Project Doubles Community Spotlight! - #15 Code

[Akaru Kokuyo]

art by 13ulbasaur
approved by bagel ​

Welcome to Doubles Community Spotlight project! Here we interview the tiers' prominent players and community members for their insights on competitive Pokémon and the community while getting to know them better. If you're lucky enough, they might also answer questions posted after each interview, so please feel free to drop your questions and comments to our guests!

The name of the thread will be updated with our latest interview, so stay tuned for that and announcements in DOU Discord for new interviews!

Archive

===== RECENT ONES =====
December 2025 - #14 zee (by Akaru Kokuyo)
October 2025 - #13 SEA (by Akaru Kokuyo)
February 2025 - #12 MADARAAAA (by NinjaSnapple)
June 2024 - #11 Frixel (by NinjaSnapple)
April 2024 - #10 sir jelloton (by NinjaSnapple)
February 2024 - #9 fangame10 (by NinjaSnapple)
January 2024 - #8 bagel (by ryo yamada2001)
January 2024 - #7 Xrn (by NinjaSnapple)
December 2023 - #6 qsns (by ryo yamada2001)
December 2023 - #5 xqiht (by NinjaSnapple)
November 2023 - #4 Feyy (by NinjaSnapple)
October 2023 - #3 Akaru Kokuyo (by NinjaSnapple)
April 2023 - #2 ratpacker (by NinjaSnapple)
March 2023 - #1 eragon (by NinjaSnapple)

===== OLDER ONES =====
August 2019 - stratos (by ryo yamada2001)
May 2019 - Kiichikos (by DaWoblefet)
April 2019 - lord death man
April 2018 - GenOne (by miltankmilk)
March 2018 - SMB (by miltankmilk)
December 2017 - Level 51
September 2017 - Snake Draft
August 2017 - nvakna (by Toxigen)
July 2017 - frania (by Toxigen)
June 2017 - EmbCPT (by Toxigen)
June 2017 - Charlotte (by Toxigen)
May 2017 - Matame (by Toxigen)
May 2017 - Mishiimono (by Toxigen)
May 2017 - DaAwesomeDude1 (by Toxigen)
April 2017 - Demantoid (by Toxigen)
April 2017 - I Am a Rookie (by Toxigen)
September 2016 - stax (by Toxigen)
September 2016 - miltankmilk (by Yoda2798)
August 2016 - Dawg
July 2016 - Braverius
July 2016 - n1n1
June 2016 - clius (by Yoda2798)
May 2016 - Yoda2798
May 2016 - Kaori
April 2016 - MajorBowman
March 2016 - TUO
March 2016 - talkingtree
December 2015 - Lohgock (by Yoda2798)
December 2015 - GiraGoomy (by Yoda2798)
December 2015 - Croven (by Yoda2798)
December 2015 - Yellow Paint (by Yoda2798)
November 2015 - n10sit (by Yoda2798)
November 2015 - Nido-Rus (by Yoda2798)
November 2015 - shrop05 (by Yoda2798)
November 2015 - TGMD (by Yoda2798)
October 2015 - xzern (by Yoda2798)
October 2015 - Pastelle (by Yoda2798)
October 2015 - Checkmater (by Yoda2798)
September 2015 - iliketrains11 (by Yoda2798)
September 2015 - 13ulbasaur (by Yoda2798)
September 2015 - Electrolyte
August 2015 - Mizuhime
August 2015 - Level 51
August 2015 - Laga
August 2015 - qsns
July 2015 - Audiosurfer
July 2015 - Arcticblast
July 2015 - Hashtag
June 2015 - deoxys speed
June 2015 - Memoric
June 2015 - shaian
June 2015 - kamikaze
June 2015 - KyleCole
May 2015 - Stratos
May 2015 - SpaceBass
May 2015 - finally
May 2015 - BLOOD TOTEM
May 2014 - Arcticblast (by Ultimathunder)
May 2014 - Audiosurfer (by Ultimathunder)
April 2014 - Darkmalice (by Ultimathunder)
April 2014 - Stratos (by Ultimathunder)
March 2014 - Braverius (by Ultimathunder)
March 2014 - Level 51 (by Ultimathunder)
March 2014 - Pocket (by Ultimathunder)
February 2014 - Mizuhime (by Ultimathunder)

 

[Akaru Kokuyo]

To start this fun project once again, we first have the most recent rising star in the DOU scene. She played both DOU big tournaments (Derby & Doubles Premier League) having two positive records, and is currently playing DOU in the most important low tier tournament, Smogon Champions League. She is:

SEA​

Hi SEA! Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
No problem! I’m SEA, 24 year old from Texas but currently living in St. Louis. I’ve done a fair bit of stuff for work (mostly in IT), but right now I currently work at a hotel.

I’ve seen some people who do not know what SEA means. Could you tell us what your name means and where it came from?
SEA stands for SuperEpicAmpharos, a name I made when I was about 11? As I met friends it naturally got shortened to SEA, and I decided I liked that way more.

Congratulations on your Top 8 Milwaukee Regionals result! How was the experience overall? How was it preparing for a VGC Regional?
Thank you! It was honestly some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing Pokemon. The experience as a whole was fantastic, playing people in-person feels so different. Something I really liked about it is that all of your games are done in a couple days, it’s not like Smogon tours where they last 2-3 months, you show up and you burn through your games. I got to meet up with a few DOU people as well, bagel, srvoltmike, and of course DaWoblefet who I played in Top 8.

I wouldn’t say I actually did that much dedicated preparation for the regional. I talked with a couple friends (zee and Hasayo to be specific!) about my team and played a decent chunk of ladder games. Otherwise, it was a lot of staring at the top cut explorer and trying to figure out something that both worked and would be fun for me to use. I ended up settling on this 6 for a few reasons, mostly because it was an edit of the team I loaded at Pittsburgh with some different pieces with similar functions. A big thing for me coming into the tournament was I felt I had a huge mental roadblock going in, something I talked to Xrn and Hasayo about extensively heading into this tournament. I think I overcame it pretty well, given my result, but keeping myself in that headspace definitely wasn’t easy. I am very thankful for their constant help and encouragement :D

SEA had an incredible Top 8 Performance at Milwaukee Regionals, where other really good and known players such as Wolfe Glick, Riley Factura and Leonard Craft III appear as well!​

How did you get into competitive Pokémon? How did you get into Smogon?
I’m not sure how exactly I got into competitive Pokemon, I was literally 10-11 years old when I first toying around with the idea. Of course, I was really really awful for a long time, but I’ve been playing on and off since around 2012. Smogon specifically, I found through PS I think? I didn’t actually sign up for my first tournament until either 2019 or 2020, when I came back from taking a break during SM. Had some really good fortune to meet some specific people to propel me forward, and here I am now!

Did/Do you look up to anyone as a player when you started playing tournaments?
The people who inspired me when I started are largely the same people who still inspire me today, but in specific I think my biggest inspirations are Xrn, McMeghan and umbry . Xrn and I have known each other for a decade: he’s literally just my best friend, and he’s basically always been better than me at everything LOL. I was the one who convinced him to start playing on smogon and I’ve always been really impressed whenever I watch him play. Umbry and McMeghan I’ve admired for similar, yet different reasons. They’re both extremely good at basically whatever format that touch, with umbry seeming to do it with a more standard touch and Roro doing it with very much his own flair.

4-3 in Derby, 6-3 in DPL, currently 2-2 in SCL, these are all insanely good records for someone new to the DOU scene! How did you end up playing DOU? Do you have any tips for people who want to start trying DOU?
I’ve always had an affinity with doubles, I played it a lot during current gen XY/ORAS and SM on ladder. When I started joining tournaments for the first time 5-6 years ago, it felt like the natural next step to start playing doubles again. Of course I ended up quitting for a bit, both to focus on ADV OU and because I was really self-conscious of being terrible LOL.

Honestly, just make sure you’re having fun with it. I sincerely love 2v2 formats and always have a ton of fun playing, so it makes the process of going and learning a lot easier for me. Don’t be afraid to go out there and try formats and see what you like or attempt different playstyles. Not everything works for everybody.

Fun fact: Some people take years to get drafted and started in DPL. Some people have been around for over a decade and have never been drafted in SCL (before SCL, we had Snake, and before Snake, SPL had DOU). SEA? Drafted and started in both in her first year of trying DOU for real.​

Speaking of SCL, you were drafted again after your last time in SCL III. Does it feel any different now that you’re starting? How different would you say SCL is to SPL?
It feels really different, yeah! I wasn’t really expecting to start this time, while last time I was sorta being told during the draft “Hey, we want to buy you and start you for the whole season” which obviously didn’t end up happening. I’m having a lot more fun for sure, and I think eragon has been a really big part of that. Super fun guy to work with and easy to get along with.

In terms of difference between SCL and SPL, I feel like there really isn’t that much difference outside of tour player perception? They’re both tours that last for a couple months that you dump a lot of time into, so you either really care a lot or you don’t do all that much. Of course I fall under the former camp, so maybe that’s why I don’t feel that much of a difference. SCL feels a lot more fun to me if anything, my season on the Platoon and this one on the Shoguns have been much more enjoyable than my 3 years of SPL. It feels like people get really uptight over that tour.

You’ve just recently picked up DOU and we’ve seen you play ADV DOU as well. Do you have any plans on trying the rest of DOU oldgens? What about other doubles tiers like UU, National Dex, Little Cup, etc.?
I’m definitely interested in trying some of the lower tiers! Even back when I was playing SS during current gen, I was kinda sick of the format being stick 5 legendaries on a team and a Rillaboom. Even in singles I’ve always been a much bigger fan of the lower tiers that aren’t full of giant stat sticks. However, I haven’t gotten to try any of the lower power formats like DUU or even DNU. I’d really love to give those a try at some point. As for old gens, I’d definitely say the ones with plentiful amounts of Twave are a huge turn-off for me, but I’d be willing to give some of them a try. I’ve had a blast playing XY whenever I’ve had the chance to, so it’d be nice to sit around for a season of that if I could.

Since 2023, we've had a surge of tournaments with CA as a prize that include DOU or a variant of it. Don't be shy to perfect some of these "weird" DOU tiers! Some examples are Español Premier League, Best Leaderboarders Tournament, Hindi Premier League (including SV DOU), and National Dex Premier League, Little Cup Big Cup, Almost Any Ability Premier League (including National Dex Doubles, Little Cup Doubles, and AAA Doubles, respectively).
​

What other tiers besides DOU do you main / enjoy playing?
I basically play anything on the site as long as it’s fun, there’s a decent chance you’ve seen me in a random team tour playing something. My favorites are BW ZU, DPP LC, and ADV RU. My actual favorite format is multi battles (any gen!) but nobody seems to play those anywhere! If there were tournaments for it, I would be dedicating my time towards that and basically nothing else.

Do you have a favorite match/set in any tournament? Which one, and why?
I’ll give a singles and a doubles example (though most of my favorite DOU games are victims of the replay wipe ):

Callous Invitational 6 vs Astamatitos Game 1
This was probably my biggest tournament game at the time. For those unaware, Astamatitos is considered if not the greatest ADV OU player of all time, easily top 5. I did a lot of preparation for this game for all of it to basically get blown to shreds in the first 30 turns. I then spend the next 100 turns trying to claw back, leveraging any chance for RNG I can get. Sure enough, 100 turns later, I get a really pivotal pursuit read that puts me in the position to maybe have a shot at winning. Having exhausted almost every single one of my PP on my Blissey, with no paras or freezes yet, I finally get my para on Turn 138, and my crit on Turn 144. I get my Blissey back in and win from there thanks to a stay-in on Snorlax not exploding. The game lasted around 40-50 minutes, and the only thing I felt afterwards was complete and total exhaustion. But, it was only Game 1. I would go on to win the set with help from a freeze in Game 2, but this 1st game will always have a special place in my heart.

DPL Week 4 vs bagel
Nothing super complicated with this one. I was really excited to play a good opponent and was really proud of my play after the game.

Callous Invitational is a prestigious invitation-only tournament that invites the best ADV OU players only. You have to be very good to make it here!
​

Could you give us a team that resembles your building and/or playstyle (In DOU)? It can be any DOU tier!

​

I think this is a pretty good representation of how I like to play, I think I really like switching way too much, and teams with pieces like double fake out or Sinistcha really lend themselves well to letting me play like that. When I was getting back into DOU, this was the first team that really spoke to me. I love the tools available to me to navigate through a game here: Ghold is a pretty clear wincon for you to set up for and you’ve got a lot of ways to support it actively throughout the game.

What has been your favorite part about Doubles and its community so far? And is there anything you would change about Doubles or its community?
The people! They’re all very welcoming and since my return I haven’t had any bad experiences yet. I can’t think of any one thing I would change, no.

What is your favorite Pokémon? And why?
Lurantis is my favorite Pokémon! I’m not really sure why, to be honest. Something about it just makes me go :D, I’ve heard it’s actually usable in old gens which makes me very eager to give them a shot.

Indeed, Lurantis is a pretty strong Pokemon in Gen 8 & Gen 7 metas! Here we have renowned player umbry bringing it in Sword & Shield Premier League Finals!​

What are your hobbies and interests outside of Pokémon?
In terms of going outside, I love to hike, play disc golf and tennis, and to travel. VGC tournaments have been a great excuse to go see new places! As for everything else, I play the euphonium and trombone. I really love music as a whole, I’ve always got something playing. I also love playing strategy games, whenever I’ve got the time I try to sink some hours into tactical RPGs.

Recommend a song to listen to!
Olsen olsen by Sigur Ros. The most beautiful song I’ve ever heard.

Do you have any goals with regards to Smogon Tournaments for the future?
It’s funny you ask that, I’ve basically ran out of goals for me to accomplish on this site. Joining DPL and subsequently SCL were part of my goals, but now that I’ve done those, I’m not really sure where to go from here. I’ve played in basically everything I want to, I’ve tried almost every format on the site, and I’m sorta at a loss for what’s next. I’m still very much having fun, especially with doubles, so I don’t imagine I’ll be stepping away in the near future. However, I’m kinda out of concrete goals or motivators.

Who would you like to see being interviewed next, if anyone?
Hasayo for sure. Super smart guy with a TON of history.

Thank you so much again for your time! Is there anything you would like to add to the interview?
Not really! Big thank you to my friends who have been around DOU for a while, specifically zoe, zee, Xrn, qsns, and Hasayo. Love y’all bunches :3

 

[Akaru Kokuyo]

Today, we have Smogon's VGC Community Leader. He won both Derby & Doubles Premier League this year and just finished his SCL performance with an incredible 9-0 récord! Please welcome:

zee​

Hello zee! Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hey I’m zee, I’m the leader of Smogon’s VGC community and I’ve been actively competing in VGC since 2015 and DOU since 2021. This year I got top 32 at VGC worlds and won the summer seasonal in DOU.

Your “old” nick used to be zeefable, could you tell us what the name means? And why shorten it? :(
Honestly when I first came up with the username I just wanted something that sounded kinda catchy, but I got pretty tired of people thinking my name was pronounced like zeef-able so I just shortened it to zee, which is the name I go by throughout the pokemon community.

Damn, 9-0 in SCL is just too impressive. What was your thought process throughout the entire SCL to achieve this? How do you feel about it?
I’m going to talk about this a lot more once I finish my SCL report (you can check this out here), but for now I’ll just say that I gave my opponents a lot of respect, focused on using strong Pokemon, and was very lucky to have Kunal 's support. Now that it’s all said in done, I still think there was room for improvement in every single game I played, so I hope I can take those lessons into future tournaments and get even stronger.

zee currently has the best DOU record Smogon Champions League has ever seen! Two players with same wins but one loss are Nails (Who also went 9-0 in regular season, but then lost in semifinals) and Xrn (who lost week 3 of regular season).​

Congratulations on your Doubles Premier League win! Your team barely made it to the playoffs and then won the entire thing! Could you tell us a bit about how the experience was?
Honestly it was pretty scary. I had to sit this tournament out due to how busy my summer was, which really sucked because I’ve played in every doubles team tour (except DPL 8 where I took a bit of a break from the community) and I really enjoy participating directly in the awesome culture we have around team tournaments.

Arcticblast and I decided to take some chances on some lesser known names coming into the tour in hopes that we could find the next up and coming superstar on the cheap, and as such a lot of people doubted that we could ever make it that far. We made it to playoffs by the skin of our teeth, but I think everyone just locked in especially hard for the playoffs weeks, and I don’t deserve a lot of the credit for that as I spent so much time during those weeks at worlds or dealing with PC issues. I have to give a shoutout to Xrn for really stepping up and carrying the team in both prep and gameplay.

Speaking of Doubles Premier League, you also won Derby as a manager this year and have managed SCL in the past. What’s the main difference between all of these tournaments? Which one have you enjoyed the most? Will you manage any team next year?
The biggest thing that comes into play when managing a tournament is your tier knowledge. To be an effective manager you don’t need to be a top 10 player in all the tiers in the tournament, but you should have your strengths and be willing to work on your weaknesses or be willing to draft support to account for those slots that you can’t assist as much. In SCL, I did this by retaining a lower tier player to help with the draft planning, in DPL, I had retained Ann to lock in the SM slot since I consider that my weakest tier and I know she’s one of the best SM players around. I’ve won three team tours in doubles as manager now and I think they were all challenging and rewarding experiences, so I’ll be lame and say I can’t pick a favorite! I’m unsure what my managing plans for next year will be as of right now, I think it just really depends on what’s going on in my life.

zee has won both Doubles Premier League & Doubles Derby, some of these even more than one time! And barely missed play-offs last year when he was managing the Circuit Breakers in Smogon Champions League, being 5th by the end of the season. ​

You're currently on tiebreaks for world cup! Good luck there! How has the tournament been so far? What are your thoughts on format change?
Thank you, world cup has been pretty fun with building up the new US South team and getting to play some XY after I had to skip DPL. I elected to play SV instead of XY in the tiebreaker because ned is one of the strongest active players and I think it'd be a little silly to assume I could beat him if we rematched after he perfectly called out my teamchoice in our game. Obviously I'm coming off a lot of SV games, so swapping formats wasn't really an issue.

How did you get into competitive Pokémon? How did you get into Smogon?
I got into VGC in 2012. I have an older cousin who was into Pokemon and he introduced me to Pokemon Showdown. We would wifi battle each other and practice VGC every weekend, and eventually we went to a regional in early 2013. I still knew next to nothing, but from that moment on I was hooked. I discovered Smogon and Nugget Bridge as resources and started practicing for myself. I was able to compete in more tournaments from 2015 onwards, and I think getting to go to worlds in 2016 was one of the best experiences of my life.

I came back to Smogon in fall 2020, I was starting college and there were still a lot of COVID precautions going on so I had a lot of free time to kill. I gradually got involved with building up Smogon VGC and started competing in DOU shortly after, getting picked up for DPL 7.

Interesting VGC background! Are you still playing the tier? Why or why not? Any big differences you’d point out between maining DOU and maining VGC?
I’m on a bit of a hiatus from VGC this season, I think I’m a little burnt out from the past three seasons where I attended 6+ major events each time and qualified for worlds. Additionally I’m just prioritizing the job search and graduating from school, but I think once I can get that settled I’ll return to competing.

I think the two biggest differences between DOU and VGC are the team lock (or lack thereof) and the community size. In DOU, you need to have a stock of teams ready to use in order to not get counterteamed, whereas in VGC you want to make sure the one single team you take to an event is going to give you the best odds of beating “the field”. Because DOU is a smaller playerbase, you are going to end up playing some people multiple times if you stick around, which means you can have even greater insights into how some people prep for games. It also means that I know the timezones of pretty much everyone I’ve played more than once in this community.

Here we have a comparison between the most recent VGC events and the most recent DOU Tournaments. VGC has indeed way more players! Have you people ever gone to a VGC live event?​

Pokémon Champions is going to be released in 2026. Are we going to see you there? What are your thoughts on having an official format with all mechanics allowed?
Yeah I think IRL permitting I will definitely be hitting up some champions events, NAIC this year if nothing else should be on champions hopefully. I think combining all the mechanics would make for some fun chaos. Personally I hope they get rid of open team sheets…

Did/Do you look up to anyone as a player when you started playing tournaments?
In VGC I mostly looked up to people that I saw in my early exposure to the game, which means the people who were writing nugget bridge reports, playing on streamed matches etc. When I started doing well in the Masters Division around the time I was 16 or 17 I definitely got starstruck that those same people started giving me attention lol.

In DOU I think qsns and umbry were quite formative to my development as a newer player, but I also definitely did and still do look up to emforbes and SMB as the strongest players, and I hope I can reach their level at some point.

Up until early 2025, this was the "unofficial" ranking of players since 2014. Unfortunately, this sheet is not being updated anymore, but surely we would see zee close to the top with this incredible year performance!​

You’ve been an amazing player for the last few years, but last year you didn’t play as many tournaments (and you managed SCL instead of playing!). Did something happen that made you want to play more this year? How are you enjoying DOU overall so far? (SV & old gens)
Actually I played almost as much as I did this year but I just took a lot of early exits lol, I got 2nd to SMB in a seasonal but besides that I didn’t make OSDT playoffs and lost like round 1 of the last chance qualifier. I think this year I’ve been able to go a little further in tournaments with a stronger understanding of the metagame. I genuinely really like SV DOU and I think the results have shown that. I also do enjoy oldgens of course, I’ve taken an interest in getting better at SM but haven’t really had the space to show that yet.

Could you give us a team that resembles your building and/or playstyle in DOU? It can be from any DOU tier/gen!

​

This is an XY DOU team that I made during this year’s XY cup. I think I really prefer these types of teams where you mix staples with a bit of a niche pick to facilitate a sweep.

zee had an amazing performance in XY this year as well, being the XY Cup runner up and getting to Round 8 on Doubles Classic. You can see some replays of zee piloting this team here, here and here!​

What other tiers besides DOU do you main or enjoy playing (if any)?
I used to play literally everything under the sun when I had more free time but alas these days I mostly stick to doubles. I’ve been messing around on the ORAS OU ladder so I might play some tournaments for that next year, but we’ll see how it fits into my schedule.

Do you have a favorite match or set in any tournament? Which one, and why?

​

I had to think about this one for a bit but I’d say this game from DPL X semifinals vs SingleThunder. Winning a playoff game is pretty hype, the team was flashy, and I got my revenge for losing week 1.

What is your favorite Pokémon, and why?
Deoxys and Gallade. They’re just too cool.

What are your hobbies and interests outside of Pokémon?
Outside of competitive Pokemon, I love playing games, my favorite series are the Shin Megami Tensei/Persona games, Resident Evil, and I’ve spent a lot of time getting into Final Fantasy this year. I’m also about to wrap up a degree in mathematics, have been studying Japanese on and off for a few years, and like reading, particularly works by Camus and Dazai.

Recommend a song for us to listen to!
If you like Japanese music, please check out Plastic Tree, a very underrated visual kei band. If not, listen to Loathe’s “Is It Really You”!

Do you have any goals regarding Smogon tournaments in the future?
Right now the top three in the hall of fame are SMB, stax, and Emilio. I view them as the three greatest doubles players of all time, and I would love to add myself to that group.

Who would you like to see being interviewed next, if anyone?
SMB has somehow never had an interview, so if you can knock a few words out of him that’d be pretty cool. Breakfast Enjoyer, Terekusai, and Code are also some strong new players who I’d love to learn some more about.

SMB actually has an interview from all the way back to 2018! You can check it out here, but I do agree a second one after all this time would be great. Maybe in the near future we'll see interviews from ALL of the mentioned here wink wink​

Thank you so much again for your time! Is there anything you’d like to add to the interview?
Thank you for featuring me and taking the time out of your day to put this together. Shoutout to uf and the zerk. Please play Nier Replicant.

 

[Akaru Kokuyo]

Today, we have the current DUU & NatDex Circuit Champion. He had an insanely strong 2025 year, and is still looking to achieve more for this 2026 season! Without further ado, he is:

Code​

Hello Code! Thanks a lot for taking time to do this interview! Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hey y’all, my name is Anish and I’m a Smogon VGC moderator who started doing DOU tournaments over a year ago. I’m 17 years old, a senior in high school, and have lived in Texas almost all my life.

Code_Anish, now Code alone, could you tell us what it means and why shorten it?
Despite my username, I do not know how to code. “code_anish” was a satire on people who would constantly promote their creator codes in games. It was also made at a time where I was obsessed with FPS games, and for some reason, when I used the alt I got some crazy skill buff, so it was like a lucky name. I shortened it to Code because that’s what people called me anyway, and it’s much cooler (until you get accidentally pinged 1000 times).

Congratulations for being drafted for Random Battles Team Tournament! Could you tell us a bit about what do you think of Random Battles Doubles? What is your typical approach like?
I’m really excited about RBTT! I had no expectation of being drafted with less than 100 practice games before the draft, but I think randdubs is a great tool for improvement because it requires you to slow down and fully assess the possibilities, unlike actual tiers where I just click fast. Still, I’m off to a sort of rough start getting into the swing of things.

RBTT IX (The ongoing one) holds the record for the most signups in any tournament Smogon has ever had! It had over 1200 signups, and Code managed not only to get drafted, but also is currently in the starting lineup!​

You’ve had quite a successful year in 2025, let's start with the individual tournaments. You won two circuits (National Dex DOU and Doubles UU), and the latest SV DOU Seasonal. That’s amazing! Can you give us your thoughts about all these tiers? Which one do you think was the hardest and why? How do you feel about winning so many of these!
First of all, I can’t express how over the moon I am to have been able to do so much this year. I judge tiers mostly for how enjoyable building can be, and out of the three, I think I enjoy ND DOU the most because it can be structured, yet so varied at the same time. I’ll admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of DUU meta for most of the time, but I ironically started enjoying it during invitationals (check my teams out here!).

Standard DOU is the hardest one because it has the strongest playerbase, but honestly it is very enjoyable. I think things are pretty well balanced, and I like how strategies like snow setup are good.

You also won Doubles World Cup of Pokemon with US South! And you’ve also had really solid performances on other tournaments like Doubles Premier League and Hindi Premier League. How was the experience on these? How do you feel in team tournaments? Did you follow a strategy or something to stand out and win?
Team Tournaments are my bread and butter. I usually do well at team tours because I obsess about prep a lot. Don’t get me wrong, this is a double-edged sword because it also makes me second guess team choices often and bother my managers for approval often. Still, I think team selection is the single most important key to winning; I don’t consider myself a great pilot, but I easily make up for it by having the right team a majority of the time. I am much more proud of the level I was able to prep and play during DPL, though. Aside from that, I had a great time hanging around the US South people, and DPL with the Ducks was a good vibe too. I loved meeting/getting to know more people, and thanks to SMB, Akaru (omg that's me!), zee, and zoe for managing!

Code had an insane 26-9 Team Tournament récord in 2025! We can't wait to see what he accomplishes on 2026 if he keeps this pace! We might even see him in SCL ;)​

How did you get into competitive Pokémon? How did you get into Smogon?
During COVID quarantine, I don’t remember how (perhaps from all the USUM draft leagues and VGC matches I watched), but I just zeroed in on VGC. It was around early 2021 when I started, and at first, I would just build some teams and test them at the game’s Battle Tower. Pretty soon, I branched off into the Battle Stadium ladder, climbing to Masterball Rank quickly and getting pretty high up a couple times. I would also find a lot of VGC streamers on Twitch, usually smaller ones, and just hang out and sometimes challenge them (s/o Peter Panshrew who I would see around all the time).

From the moment I started, I was an absolute teambuilding maniac, with well over a 1000 teams in just over a year. I became even more hooked when I was finally able to reach Rank 1 on Battle Stadium in 2022 with Ditto! In SV, I started grinding a lot more on Showdown outside of just roomtours like before. Eventually, I realized Smogon wasn’t just a singles platform, and I believe my first Smogon VGC tour was during Regulation D. From there, I got more deeply invested, especially as I figured out more and more from some VGC friends (shoutout GBVGC peeps)! As for DOU specifically, I only got into it at first because I just wanted a ladder medal, and the ladder wasn’t too difficult. It wasn’t long before that morphed into laddering for DLT and then playing in SS Cup and OSDT.

Another person with a VGC background! You also recently won the RoA VGC 2013 Spotlight tournament. Are you still active in VGC? Why/Why not? What would you say is the biggest difference between VGC and DOU?*
I do still play VGC! In fact, I try to stay relatively high on Showdown ladder as much as possible, just to not get too washed. I do some limitless tours, Smogon VGC Circuit, and team tours, such as USPL as of right now. VGC and DOU aren't actually super different to me, which is why the transition wasn’t too difficult. There is definitely a less binding approach to managing resources in DOU, and there are certain archetypes that are simply much better in 6v6, like snow and hazards stack.

Code won a recent RoA Spotlight tournament where the tier was VGC 2013. There were some really strong players out there like Human, oopsgtg and MosquitoVGC, but he stood above all! You can check some of the replays of this tournament on this thread!​

You’re part of the VGC Analysis team. Could you tell us a bit about what you do here? Who can join this team and how?
The VGC analysis team makes sets for all metagame-relevant Pokemon in each format and includes clear, relevant descriptions of how each Pokemon works and fits into the metagame. To be on the QC team, you usually just need to show you can write analyses and give solid amateur quality checks (AMQCs).

Did/Do you look up to anyone as a player when you started playing tournaments?
I didn’t follow the IRL VGC circuit when I started playing, but now I can say that I really respect FedeCampoVGC and KommanderVGC . Fedecampo had an outstanding season last year, winning an IC and a regional iirc, and I’ve watched many of his games. For Kommander, I was amazed by how he was able to take such a long hiatus from VGC and quickly pump out great results after coming back (and he’s also like the nicest person ever).

In terms of DOU (and VGC too), I really respect eragon and EternalSnowman ; they cook up some fire teams! Though if there’s anyone that both inspires and frightens me, it’s SMB ; they have crazy good game instincts.

You’ve been playing some of the Classic DOU formats like SM and SS, even playing SMPL in 2025! What are your thoughts on these tiers that you play? Do you have plans of playing the rest and participating in Oldgens 2026 Circuit?
I thoroughly enjoy SM DOU and want to play it more, and XY DOU is alright. However, SS DOU is a letdown for me because it was nowhere near SS VGC, and it’s sort of dry to play. I did not do the Oldgen Circuit in 2025 because I had too many tournaments, and I don’t really enjoy Gen 3/4 formats in general. I’m not sure if I’ll go for it this year either.

Could you give us a team that resembles your building and/or playstyle in DOU? It can be from any DOU tier/gen!

​

This team I made for invitationals was the culmination of how my playstyle has been shifting as I continue to play DOU. It has pretty much everything I like; it has setup, very metagame relevant Pokemon, a couple of tame techs, and good utility.

You can see a replay of this team in action here! Unfortunately, Code missed a Heat Wave that costed him the game, but it was still a very very close one vs none other than one of the best SV players, SMB.​

What other tiers besides DOU do you main or enjoy playing (if any)?
I did a little bit of VGC draft in STC, DCL, and WBG (shoutouts OCO and JD), which was fun at times.

Do you have a favorite match or set in any tournament? Which one, and why?
I don’t know if it's my favorite DOU match/set of all time, but my set against SMB in DOU Seasonal was riveting, especially that Game 3. Beating someone as good as SMB was a huge milestone, and after that, I was just one step away from winning a DOU circuit tour!

Code vs SMB was the Winners Bracket Finals. Almost 6 months ago, SMB & myself drafted Code to play Doubles Premier League, and here Code proved himself one more time to his former manager that he is one of the best right now, beating Terekusai later on Grand Finals and winning his first Doubles OU Circuit Tournament!​

What is your favorite Pokémon, and why?
My favorite Pokemon are Serperior and Slowbro. It was Serperior first because I got White 2 for my 6th or 7th birthday, and I played through it so many times, mostly with Serperior as my starter. Slowbro is just a chill guy, how can you not love him…

What is your favorite Pokémon game, and why?
My favorite Pokemon game is White 2 because of how much I played it, but Sun and Moon and Pokemon Unite are pretty fun too!

What are your hobbies and interests outside of Pokémon?
In some of my free time, I play classical saxophone music and enjoy learning about human psychology. Then, of course, I like watching anime, my first and favorite of which being Naruto (though I will take any recommendations from those reading this :D)

Are you a cat, a dog, or a something else person?
I would have to say I’m more of a dog person thanks to this little puppy (her name is Ivy <3)

Akaru note: cute lil doggy <3​

Recommend a song for us to listen to!
This is just what I happened to be listening to when I was answering this question.

Do you have any goals regarding Smogon tournaments in the future?
I do REALLY want to play in NPA this year, but first I want to become more consistent as a clicker, so that there aren’t games that I feel embarrassed about… More importantly, though, beyond just improving as a player, I want to put myself out there and try to talk to everyone more!

Who would you like to see being interviewed next, if anyone?
I think the MOST deserving person for an interview is Terekusai. However, I would also like to see PigWarrior, breakfast enjoyer, Sealife, AIRedzone, Schister, Chris Numbers, and srvoltmike get one at some point in time (yes that’s a lot of people MY BAD, they’re just all great).

Akaru note 2: We have plenty of time to interview people, maybe we will get a lot of these :fino:​

Thank you so much again for your time! Is there anything you’d like to add to the interview?
Nope, thanks so much for giving me the chance to tell you a little bit about myself! I love the DOU community!!! And big thanks to Akaru for setting this up!!!