Project OM Interviews (#22: Ren)

dhelmise

everything is embarrassing
is a Site Content Manageris a Battle Simulator Administratoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Programmeris a Community Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
Social Media Head
hello kris,

what is the story behind your discord pfp, and why have you kept it for so long?
i think its funny and bc i dont wanna ruin the streak
bingus or floppa, and why?
bingus. self explanatory
opinion on the latest lorde album?
7/10

jigglypuff as seen from above

Why would the Pokemon beat the lions
because the horse's name was friday
 

dhelmise

everything is embarrassing
is a Site Content Manageris a Battle Simulator Administratoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Programmeris a Community Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnus
Social Media Head
Which of the permanent-ladder OMs (AAA, STAB, BH, MnM, NFE, and FFA) do you like the most and why?

Is your love of Among Us ironic or unironic?

How strong of a swimmer are you?

:heart:
1. I'd be better off answering this by saying I'm not the biggest fan of BH because it's not as enjoyable this gen, and I don't play NFE much because it's more "standard". I like them all though.

2. Mostly ironic, though it was really fun back when I played it in Sept. 2020, and I do think the amount of people that make fun of the game is kinda stretched out of proportion.

3. I have a second off of an olympic trials qualifying time in the 100 and 200 LCM butterfly.
 

OM

It's a starstruck world
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Hello and welcome back to OM Interviews! For this round, we've brought in the definition of "first is the worst, second is the best"...



It's Two z!

Hello Two z, and welcome to OM interviews! How are you doing today?

Hello I'm fine, haven't been up to much lately.

Sounds good. Starting off, would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?

Sure thing! I'm an 18 year old who hasn't entirely decided what I'm going to do with my life after graduating this past school year, although I'm currently interested in audio engineering. Currently in the process of looking for a job though, for now usually I'm just trapped inside on a pc/ps4 all day lol.

I feel that tbh. With that though, how did you get into PS & OMs?

Hm, I've been a pokemon fan since the day I got a copy of pokemon black quite a few years ago but I started wanting to play more than just for fun, so then I found Showdown. I think seeing the word "Hackmons" on one of the formats drew me into OM's as a whole seeing as it was different, and after playing a lot of games on the rom side server that I somehow stumbled upon, I began just playing a lot of the OM formats on showdown.

And what are some of your favourite OMs and why?

I think I value a bit of the lesser played OM's a lot as people probably know, Bonus Type has primarily been really fun for me because there's a lot of creativity and synergies you can create with a team by just adding an extra type to any mon. My other favorite is Shared Power and uh...well let's say because combining a whole bunch of abilities together at once causes destruction.

As part of Bonus Type's Council, how do you feel about the meta at the moment? Are there any older builds you'd like to show off for people trying to get into the meta?

I feel the meta is pretty solid at the moment, after getting rid of Kartana and single strike Urshifu who were just super restricting vs teams. I'm a bit conflicted with Kyurem's existence in the meta, as adding Ground to it makes switching into the sub roost set very difficult without very specific checks like Flying Heatran and such and removes its rock weakness. I also think Steel as a typing may be a bit ridiculous, as it offers much more ease in setup mons like Latias, Thundurus-I, Hydreigon, Salamence, etc, with usual counterplay to these mons such as Toxic or priority resisted by Steel (fair amount of them) being ineffective, restricting builds to deal with them.

https://pokepast.es/1b3dd9132e721816 This sample is usually my bread and butter for this format, capitalizes on fat setup with rocker Heatran as a Kyurem check for the team. It lacks speed control, but this team has the capability of sitting on a lot of offensive threats while not being passive.

https://pokepast.es/b70b047f323cc2c1 I also like this offense, which utilizes Flying Zeraora that tears certain teams apart without things like Electric Clefable, and Water Chomp to directly soften Lando for the team.

As well, with Bonus Type comes the OM Spotlight League! With your week 1 match just passing - how have you felt about your team so far?

I really like being a part of UwUrshifu's, we are doing pretty well and have basically already won week 1 so I feel that we are a strong and capable team. Also we have a couple of OM Mashups goons like Don Vascus, Eggs Mcgee, and The Number Man along with other cool teammates so the environment is really fun.


That's great to hear!! Going off experiences, how has your community experiences been so far? Are there any moments you remember fondly?

The community experience has been very good, I've been interacting with a lot of OM players lately and OMSL is probably one of the most fun tours I've been in. Getting into other tours for the more popular formats as well has been nice, along with being a part of the excellent and funny staff. I want to say that getting promoted to mod after my name change on PS! was bizarre to me, but if we are also going off of actual OM moments it's probably ruining every Shared Power room tour with Pigeon's annoying stall team.

Glad to see you're having a good time! Now, as part of the OM community, is there something you'd like to see from OMs in the future?

There's not exactly much I'd like to see actually, I think OM's are progressing at a steadily and healthy rate for what we can do, as I think dexit was a bit rough on a lot of them. Maybe more Community Create A Team projects to immerse new players into the meta and help them get an understanding of how to build teams properly and efficiently, although we may be hosting one for a popular format soon. I'd personally like to see more people try OM Mashups too, as I think people overcomplicate building for those metas, although that's a later topic.

Shifting focus then, how do you feel about OM mashups?

Funnily enough, I've ventured farther into OM Mashups before I did OM itself, I must really say I'm impressed with that community as well, along with being a part of the STAAABmons Council. I'd love to see more tours for the formats as TPP and OM Mashup trios have been really good about highlighting the popular formats in them, maybe even OMMPL eventually, fingers crossed on that one though. The room is a lot of fun and offers a ton of variety when you combine metas together, and the people there are all really chill. I'd love to do more with the room and try to get it more recognized as it really just is a good place to be, even if we are experiencing a bit of a burn out of activity with school starting.

What are some of your favourite mashups, and what are some teams you've built for them?

My favorite by far has been STAAAB (STABmons + Almost Any Ability), and PokeAAAbilities (Pokebilities + Almost Any Ability), I'll go into a bit for both.

https://pokepast.es/0875f2f716787f70 This is the STAAAB team I used in week 3 of TPP, it features a former AAA menace Aerilate Noivern, with an interesting pick that is Triage Heat Rotom. The play here was to bluff Magnet Pull which is often used to support Noivern and sweep an unsuspecting team with priority Parabolic Charge and Giga Drain instead, and thanks to STAB I can rid of the atrocious Overheat and rely on an actually good fire STAB, Blue Flare. There are also other cool adaptations, such as taking AAA's Swampert and giving it Thousand Waves, trapping certain threats and not being weakened by Grassy Glide without having to use High Horsepower and etc.

https://pokepast.es/f6932173402525fe This is a PokeAAAbilities team I used vs The Number Man, in the Trios tour. It feature's some pretty cool things, like Garchomp being able to punish physical attackers extremely hard due to Rocky Helmet + Rough Skin, but also switching into them repeatedly through a match due to having Regenerator as well. Or Sigilyph's ability to invalidate resists to wallbreak and annoy passive fat mons due to a combination of Magic Guard, Adaptability, and Tinted Lens. Lot's of pretty cool tech's fitted onto one team in my opinion.

Awesome! Moving on, is there something you see yourself doing in OMs in the future?

Apart from modding the room and potentially leading/developing a new OM myself, not much but I am always interested in helping with anything that comes up if I have the time for it.

For our penultimate question, are there any shoutouts you'd like to make?

I'd like to shoutout the community for being so awesome, as well as the mashups community, as well as the natdex community, postwick pults, uwurshifus, etc, but most importantly tnm for being better than me and inspiring me to build differently, cool guy when he's not beating me in like every friendly.

Finally, anything you'd like to say to the readers?

not really

Feel free to ask 23Gz questions below!
 

Byleth

Retirement
why would u change names.
Thought you'd never ask, Flaming Deoxys! I uh, grew out of the 23Gz phase cus it was linked to the rapper 22Gz and I don't want my name to be after a rapper anymore so I'm just doing me now, no matter how many people mock me for the new name change.

baguette

What do you do with a drunken sailor earliegh in the morning?

How many other "Gz"s /"z”s are there?

Favorite artist/artists?
1. WAY HAY AND UP SHE RISES

2. there are 23 other Gz's and Two z's I'm guessing you've seen me alt spam 21Gz, 24Gz, 23GzAlt, 21Gz Alt, etc. All I can say is that there are many, stay safe out there y'all.

3. I don't even really have any to be extremely honest, as for cool one's people prob know about here, playboi carti, jcole, kendrick (huge rap fan). A friend has put me on Lorde though, she's been pretty amazing.


why am i your most favorite user
R.gif

(coder sus)

would you consider yourself a girlboss? thanks in advance!
of course bestieee :)

What are your thoughts on pyukumuku haha…
ur mom lol (unviable natdex mon yuck totally not raging while typing this just use anything other than pyuk thank you)


why did you free clefable in pokeaaa, also what is your favorite underdeveloped/unknown mashup?
lolz.jpg

tumblr_m6mugz07Lt1qd87hlo1_500.gif

Hm, I gotta say trademarked pokebilities is extremely fun, but that's mainly because you keep abilities on top of firing off a funny status move, need I say more define special breakers (pokepast.es)? Free pokebilities? FREE CLEF???


Favorite music genre other than rap?
Favorite fast food place?
Favorite perma ladder OM?
Do you have any pets?
1. I haven't put too much time into other genre's, but dubstep/edm is never bad to listen to. Can even go for rock on a good day, although don't really know the artists.
2. Popeyes. Chicken. Sandwich. Nobody does it better.
3. I think I'm better at STABmons, but I've always had a soft spot for AAA. Need to relearn it again, as I haven't dedicated myself to it nearly as much as I did before Crown Tundra..
4. Not anymore :(
 

pannu

THE GONG OF KNOCKOUT
is a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Social Media Contributor Alumnus
hey dude, i need some national dex overused team building advice innit. so im using this stall team, but i lose pretty hard to Manaphy, so i think i need an unaware mon? but i cant think of any water-type resists that have unaware, can you think of any? my teams also mmedi weak so no fighting weaks pls
 

Byleth

Retirement
someone other than pannu finally

hey dude, i need some national dex overused team building advice innit. so im using this stall team, but i lose pretty hard to Manaphy, so i think i need an unaware mon? but i cant think of any water-type resists that have unaware, can you think of any? my teams also mmedi weak so no fighting weaks pls
shedinja cuz wonder guard is unaware if set up mons cant hit gg wp outplayed !!!


Do you like crocs?

Favorite album this year?

Favorite month?

Hot or cold?

Hot N Cold by Katy Perry?

Give me a heat STAB set

what does two z mean the audience wants to know
1. i have never really worn crocs myself however I just came from a school full of people with these things and i don't mind them, i think they're p cool

2. i would be lying if i didnt say call me if u get lost. clb and donda are jus a tad bit overrated and i haven't rly listened to much this year outside of those.

3. this is gonna have to be a hard june, i love summer and being free from school is just !!!

4. I come from Chicago where it was really chilly and am now in Arizona where it is incredibly TOASTY...I think I'll vibe w the heat because it leaves me downing about 6 bottles of water a day and I love water.

5. i used to sing this when i was little lol love this song its cute

6. i'm tired and not too well versed in stab but we're gonna do something with that

Volcanion @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 248 HP / 44 SpA / 216 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Steam Eruption
- Earth Power
- Toxic

just heatran but traps av pex and looks like it disturbs the meta looks annoying to switch into, idk im realy tired lol

7. i wnna go by two but obviously that was taken so i added a z in my name cause z moves r cool and its pretty simple and thats about all. although if u look up 2z on the internet you'll find a kpop band and "lil 2z" so that's great.
 

OM

It's a starstruck world
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Hello and welcome back to OM interviews! For this round, we've brought in the incredible, aggrandizing, powerful type...


Hello iapt and welcome to OM Interviews! How are you doing today?

im doing pretty good, how are you?

I'm good, thanks! Starting off, tell us a but about yourself!

I am a 17 year old high school senior currently living in New York. I plan to go to college for some type of engineering after I graduate. I have 2 cats and 1 dog and like reading, playing video games and listening to music

And how did you get into PS and OMs?

I was introduced to PS by a friend as a way to pass the time during class, played almost exclusively randbats for a while and never joined any chatrooms. Eventually, I branched out a bit and started playing usum ubers where i basically spammed geoxern the entire time. I didnt play PS much for a while but when I came back, Mix and Mega caught my eye in the format list. I ended up asking around in some chat rooms and was directed to OMs. I started out with just MnM for a while, then branched out. I started really talking more probably around march or april and was promoted to voice and then driver, and thats where I am today. (edited)

And what are your favorite OMs / OMMs? What do you like about them?

My first and favorite OM is definitely Mix and Mega. I was a huge fan of megas during usum and the fact that they got removed in swsh kinda bummed me out. also the idea of being able to mega more than one mon in a battle was really cool to me. I started out just spamming weird HO on the ladder until I started talking about it more in the OM room where someone told me about -ate speed. I really like AAA and STAB as well, the creative freedom there is super near and i always like getting randomly surprised on ladder. Some other fun ones i havent played a ton are camo, scale, 350, gg and inverse. I also really enjoy inheritance, and have been playing a ton of it the past month, both for prepping for omsl and for fun. As for OMMs, I think staaab is super neat, but i regrettably have not gotten super far into learning it

And how has your OMs experience been? Played in any tours you've enjoyed?

Ive had a ton of fun being a part of the community, really enjoy the OM room. So far, despite my very lackluster performances, OMSL has been very fun, my first team tour on smogon. I enjoyed playing in the mnm ssnl, where i believe i got to top 16. Overall, its been a great experience.

Let's go a bit further into OMSL! How has your experience on the team been, and what's your favorite part about playing been?

So far, my teammates have been great despite the fact that we haven't had great records. Everyone on the team is very nice and everyone seems very skilled. Beauts has been amazing, has built a bunch of teams for all the different metas, been very active and supportive. My favorite part about playing has been the competition. I am, by nature, a competitive person, so having the chance to win something that has a meaning has been super fun, even if i havent always been up to the challenge.

That sounds good! Moving along, what are some good community moments you've had since joining OMs?

I think that the community interaction with some of the upper om staff is really good. The CCATs that happen every once in a while are great ways to get the community more involved in metagames, especially lesser explored ones. I also really enjoy interacting with the people that come through the om room, especially when you keep seeing their name for a while and then they become a reg. A lot of the om room regs are really great and im glad they still hang out with us

Is there anything you'd like to do or see in OMs in the future?

Honestly, right now, I think OMs are in a great state. The one thing that would be amazing is if there was more activity in the main perma ladder OM threads and even some of the lesser known ones. For me personally, I hope to help inspire that activity a bit, which ive tried to do for mnm, and continue staffing the room and the discord.

Shifting focus, what are some of your other hobbies?

I like to read, generally fantasy, sci fi or mystery, but I have been reading some horror a bit more lately, with a few Stephen King works for school and for fun. I like listening to music, mostly rock and country, which ive been told is weird for being from the north. I play soccer and lacrosse for my school and have a lot of fun playing both. For other video games i play outside of mons, I enjoy shooter games like overwatch, halo, apex legends, rainbow 6 and battlefield as well as some other things like dead by daylight, rocket league and sports games like FIFA and NHL.

What are some of your favorite songs?

Oh boy. This one is kinda tough because i like so many. Some favorites I have out of my most played playlist are TNT by AC/DC, Holy Diver by Dio, Poison by Alice Cooper, I Hold On by Dierks Bentley, 1985 by Bowling for Soup, We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel, More Than a Feeling by Boston and Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day.

Sick. Next off, can you pick one of your old teams and go over how you look at your team building process?

sure!

https://pokepast.es/8f7b0555e2cd62cb this is a more recent team that ive built for mnm, but still probably a month or two old at this point. generally when i build teams, i try to either build a defensive core or an offensive core first. in this case, the defensive came first. manectite mew was something that i was a fan of at the time (and still am) since its a solid check to a lot of physical attackers and can support your breakers by future sight + pivoting them in. Rhyp is the special tank in the team and the rocker, but can also put pressure on more passive mons that might be switched in. Corv is your average pivot + defogger. Xerneas was something that seemed very strong so i wanted to mess around with it. Eleki is there because eleki is just an incredible mon and good speed control. water shifu is another fun breaker that can get through a lot as well as pivot. This is a decent team that i think ive won a couple roomtours with and had fun using and building

Awesome! Penultimately, are there any shoutouts you'd like to make?

yeah absolutely. First and foremost, the entirety of OM staff for being 1. very helpful and knowledgable when it comes to oms and ps in general and 2. being great people overall. To the Black Magic Basculegions for drafting me and being a great group of people despite the fact we haven't had the best performances during OMSL. I would also like to shoutout lobby staff for being another great group of people that have the courage to take care of lobby every day. Also, a personal shoutout to UnnerfTalonflame for being an amazing guy, and someone who is always willing to talk and to play a few games of mons. Finally, I'd like to thank you, OM, for giving me this interview.

Finally, anything you'd like to say to our readers?

Uh, feel free to ask me any questions below and always remember, mons isnt life, so take a break if you feel you need it. Hope you enjoyed reading and sorry for the walls of text lol

Feel free to ask more questions below!
 

UT

Roaring 20s, tossing pennies in the pool
is a Site Content Manageris a Top Team Rateris a Battle Simulator Administratoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Appeals + C&C Lead
When did you realize you weren’t pretty trash but actually pretty awesome?

What type of engineering do you want to do? And you should go to college in Texas (that’s not a question).

What’s your favorite sci fi series? Fantasy?

What’s your favorite Taylor Swift song?

What’s the secret to being the youngest OM staff meme we? How can I be as good a driver as you?

What’s your favorite Pokémon? ~~and why is it Talonflame~~
 
Last edited:

iapt

the unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley
is a Tiering Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
When did you realize you weren’t pretty trash but actually pretty awesome?
Good question, may be still up for debate.

What type of engineering do you want to do? And you should go to college in Texas (that’s not a question).
I'm interested in environmental and chemical engineering, but I like most types. Unfortunately, all of the colleges I'm looking at are in New York or Pennsylvania.

What’s your favorite sci fi series?
This isn't a series, but I really enjoyed Ready Player One and its probably up there for favorite books I've read recently

Either the magnus chase series or the older thrawn Star Wars books (if those count as fantasy idrk)

What’s your favorite Taylor Swift song?
Probably Mean, havent listened to her in years, definitely not since the transition from country to pop

What’s the secret to being the youngest OM staff meme we? How can I be as good a driver as you?
start early ig? I'll lyk when i become as good a driver as you :heart:

What’s your favorite Pokémon?
I really love both samurott and dialga, i cant really pick a favorite
 

hayedenn

forgotten me already?
is a Community Contributoris a Contributor to Smogon
Why is Drampa your favorite Pokemon?
Should GameFreak free Boomburst on Drampa so it can bless every OM?
Favorite tv show atm?
Favorite superhero movie/tv show (DC or Marvel)?
Worst Taylor Swift song?
Favorite tier you've ever played (any generation)?
Favorite non-ladder OM and why?
Most proud Smogon achievement?
 

iapt

the unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley
is a Tiering Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Why is Drampa your favorite Pokemon?
Very cool and strong, also has an amazing movepool and is fun on tr

Should GameFreak free Boomburst on Drampa so it can bless every OM?
Absolutely!

Favorite tv show atm?
Just started Squid game, i've heard a lot of good things and am excited for it

Favorite superhero movie/tv show (DC or Marvel)?
For Marvel: Movie: probably guardians 1 or infinity war TV show: Agents of Shield
For DC: Movie: liked Aquaman and Batman v Superman TV show: The Flash

Worst Taylor Swift song?
I am no great Taylor Swift connoseuir, but the first link on google says "Me!"

Favorite tier you've ever played (any generation)?
Gen 5 ou was fun af when the speed boosting abilities were still legal but gen 8 mnm comes close

Favorite non-ladder OM and why?
I wont include the current lcotm and omotm here, and inh and gg since they were so recent, so its probably cross evolution. I think its a super cool mechanic and you can make tons of fun mons

Most proud Smogon achievement?
Dont have a lot of these, but making top 16 in the most recent mnm seasonal was pretty cool
 

UT

Roaring 20s, tossing pennies in the pool
is a Site Content Manageris a Top Team Rateris a Battle Simulator Administratoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Tiering Contributor Alumnus
Appeals + C&C Lead
What’s the most impressive trick your dog can do?

Can your cats do any tricks?

I just watched Ted Lasso, can you explain what a False Nine is?

Thoughts on the two point line in lacrosse?

If a mega stone had Regen, but also added Bug type, would you use it? And on what?
 

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