Approved by UU Moderation / Amazing Art by Moutemoute
Hello and welcome to.. "Player Interview"! This project will allow you to discover or re-discover some well known players of the UU community. This time around we will be focusing mainly on important contributors to the forums such as Tier Leaders, Forum Moderators, Community Contributors, and Council Members. Let me first say that I am honored to be following in the footsteps of an esteemed and accomplished list of interviewers: Moutemoute, Feliburn, Kink, and Cynde. Thank you are very much for your work!
Hello Viv! How are you?
I am doing alright, I got to see old high school teachers of mine today and I drew some shit for a while which is always nice. How has your day been?
That sounds fun. I've been laddering a lot recently so considerably worse than usual. Other than that pretty good.
Alright well, tell me and the community a bit about yourself via a brief introduction. Name, age, favorite color, your least favorite kind of cheese, whatever you would like to say!
I'm Zenin and I am 20 yrs old living in Los Angeles, my favorite color is red, I don't eat cheese much bc it makes my tummy hurt so idk, I have been wasting my life away on pocket monsters showdown for a solid handful of years now and I am still here because I obsess over competition and need an outlet of some sort for it or else I will go insane and mons is the most accessible by a large margin and I don't see that changing anytime soon, unfortunately.
You sir might be lactose intolerant.
Back in 2016/2017 you helped me learn about UU and jump started my career, so thank you! When did you join and what brought you to Smogon and Showdown?
Yeah I think I have IBS honestly, I have tummy issues. I haven't done anything to be thanked for, I technically joined Smogon in 2012 when I was playing DPP and BW wifi battles competitively as a wee lad, I think Smogon is inevitable to discover at some point if you're genuinely exploring competitive mons, so that's basically how I came upon it. I didn't really really get into the scene until 2016/17 though, I had known about PS specifically for a few years by then via youtube but instead of just shitting my pants in the low ladder I eventually started talking in tier rooms and playing in room tours (which I took very seriously at the time), gradually improving as I met new people far more experienced than I, eventually I honestly at extended periods of time obsessed over my growth on this site/game to an unhealthy extent and now here we are.
Brutally honest. Very commendable.
You are now a Global Driver, you work with the RMT Staff as well as the B101 staff, contribute to UU Forums, join plenty of tournaments, and still find the time for YouTube. You are very a busy man. Talk a little about your contributions, what you enjoy, what you don't enjoy, anything at all.
Ngl I haven't dedicated myself to contributing like i used to in quite a long time, I'm still global driver for global coverage in UU primarily but other than that I don't do much globally, I did for a little but most of my hours of legitimate policy work on this site came before I was global or immediately after I became global. I haven't done B101 stuff in a while, fuck Shiba. RMT is the subforum I care most deeply for on this site which is probably confusing since I've spent a rlly dumb amount of hours in UU, RMT was where I really feel like I carved a niche for myself as a member of the community. Way before I was ever respected as a player I was respected as a rater and people came to me for opinions really frequently whether they were brand new or asking for help in some official tour, there were periods of time where I felt like I had at least some level of impact on the final product of like most official tour starters' teams on a weekly basis. I enjoyed rating a lot and I got mod pretty quickly so I felt a lot more solidified and accepted as a user in that subforum than I ever did in UU, TPP was a huge part of that honestly he welcomed me with open arms and an absurd amount of passion. I have fallen off the YT grind as quickly as I got on it unfortunately but i plan to upload soon, I have tried to contribute to this site and userbase positively by just being myself and being as accessible as possible for people to come to if they need help for mons or non mons related things but it started to wear me down quite a bit after a while. In recent memory I'm a lot more distanced and just kinda vibing. I don't enjoy contributing much at all anymore I am mostly here to compete or get to a point where I can compete at the highest level consistently.
As for tournaments specifically, you are clearly a competitive person. Talk about your tournament experience so far. What tournament would you like to win most?
UUPL is the tournament I'd like to win most, I have built upon the foundation that pif set with the friends and the results I've come to consistently have been frustrating due to feeling like we've improved every year and personally putting a ridiculous amount of time and effort into it. Other than that idfc, all of them? I'd like to get a trophy, I'd like to win majors the most out of any UU circuit individual bc it was the first solid and undeniable individual tour run I rly ever had like 2 yrs ago. I don't have an obscene amount of tour success but I have done consistently fine the past few years in everything bar UU Snake where I did horrendously due to trying too hard to make teams w/o sciz or lati every week and then just not being in a good headspace competitively in-game. I play every tour I'm in to win but at the same time mons burns me the fuck out and I tend to half ass some individuals recently bc I am tired as shit of being that uber mega tryhard guy, I don't have that kind of energy anymore for non team tours. I have supported probably every UUer that's even half relevant at some point in time probably consistently in the past 4 yrs or so and that's something I'm generally proud of, I often gas myself up as a builder to ungodly and unrealistic levels
You're also in WCOP now! I think you've been a wonderful role model and user on this site and your accomplishments extend farther than your perception.
What is your biggest accomplishment on this site. You can generalize since you have done a lot.
I have no idea what my biggest accomplishment on this site is, I don't have a trophy so it's hard to say much of anything I've done holds a ton of weight. Getting into snake was a big milestone, getting into wcop as well falls under that umbrella. I guess just being an at least somewhat respected player/builder across the website means a lot to me even if it's not to some super impressive extent, the fact that I'm picked up semi regularly for non UU tours means I've at least started to break through the cracks of mainer land and if I keep moving forward I can do a lot of good things competitively as long as my thirst for blood remains unquenched and I keep applying myself. a handful of top 8s and top 16s in individuals, 6-2 LTPL 2 in a good pool, supporting a whole lot of people to positive records across multiple tiers but obviously primarily UU, etc.
Good segue into: outside of UU what is your favorite tier that you have played a good amount of?
Idk I don't have a specific one but I like most SM tiers bc im a simp, I was STABmons council for a decent portion of the gen and went positive in STAB last ompl where I carried fellow uuer PinkDragonTamer (useless in a tiebreaker) to a ring. I enjoy LC bc it's fucking stupid and clicky but I rarely play it. I look forward to heavily investing into OU for wc, my fav OU gens are SM, ORAS, and DPP mainly bc those're the ones I have the most experience with. I have a love/hate relationship with SM ubers tiers bc I have a fair amt of experience in them but they depress me beyond belief, otherwise idk I've primarily stuck with UU but I think I pick up tiers pretty quick and I consistently feel like I build at least usable teams in whatever tier I want.
You should try NFE. It's like LC on roids with Golbat.
I know you listen to a lot of music. This is a weird question but, what about music is so interesting to you? I'll allow you to write 2+ paragraphs about your music interests as well.
I've tried NFE before, Marjane is my celebrity crush. I love music I'd be dead without it. I have struggled having a reliable handle on my emotions for many years and the thing that's probably helped me the most over time is music. Music makes you feel things and if this doesn't apply to you I am sorry bc you are broken . I love music in general but it tends to stop at EDM and country because they just don't make me feel much of anything at all, moreso EDM but it's much more fun to hate on country. I am attracted to anything soulful, especially if it has hip hop influence. From Lauryn Hill to Hiatus Kaiyote to Anderson .Paak and Thundercat... all the way to like raw shit like MF DOOM to Wayne. Recently I have been on a huge Rex Orange County kick as well so that's where I'm at. All in all I take listening to music somewhat seriously bc it's a big part of my life and makes every day better than it otherwise would be for sure. Down to my very core I'm probably a hiphop head though with most of my all time favorites being rappers and I have a lot of hip hop history stored up in my brain.
Country gets too much hate. Darius Rucker and Zack Brown Band go hard. I personally will jam out to Owl City on long car rides like it's no ones business.
We both grew up in California. What is your favorite thing about The Golden State? What is one thing you want to do there that you haven't done yet?
Idk that's a tough one, probably just explore parts of cali that aren't LA. I've only been to Sacramento once, I go to San Diego semi frequently but I wanna explore more of it, same with San Fransisco I would like to do more exploring and just walking around. Really just anywhere that isn't LA ig? Recently there hasn't felt like there's a ton to do, I've been going on long drives to Malibu and down the PCH way too frequently out of boredom or stress, I got $2 pancakes from denny's in Oxnard at 4am a few weeks ago that was p cool.
I grew up in the Bay Area so I definitely recommend San Francisco. The food is great and I know a few ramen joints that are absolutely bomb.
What is your ideal vacation destination?
I'd like to go to New Orleans because there’s so much culture I’d like to experience there, primarily relating to music. I also want food. Or rlly anywhere out of the country but Italy stands out the most, i’ve never been out of the country and I am italian so that’s the entire thought process there.
I am fairly well traveled and I can confirm Italy is amazing! Food wise Japan is almost unbeatable.
Could you perhaps share a team of your own design that you are especially proud of?
I built these with the intention of giving them to Sacri' to use against Adaam in w7 of UUPL, the idea was that Adaam is not a super avid Amoonguss user and I think CB Azumarill in Sacri's hands was capable of getting a lot of turns to click for a high reward over other options like Specs Prim. I think Primarina is definitely the better mon in this tier but Azu volt-turn was definitely more enticing for this matchup specifically and I do think CB Azu is slept on a bit atm. I haven't touched SS UU since w7 of UUPL honestly due to severe burn out but I enjoy both of these a fair amount.
Very cool teams! Would you like to shout out anyone or give some final remarks?
barclays and assmane misa and mspl despite it's lack of a pulse B)
Short and sweet. Thanks for a delightful interview!
anytime chieftain
