Welcome to the SS OU Player Interviews! The aim of the project is to feature conversations with some of the biggest names in the tier to try to learn more about them.
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Lopunny Kicks
Favourite Pokemon: Clefable
Most used Pokemon (outside of Clefable in SS OU): Clefable in SM OU
Most known for: One of the most consistent and proficient current gen OU players, OST XV Runner up, OU Council member, WCOP 2020 Champion
Hey Punny, how are you doing today?
sup, doing great today, enjoying my last days of vacations, thank you for asking
That's nice to hear
So to start things off, we all know you're from Italy, but could you tell us a bit more about yourself outside of Smogon?
sure. I am 17yo (turning 18 soon), studying in high school. Im not 100% sure about what I'll do after high school, but planning on becoming a doctor. In my free time outside of mons I like hanging out with friends, watching tv shows/anime, playing other games and listening to music.
oo a doctor. That sounds like a great goal. It's a long road, but I'm sure you can do it
Hopefully the quarantine ends soon since it's changed how everything works now
yeah, it will be hard for sure, especially because in Italy you have to pass a test to be able to study medicine. As for the quarantine we have been freed since May now, and its been pretty alright for us.
Good luck with that
Anyways, how did you get into competitive pokemon, and what's your favorite part about Pokemon in general?
I always played pokemon with my older brother, we used to play pokemon platinum when we were younger. After some time a friend of his told him about Pokemon Showdown and we started playing a bit. After playing for almost a year I took a break, because I only played on ladder without joining any chat (I didn't know the italian chat existed) so I got a bit bored playing it alone. I started playing again a year later I think, discovering the italian room and then the whole italian community, then joined smogon in 2016 and started playing constantly. My favorite part about Pokemon is for sure building, I love creating sets that I think could work and see them work. I also love ev'ing pokemons to be able to tank specific stuff.
Ah that's nice. Building is for sure one of the more enjoyable parts for me too. How do you feel about building in Gen 8 OU?
Im starting to like it quite a bit. I didn't like the tier at all before the DLC drops, felt like it was pretty boring, however I like it more now, so I've been building a lot more. Building in gen8 is for sure not easy right now, there are lots of things to cover that also have multiple movesets like Volcarona and Urshifu, but I believe there is room for creativity, which is the most important part when you build
Yeah the DLC definitely brought some new life to the tier. OLT's already been full of new mons and sets. Speaking of creativity, what would you say was an important key to Team Italy's success in WCOP 2020?
I think what made our run so dominant were the teams we brought. We did not prep for opponents specifically, we just brought consistent teams and played them to the best of our ability, and that really payed off
That's really cool considering how dominant you guys were from start to finish. I'm sure it was a lot of fun. How does it feel to finally have your first trophy?
Like I said in my shoutouts post, this WCoP was the trophy we all really wanted compared to every other. We knew we were a really good group of friends already because of FILO GANG, but we wanted to have a trophy together, and this was our only possibility. I was really close to my first trophy with OST last year, but I'm really glad that this is my first trophy instead.
Winning together with your closest friends sounds like one of the best things that can happen as a player, so I'm glad y'all were able to achieve that. I'm sure it'll be something special you'll remember for a long time.
How do you feel about tournaments after winning your first one? Do you have extra motivation to continue winning in the near future, or do you feel a bit at ease and wouldn't mind relaxing for a bit?
This win was amazing for me, and I don't think winning another tour will be as satisfying as this one, but I am motivated to win other tournaments for sure. I just like the game in general and I think that if you like the game the motivation follows naturally
That's good to hear
I'm looking forward to seeing what you do next
Are you excited for Snake?
I am really excited, yes. Snake was my first official tour besides WCoP so I really like the tour. I also like my team a lot
That's nice
How do you feel about OLT this year? How was your run? Congrats on qualifying again this year!
I think this OLT is a lot different than last years, at least for me. I am not really proud of my run, I think that if cycle 2 was more active I wouldn't have been able to qualify, just because I was really lazy to play, like I said in the last hours of the cycle. I ended up playing 1 more game though, because I was really close so I felt that it'd be stupid to throw all my work. One thing that for sure did not motivate me to play is the fact that you cannot hide games anymore. I think it's great for the spectators, but terrible for who plays. It makes sniping really easy (in fact john W used some weird stuff that worked because it was made specifically for that opponent) and thats for sure not great for who tries to qualify. The bot also means that everyone knows your sets and can take advantage of them while playing, unless you plan on changing team in the last days, which is still pretty annoying to do.
Ah yeah I can see how that adds a lot more stress to an already stressful qualifying process. As a spectator it's fun watching games within the last hour, but it's easy to see how getting sniped and counterteamed can be frustrating and demotivating.
So speaking of new things, what's it like being on the SS OU council?
It feels great to be able to actually do something for the tier, Im glad I was given this possibility.
Yeah I'm sure you guys will continue to do a great job, although DLC2 will probably keep you guys busy once it hits
Is there anything in particular you're excited to see in DLC2?
I'll be honest, I don't know much about DLC2 right now, I have been really busy lately. For what I know, I am pretty excited to see what Galarian Zapdos, Moltres and Articuno can do
really like their design, so I hope they will be great mons competitively too
Yeah they all look really cool
As Flying-types, I'm sure they'll enjoy using Heavy-Duty Boots lol
of course they will, boots is just an amazing item. I don't know if it is only me but I have been spamming that item on lots of stuff, even if not rocks weak
Yeah I feel the same way. It's really nice when you're able to send in a defensive mon/pivot to check something without having to worry about being in range after hazards.
What would you say your favorite mon to use in OU or competitive is? Also, what's your favorite mon in general?
the answer to both question is clefable. I love his design and its sprite and its a really good mon since the type change. I love its flexibility, it can put rocks, be a cleric and even put pressure with the orb+3 attacks set or the cm set
That's nice
I bet it makes competitive more fun knowing you can have your favorite mon with you almost all the time and see it put in so much work.
yeah, I've played games in which my favorite character was not so good, and that made me enjoy the game less, so Im glad my favorite mon is this good
Yeah that sounds like a great feeling
Before we wrap this up, do you have a team you'd be willing to share with us? It can be from WCOP or even SM OU if you'd like
even tho I love SM, I think it is better to give people an idea of how I make my teams, maybe that will help them out
(click for import)this is the team I built for tricking for his finals game
he still hadn't decided what to use the night before his game, so I asked him if he needed help, and he asked me to build around cm unaware clefable+ditto because he felt like his opponent would use HO against him. So, the idea is basically having almost an autowin against HO teams, by having the best possible revenge killer in ditto and something that does not worry about set up users much. At this point I felt like the start was still a bit passive, so I wanted to give it at least a bit of pressure, so I decided to put ferrothorn because it has spikes. I had iron defense+body press because magearna was still there in WCoP and the calm mind+stored power set could have beaten clef+blissey with the right moves, so I felt that would be pretty good to have. I suggest using knock now over iron defense, though. After putting ferro I decided to use blissey, because one of cm unaware clef's biggest weakness is, of course, getting statused, so heal bell blissey fitted rly well here alongside providing checks for stuff like hydreigon and kyurem. At this point I really wanted some type of hazard control, a rocker and a volt immune. I felt like hippo was a good add for rocks+volt immune, since it also gave me a nice switch into excadrill and zeraora combined with ferrothorn. I was still not sure about what the last slot would have been, I thought about spin exca, Nasty Plot Hydreigon for some other pressure, but I felt like these wouldn't help much. So I thought that xatu would be a perfect add, because it prevented hazards from most of the setters (hippowdon, ferrothorn, blissey) for balance, and it also prevented stuff like mew in HO getting stealth rocks+spikes, improving the HO matchup even more. I still like the team a lot, and I've seen lots of people using it in OLT, and even I did in some of my games.
This looks really cool
Iron Defense + Body Press Ferrothorn sounds really fun too
its annoying for some teams
but its pretty easy to take advantage of
for example boots dragapult really enjoys it because the best you can do is leech
ah yeah I can see how that becomes annoying over time
Anyways, that's all the questions I have for you today. Do you have anything you'd like to say to the people reading this, or is there anyone you'd like to shoutout at this time?
Id like to shoutout all my friends in filo gang, love you guys all
Thanks a ton for chatting with me today
Have a great night, and good luck with everything! I know you'll do great in Snake and OLT
thank you for interviewing me! Good luck to you too
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Feel free to ask Lopunny Kicks any questions! Hope you guys enjoyed the interview and a special thanks to Punny again for letting me interview him.
Feel free to ask Lopunny Kicks any questions! Hope you guys enjoyed the interview and a special thanks to Punny again for letting me interview him.
