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 MLT winner, would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?
Hello everyone! I'm Ethereal Sword, I'm a college student studying mathematics and astrophysics. I've been involved with PS for quite a while in its game rooms (feel free to stop by in the Board Games and Game Corner rooms and say hi!) but only got into competitive Pokemon relatively recently. Outside of Pokemon, I love board games of all different kinds and I'm a titled chess player.
How did you get introduced / involved with the Monotype community?
I first joined Monotype in the latter half of Gen 8 after dabbling in some other tiers and it quickly became my favorite. Back in those days, the only teams that I would build were gimmicks though to be honest I don't know if that ever changed :). Being previously involved in other PS rooms made it easier to join Monotype. I've met some really great people in this community and made great friends.
Do you have a favorite moment or memory that sticks out from your time on Smogon / PS?
Both of my MLT wins were extremely impactful for me. I put a ton of preparation into each match; in the first one, for the entire week before the match I could hardly go a waking hour without thinking about Pokemon, and things could have easily gone the other way both times. Winning a tournament definitely gave me a huge confidence boost. Credit should also be given to a formidable opponent.
I'm also going to throw out some honorable mentions. Getting suspect reqs for the first time after playing 88 games and reaching top 3 on ladder in the process was an ordeal that really tested my dedication, but for the first time I felt like I was really contributing to Monotype as a whole. Also I want to shout out my previous MWP team, Dural Madrid, for providing one of the best team tour atmospheres I've been in while being one of the worst-performing teams I've been in, especially when we got our single win that tour.
Big congratulations on your MLT win, do you mind telling us about that? How did you go about securing your spot in the tournament stage?
Focusing on this year, in the ladder phase I tried to take it slow and steady. Rather than rushing to qualify early and risk rating decay, I set goals for each day, only laddering when I felt I was at my best and when ladder opponents were using teams I had favorable matchups against. I only used Fez Fairy the entire week, being the team I was most comfortable with. As a result, I was able to mostly avoid the final-day ladder scramble that ends so many runs.
The tournament phase of MLT is unique since just by qualifying you're automatically in the top 16. On the other hand, this means that every opponent went through the gauntlet that is the ladder phase. Each round required substantial prep which often meant building new teams specific for each opponent. I was admittedly helped by luck a few times, though I stand by the idiom "luck is when preparation meets opportunity."
Was there an opponent that was toughest for you to prepare for?
Tie between Trichotomy and Azick. Against Trichotomy, I was thoroughly outfoxed in preparation the first time, so after some introspection I doubled down on my prep and ended up having a better showing the second time. With Azick, we had already faced each other in tournament matches twice by that point and the last time he beat me 3-1. Safe to say we knew each other's style. This made it harder to come up with something new, and in the end it was adaptation within the match that ended up being the decisive factor.
Do you have a favorite team from the tournament (any gen) that you wouldn't mind sharing with us and explaining a bit about?
Well, I brought it four times so it's got to be this: https://pokepast.es/18c18227af0c59ad
This is another variation on the Manaphy team I first built for Secret Santa of all places and then adapted into a tournament-worthy team. Most of the time, I run Swampert as the Ground type on this team; however, I had a version with Gastrodon instead and I decided to go with that due to its access to Recover. I also subbed out Samurott-Hisui for Ogerpon-Wellspring as I thought (as it turns out, correctly) that it would be better against Azick.
As is a bit infamous now, the team that I brought to Game 1 did not look exactly like this. Clefable was a glaring weak point in this team so I decided to replace Gastrodon's Ice Beam with Clear Smog, a decision that paid off in a huge way in Game 5.
Overall, I think Manaphy Water is a very solid though somewhat passive team comp. For ladder play I would still recommend using Swampert and Samurott-H.
Do you have any advice for newer players who want to get more involved in the community?
The first step is to be active in the Monotype room, there are plenty of helpful people and lots of great resources there. Play many games, that's what ladder is for! Experiment, fail, try again until you find what you like and improvement will just be a matter of time. After that, you can head onto Smogon and get involved in the metagame discussion there and sign up for individual tournaments when they appear to get your name out there.
Lastly, remember that enjoying the game is the most important part!
If you could ban or unban anything in any Monotype generation, what would it be and why?
Having only really played SV, there is only one answer here: BAN GLISCOR. If you don't knock it out in one hit it will heal back up to full! Look at this engaging gameplay: Toxic Protect Sub Protect Sub Protect Sub Protect, how exciting that is!
In all seriousness, SV is in a pretty good state right now and the metagame is fairly balanced with no pressing reason to change it. Discussion is more around annoying mons like Gliscor and Archaludon rather than outright broken mons, and because "annoying" is subjective there is not going to be a large consensus on who to ban.
Thank you so much for your time and your diligent answers, I’m sure everybody will appreciate reading and learning a bit more about you. Is there anybody you would like to give a shoutout to?
Thanks for this interview! I'd firstly like to shout out ArkenCiel, who has been a great friend ever since I joined Monotype and helped me improve a lot. I'd also like to shout out my co-managers on the Bell Tower Braves, Jolly Togekiss and Mateeus. Finally, I'd like to shout out all my Flutter Mane friends for being a great community to hang around with.
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 MLT winner, would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?
Hello everyone! I'm Ethereal Sword, I'm a college student studying mathematics and astrophysics. I've been involved with PS for quite a while in its game rooms (feel free to stop by in the Board Games and Game Corner rooms and say hi!) but only got into competitive Pokemon relatively recently. Outside of Pokemon, I love board games of all different kinds and I'm a titled chess player.
How did you get introduced / involved with the Monotype community?
I first joined Monotype in the latter half of Gen 8 after dabbling in some other tiers and it quickly became my favorite. Back in those days, the only teams that I would build were gimmicks though to be honest I don't know if that ever changed :). Being previously involved in other PS rooms made it easier to join Monotype. I've met some really great people in this community and made great friends.
Do you have a favorite moment or memory that sticks out from your time on Smogon / PS?
Both of my MLT wins were extremely impactful for me. I put a ton of preparation into each match; in the first one, for the entire week before the match I could hardly go a waking hour without thinking about Pokemon, and things could have easily gone the other way both times. Winning a tournament definitely gave me a huge confidence boost. Credit should also be given to a formidable opponent.
I'm also going to throw out some honorable mentions. Getting suspect reqs for the first time after playing 88 games and reaching top 3 on ladder in the process was an ordeal that really tested my dedication, but for the first time I felt like I was really contributing to Monotype as a whole. Also I want to shout out my previous MWP team, Dural Madrid, for providing one of the best team tour atmospheres I've been in while being one of the worst-performing teams I've been in, especially when we got our single win that tour.
Big congratulations on your MLT win, do you mind telling us about that? How did you go about securing your spot in the tournament stage?
Focusing on this year, in the ladder phase I tried to take it slow and steady. Rather than rushing to qualify early and risk rating decay, I set goals for each day, only laddering when I felt I was at my best and when ladder opponents were using teams I had favorable matchups against. I only used Fez Fairy the entire week, being the team I was most comfortable with. As a result, I was able to mostly avoid the final-day ladder scramble that ends so many runs.
The tournament phase of MLT is unique since just by qualifying you're automatically in the top 16. On the other hand, this means that every opponent went through the gauntlet that is the ladder phase. Each round required substantial prep which often meant building new teams specific for each opponent. I was admittedly helped by luck a few times, though I stand by the idiom "luck is when preparation meets opportunity."
Was there an opponent that was toughest for you to prepare for?
Tie between Trichotomy and Azick. Against Trichotomy, I was thoroughly outfoxed in preparation the first time, so after some introspection I doubled down on my prep and ended up having a better showing the second time. With Azick, we had already faced each other in tournament matches twice by that point and the last time he beat me 3-1. Safe to say we knew each other's style. This made it harder to come up with something new, and in the end it was adaptation within the match that ended up being the decisive factor.
Do you have a favorite team from the tournament (any gen) that you wouldn't mind sharing with us and explaining a bit about?
Well, I brought it four times so it's got to be this: https://pokepast.es/18c18227af0c59ad
This is another variation on the Manaphy team I first built for Secret Santa of all places and then adapted into a tournament-worthy team. Most of the time, I run Swampert as the Ground type on this team; however, I had a version with Gastrodon instead and I decided to go with that due to its access to Recover. I also subbed out Samurott-Hisui for Ogerpon-Wellspring as I thought (as it turns out, correctly) that it would be better against Azick.
As is a bit infamous now, the team that I brought to Game 1 did not look exactly like this. Clefable was a glaring weak point in this team so I decided to replace Gastrodon's Ice Beam with Clear Smog, a decision that paid off in a huge way in Game 5.
Overall, I think Manaphy Water is a very solid though somewhat passive team comp. For ladder play I would still recommend using Swampert and Samurott-H.
Do you have any advice for newer players who want to get more involved in the community?
The first step is to be active in the Monotype room, there are plenty of helpful people and lots of great resources there. Play many games, that's what ladder is for! Experiment, fail, try again until you find what you like and improvement will just be a matter of time. After that, you can head onto Smogon and get involved in the metagame discussion there and sign up for individual tournaments when they appear to get your name out there.
Lastly, remember that enjoying the game is the most important part!
If you could ban or unban anything in any Monotype generation, what would it be and why?
Having only really played SV, there is only one answer here: BAN GLISCOR. If you don't knock it out in one hit it will heal back up to full! Look at this engaging gameplay: Toxic Protect Sub Protect Sub Protect Sub Protect, how exciting that is!
In all seriousness, SV is in a pretty good state right now and the metagame is fairly balanced with no pressing reason to change it. Discussion is more around annoying mons like Gliscor and Archaludon rather than outright broken mons, and because "annoying" is subjective there is not going to be a large consensus on who to ban.
Thank you so much for your time and your diligent answers, I’m sure everybody will appreciate reading and learning a bit more about you. Is there anybody you would like to give a shoutout to?
Thanks for this interview! I'd firstly like to shout out ArkenCiel, who has been a great friend ever since I joined Monotype and helped me improve a lot. I'd also like to shout out my co-managers on the Bell Tower Braves, Jolly Togekiss and Mateeus. Finally, I'd like to shout out all my Flutter Mane friends for being a great community to hang around with.
~~~
This thread will remain open in case anyone would like to ask Ethereal Sword 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 Ethereal Sword 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!
