As many others have expressed, I started to get into showdown nearing the end of USUMs life span as current gens OU. I didnt play much, usually just had it as a time killer after getting atrociously bored of the mainline games battle AI being so stupefyingly simple and unengaging most of the time. I played on an off, building a few bad sixes, but never committed. It wasn't until the dexcut was announced that turned what was once a small slow burning flame into a rapidly spreading hellish bonfire. With this, I turned to USUM as a means to cope. I discovered samples, the chatrooms (as I was on mobile I didnt know about them), and metagames as a whole.
A few months later, an announcement was made, the introduction of a new tier focused on bringing the dexited mons back into the game along with the previous gen mechanics. I felt inspired, it was just what I needed! And I proceeded to not play a single game of NatDex (Beta), and totally dip. Some time later with the beginning of Covid, when we the world had no other option but to cave into itself for its own good, I joined. I played my fair bit of games, around the time The Big 5 were still running around rampant. I spent about a solid 20% of my time being a hardstuck 1500s ladder goon, and another solid 80% lurking in the chatroom.
School moved to online, and with more than enough time in my hands, I decided I should start mingling with a few regs from around the time. Notably, Sam Sand Man (the GOAT) stood out from the rest of the bunch. For starters, he regularly started pming me throughout the day with random pastes of ideas and... "cooks". With him, and along with other people (some of which are still around, others, well, banned), we established a few side communities for us to mess around in. Building crappy ideas, laddering, beating each other up. Mingling with some of the higher ups, shitting out 5 hard lines of yap justifying or denying any ideas or mons proposed by the other regs, getting shit on by my friends on a daily basis. Gen 8 was the most fun Ive had in any game for any amount of time ever. That was relatively shortlived (3 years), cause of some personal issues I decided it was best to cut myself off from the community for some time to work on myself.
After coming back from my year long break around august, I lurked thru the NatDexcord and ndroom while learning what was what at the moment, trynna get a hang of Tera and its wackyness. I lurked for about a month before I met
IRONM0NK3Y808, and later on,
boppydop!. After meeting them and messing around, I finally got the courage to take the game seriously, joining a fair share of tours. I even got the chance to play in NDOUFL, my first team tour. I was excited to recognize some faces from my days back in SSND, and some new ones as well whove been very awesome people.
All tho Ive never been more involved in a tier, that enjoyment was also relatively shortlived (but like, actually, like 4 months). Ironm0nk3y dipped, Tera was a hot topic once again after cries for a third suspect, which eventually was conceded. For a whole month the community felt very hostile and uninviting, with people left and right confessing how they dont see Natdex as a serious tier and thus it shouldnt be tiered seriosly. Heated debates on what should and shouldnt be done, where the tier should go, even going as afar as making very harsh accusations towards council. As well as a certain individual singledhandly dipping the quality of the discussion with, quite frankly, very awful takes and with streams of stawmans and adhominems. It felt quite awful. And so, I started exploring other tiers, something I was never willing to do.
So ive been having some pretty decent success down in the fairy old gens, occasionally participating in their teambuilding comps and other such projects. Eventually i got the green light to even revamp ORAS' speed tiers which was honestly a very fun experience. I even got the chance to play in Medieva PL, which on one hand i dont think i should be in bcuz im honestly not good enough, but on the other hand, its really pushing me to give it my best. In the end, it was a wild ride. I dont have a single regret, well, not joining tours back then. But regardless, I had mountains of fun, but after the banning of Tera, Ive grown cold towards the tier as a whole. Ironic, but what can I do about it. Im more than happy that the ban has sparked so much activity tho, and has reignited a passion for others. But unfortunately, I cant say the same for myself.
But yeah, its been fun. I bid yall adieu. It was fun. Great to come back to seeing Lupla (bye bye, hmph), Ganjafin and Sam Sand Man, meeting ironm0nk3y and boppydop! (medasus, spookycooke, ineros, runicpower419, chilidewd, sh0shin, and wildfree as well.) If yall wanna reach out, ill be hanging around ORAS stuff.
