Approved by ghost
Inspiration taken from this and this
Amazing photoshop by me
tazz
Favorite LC Pokemon: Snubbul
What I'm known for: ORAS, getting lucked and complaining incessantly about it
Fun Fact: My first ladder hero team was a larvesta VoltTurn in gen 5
Inspiration taken from this and this
Amazing photoshop by me
tazz
Favorite LC Pokemon: Snubbul
What I'm known for: ORAS, getting lucked and complaining incessantly about it
Fun Fact: My first ladder hero team was a larvesta VoltTurn in gen 5
Good morning tazz, how are you doing today? Welcome to the second edition of Little Cup Convos and thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I’m sure everyone reading is just as eager to learn more about you as I am!
Thanks for having me and for taking the time to do these interviews!
Absolutely, it’s my pleasure. Would you mind starting off by telling us a bit about who you are and how you ended up on smogon?
Sure. I’m from Florida, but am currently a law student in the midwest. I came to smogon a long time ago: I started playing on showdown at 12 years old when BW was the current generation, and mostly focused on LC before even joining the site. I don’t know what about the tier appealed to middle school me, but it just stuck. I didn’t join smogon until I was 14, as I had misread COPPA laws and thought the threshold was one year higher than it was (a bit ironic considering what I’m doing now). By the time I joined up I had been a fixture on the LC ladder for over a year, but it would be a long time before I was actually any good.
Well at least one of my interviewees decided to obey COPPA laws... but I digress. Anyways, how has law school and the midwest been treating you? Coming from the land of Disney World and old people to a much colder climate must have been a bit of a shock.
And I appreciate you sharing a bit about your first steps in LC. There are a lot of people in our community (including myself) that look up to you as both a player and influential figure, so it's relatable to hear that you had such humble beginnings. There is one thing I've always wondered about your origin however - does your username tazz have any story/significant meaning behind it?
I actually love it! I'm not used to actually wanting to go outside during the summer. I haven't been here for a winter yet though, so I'll update you on how I'm feeling (suffering) in a few months. As for the username, it's from the first online account I ever had - chess.com at probably 8-9 years old. I can say that I based the username off of the looney tunes character, but don't remember my exact mindset so long ago.
Midwest winters are definitely cold, but I'm sure you'll get accustomed to them! And that's right - you're also a big chess player. I know how the game works but I'm no good at it lol so I'm wondering if you find any parallels between chess and mons? Do you think playing chess helps you in mons at all, or vice versa?
The prediction, preparation and RNG elements of Pokemon separate the types of games they are, so it's very difficult to compare how they're played. That being said, calculating a 100% win out of an endgame or trying to plan ahead on pathing are elements of both games, so there may be some crossover there. My rating on lichess has never corresponded to how well I'm doing in tournament though, for better or worse.
Ah I see, that makes sense. Switching gears a bit to tournament talk, I saw you won your first SCL game this past week - congrats on that! How are you feeling about the LC pool this year and your team in general?
The LC pool is pretty similar to how it was last year in terms of each respective players' skill ceiling, but there were definitely a lot of hiccups this first week. That's mostly nerves at this point, understandable with half the pool being new to SCL level tournaments. I have faith in all of these players though, so there are no easy weeks this year - it's not going to be a walk in the park for anyone. My team won the first week pretty convincingly, so I guess I'm feeling pretty good at the moment. We are the army team and have what is likely the best support across our tiers in the tournament, but those types of teams often struggle on starter quality. It looks like Expulso and mcnmt were able to avoid that problem, and hopefully that buys us a ticket to playoffs.
Yes I'm very interested to see how this edition of SCL plays out, especially in LC with all of the new faces this year. Do you have any bold predictions for this season?
Well I can't give any meta predictions as that would be proprietary, but for the general pool, I predict that we'll have a final record sheet similar to SCL II, where almost everyone went around even. I don't really see anyone who is obviously ahead on the meta at the moment, and that combined with a pretty high skill floor within the pool will make everyone have to fight for every win. Should be interesting.
Ah yeah I remember SCL II -- a very balanced pool and I could definitely see something similar happening again this year. Speaking of proprietary information, I'm not asking you to leak any of your teams or strong meta takes, but what are your thoughts on the current h-torb suspect test, and the potential resulting meta if it gets banned?
I have conflicting thoughts about the current meta, as though I understand the complaints of it lacking variety (a trend that H-torb definitely contributes to), it still feels underexplored. Last week in SCL, for example, whichever player conformed more to the well-known team combinations spammed in LCPL lost. In SCL, hours of preparation are going into a single team rather than being spread across 8 slots, so the opportunity for exploration is much higher. Before this week I was ready to vote ban, as I had thought that this SCL would be just more spam of the same 6s we've seen over and over again over the past 2 months. That concern has been proven false though, so I'm no longer sure what I'll vote. As for the resulting metagame, my only prediction is that SD Mienfoo will become much more manageable, as the downfall of torb will free up many Pokemon to run defensive teras that shut it down. Beyond that, we'll have to see.
That's a good point! I think we'll be seeing some metagame changes moving forward either via the h-torb ban or innovation pioneered by our SCL players. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what type of team you bring next week! By the way, do you have a team (from any generation) you'd be willing to share with us?
Sure! This was my favorite oras team for a while. It was the beginning of my fixation on birdspam in the generation and has cottonee, which is definitely one of the most underrated Pokemon in my eyes. It's a bit outdated and will struggle against some of the newer techs that challenge birdspam, but its still a pleasure to use.
Yeah I've certainly seen you use this in tournament before, and I know you're a big birdspammer in oras so this is perfect. I think one of the biggest barriers to entry in terms of players getting involved in smogon tournaments, especially in older generations, is teams/teambuilding resources, so I appreciate you sharing this us! Do you have any advice for newer players who wish to get more involved in the community and start getting drafted in our tournaments such as LCPL?
Sure! The best ways to get involved in the community are to 1) participate in LPL, 2) sign up for circuit tournaments and 3) ask for tests in LC discord. It's definitely becoming harder and harder to find quality games on ladder in almost any tier but OU, and I understand that it can be difficult to improve when you don't have access to good practice. Those three options are both the best ways to improve and the best way to get noticed for enthusiasm; LPL in particular guarantees that every player will get drafted, and is a massive opportunity for improvement as you'll be working with teammates for weeks.
I absolutely agree, and of course we can never miss the opportunity to shoutout LPL! I do have one last question before we wrap things up: Do you have a favorite tournament game that you've played?
That's hard! Probably last SCL w2 against Laroxyl: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen9lc-723459 both of us showed up with innovative teams, and both of us were playing very well. One of the most difficult games I've had to play, but an absolute blast.
Laro is always such a tough opponent to play against... You made some really aggressive but calculated plays in the mid game here so I can see why this is your favorite!
Well thank you so much tazz for taking the time to speak with me, and share a bit about yourself, your background in LC, and some of your current metagame thoughts with the community. If you have any final thoughts you'd like to leave with or shoutouts you want to give please feel free to do so!
s/o to my fellow oldheads, not sure when I became one but appreciate the people protecting me from having the oldest joindate ghost
~~~
Please feel free to ask tazz any further questions below!
Please feel free to ask tazz any further questions below!
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