Art by Kalalokki
Sensei Axew
Favorite Pokemon: Growlithe
Most used Pokemon: Raikou
Most known for: Being a tryhard in almost every tier except RU, oh and doing things in the community I guess..
After months of drifting alone in the world, with no real life goals or compaions to be with me on this trip, I found myself back in New Jersey. There was a hockey game going on so I decided to spectate for a bit.
As I watched, I could hear some very intense discussion in the back rows, I turned around to see what was going on. There was a group of 10 - 12 people arguing with a sole individual. You could hear him scream "I'VE BEEN PLAYING THIS LONGER THAN ALL OF YOU" yet one could see this person wasn't even half as old as anyone around him.
I know nothing about hockey, but even I could tell that his takes were terrible, so I joined the masses and started fighting with this kid.
After everyone in the room had ended his career, I decided to get close and have a word with him...
Hey Sensei, how is it going?
Hey Feliburn i'm a bit busy but doing okay. how about you
Same, adult life been rough
To a lot of people you are an established name in the community, but to me you are still one of the newer faces of the up and coming players, mind telling me a bit about yourself?
Yeah, I still think I'm one of the newer players in the community but its crazy that I've been around the mons scene for almost 2 years now. But anyway, I'm an 18 year old from New Jersey although I was actually born in Germany and lived there until I was around 7 years old. I'm planning on being a criminal defense lawyer when I grow up and I'm actually interning at a law firm this upcoming summer and taking a gap year before college. As for my hobbies, I play hockey and I love watching tv especially Survivor
Ah, german blood, that explains a lot..
That's dope tho, as a kid I wanted to become a lawyer cause of the Phoneix Wright games but they rlly lie to you, good luck with the internship!
What was your first experience with the pokemon games?
aye thank you! i was actually exposed to wanting to be one after watching how to get away with murder and even tho ik being a laywer is nothing like being annalise keating, i did my research and got hella interested in it
my first experience with pokemon games is from like when i was hella young and played pokemon blue on the gameboy. i started playing on showdown back in 2015 because i became hella obsessed with pokemon after playing Pokemon Y (which is my fav gen of the 8 even tho thats a hella unpopular opinion). i quit after like a year and then got the urge to come back during the summer of 2019 and here i am
And how did you end up in RU?
tbh, it was bc it was the only tier i didnt lose r1 when i joined slam 2 years back ROFL
so i just kinda stuck with it
I see, I vividly remember you being a wack tryhard on ladder first, then transition to a contributor, how has your overall experience in the community been?
yeah i was really insufferable for my first like year i'm ngl but I think I've become tolerable lmfao. but overall my experience has been great, the ru community is full of hella chill and i've met a lot of cool people that have helped me get to where i am now
You've also been making a name for yourself in the tournaments scene, you even played in an official tour, what has driven you to keep on competing?
I think whats driven me to keep on competing is that I know I still have a lot of room to improve in becoming a better player. Also, at least in a team tours sense, the suspense and excitement that comes from playing/watching a teammate play in a teamtour is enough to keep on going
And how was your overall experience in Smogon Snake Draft? How did it feel to get drafted?
I had an amazing experience in SSD! Even though our team finished last and only got a win in the last week, i had a really fun time navigating my way through an official team tour. The adrenaline you get when your teammate pings their game when the series is up 5-4 or 4-5 is really insane. I also was given three chances to play although I got smashed by you loooool. It honestly felt amazing to get drafted and I was hella surprised that I did, shoutout to Punny for putting a good word in for me
Do you plan on competing in the new SCL?
Yessir, although I plan on playing NU/PU over RU as I'm enjoying those tiers a little bit more than RU at the moment. However, I'd be happy to start in RU as well because I haven't started in an official team tour yet and if that's where my managers decide to start me, then i'd be a-ok with it
That's fair, what's your prediction on how the RU pool would look like?
I think the RU pool will be filled with newer mainers and big tour players like Punny as I feel a lot of the mainstream RU mainers will be playing different tiers or won’t be playing at all. I think we’ll see you, odr, Punny, and atomicllamas for sure and then i’m unsure of who will fill up the last 6 slots. I do hope players like bb skarm, Yaily, and Mac3 are given shots to start this year as they both have proven themselves to be fantastic RU players.
Sadly I will be managing, but your predictions seem p fun
You mentioned the newer players that catch your eye, but what about the older ones? Did you look up to anyone when trying to compete?
Ah damn didn’t think you’d be managing but hey that frees up another slot which is cool.
Yeah, I actually did have a few people to look up to. When I first started getting into competitive, I looked up to pokeaim a lot and used his videos as a way to improve as a battler in general. In RU specifically, I looked up to Ajna, Nat, and odr a lot as when I started up with the tier. Within a few minutes of joining the ru community, I figured out that Ajna and Nat were the best players in the tier so immediately I began watching their games and copying their teams to see how they play and build. When I got integrated into the tier a bit, I began to look up to odr as he was a new RU player that smashed the competition in RU Open. I began challenge spamming him a lot and infamously went like 0-31 LMFAO until I finally beat him.
That's dope
Do you have a team you mind sharing with everyone? And explain your thought process behind building it
So I built this team for RUPL Finals vs termi because I really wanted to use a strong breaker that, in theory, has very few switchins so I settled on SD Lucario > SD Cobal because +2 LO CC OHKOs bulky waters and shit like Gastrodon and it also has Extreme Speed which OHKOs mienshao at +2 and does a lot to faster pokemon like Noivern, Flygon, and Raikou. Ultimately, it seemed like a good pick vs her teams
The problem with lucario is that getting to +2 is very hard because its bulk sucks meaning it can only set up on a select few pokemon, especially since it cant take much chip while holding life orb. Zarude is one pokemon that it should be able to set up on but because power whip does so much it really cant. Therefore, I decided to slap on an Reuniclus so that the opponent would be reluctant to risk me flat out CCing the Zarude and killing it while it power whips which would allow Reuniclus to steamroll the rest of the game.
Also AV reun provides me with a psuedo steel because Lucario is not a steel type
Raikou was then added to take advantage of the fact that Lucario can completely remove Gastrodon
Pod was added for spikes because I love spikes
At this point the team was looking like it was going to be a BO, so I added Rhyperior as my Stealth Rocker as a secondary check to Raikou and Noivern while also providing a lot of offensive pressure
And finally Bat was added as my "speed control" alongside of two priorities. It's also a decent check to Mienshao which my team gets lowkey owned by but its definitely workable
Overall, I think the team turned out to be really cool and I like it alot. I did end up losing the RUPL game but it is what it is
In general, I like building BO teams as I think they flow easier in my brain and you can have a lot of creative freedom in the builder while building BO and I don't think you can say that as easily for any other archetype
Yeah BO is the shit
What's your mentality when playing games? Do you try to plan from the beginning or do you just click until everything makes sense?
I do a little bit of both. I plan out how I’m going to win in the very first turn and then throughout the middle of the game I just click buttons to see what happens but still everythings calculated regardless
How come you are named Sensei Axew but your favorite pokemon is Growlithe?
well axew is my second favorite pokemon but I felt that Sensei Growlithe was too long of a name and didnt have the same rhythm that Sensei Axew does
What are your thoughts on the current state of the meta?
Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of the current RU meta. I find it to be very repetitive and centralizing around the same few pokemon (Raikou, Togekiss, Zarude, Noivern, Xurkitree) and due to this, I think theres very little room for innovation. I do think things will change post shifts when Zarude rises but we will have to wait and see
Also, I think once people start experimenting more and straying from the norm, the RU metagame will be interesting but then again as I said earlier, it’s really hard not to use the same 5-8 Pokemon over and over again
This has been the mainstream of the entirety of ss ru though which I find to be really unfortunate because imo I think RU is the only ss tier that is completely centralized rn besides LC of course
but it is what it is
Is there anything you would have done different in regards to the RU tiering?
I probably would’ve banned togekiss and crazy ass take but I would’ve tried to ban boots really early on in the generation but other than that I think the council has done a good job tiering (besides banning raichu-a instead of electric surge)
Is there anything else you'd like to say to the fans?
I’d just like to thank all of my friends who have helped me get to where I am now. It’s crazy to think that just 2 years ago I joined mons and was calling Ajna unviable in RUcord (you’re not viable anymore dwdw) and was complaining about how broken Snorlax was. Now I’m a semi competent player for the people and I can’t wait to see what happens next
Ok glad I asked
Jk thanks for the time buddy
np felibum !
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Feel free to ask Sensei Axew any questions you want!
If you have any recommendations I'll be more than happy to read them, just PM me!
Next time on FeliInterviews...
Feel free to ask Sensei Axew any questions you want!
If you have any recommendations I'll be more than happy to read them, just PM me!
Next time on FeliInterviews...
