any fun shitmons you've tried building in ndru?
what's a pokemon you hate seeing your opponent bring, broken or not?
what's a pokemon you hate seeing your opponent bring, broken or not?
-
Follow our Instagram!
-
Curious about what we're currently doing about bots? Check out the latest updates from staff in this thread.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Project National Dex POTW #15- Boomer
- Thread starter Dahness
- Start date
Semi-room is my favorite archetype and this one for UU is so easy to just click teleport with bro and go into ursa or blaceph and nuke something.
:aerodactyl-mega: :ursaluna: :excadrill: :hydrapple: :blacephalon: :slowbro:
I'm an honest man, and to that I can attest that out of the many candidates eligible for this title, Runo is the Powercrept Wojak Tauros and I am the Everadapting Chad Gholdengo. If he wants to dispute the title of Sealoo School of Thought's best student, he can challenge me in a bo5 grudge match (ou, uu, ru, ssndou, VGC15).
Hands down gotta be SapoDaG30, He's pretty cool and always wanting to push the boundaries of the meta and bring something new to the table. SSNDPL and NDPL were both great times because it's just a bunch of us yapping about RU.
This team is all over the place but you can U-turn with maus to scout for helmets, and go into mega doom or slither to threaten the steel types that love to sit on maus. It's worse than mega pidgey in many ways, but who can resist a family of mice pelting people with their children?
:Tinkaton: :Houndoom-Mega: :Slither-Wing: :Maushold-Four: :Slowking: :Gligar:
also tried Alolem with mono cane pidgey but there's actually no hope for that guy.
Mega-Venu; it's not every day you see it in OU or UU, but that dude always has the most annoying set on deck when you're least prepared for it.
what's your most underrated NDRU shitmon?
:bw/Deoxys-Defense:
I think both spikes set and and demon set could be used could be used to varying success, especially now that fat has re-entered the metagame and it doesn't have to get poisoned by dogi.
also peep this
36 Atk Deoxys-Defense All-Out Pummeling (190 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Cyclizar: 304-358 (88.3 - 104%) -- guaranteed OHKO after Stealth Rock
No more long delays! Welcome back to POTW! There's a lot of content for this one, so I'm gonna spare you all from a long intro. This week I'm interviewing hex, sealoo, and kDCA, the managers of the Wealthy Weaviles!
:audino-mega: - me
:bombirdier: - hex
:sealeo: - sealoo
:weavile: - kdca
----------
:audino-mega: What do you do outside of smogon?
:bombirdier: I'm a college student, and most of my time is eaten up by that. If I'm not doing schoolwork I'm probably either larping on Discord or going out to bars with my friends as much as our schedule allows it
:sealeo: im a 19yo college student from maryland (born in illinois tho) + disciple of Mike for work currently pursuing a degree in public health and looking to do something medically w that but not a doctor cause im too dumb and lazy for medschool. overwatch 2 is prob my most played game outside of pokemon and im a big nfl fan (especially my bears who are 9-3 as of rn!!) as well as dog person with the current 6 we have
:weavile: I used to work towards becoming a pilot, however I have since pivoted to more political and international affairs based fields. I still love aviation, but I really enjoy feeling much more connected and involved in current events
:audino-mega: What got you into mons as a whole?
:bombirdier: When I was about 4(?) years old I had gotten surgery and it had a long recovery period, during that time my Dad got me a Nintendo DS with Nintendogs on it (LMAO fuck me that's such a long time ago). I guess I really liked it and asked for more DS games and the next thing I knew I had bought Pokemon Pearl and somehow gotten my hands on a copy of Pokemon Ruby. I always kept up with Pokemon after that and then down the line watching Poketubers eventually got me into competitive mons
:sealeo: imma do more of a full background but my first pokemon game was XY that my mom got for me at the local gamestop in like 2014, and i played that + sm + usum until 2018 when i discovered ps. to me, the concept of being able to use shinies and whatever mon u wanted was INSANE and i would play on my moms work computer + with a family friend at his house sometimes. i played sparingly until about 2020 when i played a bit of ss ou after seeing blunder vids on youtube but decided that shit was garbage and went to go play natdex like a lot of ppl at the time, eventually registering my smogon in april 2020 and was a 1200s boblow trolling a lot (eventually culminating in a nd cord ban actually) in like december 2020 as well as a jerkcord with some ppl who dont play anymore like ghostyshibe sockzz piley avery (:AWARE:) that i talked with most the time. i came back in july 2022 cause i was bored and remembered this game existed through youtube i think and was primarily active again in nd room where i met some close friends in hidin sulo gamer but swag and turban by yeat (aka yam) and got me into playing more seriously in tournaments and whatnot. eventually when sv came out, me hidin gamer and yam would grind a ton and play on call almost daily, eventually winning the trios tour + debuting in wc for everyone courtesy of big sulo nepo besides NE soldier Yam. ive been pretty active in the scene ever since altho i still trolled a lot in 2022/2023 but reformed into CLoo now
:weavile: I did some random ladders like ubers on ps in 2015, but really only got back into mons during covid where my friends dragged me onto a pixelmon server and a spark reiginited, and in 2022 I for practical reasons entered my first tour on smogon
:audino-mega: What is the origin of your username?
:bombirdier: I've gone by a lottt of names on Smogon over the years that I've been here. In this order: 52Gambit -> Miraage (LOL) -> cy -> sasha -> hex. Rapid fire TLDRs for each one: I've been bad at coming up with names (fork found in kitchen) so my friend came up with 52Gambit for me. I got bored of it and made Miraage after a song I had really loved during that time but Mirage was unavailable. Then I was like ok fuck it everyone just calls me by my irl name so I'll just go by cy. Then I transitioned and picked the name sasha, and then I took nearly a year long break from Smogon and then decided I don't want my usernames to be any sort of irl identity. I bounced different names around for a while but eventually decided I liked hex a lot. No particular reason I guess? I could go on and on about the symbolism but when I thought about the name it just "clicked" and I've loved it since
:sealeo: seals are my favorite animal and i think i sorta stole it from the mon sealeo
:weavile: relating back to question one where I used to work towards becoming a pilot, "KDCA" is an airport code. There really isnt much more to it, just that I really love aviation and is just a reference to the airport I'm closest to. I usually go by DCA though
:audino-mega: How was your overall PL experience (Draft Plans, Playing, Prepping, etc.)?
:bombirdier: It was pretty good. I admittedly took more of a back seat as a manager (this will be a common theme throughout the rest of my answers prob) as I was really busy and almost didn't manage the PL altogether. Which was a weird change of pace for me since I'm usually super involved. After pestering Sealoo a bunch about managing he eventually approached me and asked if I'd be willing to help the Mono slot. I was fine with that since it meant I was only responsible for one tier and if I had time/wanted to help other slots I could, without being expected to
:sealeo: PL was very fun working with the SV + UU slots that did super well overall and having a strong performance personally en route to the ring. it was a bit of a struggle to actually assemble this trio with dca being unsure and this causing me to not have a definitive answer for hex for a minute. pre-draft we went hard for hellom cus he was like the only rly good sv in the pool + had p much a guarantee 3k axzel who we knew would farm; micaiah and luthier retains were also very strong choices altho both went negative sadly. im glad it all worked out, especially since all of us have been playing in this shit for like 3-4 years and had no tt wins
:weavile: I knew going into this tour that prep wise, I would be a lot less active, but during draft planning I was still the usual me. Last year went a lot more according to plan, as a few of our initial targets this year went a bit over what I could pay, which made flexxing slots like UU which we didnt have too much backup for a bit weird, but it worked out and basically everyone we got was on the board one way or another.
:audino-mega: Which team gave you the hardest time with prep?
:bombirdier: Tbh none really. I feel like I have a decent grasp on how to prep Monotype and the only time Monotype feels "hard" to prep is when you're building something you either have this dread that the team loses to something randomly or you go insane trying to fix or cover the one thing you lose to which is sometimes just not possible in the tier
:sealeo: this is a bit of a tough question, but id probably give it to the victinis to my recollection in SV because the trends seemed pretty random/nonexistant + limited sample overall + had very minimal prior games vs 1yr to reference when thinking what they may want to bring. This culminated in a pretty shitty week of prep from me and we prob shouldve been 1-2 in it w/o luck in hellom lulu game. In uu, it was the slowpokes because the slot was a rotating door and had extremely limited sample + no clear mind behind the prep, also our own subbing around made picking out a team hella difficult even tho we ultimately rolled a good mu
:weavile: Probably boomers team. He has my builder and has worked with me many times over the years, and especially in finals when I knew they had multiple chefs in the SS kitchen it was hard to take an approach I thought would land a great MU. In finals only 1 SS game was played, but I was confident in what we were going towards in the prep game
:audino-mega: Which week was the most fun for you?
:bombirdier: Finals. Not even because we won (it certainly helps for sure) but because we started playing minigames with discord server bots and did stupid shit like play gartic phone and skribbl which was super fun. It's been a while since I've been in a team cord where people were willing to take time out of their day to fuck around like that so it was pretty fun and of course memorable. I would be shocked if Sealoo and dca answer differently here :sob:
:sealeo: most fun week is a toss-up between w1 vs phoenix and semis vs absols. the phoenix plotline was very obvious with the finals and wc semis rematch vs ryuji/tuthur particularly, and we really wanted to put out a statement. in terms of prep tho it was a lot more simple since its just week 1 and a big lack of info means more general calls instead of specified stuff as the season goes on. super hype week that we dominated overall. semis vs absols was another fun one because i felt like with our new lu, we were peaking at just the right time and were lowkey a mismatch for the absols (just like how i think the basculegions were a mismatch for us tbh), evidenced by our prior reg season meeting. it started off rough but chaining together a ton of weekend wins and being able to bring home the dub for us was mad fun (think we went from 0-2 to like 6-3)
:weavile: Probably finals. Not anything with the games, but at 2-0 with about every other slot having 0 prep locked in, we all started doing a bunch of skribbl.io's, gartic phones, discord games, and it was hella fun
:audino-mega: Which tier was your favorite throughout the tour (Prepping and Spectating)?
:bombirdier: NDOU and kind of UU? NDOU just because I was pretty uninvolved with that prep and seeing what Sealoo cooked up for those slots was entertaining. I also liked NDUU just because the tier seemed interesting and made me want to play it myself tbh. I missed a lot of the RU games which sucks cuz I like NDRU as well but it is what it is
:sealeo: uu is my favorite tier cause i have a lot of ideas for it as opposed to sv which ive been constantly building for sooo long, tier dynamics are p fun and skill based too imo
:weavile: SSND and UU were the only ones I was involved in, so defo those. Although prepping SSND gets more annoying as the years go on, so maybe not that in the prep department
:audino-mega: Any stand out performances from one of your players that you’d like to shout out?
:bombirdier: Our entire team is shiest so it's hard to pick out one person but PixelBob was a great sub, super active and great to hang out with and I think managers throughout ND tours and outside should draft him if they want someone whos a good teammate
:sealeo: i think Axzel is one of the best pure clickers out there, and i particularly need to give xinnobu a lot of credit for delivering multiple crunch time wins off the bench and revitalizing our ubers slot down the stretch. pixelbob is a big engine for activity and all the day-to-day shit that goes into a team asw, highly recommend buying in any tour
:weavile: He is lowkey buns at the game by not slotting sv1 once (probably) and then talking shit, but I gotta give him his flowers for his phenomenal improvement over the years, sealoo is defo the weavile cornerstone player atp, and his performance both in game and in prep channels were the reason we won. it was somewhat impressive, i guess
:audino-mega: Any rising stars we should keep an eye out for in the future?
:bombirdier: crow crumbs is one of my besties but also I think they're quite good at the game and picks up tiers pretty fast. Might flop I guess as we all sometimes do, but I enjoy watching them prep and play the game. Same with Nuxl also think he has a good eye for the game. Obviously biased as these are my good friends but I'd love to see them in more tours in general
:sealeo: generally luuanfps has some incredibly impressive games, he is mad good and plays like hes been a staple forever despite being a debut tournament. Clawed Winter is more established but seeing him have a rly strong campaign this pl with mafia after benching for us last year was great to see. for sv, my boy slopcat had a lot of impact on a great season for the basculegion for someone making their pl debut, thats never easy
:weavile: I didnt really watch ndpl games too much this year (or most other nd tour games), so anything I say is genuinely just speaking out of my ass, refer to sealoo for a better answer as this dude lives ND
:audino-mega: Which team has the best name? (Not including yourself)?
:bombirdier: & :sealeo: Three Gogoats. :gogoat:
:weavile: ill give it to the vics, one of the 3 longstanding ND franchises and i like vic as a mon :victini:
:audino-mega: What are your thoughts on OU right now?
:bombirdier: Seems chill. SSOU is so boring to watch because it's just SMOU teams being recycled and I think SMOU #SUCKS. SVOU I have no comment on the games seemed pretty entertaining though I think theres just so much going on you cant cover everything in builder which can feel a little overwhelming at times
:sealeo: i like it, feels pretty skillful and stable
:weavile: Not gonna answer for SVND, but I think SS NDOU is in a pretty good shape, perhaps a bit stale if anything. Its pretty hard to push innovation in this tier, a lot of innovation I see is kinda just ass or weird fishing rather than a development that can take on meta consistently. I think meta has gotten a lot more rewarding for offense, which is a shakeup I think is a lot better for the tiers health as the fat shit of the cg and initial post cg era was pretty bad for the tiers rep amongst newer nd players
:audino-mega: Favorite “junk food” mon?
:bombirdier: Um..........I play PU and Monotype I feel like I'm pretty used to using shit mons and when I play OU I don't really experiment too much. I guess I'd have to say Mega Gyara even tho it's not a shit mon but I spam it on HO for the stall matchup
:sealeo: mega gardevoir is a rly solid antimeta rn with its mu vs ting/bird structures and being a nightmare mu for kyurem
:weavile: (ssnd) probably mega aero. its speed tier is fire for revenging in this tier, lowkey can tech tons of coverage, fast taunt is great, and can realistically fit on offensive teams to check annoying fires which otherwise is hard to do. it has a big opportunity cost but is pretty damn fun to use
:audino-mega: Favorite mon as a whole? Any teams you’d like to share? (Any tier)
:bombirdier: It switches around a lot so I'll give a top 5 that stays pretty consistent: (In no particular order) Bombirdier, Aurorus, Kilowattrel, Krookodile, Mega Chimecho
:sealeo: my favorite mon is sealeo or spheal but in the realm of more viable stuff, i really like mega scizor and hisui samurott both for their design and gameplay for the latter more so. hsam is such a great mon for playing aggressive, has everything you could want p much to force progress and has easy ins on plenty. msciz is a mon i kinda hate building with but it usually doesnt disappoint in game (uturn sciz always does work for me but building w it is annoying af idk)
:weavile: (ssnd again) in a tier so close to sm but lacking mage and no large steela presence, lele is one of the most fun mons i think you can use. i dont think lele will ever not get value, and with so many viable sets (never forget SSND pushed the av lele agenda), you always can be in the drivers seat with that mon. even then its not in the top 3 for the tier, but its just one of the mons that makes me enjoy playing the game. For a team to send, this is pretty old but i dont ever have an excuse to send it these days and i would defo make updates to it but i will send for the culture :pelipper: :ferrothorn: :swampert-mega: :moltres-galar: :regieleki: :tapu lele: one of my fav teams i ever made in this tier. i made it in 2022 after making winners finals in my first ssnl in prep for a wc meta (i did not make the wc roster tho), but it was heavily influenced by the storm zone eleki rain that was blowing up in ssou at the time. eleki was not common but had very solid speed tier and revengability in this tier, team uses av lele since kyurem during this age was rampant, and has a crazy golt spread to live modest nmi kyurem ice beam (also relevant at the time), and get other decent rolls vs passive fairies that u can just set up on to win games. back during cg, this was one of the few teams i hit 2k+ with on ladder, and another close friend of mine hit 2k with it as well, and in tour it put up pretty good numbers. 3-2 I believe, with one of the losses being a sunny day zone cteam that even then needed to get lucky to win, so it did me good.If you are looking here for a team to load in tours, I would recommend the weavile rain structures :pelipper: :swampert-mega: :zapdos: :ferrothorn: :manaphy: :weavile:. It doesnt really matter how public it is, everyone would know the sets on preview anyways, and the tools here can really take on so much of the meta consistently imo
:audino-mega: Favorite Song?
:bombirdier: Keep Holding On - Snow Strippers
:sealeo: Killing Time - Magdalena Bay
:weavile: Into the Endless Night - Live - Parannoul
:audino-mega: Thought’s on the NatDex community as a whole?
:bombirdier: It's fun! I've made some good friends here so far and I can't complain. If you asked me in 2023 when I was getting ragebaited by the community I would've given a wildly different answer.
:sealeo: definitely has its moments especially with how young it generally is but this community/tier is favorite on the site and that will never change. im glad i can start being the bitter old man now instead of the newcomer for the next generation of players...
:weavile: Natdex community has evolved a lot since when I started. I have never really been that involved in the more mainstream natdex community ever, so Im probably not the best person to judge state of community, but the scene has become a lot less elitist, and I think there are more opportunities to be seen than ever if you are seeking more action. Obviously some curious actors, but thats in every community
:audino-mega: What’s next for you? What are you focusing on?
:bombirdier: After winning NDPL, that marks 2/3 "bucket list" (lol cringeee!) tours that I want to win. MPL was the other tour I won, but the last one I'm gunning for is PUPL (or well a PU tournament in general). After that I'm not sure? I guess I'll think about it when the time comes
:sealeo: with my semester ending, i currently have signed up for a lot of tours in the coming winter months though i dont really enjoy any tier to the degree that i do nd so ive been pivoting away from non-natdex stuff in recent times. i suppose i just wanna keep getting better/more consistent at natdex as a whole and dabble in some other stuff i enjoy like mono; my big goal is currently on circuit and winning a ndwc behind that. for the tier in its entirety, i want to hopefully have it grow and become more respected but the latter is admittedly pretty hard ive learned...
:weavile: I'm not sure what I'll do next for natdex. I'm like 60/40 on doing ndwc, and have no plans to continue NDPL currently. Most of my focus is going towards different formats and tours, but also have a lot of non mons things on my plate. NDWC will likely be my last natdex tour indefinitely, should I sign up for it. never say never i guess though
:audino-mega: Any closing statements?
:bombirdier: kDCA PixelBob Taka 5 stack when
:sealeo: major s/o's to all my friends in PRC, i never expected the server to grow so much but i rly enjoy interacting with yall and what we've made in there. seth hidin kayzn gamer but swag yonmd for being my best friends on this site for a good long while, appreciate & cherish you guys a lot
:weavile: If you are new and want to get onto a bigger ND stage as a player, don't be discouraged by things not going your way early on if you are looking for your first break. this tier can be a solid place to grow as a player, use ladder and test games to improve consistency, get good placements in tours, and get your run back on any doubters
----------
And with that, we have reached the end of yet another interview :) This interview was by far my favorite to make behind the scenes, so thank you dca, hex, and sealoo for participating! This was pretty ambitious from me, as this was the largest interview I've done. I've added more questions to the interview that I plan to keep as mainstay questions for future interviews and this was POTW's first ever triple interview! This won't be the last, so stick around for the next interview. Until then, feel free to drop any additional question you may have for these three. Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you all for the next interview!
:audino-mega: - me
:bombirdier: - hex
:sealeo: - sealoo
:weavile: - kdca
----------
...NOW PLAYING: LIARA, BY DEVON HENDRYX
:audino-mega: What do you do outside of smogon?
:bombirdier: I'm a college student, and most of my time is eaten up by that. If I'm not doing schoolwork I'm probably either larping on Discord or going out to bars with my friends as much as our schedule allows it
:sealeo: im a 19yo college student from maryland (born in illinois tho) + disciple of Mike for work currently pursuing a degree in public health and looking to do something medically w that but not a doctor cause im too dumb and lazy for medschool. overwatch 2 is prob my most played game outside of pokemon and im a big nfl fan (especially my bears who are 9-3 as of rn!!) as well as dog person with the current 6 we have
:weavile: I used to work towards becoming a pilot, however I have since pivoted to more political and international affairs based fields. I still love aviation, but I really enjoy feeling much more connected and involved in current events
:audino-mega: What got you into mons as a whole?
:bombirdier: When I was about 4(?) years old I had gotten surgery and it had a long recovery period, during that time my Dad got me a Nintendo DS with Nintendogs on it (LMAO fuck me that's such a long time ago). I guess I really liked it and asked for more DS games and the next thing I knew I had bought Pokemon Pearl and somehow gotten my hands on a copy of Pokemon Ruby. I always kept up with Pokemon after that and then down the line watching Poketubers eventually got me into competitive mons
:sealeo: imma do more of a full background but my first pokemon game was XY that my mom got for me at the local gamestop in like 2014, and i played that + sm + usum until 2018 when i discovered ps. to me, the concept of being able to use shinies and whatever mon u wanted was INSANE and i would play on my moms work computer + with a family friend at his house sometimes. i played sparingly until about 2020 when i played a bit of ss ou after seeing blunder vids on youtube but decided that shit was garbage and went to go play natdex like a lot of ppl at the time, eventually registering my smogon in april 2020 and was a 1200s boblow trolling a lot (eventually culminating in a nd cord ban actually) in like december 2020 as well as a jerkcord with some ppl who dont play anymore like ghostyshibe sockzz piley avery (:AWARE:) that i talked with most the time. i came back in july 2022 cause i was bored and remembered this game existed through youtube i think and was primarily active again in nd room where i met some close friends in hidin sulo gamer but swag and turban by yeat (aka yam) and got me into playing more seriously in tournaments and whatnot. eventually when sv came out, me hidin gamer and yam would grind a ton and play on call almost daily, eventually winning the trios tour + debuting in wc for everyone courtesy of big sulo nepo besides NE soldier Yam. ive been pretty active in the scene ever since altho i still trolled a lot in 2022/2023 but reformed into CLoo now
:weavile: I did some random ladders like ubers on ps in 2015, but really only got back into mons during covid where my friends dragged me onto a pixelmon server and a spark reiginited, and in 2022 I for practical reasons entered my first tour on smogon
:audino-mega: What is the origin of your username?
:bombirdier: I've gone by a lottt of names on Smogon over the years that I've been here. In this order: 52Gambit -> Miraage (LOL) -> cy -> sasha -> hex. Rapid fire TLDRs for each one: I've been bad at coming up with names (fork found in kitchen) so my friend came up with 52Gambit for me. I got bored of it and made Miraage after a song I had really loved during that time but Mirage was unavailable. Then I was like ok fuck it everyone just calls me by my irl name so I'll just go by cy. Then I transitioned and picked the name sasha, and then I took nearly a year long break from Smogon and then decided I don't want my usernames to be any sort of irl identity. I bounced different names around for a while but eventually decided I liked hex a lot. No particular reason I guess? I could go on and on about the symbolism but when I thought about the name it just "clicked" and I've loved it since
:sealeo: seals are my favorite animal and i think i sorta stole it from the mon sealeo
:weavile: relating back to question one where I used to work towards becoming a pilot, "KDCA" is an airport code. There really isnt much more to it, just that I really love aviation and is just a reference to the airport I'm closest to. I usually go by DCA though
:audino-mega: How was your overall PL experience (Draft Plans, Playing, Prepping, etc.)?
:bombirdier: It was pretty good. I admittedly took more of a back seat as a manager (this will be a common theme throughout the rest of my answers prob) as I was really busy and almost didn't manage the PL altogether. Which was a weird change of pace for me since I'm usually super involved. After pestering Sealoo a bunch about managing he eventually approached me and asked if I'd be willing to help the Mono slot. I was fine with that since it meant I was only responsible for one tier and if I had time/wanted to help other slots I could, without being expected to
:sealeo: PL was very fun working with the SV + UU slots that did super well overall and having a strong performance personally en route to the ring. it was a bit of a struggle to actually assemble this trio with dca being unsure and this causing me to not have a definitive answer for hex for a minute. pre-draft we went hard for hellom cus he was like the only rly good sv in the pool + had p much a guarantee 3k axzel who we knew would farm; micaiah and luthier retains were also very strong choices altho both went negative sadly. im glad it all worked out, especially since all of us have been playing in this shit for like 3-4 years and had no tt wins
:weavile: I knew going into this tour that prep wise, I would be a lot less active, but during draft planning I was still the usual me. Last year went a lot more according to plan, as a few of our initial targets this year went a bit over what I could pay, which made flexxing slots like UU which we didnt have too much backup for a bit weird, but it worked out and basically everyone we got was on the board one way or another.
:audino-mega: Which team gave you the hardest time with prep?
:bombirdier: Tbh none really. I feel like I have a decent grasp on how to prep Monotype and the only time Monotype feels "hard" to prep is when you're building something you either have this dread that the team loses to something randomly or you go insane trying to fix or cover the one thing you lose to which is sometimes just not possible in the tier
:sealeo: this is a bit of a tough question, but id probably give it to the victinis to my recollection in SV because the trends seemed pretty random/nonexistant + limited sample overall + had very minimal prior games vs 1yr to reference when thinking what they may want to bring. This culminated in a pretty shitty week of prep from me and we prob shouldve been 1-2 in it w/o luck in hellom lulu game. In uu, it was the slowpokes because the slot was a rotating door and had extremely limited sample + no clear mind behind the prep, also our own subbing around made picking out a team hella difficult even tho we ultimately rolled a good mu
:weavile: Probably boomers team. He has my builder and has worked with me many times over the years, and especially in finals when I knew they had multiple chefs in the SS kitchen it was hard to take an approach I thought would land a great MU. In finals only 1 SS game was played, but I was confident in what we were going towards in the prep game
:audino-mega: Which week was the most fun for you?
:bombirdier: Finals. Not even because we won (it certainly helps for sure) but because we started playing minigames with discord server bots and did stupid shit like play gartic phone and skribbl which was super fun. It's been a while since I've been in a team cord where people were willing to take time out of their day to fuck around like that so it was pretty fun and of course memorable. I would be shocked if Sealoo and dca answer differently here :sob:
:sealeo: most fun week is a toss-up between w1 vs phoenix and semis vs absols. the phoenix plotline was very obvious with the finals and wc semis rematch vs ryuji/tuthur particularly, and we really wanted to put out a statement. in terms of prep tho it was a lot more simple since its just week 1 and a big lack of info means more general calls instead of specified stuff as the season goes on. super hype week that we dominated overall. semis vs absols was another fun one because i felt like with our new lu, we were peaking at just the right time and were lowkey a mismatch for the absols (just like how i think the basculegions were a mismatch for us tbh), evidenced by our prior reg season meeting. it started off rough but chaining together a ton of weekend wins and being able to bring home the dub for us was mad fun (think we went from 0-2 to like 6-3)
:weavile: Probably finals. Not anything with the games, but at 2-0 with about every other slot having 0 prep locked in, we all started doing a bunch of skribbl.io's, gartic phones, discord games, and it was hella fun
:audino-mega: Which tier was your favorite throughout the tour (Prepping and Spectating)?
:bombirdier: NDOU and kind of UU? NDOU just because I was pretty uninvolved with that prep and seeing what Sealoo cooked up for those slots was entertaining. I also liked NDUU just because the tier seemed interesting and made me want to play it myself tbh. I missed a lot of the RU games which sucks cuz I like NDRU as well but it is what it is
:sealeo: uu is my favorite tier cause i have a lot of ideas for it as opposed to sv which ive been constantly building for sooo long, tier dynamics are p fun and skill based too imo
:weavile: SSND and UU were the only ones I was involved in, so defo those. Although prepping SSND gets more annoying as the years go on, so maybe not that in the prep department
:audino-mega: Any stand out performances from one of your players that you’d like to shout out?
:bombirdier: Our entire team is shiest so it's hard to pick out one person but PixelBob was a great sub, super active and great to hang out with and I think managers throughout ND tours and outside should draft him if they want someone whos a good teammate
:sealeo: i think Axzel is one of the best pure clickers out there, and i particularly need to give xinnobu a lot of credit for delivering multiple crunch time wins off the bench and revitalizing our ubers slot down the stretch. pixelbob is a big engine for activity and all the day-to-day shit that goes into a team asw, highly recommend buying in any tour
:weavile: He is lowkey buns at the game by not slotting sv1 once (probably) and then talking shit, but I gotta give him his flowers for his phenomenal improvement over the years, sealoo is defo the weavile cornerstone player atp, and his performance both in game and in prep channels were the reason we won. it was somewhat impressive, i guess
:audino-mega: Any rising stars we should keep an eye out for in the future?
:bombirdier: crow crumbs is one of my besties but also I think they're quite good at the game and picks up tiers pretty fast. Might flop I guess as we all sometimes do, but I enjoy watching them prep and play the game. Same with Nuxl also think he has a good eye for the game. Obviously biased as these are my good friends but I'd love to see them in more tours in general
:sealeo: generally luuanfps has some incredibly impressive games, he is mad good and plays like hes been a staple forever despite being a debut tournament. Clawed Winter is more established but seeing him have a rly strong campaign this pl with mafia after benching for us last year was great to see. for sv, my boy slopcat had a lot of impact on a great season for the basculegion for someone making their pl debut, thats never easy
:weavile: I didnt really watch ndpl games too much this year (or most other nd tour games), so anything I say is genuinely just speaking out of my ass, refer to sealoo for a better answer as this dude lives ND
:audino-mega: Which team has the best name? (Not including yourself)?
:bombirdier: & :sealeo: Three Gogoats. :gogoat:
:weavile: ill give it to the vics, one of the 3 longstanding ND franchises and i like vic as a mon :victini:
:audino-mega: What are your thoughts on OU right now?
:bombirdier: Seems chill. SSOU is so boring to watch because it's just SMOU teams being recycled and I think SMOU #SUCKS. SVOU I have no comment on the games seemed pretty entertaining though I think theres just so much going on you cant cover everything in builder which can feel a little overwhelming at times
:sealeo: i like it, feels pretty skillful and stable
:weavile: Not gonna answer for SVND, but I think SS NDOU is in a pretty good shape, perhaps a bit stale if anything. Its pretty hard to push innovation in this tier, a lot of innovation I see is kinda just ass or weird fishing rather than a development that can take on meta consistently. I think meta has gotten a lot more rewarding for offense, which is a shakeup I think is a lot better for the tiers health as the fat shit of the cg and initial post cg era was pretty bad for the tiers rep amongst newer nd players
:audino-mega: Favorite “junk food” mon?
:bombirdier: Um..........I play PU and Monotype I feel like I'm pretty used to using shit mons and when I play OU I don't really experiment too much. I guess I'd have to say Mega Gyara even tho it's not a shit mon but I spam it on HO for the stall matchup
:sealeo: mega gardevoir is a rly solid antimeta rn with its mu vs ting/bird structures and being a nightmare mu for kyurem
:weavile: (ssnd) probably mega aero. its speed tier is fire for revenging in this tier, lowkey can tech tons of coverage, fast taunt is great, and can realistically fit on offensive teams to check annoying fires which otherwise is hard to do. it has a big opportunity cost but is pretty damn fun to use
:audino-mega: Favorite mon as a whole? Any teams you’d like to share? (Any tier)
:bombirdier: It switches around a lot so I'll give a top 5 that stays pretty consistent: (In no particular order) Bombirdier, Aurorus, Kilowattrel, Krookodile, Mega Chimecho
:sealeo: my favorite mon is sealeo or spheal but in the realm of more viable stuff, i really like mega scizor and hisui samurott both for their design and gameplay for the latter more so. hsam is such a great mon for playing aggressive, has everything you could want p much to force progress and has easy ins on plenty. msciz is a mon i kinda hate building with but it usually doesnt disappoint in game (uturn sciz always does work for me but building w it is annoying af idk)
:weavile: (ssnd again) in a tier so close to sm but lacking mage and no large steela presence, lele is one of the most fun mons i think you can use. i dont think lele will ever not get value, and with so many viable sets (never forget SSND pushed the av lele agenda), you always can be in the drivers seat with that mon. even then its not in the top 3 for the tier, but its just one of the mons that makes me enjoy playing the game. For a team to send, this is pretty old but i dont ever have an excuse to send it these days and i would defo make updates to it but i will send for the culture :pelipper: :ferrothorn: :swampert-mega: :moltres-galar: :regieleki: :tapu lele: one of my fav teams i ever made in this tier. i made it in 2022 after making winners finals in my first ssnl in prep for a wc meta (i did not make the wc roster tho), but it was heavily influenced by the storm zone eleki rain that was blowing up in ssou at the time. eleki was not common but had very solid speed tier and revengability in this tier, team uses av lele since kyurem during this age was rampant, and has a crazy golt spread to live modest nmi kyurem ice beam (also relevant at the time), and get other decent rolls vs passive fairies that u can just set up on to win games. back during cg, this was one of the few teams i hit 2k+ with on ladder, and another close friend of mine hit 2k with it as well, and in tour it put up pretty good numbers. 3-2 I believe, with one of the losses being a sunny day zone cteam that even then needed to get lucky to win, so it did me good.If you are looking here for a team to load in tours, I would recommend the weavile rain structures :pelipper: :swampert-mega: :zapdos: :ferrothorn: :manaphy: :weavile:. It doesnt really matter how public it is, everyone would know the sets on preview anyways, and the tools here can really take on so much of the meta consistently imo
:audino-mega: Favorite Song?
:bombirdier: Keep Holding On - Snow Strippers
:audino-mega: Thought’s on the NatDex community as a whole?
:bombirdier: It's fun! I've made some good friends here so far and I can't complain. If you asked me in 2023 when I was getting ragebaited by the community I would've given a wildly different answer.
:sealeo: definitely has its moments especially with how young it generally is but this community/tier is favorite on the site and that will never change. im glad i can start being the bitter old man now instead of the newcomer for the next generation of players...
:weavile: Natdex community has evolved a lot since when I started. I have never really been that involved in the more mainstream natdex community ever, so Im probably not the best person to judge state of community, but the scene has become a lot less elitist, and I think there are more opportunities to be seen than ever if you are seeking more action. Obviously some curious actors, but thats in every community
:audino-mega: What’s next for you? What are you focusing on?
:bombirdier: After winning NDPL, that marks 2/3 "bucket list" (lol cringeee!) tours that I want to win. MPL was the other tour I won, but the last one I'm gunning for is PUPL (or well a PU tournament in general). After that I'm not sure? I guess I'll think about it when the time comes
:sealeo: with my semester ending, i currently have signed up for a lot of tours in the coming winter months though i dont really enjoy any tier to the degree that i do nd so ive been pivoting away from non-natdex stuff in recent times. i suppose i just wanna keep getting better/more consistent at natdex as a whole and dabble in some other stuff i enjoy like mono; my big goal is currently on circuit and winning a ndwc behind that. for the tier in its entirety, i want to hopefully have it grow and become more respected but the latter is admittedly pretty hard ive learned...
:weavile: I'm not sure what I'll do next for natdex. I'm like 60/40 on doing ndwc, and have no plans to continue NDPL currently. Most of my focus is going towards different formats and tours, but also have a lot of non mons things on my plate. NDWC will likely be my last natdex tour indefinitely, should I sign up for it. never say never i guess though
:audino-mega: Any closing statements?
:bombirdier: kDCA PixelBob Taka 5 stack when
:sealeo: major s/o's to all my friends in PRC, i never expected the server to grow so much but i rly enjoy interacting with yall and what we've made in there. seth hidin kayzn gamer but swag yonmd for being my best friends on this site for a good long while, appreciate & cherish you guys a lot
:weavile: If you are new and want to get onto a bigger ND stage as a player, don't be discouraged by things not going your way early on if you are looking for your first break. this tier can be a solid place to grow as a player, use ladder and test games to improve consistency, get good placements in tours, and get your run back on any doubters
----------
And with that, we have reached the end of yet another interview :) This interview was by far my favorite to make behind the scenes, so thank you dca, hex, and sealoo for participating! This was pretty ambitious from me, as this was the largest interview I've done. I've added more questions to the interview that I plan to keep as mainstay questions for future interviews and this was POTW's first ever triple interview! This won't be the last, so stick around for the next interview. Until then, feel free to drop any additional question you may have for these three. Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you all for the next interview!
Congrats on the NDPL win! Couple of questions for all of y'all:
1. Anything you're excited about in particular when Gen 10 rolls around?
2. What is / are your favourite(s) non ND section(s)?
1. Anything you're excited about in particular when Gen 10 rolls around?
2. What is / are your favourite(s) non ND section(s)?
MY BAD i totally forgot about these
Watermelon sugar got historys greatest matchup maybe ever, but with the power of spikes and smart but dangerous plays, was defeated.
from my team: MGdos16 vs Iride (Week 4)
very fun game to spectate, came down to the wire in a dogi balance mirror which is peak uu cinema even if we came out on the losing side. Iride is a fun player to watch in UU in general. honorable mention to avarice v luthier in week 5
outside my team: Kyo vs 1yr (Week 1)
super close game with fun techs on both sides, if my gyarados got tbolted id actually have smoke coming out of my ears. DISHONORABLE MENTION to eldids vs slopcat for being the worst game ive ever watched
2. I like Monotype & CAP; more experienced in mono overall but i think CAP is more fun and have got to know a lot of great friends through those tiers over the years (currently in MWP and WCAP as we speak)
my trainwreck preseason PRs, props to slowpokes and mafia for overperforming big time and anti-props the phoenix for being ass
from myself: sealoo vs Tempo di anguria (Week 4)
Watermelon sugar got historys greatest matchup maybe ever, but with the power of spikes and smart but dangerous plays, was defeated.
from my team: MGdos16 vs Iride (Week 4)
very fun game to spectate, came down to the wire in a dogi balance mirror which is peak uu cinema even if we came out on the losing side. Iride is a fun player to watch in UU in general. honorable mention to avarice v luthier in week 5
outside my team: Kyo vs 1yr (Week 1)
super close game with fun techs on both sides, if my gyarados got tbolted id actually have smoke coming out of my ears. DISHONORABLE MENTION to eldids vs slopcat for being the worst game ive ever watched
1. Generally at the beginning of a new generation, there's a large influx of new players (I was apart of the late ss/early sv wave) who help push everything forward and keep it fresh. Its been a fun generation for me and it will be enjoyable finally being a bitter old man once new ppl come along; I hope I can make their experience better in some way whether it be the tier itself, teaming in tournaments, or casual interactions
2. I like Monotype & CAP; more experienced in mono overall but i think CAP is more fun and have got to know a lot of great friends through those tiers over the years (currently in MWP and WCAP as we speak)
my trainwreck preseason PRs, props to slowpokes and mafia for overperforming big time and anti-props the phoenix for being ass
i actually had a response typed out but i didnt post then forgot WOOOPPSSSS
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9nationaldexuu-885857 axzel is fire
Hey. That question is mean. Whatever team went last place tho haha
Gamefreak / TPC / Ninetendo / Whatever company has been inching the line of a more and more multiplayer/mmo experience for Pokemon games and with games like Palworld challenging Nintendo and pushing the agenda more it seems Gen 10 will be a much more multiplayer experience. In SS we had raid battles, SV lets you run around in game with your friends and do stuff like shiny hunt or whatever else which is crazy for me to see after playing Pokemon for so long. So hopefully Gen 10 will be an mmo-esque game. Competitively tho hopefully no gimmick / the gimmick gets banned. Megas weren't much of a gimmick to me. Z-moves are whatever, Dynamax got banned and I enjoyed SS without having to deal with anything else. Tera has been cool but I had my fun with it and am ready to see it gone (ik its banned from ND but in official tiers or w.e). I feel like a new gimmick every gen is fun and all but like atp it feels hard to make a unique gimmick without it being kinda OD. Megas or bust
2. PU, SS ou/low tiers, Monotype. When I was like idk.....in my teens I would like using shitmons on PS so I played the lowest tier I could find (PU) but didnt know anything about competitive so its fun to finally play PU even tho the mons arent too shit anymore thanks to power creep. Didn't like SS when it was cg but now I love it...never take anything for granted. Monotype I've been playing for years but have done mostly what I sought to achieve in that community and just play it for shits n giggles now
bro can you stop saying this ur like literally 17 omg ur gonna pmo this is the second time youve said it in this thread
sob
Welcome to the long awaited and VERY overdue POTW #11! This time I bring you all the managers of the winning FL team, Oaxacan Zarudes, JeoZ, Mrbanana45, and the 2025 Circuit winner, Darkness 789 !!!
:Decidueye: - me
:yveltal: - jeoz
:slowbro: - mrbanana45
:dragapult: - darkness 789
----------
...NOW PLAYING: BATTLE SCARS, BY GUY SEBASTIAN AND LUPE FIASCO
:Decidueye: What do you do outside of smogon?:yveltal: So i'm still studying in high school and probably I want a a career in finances, most likely focused on statistics. I also really wanted to be a profesional soccer player but being realistic it’s very hard to commit this in my country
:slowbro: Im a chemistry student, with a full time job, also a freelancer pixelart artist. I train, tech and host competitive tournaments for the hispanic community.
:dragapult: I'm studying systems technology at university. I work occasionally to earn extra money and help out with projects related to my degree.
:Decidueye: What got you into mons as a whole?
:yveltal: I started watching Pokémon with the XY and SM gameplays in the Nintendo DS in 2017 i believe, but I started playing in PS in 2020 during the pandemic, first starting in small Hispanic community cords and then I found smogon in 2023 when I was curious about competitive
:slowbro: Mons is my life, my favourite game off all time. It's my hobby, my scape from reality.
:dragapult: The fun part was its turn-based mechanics, although I actually started playing a card game when I was younger. That motivated me to explore the main game more and find competitive Pokémon. I was even able to delve deeper already knowing the elementary type chart thanks to that aforementioned game, lol.
:Decidueye: What is the origin of your usename?
:yveltal: It’s a combination of my real name but without being logic, pretty sure my name was gonna be jorz but I liked JeoZ more.
:slowbro: Quite deep and personal, the origin on my nickname will remain as a mystery.
:dragapult: I've been using this nickname in all my games, so I don't remember it perfectly. I just added the "xxi" because it looks cool.
:Decidueye: What tiers do you play? (NatDex or otherwise)
:yveltal: ORAS OU is my favorite, there’s plenty good mechanics and people with high rankings that I’d like to beat, im currently gonna learn SV UU and it may become my main because i don’t really have one atp, and in natdex i like SS and RU, u can use the MOMAZOS core in both.
:slowbro: I main RBY OU, played RBYPL semis couple weeks ago (:decidueye:this should show you how long ago i had interviewed these players LMFAO)
:dragapult: I usually only play Nat Dex, but if i had to choose another tier, it would be SM. Both are very similar in that they have so many broken items, and I like the fact the boots dont exist there.
:Decidueye: How was your overall FL experience? (including draft, prep, etc)
:yveltal: Everything went as planned in the auction, scheduling issues were in the first weeks only and for prep I think it was hard in mid weeks cause things weren’t working so we gotta change them a lil bit in order to not get overwhelmed.
:slowbro: My messy schedule didnt allowme to deeply know my players at all, I provided scouts, teams, writed guides and test for whoever was awake at 4am. Either way I enjoyed meeting some of the new NatDex playerbase.
:dragapult: I wasn't one of those who drafted, but I enjoyed helping with the SV OU, SS OU, and other slots. Sometimes the prep was lacking, so we just used whatever we had on hand. Scheduling wasn't too problematic, although there were several times when we had to create last-minute subs. Overall, it was fun to play.
:Decidueye: Which week was your favorite out of the whole tour?
:yveltal: I believe it was w6 the one that had a comeback from 1-5 to 5-5, with that tie we secured poffs, and my fav was Semifinals, we also came back from a 3-5 and clutched the last games, also both teams went to tb and it was pretty fun.
:slowbro: Finals, definely
:dragapult: It was week 6, and securing the semifinals was a relief for everyone. It showed that we had reached a level higher than the other teams and that we were on the right track, which motivated me to continue supporting them.
:Decidueye: Which week gave you the hardest time with prep?
:yveltal: PRC or Woods maybe, both felt pretty similar so idk what to choose. :Venusaur: :Walking Wake:
:slowbro: PRC by far, we were aware that, everybody was rooting for PRC and got support from a lot of well know players. Was really hard to answer the right questions during prep. :venusaur:
:dragapult: Cool Kids Club (:Decidueye:hooray!), although only in the final since they used players I hadn't seen before and we were nervous about winning the tour. But despite everything, the players did well. :magcargo:
:Decidueye: If you could've picked one person who got drafted in PL to play for the Zarudes in FL, who would you pick?
:yveltal: Definitely Aso, I wanted him in epl too but I really couldn’t get him due to a rule, also I liked how he prepped the last ndfl when we were teammates, good person, glad to see that hes being growing up in this year.
:slowbro: Sandia AKA Tempo di anguria, the sunshine of my life, mi pastelito de fresa.
:dragapult: I would consider Voltix, a very good doubles player who helped with our doubles preparation for the finals.
:Decidueye: Any rising stars/standout performances you'd like to highlight?
:yveltal: I said a lot in the ndfl final thread; Fixzation needs a lot of recognition, he’s being doing a lot of stuff in the mono community recently, I’m not sure why he went undrafted, and as promising people id like to s/o ComputerWhiz, Kana Arima CEO, Nish the Great and kimer that did pretty well the whole tour.
:slowbro: BEASTADARSH, kimer, Atoq and @Wissam. Pin this names cuz they about to make history on NatDex. Jeoz as Manager was also one of the best performance on the tour.
:dragapult: Nish the Great has great potential and had a positive run on the tour. I've seen him on the ladder several times, which is why I drafted him as my last pick. He'll do well if he continues to participate in tours like this one, or even individual tournaments, he does good prep and scouting.
:Decidueye: Which team had the best name? (excluding your own)
:yveltal: Rambunctious Rillabooms :Rillaboom:
:slowbro: Oblivion Ambers :Zacian-Crowned:
:dragapult: Gigantic Giratinas :Giratina:
:Decidueye: What are your current thoughts on Scarlet and Violet ND? (any tier)
:yveltal: I just play ndru in sv natdex stuff so I think it’s changing a lot, and that’s good because the tier is pretty big and u wanna change stuff sometimes, ive not played the other tiers in a while so I cant say too much stuff bout them
:slowbro: Not much familiar with the current meta most SV im most of NDSS mainer, Id say gliscor paired with wishpass on NDSV was never seen before in any gen, way broken that people expect. Gliscor should be tested.
:dragapult: It's a somewhat unstable tier; no matter what you do, there aren't any truly solid teams. However, it has its advantages in prep, as it forces you to study your opponent more thoroughly to build your own team.
:Decidueye: Favorite "junk food" mon?
:yveltal: Fezandipiti and Incineroar in ndru, u can create good stuff with them, MOMAZOS core once again: :Tapu Bulu: :Arcanine-Hisui: :Manectric-Mega: :Fezandipiti: :Cyclizar: :Cobalion:
:slowbro: Idk what is a "junk food" mon, chansey is kinda bad tho
:dragapult: Mega Garchomp is like Charizard X but more overpowered in certain situations and in screens too.
Decidueye: Favorite mon as a whole?
:yveltal: My fav is Yveltal because XY was the gen that got me into mons. I like the design aswell. Other 2 can be Tyrantrum and Gren.
:Venusaur-Mega: :Garchomp: :Landorus-Therian: :Greninja-Ash: :Tapu Fini: :Celesteela: (not mine but liked it)
:slowbro: Slowbro is my fav. Check this team tho :Landorus-Therian: :Cresselia: :Lopunny-Mega: :Heatran: :Chansey: :Zapdos:
:dragapult: Dragapult, i used to use dragapult when it was available. :greninja: :melmetal: :magnezone: :zapdos: :dragapult: :ting-lu:
:Decidueye: What are your thoughts on the NatDex community community as a whole?
:yveltal: I’m not really participative in communities from smogon but I recognize is probably the best I’ve seen
:slowbro: NatDex community is at his peak rn, way back in my days, there was a lot of elitism. They were really busy tryin to prove to the whole world that "NatDex is a real format" instead of actually enjoying it. The mindset is changed and its refreshing. Either way, I feel more confident around hispanic fellas, thats why I don't participate much on any smogon community.
:dragapult: It's much better than what we had in SS; there are fewer toxic mods and, in general, very good, friendly, and cooperative players. I've felt more understood in this tier than when I played in 2020.
:Decidueye: What's your favorite song/album?
:yveltal: China - Anuel AA, Daddy Yankee, KAROL G, J Balvin, Ozuna
:Decidueye: What's next for you?
:yveltal: Im mainly focused on irl stuff, i'll put academic life first, and in my free time I'd like to manage more tours with prestige, im having a good streak in teamtours.
:slowbro: Investing on hispanic community, our Latam guys are gonna win NDWC, we are working all together.
:dragapult: Winning the NDPL, NDWC, or something equally important. I'd like to support and help the players on my team; interacting with them was very effective.
:Decidueye: Any closing statements?
:yveltal: Im good, thanks a lot for inviting us in this project.
:slowbro: For anyone reading this, try to enjoy playin the game instead of tryharding just to get good or achieving and avy or whatever. Yall gonna get far out of pure love on what u doin.
:dragapult: I thought winning was the goal, and initially it is. But it's much better to focus on the journey of preparation, enjoying it with others, or even giving advice to future players. You shouldn't dwell on the doubt or the problem alone; teamwork is essential.
----------
and since Darkness won this years circuit, I've decided to throw in some bonus questions regarding circuit just for fun. GZ Darkness!
:Decidueye: How was your overall circuit experience?
:dragapult: It was a somewhat strange but amazing experience. I had no expectations of winning, especially considering my negative record in NDWC V. So, I went with the teams that had performed best in the first round, and surprisingly, I won. This motivated me to create more teams until I reached the final.
:Decidueye: Which game/set was your favorite?
:dragapult: I'd say the second game against Kazyn. It was the one where I felt I had the most control over the gameplay, and my team was able to shine. Plus, Overqwil's sweep, taking advantage of Tapu Koko, was great.
:Decidueye: Who gave you the hardest time when prepping?
:dragapult: Definitely ElectraineHeart. His playstyle is so variable that I wasn't entirely sure what I should use against him. I spent a good amount of time thinking about the teams and even testing several times with different ones until I finally found a consistent team and reused another that would be useful.
:Decidueye: Anything you wouldve done differently next year?
:dragapult: I probably went in with a winning mentality from the start and trusted my teams more. Aside from that, I think I did well, although I do need to improve my preparation, as I don't think it's the most adequate, or at least not at the level of more experienced players.
:Decidueye: What tour was your favorite that contributing towards getting you into circuit?
:dragapult: The seasonal tour at the beginning of the year. I think I made it to a good round and was able to showcase most of my teams. Although, to be honest, I don't remember much about my plays from back then.
:Decidueye: Which pokemon was your MVP?
:dragapult: Overqwil, definitely. It shone in the early rounds and had a 100% win rate. I was even surprised that another player used it against electraine in one round, copying the team on their own, which is why I didn't use it in the finals.
----------
Another interview for the books! My work ethic is horrific, so i apologize for a long delay again haha. As always, huge shoutout to these players for managing the Oaxacan Zarudes, specifically to Darkness who also won last years circuit, and for agreeing to be apart of this interview. If you've been following the trend in all of the people I interview, you'll be able to guess who I'm going to interview next lolll. Anywho, feel free to ask any additional questions you'd like to see get answered below. Until next time!
Hello there! I was a big fan of this project when it was going on and was sad to see it go inactive, so i took the mantle of hosting it myself! For this edition, we have the one and only National Dex supersoldier Runo
:charizard-mega-x: Me
:sableye-mega: Runo
:charizard-mega-x: How did you discover Pokemon and Smogon?
:sableye-mega: ive been an avid pokemon fan since I was 3, so like 2009-2010 really. Damn near impossible to get me off the game, I'd be playing that shit at school, in the car, on the bus. Pokemon is how I got a lot of my friends irl actually. I didn't really get introduced to smogon & pokemon showdown until around 2021. Spent a bit of time being a scrub on ladder and messing around with the irl buddies with goofy teams. Towards late 2021 started participating in smogon tournaments after I realized that they sometimes do cash prizes.
:charizard-mega-x: What inspired you to play Nat Dex?
:sableye-mega: I didn't really have a concept of Smogon tiering when I discovered NatDex, so I kinda thought that NatDex was the only "real" tier to play since it had all the mons. Plus it was the only way scrub me could use all of their favorite pokes. For serious play, I think it was because I wanted to see if my shitty favorites could win a tour and the only format that did that was NatDex lol. I think the replay is lost to time but I remember being torn apart by a Reuniclus fat team in Gen 8 by shucklegigas and that was good inspiration for me to take mons with a more serious lens. I really started to get entrenched when NDUU hosted their money tour though, I got pretty far in that and right after it was NDPL season so it was not difficult to get into a team cord as a helper and branch out from there.
:charizard-mega-x: What's the origin of your name?
:sableye-mega: Runoisch is tied to my IRL identity so I won't hard leak what it means but I had it since before I joined Smogon. My yungin self thought it would be funny to make a username that only people "in the know" would understand. Nowadays I don't use it because nobody gets the pronunciation right not even my IRL friends. Runo is obviously just the cooler short hand for it.
:charizard-mega-x: What do you do outside of Smogon?
:sableye-mega: IRL I work as a wagie in fast food. I'm trying to go into skilled trades however. Picked up a lot of knowledge regarding Plumbing, Landscaping, and Auto-repair. Really like the professions that let me work with my hands or away from a computer at least. Originally computer science was what I wanted to major in, but it (and college) got extremely disinteresting to me quick. As for hobbies, I like to draw things, mainly landscapes or irl wildlife. I like to code random scripts in python too. Sometimes I will also record videos if I'm feeling it. For games I really like to play War/Shooter games such as Arma 3, Halo, and Sniper Elite. I also like Rouge-lites/likes like Balatro, Enter the Gungeon, and Noita. For a story driven game, I really enjoy Deltarune.
:charizard-mega-x: Which of the tiers you play is your favorite?
sableye-mega: All time favorite is definitely Gen 9 NatDex RU, very hard for me to get frustrated with the tier. I'm taking a bit of a breather from it at the moment though. In the meantime I have found myself fascinated by Champions UU, a tier that I have also ended up leading. For tiers that I don't own (lol) I would say SS OU is my favorite OU to play, and for low tiers its probably SS RU but I'm kinda burned out with that one. In NatDex I would prob say that Gen 8 NDUU holds a place in my heart with how creative you can be with it.
:charizard-mega-x: What's your favorite artist, song and album at the moment?
:sableye-mega: I'm a dweebo so my favorite genre is trance. I like the more experimental & hardcore subsets of the genre with a lot of aggressive beats. My favorite artists are Purity Filter, #ff85f7, and vertigoaway.
My favorite track right now is a piece from Purity Filter, called Targeted Favorite album is by vertigoaway, called ZeRAi.3_conduit-V3RS3
:Charizard-mega-x: What's your future plans regarding this game?
:sableye-mega: I don't really have plans. I already peaked in terms of authority and I got no interest in doing them again. Being sweaty in tours seems to not align with my IRL well at all. I have a lot of good friends and connections at this point and am generally skilled enough to be reliable in lower-level team tours so I think I'm just going to take it easy and have fun with my pals. No need to grind or tryhard the site :)
:charizard-mega-x: Any closing statements for the folks reading this?
:sableye-mega: Expanding on my feeling that there's no need to grind or tryhard the site: I cannot express enough how miserable of experience it is to take most aspects of Smogon seriously. If you are ever feeling frustrated with Smogon or the game, take a step back from it. If you are a new user looking to make a name for yourself, all you need to do is not be annoying and/or not completely awful at the game. I guarantee you that you can get any site position or recognition you want with patience. Yes there is time investment required and work involved but you should not need to kill yourself for the things you desire with this site. For the lurkers wanting to get into the scene reading this, stop lurking. It's better for you to get in trouble while engaging with the community than to have not engaged at all. Have some fun with the site and make some friends. Friends are like 90% of the reason people tend to get into tours anyhow. Also Georgia Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio needs your support. Please donate your car to GPB or your money to NPR. My life would not be the same without these two organizations.
https://gpb.careasy.org/home
https://gpb.careasy.org/homehttps://www.npr.org/donations/support
Well, this was all for today, hope you guys are gonna like this new era of POTW! I have other great guests planned. In the meanwhile, if you have any extra questions for the goat, make sure to leave them in this thread! Also, if you, yes, YOU think are good enough to be interviewed, shoot me a dm!
:charizard-mega-x: Me
:sableye-mega: Runo
:charizard-mega-x: How did you discover Pokemon and Smogon?
:sableye-mega: ive been an avid pokemon fan since I was 3, so like 2009-2010 really. Damn near impossible to get me off the game, I'd be playing that shit at school, in the car, on the bus. Pokemon is how I got a lot of my friends irl actually. I didn't really get introduced to smogon & pokemon showdown until around 2021. Spent a bit of time being a scrub on ladder and messing around with the irl buddies with goofy teams. Towards late 2021 started participating in smogon tournaments after I realized that they sometimes do cash prizes.
:charizard-mega-x: What inspired you to play Nat Dex?
:sableye-mega: I didn't really have a concept of Smogon tiering when I discovered NatDex, so I kinda thought that NatDex was the only "real" tier to play since it had all the mons. Plus it was the only way scrub me could use all of their favorite pokes. For serious play, I think it was because I wanted to see if my shitty favorites could win a tour and the only format that did that was NatDex lol. I think the replay is lost to time but I remember being torn apart by a Reuniclus fat team in Gen 8 by shucklegigas and that was good inspiration for me to take mons with a more serious lens. I really started to get entrenched when NDUU hosted their money tour though, I got pretty far in that and right after it was NDPL season so it was not difficult to get into a team cord as a helper and branch out from there.
:charizard-mega-x: What's the origin of your name?
:sableye-mega: Runoisch is tied to my IRL identity so I won't hard leak what it means but I had it since before I joined Smogon. My yungin self thought it would be funny to make a username that only people "in the know" would understand. Nowadays I don't use it because nobody gets the pronunciation right not even my IRL friends. Runo is obviously just the cooler short hand for it.
:charizard-mega-x: What do you do outside of Smogon?
:sableye-mega: IRL I work as a wagie in fast food. I'm trying to go into skilled trades however. Picked up a lot of knowledge regarding Plumbing, Landscaping, and Auto-repair. Really like the professions that let me work with my hands or away from a computer at least. Originally computer science was what I wanted to major in, but it (and college) got extremely disinteresting to me quick. As for hobbies, I like to draw things, mainly landscapes or irl wildlife. I like to code random scripts in python too. Sometimes I will also record videos if I'm feeling it. For games I really like to play War/Shooter games such as Arma 3, Halo, and Sniper Elite. I also like Rouge-lites/likes like Balatro, Enter the Gungeon, and Noita. For a story driven game, I really enjoy Deltarune.
:charizard-mega-x: Which of the tiers you play is your favorite?
sableye-mega: All time favorite is definitely Gen 9 NatDex RU, very hard for me to get frustrated with the tier. I'm taking a bit of a breather from it at the moment though. In the meantime I have found myself fascinated by Champions UU, a tier that I have also ended up leading. For tiers that I don't own (lol) I would say SS OU is my favorite OU to play, and for low tiers its probably SS RU but I'm kinda burned out with that one. In NatDex I would prob say that Gen 8 NDUU holds a place in my heart with how creative you can be with it.
:charizard-mega-x: What's your favorite artist, song and album at the moment?
:sableye-mega: I'm a dweebo so my favorite genre is trance. I like the more experimental & hardcore subsets of the genre with a lot of aggressive beats. My favorite artists are Purity Filter, #ff85f7, and vertigoaway.
My favorite track right now is a piece from Purity Filter, called Targeted Favorite album is by vertigoaway, called ZeRAi.3_conduit-V3RS3
:Charizard-mega-x: What's your future plans regarding this game?
:sableye-mega: I don't really have plans. I already peaked in terms of authority and I got no interest in doing them again. Being sweaty in tours seems to not align with my IRL well at all. I have a lot of good friends and connections at this point and am generally skilled enough to be reliable in lower-level team tours so I think I'm just going to take it easy and have fun with my pals. No need to grind or tryhard the site :)
:charizard-mega-x: Any closing statements for the folks reading this?
:sableye-mega: Expanding on my feeling that there's no need to grind or tryhard the site: I cannot express enough how miserable of experience it is to take most aspects of Smogon seriously. If you are ever feeling frustrated with Smogon or the game, take a step back from it. If you are a new user looking to make a name for yourself, all you need to do is not be annoying and/or not completely awful at the game. I guarantee you that you can get any site position or recognition you want with patience. Yes there is time investment required and work involved but you should not need to kill yourself for the things you desire with this site. For the lurkers wanting to get into the scene reading this, stop lurking. It's better for you to get in trouble while engaging with the community than to have not engaged at all. Have some fun with the site and make some friends. Friends are like 90% of the reason people tend to get into tours anyhow. Also Georgia Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio needs your support. Please donate your car to GPB or your money to NPR. My life would not be the same without these two organizations.
https://gpb.careasy.org/home
https://gpb.careasy.org/homehttps://www.npr.org/donations/support
Well, this was all for today, hope you guys are gonna like this new era of POTW! I have other great guests planned. In the meanwhile, if you have any extra questions for the goat, make sure to leave them in this thread! Also, if you, yes, YOU think are good enough to be interviewed, shoot me a dm!
Hello there friends! Life has been a bit busy for me these past few weeks but we are back with another POTW! As per the last interview, this week i'm bringing forth another big name in the community and it's the goat bumboclaat!
:charizard-mega-x: -Me
:appletun: Bumbo
:charizard-mega-x:
How did you discover pokemon and smogon?
:appletun:
I'm honestly not sure when I 'discovered' Pokémon, but it would have been sometime in the late 90s. It was culturally saturated enough that it was just present. The first time I played it would have been Pokémon Stadium on my friend's N64 around 1999. The first game I owned was Pokémon Crystal in 2001 when my next door neighbour gave me his copy of Pokémon Crystal after I got a GBA for my birthday and he got bored of it.
Smogon is a bit more complicated as looking back I've been visiting the website off and on since the mid aughts. I started semi regularly using the website in the early 2010s, but didn't create an account until covid. At the time I enjoyed laddering, using the resources, and reading about various metagames. However, the culture at the time was toxic enough that I was content just doing that and laddering every now and then on showdown. That eventually changed to enough of an extent that Smogon became a community I wanted to be a part of instead of on the periphery. Wanting to discuss Crawdaunt in SSGG was the turning point.
:charizard-mega-x:
How did you start playing natdex?
:appletun:
The creation of National Dex was one of the things that actually got me interested in Smogon again after drifting away from Pokémon in general towards the end of SM. That being said... I kept telling myself that I'd get around to trying it out and time slipped by and I didn't end up trying National Dex in earnest until National Dex Ubers was created. Generally speaking, I tend to find non-OU metagames more enjoyable and had some nostalgia for Zygarde and got into National Dex that way. It still feels weird to be a National Dex leader despite playing maybe 30 National Dex OU games in my life. Fortunately Sealoo and Omar handle that for the most part and do a great job.
:Charizard-mega-x:
What's the origin of your name?
:appletun:
Bumboclaat is just a Caribbean word with flexible application. I don't recall why I originally went with it, but I'd already used it as an account name elsewhere. Most of my online names tend to be Caribbean or Cayman related in some capacity. It is still really funny to get a message out of the blue from some random every couple of months asking why I have such a vulgar name when that isn't the case.
:charizard-mega-x:
What do you do outside of smogon?
:appletun:
I'm back in school to explore a career change, but I've been analyzing and reporting on current events for a couple of small firms back home for ten years. The job itself is fine and provides what I need, but I'm unsure I have the mental energy for another 35 years of this. The goal right now is to find something adjacent to public law down the road to help people.
:Charizard-mega-x:
Which of the tiers you play outside of ndubers is your favorite?
:appletun:
These days I don't really play much Pokémon outside of National Dex Ubers and the occasional randbat after my weekly excursion to the market. Early SM UU was probably my favourite tier of all time followed closely by SS GG and ADV randbats. I don't tend to have enough time to properly get into new tiers these days and am content keeping up with and learning about them.
:Charizard-mega-x:
Favorite artist, album and song currently?
:appletun:
I don't have one and unfortunately it has been a while since I've gone on a binge of discovering new music. I like most stuff, but mainly keep to Reggae, Dancehall, Punk, Jazz, and Rock. A few of the songs / artists that have been in my regular rotation recently have been:
Sixto Rodriguez - Timeless artist with lyrics that are unsettlingly contemporary despite being 50 years old a this point. Like Janis, Crucify Your Mind, I Think of You, Sandrevan Lullaby, and Cause are my favourites. Searching for Sugar Man is a good watch if people like documentaries.
Thievery Corporation - Amerimacka, Lebanese Blonde, All That We Percieve, Liberation Front, The State of the Union, Until the Morning (rewound)
Max Romeo & The Upsetters - Listen to War ina Babylon! It is one of the greatest albums of all time (outside of the title track imo)
The Last Gang - Prosthetic Lost Cause & Noise Noise Noise
The Bombpops - Double Arrows Down & Be Sweet
Kamasi Washington - The Rhythm Changes, Cherokee, and Malcolm's Theme
Operation Ivy / Rancid
:charizard-mega-x:
Future plans regarding this game?
:appletun:
Just wait and see I guess. The future is pretty uncertain, especially given the rumours swirling around Wind and Waves and how National Dex fits into that. At the end of the day Pokémon is just hobby and not a job. The future will hold what it does and if it isn't something I like I'll do something else with my time. You can't control the future, but you can plan for it. I just hope that National Dex can make the most of whatever the future holds.
:charizard-mega-x:
Outisde of Pokemon, what other games do you find yourself playing?
:appletun:
I haven't ever been a huge gamer. I picked up Old School Runescape again earlier this year after a couple year break but am too busy with a lot of stuff to play that much at the moment and would rather enjoy the summer weather while it lasts. It is pretty much those two at this point and the occasional Mario Kart Wii with some university friends when we find the time to meet up. I coach and run a baseball club and that takes up a lot of my free time from March - September.
:charizard-mega-x:
What is it like being a NatDex leader?
:appletun:
The short, sweet, and diplomatic answer is that as with nearly everything in life it is a mixed bag. The proper answer should start with the context that I can only speak for myself and my experiences. National Dex as a section is somewhat unique in the Smogon ecosystem as we are one of the few with an identity stemming from a concept rather than defining ourselves relative to something external that we have zero control over. It is a unique position that we have leveraged well given the diversity of metagames under the National Dex Umbrella!
Omar, Sealoo, and I have distinct visions, interests, and jobs to some extent, mostly the latter. I generally tend to handle most non-OU matters, but we consult each other for all major and most minor matters regardless. I can’t speak for them, but my experience as a CL feels somewhat unique in the grand scheme of things given the nature of our communities given nature, makeup, and demographics of the various communities I oversee. I delineate my responsibilities into day-to-day matters and longer-term projects / goals. The day-to-day stuff is probably what most people would expect such as checking up on discord and council activity a couple times a week, providing any help a tier needs or connecting them with the right person if I’m unable to, and weighing in on moderation stuff as it comes up. Anybody is free to reach out to me with any issues they have, but in an ideal world I’ll have some familiarity before they do.
That is a somewhat time consuming, but necessary part of the job. In theory it doesn’t take up that much time, but things that need feedback or resolving have a knack for materializing in clusters and during periods where my time is relatively limited which can make it stressful. Fortunately, issues which need to be immediately addressed at a CL are relatively rare in the dozenish metagames I’m responsible as our TLs do a great job, are active, and more importantly proactive. That takes up time, but not a ton of mental energy while the longer-term stuff is the opposite. Well…assuming that is something you’re interested in. Generally speaking… the status quo for National Dex is functional and self-sustaining enough in most areas to have an operational floor of at least acceptable. Personally, the question eternally on my mind do our current policies and procedures enable National Dex to realize the full extent of its potential as a section? They don’t, but that isn’t a bad thing so long as we are moving in the right direction and I think we are. It won’t be a steady trajectory as some things we try are bound to fail, but so long as the efforts are made in good faith, we can learn from our failures, and iterate on our success we are on the right path. My two biggest projects since becoming a NDCL have been working on inter and intra community building and improving ND culture. All in all, being a CL is both more and less work than you’d think, but not always in the way you’d expect on top of the complexities that come from ND specifically.
:charizard-mega-x:
What do you have to say to people who aspire to become tier/section leaders?
:appletun:
That is an interesting question and I’m not entirely sure how to answer. I’ve written and deleted a fair few things at this point. The big one is that it is fine to take a break or step down and come back later if you need to. We’re contributing to a Pokémon fansite because we enjoy it and hobbies are supposed to be fun. Additionally, mistakes are fine to make. We all make them and there are few mistakes that can’t be fixed. I’d also recommend focusing on what you’re doing now and if you’re satisfied with the job you do. For TL and CL there are more ‘qualified’ people than spots available on top of timing sometimes being a factor. Good work is often noticed it is important to enjoy it. You should be doing what you’re doing because you want to, not because you think you’ll climb up some ladder. There is a lot less power and a lot more busywork than you’d think.
That being said, one of the things some people overlook is the ability to work with others. We don’t all have to be friends, but we do need to be able to work properly as a team. If you’re not currently doing anything the best way to get your foot in the door is just to ask. Maybe you have a great project idea or are interested in reviving some outdated resources. If somebody wants to get involved we will try to facilitate it possible.
:charizard-mega-x:
Any closing statements?
:appletun:
Not really, but sort of. I'd like to give a big shoutout to Eledyr and R8 as their attitude and approach are things I did and continue to deeply admire and attempt to emulate. Thanks for taking the time to do this and sorry about the delay on my end for this last question! I'm looking forward to NDPL and hope to see some good games and hoping we can all just enjoy the tour and the wider ND diaspora coming together to have some fun!
This is all for this edition! If you have any questions for bumbo, feel free to drop them below! Stay tuned, as the next weeks are gonna have some insane guests. See you all around!
:charizard-mega-x: -Me
:appletun: Bumbo
:charizard-mega-x:
How did you discover pokemon and smogon?
:appletun:
I'm honestly not sure when I 'discovered' Pokémon, but it would have been sometime in the late 90s. It was culturally saturated enough that it was just present. The first time I played it would have been Pokémon Stadium on my friend's N64 around 1999. The first game I owned was Pokémon Crystal in 2001 when my next door neighbour gave me his copy of Pokémon Crystal after I got a GBA for my birthday and he got bored of it.
Smogon is a bit more complicated as looking back I've been visiting the website off and on since the mid aughts. I started semi regularly using the website in the early 2010s, but didn't create an account until covid. At the time I enjoyed laddering, using the resources, and reading about various metagames. However, the culture at the time was toxic enough that I was content just doing that and laddering every now and then on showdown. That eventually changed to enough of an extent that Smogon became a community I wanted to be a part of instead of on the periphery. Wanting to discuss Crawdaunt in SSGG was the turning point.
:charizard-mega-x:
How did you start playing natdex?
:appletun:
The creation of National Dex was one of the things that actually got me interested in Smogon again after drifting away from Pokémon in general towards the end of SM. That being said... I kept telling myself that I'd get around to trying it out and time slipped by and I didn't end up trying National Dex in earnest until National Dex Ubers was created. Generally speaking, I tend to find non-OU metagames more enjoyable and had some nostalgia for Zygarde and got into National Dex that way. It still feels weird to be a National Dex leader despite playing maybe 30 National Dex OU games in my life. Fortunately Sealoo and Omar handle that for the most part and do a great job.
:Charizard-mega-x:
What's the origin of your name?
:appletun:
Bumboclaat is just a Caribbean word with flexible application. I don't recall why I originally went with it, but I'd already used it as an account name elsewhere. Most of my online names tend to be Caribbean or Cayman related in some capacity. It is still really funny to get a message out of the blue from some random every couple of months asking why I have such a vulgar name when that isn't the case.
:charizard-mega-x:
What do you do outside of smogon?
:appletun:
I'm back in school to explore a career change, but I've been analyzing and reporting on current events for a couple of small firms back home for ten years. The job itself is fine and provides what I need, but I'm unsure I have the mental energy for another 35 years of this. The goal right now is to find something adjacent to public law down the road to help people.
:Charizard-mega-x:
Which of the tiers you play outside of ndubers is your favorite?
:appletun:
These days I don't really play much Pokémon outside of National Dex Ubers and the occasional randbat after my weekly excursion to the market. Early SM UU was probably my favourite tier of all time followed closely by SS GG and ADV randbats. I don't tend to have enough time to properly get into new tiers these days and am content keeping up with and learning about them.
:Charizard-mega-x:
Favorite artist, album and song currently?
:appletun:
I don't have one and unfortunately it has been a while since I've gone on a binge of discovering new music. I like most stuff, but mainly keep to Reggae, Dancehall, Punk, Jazz, and Rock. A few of the songs / artists that have been in my regular rotation recently have been:
Sixto Rodriguez - Timeless artist with lyrics that are unsettlingly contemporary despite being 50 years old a this point. Like Janis, Crucify Your Mind, I Think of You, Sandrevan Lullaby, and Cause are my favourites. Searching for Sugar Man is a good watch if people like documentaries.
Thievery Corporation - Amerimacka, Lebanese Blonde, All That We Percieve, Liberation Front, The State of the Union, Until the Morning (rewound)
Max Romeo & The Upsetters - Listen to War ina Babylon! It is one of the greatest albums of all time (outside of the title track imo)
The Last Gang - Prosthetic Lost Cause & Noise Noise Noise
The Bombpops - Double Arrows Down & Be Sweet
Kamasi Washington - The Rhythm Changes, Cherokee, and Malcolm's Theme
Operation Ivy / Rancid
:charizard-mega-x:
Future plans regarding this game?
:appletun:
Just wait and see I guess. The future is pretty uncertain, especially given the rumours swirling around Wind and Waves and how National Dex fits into that. At the end of the day Pokémon is just hobby and not a job. The future will hold what it does and if it isn't something I like I'll do something else with my time. You can't control the future, but you can plan for it. I just hope that National Dex can make the most of whatever the future holds.
:charizard-mega-x:
Outisde of Pokemon, what other games do you find yourself playing?
:appletun:
I haven't ever been a huge gamer. I picked up Old School Runescape again earlier this year after a couple year break but am too busy with a lot of stuff to play that much at the moment and would rather enjoy the summer weather while it lasts. It is pretty much those two at this point and the occasional Mario Kart Wii with some university friends when we find the time to meet up. I coach and run a baseball club and that takes up a lot of my free time from March - September.
:charizard-mega-x:
What is it like being a NatDex leader?
:appletun:
The short, sweet, and diplomatic answer is that as with nearly everything in life it is a mixed bag. The proper answer should start with the context that I can only speak for myself and my experiences. National Dex as a section is somewhat unique in the Smogon ecosystem as we are one of the few with an identity stemming from a concept rather than defining ourselves relative to something external that we have zero control over. It is a unique position that we have leveraged well given the diversity of metagames under the National Dex Umbrella!
Omar, Sealoo, and I have distinct visions, interests, and jobs to some extent, mostly the latter. I generally tend to handle most non-OU matters, but we consult each other for all major and most minor matters regardless. I can’t speak for them, but my experience as a CL feels somewhat unique in the grand scheme of things given the nature of our communities given nature, makeup, and demographics of the various communities I oversee. I delineate my responsibilities into day-to-day matters and longer-term projects / goals. The day-to-day stuff is probably what most people would expect such as checking up on discord and council activity a couple times a week, providing any help a tier needs or connecting them with the right person if I’m unable to, and weighing in on moderation stuff as it comes up. Anybody is free to reach out to me with any issues they have, but in an ideal world I’ll have some familiarity before they do.
That is a somewhat time consuming, but necessary part of the job. In theory it doesn’t take up that much time, but things that need feedback or resolving have a knack for materializing in clusters and during periods where my time is relatively limited which can make it stressful. Fortunately, issues which need to be immediately addressed at a CL are relatively rare in the dozenish metagames I’m responsible as our TLs do a great job, are active, and more importantly proactive. That takes up time, but not a ton of mental energy while the longer-term stuff is the opposite. Well…assuming that is something you’re interested in. Generally speaking… the status quo for National Dex is functional and self-sustaining enough in most areas to have an operational floor of at least acceptable. Personally, the question eternally on my mind do our current policies and procedures enable National Dex to realize the full extent of its potential as a section? They don’t, but that isn’t a bad thing so long as we are moving in the right direction and I think we are. It won’t be a steady trajectory as some things we try are bound to fail, but so long as the efforts are made in good faith, we can learn from our failures, and iterate on our success we are on the right path. My two biggest projects since becoming a NDCL have been working on inter and intra community building and improving ND culture. All in all, being a CL is both more and less work than you’d think, but not always in the way you’d expect on top of the complexities that come from ND specifically.
:charizard-mega-x:
What do you have to say to people who aspire to become tier/section leaders?
:appletun:
That is an interesting question and I’m not entirely sure how to answer. I’ve written and deleted a fair few things at this point. The big one is that it is fine to take a break or step down and come back later if you need to. We’re contributing to a Pokémon fansite because we enjoy it and hobbies are supposed to be fun. Additionally, mistakes are fine to make. We all make them and there are few mistakes that can’t be fixed. I’d also recommend focusing on what you’re doing now and if you’re satisfied with the job you do. For TL and CL there are more ‘qualified’ people than spots available on top of timing sometimes being a factor. Good work is often noticed it is important to enjoy it. You should be doing what you’re doing because you want to, not because you think you’ll climb up some ladder. There is a lot less power and a lot more busywork than you’d think.
That being said, one of the things some people overlook is the ability to work with others. We don’t all have to be friends, but we do need to be able to work properly as a team. If you’re not currently doing anything the best way to get your foot in the door is just to ask. Maybe you have a great project idea or are interested in reviving some outdated resources. If somebody wants to get involved we will try to facilitate it possible.
:charizard-mega-x:
Any closing statements?
:appletun:
Not really, but sort of. I'd like to give a big shoutout to Eledyr and R8 as their attitude and approach are things I did and continue to deeply admire and attempt to emulate. Thanks for taking the time to do this and sorry about the delay on my end for this last question! I'm looking forward to NDPL and hope to see some good games and hoping we can all just enjoy the tour and the wider ND diaspora coming together to have some fun!
This is all for this edition! If you have any questions for bumbo, feel free to drop them below! Stay tuned, as the next weeks are gonna have some insane guests. See you all around!
Last edited:
Tesco gives me depression so I'll go with Sainsbury's. Ham and cheese or smoked salmon with an almond croissant and a mango smoothie. The meal deal is England's greatest and arguably only contribution to the culinary world
GOD DAMN IT'S BEEN A BIT. Sorry for those who have been waiting for new editions of this, i was just very, very busy and didn't realise how much time has passed. But we are back and i have some nice guests coming up. Today we have some very cool people that i bet a lot of you already know, it's EatFoods and jawabarat. Let's start!
:nidoking: Me
:rampardos: jawabarat
:clodsire: EatFoods
:nidoking:
How did you discover pokemon and smogon?
:clodsire:
Met Kayzn and a couple other people from smogon who dont play anymore (As far as I know) on a pixelmon server and they introduced me to Smogon through that
:rampardos:
Laddered a bit when gen 6 came out, think I made top 500 once or twice but that was as far as it ever went. 6 years later there was a draft league at my uni, joined that and rediscovered the game. Farmed a very casual league a few times then was like hm I should probably get a better standard of competition. I also realised I hate draft as a format and am drastically happier in regular tiers
:nidoking:
How did you start playing natdex?
:clodsire:
It was the same as what was played on said pixelmon server, played it casually on ladder for a while but started signing up for and playing in tournaments with one of the earlier ND DOU seasonals
:rampardos:
I quit sv uu in 2024, sealoo who I'd teamed with in ndfl asked me to play nduu for ndpl. He then proceeded not to buy me and I went 1-1 in ru before getting benched. Somehow that didn't put me off, I asked runo to get me for more ru in ndbd and the rest is history
:nidoking:
What's the origin of your name?
:clodsire:
Lowkey I do NOT remember, my headcanon is that I was eating when I was making my minecraft account and thought "Wait... that could be tuff sauce" which is pretty underwhelming
:rampardos:
It is a gibberish word that my friend used as a real of the mad god username way back in the day like 2012ish. I am occasionally asked if it's the indonesian province but it isn't
:nidoking:
What do you consider to be your best game by far? Including tournament matches, room tour matches, etc.
:clodsire:
Week 7 of NDBD is one that I think is really memorable to me because BD was the first tour I started DOU in and for a lot of my time playing the tier I looked up to Jello as a player (And even still, I guess) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2300773342-wgfl2otmrr14ijvhv5b2sh2v27v92g9pw We then went on to lose this week like 8-2 or something LMAO
:rampardos:
The final of drewvitational (offsite uu tour hosted by justdrew) vs JustFranco to win 50 bucks. G1 I got him with the most shameless counterteam of my entire life. G2 I had to beat him at his own game. I was proud because I've had games like this where I just lose focus and choke 150 turns in but this one I was able to see out with money on the line vs one of the best players on the site. Franco went on to farm circuits and officials, I went on to become a ndru mainer. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-752695
:nidoking:
What other games do you guys play besides Pokemon?
:clodsire:
Gachas. A lot of gachas. I probably have over like 500 hours or something ridiculous like that in WuWa alone, but Hsin is coming out soon so any sacrafice is more than worth it
:rampardos:
I absolutely love Fire Emblem, especially LTCs and ironmans. I have played every game from fe4 to 3 houses and a lot of romhacks. Being able to order my lads around a square grid just does it for me. Games like into the breach scratch the same itch. Other favourites are The Banner Saga, Scarlet Hollow, Skyrim. I no longer play Civilization 5 because I am incapable of playing that game and also being a functional adult with a job, relationship, friends, fitness routine. Anything turn based strategy, horror, or western rpgs.
:nidoking:
What do you do outside of smogon?
:clodsire:
Lowkey I'm a chud at the moment so I'm trying to find a full time job, other than that I recently finished college, work part time at a cafe, and like to go on walks pretty often
:rampardos:
I work in data, I describe my job as I get about 1.2 million lines of data about the cars that park at our site over a year and have to turn that into useful insights. I started training jiu jitsu this year and have been loving that, done boxing in the past and bounced off it but grappling has been working a lot better for me. I'm also trying to write my first book, which is a fantasy bildungsroman about ambition and unjust systems and status quos. (seeking beta readers hmu). Beyond that I enjoy hiking, climbing, and football. I'm also hoping to finally hit the 100kg bench this year and join the 1000lb club in a year or two. (Currently at 870lb)
:nidoking:
Which of the tiers you play is your favorite?
:clodsire:
I'm pretty ass at it but SS DOU is really fun, as for ND tiers lowkey it's NDPU even though it's only ever got one tour because hidin is a BUM
:rampardos:
It has to be big NDRU in all its pivots and ho slop glory. Even years on it still feels a lot more volatile and unsolved compared to UU, and I tend to thrive in those sorts of metas. I proudly claim to have broken ndru ho 3 times over. I also liked Paleomons in last year's PMPL a lot, but I didn't care for many of the slates and additions this year.
:nidoking:
Favorite artist, album and song currently?
:clodsire:
keshi is comfortably my all time favorite artist so I have to glaze my glorious king
. My favourite album right now is tanquemante by Inundaremos
. And for my favorite song since I've been on a very big Björk kick lately is going to be Crying from her album Debut
.
:rampardos:
My favourite artist is comfortably Opeth. It's rare for a band to go through so many sounds over decades and I actually like all of them. I love their ballads, prog rock, and death metal. Generally I love anything that pulls off a mixture of harsh and clean vocals.
Favourite song: Love, Try Not To Let Go by Julia Jacklin. Ages ago I did a what dungeon meshi character are you quiz and got Falin and this song and it's just stuck with me.
Favourite album: Children of the Haze by Dopelord. Sludgey stoner metal. Never enjoyed weed very much but stoner music just does it for me.
:nidoking:
Future plans regarding this game?
:clodsire:
Managing NDFL with Aso and Slopcat and maybe SDPL with Leroipolux depending on when ts goes up, and after that larping retirement until gen 10 or I have a life whichever is sooner, ideally the latter
:rampardos:
I'm definitely towards the tail end of my career. I'm happy to be managing FL again (we don't talk about the first time) and would love to have a crack at CL afterwards. I was really happy to snag the UU open but a ND teamtour still eludes me unless you count helping tbic and kimer in uu/ru last ndfl. There is a lot outside your control that needs to go right to win a teamtour though, so I think all I can really say is give my best effort towards it and what happens happens. Life's getting busier for an unc like me even with just the one game per week. After that it'll be larp time similar to Foods.
:nidoking:
What's a really stupid thing you did in your earlier days of being a pokemon player?
:clodsire:
Making an account for this site is probably up there, but never using timer on preview
:rampardos:
I've never been one to start shit but I used to have a bad habit of rising to provocation and giving as good as I get. I'm too old to be beefing over pokemon
:nidoking:
Any closing statements?
:clodsire:
If my FL team doesn't win WE are putting HAXLOLO'S head on a PIKE outside of Cutiepies HQ, shoutout PRC, Kitchen, and BibsCord, and thanks for the interview!
:rampardos:
Shoutout to the nd community especially the uu/ru heads for being mostly nice people! Unlike a certain unnamed vulture pit of an sv lower tier
:nidoking:
Thanks for being my guests for this edition. As a small sidenote, this interview has been sitting in my dms for a few weeks, so some of the ndfl stuff my guests have mentioned may be a bit outdated. I hope you enjoyed this edition and buckle up, i have some very neat guests coming up in the future. Take care!
:nidoking: Me
:rampardos: jawabarat
:clodsire: EatFoods
:nidoking:
How did you discover pokemon and smogon?
:clodsire:
Met Kayzn and a couple other people from smogon who dont play anymore (As far as I know) on a pixelmon server and they introduced me to Smogon through that
:rampardos:
Laddered a bit when gen 6 came out, think I made top 500 once or twice but that was as far as it ever went. 6 years later there was a draft league at my uni, joined that and rediscovered the game. Farmed a very casual league a few times then was like hm I should probably get a better standard of competition. I also realised I hate draft as a format and am drastically happier in regular tiers
:nidoking:
How did you start playing natdex?
:clodsire:
It was the same as what was played on said pixelmon server, played it casually on ladder for a while but started signing up for and playing in tournaments with one of the earlier ND DOU seasonals
:rampardos:
I quit sv uu in 2024, sealoo who I'd teamed with in ndfl asked me to play nduu for ndpl. He then proceeded not to buy me and I went 1-1 in ru before getting benched. Somehow that didn't put me off, I asked runo to get me for more ru in ndbd and the rest is history
:nidoking:
What's the origin of your name?
:clodsire:
Lowkey I do NOT remember, my headcanon is that I was eating when I was making my minecraft account and thought "Wait... that could be tuff sauce" which is pretty underwhelming
:rampardos:
It is a gibberish word that my friend used as a real of the mad god username way back in the day like 2012ish. I am occasionally asked if it's the indonesian province but it isn't
:nidoking:
What do you consider to be your best game by far? Including tournament matches, room tour matches, etc.
:clodsire:
Week 7 of NDBD is one that I think is really memorable to me because BD was the first tour I started DOU in and for a lot of my time playing the tier I looked up to Jello as a player (And even still, I guess) https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9nationaldexdoubles-2300773342-wgfl2otmrr14ijvhv5b2sh2v27v92g9pw We then went on to lose this week like 8-2 or something LMAO
:rampardos:
The final of drewvitational (offsite uu tour hosted by justdrew) vs JustFranco to win 50 bucks. G1 I got him with the most shameless counterteam of my entire life. G2 I had to beat him at his own game. I was proud because I've had games like this where I just lose focus and choke 150 turns in but this one I was able to see out with money on the line vs one of the best players on the site. Franco went on to farm circuits and officials, I went on to become a ndru mainer. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9uu-752695
:nidoking:
What other games do you guys play besides Pokemon?
:clodsire:
Gachas. A lot of gachas. I probably have over like 500 hours or something ridiculous like that in WuWa alone, but Hsin is coming out soon so any sacrafice is more than worth it
:rampardos:
I absolutely love Fire Emblem, especially LTCs and ironmans. I have played every game from fe4 to 3 houses and a lot of romhacks. Being able to order my lads around a square grid just does it for me. Games like into the breach scratch the same itch. Other favourites are The Banner Saga, Scarlet Hollow, Skyrim. I no longer play Civilization 5 because I am incapable of playing that game and also being a functional adult with a job, relationship, friends, fitness routine. Anything turn based strategy, horror, or western rpgs.
:nidoking:
What do you do outside of smogon?
:clodsire:
Lowkey I'm a chud at the moment so I'm trying to find a full time job, other than that I recently finished college, work part time at a cafe, and like to go on walks pretty often
:rampardos:
I work in data, I describe my job as I get about 1.2 million lines of data about the cars that park at our site over a year and have to turn that into useful insights. I started training jiu jitsu this year and have been loving that, done boxing in the past and bounced off it but grappling has been working a lot better for me. I'm also trying to write my first book, which is a fantasy bildungsroman about ambition and unjust systems and status quos. (seeking beta readers hmu). Beyond that I enjoy hiking, climbing, and football. I'm also hoping to finally hit the 100kg bench this year and join the 1000lb club in a year or two. (Currently at 870lb)
:nidoking:
Which of the tiers you play is your favorite?
:clodsire:
I'm pretty ass at it but SS DOU is really fun, as for ND tiers lowkey it's NDPU even though it's only ever got one tour because hidin is a BUM
:rampardos:
It has to be big NDRU in all its pivots and ho slop glory. Even years on it still feels a lot more volatile and unsolved compared to UU, and I tend to thrive in those sorts of metas. I proudly claim to have broken ndru ho 3 times over. I also liked Paleomons in last year's PMPL a lot, but I didn't care for many of the slates and additions this year.
:nidoking:
Favorite artist, album and song currently?
:clodsire:
keshi is comfortably my all time favorite artist so I have to glaze my glorious king
:rampardos:
My favourite artist is comfortably Opeth. It's rare for a band to go through so many sounds over decades and I actually like all of them. I love their ballads, prog rock, and death metal. Generally I love anything that pulls off a mixture of harsh and clean vocals.
Favourite song: Love, Try Not To Let Go by Julia Jacklin. Ages ago I did a what dungeon meshi character are you quiz and got Falin and this song and it's just stuck with me.
:nidoking:
Future plans regarding this game?
:clodsire:
Managing NDFL with Aso and Slopcat and maybe SDPL with Leroipolux depending on when ts goes up, and after that larping retirement until gen 10 or I have a life whichever is sooner, ideally the latter
:rampardos:
I'm definitely towards the tail end of my career. I'm happy to be managing FL again (we don't talk about the first time) and would love to have a crack at CL afterwards. I was really happy to snag the UU open but a ND teamtour still eludes me unless you count helping tbic and kimer in uu/ru last ndfl. There is a lot outside your control that needs to go right to win a teamtour though, so I think all I can really say is give my best effort towards it and what happens happens. Life's getting busier for an unc like me even with just the one game per week. After that it'll be larp time similar to Foods.
:nidoking:
What's a really stupid thing you did in your earlier days of being a pokemon player?
:clodsire:
Making an account for this site is probably up there, but never using timer on preview
:rampardos:
I've never been one to start shit but I used to have a bad habit of rising to provocation and giving as good as I get. I'm too old to be beefing over pokemon
:nidoking:
Any closing statements?
:clodsire:
If my FL team doesn't win WE are putting HAXLOLO'S head on a PIKE outside of Cutiepies HQ, shoutout PRC, Kitchen, and BibsCord, and thanks for the interview!
:rampardos:
Shoutout to the nd community especially the uu/ru heads for being mostly nice people! Unlike a certain unnamed vulture pit of an sv lower tier
:nidoking:
Thanks for being my guests for this edition. As a small sidenote, this interview has been sitting in my dms for a few weeks, so some of the ndfl stuff my guests have mentioned may be a bit outdated. I hope you enjoyed this edition and buckle up, i have some very neat guests coming up in the future. Take care!
I LOVE THE BREXIT BIBARELS
This exists?
Jeff Phicka and E. Flax both paid me very significant sums to play, and Slopcat begged me on his knees it was really weird and I didn't want to be a bitch. And well, Smogcord PL is the best tour ever.
Who are you?
