Approved by UU moderation & inspired by Feliburn's project
It's been almost 2 months and I know you've all been waiting for it.. Welcome guys in the "UU Player Interview", a project where you'll be able to discover or re-discover some well known players of the UU community. Those people may be known thanks to their high-skilled level or their achievements on the strategic scene but also thanks to their dedication into the tier or within the community. Time to gossip !
Hello there Estarossa, thanks for being here today with me for the return of the UU player interview ! First of all how are you ?
I'm good thanks, just relaxing after a tough day of uni work irl
I may be dumb but what is "uni work" ?
university work ;x
Oh lmao ! Outside of that, can you tell us about yourself ? Where are you from, how you managed to discover Smogon etc.. ?
I'm a 24 year old PhD student from London, studying maths. I used to play DPP UU a decent bit on Shoddy battle for fun when I was bored back in the day, and then came back to Pokemon Showdown a few years later. A couple of years ago I started to get a lot more interested in Pokemon and started taking it more seriously, and decided to sign up to Smogon to help improve and integrate more with the UU community.
I see.. I assume you're a fan of "Nanatsu no Taizai" right ?
yea i'm a pretty big fan of the manga in particular, its just generally a fun manga and definitely has a fantastic sad backstory to it, and while I'm not a massive fan of the direction the anime has been going with the poor animation lately, it has a few of my favourite anime characters in Merlin and Estarossa.
Yeah talking about the animation, what's your thoughts on the last broadcast season, particularly the fight between Meliodas and Escanor ? Do you hope that we're going to get at least a good final season ?
Yea the animation this season, especially in that fight, was a big disappointment especially with how hyped it was. The soundtrack was super on point as usual though which was good at least, and the animation picked up at some points towards the end. I'm slightly hopeful for the next season as it was clear this previous one was rushed, and there's one particular fight I hope is done well.
Yeah let's cross our fingers.. ! Let's focus on Smogon and competitive Pokemon.. From a competitive point of view, do you have any goal on Smogon or in UU ?
I'd quite like to try and win a circuit tour this generation, or try and reach playoffs in Grand Slam, although I still feel both of these are rather out of reach for now. Otherwise I'd mainly just like to focus on helping the community as I have been with QC and analysis work, modding the PS UU room, and helping on the forums.
That's some program you got there ! By the way, about a month ago, you posted your RMT "Francis"..Do you have another UU team that you'd like to share with us ?
does this need to be SS UU? been playing a lot of sm uu lately especially during uupl
Could be whatever you want man !
This is one of my favourite SM UU teams atm. I made it after the end of the generation when i was particularly interested in building around Grass Knot Metagross, which is a really cool set that can lure Pokemon like Swampert and Scizor. Its a good example that i'm not a Sand Balance one trick pony in sm uu kinda! I used this quite a bit in tests for Vets in UUPL, especially for PDT, and it was always one of my favourites to use!
Team looks fire and I'm not saying that because of the Firium Z Rotom-Heat ! I didn't asked yet, but since we're going to have some big changes in UU with the upcoming DLC, do you have any expectation ? Any wish on what we could get ?
One thing, that i'm sure no-one is surprised about, that im excited for is aerodactyl, but that isn't until DLC2. I don't have too many immediate expectations for this DLC due to new toy syndrome in OU, but I would love to get Skarmory finally this gen if Corviknight causes it to get low enough usage, and I'm really not looking forward to getting Scizor most likely dropping. Definitely expecting Blissey to be overpowered in UU with Teleport, especially with Blissey offense teams, although it would otherwise be a nice boon for defensive teams.
Yeah Blissey with Wish and Teleport looks kinda nasty. 3 weeks to wait and we should be fixed ! Last question, could you tell us what's your favorite Pokemon and why ?
One thing to note is that Wish Teleport Blissey is an illegal combination, so we don't have to worry about that! My favourite Pokemon is a tie between Hippowdon or Umbreon personally, Umbreon has historically always been my fav just fitting my playstyle amazingly, and I love its design especially its shiny sprite, although not everyone agrees that it is a black cat. Hippowdon was probably my favourite Pokemon all through sm uu, seeing massive usage, and I similarly love its design and sand as a playstyle in general.
Oh I didn't know you can't run both, what a bless ! Yeah Umbreon is super nice even though the current metagame is super rude for it because of Incineroar, Cobalion, Sylveon and our brand new Keldeo.. Well that's all for today. Thanks for your time and your great answers, feel free to shoutout your friends if you want to !
Would love to shoutout Juno, Accelgor, PinkDragonTamer, Lilburr, and Hilomilo, some of my best friends on this site who make it worth my time!
Sure ! Thanks again and have a good night !
thanks for having me :)
Feel free to ask to Estarossa any questions you want !
If you have some recommendations for an interview, feel free to DM me !