approved by DugZa
inspired by other various interview projects across the site
(bad) art made by me
Hex
Platum
Hey y'all! I've been wanting to do an interview series for a while, but didn't have a place to do it until I realized spill the sinistea seemed to have been discontinued. For future iterations there won't be a formal OP like this by me again, but it's probably necessary for the first interview!
For my first entry of this series, I wanted to interview the most recent PU Swiss winner, Platum! Some fun facts: his favorite Pokemon is
and his favorite color is green!
inspired by other various interview projects across the site
(bad) art made by me
Hey y'all! I've been wanting to do an interview series for a while, but didn't have a place to do it until I realized spill the sinistea seemed to have been discontinued. For future iterations there won't be a formal OP like this by me again, but it's probably necessary for the first interview!
For my first entry of this series, I wanted to interview the most recent PU Swiss winner, Platum! Some fun facts: his favorite Pokemon is
and his favorite color is green!Hey Platum! Thanks for agreeing to do this and also taking time out of your day for it :D. I'm sure the PU community would love to hear more about the recent PU Swiss winner! Not to mention you're also 3-1 in PUWC, so maybe PU rising star is a better descriptor than just the PU Swiss winner :P. Regardless, could you tell us how you feel about your recent PU Swiss win?
Thank you for asking me to do it, actually :) I'm glad I have been chosen. I think I've been a rising star for a while, but getting an actual win is new and honestly I'm still not realizing it. That win feels surreal, I'm so happy my efforts were rewarded but at the same time a part of me doesn't want to accept it, almost like I don't deserve it. I've always lacked self confidence and the fact I've been stuck with decent but limited results for a while doesn't help. Welp, this win is undeniable proof that I'm improving!
You definitely deserved the win, and I'm glad the feelings of winning are still with you even weeks later! Outside of Smogon, who really is "Platum"?
I'm 24 years old, I live in France. I'm struggling to find what I want to do in life so I'm still studying, after changing my field of studies several times I finally found the right fit for me. I'm currently in 3rd year of studying Language Sciences (basically linguistics). No idea what's next but I'll eventually find out! I like video games and anime, I also spend a lot of time on the Internet. Nothing too uncommon :p.
Yeah I understand changing studies, I’ve done that 3 times myself now. It’s stressful, I even considered linguistics at some point too! Since Smogon is an internet hobby we (obviously) both share, I gotta ask — how did you get into both Pokemon and Smogon?
I've been playing Pokemon games since I was 8 years old, I started with Pokemon Diamond and I spent hundreds of hours on each game from gen 4 to gen 6. At some point, when you want to play your pokemons optimally even for casual, you come across competitive ressources. I wasn't familiar with notions like EVs, IVs and natures until XY, which is when I looked up some guides on YouTube, which mentioned Pokemon Showdown and Smogon in general. It took me a lot of time to properly get into Smogon. I started to play Showdown for fun in 2016, but when I actually was aiming to try hard and get better was in late 2020/early 2021, around the time Crown Tundra DLC dropped. You can even see my Smogon account being created in February 2021, because I wanted to participate in OU's suspect tests at that time. I was already using Smogon resources a lot, I just didn't have a need to create an account until then. I really wanted to get better and eventually get into tournaments. It took me even more time to join tournaments, feeling like I wasn't ready to compete in them (bad mentality but whatever).
Gen 4 was my first game too! I guess that makes sense since we're both the same age basically lol, fun times....(it's gone by fast wow.) speaking of getting into Smogon, what drew you to PU? Additionally, what made you stay in PU after discovering it?
For the context, in gen 8 I was playing a bit of every tier, with a preference for OU, Ubers and UU. Funnily enough, I wasn't very fan of PU last gen, it was fine but there were better tiers for me. I was expecting to go into gen 9 with the same mentality... complete opposite actually. I hated OU so much even after multiple bans, so I was desperate to find a tier I could like, I was testing every tier as they came out... but I didn't like any of them. So PU was sort of my last chance to have a current gen tier I would like. I made it to top 1 on ladder on day one, being active on ladder through most of the gen, I was so relieved to find a tier I could like. So I've been a PU main all gen since day one of the tier. I think the reason for that is the lower power level. Poor hazard removal created an interesting dynamic and there were almost no broken mons compared to other tiers, even at the tier's start. I also like to use bad mons in general, they tend to have limited options which makes you have to be a bit more creative. Early gen 9 PU was a tier that both felt rewarding for innovation and somewhat redundant to build in, at the same time. Not a perfect tier by any means, but one which I have great memories with.
As for what made me stay in PU... force of habit? Other tiers are mostly fine now (except OU and Ubers, they're still horrible), but I feel at home in PU and honestly I don't have time to involve to play multiple tiers consistently at the same time. Obviously, current PU has nothing to do with what it was when I started playing it, it lacks the low power level that used to be its identity... but it's still a good tier! And I think it has one of the best communities, not the most active one but people are nice and welcoming compared to some other communities on Smogon which tend to be elitist.
:O You have a pretty long history with PU this gen then! I am similar though, I was drawn to PU because of the weaker mons since I like using them more. Going back to your PU Swiss run, I think you should definitely be proud of your win! You worked hard for it and 1000% deserve it. Could you tell me more about your run? What were the challenges or highlights of the run when it came to prepping or playing the tournament?
Thank you very much! Honestly, I didn't expect to make it this far, like at all. I had a very bad start with me inexplicably throwing first round. I was a bit careless in first few rounds, admittedly, so I had to lock in afterwards. Most matchups before playoffs were me picking the right teams against the scouts of my opponents. I didn't build much new stuff, which ended up fine. I notably won against Stories, seed and had a close loss against Django. I made good calls for what it's worth.
Now, getting into playoffs... the first challenge was to adapt to the October shifts which happened right as playoffs started, where we most notably lost Glowbro and Wo-Chien. We had two weeks to adapt, but obviously losing the most important mon in the tier meant the tier was going to radically change so I wasn't exactly confident in my abilities to build in a new meta. It also meant that most of my builder was gone, lol. In top 32 I was paired against xSuko so I was still decently confident I could win. I just had to focus on covering the broken new drops at that time, especially Heracross which my opponent did bring twice. My best strength is that I make my own builds, but I also noticed people were outprepping me a lot previous years, so the most challenging thing was to get out of my comfort zone, aka getting rid of my bad habits, like building too much balance stuff, relying too much on the same cores etc. It's a motive I usually have for teamtours because I want to provide wins for my team and not be too exploitable, but I usually don't care that much for solo tours where I tend to recycle stuff I already built until playoffs. I think I was decently successful on that part, at least a good amount of people say I make good builds so...
From now on I was aiming to build new teams for every matchup. Top 16 was against Esteb4n, a fellow french teammate. While he's very good and consistent, it also felt easier to play against someone I knew. But I also knew he could outprep me because he knows me fairly well from world cups. He brought grassy terrain with some unusual sets, the type of stuff I tend to be weak to. First game was a haxxfest mostly rewarding me so I can't say my win was entirely deserved but heh, that's the game we're playing. He made a weird call by using the same team in g2 and g3, which I kinda get because the team i used in g2 was destroyed by that def CM Dkiss Cloak Espeon set he was using, but I kept my best team for g3 which had a way better matchup into his team.
Top 8 was against OranBerryBlissey10, who I played against a few times before so it didn't feel impossible, I just had to be prepared for snow which he brought a lot for playoffs. He also likes the same types of builds as me. I had some calls at first but I just ended up using two of my best teams, wanting to be safe. Band Sneasel was a great call despite being bad into the possibility of him bringing snow, it made excellent work first game. For game 2, CM Dudun was also an unusual bring from me and it ended up great, paired with WoW Rotom-H into someone who used Rhydon a lot, also nice work from Floatzel. He brought a bunch of ZU mons into me, ig Obb10 knows his ZU very well and noticed that the broken (in ZU at that time) Spiritomb could be good against me. So yeah it went fairly easy and with a little bit of luck, I won in 2.
Top 4 was the real deal and I'd argue it was a harder challenge than finals. Paired against MZ, Mr. PU himself, it was against all odds for me to win this match. But it was my chance to prove my worth. I had to prep a lot with Drud, Bloshh and my world cup teammates. I was relieved to see MZ recycling his teams, which meant my calls were on point. G1 was a fair matchup and I choked the endgame a bit, resulting in a lose. G2 was scary for me, with him playing stall, but fortunately I had the right tools for this matchup with Yama and NP Rotom breaking little by little. G3 was a bit more linear, with me using some more offensive stuff which ended up in my favor. I didn't have to make crazy plays, just playing well with no mistakes. Honestly, MZ's builds looked very solid so it was hard to think of what calls to make. I also managed pressure decently well, this was one of my biggest flaws before and I keep improving on that aspect.
Finals was against DripLegend. I knew he would try to bring some weird HOs/cheese, so I tried my best to take that into account. First game was his usual BO stuff, he brought K9 which my team was fairly weak to, but my Viriz set was able to somewhat circumvent that issue, I still ended up losing to it. G2 I had a good matchup which allowed me to play without much issue. I was scared of his Lazzle depending on tera, but it was a weirder set that didn't really work here. Even his BU Redbull which I didn't have great checks to was fine to deal with. G3 was the type of weird stuff I was expecting him to bring, I was once again scared of what his Delphox and Kingdra set could potentially be... except their actual sets were not very impressive here. Overall, I think I made some good calls and used varied enough builds, this was definitely the decisive factor for my win imo. I feel like my opponents didn't exactly abuse my building weaknesses, but maybe i'm having tunnel vision here. Holy yap, I hope this was not too long of an answer!
NO thats totally okay! Yap is great, this is an interview about you after all! Having to lose those mons was definitely tough on PU, and even more so during swiss. Do you prefer the meta now, or the meta before those rises happened? Also, since it just occurred, how do you feel about Toxicroak dropping?
I prefer the meta now. Glowbro and Guno were very restrictive when building and Wo-Chien was so annoying to deal with. While Glowbro was also a nice glue, I didn't like its set variety and each set was slightly too strong. I still have not tried Toxicroak, but I've been wanting it to drop for a while. It might prove to be too strong, but theorically I like what it provides.
I definitely agree with you on Guno, I am very glad it rose....! Again, generally I agree with you that this meta has shaped up to be fun! Back to back suspects was definitely shaky but interesting. I guess time will tell about us more about Toxicroak! Time for a throwback (or maybe not depending on your answer here), but out of all the metas that SVPU has had since its release, which was your favorite and why?
Honestly, I don't really know.. I think i prefer post-DLC2 metas, and after looking it up a bit I'd say my favorite one was around July/August 2024, when we had Copperajah and Gastrodon, with Decidueye at S. Current meta is shaping up to be the best version of SV PU too, but I want to avoid recency bias. As for why, I'd say we had more tools back then, and it wasn't exactly an era of overcentralizition either. While current meta makes you have to be a little more creative, it also feels a bit more fishy at time, where you have to make some concessions or play some more offensive stuff. It was also a higher power level which is cool, but not as crazy as the earlier versions of DLC2 metas which felt very much like "broken checks broken". It felt stable.
Honorable mentions for pre-DLC1 metas, which were also really consistently good but I can't exactly pinpoint to an era that could be my favorite. Maybe just before Pokemon Home drops? Misdreavus as top tier was prime PU, but I liked it slightly less after the likes of Persian-Alola and Carbink dropped. I wanted to mention it since it feels like an entirely different generation of PU compared to what we have now.
PUPL era 2024 was my favorite meta too! Good choice. I do agree as well that the current meta is pretty great. Speaking of current meta, how has PUWC been for France? Outside of you guys washing us (LOL), I know the tour is still only about to enter semifinals, but are there any highlights or even challenges that you had to get over that you want to share? Maybe your personal prep and playing journey in the tournament so far?
Glad we can agree! PUWC has been great, we have such a great team cohesion and we're having fun talking about pretty much anything. It might be the best teamtour i've participated in, and I say that as someone who used to be reluctant to join teamtours (due to autism, social anxiety, some bad previous experiences, etc.).
The most challenging thing was the pools format. I prefer weeks because pools feel a bit overwhelming, I didn't really know where to start, especially considering I had to prep for Swiss finals during first two weeks at the same time.. It ended up fine but I had some trouble to organize myself with scheduling and building for every of my opponents, for example the first build I did was for an opponent that didn't want to play me until week 3 so that caused a change of plans. And vice versa, I initially wanted to play against big tony 2014 last (strongest opponent last) but this change of plans made me want to play it safe for the "play one game before end of week 2" requirement so he ended up being the first one I played. Since I had to have all my builds ready for week 2 (because I was less available week 3), I almost burnt out of building lmao.
So for prep, I allowed myself to go a bit easier with my builds, with some more exotic/fun stuff like Malamar and Poliwrath. I usually have a perfectionist mentality for teamtours, I really hate to have teams with obvious flaws, but here it was okay because I knew I didn't have to try too hard to beat my opponents. It sounds very pretentious when I say it like that, but I say that because two of my opponents had little experience with PU before. Only for twinkay I changed my calls a lot, because I couldn't make my first call work, but I recycled one of the calls for Swiss finals so it wasn't a waste of time.
Entering playoffs, the actual challenge begun. Fusien is obviously a top player, but with less PU experience than me, so I was suggested to go for a knowledge check/tech to surprise him and have the edge over him. I instantly thought of dudunsparce, the mon with 10 billion different sets, and I took inspiration from the Chilling Water set Bouff used a long time ago. It was a tough mu but I was decently confident I could win if I didn't let him outplay me.
I'm glad that vibes wise PUWC has been fun c:. WC tours are usually like that since you'll get to know your region members more and more as the years go by! I also agree with pools being overwhelming, not a huge fan myself. Being a perfectionist in teambuilding in team tours is something a lot of people struggle with (me lol), so don't worry! Well, to start off with some closing questions, are there any tips you'd tell a new Pokemon player or maybe someone whos seen a lot of failure in tournaments and doesn't know how to improve?
Review your own games, try to learn from your mistakes and ask yourself what you could have done better, ask for exterior help when needed, take your time in game, calc, take inspiration from tournament players' teams, read as much informed opinion as possible, test your teams. These are very basic pieces of advice, but little by little you should improve if you have the right mindset. You also have to tryhard quite a bit to overcome your issues, it's only natural to get loses from better players than you, but you should see these loses as an opportunity to improve. Don't be too harsh on yourself and have fun with the game.
I want to shoutout Lambovino for believing in me and vouching me several times, I would have never made it this far if you didn't allow me to play in all three PUWCs and in LTWC. While I'm mostly self made for my first few good results, being picked in 2023 PUWC was the first time I was actually recognized as worthy of a spot even as a sub and allowed to play in a team tour for PU. It's really hard to make a name for yourself if one doesn't give you the opportunity first. For most tours at that time, I was either unnoticed or picked but without a chance to play. So thanks for contributing to making me feel relevant and actually worth a slot. It was the boost I needed to go from active ladder guy with middling individual tour results to where I am now.
Shoutouts VyoletRayn also known as Vy', who I've known since Cheems-Pao days (you'll know what I'm refering to :p), for picking me in PUBD. While I only had the opportunity to play one game, it was already very unexpected and appreciated to be picked when there are so many good SV players with so few slots available. It contributed to making me an established player and I'm grateful for that.
Shoutouts DD Joe for picking me in PUPL and giving me the chance to play. Obviously circumstances allowed you to take the risk since we were already qualified whatever happened, but it was very important for me to have the opportunity to play in such an important official tournament and I'm glad you let me have this chance. You too believed in me and kept saying you were impressed with my results, so thanks for improving my self esteem.
These are the main ones I want to thank, but obviously there are a lot more people I'd want to say thanks to, for believing in me, helping me, saying I was good and testing with me.
Final stretch here, what's your most memorable moment (or moments) on Smogon?
Winning PU swiss finals has to be the most memorable I think! I can't think of a better one. Especially after the let-down of being so close to winning in other recent tours like FCL (french team tour where I won finals and had a good score but my team lost) and LTWC (where we also lost in finals). Having a win in a tour was always a goal I wanted to achieve
Well again, congrats for winning! Thank you so much for taking your time to be apart of this, I really do appreciate it! Are there any final / closing statements you'd like to make?
Thank you hex for your questions, which were on point and allowed me to elaborate, and for reading me yap a bit too much. And thank you, yes you who read this interview, for reading all the way through. If you skipped some parts it's okay too!
Well, that concludes the first segment of Ghostly Gossip (W or L name chat?). I loved reading all of Platum's answers, and loved that he gave so much depth in his tournament process. This thread will remain open until the next entry (or until forum mods decide they HATEEE me and archive it) so feel free to use this thread to ask Platum any questions!
Until next time! (Praying my images don't break pleaseeeeeee)
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