Welcome to the Featured Rater project! This is a series of interviews where we ask Team Raters, new and old, several questions about the RMT forum and their experiences within it. We hope that this offers both entertainment and an insight into their thought processes, which aspiring raters can look to incorporate into their own rates. This project is hosted by Snowy., Analytic and myself. Our seventeenth interviewee is one of our official UU raters, Shiba!
Tell us a little bit about your life outside Smogon.
I'm a college Freshman from Arizona. I'm an accounting major, kinda boring but makes a lot of money so I'm down for it :^) As for hobbies, I'm a big fan of American football (Ravens fan) and playing some video games, obviously Pokemon and stuff like Gears of War, CoD Zombies, H1Z1, Rocket League, and some other games like that.
What is your main tier? Do you rate teams from any other tiers?
My main tier is UU, I'm pretty fluent in some other tiers but not to the point where I can rate teams well
When did you start rating and why?
I started rating back in June 2015. I joined Smogon in late 2014 but really started contributing at that point in June. I really wanted to get integrated with more parts of the forums and help people with their UU teams, so I started with the RMT forum, and I really enjoy it :]. I think another part of the reason I started rating is so it could help me with some of my own teams for tours and stuff like that.
Are there any raters who you looked up to when you started rating?
I was part of that UU wave of raters that came through all at once (Vapo, teal, King UU, me), but I guess I looked up to the UU TR's at the time (Hairy Toenail, IB, Bouff and dodmen)
, they always provided really solid rates whenever they did rate and always made teams better. They definitely inspired me to a degree to start rating.
What do you most enjoy about rating?
I just like being able to help people with their teams. It's always a good feeling if they approach you on PS or in the thread and say that my advice for their team has improved it majorly, again it's a fantastic feeling :]
Do you follow a process with your rates?
I kind of go towards suggesting ways to make a team more balanced (obviously not on HO teams but you know what I mean), so I like to give teams a great defensive backbone that takes on a lot of threats in the metagame. What I like to do first with my rates is identify the biggest threats to the team overall. Then, I like to suggest a Pokemon to sub over a Pokemon that the team doesn't need. What's important about this is that the Pokemon that you substitute in can't make the team weak to anything else, which can kind of be a tall task sometimes, but I can usually find a way around it. After I substitute Pokemon in (if the team needs any), I move onto sets, EV spreads, and natures, just small stuff mostly, always suggesting a more optimal set to help them against a certain threat or something like that.
Do you have any words of advice for aspiring raters?
Always make sure you know quite a bit about the tier you're rating in. If you don't know the tier well, it's pretty obvious how it will be reflected in the rates themselves. Also it helps if you play that respective tier a lot and keep up with current drops and metagame trends (kinda like how Cobalion showed up out of nowhere in UU and started being one of the most splashable Pokemon in the tier) and stuff like that. If you do all of those things, I think it'll be pretty easy to produce some great quality in your rates :]
Do you like the direction the RMT forum is taking at the moment? If you could change something, what would it be?
I do like the way the RMT Forum is going, I really like the leaders and everything they do for the community. I'm not sure if I would change anything since I like the way it's been handled so far, but if I had to choose something I would say that more rating activities that could draw in more raters/RMT posters would be fun :]
Seeing as RMT has a large UU community, are there any projects besides the current ones that you think could be run to further expand it?
I think maybe a team rater competition would be a fun tour to run, kinda like how OU did one awhile back here:http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-team-rater-competition-sign-ups-full.3553881/ :]. With all the aspiring team raters for UU coming up lately, I definitely think it would get a nice, healthy number of participants that could make it fun, not to mention how great some of the ones are with their rates now.
How do you think the recent drops in UU have affected the metagame? Have you changed your rating style in any way to adapt to it?
I think the recent drops of Gyarados and Alakazam are huge for the meta, making it more offensive than ever. I'm more of a balance player myself (though I can play other playstyles bar stall pretty well also) and I find it hard to cover everything nowadays with the main structure of balanced teams. As for rating, it still hasn't really changed my style of it, I still usually like to recommend teams a very solid defensive backbone that they can fall back on in case anything bad happens midgame or they're extremely weak to something.
Has your experience with rating teams had an influence on the way you play?
I think it definitely has had an influence on the way I build, not so much on the playing aspect of the game though. I've always been one to make some sort of flashy plays once in awhile, and like taking risks (even when using balance), and I still tend to do it even when I have a defensive backbone to fall back on.
Lastly, can you give us an example of a rate that exemplifies your particular style?
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/fly-dragonfly-peak-is-irrelevant.3547498/#post-6388738 here's a rate from a little awhile ago :] it's pretty obvious that I'm a neat freak and I like to make it look nice with sprites and stuff like that.
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Thanks for taking the time to do this man! Feel free to leave any questions you have for Shiba below
Tell us a little bit about your life outside Smogon.
I'm a college Freshman from Arizona. I'm an accounting major, kinda boring but makes a lot of money so I'm down for it :^) As for hobbies, I'm a big fan of American football (Ravens fan) and playing some video games, obviously Pokemon and stuff like Gears of War, CoD Zombies, H1Z1, Rocket League, and some other games like that.
What is your main tier? Do you rate teams from any other tiers?
My main tier is UU, I'm pretty fluent in some other tiers but not to the point where I can rate teams well
When did you start rating and why?
I started rating back in June 2015. I joined Smogon in late 2014 but really started contributing at that point in June. I really wanted to get integrated with more parts of the forums and help people with their UU teams, so I started with the RMT forum, and I really enjoy it :]. I think another part of the reason I started rating is so it could help me with some of my own teams for tours and stuff like that.
Are there any raters who you looked up to when you started rating?
I was part of that UU wave of raters that came through all at once (Vapo, teal, King UU, me), but I guess I looked up to the UU TR's at the time (Hairy Toenail, IB, Bouff and dodmen)
, they always provided really solid rates whenever they did rate and always made teams better. They definitely inspired me to a degree to start rating.What do you most enjoy about rating?
I just like being able to help people with their teams. It's always a good feeling if they approach you on PS or in the thread and say that my advice for their team has improved it majorly, again it's a fantastic feeling :]
Do you follow a process with your rates?
I kind of go towards suggesting ways to make a team more balanced (obviously not on HO teams but you know what I mean), so I like to give teams a great defensive backbone that takes on a lot of threats in the metagame. What I like to do first with my rates is identify the biggest threats to the team overall. Then, I like to suggest a Pokemon to sub over a Pokemon that the team doesn't need. What's important about this is that the Pokemon that you substitute in can't make the team weak to anything else, which can kind of be a tall task sometimes, but I can usually find a way around it. After I substitute Pokemon in (if the team needs any), I move onto sets, EV spreads, and natures, just small stuff mostly, always suggesting a more optimal set to help them against a certain threat or something like that.
Do you have any words of advice for aspiring raters?
Always make sure you know quite a bit about the tier you're rating in. If you don't know the tier well, it's pretty obvious how it will be reflected in the rates themselves. Also it helps if you play that respective tier a lot and keep up with current drops and metagame trends (kinda like how Cobalion showed up out of nowhere in UU and started being one of the most splashable Pokemon in the tier) and stuff like that. If you do all of those things, I think it'll be pretty easy to produce some great quality in your rates :]
Do you like the direction the RMT forum is taking at the moment? If you could change something, what would it be?
I do like the way the RMT Forum is going, I really like the leaders and everything they do for the community
. I'm not sure if I would change anything since I like the way it's been handled so far, but if I had to choose something I would say that more rating activities that could draw in more raters/RMT posters would be fun :]Seeing as RMT has a large UU community, are there any projects besides the current ones that you think could be run to further expand it?
I think maybe a team rater competition would be a fun tour to run, kinda like how OU did one awhile back here:http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ou-team-rater-competition-sign-ups-full.3553881/ :]. With all the aspiring team raters for UU coming up lately, I definitely think it would get a nice, healthy number of participants that could make it fun, not to mention how great some of the ones are with their rates now.
How do you think the recent drops in UU have affected the metagame? Have you changed your rating style in any way to adapt to it?
I think the recent drops of Gyarados and Alakazam are huge for the meta, making it more offensive than ever. I'm more of a balance player myself (though I can play other playstyles bar stall pretty well also) and I find it hard to cover everything nowadays with the main structure of balanced teams. As for rating, it still hasn't really changed my style of it, I still usually like to recommend teams a very solid defensive backbone that they can fall back on in case anything bad happens midgame or they're extremely weak to something.
Has your experience with rating teams had an influence on the way you play?
I think it definitely has had an influence on the way I build, not so much on the playing aspect of the game though. I've always been one to make some sort of flashy plays once in awhile, and like taking risks (even when using balance), and I still tend to do it even when I have a defensive backbone to fall back on.
Lastly, can you give us an example of a rate that exemplifies your particular style?
http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/fly-dragonfly-peak-is-irrelevant.3547498/#post-6388738 here's a rate from a little awhile ago :] it's pretty obvious that I'm a neat freak and I like to make it look nice with sprites and stuff like that.
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Thanks for taking the time to do this man! Feel free to leave any questions you have for Shiba below
