 - miltankmilk (by Yoda2798)
August 2016 - Dawg
July 2016 - Braverius
July 2016 - n1n1
June 2016 - clius (by Yoda2798)
May 2016 - Yoda2798
May 2016 - Kaori
April 2016 - MajorBowman
March 2016 - TUO
March 2016 - talkingtree
December 2015 - Lohgock (by Yoda2798)
December 2015 - GiraGoomy (by Yoda2798)
December 2015 - Croven (by Yoda2798)
December 2015 - Yellow Paint (by Yoda2798)
November 2015 - n10sit (by Yoda2798)
November 2015 - Nido-Rus (by Yoda2798)
November 2015 - shrop05 (by Yoda2798)
November 2015 - TGMD (by Yoda2798)
October 2015 - xzern (by Yoda2798)
October 2015 - Pastelle (by Yoda2798)
October 2015 - Checkmater (by Yoda2798)
September 2015 - iliketrains11 (by Yoda2798)
September 2015 - 13ulbasaur (by Yoda2798)
September 2015 - Electrolyte
August 2015 - Mizuhime
August 2015 - Level 51
August 2015 - Laga
August 2015 - qsns
July 2015 - Audiosurfer
July 2015 - Arcticblast
July 2015 - Hashtag
June 2015 - deoxys speed
June 2015 - Memoric
June 2015 - shaian
June 2015 - kamikaze
June 2015 - KyleCole
May 2015 - Stratos
May 2015 - SpaceBass
May 2015 - finally
May 2015 - BLOOD TOTEM
May 2014 - Arcticblast (by Ultimathunder)
May 2014 - Audiosurfer (by Ultimathunder)
April 2014 - Darkmalice (by Ultimathunder)
April 2014 - Stratos (by Ultimathunder)
March 2014 - Braverius (by Ultimathunder)
March 2014 - Level 51 (by Ultimathunder)
March 2014 - Pocket (by Ultimathunder)
February 2014 - Mizuhime (by Ultimathunder)


 
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Interview #1 - SMB


Hi there! I'm sure most of the readers knows you by now, but could you introduce yourself by telling a little bit about yourself?

Hey :D My name is Daniel and I'm a spanish chemical engineering student, known on the pokemon community as SableyeMyBae or SMB. I began playing oras ru around 2 years ago but I always thought doubles was much funnier so I started joining the doubles circuit on sm and focused on this tier since then.

Congratulations on your current Seasonal run! Is there anything you’ve done differently in this tournament or in the recent kickoff tour you won?

Thank you! And yeah, on this seasonal I have prepared my sets way more than I did on other seasonals, where I just picked 3 teams 5 minutes before the game and played :I I'm really enjoying how creative you can be in terms of teambuilding on this phase of the metagame so that might have helped too! :o
I think my success on kickoff tour was due to my preparation on doubles ladder tour tho, since like 90% of the games I played I was just recycling the teams I built for it and I didn't experiment with new sets and mons until semifinals and finals. But yeah I'm really glad of how things went on dlt and kickoff and very proud of my seasonal run atm n_n

Who else in this seasonal are you looking forward to playing or hoping to avoid? Either in winners or losers bracket?

I was really, really, looking forward to play Kyle Cole on this seasonal (which i got it!) and he knows that, I loved his oras spl videos and they were definitely one of the reasons why I thought this tier was so funny. Since he was inactive last year I didn't have the chance to play him on a tour and I was really glad when I realized we were on the same bracket.
About who I'm hoping to avoid, tbh there's no one, all the guys that have come this far is because they are all solid. Although probably the scarier are nvakna, because you never know what to expect from him, and croven, who is playing really solid lately.

Is there anyone you look up to as a player?

Yes, in terms of playing I've always looked up to stax and how he can play any dou team on any dou gen and make it seem like the best team atm (if that makes sense :I) because of how consistent he is. In terms of building, Kyle Cole and Nido-Rus are the guys I look up to because I love how crazy some of their teams and the innovating sets and mons they use.

Do you feel like there's anyone up and coming in the Doubles tournament scene?

Yes, I've always felt like if Akaru Kokuyo was more comitted to the tier and improved his building skills he could easily be a top 8 dou player, as he proved being second on the live tours for the smogon doubles tour. I'd also like to see more from Vallex since he made a really good ssnl run, I hope he signs up for dpl! :o

How do you feel about the Snorlax suspect test? Do you feel like there is anything else that should be considered for a suspect test?

Imo the problem with snorlax was not snorlax itself but shadow tag and ppl lazy to adapt to it. After marshadow departure many teams had a worrying lack of offensive pressure; av kyub, zapdos, tapu fini, bulky lando, all of them, or most of them, were placed on the same team together which was one of the reasons why gothlax was so good back then, being able to trap them and set up for game on many occasions. Of course this wouldn't happen if you were able to switch out your mons and send your lax checks (haze, clear smog, heavy hitters) on the turn it sets up, that's why I think the unhealthy thing was gothitelle and shadow tag. Ppl unwillingness to adapt to it didn't help either; using more offensive sets, taunt or that kind of things on mons that were likely to be trapped wouldn't let snorlax set up on most of the games even with gothitelle on its side. An example of this, I saw no one running volt switch/roar zapdos which was not necessarily a suboptimal set when full trick room and gothlax were the 2 most popular playstyles and zapdos was literally deadweight vs both playstyles, and yeah this could also apply to many other mons that just would have needed to change their moveset a bit.
About an actual suspect, well first of all I think ally switch should be banned since it's a dumb move that just gives too many more situations to think about on a turn and forces a lot of unnecessary 50-50. I wouldn't mind a gothitelle (not shadow tag, because let's be real, gengar is not even near to be broken or unhealthy) suspect test either and I would probably vote ban if that happens, I feel like a bulky support pokemon able to heal things like zygarde, scizor, kommo-o, etc while they set up and which also helps to trap and eliminate its checks might be kind of uncompetitive from my sight.

What do you consider the strongest Pokemon/playstyle in the metagame, at the moment?.

Well as I said before I believe gothitelle is the strongest pokemon rn due to how you force your opp to have a good positioning every single turn and decide if it's worth to kill a mon or not just to prevent a set up + trap scenario. And ofc I think the best playstyle atm is gothitelle with either metagross or scizor bulky offense.

And what do you consider the most underrated Pokemon or playstyle in the metagame?

Kommo-o, definitely, I have been testing a team stax passed me and I realized how overwhelming this mon can be when there's no tapu fini on the other side, I'm really looking forward to see more teams with it on dpl and see how good it can be.
I'd say aurora veil is an underrated playstyle rn and it's not getting the usage it should deserve, I guess snorlax made this playstyle pretty unviable but it could be something to consider at any moment if a matame's hail team 2.0 gets popular.

I’ve personally known you to use some pretty nasty teams, whether it be ally switch users or some interesting Nido-Rus teams with Z-snatch Blissey. What are some things you look to do in teambuilding or team selection that draws you to these more interesting teams?

Lmao, well actually that kind of odd teams always draw my attention, the z snatch blissey team made by nido-rus was really interesting because it was a team which just focused on setting up on the marshadow meta, and I thought it would be cool to give it a try lol. About my teambuilding, I like to "set traps" on teambuilding, lures or odd z moves or mons, that I think could give me a huge advantage on a set, but never getting too wild. Some things I've been using lately are babiri berry ttar, mist cresselia, specs fini paired with goth, wacan berry volcanion or z head smash and z fury cutter aegislash. I really like to build new teams and experimenting with new techs and I'm really enjoying this metagame because there's a lot of room for creativity (not like when marsh was on the tier >:I).

Could you give us a team that resembles your playing and building style and give a little explanation about it?


http://pokepast.es/6483509f0af08c03
Even tho I didn't use it, this was the team I built 2 weeks ago for my r8 ssnl g3 vs Kyle Cole (I probably won't use it anymore since it loses to incineroar, but 2 weeks ago it didn't have intimidate and wasn't popular so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). I think this team reflects my playstyle pretty well; some bulky pivots, intimidate and heal pulse support, a trapping technique and a snowball like offensive celesteela to finish the game.
When I was preparing for this ssnl set I noticed Kyle had some kind of guidelines on his teambuilding that I could take advantage of; a lot of his teams had 2 psychic type mons, and he always used an electric type so I started building with this core of manectric and pursuit ttar. I also noticed that most of his teams had a trick room mode so I decided to do like a "dark spam" kind of team with hoopa, which could also let me reverse his trick room if needed. Heal pulse tapu fini is key here to prevent manectric and ttar from getting low. Then I needed something that could sweep on trick room and I had a free z-move slot and I lacked a steel type so I went with a mon that has given me some succes in the past, z-move celesteela (best celesteela set tbh). Mu vs zygarde was kinda eh so I added special lando which gives me another pivot, sludge bomb is there to deal with bulu/fini but sr is an option too.

Do you have any advice for players that are new to the tier?

Yes, I would really encourage them to sign up for dpl and talk with managers if they are interested, play the doubles circuit tour because it is a lot of fun, and watch spl/ssnl replays, you can learn a lot from them! Also if you have any doubt about a team or something, don't be afraid to ask on the smogon doubles room on ps or on discord, all the people is really nice and will try to help you. And there's a lot of resources on the doubles subforum on smogon you can look at, you can either pick and play top players teams from their team dumps or build your own with the teambuilding framework and roles compendium resources, dou community is probably the community that has more resources for newcomers, so give it a try!

What are your hobbies outside of playing Pokemon? What do you like to do in your free time?

I'm pretty busy with studies during weekdays but on weekends I really enjoy to hang out with friends and play busketball, go running and stuff :D I just play 1 more videogame which is yugioh duel links, it's sogood

Is there anyone in the community you'd like to give a shoutout, or have other kind words for?

Yes, I've never told him this but I would really like to give a huge s/o to Memoric for buying me last dpl, I still don't know why would you do it since my best dou performance was like, r4 on a ssnl? Sharing team with a lot of top players and builders like bowman, miltankmilk, genone, nvakna, mizu and you helped me a lot to understand better the tier and to develop as a player, so yeah I'm really grateful for that :)
Also Nido-Rus and Akaru Kokuyo because they always help me when I have doubts with a team, you are the best :D

Is there anything you would like to add to the interview?
Thanks for the interview, see you all in dpl!
 
Purely based on aesthetics what is your favourite pokemon?
Rank, from best to worst, the best gens for sprites (there is a correct answer).
Rank, from best to worst, the best gens for in game music (there is a correct answer)
Do you like sm atm, what about past gen dou tiers?
 

SMB

is a Top Tiering Contributoris a Past SPL Championis a Former Smogon Metagame Tournament Circuit Championis a Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
World Defender
Purely based on aesthetics what is your favourite pokemon?
Rank, from best to worst, the best gens for sprites (there is a correct answer).
Rank, from best to worst, the best gens for in game music (there is a correct answer)
Do you like sm atm, what about past gen dou tiers?
clefairy is socute :blobnom:
gsc > xy > dpp > rby > adv > bw
adv > dpp > bw > xy > gsc > rby
ye I'm actually really enjoying sm because of its variety of archetypes and how many viable mons we have, which was one of the things I missed in oras (I didn't play it a lot tho). I really like bw too (why ppl hate this tier? D: ) and I'm looking forward to improve my knowledge about bw on dpl and maybe start building some teams c:

What do you think about the viability and/or potential broken-ness of Zygarde and Scrafty in the current metagame (there is a correct answer)?
the correct answer is we should ban auraray for having bad opinions
 

laptops

everything is beautiful
is a Tiering Contributor
What do you think is the biggest thing keeping dou from becoming more popular and what would you suggest doing to improve upon that?
 

SMB

is a Top Tiering Contributoris a Past SPL Championis a Former Smogon Metagame Tournament Circuit Championis a Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
World Defender
What do you think is the biggest thing keeping dou from becoming more popular and what would you suggest doing to improve upon that?
Money :I Doubles community is not small at all if we count vgc as well, and dou is not a worse format compared to vgc, so ig some vgc players don't try dou because of the lack of money prizes / live events. I mean, it would happen the same with bss and ou / singles tiers if bss had money prizes as vgc does have, they would dedicate more time to bss.
Talking about singles players moving to dou, many (including friends of mine) like the tier after watching team tours games but they never try it because they think it's too complicated, it all about practice and sadly I don't think there is too much we can do about that :/
 

Fran

formerly Frania
is a Tiering Contributor
DPL Champion
Hey i saw you made a pretty deep run in both last years and the current OST. What do you think are the most important factors in doing well in those kind of tournaments, also what do you think you could work on to do better in the future?
 

Interview #2 - GenOne

Hi there! I'm sure most of the readers know you by now, but could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
=========
Sure! I’m GenOne, DOU’s art slave, C&C co-leader, and occasional user of questionable Fire-types. I lurked the doubles ladder as monofire-using ladder trash until about two years ago, when I signed up for an account on Smogon and started getting involved in the Smogon DOU community. I only really started taking the game more seriously in the past year, though. Oh, and I’m a PS room mod and stuff now, so that’s cool I guess.

What is your favorite pokemon to use in DOU and what is your favorite pokemon generally?
=========
Torkoal!
Just kidding. Aside from the obvious Tier 1-2 picks, I’d say Stakataka is a really fun mon to pilot. It compresses wallbreaking and speed control into a single slot and picks up insane momentum from Beast Boosts on KOs. In general I like Pokemon that are strong enough to impose immediate pressure.
Generally speaking, I really like the design of Bulbasaur + its evolutions. The majority of grass-types in Pokemon are either just plants with faces or generic creatures with green colouring and/or leafy features lazily added to them, but the Bulbasaur line is a well designed and well thought out concept of how a creature could adopt plant life and use it to an advantage. Its three-stage evolution process just feels really natural too, compared to a lot of mons that just get bigger and tougher.

Seasonal Grand Finals are happening soon, who do you think will win between SMB and Kaori?
=========
The smart money’s on SMB, even though both are great builders and players. SMB is in the winners bracket and has two chances to beat Kaori, not to mention it was SMB that dropped Kaori into the loser’s bracket in the first place (with a 2-0 set). They’re on equal footing in terms of skill, but SMB is just in a better position to win this, I think.

DPL has just begun, what players are you most excited to see play, what tiers are you looking forward to watching or playing and do you think any team is notably stronger than others?
=========
There are a few newer faces like Vallex and fespy that I’m excited to watch battle and grow as competitive doubles players. I also hope to see some wild teams come out from notoriously creative players like Nido-Rus, Nvakna and Demantoid.
I’m mostly interested in the SM DOU games, but SM DUU is starting to look like a fun metagame as well. The old gens are fun to watch but I feel like all the innovation that’s gonna happen in them has already happened. Idk.
I already spoke to which teams I think are best in the power rankings I posted, but in terms of overall team synergy I see the Hoenn Heroes and maybe the Hippowdons standing out. My team also just secured a Week 1 win despite being ranked last in the manager power rankings, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Is there anyone you look up to as a player?
=========
Showdown is just a game I try not to take too seriously, so “look up to” might be a strong word, but I respect players that are good and/or creative at teambuilding. For me, this would be players like Nido-Rus, Demantoid, Level 51, and honestly a lot of the people on my DPL team like qsns, Hashtag and Yellow Paint.

Do you feel like there's anyone up and coming in the Doubles tournament scene?
=========
I spoke to this before, but I think both Vallex and fespy are new players that show a lot of promise. Laptops isn’t quite as “new” per-se but he’s becoming an increasingly good overall presence in the doubles community.

How do you feel about the Snorlax suspect test? Also, thoughts on Shadow Tag? Do you feel like there is anything else that should be considered for a suspect test?
=========
I’m happy that Snorlax got banned, even though it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if it stayed. I did like some of the late-metagame developments that came out of Snorlax’s time here, such as Dragon Tail AV Kyurem-B and CB Zygarde, and I think we definitely adapted to it pretty well near the end. However, I still think Snorlax required to many dedicated checks/techs to be considered healthy, and it also just promoted lazy teambuilding because you could just toss it in as a crutch without too much thought put towards team synergy.
Shadow Tag is extremely powerful right now, especially on Mega Gengar. The current DOU meta is filled with bulky Pokemon that can easily switch around and pivot into resisted attacks, and Shadow Tag puts a stop to that while still letting you get into an ideal position. I don’t think it’s broken or anything though. Incineroar checks both Mega Gengar and Gothitelle, and can also pivot out using U-turn. In general, I also think we’re just at a point where you’re building teams wrong if you don’t make use of pivoting attacks.
Honestly, I can’t think of anything that needs to be suspected right now. We’ll see if DPL players manage to break the metagame, but everything feels balanced right now.

What do you consider the strongest Pokemon/playstyle in the metagame, at the moment?.
=========
Mega Gengar has regained its place as a Tier 1 Pokemon, in my opinion. Trapping utility, high speed, Fake Out immunity and an ability to destroy Tapus are all desirable features right now.
Balance-oriented teams with strong breakers like Tapu Bulu, non-AV Kyurem-B, etc. are in a good position to win games right now. Most Pokemon with less than 328 speed tend to run lots of bulk investment in this metagame, and you need a means of breaking through them.

And what do you consider the most underrated Pokemon or playstyle in the metagame?
=========
There are actually a number of Pokemon I think are underexplored right now, but I can’t speak to all of them before my DPL matches are over : )
One mon I will speak to though is Genesect. It’s a Steel-type with only one weakness, a myriad of resistances, a guaranteed Turn 1 power boost, and one of the most diverse movepools an attacker could want. I think a lot of people only view it as a Choice Scarf attacker, and while that’s probably one of its best sets, I think it’s very underexplore as a non-choiced attacker, too.

What inspires your teambuilding, which has been known to feature a healthy amount of full trick room and even the famed torkoal?
=========
Lol. The main thing I try to do when I build teams is plan out some concrete strategies of how I can establish a favourable position over my opponent, straight from the teambuilding stage. I tend to be a bit impulsive once I’m playing a game, so the more I can think through multi-turn game plans during the teambuilding stage, the better off I feel. (There’s a limit to this though – I don’t aim to have completely flowcharty teams).
I think this is why I initially liked Trick Room so much: if you can put a lot of advanced thought into how to ensure Trick Room gets set from the teambuilder stage, the turns of your game are pretty easy to figure out. That said, I don’t think Trick Room is that great right now – Intimidate Incineroar makes it really hard to pull off Trick Room in the first place, and a lot of teams tend to be bulky enough to not care whether Trick Room is up or not.
As for the Torkoal, yes I have been known to use it and yes it’s a legitimately good (ish) mon! I think I started using that because I wanted to build a Mega Camerupt team before Mega Camerupt was legal in SM, and after reading a VGC 2017 analysis on Torkoal, I decided it was the next best thing. Fun fact: the original version of my well-known Camerupt fullroom team used a Torkoal instead of a Camerupt! (I forgot to use a mega lol).

Could you give us a team that resembles your playing and building style and give a little explanation about it?
=========
I think some of my best teams to date will be (and already are) coming from DPL and you’ll have to wait for my post-DPL team dump for those, but here’s a recent-ish one I used versus you and liked:
http://pokepast.es/ff7a3c4b7a610923

This is mostly just a standard Scizor Balance team, with just enough tweaks to punish players that only prepare for standard sets. It usually looks at getting Tailwind set early for the speed advantage, then clearing Scizor’s checks so I can set it up for a Swords Dance sweep later on. There’s a couple odd sets here, like Substitute Tapu Koko and Choice Scarf Zygarde. I wouldn’t consider them to be “good” per se, but they’re unexpected sets that can catch people off guard. Tapu Koko forces a good amount of switches and can punish them with a sub, while with Zygarde I just figured that by the time it sets up a Dragon Dance, someone’s gonna Intimidate so why not cut to chase and just Scarf it? Lol. Other than that, I just tried to make sure I had generally good matchups against most playstyles.

Do you have any advice for players that are new to the tier?
=========
I think the biggest thing though is LEARN to build your own EV spreads from scratch! Knowing exactly what your EVs can (and can’t) do is what separates the novices from the pros. I sucked at EV’ing for the longest time, but taking the time to custom-EV my mons has helped me make better decisions in matches.
Other than that, I’d say Doubles has some really good teambuilding resources for new players, so take the time to browse through them. If you’re brand new, start with the sample teams and ladder with them. If you’re coming in from another metagame or VGC, probably just go straight to the Teambuilding Frameworks and experiment with the teams listed there. The analysis dex is also a really good resource to get inspiration on how to use specific Pokemon – some of them are even written by me! (Some of them are admittedly outdated atm though – also because of me :I Hopefully not for too much longer though).

What are your hobbies outside of playing Pokemon? What do you like to do in your free time?
=========
Anything where I can create something. I think that’s why I still play this game lol. I really enjoy art and graphic design (I’ve designed several art pieces for the doubles community, such as the current DPL logo and even this thread’s banner). I also play guitar, do photography, and enjoy cooking.
I wouldn’t consider myself an outdoor enthusiast per se, but I definitely enjoy hiking, mountain biking, camping, and fishing when I get the chance.

Is there anyone in the community you'd like to give a shoutout, or have other kind words for?
=========
Memoric and talkingtree are literally why I’m on the map in this game, so a huge shoutout for them. Memoric bought me for DPL last year when I was still pretty much a nobody, and I learned a lot from that whole experience. talkingtree is the main reason I’m involved with C&C and as engaged as I am with this game now.

Is there anything you would like to add to the interview?
 
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Level 51

the orchestra plays the prettiest themes
is a Site Content Manageris a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past SCL Champion
Favorite Fire-type Pokemon?
Favorite Trick Room sweeper?
Favorite Pokemon that learns Eruption?
Favorite Pokemon that learns Clear Smog?
Favorite tortoise-styled Pokemon?
Favorite Pokemon with exactly 3 vowels (not necessarily distinct) in its name?
 
Adding to L51's questions,

Favorite Hoenn Pokémon with no evolutions or pre-evolutions?
Favorite Drought Pokémon?
Favorite base 20-speed Pokémon?
Favorite Pokémon weak to Stealth Rock that gets Rapid Spin?
Favorite Pokémon that I wrote a DOU analysis for?
Favorite Pokémon with exactly 4 consonants in its name?
 

GenOne

DOU main. GMT-7. PS!: GenOne
is a Community Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Favorite Fire-type Pokemon?
Torkoal

Favorite Trick Room sweeper?
Stakataka

Favorite Pokemon that learns Eruption?
Camerupt

Favorite Pokemon that learns Clear Smog?
Psyduck, but in a DOU match probably would only ever run this on Amoonguss

Favorite tortoise-styled Pokemon?
Torterra (another example of well-designed Grass-type)

Favorite Pokemon with exactly 3 vowels (not necessarily distinct) in its name?
Porygon
Adding to L51's questions,
Favorite Hoenn Pokémon with no evolutions or pre-evolutions?
I really like Lati@s's design

Favorite Drought Pokémon?
Mega Charizard Y

Favorite base 20-speed Pokémon?
Level 90 Iron Ball Araquanid
Ferrothorn


Favorite Pokémon weak to Stealth Rock that gets Rapid Spin?
Cloyster

Favorite Pokémon that I wrote a DOU analysis for?
Stakataka even though you didn't finish it :I

Favorite Pokémon with exactly 4 consonants in its name?
Porygon2
Just kidding they're all torkoal

What actually is your favorite generation? You originally were GenOneRaisedGenY, after all.
GSC was my favourite cart game, but GenTwoRaisedGenY would be an even dumber name lol.

RBY started a great game concept, then GSC took it to the next level and made the Pokemon world a lot more immersive. The fact that there were new Pokemon was actually a BIG DEAL when GSC dropped, and the music, level design, and plot were all on point. Being able to explore Kanto and battle the RBY protagonist at the end of the game was an amazing finale.

Every game that came after GSC just got lazy and repeated the same formula of 8 gyms + [insert evil team] + elite four. Replacing Team Rocket with gimmicky teams was a mistake - there's a lot of untouched plot potential to keep fleshing out Team Rocket's research on developing Mewtwo and Ditto (there's still lots of documentation of it in the Cinnabar mansion), and to see if Team Rocket had an endgame besides just exploiting Pokemon for a profit.

Just kidding it's gen 3 because it has torkoal
 
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ryo yamada2001

ryo yamada2001
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
Ever since our last player of the week interview all the way back in april 2018, we've had an influx or new community members and players, as well as enough time having passed to re-do some old interviews. However, the approach is a little different this time as we've renamed to Community Spotlight with the intention of delivering bigger and more quality interviews. To start off, we got our most recent Doubles seasonal winner Lord Death Man. Despite starting in RU, the man with the edgiest username in the community became a DUUde and simultaneously carried out his spectacular winter seasonals run, beating qsns, miltankmilk, fespy, EmbCPT, london13, emiforbes, Human, and Tman twice to bring it home. Will lord death man keep up his success in DPL after being picked up for 15k by the Hoenn Heroes?


Lord Death Man
"i cant read"

1. Hi lord death man, could you give us an introduction of yourself?
I'm Lord Death Man, I'm 24 years old, from Dallas, TX, and I'm going to be starting law school this fall.

2. I think we all know what your username means, but where does it come from and why did you stick with it?
There's a fairly obscure batman villain with the same name, I stuck with it because I think it's stupid.

3. What do your avatar and custom title mean?
Your guess is as good as mine.

4. What got you into competitive Pokémon initially, and what drew you to Doubles?
I had a lot of friends who were really into pokemon in college; we played on showdown before XY was released but most of us really played a lot more when XY came out; I think I'm the only one who stuck with it after that, though. I started playing doubles to try and get the suspect badge, which led to me trying DUU. I found the meta very interesting but the XY DUU ladder was mostly dead, so I kind of shelved that until SM came out. I almost didn't enter the seasonal I won; I didn't really feel very familiar with the tier but I figured that the best way to learn is by doing.

5. Congratulations on your spectacular seasonals win! How does it feel to achieve such a victory?
Good! I'm very surprised I managed to win, every week kind of felt like a fluke and I feel like I lucked a lot of opponents early on, but that's mons.

6. You had to deal with a really tough bracket versus talented and proven players, what were your favorite sets to play? And which opponents were you most frightened of facing?
I enjoyed my games with tman; I played him in 3 sets and I think there was a lot of vareity in builds with both used. Emforbes was also fun, especially game one with Persian-A bouncing around Diancie while I tried to get back into position after making some questionable plays.
I was really scared of facing tman the second and third time, and human; I had already lost to tman once and kind of felt that his preferred builds were really good vs my preferred builds, and human's goth teams really scared me because they were so unlike anything I had been facing up to that point, and goth is one of my least favorite mons to play against by far.

7. How did you approach preparation for these seasonals? Where did you find inspiration for teams throughout?
In all honesty, I only really prepped for the last few games; before then I just tried to use generically strong teams and hoped for the best.
Most of my teams were samples, but I changed sets to try to make them less predictable. talkingtree helped me make one of the teams I used vs human, which I later changed somewhat for my matches vs tman, and one of the teams was just me putting stuff together that I thought would work, and it kind of did but not as well as I had hoped.

8. At what point did you start thinking you had a good shot at winning the entire seasonal?
Turn 10 or 11 of game 3 vs tman, when I caught the Bulu with Sludge Bomb.

9. You have been drafted for DPL by the Hoenn Heroes. What was your initial reaction to being drafted by this team and your fee?
I figured I would be bought by other n10sit or talkingtree's teams; they knew me the best and I wasn't quite sure if anyone else was really familiar with me at all honestly.
I was shocked at just how much they paid for me, I missed the draft so I'm not sure how it went but I kind of expected to be about half the price.

10. What teams or players do you consider big threats in this tournament?
Everyone! I think Rustboro Baptist Church has one of the strongest rosters but I think any team could win it.

11. Doubles is often seen as a difficult tier by other singles players. As someone who originally started in RU, how was transitioning into DUU and DOU?
It took me a while to really feel like I had even the faintest idea of what I was doing with doubles, and I still really struggle with building teams that feel like they cover common threats.

12. Could you give us a team that resembles your playing and building style and give a little explanation about it?

TalkingTree helped me a lot while making this, but I later made significant changes. Several very threatening offensive mons (Aegislash, Volcanion) try to break open holes so that I can later sweep with Salamence-Mega. Mew, Greninja, and Tapu Koko provide various forms of offensive support that help me break down big checks to Salamence, such as Tapu Fini.
We built this with toxic spikes in mind (and Greninja was originally a Nihilego), but I think Greninja's mat block has been much more useful; it's an excellent move that forces opponents who don't have Tapu Koko or a scarfer to waste some time, and as people increasingly forgo protect it can provide a huge amount of momentum.

13. How do you currently feel about the Doubles metagame and is there anything that currently warrants special attention, perhaps something being suspectworthy, or an overrated or underrated set?
I like the meta a lot, tons of stuff feel viable. I despise playing against Goth but I don't really think it quite approaches the level of suspect-worthy.
I actually think Landorus is a little overrated, it's a fantastic glue mon but it's really suffering from every team having multiple answers to it, and I feel that it often just sets rocks and then tries to get out of the way.
Meanwhile, I think Mew is somewhat underrated; it sets rocks, fakes out, offers several methods of speed control, and has access to the very unique and very powerful Transform, which can really enable setup sweepers to sort of throw themselves away so that mew can become a hugely bulky, very powerful +1 Zygarde/Salamence/Volcarona/etc.

14. What was your opinion on the recent Marshadow suspect test? And do you feel like anything else warrants a re-suspect?
I feel like Marsh would have been a strong negative influence to the meta; I like that set up is good and I don't like the idea of a single mon being able to essentially completely negate that aspect of the metagame.
I think pretty much everything currently banned probably deserves to be there; the closest, in my opinion, is probably Kangaskhan and I'd still lean heavily towards it being banned because it can do some ridiculous things with seismic toss.

15. How do you feel about Doubles UU right now? How do you think the large amount of April tier changes will affect the metagame?
I like doubles UU, but I think it's a very volatile tier and can sometimes feel a little unbalanced because of that (and the lack of bans, though I don't think anything is really suspect worth at the moment). It feels like a lot of things are very viable and there's lots of ways to build.
The recent drops (and rise of Zeraora) are huge; I think Suicune and Gyarados are going to reveal themselves as massive and versatile threats, trick room was doing very poorly but got two very strong tools in Oranguru and Torkoal,

16. Are you still active in RU and if yes, how do you feel about that metagame?
Not really, I was going to enter the Winter seasonals but I missed it. I don't hate the current metagame, but I do feel that there's something just barely not "right" about it and that I could enjoy it a lot more if something small changed - I'm hopeful that the decision to retest some of RUBL will help the tier. I also would really like it if Pidgeot dropped.

17. What are your favorite and least favorite ladder gimmicks to face in DOU?
I like Togemaru, it's interesting to see what people try to use with it and I like that it sort of works on it's own, too, which makes it feel less like a gimmick.
Wonder Guard shenanigans are the worst to face.

18. Is there any player you particularly look up to or take inspiration from? And is there anyone that you see as an up-and-comer?
I really like Arcticblast's willigness to build with unorthodox mons. I think I'm a little too new to the community to really recognize who is up and coming, but I'm hopeful that some other DUU players make the transition from DUU ladder to DUU tournaments to DOU tournaments.

19. Do you have any advice to give to players who are looking to be succesful in tournaments, any tips or tricks?
There's a lot of luck involved, even before the match starts, so sometimes you can do your best and still lose. Don't get tilted off a bad game 1.
I also think that you learn by doing, so don't get discouraged if you're trying to get better but still find yourself getting knocked out early.

20. What are your hobbies and interests outside of playing Pokémon?
I like watching movies and playing smash and civ.

21. What are some of your favorite movies you'd recommend to the Doubles community?
I'm a big fan of Noroi, Belladonna of Sadness, Coraline, Perfect Blue, Paprika, The Truman Show, and The Fifth Element.

22. Who do you main in Smash, and why?
Ridley, I really like most of his kit outside of his awful recovery, and no one I play with is so good that his flaws get in the way of me having fun. I also like Incineroar, Yoshi, and Piranha Plant.

23. What is your favorite civ, and why?
In Civ 6, I like the Kongo because it feels like you're playing from ahead (with their ability to have huge cities and a lot of great works) and behind all game, which leads to some unique interactions which I feel 6 as a whole is sort of lacking.

In Civ 5, I like Venice because they have a unique playstyle. I'm not a big fan of 5 over 6, which I know a lot of people disagree with, and that's because I feel like a lot of civs have a tendency to make the exact same moves in the same order; Venice plays unlike anyone else in 5 or 6.

24. What is your favorite log of the ones posted by Demantoid in the DPL meme thread?
literally any quote by zikam.

25. Are you pro or anti-cargo shorts, and why?
anti and I don't need a reason.

26. they made me do it

No, but one of my absolute all-time favorite films, Belladonna of Sadness, is pretty much hentai-adjacent.

27. How do you feel about the development of mish slowly creeping into singles tourbro culture after already taking over Doubles, Battle Spot, and VGC?
I do my best not to think about tourbro culture.

28. Perhaps an even more worrying trend, how do you feel about epic gaming and Mint's obesssion with bug waifu Pheromosa? Is Mint a furry for this?
I have a real life friend who refers to Pheromosa as "that sexy cockroach"

29. Last question, but the most important one: who is your waifu/husbando?
The mirror.

30. Is there anything we missed in the interview that you would like to add?
I don't think so.

----
That marks the end of our first new community spotlight with lord death man! I hope you enjoyed the pretty massive interview and feel free to ask our interviewee more questions in the replies, as that is half the fun~
 

DaWoblefet

Demonstrably so
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PS Admin
The $200 prize pool XY Doubles OU tournament recently completed, with champion Kiichikos rising to the top and claiming $100 USD. I had the opportunity recently to interview Kiichikos and asked him about various aspects of what brought about this victory.
Thanks for joining me for this interview! Introduce yourself a little bit: how did you find competitive Pokemon, and what caused you to look at Doubles as a format to play?
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Hi, i'm a 17 years old guy that started playing pokemon in around 2016, but actually playing competitively like 1 year ago. First off i was an OU main but i got so tired of that tier, so i was interesed to play doubles, firstly because i have a friend that told me to play this tier and i will never regret having done it. I found this format too much fun than singles.

You've been around a couple years then! Today, I'd like to talk a bit about your experience in the XY Doubles OU tour, which you won after defeating strong opponents like stax, Level 51, and Arcticblast to name a few. Did you have any experience with XY Doubles OU back in 2016, or was this tournament a fresh look at the XY metagame for you?
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This was the first time that i touched this tier, as for the tour, being honest i was just using sample teams for the first rounds, and informing myself about the metagame in the smogon thread. However, when i realized i had to play good and recognized players, i told myself: this can't be. Arcticblast, Level 51 and stax were some of the opponents that i had to prepare for, with a little help of mishiimono (who gave me teams that i used) and Yoda2798 (for giving me some advices) i was capable to beat all of them.

Transitioning to an older format after being more experienced with a newer format can sometimes be tricky. Did you find yourself thinking to yourself "oh right, I forgot about that" when it came to old XY mechanics? Similarly, what were some of the Pokemon sets that you had to learn to fight against and play around more than in SM?
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I've had problems with the mega-speed thing when i was playing gen6. The pokemon that i've had to learn to play against is Mega-Gengar, mainly because i haven't faced it in SM cuz of his ban, same thing with Mega-Kangaskhan, this one i think it's a very rough pokemon to play against in oras dou. But mostly my most hated set is the bulk twave spammer Thundurus-I >:I.

I think everyone finds it hard to fight against bulky Thundurus, haha. One of the strengths I noticed in your tournament run was your excellent preparation going into each match, especially in later rounds. You mentioned that early on you used sample teams, but later moved on to teams based on the recommendations of others. How else did you approach the preparation stage of each round differently as you progressed through the tournament?
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Recommendations helps, but watching replays of my opponents helps even more. First off, i noticed Arcticblast used teams that are very weak to KyuB. If you look up my game 1 against him, he brought 4 ice weak mons, and his resist is x4 weak to ground. Level 51 was probably the most scary opponent because he always uses the geopass team, which obviously i was gonna prepare for that, so i used goggles volcanion+haze both games. Game 1 doesn't worked very well because he had taunt on Smeargle (which i didn't know that was actually his 4th move). Unfortunately for him, i got a huge crit on his boosted mon:(, which i don't know if mattered because i had a goggles thund and i just had to keep attacking with aegi to force him to not sub so i can twave. However, i was aware he doesn't only uses that team, his other teams that i've been seeing that he uses are a bit weak to thundurus, his answer to him is normally gastrodon so i decided to put grass knot on mine, which it worked very well. Finally, Stax, i noticed he loves Sylveon too much. Mega-Metagross seems like an unmon in oras dou, but i kinda wanted to try it out. I put sub on it because it walls cress, and Stax brought twave cress so it was great. The team worked nice, and for the final game just wanted to use something different, but that can also deal with Sylveon squads.

Preparation is half the battle sometimes! You played well too, in my opinion. I remember I was watching the replays of your top 8 match against london13, and I knew you won 2-0 from your win post, but I remember thinking to myself after the beginning turns, "how the heck did Kiichikos pull this off?". You really had to claw back that first match after a rough start. In total, you only dropped one game this tournament, an impressive 14-1 record. How did it feel to win the tournament overall?
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I remember those games against london13, especially the first one, through all the hax and some bad plays from my part, i must say that i should've lost that. But he also choked hard by not clicking fake out to Garde with Kangaskhan turn 11, because obviously, you can't protect against Hoopa-U, maybe he forgot about that, i guess it has happened to all of us sometimes. As the tour overall, i think winning a tour of this level for someone that isn't very known like me, feels very nice, because it encourages me to keep growing up, and, someday become to a great player like yourself Leonard.

You flatter me :). Can you talk about what your strongest/favorite team was in your opinion from the XY tour?
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https://pokepast.es/020e3f8ff252bbe0

I definitely can't play without a KyuB on the team. If you look up into the teams that i've used, most of them has a KyuB, it's probably my favourite mon from this gen, i also love volcanion too, so this is my favourite team that i've used, it's solid, but also that version has some techs for someone you probably know :).

What would your advice be to someone looking to learn how to play XY DOU for the first time?
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It's always hard to learn a tier that you can't even play it. Obviously there is no ladder of oras dou, and the best way of learning a tier, is playing it, so i'm not sure how can you get into the tier more easily, but joining tournaments of that tier would help a lot (like it did for me).

Do you have any plans for what you're spending your $100 tournament winnings on?
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I've thought about improve my guitar set or something like that, but i'm still not sure.

Oh excellent, that leads well into my next question then: do you have any hobbies outside of competitive Pokemon that you enjoy doing?
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I always enjoy playing guitar when i feel bad, hang out with friends, you know, things that a highschool guy likes to do.

Final question to close out our interview: does Talonflame suck?
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Yes, Talonflame isn't broken at all imo lol.


===========================

Thanks again to Kiichikos for participating in this interview! Please be sure to leave your own questions below, as that's half the fun of these interviews.

Kiichikos's tournament run (teams on left are Kiichikos's, teams on right are the opponent's team):

Round 1: vs. yovan33321
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Round 3: vs. Arcticblast
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Round 4: vs. EternalSnowman
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Top 8: vs. london13
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Top 4: vs. Level 51
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Finals: vs. lady lumps (stax)
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