Project Player of the Week - sleid

czim · Oct 21, 2025

Approved by sleid (of course he was approving his own interview) 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: 19th of October, 2025)

Hey friends and welcome to this edition of ZU ~~Palpitoad~~ Player of the Week. I'm very excited to be doing these again and I hope you enjoy reading these interviews as much as I enjoy making them! This is the project where we learn about some of ZU's finest community members in the form of interviews. In this third edition of the project's much anticipated revival, we are interviewing someone who ~~only approved this project so he could get interviewed~~ currently leads the tier and has become a central figure in its development in the last few years and most importantly, unlike our other tier leader Tuthur, is a beloved member of the community. Without further ado,

a cartoon drawing of a pokemon with a leaf on its back

a cartoon character playing drums with cn written on the bottom right

a cartoon eevee is laying on a bed with its eyes closed and smiling .

sleid !!
Favorite Pokémon: :bulbasaur:

(ZU Tier Leader, Room Owner, Forum Moderator and ORASPL finalist)

Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Bulbasaur!

*buuuulbbaaa-saur*

Hey Sleid! I'm really happy you're my third guest in ZU Player of the Week's revival! Welcome! Let's start with the basics, how are you doing today?

Hi Czim. I’m honored to be chosen as your third interviewee! I’m doing great today. Starting off the morning with some Legends ZA. How are you?

That's really cool, how are you enjoying the new game so far? I'm also doing great today, just chilling in a nice sunday morning here playing some Stardew Valley

Nice! I always love the early morning gaming on the weekends. ZA has been really neat so far. I’m not too far in, just hit Rank V!

I played Legends Arceus myself but will probably wait a bit on this one. Since we are already discussing the new game, what's your new favorite Mega? ~~And why is it Victreebel?~~

That’s a tough one! I think I’m gonna have to say ~~Victreebel~~ Chesnaught. That’s one of my favorite starter lines and its new form looks really neat. I’ve always loved the Grass-type starters as you can tell lol

I like Mega Chesnaught's design for sure and I'm also a guy that tends to go for grass starters, on the first 3 generations I often go with Bulbasaur, Chikorita and Treecko. Of the new starter megas I just didn't care much for Greninja's to be honest. I love Victreebel's goofiness though, probably my favorite one of the new megas. Let's talk about the sleid in real life now, what can you tell us about yourself?

I like to stay pretty private online, but I don’t mind sharing some details! I’m in my mid 20s and live in the Midwest of the United States. I’ve been playing Pokemon since I was pretty young (maybe a year before Black and White was released) and have been hooked on this game ever since lol

Think most Pokémon players started as kids and just can never seen to let the franchise go (myself included lol). What can you tell us about your line of work? Did you go to university?

Yeah, I can give you some sort of idea about what I do. I’m a technician of sorts, so I install equipment and perform service and/or maintenance on it when needed. It’s a lot of travel because my company covers a pretty large area in the Midwest. I’ve been full time for a few years now and really enjoy what I do. I did go to University and graduated with a degree in Communications and Philosophy (the Philosophy was more for fun and because I could, don’t really plan to do anything with it lol)

Ah that's really cool. Do you like the travelling aspect of the job? I'm more a home person when I'm working. Philosophy is cool, even if you don't use it. It can help you grow into a better person! Why did you choose to take it?

Yeah I don’t mind being on the road. It’s kind of fun getting to listen to a bunch of different music and podcasts. I also like meeting new people and seeing new places! I took an Eastern Philosophy class to fill a credit requirement in my first year and totally fell in love with it. I just kept taking more and more for fun, then was told by my advisor that I was on track to major in it alongside Communications if I wanted to, so I figured why not lol. Two degrees look good on a resume

That's cool, nice that you found a field that you enjoy! Well, I am starting a new Player of the Week tradition now after how much I loved BaitWiz's cat Daifan on last week's interview, so I just have to ask. Do you have a pet? If so, would you like to share a picture with us? I am calling this the pet tax™ from now on!

Haha I think this is a great tradition! Yes, I have a cat named Patrick. I have a really cute picture I can share of him. He’s wearing his Halloween bandanna lol. I found him in the parking lot of a Walmart when he was just months old. Now he’s been mine ever since!

View attachment 781082
Pet tax: Nice picture of Patrick, sleid's cat (with his very cute halloween bandanna)

I am dying, he's so cute with his little bandana! He seems like a very naughty cat! Am I wrong? Let's change the topic a bit, what are your interests outside of Pokémon? What do you usually like to do in your free time?

He’s definitely a troublemaker that’s for sure! He’s a very spoiled boy and can be bad when he doesn’t get his way. He’s too cute though so he usually doesn’t have trouble not getting what he wants lol. Outside of Pokemon I like to play sports with friends and I play other video games too. I’ve gotten really into Pickleball lately and play in a men’s Softball league. When I’m not out, I enjoy hanging at home with Patrick and playing other video games like Fallout, Call of Duty, or Assassin’s Creed.

What other sports do you usually play? And most importantly, what is Pickleball? Also playing in a league is cool, how does it work? How often are the games?

Tennis is the only other sport I play, but the other two keep me busy enough. Pickleball is like almost like a cross between Tennis and Ping-Pong. There’s a huge craze going on around the USA right now for it. You should definitely check out a video on it! There’s some high level leagues now. Softball league is pretty much like normal Baseball. You play round robin versus all of the other teams for 2-3 months, then get seeded into a tournament and try to come out on top. A friend invited me onto his team and it’s been really fun! A lot more laid back than school/professional sports are. I play both at least once a week, but usually I get together with friends and play Pickleball a few times a week after work!

I'll definitely check it out. I like ping-pong but haven't played it in years. I mostly play football myself, as brazilians often do lol. So it is basically like ZUPL? I'll just sneak a fun question in now then. You have to name your Softball team like it was a team for ZUPL, which name do you choose?

That’s cool! I really like watching football (but us Americans call it soccer). I’ve never really played, but it looks like a lot of fun! Yes it’s very similar to how ZUPL works! That’s a tough question lol. I think I would go with the Menacing Marowaks. Surely Marowak can hit Home Runs with the powerful Thick Club lol

That's a good idea. Marowak could definitely pair well with the sport and is one of my favorites! I'd probably call mine the Gold Bats! What kind of music do you often listen to? Any favorite artists? Anything you really like listening to on the road?

That’s very clever haha, good choice. On the road I listen to a lot of Rap and Rock. As you can see by my Smogon profile picture, I’m a big fan of the $uicideboy$. Outside of them, I listen to a very mixed bag of artists, just kind of comes and goes with who I’m enjoying at the moment. Some other names would be like A$AP Rocky, Token, and Travis Scott just to name a few! I’m the same way with Rock, but I really enjoy Pop Evil, Avenged Sevenfold, and Volbeat specifically. It’s really neat because recently one member of the $uicideboy$ started putting out solo Rock projects under the name “DUCKBOY” so it’s been cool seeing him make music within my favorite genres!

I'm not that versed into Rap so i'll be checking those names after, but seems cool. There's a band called Volbeat? Poor Volbeat, needs a second job to cover the bills. You also mentioned podcasts, which type of podcast do you like? Any favorites?

After the Sun ban in SV ZU, it needs that second job! Lol. My two favorite podcasts are The Yard and Armchair experts. The Yard is just some buddies who are popular on YouTube (Ludwig is the ring leader and a big name there) that do a show together about the cool lives they live. They’re big gamer nerds so I really like hearing the stuff they talk about and they’re super funny. Armchair Expert is a more serious and thoughtful podcast with Dax Shepherd (he’s been in some popular 2000s movies and is married to the movie star Kristen Bell). They have some really neat guests and talk about stuff I’ve never learned of before which is neat to experience! They have a side show called Armchair Anonymous that is my favorite where their viewers submit funny stories on topics each week. Really good listen if you ever get the chance!

That's cool. I've never been much into podcasts but I do like some crime stuff lol. My girlfriend usually puts those on the background and they are usually interesting to listen to. I will check the ones you mentioned out though and my age probably shows because I know who Dax Shepherd is lol. What are some of your favorite movies and TV shows?

I watched some of his movies after listening to the podcast for a while and they’re pretty goofy lol. I don’t watch a ton of TV/Movies, but when I do I like Rick and Morty and all those type of shows (American Dad, Family Guy, etc). I sometimes get into more serious shows like Breaking Bad but I typically like light hearted comedy shows like How I Met Your Mother, The Office, and the Big Bang Theory. As for movies, I’ve enjoy the Marvel movies, the Harry Potter series, and most major comedy films. I’m not too much of a movie buff lol

I knew him from Idiocracy. If you like comedy shows, I'll always recommend Community, my favorite TV show of all time. You also mentioned you like video games. Which ones are your favorites? Do you have a favorite Pokémon game?

Community is a good one! I’ve really gotten into the Fallout Games lately. I finished New Vegas and 3, and just started 4 last week but that’s gonna be on hold for Legends ZA lol. I also really have fun playing Call of Duty Zombies with friends. Outside of those two I don’t play a ton else. I think Black and White (1 & 2) are my favorites, but that might be biased on nostalgia since those were the first couple games I played. I put Scarlet and Violet more than I’ve played any other games so that’s definitely up there for me too

I have to get into Fallout eventually. It seems interesting for me and I tried playing Fallout 4 a bit but it didn't grab me. Let's change the topic to mons now. How did you first stumble into Showdown and Smogon? How did you end up in ZU of all places?

The older Fallout games are better in my opinion. I always recommend starting with New Vegas. I actually played Showdown as a young kid years ago. The account is still searchable as “Commander515”, but I completely forgot about that account until I started getting into Showdown again a few years ago. Back then I was just doing for fun games with my friends though. I used to work a desk job, so to get some breaks here and there I would play computer games. I remembered this website from when I was younger and decided to try it again. ZU caught my eye because it seemed like fun to use Pokemon that you normally wouldn’t. I just kind of lurked for a while and joined room-tours here in there, then saw an ad in the room for Fall Seasonal so I figured I’d give it a try. I lost immediately after getting smoked by Beraldo into Albi, but it was a cool experience. I kept trying to get better when eventually skrimps brought me under his wing, I started getting more involved, and the rest is history.

Think we all just really wanted to use bad mons and ended up sticking around lol. As tier leader, what do you think of the current state of the SV ZU metagame? Is there anything that you think council should probably look into?

I think the current metagame is in a much better state than the last, but it’s still early. Venusaur hasn’t emerged as this broken behemoth yet, but it’s been a nice defensive piece to help the tier with strong threats like Jolt and Basculin. I will be keeping my eye on Snow, because it does seem very strong right now, especially with Healing Wish support. That’s probably the only thing on the Council’s radar currently.

You guys really hate weather, poor Snow. Venusaur seems scary, but might be good for the tier in the long run! If you could get a drop from PU right now, which one would you want to get and why?

I’ve thought about this, and I think Skuntank or Qwilfish-Hisui would be a really nice addition to the meta. The typing helps keep stuff like Venusaur and Mesprit in check a bit more and both have nice qualities to pressure a lot of the current defensive cores of Weezing, Lax, etc. Qwilfish-Hisui could be helpful vs Snow matchups too

Dark/Poison is just a great type combination, lot of useful resistances. The current Viability Rankings haven't been updated in a while due to bans and tier shifts. Do you have any hot takes? Any mon you think is underranked? Any mon that is overranked? Where would you also rank the new drops?

A new VR will be coming soon, once the VR Council can get their grasp on the newest metagame! I think this next VR will be drastically different from the last one. I can see mons like Drifblim and Sableye potentially rising a couple ranks after their recent tour success. Whimsicott will surely plummet this next voting. I don’t really have any “hot takes” because I think the VR is pretty accurate and don’t see anything I would greatly rise or greatly drop. The team does their job well! I would probably sit Venusaur in A to A+ range. Braviary around A- to A and Grafaiai in B+ to A-.

Fair, Whimsicott is probably the biggest victim of Venusaur's ZU adventure, so it will drop a lot for sure. I can see mons that prey on the new drops rising too, such as Muk for Venusaur and Regirock for Braviary. Do you play any ZU old gens currently? Which ones are your favorites if so?

I really only keep up with ORAS. I’ve loved the metagame ever since I got thrust into it for ZUOL II. ORAS Underground and ORASPL has been a lot of fun and I’ve gotten to experiment with new things since the Light Clay + Huntail bans. I think all of our oldgens are fun but I’ve found the most success in this one and find myself continuing to play it the most often

ORAS is a fun gen, although I'll admit it is one of my weakest ones. I like how it has so many viable mons and playstyles though. Let's talk about ORASPL then, you ended up doing surprisingly well in the ZU pool with a 5-2 score after being just a 3k pick. How did you manage to do so consistently well in such a strong pool of players?

I think I’ve loosened up a lot when it comes to playing in big tours. I used to clam up and get super nervous about winning or losing, but now I’m just trying to have fun. It’s cleared my head a lot so I can focus more. I’m building teams that fit my style and trying to explore/push the meta. I haven’t had any support during this tour which has been different because i don’t have other people to bounce ideas around with, but hey it’s worked out so far lol

Ye, sometimes the mental is the biggest boost we can get to be honest! Do you think there were any trends you were using in ORAS that helped you get that score? Any Pokémon that people weren't preparing for well?

I think offensive teams are the trend right now. There’s so many good breakers and setup threats, so most, if not all of my teams leaned into this. I used some unorthodox stuff to shake things up and keep people on their toes like Drilbur, Lampent, and Magcargo. Just trying to diversify my scout so my next move is tough to figure out. I really liked using Simipour this tour, I think it’s ridiculously strong and has many good sets. Krokorok was brought in like 80% of my games. Pressuring Bronzor/Psychics in general is really important instead of having do nothing Rockers like Carbink. It also is a very scary cleaner with the right team around it when you give it the Choice Scarf.

That's some really nice metagame insight and what I was looking for. Those runs don't happen without good prep and you clearly did your homework. Now for the fun question! If you could have one superpower, which one would you choose and why?

I would love the ability to fly! Wouldn’t have to spend as much on gas and I could travel around the world in a snap. That would be really neat. Have you ever thought about what yours would be?

I think I'd prefer teleportation lol, saves the time too and would be cool to have dinner in a different country and come back home just in time. I thought of another fun one, so you will have to deal with it. If you had to form a softball team of Pokémon, which ones would make the team?

Dang why didn’t I think of that one lol! Hmm that’s a tough one, but I had some Pokemon in mind while thinking of team names earlier. I’d need to have some Pokemon that are semi humanoid with arms and such. Marowak definitely makes the team, probably my Catcher since he’s quite slow. I’d have Infernape, Charizard and Greninja in the outfield. Pretty fast guys that can over ground easily. Magmortar as my pitcher would be sick, he’d throw heaters with that cannon. My infield would be Electivire, Toxicroak, Hariyama and Machamp. I think this team would go insane on the field lol

Good picks, I think having arms is probably the most important feature here lol. Do you have a team you would like to share with us? Add a description if you can!

I have a team, but it’s not useable anymore. It’s a really fun team from the old ORAS meta that skrimps and I made together. It’s a really solid HO that I think went 3-0 or 2-1 in team tournament games during that time. Originally we had Marshtomp on team, but skrimps came up with the idea to add Ditto as “the rocker” since it can copy other hazard setters to get the teams own hazards up, and it’s a nice safety net for other offenses that were popular at the time. “Dittho” was a really fun team to use. We’ve made variants since this, but nothing solidified yet!

I like the idea of using Ditto more in the early game, seems like a cool team that rewards great playing. We are nearing the end of the interview! Is there anything you want to say? Anyone you want to shout out?

I just want to say I think ZU is a great place, full of great people despite what anyone says and what recent events have taken place. I appreciate all of ZU staff for how hard they work and all of the people that contribute to making this tier the best it can be. Shoutout skrimps for pulling me further into this place and being a loyal bro. Shoutout all the scrunglers, you know who you are. Thank you czim for reviving this fun project. I’ve enjoyed reading the first two weeks and am excited to see how the rest turn out!

This concludes another edition of ZU Player of the Week! Hope you had a good time here, and thanks for letting me interview you! See you all next week!

Feel free to ask sleid any questions you want!

BaitWiz · Oct 21, 2025

Awesome to see my former partner in crime in my early hosting days getting his interview, just a couple questions for you:

As a fellow Yard listener, it’s funny whenever I hear their name come up. Do you have any particular favorite episodes and/or moments from the Yard?

The Yard’s pretty adjacent to Melee, so I’m also curious if you play any of the smash games. (and if so what your main is in them)

Lastly, I’m a bit curious what other metagames you enjoy - I know you play NFE as well, but curious if there’s any other metagames you play more casually.

lettuce · Oct 21, 2025

Were there any games you didn’t pick the grass starter? I also tend to pick grass but I’m always picking Popplio and Cyndaquil

risin_glory · Oct 22, 2025

As a fellow ORAS ZU enjoyer, just a couple questions for u:
1) which is the most goated oras zu mon and why/why not is it Gogoat
2) what r ur views on Active Tiering for ORAS ZU and do you think ORAS VR should be updated regardless of whether it's done via Active Tiering or not?

zause · Oct 22, 2025

Why is banning venusaur not on the radar (free Emboar and Bello)

Apagogie · Oct 22, 2025

Ding dong, it's time for the ZU History test for the newest Room Owner

Guess which year this picture has been taken (month would be impressive if you feel it)

Which person of this list has never been Room Owner:

kay
Tuthur
czim
Diagnostic
Apagogie
Xayah
Charles A Theist
5gen
Kalaokki
Ho3nConfirm3d

~~

Smogon decides that suddendly one of the criteria to let ZU becomes official is the moderators and drivers cooking skills. It's kinda logical, if you cook well in real life, you probably can cook very good teams in Pokemon too. Therefore, a competition is organized and you have to choose in your staff the three best people that you would trust with a knife and some recipes. Who do you choose?

Moderators (@):baitwiz, bloodace, diegoyuhhi, havocknight, plznostep, sawkasm, skrimps, tuthur
Drivers (%):5dots, afruitshopowner, beatsblack, drmirbro, zpice

sleid · Oct 22, 2025

BaitWiz said:
Awesome to see my former partner in crime in my early hosting days getting his interview, just a couple questions for you:

As a fellow Yard listener, it’s funny whenever I hear their name come up. Do you have any particular favorite episodes and/or moments from the Yard?

The Yard’s pretty adjacent to Melee, so I’m also curious if you play any of the smash games. (and if so what your main is in them)

Lastly, I’m a bit curious what other metagames you enjoy - I know you play NFE as well, but curious if there’s any other metagames you play more casually.

ORAS ZU Cup hosting brothers. Man The Yard has so many good episodes. I love watching their "Best of Moments" from time to time, those always make me laugh. As far as individual episodes, the one when they had Zac Oyama on was really funny. The end where they read Slime's script is so hilarious. I really like the destination episodes like the one they filmed in Australia from the balcony and the one in Japan! Although, you really can't go wrong with any episode lol.

I actually do play Ultimate from time to time, but just friendlies, nothing competitive. I really like to play Lucas, DK, and Sephiroth, but I can pick up just about anyone. I tried Melee once but the difference in game mechanics and quality is jarring so it was hard to stick with.

Besides NFE, the only metagame I've really gotten into lately is VGC. I haven't played in a couple months, but I did make it pretty far in the Seasonal before this current one. I watch a lot of Wolfey, so I wanted to give it a try.

lettuce said:
Were there any games you didn’t pick the grass starter? I also tend to pick grass but I’m always picking Popplio and Cyndaquil

When I was younger, I was more drawn to Mudkip and Oshawott as starter choices more than Treecko and Snivy. Every other generation I have picked Grass-type starters though! Even though sadly most of them are the worst picks in their respective generations lol.

risin_glory said:
As a fellow ORAS ZU enjoyer, just a couple questions for u:
1) which is the most goated oras zu mon and why/why not is it Gogoat
2) what r ur views on Active Tiering for ORAS ZU and do you think ORAS VR should be updated regardless of whether it's done via Active Tiering or not?

Haha, I love Gogoat man. Dude has GOAT in his name, so obviously they're the best. Me personally though, I've been very high on Scraggy lately. Very good setup threat that can cripple teams with Knock Off before it tries to sweep. I think it's the closest thing to broken that we have.

I really don't see the need for active tiering this late in a generation. It could be cool to get a nice mix-up of mons, but that goes against what the other ORAS tiers do and since we just got inclusion in ORASPL I wouldn't want to mess with anything lol.

zause said:
Why is banning venusaur not on the radar (free Emboar and Bello)

czim said:
Venusaur hasn’t emerged as this broken behemoth yet

I don't think it's proven to be broken quite yet. I have been keeping an eye on games and using it on ladder, so I am actively watching it. The poll up in the room also suggests that the general ZU population doesn't see it as unhealthy just yet.

Apagogie said:
Ding dong, it's time for the ZU History test for the newest Room Owner

Guess which year this picture has been taken (month would be impressive if you feel it)

Which person of this list has never been Room Owner:

kay

Tuthur

czim

Diagnostic

Apagogie

Xayah

Charles A Theist

5gen

Kalaokki

Ho3nConfirm3d

~~

Smogon decides that suddendly one of the criteria to let ZU becomes official is the moderators and drivers cooking skills. It's kinda logical, if you cook well in real life, you probably can cook very good teams in Pokemon too. Therefore, a competition is organized and you have to choose in your staff the three best people that you would trust with a knife and some recipes. Who do you choose?

Moderators (@):baitwiz, bloodace, diegoyuhhi, havocknight, plznostep, sawkasm, skrimps, tuthur
Drivers (%):5dots, afruitshopowner, beatsblack, drmirbro, zpice

I am going to guess that this is from the SM era. Possibly 2017? Let's say July?

This is a tough one. I want to say Charles A. Theist because I didn't even know he was room auth before lol.

This is a great question! I think I'm definitely having Mirbro on the team, I have a feeling he knows his way around the kitchen. a fruitshop owner has his own food store, so he definitely makes the squad. BloodAce would round out the team, he's always talking about his homemade pasta dishes that he makes from scratch! Seriously this guy does it all!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for the awesome questions, I loved answering them. Keep em coming if you wish!

BaitWiz · Oct 24, 2025

Two more extremely important questions.

1. What’s your favorite role in Town of Salem? (we should play again sometime btw)

2. For whatever reason you end up as Vigilante in a fifteen player Town of Salem game where all of the players are you, the room moderators/drivers, and OBB. OBB dies Night One and Tuthur predictably gets voted out day 2, leaving you as the lone room owner with a gun and your wits against a town of the remaining ZU Staff. Who are you shooting Night 2 as the one responsible for killing OBB Night 1 and who are you blaming Day 3?

Remaining Staff: baitwiz, bloodace, diegoyuhhi, havocknight, plznostep, sawkasm, skrimps, 5dots, afruitshopowner, beatsblack, drmirbro, zpice

sleid · Oct 25, 2025

BaitWiz said:
Two more extremely important questions.

1. What’s your favorite role in Town of Salem? (we should play again sometime btw)

2. For whatever reason you end up as Vigilante in a fifteen player Town of Salem game where all of the players are you, the room moderators/drivers, and OBB. OBB dies Night One and Tuthur predictably gets voted out day 2, leaving you as the lone room owner with a gun and your wits against a town of the remaining ZU Staff. Who are you shooting Night 2 as the one responsible for killing OBB Night 1 and who are you blaming Day 3?

Remaining Staff: baitwiz, bloodace, diegoyuhhi, havocknight, plznostep, sawkasm, skrimps, 5dots, afruitshopowner, beatsblack, drmirbro, zpice

I'm a big fan of playing LO. It feels really good to catch someone visiting players in the middle of the night, especially if you can catch a killer or even just clearing other town.

I'm shooting you, BaitWiz, because you know OBB is a powerful ToS player and would want to get rid of them. I'm for sure blaming Zpice because he will John getting a response to the group and get voted out

Project Player of the Week - sleid

czim

BaitWiz

ZU Ladder Achievement Hunter

lettuce

romaine emperor

risin_glory

zause

Sigma Gamer

Apagogie

Zee you later

sleid

Monochromatic

BaitWiz

ZU Ladder Achievement Hunter

sleid

Monochromatic