SV OU Player Interview - 3d
Following Showdown Shoguns winning SCL, we sat with 3d to share some thoughts about mentality and his experiences as a player in tournaments and in the OU tier. 3d went on a 7-3 run in SV OU this SCL which included winning the last game of the tournament. This year alone he also reached finals of SPL, semifinals of Smogon Tour, and qualified for OLT.
Thank you so much to 3d again for taking the time. I know he often talks about mentality and I encourage you to go read his post in the SCL Finals thread if you havent already. Congratulations to him and everyone else in the Showdown Shoguns for winning SCL!
Following Showdown Shoguns winning SCL, we sat with 3d to share some thoughts about mentality and his experiences as a player in tournaments and in the OU tier. 3d went on a 7-3 run in SV OU this SCL which included winning the last game of the tournament. This year alone he also reached finals of SPL, semifinals of Smogon Tour, and qualified for OLT.
Setsu: Hey 3d. Thank you for taking the time. Very important question to start and for the ones that dont know you, what basketball team do you support? Who is your favorite player?
3d: Thanks for having me. the team i support is the toronto raptors and my favourite player all time is kobe bryant. right now my favourite player is shai gilgeous alexander, but i also rock with steph curry, james harden and kevin durant
Setsu: I know some players relate aspects of their irl to Pokemon in the way they play or their team choices. Would you say that this is the case for you? Particularly with ball that is or in general
3d: I actually think thats 100% true. in terms of basketball id say that i hoop very similar to the way i play pokemon, but even in the case with jiu jitsu id say its also really similar. i like to think about "why" im doing everything that i do instead of just doing it because it was told to me, so a lot of my actions involve a lot of thought behind it. for example, when im dribbling i always was taught to "get low" but as i got older i started to think about why i had to do this in the first place. i realized that i gotta get low because it throws off timing and my defender wouldnt be able to slide with me / bump me with his chest. even in jiu jitsu we're taught a lot of fundamentals like keeping 4 points of contact on our opponent and i had to really think about why that is. after realizing why these rules are in place, i think then you're able to break these rules, which is key. pokemon is so similar because i was taught basic things like midgrounding, but once i realized that midgrounding was just to cover the likely options from your opponent without risking too much on your end, i was able to "break" this rule by making way more offensive plays that cover less options but i was certain my opponent would make that play because i built that intuition from learning how to midground.
Setsu: Growing and learning seems fundamental for sure. I have known you since the last bit of SS, and already in 2023 during the first SV SPL your team barely lost in finals. And even more recently a similar scenario happened in the latest SPL with you now as an established starter. How has your mentality and game changed since that first SPL in 2023 or even earlier this year?
3d: My mentality changed a lot. from 2023 to early 2025 my mentality towards the game was to keep improving in hopes of one day being the best, but in all honesty, it felt very far away and since i had fun with the game i was okay with steadily improving until one day i got very good. however losing in spl finals 2023 and finals 2025 had very different impacts on me as i had different expectations going into each tour. in spl 23 i really just thought that i was gonna have fun and get better and once we got so close to the ring it sparked that desire to secure a championship one day because i saw, even when i wasn't established, that it really is obtainable. in spl 25 my expectation for myself was to put up a good amount of wins and contribute to a very good team. when i saw how close i actually was to a goal that seemed so far away during the tiebreaker it really set in my head that i need to now take the game more seriously and patch up my mistakes to achieve what i wanted. so, 2023 was more about improving my in game skills and 2025 was more about improving my performance skills.
Setsu: It does seem like you did, having one of the best records in the OU pool this SCL. Would you say you managed to fix everything you had in mind? Or were there any missteps or thoughts of doubts during your few losses this time around?
3d: Going into scl 2025 i actually told my bros on the shoguns that my goal was to become the best at reading my opponent's gameplan. the first 3 games of the season were very messy and after that i realized i had to lock back in as those games i wasn't focusing enough on the fundamentals that win games. once i combined the fundamentals with more intent on how i think my opponent is gonna win i took a big leap. however this was a lot to handle mentally, costing 22k i felt like i had to be perfect and having 3 bad games to start the season and losing in olt playoffs really started to make me doubt myself. but, these things are bound to happen during anyone's journey for improvement and it is necessary so that you can further learn from the Ls. i think i did accomplish what i wanted to going into the season which was getting very good at reading my opponent's gameplan and my own gameplans were a lot cleaner so i would say that i fixed those two aspects of my game. there's still things i can improve on as a player though but that can be said about everyone.
Setsu: For sure, and that is enough about the negatives. What about your experience with the tour itself. Was there any team you particularly liked? Perhaps one that you built or a friend helped with?
3d: I definitely liked the finals team the most. abr and ctc collabed and built quite possibly the best team ive ever used. a day before my game i said that ive never felt this confident. major shoutouts to them because beyond matchup, they understood how i like to play and specially tailored a team for that.
https://pokepast.es/9a82a27add9c17bd
Setsu: That team looks great, and it did feel like you were comfortable with it. Looking at your replays I do see a fair bit of balance or bulky BOs, even during the ladder phase of OLT I remember you using similar stuff with the likes of Rotom-W and Boots Valiant. Do you think Balance / BO is the best option in the meta? Or are there any general thoughts about it you can share?
3d: I think HO is easily the best style in the meta right now. i think the upside to playing and understanding HO means that you can beat any team since games are naturally so volatile in SV. however, i understand that not everyone, myself included, is not vert and can get so many toss-up turns right, so that will make HO a bit worse in the grand scheme of things, but i still think it has the highest upside. the stuff i used in the laddering phase of OLT was actually the team i spammed to qualify for stour as well. some teams just click for each person and that was one that clicked for me, so that style would probably bring me a lot more success than HO would. so i'd just tell everyone to use what their comfortable with but make sure that they're still trying to expand what they are comfy with by practicing with other styles.
Setsu: Thank you, and thank you tons for your time. If I can ask one more thing, what advice would you give to other players? Either ones that are close to a first trophy and those that just started playing in tournaments like side PLs and seasonals
3d: I would say there's two main things. the first thing is losing entitlement. you may feel entitled to results, whatever those may be, but that will not get you anywhere. you have to understand that results are not guaranteed and are just a byproduct of your hard work and effort, and whatever you get is what you get. thinking "ah shit i deserved to win XYZ tournament" or "i deserved to qualify for ABC" will reinforce the idea in your head that you don't need to improve anymore to achieve what you wanted, and i believe that is very toxic. I always felt entitled to qualifying for smogon tour for example because i always thought i was good enough as i was able to win the weekly tournaments and put up a decent amount of points. however, once i got rid of that entitlement and started to accept that i didn't qualify because i wasn't good enough, i started doing things that helped me get better and eventually i did qualify. the second thing is accepting getting marginally better. greatness does not happen over night and you really gotta accept that sometimes you're gonna take big leaps, smaller leaps, steps sideways and sometimes it feels like you're taking steps back. however, you gotta ground yourself in what is actually happening. set clear goals for yourself, understand where your weaknesses as a player are, and then take steps to improve at it. mentally attach the value your skill to the actual skills at the game instead of the results you're achieving. it's a lot harder to think you're taking steps back if you think about "oh i'm getting a bit better at my lead matchups" compared to "ah, i didn't qualify for olt this year but i qualified for it last year" i'll give you guys an example of a realization i had to a question i asked mcmeghan. previously, i noticed this problem and here i demonstrated what i'd do to fix it. i mentioned that i think this will come more naturally after a while, and it definitely did. i used to have to write it down but now its natural. think hard about what you're missing with your game and be 100% honest with yourself and look for progression, no matter how small, in each important game you play, otherwise you may end up stagnating forever.
Setsu: Thank you, and really ty for your time. Is there anything else you want to mention or someone you want to s/o here?
3d: I want to shoutout everyone that helped me once again. improvement was not something i did on my own and i have asked a lot of people for advice throughout. everyone i mentioned in my post deserves a second shoutout: bdhb, captainking06, casper, bbeeaa, blunder, ctc, abr, lax, storm zone, giannis antetokommo-o, vert, ima, fade, TJ and there's a lot more people that have definitely given me advice along the way. during this interview i went back and saw how much advice mcmeghan gave me so shoutout to him too, and everyone else that has helped me. ctc especially helped me improve faster by always providing me with lordheat whenever i asked for so many tours, so shoutout to my bro.
3d: Thanks for having me. the team i support is the toronto raptors and my favourite player all time is kobe bryant. right now my favourite player is shai gilgeous alexander, but i also rock with steph curry, james harden and kevin durant
Setsu: I know some players relate aspects of their irl to Pokemon in the way they play or their team choices. Would you say that this is the case for you? Particularly with ball that is or in general
3d: I actually think thats 100% true. in terms of basketball id say that i hoop very similar to the way i play pokemon, but even in the case with jiu jitsu id say its also really similar. i like to think about "why" im doing everything that i do instead of just doing it because it was told to me, so a lot of my actions involve a lot of thought behind it. for example, when im dribbling i always was taught to "get low" but as i got older i started to think about why i had to do this in the first place. i realized that i gotta get low because it throws off timing and my defender wouldnt be able to slide with me / bump me with his chest. even in jiu jitsu we're taught a lot of fundamentals like keeping 4 points of contact on our opponent and i had to really think about why that is. after realizing why these rules are in place, i think then you're able to break these rules, which is key. pokemon is so similar because i was taught basic things like midgrounding, but once i realized that midgrounding was just to cover the likely options from your opponent without risking too much on your end, i was able to "break" this rule by making way more offensive plays that cover less options but i was certain my opponent would make that play because i built that intuition from learning how to midground.
Setsu: Growing and learning seems fundamental for sure. I have known you since the last bit of SS, and already in 2023 during the first SV SPL your team barely lost in finals. And even more recently a similar scenario happened in the latest SPL with you now as an established starter. How has your mentality and game changed since that first SPL in 2023 or even earlier this year?
3d: My mentality changed a lot. from 2023 to early 2025 my mentality towards the game was to keep improving in hopes of one day being the best, but in all honesty, it felt very far away and since i had fun with the game i was okay with steadily improving until one day i got very good. however losing in spl finals 2023 and finals 2025 had very different impacts on me as i had different expectations going into each tour. in spl 23 i really just thought that i was gonna have fun and get better and once we got so close to the ring it sparked that desire to secure a championship one day because i saw, even when i wasn't established, that it really is obtainable. in spl 25 my expectation for myself was to put up a good amount of wins and contribute to a very good team. when i saw how close i actually was to a goal that seemed so far away during the tiebreaker it really set in my head that i need to now take the game more seriously and patch up my mistakes to achieve what i wanted. so, 2023 was more about improving my in game skills and 2025 was more about improving my performance skills.
Setsu: It does seem like you did, having one of the best records in the OU pool this SCL. Would you say you managed to fix everything you had in mind? Or were there any missteps or thoughts of doubts during your few losses this time around?
3d: Going into scl 2025 i actually told my bros on the shoguns that my goal was to become the best at reading my opponent's gameplan. the first 3 games of the season were very messy and after that i realized i had to lock back in as those games i wasn't focusing enough on the fundamentals that win games. once i combined the fundamentals with more intent on how i think my opponent is gonna win i took a big leap. however this was a lot to handle mentally, costing 22k i felt like i had to be perfect and having 3 bad games to start the season and losing in olt playoffs really started to make me doubt myself. but, these things are bound to happen during anyone's journey for improvement and it is necessary so that you can further learn from the Ls. i think i did accomplish what i wanted to going into the season which was getting very good at reading my opponent's gameplan and my own gameplans were a lot cleaner so i would say that i fixed those two aspects of my game. there's still things i can improve on as a player though but that can be said about everyone.
Setsu: For sure, and that is enough about the negatives. What about your experience with the tour itself. Was there any team you particularly liked? Perhaps one that you built or a friend helped with?
3d: I definitely liked the finals team the most. abr and ctc collabed and built quite possibly the best team ive ever used. a day before my game i said that ive never felt this confident. major shoutouts to them because beyond matchup, they understood how i like to play and specially tailored a team for that.
https://pokepast.es/9a82a27add9c17bd
Setsu: That team looks great, and it did feel like you were comfortable with it. Looking at your replays I do see a fair bit of balance or bulky BOs, even during the ladder phase of OLT I remember you using similar stuff with the likes of Rotom-W and Boots Valiant. Do you think Balance / BO is the best option in the meta? Or are there any general thoughts about it you can share?
3d: I think HO is easily the best style in the meta right now. i think the upside to playing and understanding HO means that you can beat any team since games are naturally so volatile in SV. however, i understand that not everyone, myself included, is not vert and can get so many toss-up turns right, so that will make HO a bit worse in the grand scheme of things, but i still think it has the highest upside. the stuff i used in the laddering phase of OLT was actually the team i spammed to qualify for stour as well. some teams just click for each person and that was one that clicked for me, so that style would probably bring me a lot more success than HO would. so i'd just tell everyone to use what their comfortable with but make sure that they're still trying to expand what they are comfy with by practicing with other styles.
Setsu: Thank you, and thank you tons for your time. If I can ask one more thing, what advice would you give to other players? Either ones that are close to a first trophy and those that just started playing in tournaments like side PLs and seasonals
3d: I would say there's two main things. the first thing is losing entitlement. you may feel entitled to results, whatever those may be, but that will not get you anywhere. you have to understand that results are not guaranteed and are just a byproduct of your hard work and effort, and whatever you get is what you get. thinking "ah shit i deserved to win XYZ tournament" or "i deserved to qualify for ABC" will reinforce the idea in your head that you don't need to improve anymore to achieve what you wanted, and i believe that is very toxic. I always felt entitled to qualifying for smogon tour for example because i always thought i was good enough as i was able to win the weekly tournaments and put up a decent amount of points. however, once i got rid of that entitlement and started to accept that i didn't qualify because i wasn't good enough, i started doing things that helped me get better and eventually i did qualify. the second thing is accepting getting marginally better. greatness does not happen over night and you really gotta accept that sometimes you're gonna take big leaps, smaller leaps, steps sideways and sometimes it feels like you're taking steps back. however, you gotta ground yourself in what is actually happening. set clear goals for yourself, understand where your weaknesses as a player are, and then take steps to improve at it. mentally attach the value your skill to the actual skills at the game instead of the results you're achieving. it's a lot harder to think you're taking steps back if you think about "oh i'm getting a bit better at my lead matchups" compared to "ah, i didn't qualify for olt this year but i qualified for it last year" i'll give you guys an example of a realization i had to a question i asked mcmeghan. previously, i noticed this problem and here i demonstrated what i'd do to fix it. i mentioned that i think this will come more naturally after a while, and it definitely did. i used to have to write it down but now its natural. think hard about what you're missing with your game and be 100% honest with yourself and look for progression, no matter how small, in each important game you play, otherwise you may end up stagnating forever.
Setsu: Thank you, and really ty for your time. Is there anything else you want to mention or someone you want to s/o here?
3d: I want to shoutout everyone that helped me once again. improvement was not something i did on my own and i have asked a lot of people for advice throughout. everyone i mentioned in my post deserves a second shoutout: bdhb, captainking06, casper, bbeeaa, blunder, ctc, abr, lax, storm zone, giannis antetokommo-o, vert, ima, fade, TJ and there's a lot more people that have definitely given me advice along the way. during this interview i went back and saw how much advice mcmeghan gave me so shoutout to him too, and everyone else that has helped me. ctc especially helped me improve faster by always providing me with lordheat whenever i asked for so many tours, so shoutout to my bro.
Thank you so much to 3d again for taking the time. I know he often talks about mentality and I encourage you to go read his post in the SCL Finals thread if you havent already. Congratulations to him and everyone else in the Showdown Shoguns for winning SCL!
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