Project Player Interviews #1: Ajna

[Feliburn]

Art by Kalalokki

Ajna
Favorite Pokemon: Scyther

Most used Pokemon: Slowking

(ORAS) / Roserade

(USM)
Most known for: Winning RU Snake twice, along multiple other tours like RU seasonal, RU Arena, RU Best Friends, etc.

It was a really boring morning in California, I was walking aimlessly due to an amazing ammount of boredom, I didn't know what to do with my free time anymore and if I should try getting new hobbies to pass time. I walked by a basketball court and there were two guys playing a 1 on 1. The bigger guy was dribbling amazingly vs a kid, but in the end he lost.

In his rage, the guy yelled "Why would you do that lmaoo I can't play idiots", he left the court in quite a tantrum but he was also whispering "2 ringsssss". I was astonished, I couldn't quite understand what was happening, he also had a big green trophy sticker on his backpack.

I was intrigued and decided to follow him... ​

Yo

ay
what's good beliburn

not much, just chilling listening to some music, what about you?

im wrapping up this paper to end the semester
very enjoyable experience

rofl bet it is, uni paper?

ye
but us cultured american's refer to it as college
ya feel?

I thought u were indian bitch
Anyway, what do you major in?

.
rude
kinesiology
with an emphasis on pedagogy which is like teaching

Thats interesting, why did you decide to study that?

i wanna be a basketball coach and pe teacher
it's a nice backup that i'd be happy doing if my music never ends up taking off
my parents never went to college, so it's also kinda for them

I see, thats p dope, how is it going with ur music btw? When did u decide u wanted to make music and how?

uh it's goin pretty well. i have some pretty big things happenin' behind the scenes that i can't rlly talk about yet, but im putting out new music in a few weeks, so that's always fun.
i started making music my senior year of high school, so just over 2 years ago, and it was because of a project for english class
our teacher gave us the option of doing a song for our satire project, so that's what i did :shrug:
i fell in love with it very shortly after, and i've been doing it since

Thats nice man, who is ur fav artist?
And which artists influence your music? Who do you look up to?

impossible for me to pick one. some recent favorites are aaron may saba, dominic fike, and ryan trey, and some all time favorites are j. cole, kendrick lamar, joe budden, earl sweatshirt and joey bada$$
in terms of who influences me most, i'd say joe budden for his honesty, vulnerability, and wordplay, and j cole because of his background, beat making, and work ethic
in terms of who i look up it'd have to be the big homie mez who's on tour with jid and saba right now. he took me under his wing and taught me a lot of stuff when he didn't have to, so i'll forever be grateful for that

Oh you know Mez irl?

ye i got introduced to him a little over a year ago

How did that happen? That's p lit ngl

i met him in the studio and that's all i can say :eyes:
lmao nah but with mez the homie was bringing me to the studio to introduce me to someone that i can't say, but mez was there and i went n introduced myself and told him i was a fan
this was when he hadn't put out new music in awhile, but he was super cool and we exchanged contact info. he offered me a internship type thing over summer, but i basically just got to chill in the studio with him and absorb as much info as i could

tell me more about ur background, where do you come from, how was ur childhood, what do you like doing outside music and mons and all of that

for background, i was born in new york, and i moved to la when i was like 3. i stayed all over la, but spent most of my childhood in west los angeles and venice.
my childhood was cool. i didn't have the best home life, but i was never in any real danger or anything, and i never rlly fit in until high school
i was super awkward and chubby from like 6th grade through ninth grade, and then i started growing and making friends around 10th grade
i ended up starting to play mons around 8th/9th grade, and i used it as an outlet bc it was one of the few things that made me happy
thankfully i've moved outta that phase, so now mons is just a fun thing i like to do on the side (even though i probably waste a bit too much time on here lmao)

and how did you end up in PS?

im not even completely sure tbh
my step brother told me about one time, but i think i eventually found it myself through smogon
and im not sure exactly how i found smogon, but i just know around that time i was playing through all the roms on my computer, so i probably looked something up about a mon

lol throwback to our platinum rom nuzlocke we never finished
how did you end up in ru? why this tier specifically? you were alrdy a member of the room when I started

y'all ditched me smh
uh when i was younger i wanted to be different rlly bad
and ru always had the least amount of people playing it
so i picked it, and never really looked back
although in bw2 i was a uu room regular as well
with like ict calloflochie zvz bleve etc

I see, u used the name sowwy back then, how did this name came to be?
And for the fans who dont know, whats the meaning behind ur current username?

oh no
exposed.
bro ik im pretty bad now, but i was the worst user oat like 4 years ago, my goodness

ya, cancer ass sowwy

i looked at a replay on sowwy and i was insane cringe
anyways
sowwy came to be by me taking the word sorry
realizing it was taken
and making it sowwy
LMAO
and ajna is my irl name
so, ye.

LOL classic 2013 username meta
Lets talk some current mons
What do you think about current RU? And the RUBL suspect process thats going on?

current ru is alright, it's really balanced atm, but at the same time it's just dominated by standard bo and balance builds
donphan pod lazzle meta and viriz are clear standouts
reuni is busted and should hella not be freed
only suspect left that i think should be added is mega slowbro, and im not even positive about that

Are there any players that catch your eye currently? Both veterans and newcomers

uh yea. santu has improved a lot in oras and overall (he made smogon tour po's, grats to him), and he's one of the few people that can take a set off me in oras (even if dat man's gotta end game crit me twice to do so lmao jk kinda) roman has improved a ton. i've been training with him in the mountains for a while, and i really hopes he gets a shot this upcoming snake. i think averardo is super underrated, and i think with some more experience he'll be super solid.

How does it feel to be negative vs me in official tours?

it feels alright seeing as you're negative in official tours
and have never won an ru tour in which i didn't carry u to victory
:wink:

I was the only undefeated member in the ru best friends tour bitch

u lost in finals bitch

I DIDNT

but it got rescinded
LMAO

LMAO

YES U DID
U LOST TO
ABSTRACT EMILY

I underestimated my opponent's join date dude
Not my fault.

mhm.

can you drop a team that defines your playstyle? and what was your thought process when building it?

this is a really solid n standard bo that my team used a bunch of times throughout rupl. when i build i have a list of mons, and i order them based on how badly i feel i need to check them. at the top of the list are mons like stoise, rose, lazzle, meta, zydog, viriz, and pod, so i usually try to have multiple ways to beat those, and then just check everything down the list.
i usually start with my rockers when i build, and diancie has been one of my go to's along with regi atm. it's a rlly solid check to stuff like vern, goodra, pod, doom, stoise, and ninetales, and it also beats most defoggers with a cm up. cm also lets u beat snorlax, and yea there's prob a more optimal ev spread, but tbh i don't care enough to find it lol. i prob then threw on donphan and pod, cuz they check some of the biggest threats in the tier like meta, opposing pod, zydog, etc. this was kinda like the birth of the pod donphan spam era for my building, but for this one i threw on rose to help wallbreak, kill fat waters, soft check opposing grasses, and absorb t spikes. after that i needed something to reliably check garde, and help to rk protect barb, and meta is by far the best at that. finally i added scarf doom bc i wanted a scarfer that outspeeds the common base 80 scarfers, could rk viriz, and could check mismag.
and that's the team lol. it's kinda hard to explain my process cuz i kinda don't rlly think about it at this point; it's almost become second nature. the team is prob pushing 6 weeks old at this point, but it still holds up in the current meta. i'd just make donphan faster to outspeed regi, and then u can make the pod and diancie creeps less or more depending on what u want.

Anyway, this was fun dude
Thx for ur time

of course bro
thanks for asking the questions

=========================================================================================

Feel free to ask Ajna any questions you want!

If you have any reccomendations I'll be more than happy to read them, just PM me!


Next time on FeliInterviews...

​

 

[EviGaro]

Who do you hate on Smogon

What keeps you motivated? You talked a lot about wanting a trophy, which you did and defended it, but it doesn't seem like your interest in big performances is dropping, at least in this tier

What's really lacking in general RU teambuilding, and is there a mon or two that would help

 

[Bouff]

big ups to feliburn for getting this thing rolling, stuff like this is really awesome

as for questions uhh

what have been some of your favorite tour games and or series over the years?

afaik youre one of like one of the few people left on this planet that genuinely enjoys oras ru to this day considering most some people have quite a distaste for it - why is that, and do you feel that the criticism it faces is justified?

are there any sets, either sm or oras, that you think you'd take credit for popularizing?

edit: i think my second question shouldve been worded a bit better, thinking about it a bit more oras ru is appreciated more these days than it was in the past 2 iterations of rupl and it also has had a higher quality in terms of games. my question is basically the same but it was a bit unfair to make a generalization like that

 

[Ajna]

Who do you hate on Smogon

sir isaac mewton, ggfan, and i’d hate lavos, but i respect him too much as a player (yes ik i’m not supposed to answer this but i did anyways haha noob)

not asked but to offset this, three users i love are feliburn, evidith of the garo, and diogo.

oh and nat, i guess...

What keeps you motivated? You talked a lot about wanting a trophy, which you did and defended it, but it doesn't seem like your interest in big performances is dropping, at least in this tier

hmm i’d say pushing forward the ru community. believe it or not, i rlly don’t care about official trophies at this point. when i play spl n snake i wanna make sure i at least go positive, but it’s not that big a deal for me anymore if i don’t. i like building teams that become “staples” in a meta game, or coming up with new sets that people haven’t thought of. most of my enjoyment and motivation comes from teambuilding at this point. the only reason i still play in team tours and circuits is because i wanna make ru tours as competitive as possible, and i also rlly wanna legitimize our ribbon. i want it to be a big deal to win one, not just have it be a “lol ribbon syndrome” type thing.

What's really lacking in general RU teambuilding, and is there a mon or two that would help

creativity. i’m not exempt from this, but ppl seem to be rlly afraid to go outside the box, especially in this meta. i don’t think we necessarily need any mons, but if i had to add some i’d love to see get like crobat and magneton.

 

[Ajna]

what have been some of your favorite tour games and or series over the years?

hmm dope question. snake finals vs omfuga definitely sticks out. he's a player i've always looked up to, so beating him for first blood in my first ever team tour finals was super awesome. i had a rlly fun rult series vs feliburn that was super close and came down to hurricanes at the end of g3, and this snake 1 game vs sg sticks out to me cuz it was the first time i had ever gone super far outta the box with a build, and it ended up winning in a really fun game.

afaik youre one of like one of the few people left on this planet that genuinely enjoys oras ru to this day considering most some people have quite a distaste for it - why is that, and do you feel that the criticism it faces is justified?

some people find it boring, and i can see that to an extent, but i think people dislike it because it has a really big learning curve, there's no real reason to learn it (only played in rupl + ruwc +ru generations), and it's a really bulky meta. i like it so much because it's super balanced, and it's not so much about making plays as it is long term, strategic gameplay. i'm no expert on gsc, but from an outsider's perspective it's kind of similar in that the games can be super long, and you have to always be thinking about the end game as opposed to "oh man i hope i get this 50/50 right." i think the gsc comparison is kind of fair as well because it's super easy to put up consistent results if you're good at it. i went 7-1 last rupl, and im about to go either 7-3, or 8-2 this year (using 2 teams for most of the year) with pretty crumby luck.
tl;dr i can understand the criticism, but i feel most of it comes from people not taking the time to fully get into the tier.

are there any sets, either sm or oras, that you think you'd take credit for popularizing?

aye, yes. in sm i feel like i popularized xatu, sitrus pod, vikavolt (ik u used it first), sash rose, diancie (to an extent), scarf doom, hariyama, and sawk. for oras slow sub analytic magneton, block venu (fv used it first), and np slowking (many came up w it).

 

[roman]

hi sis

top 3 cutest ru pokes
favorite color
spl or snake

 

[Ajna]

hi sis

top 3 cutest ru pokes
favorite color
spl or snake

hi sis

only cute ru mon is espeon
i have 2. black and white.
snake cuz 2 rings, lol.

 

[MrAldo]

Hey, whats up.

How does one identify when you are being sarcastic or not? asking for a friend
We know you do mons and some fire music. Any other hobbies or interests?
Any pokemon you feel is underappreciated at this point in the meta?
How do you keep that drive of doing well and doing nice showcases after being pretty much a realized and recognizable player? Would be nice to see what you have to say about this one so the tier can remain competitive

And the typical question from a fancy journalist

if you were to turn into an animal, which one would you choose and why?

 

[Ajna]

Hey, whats up.

hi mega aldo

How does one identify when you are being sarcastic or not? asking for a friend

u don't, that's why it's fun :]

We know you do mons and some fire music. Any other hobbies or interests?

ty ty, uh i play basketball and follow the nba, i watch a lot of youtube, and i love in n out. my life is basically school, work, mons, and music tho lmao.

Any pokemon you feel is underappreciated at this point in the meta?

i think mismagius and salazzle are underappreciated. a ton of teams are weak to mismag atm, and i think standard z lazzle is borderline s rank rn, and ppl don't give it enough respect.

How do you keep that drive of doing well and doing nice showcases after being pretty much a realized and recognizable player? Would be nice to see what you have to say about this one so the tier can remain competitive

hmm, tough question. im a super competitive person, and being the best, or one of the best, at something feels really good to me. like i mentioned earlier, keeping the ru community competitive is really important to me as well because we used to be seen as like a meme tier, so that definitely contributes to it. i hope someone that's just starting to play can look at me and go, "i wanna be just as good as him," or "he sucks, i know i could do better." keeping the ru, and competitive pokemon community in general, alive and helping it to grow are big for me. i just hope i can inspire newer players.

if you were to turn into an animal, which one would you choose and why?

boring question noob. i will change animal to pokemon, and select scyther bc he's the best.

 

[termi]

helloo

if u had to start playing one tier besides ru which one would u choose and why

what do u hope next gen's ru meta will look like? in terms of like what mons u hope to see, which playstyles will dominate etc

if u could remove or change one battle mechanic/ability/move from the game what would u choose

what is your opinion on the political prisoner bobby shmurda

 

[Nat]

How do you feel about the direction the tier is going? Obviously the drops right before SPL changed a lot but the meta within the meta seems to have shifted quite a bit even without substantial drops (minus m-scept) since then.

How do you feel about the RU community in general? Feel free to leave likes/dislikes if that helps

What is the most tilted you've ever been playing pokemon?

Who is the worst player you've ever played?

How many durags do you own?

 

[KW]

most overrated RU pokemon?

most underrated RU pokemon?

most important “epiphany” in your competitive mons career?

 

[BKC]

favorite ou tier and why

thoughts on bw ru

any hopes for sword and shield (ie special intimidate or something), ru specific or in general

what have the 5 most pivotal moments in sm ru been? not necessarily just bans/drops, but discoveries of sets, important tournament games and what have you

best boondocks moment/episode

good luck with the music man. hope it works out.

 

[ManOfMany]

I've listened to a lot of your music on soundcloud and it's really good. As someone who also makes music I can tell you've put a ton of effort into it. But how did you get from producing music as just a hobby or for fun to getting this serious with it? What motivated you? Also, will you release some more music in the future outside of hip-hop genres?

I watch your replays in ORAS RU sometimes cause I find it really impressive how you use literally the same 4/5 mons again and again and keep winning. How do you manage to do that?

 

[lighthouses]

top 5 RU players excluding yourself

people who you think are toxic to the ru community

suspects/tiering decisions you disagree with

will you still be playing come next year?

 

[Ajna]

helloo

hlelo

if u had to start playing one tier besides ru which one would u choose and why

ou because it has the most comp. if i could dedicate more time to mons i would 100 percent pick it up, but i i wouldn't be able to manage playing ru and ou tours, and im never giving up ru.

what do u hope next gen's ru meta will look like? in terms of like what mons u hope to see, which playstyles will dominate etc

i hope the power creep won't make ru not feel more like uu than ru, and i wanna see a meta where bo, balance, and fat balance are all viable. seeing bo vs bo every game is mega dry at this point imo.

if u could remove or change one battle mechanic/ability/move from the game what would u choose

take z moves, give us 1.5 gems, and make gale wings good again. z move are super dumb, they're literally a no drawback item that makes fat really hard to use; gems would do a similar thing without giving the mon a knock of resistance, the ability to hit through tect, and an absurd nuke. there are mons like np lazzle and sd viriz where there's no reason to run z moves bc of how strong they make the mons. sd viriz and np lazzle would not be nearly as good without z moves, and im tired of the dumb 50 50s z moves cause; it makes it harder to be consistent. oh and then gale wings cuz i love fletch and talonflame.

what is your opinion on the political prisoner bobby shmurda

free shmurda. bro took 7 so that rowdy rebel could take 7; a true political hero.

How do you feel about the direction the tier is going? Obviously the drops right before SPL changed a lot but the meta within the meta seems to have shifted quite a bit even without substantial drops (minus m-scept) since then.

i enjoy how balanced the tier is at the moment. very rarely do games feel super matchup based, and i think that's really healthy for a tier. as i said though, ppl gotta be more creative, or the tier is gonna become rlly stale.

How do you feel about the RU community in general? Feel free to leave likes/dislikes if that helps

i love the ru community. i've had some gripes with leadership in the past, but i think they've done a better job than i've given them credit for. we have the most interactive/active playerbase/community, and i have a ton of good friends here. one thing i dislike is the attitude of the most of the newer players. there's often this helplessness of "there's no way i can win vs x player." i think ppl need to have a lot more confidence.

Who is the worst player you've ever played?

lmao uh im not sure, probably natalie.

How many durags do you own?

about like 13? lmao

most overrated RU pokemon?

hmm, prob zydog

most underrated RU pokemon?

gigalith

most important “epiphany” in your competitive mons career?

uhm, probably when i realized that i could beat anyone, or when i realized the worst thing that could happen in a game is that i lose, or someone makes fun of me. the former helped me build confidence, and the latter helped me to make big plays in games. a lot of newer players are scared to make that big late game double, or early hard read. just go for it. if you trust your gut you'll usually be right, and the worst that happens is you lose, and maybe someone tries to make fun of you.

favorite ou tier and why

probably oras because it's the only one i really played at all. sm seems really fun, it just feels a little late for me to pick it up.

thoughts on bw ru

bw ru could be extremely fun, but moltres and durant both needa be banned. even with those gone, there's a ton of rng with the 2x crits, and all the mons throwing out stone edges n shit, but those are the big mons i feel stop people from being consistently great. lo tres throwing out 70 percent accurate hurricanes that 2hko everything if they hit, and cb durant throwing out 80 percent accurate x scissors and superpowers that kill everything make the tier really uncompetitive imo. that said, i did sit down and really build 2 teams for finals, and i enjoyed myself.

what have the 5 most pivotal moments in sm ru been? not necessarily just bans/drops, but discoveries of sets, important tournament games and what have you

durant leaving in early sm bc it helped us to develop the balanced meta we have now, the rise and fall of milotic and the refresh haze wars, golisopod being realized as a legitimate threat and mon, me and nat showing that mainers could finally dominate the tier, and nat winning back to back seasonals without dropping a set (and only 2 games the whole time).

best boondocks moment/episode

one of my fav quotes, and then "they found out about raul!" lmaoo

good luck with the music man. hope it works out.

thanks bro, that means a lot.

I've listened to a lot of your music on soundcloud and it's really good. As someone who also makes music I can tell you've put a ton of effort into it. But how did you get from producing music as just a hobby or for fun to getting this serious with it? What motivated you? Also, will you release some more music in the future outside of hip-hop genres?

thank you man, means the world. i'd say i just can't see myself working a real job for the rest of my life, and i have a real love for the shit. my dad was a working musician in new york for years as well, and he was so close to making it, but he stopped when he had me, so i wanna make it for both of us. and yes! im putting out music in a couple weeks, and the songs are like alternative/rnb/rap/rock fusions. im super excited cuz im stepping out of my comfort zone and trying to develop my own sound. and what type of music do you make bro?

I watch your replays in ORAS RU sometimes cause I find it really impressive how you use literally the same 4/5 mons again and again and keep winning. How do you manage to do that?

i'd just say practice. i've played a stupid amount of oras game over the years, and the meta hasn't really changed. in the summer ssnl like 4 years ago i was still in high school, and feli was just about to go into uni, and we were complete nerds and just played all day. we'd literally play like 30 matches a day, and when we weren't playing i was building. in regards to using the same mons, it doesn't rlly matter in oras. the tier isn't so much about surprise factor as it gameplan.

top 5 RU players excluding yourself

nat, evi, col, aim, windy

people who you think are toxic to the ru community

nat, me, shake, and the ppl that don't actually play the tier but post thoughts in the np thread and vr. me n nat do more good than we are toxic tho + i love shake.

suspects/tiering decisions you disagree with

nothing i really disagree with, but i think the tier could probably handle sharpedo at this point now that we have way better removal, and i wish that we could complex ban celebrate on melo and keep melo in the tier, or just ban celebrate in general. cm three atks melo was a great mon to have in the tier imo.

will you still be playing come next year?

hopefully ya :] will you?