approved by monotype forum mods
inspired by this and this
brand new art by Finchely
:pmd/pawmi: royal :pmd/pawmi: | :pmd/keldeo-resolute: Wincon :pmd/keldeo-resolute:
:pmd/pawmi:
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?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Hello, I’m Wincon. I’m 29 years old. I live in NYC. Currently, I work at a load bank rental company and do moving jobs on the weekend for extra money. I have a lot of free time at work (at both jobs), so a lot of the times you’ll see me chatting away in the mono discord or lurking in the many other team discords I be in. I recently came back from a long break from Mons and have been active for a bit over a year now.
:pmd/pawmi:
How did you get into the Smogon / Monotype community?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Well at first I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh on dueling network or on YGOPRO. YGOPRO went down and dueling network wasn’t as fun so I was looking for another game to play. Somehow I came across Pokemon Showdown and originally started playing Randbats and OU. I was anonymously messaged on main by a user named Lotus Gogeta and was recruited to the Lotus League. This was back when side servers were big in mid 2015. Through this, I came to learn of the monotype community and have enjoyed being a part of it ever since.
:pmd/pawmi:
Do you have a favorite moment or memory that sticks out from your time on Pokemon Showdown / Smogon?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
I have two favorite memories that stand out to me for my Pokemon career as a whole. If that’s ok I’d like to speak on both of them.
The first memory was when I started participating in team tournaments. A decade ago, the monotype community was split between the side servers and the main server/smogon community. Most of the smogon community had zero respect for side server players and we were seen as much worst players in the tour scene. This made it extremely difficult to make it into smogon tournaments if you didn’t know the right people or wasn’t already successful in the tournaments. I came into the scene with a very inflated ego, as I won a few huge side server tournaments (such as ULC), as well as topped number one on the ladder multiple times. At one point, I even had 7 alts in the top 15 and 4 alts in the top 10. Even with those results I still went undrafted in MPL. I kept working hard in individual tournaments while staying sharp playing on ladder and Wanka took a chance on me in MWP starting my Monotype tournament career as a whole. In my first tournament, I took down a lot of big names and overall gained respect in the tournament community as a competent player. Though in my first game, I attempted to make my first opponent (waszap) struggle to death…(LOL!). Honestly this made me want to participate in many more tours in the future and bring up everyone around me to improve. I’d give out teams, tutor people and also help others break out into the tour scene. This experience helped me become pretty much a monotype tournament mainstay and instilled in me the importance of helping new players because I know what it’s like to be in their shoes.
The other memory was of my most well played game https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-944976361 of my career. Personally, I think my biggest advantage as a player is my foresight when building as well as my ability to analyze information to prep for opponents. I enjoy the prep and team building even more than the battling aspect. I’m a good battler, some may even say great, but in my opinion I become unstoppable given enough prep time and scouting information. MPL V, Eien, regarded as one of the top 3 monotype players at the time, was having a bad season (0-2 at the time and the goal was to make him 0-3) and is known as a fairy spammer. I prepped a fairy team that could not lose the mirror and even prepared secret techs for sets people were using at the time like Leru’s (now known as Larry) sub disable sd tapu bulu. I played an amazing game. We both got to show off some insane techs back and forth and it made for some insanely funny moments.
:pmd/pawmi:
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?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Yeah…Monotype Cup was a gauntlet to be honest. Some days I had 3-4 bo3 series in one day. It was tiring and honestly was a lot of work. I only participated in it because I came into a treasure trove of teams through Crossheart and Losconosciuto that gave me teams for all the old gens I didn’t really play or have teams for (thank you style, isza, and trich xoxo). I’m not gonna lie for the most part I didn’t really prep especially in the old gens. I usually only ever build and use my own teams but for once I just grabbed teams from the dumps I liked and did my best. The tiers I had the most fun playing or actually built for were ORAS and SV. All the others I just put my hope in style/trich/isza and loaded what looked good to me. For the most part, this carried me through the various cups and even got me some deep runs until I faced walls like Trich himself and Azick, the former I loaded his own teams and paid for it; the latter I loaded a water with no poison moves to hit tapu bulu. I felt like my hardest opponent was probably my finals opponent. First two games of the series felt like my back was against the wall for one of the only times during my playoff run. I had to play some of the best mons I’ve played in a long time to have a chance. The Gen 8 game was especially tough since every opponent would take me into Gen 8 knowing I severely lack experience in that tier. Somehow I’d lock in for the most part and even perform in those games as well.
:pmd/pawmi:
If you could ban or unban anything in any Monotype tier, what would it be and why?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
I would unban Keldeo in ORAS. Keldeo was my favorite pokemon back then especially because I started competitive as a water gym leader -> Water Elite Four. Keldeo was around the entire generation when it was current and only seen as unhealthy or broken after the fact and subsequently banned. Keldeo never felt overbearing or hard to deal with when it was around unless you were like steel or dark into sub cm variants.
:pmd/pawmi:
Do you have a team from any generation that you wouldnt mind sharing that you think showcases your style of play the best?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
As for my favorite team, it would have to be my favorite fairy team of gen 7. I love choiced breakers that do big damage and nothing shows this very theme better than this fairy I loved to use with Choice Specs Koko + Choice Band Bulu. You utilize Koko and bulu to wallbreak through teams to setup for CM Clefable and BD Azu to sweep teams later on. I would even utilize electric seed because Clefable with a defense boost can broom some teams entirely.
Team: https://pokepast.es/29a86df67acfa113
:pmd/pawmi:
Do you have any advice for newer players who want to get more involved in the community?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Sign up for tournaments, be active in the monotype discord and monotype room and just be a generally likable person. It’s easier than ever to get into tours nowadays. Even if it’s farm league or individuals, foster the connections you form and you’ll get your shot eventually.
:pmd/pawmi:
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?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Shoutouts to Trich/Isza/Style for spending the time to build and release expansive team dumps that basically supplemented my cup run. Shoutouts to boomp for being someone I could bounce ideas off of during my run as well as Rio Vidal for allowing me to still participate while I was banned. Shoutouts to Mega Sols as well as crash, MemphisDepay, and ArkenCiel for your unbridled support during my run and through the drama that happened near the end.
inspired by this and this
brand new art by Finchely
:pmd/pawmi: royal :pmd/pawmi: | :pmd/keldeo-resolute: Wincon :pmd/keldeo-resolute:
:pmd/pawmi:
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?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Hello, I’m Wincon. I’m 29 years old. I live in NYC. Currently, I work at a load bank rental company and do moving jobs on the weekend for extra money. I have a lot of free time at work (at both jobs), so a lot of the times you’ll see me chatting away in the mono discord or lurking in the many other team discords I be in. I recently came back from a long break from Mons and have been active for a bit over a year now.
:pmd/pawmi:
How did you get into the Smogon / Monotype community?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Well at first I used to play Yu-Gi-Oh on dueling network or on YGOPRO. YGOPRO went down and dueling network wasn’t as fun so I was looking for another game to play. Somehow I came across Pokemon Showdown and originally started playing Randbats and OU. I was anonymously messaged on main by a user named Lotus Gogeta and was recruited to the Lotus League. This was back when side servers were big in mid 2015. Through this, I came to learn of the monotype community and have enjoyed being a part of it ever since.
:pmd/pawmi:
Do you have a favorite moment or memory that sticks out from your time on Pokemon Showdown / Smogon?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
I have two favorite memories that stand out to me for my Pokemon career as a whole. If that’s ok I’d like to speak on both of them.
The first memory was when I started participating in team tournaments. A decade ago, the monotype community was split between the side servers and the main server/smogon community. Most of the smogon community had zero respect for side server players and we were seen as much worst players in the tour scene. This made it extremely difficult to make it into smogon tournaments if you didn’t know the right people or wasn’t already successful in the tournaments. I came into the scene with a very inflated ego, as I won a few huge side server tournaments (such as ULC), as well as topped number one on the ladder multiple times. At one point, I even had 7 alts in the top 15 and 4 alts in the top 10. Even with those results I still went undrafted in MPL. I kept working hard in individual tournaments while staying sharp playing on ladder and Wanka took a chance on me in MWP starting my Monotype tournament career as a whole. In my first tournament, I took down a lot of big names and overall gained respect in the tournament community as a competent player. Though in my first game, I attempted to make my first opponent (waszap) struggle to death…(LOL!). Honestly this made me want to participate in many more tours in the future and bring up everyone around me to improve. I’d give out teams, tutor people and also help others break out into the tour scene. This experience helped me become pretty much a monotype tournament mainstay and instilled in me the importance of helping new players because I know what it’s like to be in their shoes.
The other memory was of my most well played game https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-944976361 of my career. Personally, I think my biggest advantage as a player is my foresight when building as well as my ability to analyze information to prep for opponents. I enjoy the prep and team building even more than the battling aspect. I’m a good battler, some may even say great, but in my opinion I become unstoppable given enough prep time and scouting information. MPL V, Eien, regarded as one of the top 3 monotype players at the time, was having a bad season (0-2 at the time and the goal was to make him 0-3) and is known as a fairy spammer. I prepped a fairy team that could not lose the mirror and even prepared secret techs for sets people were using at the time like Leru’s (now known as Larry) sub disable sd tapu bulu. I played an amazing game. We both got to show off some insane techs back and forth and it made for some insanely funny moments.
:pmd/pawmi:
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?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Yeah…Monotype Cup was a gauntlet to be honest. Some days I had 3-4 bo3 series in one day. It was tiring and honestly was a lot of work. I only participated in it because I came into a treasure trove of teams through Crossheart and Losconosciuto that gave me teams for all the old gens I didn’t really play or have teams for (thank you style, isza, and trich xoxo). I’m not gonna lie for the most part I didn’t really prep especially in the old gens. I usually only ever build and use my own teams but for once I just grabbed teams from the dumps I liked and did my best. The tiers I had the most fun playing or actually built for were ORAS and SV. All the others I just put my hope in style/trich/isza and loaded what looked good to me. For the most part, this carried me through the various cups and even got me some deep runs until I faced walls like Trich himself and Azick, the former I loaded his own teams and paid for it; the latter I loaded a water with no poison moves to hit tapu bulu. I felt like my hardest opponent was probably my finals opponent. First two games of the series felt like my back was against the wall for one of the only times during my playoff run. I had to play some of the best mons I’ve played in a long time to have a chance. The Gen 8 game was especially tough since every opponent would take me into Gen 8 knowing I severely lack experience in that tier. Somehow I’d lock in for the most part and even perform in those games as well.
:pmd/pawmi:
If you could ban or unban anything in any Monotype tier, what would it be and why?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
I would unban Keldeo in ORAS. Keldeo was my favorite pokemon back then especially because I started competitive as a water gym leader -> Water Elite Four. Keldeo was around the entire generation when it was current and only seen as unhealthy or broken after the fact and subsequently banned. Keldeo never felt overbearing or hard to deal with when it was around unless you were like steel or dark into sub cm variants.
:pmd/pawmi:
Do you have a team from any generation that you wouldnt mind sharing that you think showcases your style of play the best?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
As for my favorite team, it would have to be my favorite fairy team of gen 7. I love choiced breakers that do big damage and nothing shows this very theme better than this fairy I loved to use with Choice Specs Koko + Choice Band Bulu. You utilize Koko and bulu to wallbreak through teams to setup for CM Clefable and BD Azu to sweep teams later on. I would even utilize electric seed because Clefable with a defense boost can broom some teams entirely.
Team: https://pokepast.es/29a86df67acfa113
:pmd/pawmi:
Do you have any advice for newer players who want to get more involved in the community?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Sign up for tournaments, be active in the monotype discord and monotype room and just be a generally likable person. It’s easier than ever to get into tours nowadays. Even if it’s farm league or individuals, foster the connections you form and you’ll get your shot eventually.
:pmd/pawmi:
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?
:pmd/keldeo-resolute:
Shoutouts to Trich/Isza/Style for spending the time to build and release expansive team dumps that basically supplemented my cup run. Shoutouts to boomp for being someone I could bounce ideas off of during my run as well as Rio Vidal for allowing me to still participate while I was banned. Shoutouts to Mega Sols as well as crash, MemphisDepay, and ArkenCiel for your unbridled support during my run and through the drama that happened near the end.
~~~
This thread will remain open in case anyone would like to ask Wincon 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 Wincon 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!
