Welcome back to OU Player Interviews! I know we've been a little inconsistent lately but we're back for real this time. This should be pretty simple: we talk to some of the tier's biggest names to try learn a little more about them. Since TPP and I missed a few big months, we decided to go back and interview some people who really deserved the spotlight. That bring us to today, obviously you've read the title so here's:
suapah
Favourite Pokemon (overall):
Favourite Pokemon (design):
Most used Pokemon:
-
Most known for: being the current OUTL, winner of the Smogon Charity Bowl, two time winner of Snake
hey man, how are you?
I'm doing well, thank you for asking
no worries
you mind telling us a bit about yourself?
Most people know me as suapah on smogon but my IRL name is Eric (either works fine with me). I'm a 20 year old premed student studying in the US. Whenever I'm not studying, I enjoy playing Pokemon Go, hanging out with friends, watching anime, or playing some sports.
ooo pre med that’s p cool
if you don’t mind me asking, what are you looking to get into in the future?
Specifically, I haven't decided that quite yet but I have general ideas of what I want to do. I've always enjoyed engaging and interacting with children, so a pediatrician was always something that I thought about. Alternatively, I've been working in a neuroscience-based lab for the past 2.5 years so perhaps a future involving that is also a possibility. I'm still young, so want to keep my options open
that’s fair play
ig as an extension of that, how’s the whole covid scenario been for you?
Well, I think just like everyone else, it's been tough. I think there's a lot of experiences and things I've missed out on because of the pandemic. I'm glad that things are improving slowly though and I'm looking forward to a normal future again
yeah hopefully everything goes back to normal by the end of the year hey
while we're on the topic of experiences - i know i'm really late to this, but you were made tl a couple months back, how's that been so far?
surely must've been a great feeling right
For sure, it's always a great feeling to be chosen to represent the tier and while there have been some small bumps along the way, I think it's been a nice experience so far
Being a TL in SS is a bit different than previous generations because of all of the DLCs and what not, but I've definitely been trying to listen to both overall community feedback and moving forward in a way that I think benefits the tier overall
I think the introduction of the Tiering Surveys that we send out every once in a while are the best way the community can voice their opinions and for the OU council to understand where they stand with certain issues
And of course, my position as OUTL is also made smooth due to the help and contributions I get from all of the council members (especially Finch which should be no surprised to anyone)
that's great to hear
i should absolutely thank you and the council for all the work you've done this gen
now i know you guys are currently discussing stuff like zama and an ace retest, how do you feel about that?
Appreciate it! As for the retests, we recently sent out the OU survey sometime last week. The OU survey results should actually come out sometime soon which will show how the overall community felt about it. While we as a council still need to discuss more about how we want to approach certain things, what I can say is that the community should expect our actions to reflect similarly to what they expressed in the surveys
surely you've got some of your own thoughts on it tho
like do you think that we'd see zama or ace back in the tier anytime soon
Sure, I'll say I've always been pro retesting and always feel that it never hurts to retest mons provided the meta is relatively stable. As both Zama and Ace, I would say the community should expect a suspect for one of them relatively soon. I think both could be interesting additions to the meta and I'm especially curious to see how a mon like Zama would fare in OU
yeah should be pretty exciting hey
now we've got wcop starting up this week, you still planning on playing?
It was my intention to but I'll have to see. I'm technically eligible for two teams (US South and Canada). The thing is I'm waiting on whether or not certain people from both teams will sign up. Whether or not those certain people do sign up will dictate my interest in playing for those teams. But yea, as of now I do plan on playing although I may not have time to play the qualifier portion of WCOP
oo you're on south now?
that's p cool
but yeah that seems fair enough
as another follow-up: what direction do you feel like the meta will be taking over the next couple of weeks?
like surely you've got your eye on a p underrated mon that'll shoot up or vice versa
I think it's a bit hard to answer that question as the intention is to have a retest sometime soon. And whether it is Zama or Ace, the introduction of the mon will inevitably shake up the meta
fingers crossed hey
now i want to bring up the current meta since i haven't had the chance to bring it up yet
but how do you feel about it atm?
you have any preferences / mons / etc. you'd like to share w/ people?
I think the meta is in a pretty balance state right now but it definitely can feel a bit stale at times considering how good balance is. So a lot of the times, we get these long games where the progress can be slow.
As for underrated mons, I love all variants of Scizor a lot and think it's fantastic. Of course Weavile and Bisharp are super good right now but I wouldn't consider them underrated. Another "underrated" mon I like is Safeguard Volc, especially with the prevalence of Flame Body Heatran. Talah had an excellent showcase of how deadly that set can be vs a lot of standard balances in SPL tiebreak
dude that game was so fire LOL
but yeah, those are p cool mons
now did you happen to have a team you wanted to share with us, maybe with one of these mons?
LMAO well this would be bad timing but I recently cleared my cache and wiped out my teams on my laptop
LOL
So the answer to that would be uhhh no
that's a little unfort
ah that's alright tho
ig there's only a few more things to ask so we can speedrun this
first up: any shoutouts?
sure, def wanna s/o the ou council for everything they do and all my friends in lab
sweet
second: do you have anything to say to the people reading this?
I appreciate for reading the entirety of my interview and that as OUTL, I'll definitely do my best to lead OU. Of course, if anyone has any questions or concerns about anything, my Smogon PMs are always open
nice
ok so some quick fun stuff:
if you could nuke anyone from this site, who would it be and why?
talah (watches beastars)
LOL
if you eat steak, how do you like it cooked?
Medium rare for sure
goat
and finally, what do you think your most painful pogo experience has been so far?
and why was it grinding for 400+ altaria candies
LMAO
Well I play a lot so altaria candies are no problem and my most painful experience is probably a reference most people won't get unless they actively play
lemme guess
12 km eggs?
But it's definitely getting dodged in GBL and then waiting forever in queue times
LOL
i know the feeling (tpp edit: no you don't noob)
anyways this should be everything, thank you very much for the time
Of course, I appreciate you for having me
Big thanks to suapah for letting me interview him. As always, feel free to drop a few questions if you're really interested. Make sure to stick around: we've got another interview coming up pretty shortly.
suapah
Favourite Pokemon (overall):
Favourite Pokemon (design):
Most used Pokemon:
-
Most known for: being the current OUTL, winner of the Smogon Charity Bowl, two time winner of Snake
hey man, how are you?
I'm doing well, thank you for asking
no worries
you mind telling us a bit about yourself?
Most people know me as suapah on smogon but my IRL name is Eric (either works fine with me). I'm a 20 year old premed student studying in the US. Whenever I'm not studying, I enjoy playing Pokemon Go, hanging out with friends, watching anime, or playing some sports.
ooo pre med that’s p cool
if you don’t mind me asking, what are you looking to get into in the future?
Specifically, I haven't decided that quite yet but I have general ideas of what I want to do. I've always enjoyed engaging and interacting with children, so a pediatrician was always something that I thought about. Alternatively, I've been working in a neuroscience-based lab for the past 2.5 years so perhaps a future involving that is also a possibility. I'm still young, so want to keep my options open
that’s fair play
ig as an extension of that, how’s the whole covid scenario been for you?
Well, I think just like everyone else, it's been tough. I think there's a lot of experiences and things I've missed out on because of the pandemic. I'm glad that things are improving slowly though and I'm looking forward to a normal future again
yeah hopefully everything goes back to normal by the end of the year hey
while we're on the topic of experiences - i know i'm really late to this, but you were made tl a couple months back, how's that been so far?
surely must've been a great feeling right
For sure, it's always a great feeling to be chosen to represent the tier and while there have been some small bumps along the way, I think it's been a nice experience so far
Being a TL in SS is a bit different than previous generations because of all of the DLCs and what not, but I've definitely been trying to listen to both overall community feedback and moving forward in a way that I think benefits the tier overall
I think the introduction of the Tiering Surveys that we send out every once in a while are the best way the community can voice their opinions and for the OU council to understand where they stand with certain issues
And of course, my position as OUTL is also made smooth due to the help and contributions I get from all of the council members (especially Finch which should be no surprised to anyone)
that's great to hear
i should absolutely thank you and the council for all the work you've done this gen
now i know you guys are currently discussing stuff like zama and an ace retest, how do you feel about that?
Appreciate it! As for the retests, we recently sent out the OU survey sometime last week. The OU survey results should actually come out sometime soon which will show how the overall community felt about it. While we as a council still need to discuss more about how we want to approach certain things, what I can say is that the community should expect our actions to reflect similarly to what they expressed in the surveys
surely you've got some of your own thoughts on it tho
like do you think that we'd see zama or ace back in the tier anytime soon
Sure, I'll say I've always been pro retesting and always feel that it never hurts to retest mons provided the meta is relatively stable. As both Zama and Ace, I would say the community should expect a suspect for one of them relatively soon. I think both could be interesting additions to the meta and I'm especially curious to see how a mon like Zama would fare in OU
yeah should be pretty exciting hey
now we've got wcop starting up this week, you still planning on playing?
It was my intention to but I'll have to see. I'm technically eligible for two teams (US South and Canada). The thing is I'm waiting on whether or not certain people from both teams will sign up. Whether or not those certain people do sign up will dictate my interest in playing for those teams. But yea, as of now I do plan on playing although I may not have time to play the qualifier portion of WCOP
oo you're on south now?
that's p cool
but yeah that seems fair enough
as another follow-up: what direction do you feel like the meta will be taking over the next couple of weeks?
like surely you've got your eye on a p underrated mon that'll shoot up or vice versa
I think it's a bit hard to answer that question as the intention is to have a retest sometime soon. And whether it is Zama or Ace, the introduction of the mon will inevitably shake up the meta
fingers crossed hey
now i want to bring up the current meta since i haven't had the chance to bring it up yet
but how do you feel about it atm?
you have any preferences / mons / etc. you'd like to share w/ people?
I think the meta is in a pretty balance state right now but it definitely can feel a bit stale at times considering how good balance is. So a lot of the times, we get these long games where the progress can be slow.
As for underrated mons, I love all variants of Scizor a lot and think it's fantastic. Of course Weavile and Bisharp are super good right now but I wouldn't consider them underrated. Another "underrated" mon I like is Safeguard Volc, especially with the prevalence of Flame Body Heatran. Talah had an excellent showcase of how deadly that set can be vs a lot of standard balances in SPL tiebreak
dude that game was so fire LOL
but yeah, those are p cool mons
now did you happen to have a team you wanted to share with us, maybe with one of these mons?
LMAO well this would be bad timing but I recently cleared my cache and wiped out my teams on my laptop
LOL
So the answer to that would be uhhh no
that's a little unfort
ah that's alright tho
ig there's only a few more things to ask so we can speedrun this
first up: any shoutouts?
sure, def wanna s/o the ou council for everything they do and all my friends in lab
sweet
second: do you have anything to say to the people reading this?
I appreciate for reading the entirety of my interview and that as OUTL, I'll definitely do my best to lead OU. Of course, if anyone has any questions or concerns about anything, my Smogon PMs are always open
nice
ok so some quick fun stuff:
if you could nuke anyone from this site, who would it be and why?
talah (watches beastars)
LOL
if you eat steak, how do you like it cooked?
Medium rare for sure
goat
and finally, what do you think your most painful pogo experience has been so far?
and why was it grinding for 400+ altaria candies
LMAO
Well I play a lot so altaria candies are no problem and my most painful experience is probably a reference most people won't get unless they actively play
lemme guess
12 km eggs?
But it's definitely getting dodged in GBL and then waiting forever in queue times
LOL
i know the feeling (tpp edit: no you don't noob)
anyways this should be everything, thank you very much for the time
Of course, I appreciate you for having me
----
Big thanks to suapah for letting me interview him. As always, feel free to drop a few questions if you're really interested. Make sure to stick around: we've got another interview coming up pretty shortly.
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