NU Player of the Week - Hootie [week 1]

[Earth]

Approved by Kiyo​

Hootie
Favorite Pokémon: Hydreigon
Most used Pokémon: Golbat
Most known for: Being a C&C guy who people probably think doesn't play pokemon :p
​

Earth: Hey, Hootie! How are you doing today?
Hootie: I'm doing fine, but I think I woke up a bit too late today as usual.

Earth: How did you come up with the name Hootie?
Hootie: The username Hootie comes from it being my irl nickname, which I got because I was born much later into my family and a couple of my parents friends said something along the lines of "that's a hoot!". That and my parents also listened to the band "Hootie and the Blowfish" at the time so it just kinda stuck. It's kinda corny, but I wanted to go with a username that'd I'd feel more familiar on this site haha.

Earth: That's a very cool backstory! You have also been recently promoted to NU Tier Leader, congratulations! How does it feel?
Hootie: It's pretty exciting! Really hoping to move NU in a good direction alongside Kiyo and I'm very thankful that the position was offered to me in the first place.

Earth: Speaking of NU, what made you want to get into that tier? What attracted you?
Hootie: I orginally got into NU because I used to ladder in lower tiers with an old friend, astroboy. During the time I joined, ORAS NU was undergoing a suspect for both Mega Camerupt and Typhlosion so I decided to ladder with astroboy so that we can both get reqs and vote for the first time. When I was laddering I enjoyed a lot of the Pokemon that were in the tier. A lot of the time I was on ladder I was using some bad Kricketune Webs team that ended up cheesing some wins. I played other lower tiers like UU and RU around the same time, but none of them really stuck with me for long. Then I met some other friends early on like Luck O' the Irish, shaneghoul, and metaphysical (now rozes) that got me sticking with the community.

Earth: Cool. Who are some of your favorite people on Smogon? Are there any players you look up to?
Hootie: I don't know where to start there o_o. If I had to pick, everyone on the OU QC team are all good friends and I couldn't ask for a more fun group of people to be a part of. As far as NU dudes goes there's a lot, but boltsandbombers is really nice guy that I have to thank for me getting as far as I did on here. As far as NU players I look up to, starting out I used to look up to users like Realistic Waters, Finchinator, and both the tier leaders at the time (Raseri and ryan).

Earth: You're also known for being the most expensive player in NUPL V. Do you feel some kind of pressure because of that?
Hootie: Yeah I feel a little bit of pressure because I feel as though I'm expected to do well in pretty much every week, but I don't feel bad about it really because in the end it's just NUPL and it's all for fun. Being more expensive than Waters is kinda crazy to me too since I used to and still do feel he's one of NU's best. Still blame rozes and Kiyo for making my pricetag so high since they both wanted me on their team so bad.

Earth: Who are some new users that have potential to become great players / contributors in the NU community, in your opinion?
Hootie: I don't have too much in mind, but I feel like Garay Oak has some potential to be a really good NU player going by how well he did in his first NUPL match vs Poek and him destroying me in some test games :P. As far as contributors go, PursuitOfHappiny and quziel have popped in the community fairly recently during late ORAS and I think both will be great contributors in the future going by their posts on the forums.

Earth: What are your thoughts on the current metagame?
Hootie: Despite some of the hate certain Pokemon get, namely Machamp, Sneasel, and Meloetta I love the current metagame. This is probably my favorite iteration of NU next to the days when Sawk, Uxie, and Fletchinder were all around in ORAS (this was after Sneasel and Gallade got banned too). A lot of people make claim that you cannot be creative in this tier, especially in regards to balance, but the more teams I've build for NUPL/NU Open the more I realize how many options there are for Pokemon to use that have more niche uses. I don't mean to give off the impression that this metagame is perfect either, I still believe there's a few things in the tier that are a problem, Sneasel and Meloetta being the two I think do not belong in the tier and the whole Aurora Veil issue that should be looked at on its own instead of being on the slate with other Pokemon because it's a very unique issue that should be analyzed closer. Despite the few grievances I have, I find this tier quite playable and easy to get into. I encourage many starting out in this tier to come in with an open mind and try out the plethora of Pokemon this tier has to offer.

Earth: Great to know how you feel about the tier. What are some underrated Pokemon right now, in your opinion?
Hootie: As Stealth Rockers I feel that both Uxie and Piloswine are really underrated atm the because Uxie offers so many options and sits at a good Speed tier, while Piloswine is really good for being one of the rare Ice-resistant Pokemon in the tier (Water-types don't really count since the most common Ice-types are Freeze-Dry users). People need to stop using Steelix so often on their teams because chances are your team may not need Steelix as much as you think it does. I also think Pokemon like Scyther, its Choice Scarf set in particular, is a pretty underrated revenge killer because outpaces a of common Scarfers like Rotom-C, Hitmonlee, Emboar, and Sawk and revenge kills the likes of Virizion and Sceptile while also being able to pivot into them if necessary. It does all of that while still not being a momentum drain because of U-turn which is a quality that's really nice for any offense/balance team to have.

Earth: Okay, let's talk about stuff that's not related to Pokemon for a bit! Could you tell us a bit about yourself in real life?
Hootie: Sure! I'm a 21 year-old college student that's majoring in Chemistry going on my 4th year, though I'm likely going to attend another year because I switched to Biology one year (and absolutely hated it) so I am technically a year behind in the Chemistry courses I have to take. I'm not too certain yet if this is the path I wanted to go, but I've been doing well with it so might as well roll with something while I'm still young! As far as hobbies go, I really love to play videogames in general. Besides Pokemon obviously, I've played many game franchises over the years such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Megaman, Castlevania, Metroid, Final Fantasy and so on. I can seriously be here all day listing out all that I've played during my entire life. I'm also a pretty big fan of anime too and some of my favorite series are Hunter x Hunter, Monster, and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Earth: I was also wondering, what kind of music do you listen to? Could you name some of your favorite artists?
Hootie: I probably don't listen to music as much as most people do, but a few bands that I'm a fan of are Gorillaz, Daft Punk, and Imagine Dragons. I can't really think of a particular song that I like the most from each of them, there's a lot of songs that I could pick as favorites from each of them D:

Earth: Let's go back to mons now! Do you have any favorites to win for NU Open?
Hootie: I'm mostly rooting for Finchinator, meeps, TDK and blunder to win which all very well could due to all of them being very good tour players, but I'm also rooting for a couple of my friends, Disjunction and Kiyo to win too!

Earth: Is there any life advice you'd like to share with us?
Hootie: Not really one to give advice on this sort of thing, but if there's one thing I advise people to do it's to have fun and make to most of life while you can, enjoying doing what you want to do most, especially while many of us are still young n_n

Earth: Lastly, could you provide us a SM NU team and give a brief explanation about it?
Hootie:

import

Delphox @ Firium Z
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Calm Mind
- Fire Blast
- Psychic
- Grass Knot

Sceptile @ Choice Specs
Ability: Overgrow
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Giga Drain
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Rotom-Mow @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Leaf Storm
- Trick

Hariyama @ Assault Vest
Ability: Thick Fat
EVs: 252 Atk / 240 SpD / 16 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Close Combat
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- Fake Out

Golbat @ Eviolite
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 252 HP / 64 Def / 136 SpD / 56 Spe
Careful Nature
- Defog
- Brave Bird
- Taunt
- Roost

Steelix @ Leftovers
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 136 Atk / 120 SpD
Brave Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Gyro Ball
- Earthquake
- Toxic

This is the team I brought in NUPL week 3 that revolved around the whole idea with breaking down teams with Delphox so that either Sceptile or Scarf Rotom-C can clean up in the late game. Originally I had Rotom, but I found that the team was too pressured by bulky Water-types, so I went with Grass spam and it worked wonderfully in supporting Delphox, punishing the likes of Slowking, Slowbro, and Vaporeon. The rest of the team is a semi-standard defensive backbone that covers most of the threats the first three are weak to, Hariyama being particularily crucial for the likes of Houndoom and Sneasel. Golbat is a good Pokemon and is the tier's best Defogger, while Steelix is there to provide crucial Flying- and Psychic-type resists.

Thanks for your time, Hootie! If you guys have any questions for him, feel free to ask them directly in this thread!

 

[SPACE FORCE meeps]

who do you fuckin hate in smogon

whos the shittiest player uve played

 

[StarBlim]

What mon in your opinion is the most overated in Nu currently?

 

[lolbro]

best eurobalance player/builder(gens 5-7)?

 

[Disjunction]

why are you adverse to answering question?

 

[Garay oak]

Thanks for what u said :D
There goes my question: Which one do u think is the best playstyle currently in SM NU and why?

 

[Eternal Spirit]

when are you gonna ban aurora veil

 

[Pearl]

thoughts on the disappearance of rozes :[

i crai everytime ;_;

 

[Poek]

thoughts on me

 

[Hootie]

who do you fuckin hate in smogon

whos the shittiest player uve played

I think Finchinator is both my most hated user and the shittiest one I've played

What mon in your opinion is the most overated in Nu currently?

Virizion

best eurobalance player/builder(gens 5-7)?

I hate eurobalance sigh, but if i had to choose probably Teddeh for ORAS. Can't comment on gen 5 since I haven't played the tier and I'm pretty sure I've seen like 0 eurobalance in SM lol.

if you weren't co-nutl, who else would you want it to be? same with C&C

are there any mons in higher tiers that you really want for nu, and is there any mons that you think will drop and be broken?

worst gen of nu?

Hmm I'd probably want to be - OUTL like my good friend TDK, but I don't think I'm good enough in OU to deserve that position.

The one mon I'd love for RU to drop is Blastoise because I believe all the spinners in NU are really inconsistent and having bulky water fulfill that role would make teambuilding a bit easier.

Considering I've only played ORAS and SM, I'd probably pick ORAS because the metagame was really bland towards the end.

why are you adverse to answering question?

It has only been a day SIGH!!

Thanks for what u said :D
There goes my question: Which one do u think is the best playstyle currently in SM NU and why?

The best playstyle is bulky offense easily. There's so many good breakers to use in NU and having things like Machamp, Delphox, Houndoom, and non-Scarf Emboar backed up by a defensive backbone is effective in just about every matchup.

when are you gonna ban aurora veil

Soon™

thoughts on the disappearance of rozes :[

i crai everytime ;_;

I miss rozes since he was one of the first friends I made in NU. I hope he returns at some point :(

thoughts on me

You're a nice guy, good player, and have cute anime avatars.

 

[Finchinator]

will i ever hit 3k posts?
how hard are you trying to avoid becoming the next gay super mod who is not actually good at pkmn?
viability of raticate-alola on a scale from: 1-2999?
do you ever feel like a butterfly drifting through the wind wanting to start again?
why the FUCK is your webs team so disgusting holy shit fuck off kid
thoughts on the expert utilization of the move baton pass in a competitive environment and why you happened to temporarily excel in this setting

ok more serious q

what're the top 5 electric types in NU (in order), in your opinion, and why
favorite playstyle that isn't bulky-offense (everyone says tht as the cop-out answer) and why
favorite old generation metagame and why
top three Pokemon you would like to see drop from RU to NU

even more serious q

You're known predominantly as a newer generation lower tier player and this is unquestionable. However, it is true that you've dabbled somewhat in BW OU and I know you played throughout generation six. What have you learned about the game, on a fundamental level, that can be applied to every generation and playing in general from the time spent in older generations and do you feel this has changed your outlook or gameplay in any way in newer generations/universally as a competitive Pokemon player?

Do you think that, so far, you have done our job well as an NU council member (speaking strictly from a generation seven perspective)? Do you think the council should have more power than it currently does in the later stages of the metagame? Do you think that being a tier leader will pose a great challenge to you or be within your grasp?

If you could remove any one element -- be it a Pokemon, move, mechanic, etc. -- from the ORAS NU and/or SM NU metagame without any questions or consequences, that you could not justify removing as NUTL, what would it be and why?

even more seriously serious srs q

jej?

 

[Raseri]

what type of condiment do you like on your hot dogs

would you rather ban knock off or ban swagger

 

[Hootie]

will i ever hit 3k posts?
how hard are you trying to avoid becoming the next gay super mod who is not actually good at pkmn?
viability of raticate-alola on a scale from: 1-2999?
do you ever feel like a butterfly drifting through the wind wanting to start again?
why the FUCK is your webs team so disgusting holy shit fuck off kid
thoughts on the expert utilization of the move baton pass in a competitive environment and why you happened to temporarily excel in this setting

You've hit 3k many times, you're just hiding the truth.
Trying very hard actually.
1800
what.
Because I'm good
Baton Pass is a difficult tool for one to wield and I trained very hard in the ways of full BP chains in BW OU to get where I am now.

what're the top 5 electric types in NU (in order), in your opinion, and why
favorite playstyle that isn't bulky-offense (everyone says tht as the cop-out answer) and why
favorite old generation metagame and why
top three Pokemon you would like to see drop from RU to NU

Rotom-C, Rotom, Vikavolt, Rotom-F, Raichu-Alola. Rotom-C is obviously the best due to its Grass STAB making it that much harder to prevent it from pivoting around. It's probably a contender for an S rank mon down the line because it's really hard to stop the Specs set from doing serious amounts of damage or causing the opposing side to forfeit momentum. Rotom is a very underrated Pokemon in the current meta and its typing is still great defensively and offensively like always. Z Hex sets are very unexplored and underused. Vikavolt is good just by the sheer amount of power it provides and having a decent dual STAB and typing to punish Steelix. Being slow and stealth rock weak all while having admittedly average bulk are big downsides though. Rotom-F has great boltbeam stab and subzero slammer sets are really good, typing is not so good defensively though, even worse than Vikavolts. Raichu-Alola I have more limited experience with, but its speed tier is nice and the exclusive Z move can be a pain in the ass to switch into if the user times it correctly. It's massive Pursuit bait with the typing and horrid defense though.

Offense because I prefer playstyles that reward players for making good reads. The games using offense also tend to be more fast paced which I love. Stuff like Aurora Veil offense and Webs are all very viable and good playstyles that matchup well against most teams. I also prefer to build offensive teams because team building feels a little less linear than bulky offense's typical two breakers, one scarfer, two pivots, and a wincon.

BW OU is easily my favorite oldgen metagame just because it was the gen I started getting into competitive mons and doing decently on ladder back then. The whole aspect of weather wars, trying to limit hazards using teams without hazard control, and all the types of Pokemon that I find fun to use (Breloom, Toxicroak, Volcarona) just make the tier kinda click with me.

Blastoise, Frosslass, and Aerodactyl in that order. First provides a good spinner to the tier, second is a cool spikes setter that gives offense some more choices, and last can be nice for balance/offense builds as a fast revenge killer to a lot of Pokemon in NU.

You're known predominantly as a newer generation lower tier player and this is unquestionable. However, it is true that you've dabbled somewhat in BW OU and I know you played throughout generation six. What have you learned about the game, on a fundamental level, that can be applied to every generation and playing in general from the time spent in older generations and do you feel this has changed your outlook or gameplay in any way in newer generations/universally as a competitive Pokemon player?

Do you think that, so far, you have done our job well as an NU council member (speaking strictly from a generation seven perspective)? Do you think the council should have more power than it currently does in the later stages of the metagame? Do you think that being a tier leader will pose a great challenge to you or be within your grasp?

If you could remove any one element -- be it a Pokemon, move, mechanic, etc. -- from the ORAS NU and/or SM NU metagame without any questions or consequences, that you could not justify removing as NUTL, what would it be and why?

Probably the thing that I've learned is that generally knowledge about teambuilding applies a lot of the same things to lower tiers as it does OU. The reason I say this is that a lot of playstyles that work in OU generally have similar frameworks in any lower tier, it just depends on the state the metagame is in to determine which playstyle is best. Having played competitive mons for over 5 years now I can say that learning lower tiers has probably made me a more creative player now than I was before just by the fact that playing a lower tier itself is trying something new, so naturally you'll be more open to different types of Pokemon. This has kinda opened up things for OU too, though I will say that I don't consider myself a really creative OU player or anything of the sort.

I would like to think that I've done a good job so far as council. With bans I've tried my best trying to stay in the middle, more so leaning towards a conservative approach to voting (as can be seen from my 2/7 things I chose to be banned from the last slate). Council already has a ton of power by deciding what gets nommed and being able to freely vote ban on Pokemon they feel are too much for the metagame. Any more power would be way too much in my eyes, whether it's late in the metagame or not. I think tier leader will pose a bit of challenge initially, but I don't doubt that Kiyo will guide me a bit along the way and things will get easier. As council, I've been very dedicated from the start and will keep that up moving forward.

I'm not really sure if there's an element in the tier obnoxious enough for me to think of removing if I could. Last gen I would say Knock Off, but the addition of z moves has toned down the move quite a bit (as an example, Knock Off is not nearly as free of a play on Sneasel as it used to be).

jej?

jej

what type of condiment do you like on your hot dogs

would you rather ban knock off or ban swagger

Ketchup

Swagger.

 

[Hootie]

favorite holiday and why?

are u a windows up or windows down kinda guy while driving?

favorite z-move name? (subzero slammer, gigavolt havoc, etc)

cats or dogs? (if you say cats i hate you)

would you rather fail something or never attempt it in the first place?

if you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?

Halloween because I love the theme of it and dressing up in costumes is always fun (though I haven't done so for about 3 years D:). Also can always appreciate free candy lol. Christmas is overrated.

Windows up

Supersonic Skystrike

Dogs easily

I would rather fail at something because failing in the end is always a learning experience whereas doing nothing gives nothing of value and isn't productive when we only have so much time to live as is.

Make the cost of living more reasonable. Right now with how high tuition is for college (especially for private schools) and comparatively how low wages people make in general, making the cost of living cheaper would be much less of a strain on people to spend money paying off a mortgage plus college loans all at once. Planning a future career can be hard and even when getting a degree it can be difficult to find a well paying job without having some sort of connections prior besides attending a university. There's a reason people are leaving their parent's household later than usual, getting married and starting a family much later at time goes on, etc.