Approved by UU moderation & inspired by Feliburn's project
Hey there Sage and thanks to be here today with me ! First of all how are you ? How was your week ?
I'm quite well thank you! My first week of classes in quite a long time so it's good to be moving along with my coursework again. How 'bout yourself?
I'm doing great, pretty glad to be in week-end since I've got a ton of homework to do for the university ! The first three questions are going to be straightforward ; so let's begin ! What's your favorite Pokemon ?
Gligar!
That was quick ! And what about the Pokemon you used the most ?
I think i've become something of a Mimikyu spammer at this point
Well let's cross our fingers that it will come back in UU during 8th generation
I'm probably most well known for being a part of the UU community for a rather long time now. I started by hosting a weekly project in Next Best Thing, and just kind of took off from there. I've had my hand in quite a few resources and projects for the community in the Viability Rankings, hosting circuit tournaments, managing my own UUPL team, and eventually becoming a council member and competing in officials. I've also recently started to become more well known as a tournament player outside of UU. Last but not least, I am known (i hope lmao) for having excellent music taste and being a diehard fire emblem fan.
Perfect, the frame is set ! Could you introduce yourself to our fellow readers ? Who are you IRL ?
Hello loyal audience! I'm Sage, some of you might know me by my real name Brooklyn. My username comes from, like many thoughts in a thirteen year old's head, a Naruto reference to the Sage of the 6 Paths. I like to think i've retconned that and I imagine either a generic rpg sage or the plant haha. Some of my favorite pastimes include writing about various topics (investigative journalism, music critique, fanfiction), exploring new kinds of music, going for runs, rooting for some terrible sports teams, and playing video games of course. I'm generally a pretty relaxed person, and I kind of float between communities on Smogon so i've had the pleasure to interact with a lot of nice people. UU will always be my first home though! I'm from New York City and lived there most of my life, but recently moved to Pennsylvania to continue my education.
Have you been lost in this move ?
It's certainly taken time to get used to! The extended family i'm living with are very accomdating however, and I've grown to appreciate the more quiet lifestyle than the hustle and bustle I grew up with.
It's obviously not the same living environment ! Since you talked about it.. You're part of the UU Moderation since a year and a half, but at first what brought you to Smogon ?
Kind of a convoluted path to Smogon, so I'll start from the beginning. When I was around twelve or thirteen, a small youtube channel I followed named AdamantDitto posted a video of some of the members playing battles against each other on Pokemon Showdown. This blew little me's mind because I had no idea that Pokemon existed outside of my Gameboy, so I immediately followed their lead and ended up on Pokemon Showdown. From there i first started playing random battles, eventually moving to competitive, playing Little Cup and UU in Black White. I had to focus on some other things during high school, so I took around a two to three year break from XY until the release of USUM, and this is where I really started getting involved with the community. I eventually made it onto the Smogon forums to start posting consistently, and from there I was a pretty dedicated member of UU, eventually joining the forum team.
That's pretty crazy to realize that you have been on the forum for so long. As you said, you're a pretty dedicated member within the UU community but also a great player since you were able to win the UULT 2018. How did you manage to reach such a high level ?
I think practice is absolutely the most important thing. Playing games is really the fastest way to get better, especially ones that have some sort of stakes to them. Joining tournaments that you can even in tiers you aren't super familiar with is a great way to round up your fundamentals. For my ULT win I think I relied on my building a little bit too much, but it was still a nice victory, I can still remember exactly how the finals went down haha. I've grown as a player since then, and anybody can become good at this game if they give it their all.
I believe it too ! By the way what’s your favorite tier outside of the UU ?
Oof, that's a pretty tough question! There are assorted tiers I've had the pleasure to play across my time in tours, but SM RU is definitely one of my favorites. I think the tier ended up in the most balanced endstate of all Gen 7 tiers, and as such it's one that doesn't really feel terrible to revisit in friendlies and tournaments. Despite going into LTPL expecting to UU, the team I ended up drafting allowed me to play RU most of the time which was very fun! GSC OU/UU and BW OU are some of my other favorites, and I do think SS is shaping up well so far.
Yeah SS isn't the worst but it will change a lot because of the Expansion Pass, what do you think about it ?
I am unfortunately not a fan of the DLC. Dexit was in my opinion one of the best things to happen to competitive, building has been very refreshing with the smaller checklist, and so far playing SS OU in tours has been a blast. I think lower tiers will probably be able to shoulder the influx but OU is almost certainly going to be less enjoyable to me with new additions like Chansey Landot Magnezone et. all. Lower distribution for Toxic, Knock Off, Defog, etc all were good things in my opinion that made Pokemon have more defined roles and fit into a metagame better. Hopefully the new Galarian Forms and Legends are cool at least though! I'll still be playing regardless anyway haha.
Yeah I can't wait to see what we're going to get..! Could you share with us one of your favorite UU teams ?
sure! SM or SS
One or the other, the choice is yours !
Alrighty, here's an SS team I've had a lot of fun with. I haven't built much post vote but this one should still hold up. Golisopod was a mon I was really looking forward to using with Heavy Duty Boots, and it doesn't disappoint. The core of Golisopod / Rhyperior covers for each other really well in matchups vs hazard removers so that one of them will almost always have a layer up. Drapion then comes as a Ghost-type check and way to abuse the hazard stacking with a RestTalk Whirlwind set I've recycled from old gen metas, and it can really stack up chip with normal priority phasing and Knock Off. Noivern is my fat annoyer with a Taunt set, Gardevoir provides a little more special firepower, speed control, and Trick to cripple Bulky Waters that this team can be annoyed by. Finally Doublade acts as the Steel-type and primary win condition. The team requires very tight play around stuff like Milotic and Vaporeon so I wouldn't exactly recommend it for beginners, but nonetheless I've had a lot of fun with it. I've standardized evs for the public except for Drapion's speed to beat Chandelure and Golisopod's speed to creep Hippowdon
That's a cool looking team, I'm also a big fan of Golisopod. Heavy-Duty Boots have been a bless for this Pokemon. Now.. let's end this interview with the hardest question.. What is your favorite meal ?!
Oh dear... I'm gonna have to say Mee Kiew Hang, which is a Thai dish that has egg noodles, wontons, barbecued pork, bok choy, and peanuts / lime for seasoning. It's quite lovely!
I went to see what it looked like... that wasn't a good idea.. I'm so hungry.. Anyway thanks for your time Sage and for your answers. Feel free to shoutout your friends if you want to !
You're welcome, was fun! Everybody in UU knows I appreciate them so I'll shout out a few folks off the beaten path. Cynara, bugzinator, Mannat, London13, EviGaro, kaori, Stone_Cold, Sabella,
Feel free to ask to Sage any questions you want !
If you have some recommendations for an interview, feel free to DM me !
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