Approved by ghost
Inspiration taken from this and this
Amazing photoshop by me
Envy
Favorite LC Pokemon: Abra
What I'm known for: Having a Sailor Moon pfp
Fun Fact: I never won a single SV game in LC Forum teamtours
Inspiration taken from this and this
Amazing photoshop by me
Favorite LC Pokemon: Abra
What I'm known for: Having a Sailor Moon pfp
Fun Fact: I never won a single SV game in LC Forum teamtours
Good evening Envy, I hope you're doing well! As the recent circuit champ I thought there'd be no one better to sit down and talk with regarding the current meta and tournament scene. I appreciate you agreeing to speak with us all today.
Hey! Thanks for choosing me for this edition, Convos is a nice project and I appreciate being this month's interviewee.
Of course! I really enjoy these chats as I get to know members of the community better, and I hope everyone reading shares the same sentiment. Before we get into some LC discussion, I'd like to open it up to you if you'd like to share anything about yourself. Perhaps where you're from, what you do, some of your hobbies outside of mons etc.
Sure! Well, as most might know, I'm from Brazil and I'm currently studying software engineering in college. Outside of Pokémon I usually like to study music but mons has been my main hobby since last year.
Oh wow that's really cool! Music theory is something that I don't think I'll ever be able to understand lol. Do you play any instruments as well?
It's not that complicated! But yes, I play piano and guitar.
Well if there's ever an LC talent show I think you'd be a strong favorite to win. Speaking of winning, last year you won BW Cup, got drafted in SCL, and won Circuit to top it off. I mean no disrespect, but I hadn't heard of you before your Classic run last year and a few screenshots of your crazy ladder GXE. To me it seemed like you totally came out of nowhere. So I'm curious - did you happen to have some other background experience with mons/Smogon before deciding to win some LC tournaments?
I never really played Pokémon in a competitive way before joining Smogon, so all my mons experience was from occasionally playing with friends and watching youtube videos. In October 2023, one of my friends asked me to play a brazilian competitive Pokémon forum teamtour, which I agreed to and ended up autofilling the LC slot. I had a good run and some people told me to play PTPL, which was my first Smogon teamtour. Some weeks after that, LCWC happened and it was my first LC forum tournament, then I just kept playing so it was natural to start having good runs.
Wow that's really impressive, it took years of being a ladder main and then some significant time after that to even have a respectable tournament run. Given that you were able to get into SCL in a year as a completely new player, do you have any advice you'd give to anyone trying to do the same? Were there certain resources you used or ways in which you practiced that allowed you to learn and improve at the tier so quickly, or does it all come down to the hours you put in?
In the beginning, I sought advice from other players, such as WestSasori and Mister Magnus, but what helped me improve the most was spending hours playing on the Ladder, watching replays of tournament games and playing the tournaments myself. There is no easy way to get better, so playing and analyzing your own replays is what I consider to be the most solid way to improve in the game. For new players, who are looking to enter the LCPL, SCL or start performing well in individuals, what I can say is: it all depends on the amount of effort you put in. Whether in the smaller tournaments of the circuit, in the LPL, LCSL or even on the ladder, if you play patiently, formulate a good game plan, watch your replays to identify your mistakes, and most important, load good teams, your game will improve quickly and good results will come with it.
I definitely agree with everything you said. I’m a believer that having a “talent” for the game really only gets you so far — for the most part success in mons is directly tied to the amount of time and effort you put towards practicing and refining you skills. I also think it’s important for newer players to feel comfortable reaching out to veterans for advice and help, just as you did with WestSasori and Mister Magnus. Most top players are willing to help anyone out as long as they ask nicely :)
You mentioned ladder as one of the main avenues that allowed you to really improve your game, but there’s a sizeable playerbase (within most communities) that has a negative perspective towards the importance and effectiveness of ladder as a tool. How do you feel about this? Do you agree, disagree, or see both sides?
I see both sides. Normally the people who think that the ladder is not that useful are already established players, so I get why they don't need to keep laddering, and because of that, less top players are playing on it, which means that the level of it won't be as high as big tournaments like LCPL or SCL. But, for newer players, and specially for LC, I think that the ladder is a really useful tool to start getting used to the good team structures, learn the best sequences and also practicing overall. Of course, just playing ladder games will only get you so far, so playing and watching tournament games will always be the next step for the ladder heroes who want to start winning in the big stage.
Ah I see, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the insight! On the topic of tournaments and ladder, the qualifying cups for LC Classic just began, and I know this is one of your favorite tours. However getting into LC old gens can specifically be difficult because there are no ladders for these tiers. How do you approach learning and practicing these tiers when there's no easily accessible way to play games?
It's for sure more complicated than current gen, but the best thing to do in my opinion is to watch a lot of tournament replays to see what the top players in each tier are doing, the amount of knowledge you get from doing this is really valuable and can be crucial for winning games. However, this won't help with the practicing part, so what I normally do is ask for games in LC Discord, or annoy a friend to play a best of 5.
Even though the playing aspect of mons is solo, everything else in terms of prep, practice and analysis is something that’s best done with others, which is what makes being apart of a community so fun and rewarding in my opinion.
Of the classic tiers, and we'll include SV as well, do you have a favorite LC generation?
This is a hard question because they all look almost the same LOL. But even though I've only played SV and BW in teamtours, the one I enjoy playing the most is SM, my building skills aren't the best but all of the standard team structures bar veils are fun to play with and to play against in my opinion.
Oh interesting, I would have bet a lot of money on you saying BW. Good thing I didn't do that. SM is a good choice though, I also think it's one of the most fun generations to play!
Now that we’ve had some tournament discussion, it’s time for some more serious questions: Recently there have been some allegations that certain Brazilian users such as serpahz and abra xdd are just alts of your own, and I must say that the evidence is pretty compelling. How do you respond to such claims?
LOL. I really don't understand where this came from, maybe from circuit finals since seraphz ran fishy teams, but it's so funny. Abra on the other hand came from nowhere, is also Brazilian and was asking everyday for BW games in LC disc so I get the alt allegations lol. Also big shoutouts to abra, he's one of the most dedicated players I've seen, was carrying the Fennekins during LCBC and soon will pop off in a team tour.
I always give an opportunity for the interviewee to leave some shoutouts at the end of the conversation, but I’ve never seen anyone shout themself out before…
Anyways, it seems like there’s been a lot of Brazilian LC talent popping up recently, so I bet you’re hyped for LCWC this year. Would you be able to teach myself and the readers a little bit of Portuguese? Perhaps a phrase or two of anything you want.
Sure! When I'm building something and the team looks a little bit off but still have good standard mons, I always say 'Não tem como ser ruim', which means 'It can't be bad'. Usually it is pretty bad but we can skip that part.
Also, for the trashtalking, I usually like to say 'Você é um coitado'. There's no literal translation but it's like, when you look at someone and say 'ohhh... poor guy I feel so sorry for you'. It's funny saying saying that, specially after someone loses a match.
About the LCWC, I'm not as hyped as I was some months ago, maybe because I might have misunderstood when it was going to happen but it still is going to be a fun tour, it's always nice to play alongside friends.
Você é um coitado… maybe I’ll use that the next time the seraphz elite tries to attack me…
LOOOL
Okay for this next segment I'm going to be trying something new. I asked members the LC discord to submit some rapid fire questions, however the catch is that they didn't know who would be answering. Let's see what the community wanted to ask.
ghost asks: Why are you so washed? And not in the clean way.
After winning circuit I lost in r1 of the 2 individuals I played until now (Seasonal and DPP cup) so the allegations might be true... I hope this bad phase ends asap since the LC classic prizes are too crazy.
Kate asks: Is dvs bald?
For sure, except for Beraldo, I've never seen anyone balder than him.
Éric asks: What was your first impression of Drifting and how does it compare to your impression of him now?
I never really talked in the pool so my first impression of Drifting was from seeing he glaze himself in tours chat, and honestly it didn't change that much specially that now that he has the best LC UU record while calling himself Kratos LOL.
aurora asks: What would you do if you ended up the subject of a freezai tour series video?
Honestly I would like to be in one of his videos since my first contact with the tier was from watching the LC open run, but I guess that means I would have to lose the game and being turned into content is no fun LMAO.
Kipkluif asks: What is your favorite rice dish?
Arroz carreteiro, typical brazilian dish that puts dried beef, sausage, bacon, tomatoes and onions in rice, each region probably has a different recipe but that is my favorite.
Wow I really want to try arroz carreteiro now, that sounds delicious! Well hopefully this was a fun and entertaining segment!
Lastly, I think we should reward our readers a little for making it this far. Envy would you be able to share an oldgens with everyone? Perhaps one that they could use in the ongoing classic tour to hopefully make some money this spring >:)
Sure! Here is a BW team I built for LCBC: https://pokepast.es/2af09f3aa47e972e
It makes good use of Vullaby + Chinchou being able to pivot and make progress against the biggest part of the metagame, while also having decent defensive backbone with Mienfoo and Eviolite Gastly in the back.It doesn't have the best matchup against Hail or Sand teams but it's definetly playable with Mienfoo being able to check and make progress against common threats.
This was the game where it was used and you can see that Mienfoo, Gastly and Vullaby were able to deal with most stuff defensively while also hitting back with their movesets: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen5lc-816479
Maybe I'll use this in BW Cup, or maybe not if any of my future opponents are reading.... But thank you for sharing this, and also thank you for taking taking the time to speak with me this evening! I'm sure everyone enjoyed learning more about and from you! If there are any final shoutouts or words you'd like to leave with, please feel free to do so now.
Sure, shoutout to Always Edgy, shame we couldn't play LCBC together but I hope we can do it in this LCPL edition.
~~~
Please feel free to ask Envy any further questions below!
Please feel free to ask Envy any further questions below!
Links to previous LC Convos:
LC Convos #1 - ghost
LC Convos #2 - tazz
LC Convos #3 - Fille & Rhydonphilip
LC Convos #4 - LeJames Chonk
