OU DPP OU Players Interviews [last output: #5: August]

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Approved by Arai

Hello everyone! Here is the thread where you can find all the interviews I'll do with some famous DPP players! Hope you'll like it!

Archive

#1: Excal
#2: BKC
#3: Philip7086
#4: BIHI
#5: August

 

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DPP OU Player Interview:

#1: Excal

Hey Excal, and thank you for giving us your time! First of all, could you quickly present yourself for people who don’t know you ?

Hi! I'm an old gens player who specializes in DPP, having recently played DPP for the Classiest in SPL.


You are one of the new DPP OU stars, but can you explain how and why did you choose this tier?

Haha thanks, so contrary to my 2018 join date on Smogon I started playing "competitive" Pokemon as a wifi battler in 2009 when DPP was the main gen. Shortly after BW came out, I didn't enjoy it as much as DPP so that was partly what contributed to leaving the game for a few years. Fast forward to 2017, there was an actual DPP ladder and I randomly decided to go on showdown again after a very brief stint in XY laddering in 2014. I ended up getting hooked for the first time in 7 years and laddered DPP a ton for a good year and a half or so. Basically I got stuck with DPP because it's what I started out playing when I was super young. Nostalgia's a powerful feeling!


As a zoomer who started with SM, I can't really pretend that I know this feeling haha, but I understand! You recently participated to your first SPL, can you talk about it? If you were stressed, the atmosphere of the team, what did you learn, or some anecdotes!

Sure, my first SPL was honestly a crazy but overall really great experience. I started out as a substitute and provided teambuilding support, as we had tama to play DPP. It was my first time meeting most of my teammates, but for the most part we clicked really well and had an extremely active team chat. The atmosphere evolved throughout the tournament and it really became something special. Our team did not have an easy road to playoffs and there were so many moments when we were packing our bags and unironically saying season over, but we clawed our way there. I think our great team atmosphere was a large factor in our run.

I was definitely stressed at many points, especially my debut and in playoffs. Unfortunately in playoffs I dropped off after a stronger regular season. There were multiple factors that contributed to it, but overall I learned from it and I don't think it would happen again, especially not to the same degree. I learned a tremendous amount about playing and building, teaming with people, staying composed in stressful situations, and surprisingly a lot about myself as a person (as cliché as that sounds). I am lucky to have made a lot of really good friends from SPL, and also lucky to have made it to the finals even though we went out in a very unfortunate fashion.

Excal's SPL team


I see, it really looks like an awesome experience! More casual question, what's your favorite Pokemon and why?

Oof, that's a tough one LOL. I'd have to say Eevee because that's what it was when I was younger and I actually went by "Eevee" on xat (shoutout to those who remember xat). Eevee's adorable and it's as simple as that.

excal's love

Eevee's so cute yeah haha. To go back to the strategic aspect, you're also know as an awesome builder, is there a team you're especially proud of?

The first team that comes to mind is the one I built for my debut vs Honor:

Replay

I feel like sometimes I build teams with not a ton of strategic thought, rather knowing what works with what and forming standard archetypes with some cool techs to distinguish them. However, this team had very specific ideas and a detailed gameplan that it sought to accomplish. I don't think Milo + Dug + Spikes (not even the central idea of the team in the first place) was optimized or even done much if at all prior to this team. I think part of what makes this team sentimental to me is that it was my debut team for SPL, and winning on debut felt extremely good, especially since I was so nervous for this game and Honor is a solid player for whom I have a lot of respect. This team ended up getting spread around and used by quite a few people in DPP cup, so I guess that fuels my ego a bit . The teams I end up feeling the best about overall are ones that spawn from a unique and potentially unconventional idea rather than the more standard ones.


Yeah, I remember a team with custap endure boom Camerupt... As a council member, how do you feel about the current metagame?

LOL using that camerupt was definitely me going crazy. I think the current metagame is mostly decent. I enjoy playing DPP still and it's fun even with all the cheese we've been seeing recently. I think if I were to make any changes I'd ban Dugtrio, but even then the metagame's still 'fine' as is. Teambuilding in DPP has always been very fun to me and I think that's what keeps me playing the tier after so long.


The controversial question is here, what's your opinion on Clefable in the current DPP OU metagame?

I think Clefable is a ridiculously good Pokemon that can understandably be thought of as a "problem". I think Calm Mind Clefable is obscenely good, and I think Dugtrio enables the hell out of it to the point where options to circumvent Dug + CM Clef on paper are quite scarce. Knock Clefable sets are also incredible and oppressive. That said, Clefable's presence is a necessary evil for DPP in my opinion, as removing it would change the metagame far too fundamentally. The costs are much higher than the benefits all things considered. Entry hazards would become very problematic without Clefable to enable structures to properly play around them, as spinning in DPP is quite difficult and can be considered inconsistent. This is largely due to mindgames around Starmie, the most consistent spinner. Removing Clefable and encouraging a significantly more hazard-centric metagame will increase variance and exacerbate other potential issues in DPP, not to mention flipping the metagame entirely on its head. I think it can be seen as reasonable to pinpoint some of DPP's current issues to Clefable, but I think it is not feasible whatsoever to "solve" DPP's issues by putting Clefable on the chopping block.

the ultimate dpp threat


This is an interessant point of view! Apart from Pokemon, what are your hobbies?

Outside of Pokemon, I like watching shows (particularly anime), playing chess, working out, trying new food/restaurants, making cocktails, cooking/baking, doing various outdoor activities, going out with friends, and playing other video games. Pretty generic stuff for the most part!


Oh, any top 3 for the animes / video games?

I watched Steins;Gate recently and I thought it was absolutely phenomenal! Monster has an incredible anime adaptation that's imo a flawless masterpiece. If I can't count the Tower of God Webtoon which would def be in my top 3 for anime/manga (counting it as a manga ig), third to me is a tossup between Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and Hunter x Hunter. In terms of video games, The Witcher 3 is by a decent margin the greatest game I've ever played. Super Mario Galaxy and Borderlands 2 are pretty decent picks to round out my top 3 favorite video games of all time I suppose!

One of the best games of all time


Mario Galaxy The first one is better than the second imo, but they're both incredible games! Another one, who are the players you most admire and respect, and who are your best friends in the community?

The first is super nostalgic to me and I felt like it was way more immersive than the second, even though like you said both are fantastic! There are quite a few people I admire in the community, but if I had to single anyone out for DPP, it'd be Tamahome and BKC. Both some of the greatest players to ever touch the game and two of the kindest dudes I've had the pleasure to get to know and interact with. No egos and really humble in light of their achievements. Their ingame play and creativity in the builder is absolutely astonishing. Early on when I was just a ladderer, I matched up vs august and got owned by Screech Dugtrio, which I had seen for the first time. After that game we talked for a bit and he was a huge inspiration to me early on. He was super chill and I think watching him destroy everyone during that WCoP made me want to play tournaments. I don't really like singling out "best friends" in the community, so I'll just shout out "The Sisterhood", lab, and Classiest


Even if I never talked with tama, BKC is definitely one of the kindest guys on this site yeah. What´s your best experience on Pokemon?

That's definitely a difficult question. In terms of competing, I'd say either our comeback vs the Raiders in SPL with anti clutching it out in an insanely well-played game, or beating McMeghan in classic playoffs. In general, it's very hard to say but meeting a few people from smogon honestly was incredible. I think that meeting up with people from here is one of the only ways to really translate the time and effort we put into this game into real life.


Make an IRL with some «smogon friends» definitely looks heat! Last but no least, is there a battle which espcially marked you?

I don't have a specific battle that comes to mind at the moment, but some recent ones I enjoyed a lot were DeepBlueC vs BIHI from SPL 11, Heroic Troller vs FOMG from SPL 10 finals, McMeghan vs ABR's ORAS game in Smogon Tour 28 finals, and all the games between Tricking vs ABR in OLT semis. Also august vs reymedy from wcop 2018 and philip vs tama from SPL 8 were fantastic.


That was the last question! Thank you so much for giving us some of your time, and good luck with the rest!

Thank you for interviewing me!




As I said in the intro, feel free to ask your own questions bellow! You can also suggest me someplayers to interview, or you can give me some tips to improve them! Thanks for reading, and have a nice day!


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DPP OU Player Interview:

#2: BKC

Hello BKC, and thank you for accepting this interview! First of all, could you quickly present yourself for (if any) people who don’t know you?

Hi! I'm a 24-year-old Czech-American currently living in Prague. I study psychology. For fun, I like to nerd out over music and movies (and Pokemon, of course). My favorite movie, if it wasn't obvious from my avatar, is Logan.

I've been playing competitive Pokemon since May 2009, which was during the Platinum era. I like all generations, but the fourth is closest to my heart. I started with Wi-Fi battles on YouTube. A year later, I was searching for better competition, so I came to Smogon, which was supposed to have the best. I eventually got into the tournament scene, which is where I made a name for myself.

Initially I wanted to ask you how did you started to play Pokemon competitively, but it looks like you passed me haha. So, you're a "Smogon boomer" now, but can you explain what keeps you on the game for so long?

On one hand, I do really enjoy the game and all its possibilities, which make it almost infinitely interesting. That said, much of my motivation in the past few years has been extrinsic - it's been more about chasing yet another achievement, which is incredibly unhealthy and takes the joy out of what's supposed to be a hobby. I won't delve into the personal reasons that have driven me in that direction, and will just say that it's something I've been wrestling with for a while.

I finally stepped away from playing seriously recently - believe it or not, I'd never really taken a break before - and don't know when/if I'll return. This has allowed me to have fun with the game again, which has been great. I still love building teams, and hanging around on Discord is a blast, especially with these tough times we're all going through, so recently I've been more into managing in team tournaments, which allows me to stay involved with the part of the game I like most without any of the frustration of playing myself.

So, how do you see your future on Pokémon? Are you going to try to manage the next SPL?

Definitely. The SPL trophy has been eluding me since 2012. I've come close(ish) on three occasions, which have consisted of some of my favorite times playing Pokemon, and I'm not ready to give up on that, since I have a newfound enjoyment of managing.

Other than that, I do a lot of stuff on my YouTube channel. It's educational stuff about the old gens, and it's fun to make, which is in line with how I'm approaching the game as a whole right now. It also makes a little bit of money (and I do mean a little bit), which is nice.

I also planned to talk about your channel yeah (which you can find here). You make a lot of battle reviews on it, but is there a battle which especially made an impression on you during this 11 years?

There are many, and I could fill up an entire page with all the great games I've seen over the years, so to keep it brief, I'll mostly focus on those that left a mark on me when I was new.

Earthworm was the first player I looked up to, and nearly every one of his battles I saw inspired me. I could feel just how deeply he understood what was going on from the way he played. His WCoP tiebreaker against husk was amazing.

I didn't see too much of Gouki in his prime, but his Battle of the Week game against Earthworm, which I recently recreated on my channel, was another particularly huge one - I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but it is breathtaking and lit a spark in me at a young age.

In a similar vein, this warstory (this is how you know I'm old) of LoveDestiny vs. EW in a simple Salamence suspect ladder game is possibly my favorite battle ever, especially because LD did such an incredible job with his commentary.

Just so I have some battles that exist in Showdown replay format: I really loved both SoulWind vs. Sweepage for SPL 7 tiebreak and Jirachee vs. McMeghan for WCoP 2016 qualifiers.

Finally, I am like many others in that the legendary Marriland vs. Untouchable battle inspired me to play online in the first place.


Some great stuff, I'll watch it! You're probably one of the best builders of all time, but is there a team you're especially proud of?

This is a tough question because I have a lot of teams I hold dear, but if I had to pick just one, it has to be the Protect stall (which I affectionately refer to as I Crawled) that has become the standard stall team in the past few years and shaped a lot of the metagame development we've had since then. That said, I'm also really partial to my SubRoost Aerodactyl stall and my bulky SD Scizor offense. Both are old as hell, but I remember them (and so many others) fondly.

Speaking of the community, is there some players you admire in the community, or some you can consider like your best friends on this game?

I'm lucky to be friends with a lot of great players, but I won't single them out here. I admire players who are humble despite all their success - the best examples are Astamatitos and Philip7086, who are among the best of all time in their respective metagames but are never arrogant. Of course, I also look up to the many modern players who are among the best of all time - SoulWind, Ojama, McMeghan, ABR, Tamahome and Ciele. In the past, for DPP specifically (besides the obvious Earthworm and Gouki), I learned so, so much from the exploits of older legends - husk, imperfectluck, reyscarface, Loki, Atticus and 6A9 Ace Matador come to mind.

You recently left the DPP Council, but how do you feel about the current metagame? (and especially Clefable haha)

I think the current metagame is great. I would either keep everything as is or get rid of Dugtrio, I'm fine with either option. What I would not be fine with is getting rid of Clefable. Before it rose in usage, there were many complaints about how hazard-centric the tier was. I didn't have a problem with that metagame, but I don't think getting rid of one of the few good options of dealing with (Toxic) Spikes abuse (which is already quite powerful even with Clef around) is a good idea. It's not a matter of "broken checking broken" either, because I don't find (T)Spikes abuse to be broken, and Clef certainly isn't - it's "merely" very good. As for other controversial matters, I would not get rid of Jirachi, either - dumb as it can be, I think being able to handle something as unforgiving as it can be, akin to ADV's DD Tyranitar/Aerodactyl, is a good thing for both teambuilding and playing. Finally, I think Latias' return to the tier has been terrific.

I see yeah. Even if it looks impossible to set up, do you think ban Iron Head could create a more competitive metagame, even with the bans it would generate?

I actually had what I thought was a pretty good idea recently - Iron Head being banned on Leftovers Jirachi. Obviously it'd never be approved for policy reasons, but it'd fix what I view as the problem, which is Rachi being even more difficult to take out - you can hit it for a lot of damage, but bulky sets can just flinch their way back to high HP. Scarf and mixed (without Lefties) sets are infinitely easier to handle. I doubt Iron Head on Jirachi or Iron Head as a whole would be on the table either, but I'd be fine with either of those - regarding the latter, nothing else uses Iron Head (haven't seen a lead Metagross using it over Meteor Mash or Scarf Scizor using it over Bullet Punch in a decade), so it'd be fine. Of course, I'm also completely fine with Jirachi being left alone entirely.

Looks really smart to me, but yeah, Smogon policy definitely makes it impossible. A more casual one, what's your favorite Pokemon?

Salamence. The first time I faced Drake in Pokemon Sapphire, I barely managed to take down his first four, then he sent out this monstrous beast of a dragon and I instantly knew I had to have one. It eventually became my first level 100, with a moveset of Fly, Dragon Claw, Fire Blast and Flamethrower.

I'm also partial to Espeon and Umbreon because I love Pokemon Colosseum, and like any normal child, I loved Charizard, although he's been a little ruined for me by Nintendo/Game Freak/whoever constantly, endlessly shoving him in the spotlight for the past seven years.

(Artist)

"The first time I faced Drake in Pokemon Sapphire" ... Omega Boomer. You talked about music and movies, but do you have other hobbies?

It blows my mind that there are people sorry, children out there who have played Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but not the originals. I'm not old, everyone else is just too young!

Like everyone, I like to hang out with my friends. I'm lucky enough to live with my girlfriend, which forces me to be an adult sometimes (gross) but is mostly a lot of fun. We binge through a lot of shows together (like the best sitcom ever, 30 Rock). I also try to stay in good shape to offset the amount of time I spend on my ass. There's a basketball court near my apartment, which has made this pretty easy. Finally, I like to read and write, although I don't do either nearly as much as I should. That said, I'm working on a Pokemon movie with some other talented people right now. It's a slow process, but I have faith that the end result will be something anyone with even a passing interest in our beloved franchise will want to watch.

Looks really cool, I look forward to seeing the results! If you had to give 3 tips to the "basic smogon Player" (without real perfs I mean) to improve, what would you say?

1. Study the most successful players' replays and try to understand why they are successful (their teams, their plays). You can potentially even send them a PM asking them to clarify. That said, if you are going to do this, be polite - nobody likes it when somebody they've never spoken to demands a team from them.

2. Play a lot - ladder, official and unofficial tournaments - and try to adapt what those top players do into your own game. Trial and error, both with playing and with trying to build your own teams (which I recommend after you've gotten acquainted with a metagame).

3. Use the timer and use the damage calc. I can't stress enough how important this is. You don't get extra points for clicking fast.

Bonus: Don't be an asshole. It does not make you cool.

The bonus is probably the most important point haha. What's your best experience on Pokemon during these 11 years?

There have been so many, usually relating to team tours, but if I had to choose just one, SPL 8 with the Raiders (still the best team of all time). Despite having the season ruined by the biggest asshole in Smogon history, Mazar, up until that point it was an absolutely ridiculous amount of fun. Everyone on the team got along, and we were winning, which gave us a lot of time to mess with each other. One night, a certain comment from Jayde regarding reyscarface, KratosMana and the expression "im gay" made me laugh so hard tears came to my eyes. Funny moments happen all the time, but I don't think that one in particular has been topped.

I also have to mention VGC 2014 and 15; I didn't play, but went just to hang out, and it was a great time. Nothing like hearing a crowd go nuts after someone got a crit or won with Pachirisu. I was planning on going again this year until Covid ruined everything. I've also been lucky enough to meet a ton of Pokemon people irl. It's just so much more enjoyable to discuss the merits of the best Infernape set that way. Of course, just taking it easy with your pals on Discord (or IRC, if you're old like me) is irreplaceable.

That was the last one, thank you so much giving me some of your time! If you want to add anything, feel free!

I'd like to give mention to all the great people keeping DPP alive; you guys rock. Also, subscribe to my YouTube channel if you like old gens even a little bit. Finally, stay safe during Covid; 30 Rock is just waiting to be binged, and there's never been a better time to start than now.​

 

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DPP OU Player Interview:

#3: Philip7086

Hi philip, thank you for giving us some of your time! First of all, could you quickly present yourself for people who don’t know you ?

Hi there! Yeah of course—thanks for being patient with me! For those who don't know me, I'm Philip7086. I've been around Smogon since 2008 during the Diamond/Pearl era. Most people probably know me best for my team building in DPP, my Frontier trophy (which I actually won during BW), for being the longest standing member of US West, for my time as an admin on Smogon for a few years, for being an old fart, and for my WCoP grand finals tie break game where I brought Aron and lost.

You´re a veteran now, but can you explain how and why did you started playing Pokemon competitively?

I actually got started back in 2007 when my coworker introduced me to ADV! I had played all of the games before that, and even lived in Japan when Red and Green came out, but I never knew there were such intricate competitive mechanics until then. I studied up right before Diamond and Pearl came out, and I was a big part of the WiFi community on GameFAQs at first. I moved over to Smogon in order to try the Smogon Frontier, and I’ve been around ever since!

And can you explain what keeps you on the game for so long?

I technically consider myself officially retired from competitive mons, after coming off of last year’s WCoP win! WCoP has always been a special tournament to me, so I felt it was the right time for me to end my career on a high note. That being said, you can still find me in various Smogon Discords and checking the forums often because I still value all the friends I’ve made over the years through this community. I also still enjoy watching high level games being played and random Smogon drama unfold, of course!

If you had to give 3 tips to «basic» smogon players to improve, what would you say?

Hmm, good question. My first tip will be specific to DPP, but my second two should be applicable to all metagames!

1. Use the lack of team preview to your advantage when building a team and playing your games. Having a threat hidden in the back can often lead to flipping the match. At the very least, you can force your opponent to make plays with less than perfect information, which is always to your advantage.

2. Always keep your win conditions top of mind while playing. Whether you need your Latias above 60% to live a Bullet Punch and sweep, or you need to make sure your CM Clefable doesn't get tricked, or you need to conserve your PP because there's an impending PP war - you should always know what your path to victory is, and play accordingly. Additionally, you should keep your opponents win conditions top of mind, because this will likely influence how they play, and you can take advantage of that.

3. Don't default to safe/predictable plays just because you're in the lead. When players are in losing positions, they make desperate plays in order to make a comeback. If you're making only safe/obvious plays because you're in the lead, this can be exploited and you can end up losing because of it.

You said you still value all the friends you´ve made over the years, but is there also some players you admire?

I tend to admire creative builders, since I place a lot of value in people doing something new and innovative. Ben Gay comes to mind as one of the best builders in recent gens. I also think there are players who are just on another level and can dominate in any tier they put their minds to. McMeghan, Ojama, Lavos, and ABR are in this category for me. In terms of clutch players, I’d say Lax is one of the few people I would trust to bring home a tie breaker. Most calculated player is probably Earthworm, though I know he hasn’t been active in a while. Of course, I couldn’t list players I admire without also mentioning BKC and August, for continuing to stay on top of the DPP metagame after all these years.


In the same genre, is there a battle which especially marked you, and why?

I think the battle I'm most well-known for is one that I actually lost. It was a WCOP grand finals tie break game vs Earthworm from Oceania. I made the call (with my team's approval!) to bring a Shell Bell Aron team. I know a lot of players were dumbfounded when they loaded up the match and saw Aron in team preview. I ultimately lost this battle, but I think it was actually helpful in the long run on my "Pokémon career," because I became notorious for being a player who's not afraid to bring crazy teams to important games. I've had many people tell me over the years that I have been impossible to prep for, and it's something I'm very proud of!

Another highlight game for me is my WCOP tie break game vs BKC from US East last year. Despite BKC and I being prominent DPP players, we have rarely had the opportunity to play each other on the main stage. I'm proud that I was able to build an innovative team and pilot it well to bring a victory to my team and also end US East's longstanding win streak in WCOP!
Also, fun shout out to the game that I reverse 6-0'd McMeghan with Togekiss.

And a team you´re especially proud of?

The two teams I built RMTs for are probably still my favorites: Team of Torment, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Team of Torment was an introduction of Torment Heatran into the meta, which annoyed people to no end, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was a bulky screens team that focused on calm mind sweepers that all had play against Blissey. I also built a team centered around Dugtrio for Tyranitar, with Rain Dance Kingdra and Moonlight Cresselia in the back a few years ago which had a very solid tournament run. I saw a lot of copycats of this team, and they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!


Ohhh, didn´t know you created torment Tran. What are your hobbies appart from Pokemon?

I really enjoy traveling, so 2020 has been really brutal on my favorite hobby! Looking forward to being able to fly again and visit new places.

Oh, which countries have you already visited?

In no particular order, I’ve been to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China, The Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Italy, Germany, France, The Czech Republic, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Canada. Japan is my favorite country to visit, since I lived there for three years when I was younger and speak passable Japanese. In 2020, I had plans to also travel to Greece, UK, and Australia. Also high up on my list are South Africa and The Netherlands.

Damm, that's a lot haha, your passport must be full now! Even if you're retired now, how do you feel about the current DPP metagame?

I think with the removal of DPP from WCOP, there are less players interested in truly learning it. Without official tour recognition, it’s difficult for a metagame to continue to thrive. The reality is, it’s easier to just grab known teams and invest your time in more relevant tiers. I feel like because of this, we’ve seen the metagame get a little stale in DPP. I hope some new blood will get interested and come up with some creative builds. There’s still a lot to be discovered in DPP, and what we currently see as top meta was not there two years ago!

I feel like there's still some and some new dpp players tbh, I think it's probably one of the most active oldgen. Anyway, what's your favorite Pokemon (and why is it mew)?

Yeah, I suppose I was just a bit disappointed by the overall team builds from this recent Classic playoffs. I hope it’s not a sign of the future of DPP! As for my favorite Pokémon, how could it NOT be Mew??? It’s cute and super versatile, making it very difficult to predict in battle. I also have fond memories of getting my Mew in the original Pokémon Red to complete my 151 dex. That’s a childhood memory that I’ll always cherish.

I feel the same for Classic yeah... What's your best experience on Pokemon during all these years?

I think a lot of people would agree with me that team tournaments on Smogon are the best experience the site has to offer. Almost all of my WCOP experiences have been super enjoyable, and most of my SPL seasons, too. You get to know so many more people through team tournaments, and you create long lasting bonds. I also really think the Smogon Frontier was the most fun official individual tournament format Smogon ever had. I’m sad newer players will never get to experience it.

If you had the opportunity to add or remove only one thing from the dpp metagame, what would you choose?

Hmm, that’s a really tough question. I think if I knew my actions weren’t permanent, I might try to bring Salamence back into the game to see how things go. The metagame has changed so much since the days when Mence was banned, and players have discovered a lot of new potent strategies since then. I think Mence would shake things up so all the current dominant Rachi Clef strategies become a bit more vulnerable, and offensive teams would get another force to be reckoned with. That said, it could very well prove to still be OP, but I think it would be a fun metagame to try out.


BKC made a DPP + Salamence tour and it was rly fun to watch yeah. That was the last one ! Ty so much for giving me some time, and If you want to add anything, feel free!

Thanks so much for picking me as an interview subject! You know, the competitive Pokémon community, while hostile/trolly at times, is a really special one. I’ve spent so much time over the past decade building, playing, chatting, and watching with all of you, and I’ve learned so much along the way. Even as I hang up my hat, I’m looking forward to seeing the community grow from the sidelines.​

 

[SFG]

Hey guys! After several months of inactivity (mostly due to school), here is the new DPP OU interview! All my exams are over, so several other interview will probably be published in the coming weeks. This interview was conducted in French and then translated by me, so I apologize in advance for my imperfect English. Thanks to my friend Gmansour20 for the grammar check, have fun reading!



DPP OU Interview:

#4: BIHI

Hi BIHI, thank you for agreeing to give this interview! First of all, could you introduce yourself in a few words?


Hi SFG! I’m 24 years old and I'm a "veteran" of the competitive scene, specialized in DPP. I was super active around 2010/2011/2012 before taking a break because I was bored with the game. I finally came back in 2019 since I have enough free time.


You were really active around 2011, but how did you discover the Smogon and strategic scene?

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Pokemon games, but I only found out about the strategic aspect in 2008/2009 when I met roxou (aka Akola). When we were together, we spent our time playing video games, especially Pokemon. At first, we were just playing matches with Level 100 Pokemon, and we weren't trying to go further. However, shortly after, we started wanting to optimize our teams, so we began to learn about the hidden mechanics like IVs or EVs. We discovered all the strategic aspect of Pokemon thanks to the "Pokedex" section of the French site "Pokebip", which referenced some strategic analyses. Soon after, I downloaded shoody battle and spent my evenings on the DPP ladder (which was really competitive at that time). I then joined the French circuit (which we called les "Teams Pokemon Officielles") and really started to explore Smogon when Black and White came out. I finally played my first WCoP in 2011, after a whole year of ladder spam.


After ten years on Pokemon, you probably have lived a lot of experiences! Is there one that is particularly important to you?

My first WCoP, I think. It was really the tournament that made me deeply love tournaments and especially teamwork within the Pokemon setting. I particularly remember my super intense game against Earthworm in playoffs. I think it was one of the games that had the most relevant effect on me among all those I played on Smogon, mainly because I realized how much we can have fun on this game thanks to it. Beyond that, all my team tournaments on Smogon have marked me in one way or another, through the people I met or the way we performed. My last point is a bit lighter, but the 1st IRL made with people met on the game was awesome, especially because I didn't imagine I would be making real friends when I started to invest time on Pokemon.


People we met on this game are definitely an awesome part of the experience! You ended with a positive score last SPL and reached POs for the classic, any goals for the future?

I am mainly interested in team tours, so I think I'll just focus on the Smogon Team tournaments circuit for now. Maybe I'll try to qualify for the classic again, but it will be a secondary objective. I would like to further improve my level in DPP and really leave my mark on this tier. Finally, winning WCoP remains my main goal on this site, so I'm going to do everything to make it happen at least once before I definitely move on. I have high hopes for this year, I think we managed to create a very good collective, so I hope we will give a good performance.


France for the win! I can't describe how much the SS metagame bores me, but I'll follow the adventure of the French team. But team tournaments are definitely one of the best experiences on this site, for sure! You are already known as a very good builder, but is there a team of which you are particularly proud?

My favorite one is a team I built in BW1 around Reuniclus (Hippo/Reuni/Gengar/Heatran/Jirachi/Gastrodon) by bringing back Will O Wisp Gengar.

But since my return, I think that the one that I prefer among those that I have built remains the team that I played against ToF during the last SPL. I made 2 versions of it:





(click to get the import)


It's typically a team that corresponds to what I love to play: BO with a threatening win condition that I like a lot, Superachi in this case. The Breloom version can deal with Swampert more easily and is also better vs some fat stuff for which Spore isn't easy to play around. Toxic allows to patch up the Roar Tias weakness and also allows to creep Gliscor, giving space to Skarmory and Jirachi. The Tyranitar version is safer vs Gengar and allows one to play Modest Latias since Scarf Tyranitar is already good speed control. I love playing double scarf-based builds these days, it's usually very strong against offense while still remaining interesting against fatter builds, as long as one of the two scarfers has Trick. Superachi was one of my favorite picks during this last SPL and I think it will remain a very interesting Pokemon for a while. It heavily threatens the BO builds based on Tspikes + special attacker that very popular these days, but also the offenses which generally have very few options due to the coverage of Jirachi. Scarf Tyranitar + modest Latias and Breloom + Latias are two huge threats for more defensive builds, especially with spikes and the threat of Rotom’s Trick and Jirachi setup.

This is the team with which I currently take the most pleasure to play with, and probably one of the most elaborate. I'll probably do a RMT after WCoP.



Speaking of Loom, Spore is causing quite a bit of debate in the DPP community right now; would you like to share your opinion on the matter?

The Breloom issue is quite complex in my opinion. The sleep mechanic in Pokémon is problematic and we have seen in BW that the Spore ban has generally done a lot of good for the tier. However, the problem of sleep in DPP is really different from the BW one: sleep is weaker in DPP than in BW because of the gen5 sleep mechanics. I still agree that sleep is questionable from a competitive point of view, especially because it adds a layer of hazardous parameters in a game already heavily influenced by chance. I was initially very favorable to a ban because like all those who have ever built in this tier, I was well aware of the constraint posed by Breloom and its spore in the builder. Taking a Spore means taking a kill most of the time in a tier as fast-paced as DPP, and the fact that loom is able to "take a kill" and keep putting the pressure afterwards is problematic. It forces some teams to have very specific responses to spore by including a Sleep Talk slot on some Bulky Offense, which adds even more variance with sleep talk rolls. We might end up with a situation quite similar to the BW in the answers proposed to Breloom.


Despite all these negatives, I think we need to wait before making a decision. Firstly, because the state of the tier is currently very good in my opinion: despite the presence of Iron Head, the tier is balanced, very open and really pleasant to practice. The ban of Dugtrio definitely allowed DPP to become an excellent tier once more. Secondly, the problem with removing spore is that you would remove an important stallbreaking tool for a lot of Loom-based teams. I'm not sure removing a threat to stalls is a good idea right now. So, all in all, my opinion hasn’t been finalized yet.

I want to take this opportunity to add something: I think the first thing to do is to organize an open discussion including all DPP players, so that everyone can express their opinion and discuss the status of Spore in the tier. The council should organize more discussions on divisive issues in my opinion, especially given the current remarkable quality of the DPP players pool.



That's a really interesting and cool answer ! Much less strategy-related, what are your other passions / activities outside of Pokemon?

I'm a huge cinema, music, and video games fan. I spend a big part of my free time trying to discover stuff I've never seen / never heard / played before. Overall, I'm quite interested in the arts in general and also in artistic criticism which I find fascinating. Apart from that, I really like doing sports and spending time with my friends. Nothing incredible, after all.

But my favorite entertainment is still to bully Deckline, Grimbert and Celysi each day.


(Sorry guys, blame BIHI, not me ;-; ). A favorite movie / song in this case?

My favorite movie is Friedkin's Sorcerer, without a doubt. Choosing a favorite song is a bit complicated considering the number of songs that influenced me, but I would say Along the Bank of Rivers by Tortoise, Refractions in the plastic pulse by Stereolab and Call by The American Dollar are some of the songs that have had the greatest impact on me in my life

I didn't know at all, but I really like it! To come back to a strat aspect, if you could modify (aka ban / unban a Pokemon) DPP, what would you choose?

Like I said I think the tier is in great shape right now. However, I would like a serious discussion to be organized around Iron Head. I know that a potential Iron Head ban would be very controversial, but I think it should be given some thought. The move causes much too random sequences with Jirachi and sometimes allows it to bypass some of his checks in situations where it should be walled. We have seen major tournament games in which Jirachi, just by spamming Iron Head, turns the tide or even wins matches that should have been lost. Even if these situations obviously don't represent a majority among all games played in DPP, the mere fact that Jirachi can create them is in my opinion problematic. I am against a Jirachi ban because I think it is an overall healthy Pokemon and important for the tier’s balance, but I am convinced that an Iron Head ban (and possibly a Latias suspect right after) could be extremely interesting for "the integrity of the tier". Once again, the most important thing is that discussions can take place and that the council solicits the opinion of the players more often, even without necessarily taking conclusive decisions after the dialogues.


That's all for me ! Thanks again for giving me your time :) If you want to add something or greet someone, I'll leave you the last word!

Thank you for the interview, I take this opportunity to drop some shout-outs:

Shout-outs to the Toulouse Crew, to the 2020 Wolfpacks,to the 2020 Astrotias, to the 2021 Raiders, and to team France. Apart from that, I would just like to thank the Pokemon community as a whole. We are still lucky to be able to play this game with so many quality people around us!





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DPP OU PLAYER INTERVIEW:

#5: August

Morning August! Thank you for giving me some of your time! You are a veteran on this site, but could you quickly introduce yourself?

I'm august, i've been playing competitive pokemon on smogon since 2007. i'm mainly known for playing dpp, which makes sense since dp was the gen that i started playing competitively in and is the one i am by far the most familiar with :)


It's weird to think you started when I was 5 years old haha. How did you discover the competitive scene and Smogon?

I actually started on gamespot when diamond and pearl first came out, and used to look for wifi battles and trades on there. As I started to get more interested in the game I looked at other forum sites, and first joined serebii and then eventually wound up on smogon. I was mostly on smogon to trade pkmn that I bred at the start, but one day I was talking to someone on AOL instant messenger (throwback haha) about team building and they said that I should test my team on shoddy battle. I had no clue what that was so I looked it up and it turned out there was a DP simulator where you didnt need to breed for hidden power IVs and brutally soft reset legends in order to play. can't say I spent much time breeding pkmn after that, I think that shoddy is what really got me to move towards the competitive scene rather than pkmn trading.


What a time! Like in the precedent interview with BIHI , you probably had a lot of experiences during all these years. Is there one that is particulary important to you?

I think that my time on smogon has mostly been filled with positive experiences, so its hard to point to one in particular. I think that one that shaped me a lot was when I had just been starting to play on shoddy, and was not very good. I logged onto the main server one night and there were a crazy amount of people on the server compared to usual, and it was because OST4 finals were ongoing between goofball and jonathon. I had recognized the name goofball because he was always on the top of the ladder, usually with multiple accounts. he brought a really cool sand team with mesprit / bronzong / garchomp / ttar / mamoswine and ended up winning vs jonathons stall in a tight match. That game really inspired me to become better, and I decided I was going to take the ladder seriously and stop bringing shuckle and ambipom. I played probably thousands of ladder games that year, and one month after OST4 finals I made the leaderboard for the first time. 2 months later I made the top 20 for the first time. 4 months later I hit #1 for the first time. and, of course, 12 months later it was me in the finals of that same tournament.


That's a really cool story! And can you explain what keeps you on the game for so long?

I probably wouldnt still be around if I didnt meet some lifelong friends, and bond with them over our love of pkmns and competition. so I'd say that that is what has kept me coming back.


Some of those friends you'd like to say hello to?

Sure. Special shoutout to all of my NE friends from over the years - BKC, bro fist, ABR, starmaster, teal, obii, roscoe, TDK just to name a few. And all of the people who I watched on ladder when i was just starting to play - Loki, Gouki, goofball, ipl, earthworm, asta, fear. and to the friends I made just being part of the community, like TDK, Pearl, Roro, Babounay, CBB, Soulwind .


That's a lot of people ! Since you're known as one of the best DPP builders, is there a team of which you are particularly proud of ?

I think that the jirachi / gliscor / milotic / magnezone / clefable / flygon team would probably be the one im most known for currently, but ive built some stalls in the recent years (hippo / starmie / clef / jirachi / skarm / rotom or zapdos as well as some crobat stuff with bkc, crobat / quagsire / skarmory / heatran / tyranitar / starmie) that are recognizable. I have some old teams in the rmt archive, particularly the smeargle one with kg that were very popular when dpp was the current gen. more recently I made some adjustments to the ever versatile rose tspikes teams (flygon / rose / cune / tran / rotom / jirachi) that ive seen people mimic, with sdef boom tran / subsplit rotom / 3 atks cm jirachi that leans a bit more on the special offense side than a lot of the rose ts variants. whether or not im the first to have those ideas and throw them in the builder, i'm not sure. I made a cool triple water offense in spl (specs mie / gyara / bulky lefties emp / scarf latias / jirachi / mix flygon) that was inspired by bkcs triple water team that he used a lot in his winning dpp cup run that i've seen a few people use in some side tours


You've also seen the meta evolve over the years! how do you feel about the current metagame? do you prefer the dpp from another time?

I like the current metagame a lot, I think that the reintroduction of latias and the removal of baton pass and arena trap have done wonders for the metagame. I'd say that I don't necessarily miss the dpp from another time, but sometimes I do miss the dp metagame before platinum was released. It felt like one of the most balanced metagames - there was no iron head jirachi, no bp scizor, rotom-a didn't exist so rapid spinning was actually a viable strategy, and there were some interesting mechanics (e.g. machamp could break protect with dynamic punch 50% of the time)


That looks really cool ngl! Could you tell me about your hobbies outside of Pokémon?

Sure. I'm a phd student in applied math who is finishing in the spring, so my research takes up a good deal of my time, but I don't mind because I love it. Im an avid outdoorsman, so I enjoy hiking, camping, running, and cycling to stay in shape. I play some other games competitively outside of pokemon, most frequently mtg arena as of late, where I try to finish double mythic every season. I had a lot of fun recently delving into pkmn nuzlocke challenges recently, and had a long of fun doing some think tanking with anti, pearl, and tdk in emerald kaizo (though I guess thats still pkmn related x] )


Idk if it'll be in the interview, but what's your research subject? (Well, it is)

I work on non-linear state space modeling of ecosystems, with the aim of forecasting, partitioning uncertainty, assessing identifiability and estimability of system parameters, automation, and informing decision support.


Ok, thanks ! was just curious haha :) If you had to give 3 tips to the "basic smogon Player" to improve, what would you say?

1) play games. you can have the state of the art in every single tier, but if you aren't comfortable with playing certain matchups and knowing common lines, you are not going to get the results that you want. game sense is very important, and players with great game sense developed that skill by playing games

2) watch the games that you lost, and try to look for spots where you could have played better. its particularly easy to look at games where you missed a crucial fire blast, or your clefable got crit on the worst turn possible, and chalk that up to be the reason that you lost, when reality there could have been safer lines that you could have taken. management of disaster scenarios is an important part of the endgame, and tightening up your play in these games will give better results

3) don't let off the gas when you're really far ahead. this is a difficult one to balance, because sometimes your opponent has no choice but to make over the top aggressive plays. likewise, don't just crumble when you're very far behind. even if the only way to win is to get 50/50s right in a row, you should be trying to play for your outs and hoping for a choke from your opponent. remember, they need to ko all 6 of your pokemon in order to win


Thank you for all these tips ! A more casual one for the end, what's your favorite Pokemon, and why is it Salamence ?


haha well I had always loved salamence casually since it was released, I had fond memories of catching bagon in meteor falls in game and training it until it became a salamence. competitively I loved the versatility of salamence, it was an insane weapon on its own with good defensive utility, great mixed attacking stats, and the threat of dragon dance. I really liked that it was hard to assume a salamence set in the early game, and it made it into a fun prediction game where you were trying to guess what their initial blanket switch in to cover the different sets would be.

Well, thanks a lot for giving me some of your time! If you want to add anything, feel free !

thanks :)
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