Apprentice Program Signups: SUMO PU

[IronBullet]

​

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

THE RULES​

• You must be able to access Skype, 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, are responsible for setting up times with your tutor. Don't expect them to come to you. Take the initiative and post on their VM wall first. Additionally, please be patient if your tutor doesn't respond in the first 2-3 days.
• 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.
• Don't request tutors unless they have agreed to tutor you.
• You may request priority if you were skipped previously in 2016. Link your sign-up post from last year by going to the B101 Archive located in Thread Cryonics underneath Closed Forums.
• If your timezone and hours of availability do not match up with the correct thread, your post will be deleted. Please PM a B101 mod if you are unsure about which thread to post in.
• You may only post in ONE of the signup threads. Delete your post if you change your mind about signing up for something.

• NEW: 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.

List of supported formats

Any iteration of Ubers/OU/UU/RU/NU/PU/DOU/LC from any of the past generations.
Any iteration of Battle Spot / VGC formats.

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

Username:
PO/PS! Username:
Your timezone:
Usual Hours of Availability:
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?:
Do you understand how the blacklist works?:

Username: plus
PS! Username: youngme7o
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 2007 and decided to join Smogon to get better. Since then, I've played in tournaments like WCOP 2009 and SPL 1 way back in the day. Admittedly I've had less time to burn on Pokemon since then, but I still have fair knowledge in OU / UU / NU for all generations from DPP onwards.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Yes
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

The Blacklist (aka Battling 101 Detention)
You will be banned from signing up in the future if:

• You show poor activity over a course of a month (banned for 6 months, infracted for 1 point)
• You decide during the tutoring round that you do not wish to be tutored anymore, or you mistakenly sign up for a tier you thought was something else, and no longer wish to be tutored. This is most common when selecting Smogon Doubles / VGC, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING (banned for 6 months)
• You show a lack of enthusiasm or you're consistently distracted by other things (banned for 3 months)
• You fail to complete the tutor evaluation form that we will send out during the last week of the round(banned for 6 months, infracted for 1 point)
• You are annoying to deal with. This will vary from tutor to tutor. Some tutors don't like it when you talk back, argue with them, whine about hax, whine about sucking at Pokemon, or any version of the 'woe is me' attitude. Tutors get pissed at different things, so if they complain to us that you are exhibiting poor behavior, expect to be on the blacklist.(banned for 3-6 months)

Repeated offense of any of the situations above can potentially mean a year ban. If you have been on the blacklist for three different instances, you will be EXPELLED from Battling 101 (perma-ban from signing up).

 

[Michael Jordan]

Assigned to TJ

Username: InfernoMonferno
PO/PS! Username: NotInfernoMo
Your timezone: GMT+1, soon to be GMT on the 29th of october
Usual Hours of Availability: Saturdays and Sundays, completely free. Tuesdays and Fridays free after 5pm
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): Been playing mons for a year and a half-ish. At first i was a low ladder scrub then i watcher pokeaim (lol and i got much better. I knew not to use shit sets but i was still bad at mons. I watched a few guides and learned more about saving your wincon and being less predictible and what to do for the early game. I have a decent knowledge of oras ou and oras pu, as well as sm pu.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Yes
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes
TJ agree'd to tutor me

 

[Axia]

Assigned to Twix

Username: Axia
PS! Username: Ax1a
What format do you want to learn: PU
Your timezone: Eastern United States (UTC -5)
Usual Hours of Availability: Weekdays 10:00PM to Midnight and Weekends 1:00PM to Midnight
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I have over 600 games played on showdown (random battle excluded) with the majority of the games in PU format. I would like to learn all the basics and teambuiling fundamentals in order to get better overall. I would like to also learn different playstyles, from Hyper Offense to Stall. Hopefully i'll be selected.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Yes (Discord Prefered but can use Skype if needed)
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[Andy Snype]

Assigned to Twix

Username: Steven Snype
PO/PS! Username: Kunclord Andrew
Your timezone: EDT
Usual Hours of Availability: weeknights that aren't Thursdays
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): been playin for far too long. i can only use dundies stall. idk the new threats and how they roll over.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Yes
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[sanguine]

Assigned to TJ

Username: MasterAmpharos
PS! Username: MasterAmpharos/neva luki
Your Timezone: GMT -7 (PST)
Usual Hours of availability: weekdays 4:30pmto 10:30pm , weekends whenever.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive pokemon (min 3 sentences): I've been playing for 3.5 years. I started off ass but recently have become better, as I've reached 1500 on ORAS OU, ORAS UU, SM OU, and SM UU ladders. I know how to build and play decently effectively, I just would like a crash course in a tier that has a lot of potential.
are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Yes
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[yogi]

Assigned to Taskr

Username: Rwby
PO/PS! Username: Ruby Matoi
Your timezone: Gmt +1
Usual Hours of Availability: Evenings
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I am an nu main, or used to be, I was on the PSPL team when we won and I totally carried. I was an nu staff member and have topped multiple ladders. Oh I'm also a memer
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Lol yes
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Lol yes

Taskr agreed to tutor meh!

 

[EasyPickings]

assigned to Taskr

Username: EasyPickings
PS! Username: EasyPickings
Timezone: EST
Weekday Afternoons and weekends
I loved mons but after i didnt buy any pokemon games after DPP i saw a video of showdown and i was happy i didnt need the game to play the game. I saw Infernape in UU which is my favorite mons but PU had so much cool mons i wanted to play there. I peak at mid 1200 to low 1300s but I need help with good prediction and team building skills
I can use discord
I understand how the blacklist works
Taskr agreed to tutor me

 

[LzzzR]

Assigned to Taskr

Username: LzzzR
PO/PS! Username: LzzzR
Your timezone: UTC+02:00
Usual Hours of Availability: 5PM to 10 PM on most weekdays. Weekends are unpredictable unless something is planned in advance.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): Been following smogon somewhat casually since DPP era. Actually started playing when XY was still new. In the end I ended up playing some PU in ORAS era and I felt it could be my place. Since SM came out I have been reading Smogon daily and playing Ubers, OU, UU and LC a bit, 90% of it UU. I didn't like SM OU at all and LC ended up being too different for me to stick to it. UU is still a fun tier but I mostly played it because SM PU was still not yet a thing. I have been trying to get more and more into the game but I have hit my plateau and it has been affecting my motivation. I am confident that having a tutor could give me that push I need to realize why I am not improving anymore. For reference on my skill level, I struggle to hold 1200 rating for very long.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Yes
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[dhelmise]

assigned to TJ

Username: Kris
PO/PS! Username: Kris
Your timezone: GMT -6
Usual Hours of Availability: After 3:30 PM on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I played PU, NU, and OU on and off in XY and ORAS. I now currently play OMs for the most part but really want to get involved with one tier this generation and feel like PU would work. I am able to make basic battling plays but want to learn how to contribute usefully to forum projects and learn more about PU.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Discord please
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: yes

 

[Sopheon]

assigned to TJ

Username: Sopheon
PO/PS! Username: Sopheon
Your timezone: UTC -4 (ET)
Usual Hours of Availability: I'm typically free Friday through Sunday all day unless I have other plans, and I'm free every Monday and Wednesday night.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I started playing Pokemon competitively around the start of XY. Last gen I played a lot of OU, DOU, BSS, and PU. When gen 7 came around I was super into VGC towards the start and nothing else, but eventually I fell off of that too. That being said I have very little experience with gen 7 smogon singles in general, so I was hoping to hop back into it. PU looked like a lot of fun and I wanted to learn more about the current metagame and teambuilding in general.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: I have both but Discord is preferred.
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yurp

 

[Futuresain]

Username: Futuresain
PO/PS! Username: Futuresain
Your timezone: GMT (London)
Usual Hours of Availability: Kinda hard to say since I work in retail. Know on a week to week basis.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): Unfortunately quite little, I've watched a couple of pokemon youtubers and know how EV IV's etc work. I have also played a few matches with a bad team of my own and a team someone else gave me. PU seemed to have a nice selection of pokemon to pick from so I like to try it out
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Both if required
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yeh

 

[Rabia]

assigned to Twix

Username: MewBby
PO/PS! Username: Rabia is Trash
Your Timezone: GMT -5 (EST)
Usual hours of availability: Obviously this will vary depending on the day (in Uni currently), but I am basically free on weekdays anytime past 5:00 P.M. until like 10:00 P.M. (if needed to change that I can), and am free whenever on the weekend until I need to go to sleep unless I am doing homework or going out somewhere.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I got into competitive battling some point in, if I can recall correctly, 2011 on PO. In my early days, I stayed to OU because it was the standard tier and it was what I had watched the most on YouTube. As the generation went on I became pretty well-versed in all the tiers except Doubles and LC, peaking like 30-something in UU and achieving a respectable spot in Ubers as well. I took a hiatus from most tiers in generation 6, only really playing Ubers, and have gone back to playing every tier this generation. Since PU is still relatively young in the grand scheme of things, I have the least overall experience playing any variation of the tier, and am rather lost with the current iteration anyhow. I have built some teams that feel extremely sub-adequate and will continue to spam team-building as that has been how I have learned throughout my years - build stuff, try it and see what works and doesn't, then build more stuff keeping in mind what worked and didn't work previously.
Are you able to use Discord or Skype?: Both.
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes.

 

[a fruitshop owner]

assigned to Rwby

Username: blalib
PO/PS! Username: blalib
Your Timezone: GMT -4
Usual hours of availability: Free on weekdays anytime past 6:00 P.M. until like 11:00 P.M. (if needed to change that I can), and am free whenever on the weekend.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I have been competitive battling for three years mainly staying in OU. I have reached top 10 on the ladder and have played in OURPL. Two years ago I played the PU meta and really enjoyed it. I did not play PU for long until school and sports got in the way of playing Pokemon. I have enjoyed SM but ORAS was another really fun generation. I am interested in learning about the new meta while my schedule is freer
Are you able to use Discord or Skype?: Discord
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes.
Rwby agreed to tutor me

 

[Bouki]

assigned to Rwby

Username: Bouki
PO/PS! Username: Bouki
Your timezone: GMT + 2
Usual Hours of Availability: All days mainly 1 pm to 9 pm
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I'm main Lc, and with some results in Uber. I was decent in Gen6 Pu after a tutoring with Tone.
So if i could have a little help for building/ understand the new meta Pu , could be great
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Only discord
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[IRazvannN]

assigned to Taskr

Username:IRazvann
PO/PS! Username:IRazvannN
Your timezone:gmt +3
Usual Hours of Availability:not able to play from 12:00 to 17:30 my time for school
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):i only really played competitive on ps,i was only the average player thatt on 3ds only played the story.i play ps since 2013,but started playing it seriously only this year in the launch of sm on ps.i can play every gen7 metagame
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?:discord
Do you understand how the blacklist works?:yes

 

[OhYayItsTrey]

assigned to Twix

Username: ohyayitstrey
PS! Username: treyski
Your timezone: GMT -6 CST
Usual Hours of Availability: Monday &Wednesday evenings after 7, Saturdays 3-whenever, Sundays are flexible.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I started playing Pokemon again right before SM came out and watched a lot of Cybertron VGC '17 Road to Ranked. I played some VGC but became more interested in singles. I've played mostly random battles and gotten to about ELO 1400 doing that. I want to get serious about learning how to build a team and I'm more interested in the lower tiers. PU seems fun because it's full of trash mons that never get used.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Either
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[ZeitoKrabby]

assigned to TJ

Username: ZeitoKrabby
PO/PS! Username: ZeitoKrabby
Your timezone: GMT+0
Usual Hours of Availability: Weekends totally free, Friday (6:00GMT+0 onwards) and limited but still decent availability on other days.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): Started playing PU early XY; After ORAS I was mostly in it for the community. I don't play any other tiers, but I do frequent a lot of other PS rooms. I'd like to say I'm decent, but there's a lot of room for improvement, especially in the area of teambuilding.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Yes
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes
TJ agreed to tutor me.

 

[Rashflygon]

assigned to Rwby

Username:RashFlygon
PO/PS! Username:SL RashFlygon
Your timezone:GMT-0
Usual Hours of Availability:Every weekend, Most weekdays excluding Thursday 5pm-9pm
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):Started playing competitively around black and white2 (playing ou); Had a pretty long break after bw2 only coming back at late ORAS. Over Sun and Moon i have developed into a decent battler and my preferred team archetype is Bulky Offense although my skills in team-building are still very mediocre in both ou and pu. Recently ive been playing a lot more pu and i have even joined a pu seasonal however i am still pretty bad at team-building and i find issues playing around stall/balance in PU
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?:Both
Do you understand how the blacklist works?:Yes

 

[SiTuM]

assigned to Rwby

Username: SiTuM
PO/PS! Username: SiTuM
Your timezone: GMT+1
Usual Hours of Availability: I've got no social life so i'm practically always here on evenings and weekends
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I've started playing this game since 2015, and I've tried a lot of tiers since I started. I gave it a lot of time but with no big results (my biggest results are r5 of a ST round and r4 of OST). I'm somebody who always likes to learn more and I really want to learn PU since I think that's an interesting tier and I don't know much about it.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Yes but not really vocal
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[BP]

assigned to TJ

Username: Broken Phobias
PO/PS! Username: Broken Phobias
Your timezone: CST
Usual Hours of Availability:Every weekend, and Weekdays after 7:00 PM
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I've been around since Black and White and got into competitive around early XY. I've played multiple tiers and metas throughout my years. These include Monotype, UU, OU, CAP, PU, BSS and RU. I've been a part of PU for over a year now and I'm just looking to get better at the tier since I already greatly enjoy it.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Discord
Do you understand how the blacklist works?:Yes

 

[Aaronboyer]

assigned to TJ

Username: AaronBoyer
PO/PS! Username: AaronBoyer
Your timezone: CST
Usual Hours of Availability: Monday through Saturday 6:30pm to 9pm; Sundays 2:30pm to 9pm
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): My experience on Smogon is becoming an Alolan Formes Pet Mod Council Member in December 2016 (stepped down in January 2017), PU Voice in September 2017, SU Voice in October 2017, and ZU Council Member/Moderator in November 2017. Although I am a PU Room Voice, I have never considered myself to be that good of a PU player. My teams are usually some sort of one-dimensional Hyper Offense or an unstructured attempt at a Balance team. I would like to use this opportunity in the apprentice program to step outside of my comfort zone and learn how to build, play, and play against Balance, SemiStall, and Stall. While I have never yet made it passed Round 3 in a PU Forum tournament, my goal is to reach Top 8 and be invited to play in the PU Circuit Invitational during the Summer of 2018 and I think signing up for a tutor is a good first step in the right direction.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Yes
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[SteveChucksEnvoy]

assigned to Twix

Username: SteveChucksEnvoy
PO/PS! Username: SteveChucksEnvoy
Your timezone: EST
Usual Hours of Availability: About 5 p.m. - 10 p.m. weekdays, any time on weekends.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I started playing in high school with DPPt (back in the Shoddy Battle days!) and consistently stayed in top 100 in OU. I didn't like BW OU as much but still had moderate success, got into BW NU a little bit too. From there, college started getting in the way and I never really got back into competitive battling but I tried to keep up with knowing the meta. Now that I'm settled in with a full-time job with the military, I would love to get back into the game. PU seems largely unexplored, what with so many options. I'm the kind of person that wants to go super in-depth with my hobbies, which is of course a good and bad thing. Teambuilding has always been a bit of a struggle for me, as I tend to overthink things and end up either with analysis-paralysis or making poor team-making decisions. Still, I want to dive headfirst into these lower formats first and work my way up from here.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Discord, username is IllLogic. Can use Skype, but not as easily.
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: I do understand how the blacklist works.

 

[bobkami123]

Username: bobkami123
PO/PS! Username: Jopheese
Your timezone: PST
Usual Hours of Availability: Monday, Tuesday, Friday all day
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences):I played time to time from DPP to now. My favorite meta was the B/W one. I had the most fun playing stall teams but now I'm experimenting with Mega Lopunny teams and I like putting Celesteela in all my teams. Currently struggling to deal with Mega Charizard Y and Heatran.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Discord, username is Tiyara.
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[Jordy]

assigned to rwby

Username: Jord-e
PO/PS! Username: HaxNeverMatter/bop_space_da$h
Your timezone: CEST (GMT+1)
Usual Hours of Availability: from Monday to Friday I'll almost always be available at around 7pm til 10pm, on the weekends I can play p much all day.
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I've been playing Pokemon competitively for a relatively short amount of time (since April) but have seen decent success as a player in mainly OU. Around 3-4 months back I got into PU as it seemed p fun, however I haven't rly noticed any improvement of my own at all when playing PU and as u can probs guess I'd like to improve, my main goal in the end is just being able to peak ladder ~top 100. I also have relative trouble with team building in general for w/e reason.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?: Discord-Jordy#3403
Do you understand how the blacklist works?: Yes

 

[Blackraven]

assigned to allstarapology

Username:Blackraven
PO/PS! Username:Blackravenx
Your timezone: EST
Usual Hours of Availability: 8:00-11:00 PM
Tell us a little about your experience in competitive Pokemon (min. 3 sentences): I have been playing mons competitively since 2014. I have always gravitated to the lower tiers due to their variety and versatility. However, despite playing for four years, the farthest I have gotten is top 100 on the ladder a couple of times. I would like to get into the tournament scene and feel like I could use some help taking that next step. Team building is definitely the hardest thing for me and I would love advice on how to better myself at it.
Are you able to use either Discord or Skype?:Yes(preferably discord)
Do you understand how the blacklist works?:Yes