Welcome to the SM version of OU Player of the Week! This project will feature interviews from some of the most accomplished and influential users in the tier so that we can learn more about them.
If there is a user that you would like to see interviewed be sure to let me know.
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Updated Kanto
most known for: Going 9-3 in SPL 9 and a notorious member of the CPG gang.
favorite pokemon: Bunnelby
most used pokemon: Ferrothorn
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself outside of Smogon?
I live a relatively normal life in the slums of Brooklyn (until gentrifcation took over). I like to spend time at parks or just outdoors in general whenever the weather is nice and fresh, not really a fan of the cold. When it comes to sports I don't really play much, I play something that is known as American Handball which isn't as global or as popular as other sports, It's different than European Handball and to the people that I've mentioned it to before that had no idea what it was said that it resembles squash. I'm also really fond of food, I'm willing to try anything new and I aspire to one day be a chef. I'm also big on fashion, I just love dressing up and wearing nice clothes, kind of like customizing your character in a video game and admittedly I've dropped some big bucks on clothes before.
Where did you get your name from?
I actually get this question pretty often and people that don't ask often assume it has something to do with referencing a new gen by saying its the updated version of Kanto. However, that is wrong my name actually references my original account which was 'KantoBossRed.' When I was creating my smogon account I still went by KantoBossRed, but I thought if I really wanted to make that my smogon name or if I wanted to start fresh with something else and at the time I personally thought that I was getting better and for some reason Updated Kanto came to mind and it just stuck with me since then.
How and when did you get into competitive Pokemon?
I actually got into pokemon outside the anime around 2009 and watched playthroughs of the games on youtube from people like PokeCinema and MunchingOrange. However, around 2012 I saw a video in my feed titled "Pokemon Showdown Live # ?" from a user named Shofu and it caught my interest. I found them wildly entertaining and kept up with his lives without ever actually trying to get on Showdown because I was pretty dumb and thought it was something you paid to use and never actually tried searching it up to find out. Around late 2013 troubles started popping up for me in real life with family and stuff and I wanted something to help me avoid paying any mind to that stuff and I finally decided to try out pokemonshowdown. I started off doing randbats and then switched to spamming baton pass rain in the lower ou ladder. I eventually found the Tournaments Room on main and I've been hooked on pokemon since then.
What’s your favourite generation of OU and why?
My favorite gen OU contrary to popular belief is not ORAS OU, it is in fact DPP OU! I think all of the pokemon that are usable in terms of viability in OU are pretty cool. That's pretty much it to be honest,I really like using pokemon that I find cool or like in terms of non-competitiveness and this gen just has a lot of those mons being viable. It's also pretty exciting that most of the time you don't know if you win until you actually win.
What’s your favourite playstyle to use and why?
Easily hyper offense, It's really fun to pivot and you can always make aggressive plays. You get to use strong mons, set up sweepers, suicide leads, whats not to love about using hyper offense ??
What are your thoughts on the current ORAS metagame?
I think it's near perfect if not perfect. There's nothing that really stands out as broken or as centralizing as Mega Sableye and Dugtrio were. You can argue that Mega-Metagross and maybe Keldeo are significantly better pokemon than the rest but I think they're relatively easy to keep in check and you have various options against those mons. So, yea I'd argue that ORAS is the best it ever has been right now.
Are there any Pokemon that you believe are overrated/underrated in ORAS at the moment. Why?
I think Latios is overrated, I personally believe specs latios is the only latios and life orb which seems to be the most popular set doesn't have impressive damage output and it's easily wallable. As for underrated, I don't really know if Gliscor is underrated but since not everyone is using it im going to assume it is. Gliscor is freaking amazing especially on spikes builds, it's more versatile than one may think not only in terms of sets but also in terms of spreads and It's just a very annoying pokemon to deal with.
What were some of your favourite moments from SPL9?
If we're talking about my favourite moments regarding me it would have to be Ice Beaming TDK's gliscor on his double from jellicent, but regarding all of SPL my favourite moment would have to be Fear's game vs Tiba in semis. After losing to hiye in what is in my opinion my worst played game this SPL, I was crushed and it seemed like the Ruiners were about to make a comeback and win the series. After losing like 3 in a row or something crazy like that it came down to Tiba vs Fear and I could not stop shaking, everyone in the Wolfpack was tense. I remember seeing someone say "this looks like an awful match up for us" or something along those lines and thinking "Please win Fear, or else I'll REALLY be bummed out about my game" and man Fear just turned up like he had been all season and pulled out the clutch win to take us into tie-breaker.
You seemed to break out this SPL with a very strong ORAS OU record, what are some of the major factors that you think caused you to have that success?
There's obviously the prep aspect. I had a bunch of wonderful teammates that helped out in the ORAS department. ABR did most of the building but the others kept bouncing ideas and adding little adjustments like Trosko and Anti, that really helped by getting me into a game that wasn't extremely bad match up for me. When it came to playing, after having a 0-1 SPL in SPL 8 and playing one of my worst games ever in WCoP against FLCL I developed the motto "Play with no regrets." I go to into or at least try to go into every game playing a game that even if I lose I won't look back and regret how I played. Adopting this motto + the support previously mentioned really showed its stuff when I ended with an 8-3 ORAS record, 9-3 SPL 9 record.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone trying to break into the tournament setting?
Just keep playing, get that experience and find your groove. Everyone's different and it may take someone longer to have that breakout success than others. You have people like BTB that broke out in a matter of months and you have people like me that have been playing in smogon tournaments for nearly 4 years and had just recently achieved any kind of success. I know people might see 4 years and be like "thats too much!" but if you enjoy something those 4 years will fly by like nothing and it's not like you're wasting your time, because you're enjoying yourself or at least you should be. Also something important to note, you WILL get hax'd thats inevitable its part of the game, but it's important to know that sometimes although it can provide to be a huge setback it does not necessarily mean the game is over (sometimes anyways). I've seen people get like crit then get tilted into losing a still winnable game and that's something thatI can't stand to watch.
Who are some of your favourite people in the Smogon community?
I would mention CPG but they belong to the fortnite community now, so aside from the obvious I am a big fan of Teal. He's one of the nicest guys on the site and he welcomes new talent which is really awesome and I remember him being one of the first if not the first person to pm me telling me that I was getting noticably better and it would only be a matter of time before I become a threat in the tournament scene. Tony my former manager is also a really nice guy and he's just someone you can depend on and someone that will always be there if you need him. Honorable mention, someone who used be part of the smogon community but isn't as much anymore Spinda , has been with me for almost a year now and what was at the time just joking around and watching WCoP games with someone I've never met before in call has now turned into a really great friendship and I trust them more than I do to anyone I know in real life.
Finally, can you provide us a team that you think reflects your current playstyle, with a brief explanation of how it works?
While I do enjoy hyper offense regular offense ain't that bad either and this team allows for you to make plays and capitalize on certain things. This team was made for me by ABR in semis of SPL and it's focused around TankChomp + Clef + Rotom + Mega Meta. TankChomp allows you to wear down Mega Meta's most notable counter in scizor while also dealing damage to opposing Mega Metas. Everything is pretty straightforward and the team allows for multiple game winning plays, you can opt for split on rotom-w over t wave but then the team loses to Zard X.
, very interesting to get you known. I'm so happy that a cute user as you are get finally his known spot, definetly deserved man, hope to keep watching you (
