approved by monotype forum mods
inspired by this and this
First of all thanks for taking the time to do this, I'm sure the community will be interested in hearing from the recent monotype cup champion, would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?
Hey, I'm Gelbel, I'm french and I play competitively since 2017. I got into Pokemon a long time ago actually, when I was a child with the DS games so we can say I actually play Pokemon since 2008. I'm very passionate about turn-based games like and fighting games in general, I don't play fighting games but I really enjoy watching them. Outside of gaming, I love volley-ball, listening to all kinds of music in general, anime and manga too. Finally, my favorite mons are mawile, nihilego and pumpkaboo since this pumpkin is really really cute.
How did you get the name Gelbel?
It's from a running gag during my high school years. I was in a very fun but also quite mischievous friend group back then, and "Gelbin" was a random word we created and had fun to write on the tables or over others tags in our establishment, since they were always insulting lmaoo. It became a rumor eventually because nobody knew who were the guys behind that, so I thought about the pseudo Gelbelec to remind me of this very fond memory. Afterwards, I switched to Gelbel3c because I'm a moron who lost his password.
How did you get into the Smogon / Monotype community?
For Smogon, it's quite weird because I never was that much on it. I consider myself as a Draft League main actually, it's the format I play the most, since 2017. Like, my only tournament on smogon outside of monotype is the Draft League WC we managed with masskeau and maybe one or two random tours.
For the monotype community, it was at the MPL XII with the melemele meloettas where my friends and managers Cielau and Toadow asked me to play in BW in this tour. I had like absolutely zero knowledge of the tier and the goat Coo1313 had to carry me in build.
Do you have a favorite moment or memory that sticks out from your time on Pokemon Showdown / Smogon?
The melemele meloetta victory last year is definitely one of my recent favorite moment. We looked our games in vocal call when possible with Masskeau, Cielau and Toadow and it was pure chaos basically, saying "it's so over" and "we're so back" again and again. It was also especially funny after the finals when we were 4 dudes who couldn't process what actually happened for the meleme to win the tour.
For an old one, I could also say the French victory in a old Draft League WC when it wasn't yet on Smogon, in 2019. I was with literally all of my best buds so it was incredible.
Huge congrats on your Monotype Cup victory, do you mind telling us a bit about that? Who was your hardest opponent? How did you prepare? Which generation did you have the most fun playing?
Thx ! I wasn't expecting at all to be in the top 16 in Monotype Cup because I planned to play in only BW cup and SV cup for fun. I kept this mindset in Monotype Cup, where I played what I liked the most in BW and SV and asked teams to Cielau and Toadow in gen6, 7 and 8. Tenebricite in finals was my hardest opponant, so this time I tried to change some of my teams because I just kept playing the same builds during this tournament except in SS where I changed my team for semis. The idea here was to still play agressive builds because it worked in the first rounds, I love clicking u-turn and trying to be agressive ingame. Finally, I absolutely, and I mean it, don't know how to call, so I felt like actually not calling and playing my favorite teams was my best bet.
Finally, I had fun in all of the games. SV was mainly the funniest because of the fact that I rolled twice dark vs fight and I rarely played that agressively I think. To be fair, playing gen6, gen7 and gen8 was also a very fun experience to me because it was my first time playing those gens in tournament and learning new formats is something I like a lot.
If you could ban or unban anything in any Monotype tier, what would it be and why?
I think both BW and SV are fine as they are right know. Unfortunately, I'm still a Flutter Mane hater but the metagame is really not that good for the types they're in at the moment. Otherwise, Gliscor in SV is really obnoxious and honestly it would be interesting for me to see a metagame without this mon, even if I don't really know if I can consider it banworthy. We actually have a lot of type diversity in SV and BW so I think both metagames are fine. Finally, I just want to ban Dragon as a type or concept in BW, it's just a prep ruiner with his 600 Base Stats non-sense I hate it so much.
For the unbans, I could say Espathra but it's like "WHO ?" lol, nobody plays or mind the mon so it wouldn't change anything I think.
Do you have a team from any generation that you wouldnt mind sharing that you think showcases your style of play the best?
https://pokepast.es/f3e56062fa231c75
I very like this kind of aggressive teams with a lot of tempo. I try to capitalize on my opponant mistakes and punish then when I play, and I think being able to pivot is the easiest way for me to play with this punishing gamestyle in mind. It surely come from Draft League where pivoting is quite central and where I try to create what I call "win/win situations", which are situations where I don't need to call what my opponant will do at all and can just click on my buttons. Finally, I prefer this kind of teams because it's easier for me to try to win with those in case of bad match-up. That's also why I don't play too much screens or "too much hyperoffense teams". They tend for me to be more linear : in good MUs they win hard, but in bad MUs it just feels terrible, and since I'm a bad caller I don't always try to play those specific structures.
Do you have any advice for newer players who want to get more involved in the community?
I'll say playing a lot and watching replays of good tournaments, like MPL, seasonnals, cups, etc. Playing is by far the most important thing to do, because Pokemon is a pretty hard game, and I think that a lot about how we play is based of situations we already know. Each of us have an unique way to play the game, even if we all have the same fundamentals at a certain level of play, and the best way to learning how to play the game is to play. If someone wants to get involved, starting with individuals tournaments helps a lot I think because you gain visibility if you do well, you gain experience and confidance by actually playing the game and more importantly, you can gain connexions whithin the community. For the next step, trying to play in teamtours is a huge thing because you just learn so much about a tier or the game by talking to others. Finally, a lot of people have a close group of friends in pokemon, and having one just helps to improve a lot too
Thank you so much for your diligent answers, those are all the questions I've got for now. Would you like to give anybody else a shoutout to wrap up?
Yep, but before that : thank you for giving me the chance to do an interview, it was a new and fun experience to do something like that.
Of course, I want to shoutout Masskeau, Cielau and Toadow, they're my best buds outside of Pokemon for like years know and I can't ask for better friends. I'd like to shoutout Coo1313 too, it's thanks to him that I could learn BW mono in the first place, he's like my spiritual father if that makes sense. I honestly can't shoutout everyone but I appreciate a lot of people in this community : because they helped me, encouraged me or were just very very kind or fun to hang out with. So big shoutout to them too, if I had fun or talked with you at some point, you have my gratitude.
inspired by this and this
First of all thanks for taking the time to do this, I'm sure the community will be interested in hearing from the recent monotype cup champion, would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?
Hey, I'm Gelbel, I'm french and I play competitively since 2017. I got into Pokemon a long time ago actually, when I was a child with the DS games so we can say I actually play Pokemon since 2008. I'm very passionate about turn-based games like and fighting games in general, I don't play fighting games but I really enjoy watching them. Outside of gaming, I love volley-ball, listening to all kinds of music in general, anime and manga too. Finally, my favorite mons are mawile, nihilego and pumpkaboo since this pumpkin is really really cute.
How did you get the name Gelbel?
It's from a running gag during my high school years. I was in a very fun but also quite mischievous friend group back then, and "Gelbin" was a random word we created and had fun to write on the tables or over others tags in our establishment, since they were always insulting lmaoo. It became a rumor eventually because nobody knew who were the guys behind that, so I thought about the pseudo Gelbelec to remind me of this very fond memory. Afterwards, I switched to Gelbel3c because I'm a moron who lost his password.
How did you get into the Smogon / Monotype community?
For Smogon, it's quite weird because I never was that much on it. I consider myself as a Draft League main actually, it's the format I play the most, since 2017. Like, my only tournament on smogon outside of monotype is the Draft League WC we managed with masskeau and maybe one or two random tours.
For the monotype community, it was at the MPL XII with the melemele meloettas where my friends and managers Cielau and Toadow asked me to play in BW in this tour. I had like absolutely zero knowledge of the tier and the goat Coo1313 had to carry me in build.
Do you have a favorite moment or memory that sticks out from your time on Pokemon Showdown / Smogon?
The melemele meloetta victory last year is definitely one of my recent favorite moment. We looked our games in vocal call when possible with Masskeau, Cielau and Toadow and it was pure chaos basically, saying "it's so over" and "we're so back" again and again. It was also especially funny after the finals when we were 4 dudes who couldn't process what actually happened for the meleme to win the tour.
For an old one, I could also say the French victory in a old Draft League WC when it wasn't yet on Smogon, in 2019. I was with literally all of my best buds so it was incredible.
Huge congrats on your Monotype Cup victory, do you mind telling us a bit about that? Who was your hardest opponent? How did you prepare? Which generation did you have the most fun playing?
Thx ! I wasn't expecting at all to be in the top 16 in Monotype Cup because I planned to play in only BW cup and SV cup for fun. I kept this mindset in Monotype Cup, where I played what I liked the most in BW and SV and asked teams to Cielau and Toadow in gen6, 7 and 8. Tenebricite in finals was my hardest opponant, so this time I tried to change some of my teams because I just kept playing the same builds during this tournament except in SS where I changed my team for semis. The idea here was to still play agressive builds because it worked in the first rounds, I love clicking u-turn and trying to be agressive ingame. Finally, I absolutely, and I mean it, don't know how to call, so I felt like actually not calling and playing my favorite teams was my best bet.
Finally, I had fun in all of the games. SV was mainly the funniest because of the fact that I rolled twice dark vs fight and I rarely played that agressively I think. To be fair, playing gen6, gen7 and gen8 was also a very fun experience to me because it was my first time playing those gens in tournament and learning new formats is something I like a lot.
If you could ban or unban anything in any Monotype tier, what would it be and why?
I think both BW and SV are fine as they are right know. Unfortunately, I'm still a Flutter Mane hater but the metagame is really not that good for the types they're in at the moment. Otherwise, Gliscor in SV is really obnoxious and honestly it would be interesting for me to see a metagame without this mon, even if I don't really know if I can consider it banworthy. We actually have a lot of type diversity in SV and BW so I think both metagames are fine. Finally, I just want to ban Dragon as a type or concept in BW, it's just a prep ruiner with his 600 Base Stats non-sense I hate it so much.
For the unbans, I could say Espathra but it's like "WHO ?" lol, nobody plays or mind the mon so it wouldn't change anything I think.
Do you have a team from any generation that you wouldnt mind sharing that you think showcases your style of play the best?
https://pokepast.es/f3e56062fa231c75
I very like this kind of aggressive teams with a lot of tempo. I try to capitalize on my opponant mistakes and punish then when I play, and I think being able to pivot is the easiest way for me to play with this punishing gamestyle in mind. It surely come from Draft League where pivoting is quite central and where I try to create what I call "win/win situations", which are situations where I don't need to call what my opponant will do at all and can just click on my buttons. Finally, I prefer this kind of teams because it's easier for me to try to win with those in case of bad match-up. That's also why I don't play too much screens or "too much hyperoffense teams". They tend for me to be more linear : in good MUs they win hard, but in bad MUs it just feels terrible, and since I'm a bad caller I don't always try to play those specific structures.
Do you have any advice for newer players who want to get more involved in the community?
I'll say playing a lot and watching replays of good tournaments, like MPL, seasonnals, cups, etc. Playing is by far the most important thing to do, because Pokemon is a pretty hard game, and I think that a lot about how we play is based of situations we already know. Each of us have an unique way to play the game, even if we all have the same fundamentals at a certain level of play, and the best way to learning how to play the game is to play. If someone wants to get involved, starting with individuals tournaments helps a lot I think because you gain visibility if you do well, you gain experience and confidance by actually playing the game and more importantly, you can gain connexions whithin the community. For the next step, trying to play in teamtours is a huge thing because you just learn so much about a tier or the game by talking to others. Finally, a lot of people have a close group of friends in pokemon, and having one just helps to improve a lot too
Thank you so much for your diligent answers, those are all the questions I've got for now. Would you like to give anybody else a shoutout to wrap up?
Yep, but before that : thank you for giving me the chance to do an interview, it was a new and fun experience to do something like that.
Of course, I want to shoutout Masskeau, Cielau and Toadow, they're my best buds outside of Pokemon for like years know and I can't ask for better friends. I'd like to shoutout Coo1313 too, it's thanks to him that I could learn BW mono in the first place, he's like my spiritual father if that makes sense. I honestly can't shoutout everyone but I appreciate a lot of people in this community : because they helped me, encouraged me or were just very very kind or fun to hang out with. So big shoutout to them too, if I had fun or talked with you at some point, you have my gratitude.
~~~
This thread will remain open in case anyone would like to ask Gelbel3c any further questions. If you have an idea for who you would like to be interviewed next, please don't hesitate to let me know!
This thread will remain open in case anyone would like to ask Gelbel3c any further questions. If you have an idea for who you would like to be interviewed next, please don't hesitate to let me know!
Last edited:
