Approved by Akir
Inspired partially by the previous iteration of Player of the Week as well as Player Interview
tlenit1
Favorite Pokemon: Lapras.
Most used mon in SS PU: Dusknoir.
Most known for: PU Council Member, manager of the Droaking Drakloaks, PU Driver, makes cool sets.
Yo tlenit, how are you doing today?
All good for now. Third week of my summer holiday started and in couple weeks in can get back to work to actually recover of all this
Good shit, hope you're enjoying this break! Can you tell us a bit about yourself outside of Smogon?
Sure, just a regular 25yo lad from Helsinki, Finland who spends most of his time with friends playing sports and poker. Outside of smogon I tend to travel a lot as well. Corona hasnt really limited this - only changed the destination, more inland travelling than mideurope.
That's awesome! Moving onto mons and PU as a whole, I feel like you had a very interesting character arc from a sort of peculiar PU ladderer to now. Can you tell us a bit about how you got involved in the PU community?
In the first place when I joined to Showdown I used to play RU. At that time it was highest tier without terrains which i absolutely hated. Like any tier, it might get exhausting at some point and I eventually tried my wings in NU and PU. The latter had more variancy, unexplored mons and more active ladder. Ladder as a whole has always been very controversial for some reason. I spend most of my time laddering and I do respect fellow ladder goons for doing so. From PU ladder I found my first PS friend klines who convinced me to stay and not go back to RU, which I'd say was great decision afterwards
Glad you're here to stay! A lot surely has changed since then. This gen so far has definitely been one of opportunities for you, granting you the possibility of being on council as well as being a manager for PUPL. What has been a new piece of knowledge that you've acquired regarding tiering since becoming a council member?
Probably seeing the show behind curtains and being able to understand why something was done. Before I joined I felt some of the decisions wasnt explained well enough. One of the first things I wanted to push through was transparency and closing the gap between council and players. We all want the same, which is pushing PU forward to be better tier as a whole. After few weeks brainstorming the format how to do it, council minutes was introduced. This has helped to gain more thoughts from community and see things in different perspective as well. I personally enjoy a lot of competitive discussions, so no complains :>
Its great that you bring the whole thing about transparency since its a subject I wanted to touch upon. We've talked extensively in the past about being communicative and transparent in this community, and how that communication can help the tier as a whole. To you, whats the value of sharing ideas in the community through the forums/Discord/PS Room? This can be in the form of meta discussion, showcasing sets/teams or simply talking about the community in general. How would you incentivize more people to get their voice out there, no matter their position in the tier?
Thats actually great question. I'd say the value for me is to break the tier and develop myself same time. Every player does have their own comfort zones and deviating from them can be hard sometimes. Having these meta discussions, showcasing sets can be very enriching as well. If you are newer player I'd recommend to just go for it. You have nothing to lose and in the best case of scenario someone with more experience can develop the new set/spread into more dangerous weapon. We all start from somewhere and for me as example, I started to mess around with RMT's and Underrated sets in SM PU.
And thats a great answer! Unapologetically try your best to make shit move forward. We'll talk more about set innovation and techs later on but I wanted to touch on PUPL for a minute! As mentioned previously, you managed the PUPL team the Loaking Drakloaks this year, and while the team was just short of making playoffs, im sure that you enjoyed the experience as much as it was a learning process. Can you share some of your favorite moments from this PUPL involving your team.
Being first time manager indeed was fun. The draft went as planned and no big meltdowns there. In this specific tournament I think creating the draft plan, meeting new people and giving opportunity to new PU players were the most entertaining parts. We ended up being 1 point too short from playoffs which is naturally unfortunate. Lot of 3-5 losses and 3 or 4 ties just tells how good competition for playoff spot it has been. Turning one of those would have changed many things. Anyway, my main draftplan idea was to get lot of competitive players together who could have great time together and gets along well. Better luck next year and I hope for all the guys some good runs in their future tours
I'm glad it was an enjoyable experience. Hoping to see more tlenit teams in the future! During this PUPL you played a good amount of SM vs. diverse players such as Taskr, Raichy, Trixx. What do you think of the SM PU tier in its current state and how has it evolved since the generation ended?
Actually I haven't been biggest fan of SM PU in this tour. Mostly, because my expectations were too high for it. As every old gen there is a lot of recycling to save time. Altho there has been few players I have enjoyed to follow like
yandaud and
twitch.tv/Bag_of_Trixx . Both of them has brought good amount of fresh builds with cool sets. Especially Yandaud who has always been one of the better builders in SM PU started this tournament extremely strong.
And both of those players are playing this week! Finally reaching the finals of this PUPL means means seeing the most hype matches where the stakes are as high as they could be. Which are some highlight matches you wouldn't wanna miss this week?
I'd say for finals Star vs. Ktut is outshadowing other pairs. Two great players and looking forward to see how far they can take their teams. As secondary pick I definitely want to point Trixx vs. Skipkan. Two very different players and both good at doing their own thing. LST tried to CT Skipkan once and that didnt work out too well. Interesting to see how Trixx tries to go around this time
On the topic of highlight, this PUPL has definitely managed to showcase new talent. Which have been some of these "new" players in the community that have surprised you this PUPL through their performances?
Well, I wouldnt say either of Yandaud and ggopw are the newest players, but players that most people probably didnt know. As of a newer player for these circumstances I'd say you, keppy , have been very solid on your own. Taking into account you have built your own teams as well.
I get what you mean, definitely been a fun tour to see whats up with this new gen and its players. Moving onto one of our recurring segments, "Spill the Sinistea", I wanted to ask you a question that might be slightly compromising LOL. I'm sure you've explored hundreds of options for different Pokemon to make them function in a certain way. Which is one of the worst sets you've come up with that you initially thought had potential?
Oh man, theres bunch of cool sets, but heres few;
-Worked: WP Gourgeist w/ flame charge, SD+Dig powerherb Ninjask, SD-taunt-sub stall breaking Perrserker, Hail-Wpool-sub-tect Eiscue (thanks to
Ho3nConfirm3d for introducing this beginning of the gen in ZU), Banded Eiscue, psych terrain+expanding force kadabra.
-Didnt go that well: sub-stomping tantrum-facade-toxic stoutland (this has potential tho), physical Mr. Rime (absolute dog shit even with base 85atk), Specs/Poison Barb skrelp (ngl, probably the funniest thing i have been playing with in this gen), Reversal-blaze kick-BU-SUB raboot with salac berry, endure WP Morpeko (this has some potential as well)
Thats a great list, thank you for the elaborate answer! Finally, care to mention some of your favorite people from this community?
Im really bad at shoutouts, but theres a
lot of people to go through. Heres few I have spent some quality time; kLines,
Xiri ,
2xTheTap ,
Urusius ,
Quagg ,
85percent , all great lads and many more. To all those who I hang daily/weekly basis, I have massive respect and hope you guys know it, cheers
Lovely people, thank you so much for your time. Keep up the great work in the community!
Thanks for having me :>
