Sign-Up Apprentice Program Signups: Draft League

[Ticken]

Welcome to Battling 101! If you're seeking a tutor for Draft League, you are in the right place. Please read all the rules carefully and fill out every part of the application.

RULES​

• You must be able to access Discord, or whatever your tutor wants as the primary form of communication.
• You must be willing to use Pokemon Showdown! even if you are being tutored in a cartridge format such as Battle Spot or VGC.
• You, the tutee, should have at least 15 posts before signing up AND your account's age should be a minimum of at least 1 month old before signing up.
  • This is not a strict requirement meaning you may still be paired without satisfying it, so no matter what, DO NOT spam post elsewhere in the forum. That is an infractable offense and we do not encourage such behavior from potential Tutees.
• You must have battled competitively for a decent amount in at least ONE of the Smogon tiers or Battle Spot / VGC to sign up. Playing 10 or so matches on the PS! ladder is not substantial enough, ~70 or so is more reasonable. This experience does not need to be for the format you sign-up for; this is just to weed out people who have never played competitively that can improve themselves simply by using resources already available to them without needing a tutor to hold their hand.
• You, the tutee, are responsible for setting up times with your tutor. When you receive the Smogon notification informing you of the pairing, please take the initiative and post on their VM wall first. Continued scheduling and communication is key to a successful pairing!
• Use the Tutee Talk forum to complain about your tutor (or praise them if they're doing a good job). These are no longer mandatory, but if your tutor is ridiculously inactive or is a complete jackass, COMPLAIN HERE. Nobody can see your tutee talk posts except for you and the Battling 101 Staff; everything is confidential.
• Signups older than 4 months or 1 month since last login will be considered inactive. These will be moved to the Inactive Posts thread, and can be returned back to this thread by request.
• Tutors can and will drop you if sessions go badly, and significant violations may result in a ban from B101. Be active, be enthusiastic, be respectful. Make the best of your time together!

Here is the signup template, and an example sign-up post.

Username:
PS! Username:
Signup Format:
Your timezone:
Usual Hours of Availability:
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):
Are you able to use Discord?:

Username: Shiba
PS! Username: Big Sean
Signup Format: Draft
Your timezone: EST (GMT -5)
Usual Hours of Availability: weekdays 8 PM - 12 AM, weekends 12 PM - 12 AM
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I started playing competitively in early XY and spammed Baton Pass on the ladder. I was pretty skilled I guess. I then got more involved with Smogon and started to play in various tournaments like UUPL and later on Snake and SPL. I could use a bit more practice in this tier though, so I'm looking to get help
Are you able to use Discord?: Yes

 

[Nyvorlas]

Username: xNyvorlas (go by Nyv)

PS! Username: xNyvorlas

Signup Format: Draft League

Your timezone: Central Standard Time (CST) (GMT -6)

Usual Hours of Availability: Monday - Friday after 5 PM to 10 PM CST // Saturday & Sunday between 8 AM and 10 PM CST

Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I started competitive Pokemon back in Gen 6 OU & UU and slowly built up from there. Most of my experience was just learning Pokemon and match ups in Random Battles for a while until this past year where I have completed 3 draft leagues, made playoffs in 2 of them so far but haven't won any. Still going strong on draft content as I am trying to upload it to my YouTube and I find draft more enjoyable then regular OU and UU laddering.

Are you able to use Discord?: Yes, I am usually on Discord all day as it is even while I am at work.

 

[ReeApple]

Username: ReeApple
PS! Username: ReeApple
Signup Format: Draft
Your timezone: GMT +10
Usual Hours of Availability: 4pm onwards weekdays, most time weekends
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): been playing draft for 2-3 years, while I do have several good performances, want to become better at the standard meta(8 mon paldex) and improve at fundamentals in general draft play/prep, while taking it to higher level of play in the larger tournaments
Are you able to use Discord?: yep, discord: reeapple

 

[dgrgrnd]

Username: dgrgrnd
PS! Username: dgrgrnd
Signup Format: Draft
Your timezone: +5.5
Usual Hours of Availability: Currently on holidays, so around 3 hrs per day between 5 am GMT to 5 pm gmt. My schedule is pretty flexible, just there's a cap on free time.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I started draft about i think more than a year ago, and have participated in around 10-15 draft leagues total including smogon tours, before that I only played some randbats on and off. While my battling is definitely my weakest point, I want to improve my building as well as I feel I do not understand when I should ev for 2hko range, how to defensively ev etc. and how to play with hazards and as such I currently just rely on setup sweeping to eke out wins.
Are you able to use Discord?: Yes, regulus corneas on discord

 

[ACExDiscostu93]

Username: ACExDiscostu93
PS! Username: ACExDiscostu93
Signup Format: Draft
Your timezone: GMT+1
Usual Hours of Availability: 7 to 10 pm any day, sometimes afternoon at weekends
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):
I've played ladder formats in both singles and doubles since SwSh and draft for just over a year. In ladder formats I tend to peak in the 1400 to 1500 elo range and in drafts I usually reach R1 to R2 rounds in playoffs for low to low-mid skill divisions. In smogdrafts I typically make it out of battle pools but not much further, and not much more than a win or 2 in the seasonals. While I believe I'm improving, there's clearly a lot of progress.to be made and I'm keen to learn as much as possible.
Are you able to use Discord?: Yes, discord tag is acexdiscostu93.

 

[Murp3]

Username: Murp3
PS! Username: Murp3
Signup Format: Draft
Your timezone: GMT -4 (GMT +4 for the next 3 months)
Usual Hours of Availability: weekdays 9 am to 4 pm weekends whenever
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):I started draft around December 2023 or so played in a in-house league with friends before getting more exposure to the scene. Since then I’ve participated in many leagues hosted by different servers, some team tours, and very few smogon draft tours mostly struggling at the knockouts stage. I’ve definitely seen improvement since I began mostly in my battling and team building but my drafting is definitely my weakest point followed by my team building heading into games, would like to focus on those but any advice would be helpful
Are you able to use Discord?: Yes

 

[sylvea]

Username: sylveann

PS! Username: sylveann

Signup Format: Draft

Your timezone: GMT +5.5

Usual Hours of Availability: Weekdays 5-11 pm, Weekends 7 am-11 pm

Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I started trying draft competitively around 6 months ago, being first exposed to it even further back in a draft league among friends. Since then I've joined around 8-9 server draft leagues making it to playoffs in most of them and having won a couple. I feel I've improved significantly compared to when I started, but still struggle with the drafting process, and with flexibility in the building and battling stages.

Are you able to use Discord?: Yes, sylveann on discord.

 

[VoidOfDarknesss]

Username: VoidOfDarknesss
PS! Username: Mice X Family
Signup Format: Draft
Your timezone: GMT +4
Usual Hours of Availability: 3:30-11:30 PM (with exceptions such as lessons on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but those are just one hour). On weekends I’m often free for the whole day.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I’ve been playing draft for 5-6 years, the first few being private leagues hosted by my friend.
I started playing draft competitively since the release of scarlet and violet, have competed in plethora of drafts with rather consistent showings: multiple Smogdraft top 16/32s, runner-up/champion of every team tour I’ve played in and more.
I’m rather confident in my abilities as a player, but there are some things that set me back from being as consistent as I’d like to be. The main ones being tilting (usually after getting unfortunate rng) and making my decisions too quickly, however when these problems don’t arise I do great like my recent game vs AgentFlane in DDD finals. It would be great to talk with someone who could help me overcome these bad habits.
Are you able to use Discord?: yes (.voidofdarkness)

 

[Grimmettz]

Username:Grimmettz
PS! Username:GymLeaderGrimmettz
Signup Format: Draft
Your timezone: BST
Usual Hours of Availability:
11pm-2am Tuesday-Saturday
All Sunday,Monday
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):
I started playing draft a little over a year ago and feel like I havnt really improved meaningfully in that time. Current weakest point is team building as a I tend to over cook the team which has the tendency to fall apart after one mistake or something overlooked.
Are you able to use Discord?:
Yes Grimmettz on discord

 

[Iceball47]

Welcome to Battling 101! If you're seeking a tutor for Draft League, you are in the right place. Please read all the rules carefully and fill out every part of the application.

RULES​

• You must be able to access Discord, or whatever your tutor wants as the primary form of communication.
• You must be willing to use Pokemon Showdown! even if you are being tutored in a cartridge format such as Battle Spot or VGC.
• You, the tutee, should have at least 15 posts before signing up AND your account's age should be a minimum of at least 1 month old before signing up.
  • This is not a strict requirement meaning you may still be paired without satisfying it, so no matter what, DO NOT spam post elsewhere in the forum. That is an infractable offense and we do not encourage such behavior from potential Tutees.
• You must have battled competitively for a decent amount in at least ONE of the Smogon tiers or Battle Spot / VGC to sign up. Playing 10 or so matches on the PS! ladder is not substantial enough, ~70 or so is more reasonable. This experience does not need to be for the format you sign-up for; this is just to weed out people who have never played competitively that can improve themselves simply by using resources already available to them without needing a tutor to hold their hand.
• You, the tutee, are responsible for setting up times with your tutor. When you receive the Smogon notification informing you of the pairing, please take the initiative and post on their VM wall first. Continued scheduling and communication is key to a successful pairing!
• Use the Tutee Talk forum to complain about your tutor (or praise them if they're doing a good job). These are no longer mandatory, but if your tutor is ridiculously inactive or is a complete jackass, COMPLAIN HERE. Nobody can see your tutee talk posts except for you and the Battling 101 Staff; everything is confidential.
• Signups older than 4 months or 1 month since last login will be considered inactive. These will be moved to the Inactive Posts thread, and can be returned back to this thread by request.
• Tutors can and will drop you if sessions go badly, and significant violations may result in a ban from B101. Be active, be enthusiastic, be respectful. Make the best of your time together!

Here is the signup template, and an example sign-up post.

Username: Iceball47
PS! Username: ggiceball
Signup Format: Draft
Your timezone: EST (GMT-4)
Usual Hours of Availability: 7am -1pm Weekdays unless I pick up a morning shift. I'm usually free Saturday unless of course I have prior obligations. Lastly, past 4pm on Sunday.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):
I started getting into competitive Pokémon seriously around 2016, starting with Pokémon Brick Bronze on Roblox, where I was part of a tight-knit community called Team Celestial. We ran our own ELO system and held regular tournaments before transitioning to Pokémon Showdown after Brick Bronze was taken down. I played most actively during Gen 7, mainly focusing on OU and UU, and while I’ve slowed down a bit since then, I’ve stayed involved with the scene.

These days, I’m most active in draft leagues, and that’s easily where all my skill points went. I’ve played in about five leagues so far, and the draft phase is hands-down my strongest aspect — I love theorycrafting teams, sniping picks, and building a roster with synergy. I still run with that same core friend group from my Brick Bronze days, and we’ve been playing more draft than ever — both in our own server and through Smogon. It’s been great, but I’m trying to take things more seriously now and level up compared to some of the more experienced draft players in the scene.

Prep is where I struggle the most. I tend to have “Smogon brain” — I’m good at learning and using established sets, but I often second-guess myself when it comes to thinking outside the box or adapting to unique matchups. Since no prep is ever the same, every game feels like a fresh puzzle, and I sometimes find it hard to confidently decide what’s best or how to build off previous experience. Even stuff like speed tiers — which I do understand in theory — can throw me off in the moment when I’m looking at my prep doc and doubting myself.

That said, I’m here to grow. I love this format, I’m hungry to improve, and I want to get better at translating my draft strengths into well-rounded gameplay across every part of the match process.

Are you able to use Discord?: Yup!