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?
First off thanks for having me RoyalReloaded. Hello everyone, I'm Mateeus, aka mono community's resident
lover and best known as one of the leaders of the most successful fairytale tier of all (national dex monotype), and the worst late-game pilot this community has ever seen. I got into Pokemon as a kid by influence of my cousins, with whom I often reunited to trade and battle whenever there was a family reunion. Outside of Pokemon I work as an assistant tutor/teacher, and my hobbies are watching football/soccer (call it as you want, but the first one is objectively correct), cycling, and preparing pastry desserts.
Normally I would ask how you got your name, but I think its a bit obvious, so why dont you tell us why staravia is your favorite pokemon?
This one is a loooong ass story to tell. Out of myself and my cousins I was the last one to get a DS back in the day, so I would watch them playing Pokemon and other games whenever they were doing so. In one of these days, I watched one of them (the oldest one of us) more closely and asked which game he was playing. He then told me they were playing Pokemon Platinum, and I asked immediately what it was, receiving an explanation after. When I was watching him playing, he was battling against Staravia, so it was the first Pokemon I identified as a Pokemon proper (since the franchise is huge worldwide and I was like 8 at that time I've probably seen things like Pikachu or Charizard before that incident, but I was unaware they were actual Pokemon). I thought it was pretty well designed, and it made the franchise grow on me. Some months later, when I finally got my DS, my first capture would be a Starly which I evolved all the way to Staraptor, and the whole line grew a lot on me because of how much it carried in my first playthrough of Pearl (yes, I did not have Platinum as my cousins did which was pretty lame LOL. Pearl was still fun, however). Fast forward to some years later when I was getting into Monotype, there was a day where I was lurking on the forums and I saw a project called "Core Laddering Challenge", which was hosted by Sly Mav / Rum & Coke. After reading through it I thought the project was dope, and I immediately wanted to find if there was a Normal (my favorite type, and what made me get into Monotype in the first place) core ongoing or an interesting one that was already done. I then find a core consisting of + 
and I was like "WAIT, I CAN USE BOTH STARAVIA AND STARAPTOR??? HOW IS THIS VIABLE???", and after that, I immediately built a team out. On the first tries it didn't go well at all, but as I refined my team after hundreds of ladder games, I could settle on a team that I thought was comfortable, and then proceededto peak the ladder with it (albeit with a trash 79% gxe LMAO). I have then became known as "the staravia normal guy" (despite not have "invented" it; credits go to the CLC hosts), and I was rather proud of it, to the point Staravia became my favorite Pokemon.
lol, that is a pretty good story, and I guess answers the question of how you got into the Monotype community.. Do you have a favorite moment or memory that sticks out from your time on Pokemon Showdown / Smogon?
Throughout the years, this website has left quite the number of memories, both good and bad, I would say. My favorite one would be the most recent Monotype Cup victory (which meant a lot to me even as a person, given I've played this game for 10 years but never won any individual tournament in the forums), but I have a couple of sweet ones that stick to my mind to this day. My earlier ones include peaking ladder for the first time with Staravia, winning Monotype Champions (https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-382084964) with a lot of people watching to "represent" your type (which early-teens Mateeus thought was super dope), and qualifying as the last seed in the last cycle of a MLT (I think MLT III) and then missing school the following Monday because I was up super late LOL. More recently, the managerial tour wins I've had were all super memorable too, especially the first mono BLT (BLT IV) I managed and won with a team largely consisting of friends from the leagues' days.
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?
Thank you! I'm honored to be answering this, so I definitely do not mind it at all. I believe all of my opponents gave me a run for my money, but the hardest one has to be crash with whom I've had a super exhilarating series against (one where I could've easily lost if some small things didn't go my way), and I legit was pouring once it was done. I didn't really prep in the first two rounds (where I just sorted consistent teams that I was comfortable with enough to pilot), but I did prep SV and SS in the semis vs. Ashbala (where I felt my lack of recent gens knowledge could very well be a weakness), and in the finals vs. Spitfire I watched his replays and loaded what I thought could be the most consistent for each game. Apart from the SV game which I chose as g1, I had two teams for each generation ready there (one if I was ahead in the series, other if behind). As for the generation I've had the most fun playing, that would be a tossup between ORAS and BW. Recent bans have shifted them to a point where there are much more possibilities to explore, which is something I like to see.
That's a really good way of approaching the tournament, not overthinking and just doing what feels best. Speaking of recent bans, if you could ban or unban anything in any Monotype tier, who would it be and why?
The first thing that comes to my mind would be Kommo-o (or its Z-crystal) in SM. I think it gets too overbearing with minimal effort for some types (dark steel poison come to mind, but it can sweep basically anything not named Fairy provided enough chip / support) to the point I think SM Mono would be healthier without it. I believe SM's downside comes to having to account to a lot of things in the builder, and getting rid of Kommo-o would help with that. I would also support a Deoxys-S ban because it is a bullshit mu fishing element, but it's more checkable than Kommo-o so I think the former should be looked at with more attention. I've seen a couple of people complaining about Spectrier in SS as well and honestly I can get behind banning it because I've seen a lot of Spectrier moments as of recently. Otherwise I think all other mono tiers are fine.
I dont have much experience with the old generations but I do know that the Z crystal is super cheap so I can support banning that. Is there a favorite team tournament that you've participated in over the years?
That's a tough question for sure; I think most team tournament experiences I've been a part of were incredibly fun, be it because of good results or because of an active teamchat. My favorite one of all time, however, has to be MWP 3 Viridian Vivillons (which I've managed with Bondie / Elliot - goatered mono community veteran btw). It was my first time managing in a major tournament, my first-ever auction draft (which I started... pretty horribly, but could assemble a pretty decent team as it went by), and I wanted to perform as best as I could given I wanted to, but wasn't selected to manage the MPL before. In the tour proper, we started out in blazing form (7-1 and 6-2 in the first two weeks), but we dropped the ball a bit and only qualified within the last hour of the regular season (it was a huge rollercoaster of emotions, as the last two games mattered and we went from 3-0 to 3-4 on that Sunday). We got knocked out in semifinals tiebreaker, but I think that tour has a soft spot on my heart because it not only felt like my first true major managing experience, but also because it had a super fun teamchat (thanks to mushamu kythr Toadow ToxaNex trash The Number Man maroon gorex and others), and it was the tour I felt the most helpful/active in.
That sounds like a lot of fun, it was a great time teaming up with you in this ongoing mpl! do you have any advice for newer players who want to get more involved in the community?
Once again thank you for your kind words! When managing, I try to make team tour experiences fun, so I'm glad you had a good time. As for advice to newer faces, I would say that the best way to do so is to dive in whatever Monotype has to offer. Participating in circuit tournaments is the most obvious path, but talking in the monotype room and taking part in the variety of room tournaments are definitely ways to improve at the game and to get more involved within the community. Other than that, I don't think there's much I can reccomend but, well, to have fun!
Yeah, being a part of the community outside of the game is a great way to get involved. 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/48cb07f10e08a9aa
I'm a big fan of balanced teams that gravitate more towards offense, so I can have the upper hand against other balanced teams while being able to play it out against offense or HO. I think this BW Normal would be the best representative of what I usually like to play. It is built around physically defensive Togekiss, which I think is super underrated in BW because it is able to pull insane results against some of the top types like Fighting and Psychic while just being super annoying overall. Staraptor is a cool scarfer that can trade against annoying stuff, and Snorlax / Clefable are capable setup sweepers that can also wear down the opposing team mid-game with Body Slam / Thunder paralysis. Chansey sets SR and is the special wall of the team, with the addition of Healing Wish to give one of the wincons a second chance at sweeping/breaking. Tauros ties the team super well as a wallbreaker that has an amazing speed tier for the gen, and is able to do numbers to Steel (which Normal teams usually lose to).
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?
First off a big shoutout to this bum RoyalReloaded for taking his time to register some of the dumbass stuff I wrote, and also for being a big part of Braves this year. Next up I have quite a big list, so here goes:
Nexus - my first friend group in the website once mono moved on from the leagues era. It's quite dead now (mainly because most of us went different ways in regards to tiers and even games) but it is a big reason why I continue playing to this day; you guys were just so much fun to talk to (and team with in that BLT!) that I just ended up staying heh kythr (noob aroma/horizon league cteamer) Floss ToxaNex K3ppr Riku Sakuraba finesse DugZa (hater that wants me banned smh)
NDM Staff and Nyanotype - you guys keep this tier moving forward, and are a big part as to why NDM has been gaining more and more traction. I also enjoy talking w/ all of you about the tier and regular mono too, and my bad if my shitpost levels are too high LOL style.css Neko Sunnyboi0 Ashbala Bka Onon TTK
Mihowk Xiri Trouser Snakes adjustments Toadow hellom pas_touchao tMoi - goatered players that always deliver in team tours whenever we're playing on the same team. also fun guys to hang around with fs
Leafium Z juleocesar Dragon Expert Soma Tico - the big monotype brazilians (except leaf who is small) que eu tive o prazer de ter tido contato nesse tempo todo <3. Muito obrigado pelos papos / conselhos / risadas proporcionadas ao longo dos anos, e desculpem-me pelas vaciladas minhas ao longo do caminho (das quais eu me arrependo pra caralho)
CrossHeart - whether it's about monotype, fighting (games) (which I'm not very seasoned at but you have the patience to explain a lot about), smogon stuff and even other things, I enjoy talking to you as you're a nice guy to talk with. Ty for managing braves and staravias w/ me, and ofc for helping in the whole mono cup run
Jolly Togekiss ^-^ - the most intelligent guy i've met in this website for sure. I can't thank you enough for being the absolute goat in that MPL, and I hope you succeed in whatever you're cooking nowadays (I'm sure it's something special)
mushamu - an absolute goofball and a great guy to talk to. thanks for being such a huge inspiration for teambuilding and I'm glad you're doing well irl, you deserve all the best for what you are <3 Isza - thanks for your support and encouragement throughout the years; it definitely means a lot coming from a veteran like you. I absolutely enjoy your fangirling (for the lack of a better word, I'm sorry :x) whenever I say Braves LOL
Cielau Rinda boomp Fírnen (get well soon!) Dunes crash maroon Attribute ken Ninjamage Elliot Elvira Tenebricite Don Bork UNBR3AKABLE schwipper Splash plunder sapphiree (and others I might have forgotten) - nice guys to hang with that are/were part of my whole journey thru this site and have helped/talked to me And to the reader, thank you for coming this far into the interview :)
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?
First off thanks for having me RoyalReloaded. Hello everyone, I'm Mateeus, aka mono community's resident
lover and best known as one of the leaders of the most successful fairytale tier of all (national dex monotype), and the worst late-game pilot this community has ever seen. I got into Pokemon as a kid by influence of my cousins, with whom I often reunited to trade and battle whenever there was a family reunion. Outside of Pokemon I work as an assistant tutor/teacher, and my hobbies are watching football/soccer (call it as you want, but the first one is objectively correct), cycling, and preparing pastry desserts.Normally I would ask how you got your name, but I think its a bit obvious, so why dont you tell us why staravia is your favorite pokemon?
This one is a loooong ass story to tell. Out of myself and my cousins I was the last one to get a DS back in the day, so I would watch them playing Pokemon and other games whenever they were doing so. In one of these days, I watched one of them (the oldest one of us) more closely and asked which game he was playing. He then told me they were playing Pokemon Platinum, and I asked immediately what it was, receiving an explanation after. When I was watching him playing, he was battling against Staravia, so it was the first Pokemon I identified as a Pokemon proper (since the franchise is huge worldwide and I was like 8 at that time I've probably seen things like Pikachu or Charizard before that incident, but I was unaware they were actual Pokemon). I thought it was pretty well designed, and it made the franchise grow on me. Some months later, when I finally got my DS, my first capture would be a Starly which I evolved all the way to Staraptor, and the whole line grew a lot on me because of how much it carried in my first playthrough of Pearl (yes, I did not have Platinum as my cousins did which was pretty lame LOL. Pearl was still fun, however). Fast forward to some years later when I was getting into Monotype, there was a day where I was lurking on the forums and I saw a project called "Core Laddering Challenge", which was hosted by Sly Mav / Rum & Coke. After reading through it I thought the project was dope, and I immediately wanted to find if there was a Normal (my favorite type, and what made me get into Monotype in the first place) core ongoing or an interesting one that was already done. I then find a core consisting of
+ and I was like "WAIT, I CAN USE BOTH STARAVIA AND STARAPTOR??? HOW IS THIS VIABLE???", and after that, I immediately built a team out. On the first tries it didn't go well at all, but as I refined my team after hundreds of ladder games, I could settle on a team that I thought was comfortable, and then proceededto peak the ladder with it (albeit with a trash 79% gxe LMAO). I have then became known as "the staravia normal guy" (despite not have "invented" it; credits go to the CLC hosts), and I was rather proud of it, to the point Staravia became my favorite Pokemon.lol, that is a pretty good story, and I guess answers the question of how you got into the Monotype community.. Do you have a favorite moment or memory that sticks out from your time on Pokemon Showdown / Smogon?
Throughout the years, this website has left quite the number of memories, both good and bad, I would say. My favorite one would be the most recent Monotype Cup victory (which meant a lot to me even as a person, given I've played this game for 10 years but never won any individual tournament in the forums), but I have a couple of sweet ones that stick to my mind to this day. My earlier ones include peaking ladder for the first time with Staravia, winning Monotype Champions (https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/monotype-382084964) with a lot of people watching to "represent" your type (which early-teens Mateeus thought was super dope), and qualifying as the last seed in the last cycle of a MLT (I think MLT III) and then missing school the following Monday because I was up super late LOL. More recently, the managerial tour wins I've had were all super memorable too, especially the first mono BLT (BLT IV) I managed and won with a team largely consisting of friends from the leagues' days.
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?
Thank you! I'm honored to be answering this, so I definitely do not mind it at all. I believe all of my opponents gave me a run for my money, but the hardest one has to be crash with whom I've had a super exhilarating series against (one where I could've easily lost if some small things didn't go my way), and I legit was pouring once it was done. I didn't really prep in the first two rounds (where I just sorted consistent teams that I was comfortable with enough to pilot), but I did prep SV and SS in the semis vs. Ashbala (where I felt my lack of recent gens knowledge could very well be a weakness), and in the finals vs. Spitfire I watched his replays and loaded what I thought could be the most consistent for each game. Apart from the SV game which I chose as g1, I had two teams for each generation ready there (one if I was ahead in the series, other if behind). As for the generation I've had the most fun playing, that would be a tossup between ORAS and BW. Recent bans have shifted them to a point where there are much more possibilities to explore, which is something I like to see.
That's a really good way of approaching the tournament, not overthinking and just doing what feels best. Speaking of recent bans, if you could ban or unban anything in any Monotype tier, who would it be and why?
The first thing that comes to my mind would be Kommo-o (or its Z-crystal) in SM. I think it gets too overbearing with minimal effort for some types (dark steel poison come to mind, but it can sweep basically anything not named Fairy provided enough chip / support) to the point I think SM Mono would be healthier without it. I believe SM's downside comes to having to account to a lot of things in the builder, and getting rid of Kommo-o would help with that. I would also support a Deoxys-S ban because it is a bullshit mu fishing element, but it's more checkable than Kommo-o so I think the former should be looked at with more attention. I've seen a couple of people complaining about Spectrier in SS as well and honestly I can get behind banning it because I've seen a lot of Spectrier moments as of recently. Otherwise I think all other mono tiers are fine.
I dont have much experience with the old generations but I do know that the Z crystal is super cheap so I can support banning that. Is there a favorite team tournament that you've participated in over the years?
That's a tough question for sure; I think most team tournament experiences I've been a part of were incredibly fun, be it because of good results or because of an active teamchat. My favorite one of all time, however, has to be MWP 3 Viridian Vivillons (which I've managed with Bondie / Elliot - goatered mono community veteran btw). It was my first time managing in a major tournament, my first-ever auction draft (which I started... pretty horribly, but could assemble a pretty decent team as it went by), and I wanted to perform as best as I could given I wanted to, but wasn't selected to manage the MPL before. In the tour proper, we started out in blazing form (7-1 and 6-2 in the first two weeks), but we dropped the ball a bit and only qualified within the last hour of the regular season (it was a huge rollercoaster of emotions, as the last two games mattered and we went from 3-0 to 3-4 on that Sunday). We got knocked out in semifinals tiebreaker, but I think that tour has a soft spot on my heart because it not only felt like my first true major managing experience, but also because it had a super fun teamchat (thanks to mushamu kythr Toadow ToxaNex trash The Number Man maroon gorex and others), and it was the tour I felt the most helpful/active in.
That sounds like a lot of fun, it was a great time teaming up with you in this ongoing mpl! do you have any advice for newer players who want to get more involved in the community?
Once again thank you for your kind words! When managing, I try to make team tour experiences fun, so I'm glad you had a good time. As for advice to newer faces, I would say that the best way to do so is to dive in whatever Monotype has to offer. Participating in circuit tournaments is the most obvious path, but talking in the monotype room and taking part in the variety of room tournaments are definitely ways to improve at the game and to get more involved within the community. Other than that, I don't think there's much I can reccomend but, well, to have fun!
Yeah, being a part of the community outside of the game is a great way to get involved. 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/48cb07f10e08a9aa
I'm a big fan of balanced teams that gravitate more towards offense, so I can have the upper hand against other balanced teams while being able to play it out against offense or HO. I think this BW Normal would be the best representative of what I usually like to play. It is built around physically defensive Togekiss, which I think is super underrated in BW because it is able to pull insane results against some of the top types like Fighting and Psychic while just being super annoying overall. Staraptor is a cool scarfer that can trade against annoying stuff, and Snorlax / Clefable are capable setup sweepers that can also wear down the opposing team mid-game with Body Slam / Thunder paralysis. Chansey sets SR and is the special wall of the team, with the addition of Healing Wish to give one of the wincons a second chance at sweeping/breaking. Tauros ties the team super well as a wallbreaker that has an amazing speed tier for the gen, and is able to do numbers to Steel (which Normal teams usually lose to).
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?
First off a big shoutout to this bum RoyalReloaded for taking his time to register some of the dumbass stuff I wrote, and also for being a big part of Braves this year. Next up I have quite a big list, so here goes:
Nexus - my first friend group in the website once mono moved on from the leagues era. It's quite dead now (mainly because most of us went different ways in regards to tiers and even games) but it is a big reason why I continue playing to this day; you guys were just so much fun to talk to (and team with in that BLT!) that I just ended up staying heh kythr (noob aroma/horizon league cteamer) Floss ToxaNex K3ppr Riku Sakuraba finesse DugZa (hater that wants me banned smh)
NDM Staff and Nyanotype - you guys keep this tier moving forward, and are a big part as to why NDM has been gaining more and more traction. I also enjoy talking w/ all of you about the tier and regular mono too, and my bad if my shitpost levels are too high LOL style.css Neko Sunnyboi0 Ashbala Bka Onon TTK
Mihowk Xiri Trouser Snakes adjustments Toadow hellom pas_touchao tMoi - goatered players that always deliver in team tours whenever we're playing on the same team. also fun guys to hang around with fs
Leafium Z juleocesar Dragon Expert Soma Tico - the big monotype brazilians (except leaf who is small) que eu tive o prazer de ter tido contato nesse tempo todo <3. Muito obrigado pelos papos / conselhos / risadas proporcionadas ao longo dos anos, e desculpem-me pelas vaciladas minhas ao longo do caminho (das quais eu me arrependo pra caralho)
CrossHeart - whether it's about monotype, fighting (games) (which I'm not very seasoned at but you have the patience to explain a lot about), smogon stuff and even other things, I enjoy talking to you as you're a nice guy to talk with. Ty for managing braves and staravias w/ me, and ofc for helping in the whole mono cup run
Jolly Togekiss ^-^ - the most intelligent guy i've met in this website for sure. I can't thank you enough for being the absolute goat in that MPL, and I hope you succeed in whatever you're cooking nowadays (I'm sure it's something special)
mushamu - an absolute goofball and a great guy to talk to. thanks for being such a huge inspiration for teambuilding and I'm glad you're doing well irl, you deserve all the best for what you are <3 Isza - thanks for your support and encouragement throughout the years; it definitely means a lot coming from a veteran like you. I absolutely enjoy your fangirling (for the lack of a better word, I'm sorry :x) whenever I say Braves LOL
Cielau Rinda boomp Fírnen (get well soon!) Dunes crash maroon Attribute ken Ninjamage Elliot Elvira Tenebricite Don Bork UNBR3AKABLE schwipper Splash plunder sapphiree (and others I might have forgotten) - nice guys to hang with that are/were part of my whole journey thru this site and have helped/talked to me And to the reader, thank you for coming this far into the interview :)
~~~
This thread will remain open in case anyone would like to ask Mateeus 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 Mateeus 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!
and 2hkoing mega venusaur/ferro/muk is gigachad behavior 
. I don't think the team is that good nowadays but it is still super fun to play with.
(i would have won that series!!!)
!