Project Player of the Week - diegoyuhhi

czim · 2025-11-25T06:28:53-0500

Approved by sleid and Tuthur | Amazing Art by Albatross and butchered by me | Thread formatting stolen from Jett, who I thank for starting this project in the first place
(Interview Date: 24th of November, 2025)

Hey friends and welcome to this edition of ZU ~~Palpitoad~~ Player of the Week. I'm very excited to be doing these again and I hope you enjoy reading these interviews as much as I enjoy making them! This is the project where we learn about some of ZU's finest community members in the form of interviews. In this week's edition, we are interviewing someone who is not only (yes, another) one of our Room Moderators, but also (yes, another lol) a member of our beloved SV ZU council. But most importantly, this person was also my manager in the latest ZUPL! Without further ado,

a cartoon character with a purple outfit is standing next to another character

a blue and red monster with sharp claws is standing on the grass

diegoyuhhi !!
Favorite Pokémon: :musharna:

(2024 ZU Circuit Champion, Room Moderator and SV ZU Council Member)

Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Musharna!

*muushaaaaaarna*

Hello diegoyuhhi and welcome to another edition of everyone's favorite project, ZU Player of the Week! To start the interview off, the most simple question of all, how are you today?

I'm doing fine, thank you! today was a very cold day and i had classes until late, but now i'm home and i can finally relax

That's good to hear! What can you tell us about who you are in real life? What are you studying?

my name in real life is Diego (shocking, i know), i'm 19 years old, and i live in a small village in north-eastern italy, together with my parents and smaller sister. last year i finished high school, where i studied languages, but i grew really tired of all the literature, so i decided to pick up computer science for university, and that's what i'm studying now

Living in a small italian village seems pretty cool to be honest. How is your life there? Do you enjoy living there or do you want to move to a bigger city?

honestly pretty chill, life is very calm here, though sometimes you do wish there was more stuff to do. recently, the public pool (one of the only real activities here) closed down due to lack of funding, and it's really starting to feel like the village is dying down. fortunately i don't live too far from the province capital, which is a decently large city, so i can always go there for activities (and for studying lol). who knows, maybe i'll move there in the future?

Ah, so you go to a bigger city to study, that makes sense. So you probably have the best of both worlds there. Why did you choose computer science? Seems like a big change from languages

honestly, it was mostly process of elimination lol. i knew i wanted a course that didn't have to do with literature or anything history-related, since those were the bane of my existence in high school. i knew stuff like law and economics never interested me, and "pure" scientific courses like maths or physics somewhat scared me, since i had a severe lack of basis, due to not having studied them much in hs. so in the end, after debating between computer science and engineering a lot, i settled on the former

Fair, it is a very interesting field, especially considering how integrated computers are to our daily routines, so I understand why you picked it. What are your interests outside of obviously playing Pokémon? What do you like doing in your free time?

my main interest outside of mons is definitely music. i've been playing the guitar for 9 years at this point, at first going to music school, but for the last 5-6 years i've just been self teaching. also, my sister is a bassist, so for the last few years i've been teaching myself some bass with her help. during the covid lockdown in 2020 i also picked up music producing, and it's been a passion i heavily cultivate since then. i produce a lot of different genres, from edm (mainly stuff like liquid drum&bass and jungle) to rap beats, which i've been trying to sell to artists with varied success. other than that, i also listen to a lot of music, i like cycling, going out with my friends, cooking occasionally, and playing videogames.

That's a lot for me to work with, very nice. Let's start with music! How did you choose the guitar? Did you start with it or did you play any other instrument when you were young?

i picked up the recorder at first when i was 6 and studied it for 2 years at music school at the introductory course, then i decided to try piano. after around a year and a half, i realised i wasn't having fun practicing the instrument, so i decided to drop it. a friend of mine was going to guitar school so i decided to give it a shot and fell in love with the instrument. i mostly play acoustic guitar, though recently i got myself an electric one, since me and a few friends have set up a band and i found myself having to do the solo guitar, since the other guitarist sings as well and as such he prefers to do rhythm.

That's very cool. So you have a band too? What genre do you guys play? Are you planning on writing your own songs?

yes, we're called the Speech Bubbles! we only began practicing around 2 months ago so we haven't established yet what our main genre is. right now we mostly play '90s/'00s rock and italian indie pop, but that could very well vary. we haven't thought about writing songs yet, but sometimes we get into very cool jam sessions that we wish in hindsight we had recorded

That's very nice. I hope someday you guys get famous and then I'll be able to say "that guy was my ZUPL manager once"! Now let's focus on the producing thing, how does that work? How do you sell it to artists?

at first i was producing on a free online program called Soundtrap; it's decent but a lot of useful features are locked behind the premium subscription, and many more are just lacking, so it's not very professional. i do still think it's pretty decent for starting off, since it's very user friendly and it has a lot of very nice sounds already integrated in it, on top of being browser based. a few years ago i decided to bite the bullet and bought FL Studio, which is probably the most popular DAW (digital audio workstation) to exist. at first i got myself a lot of free sounds and samples from various websites, and later down the line i also bought some plugins for more sounds and effects. as for selling to artists, i have a beatstars account, which is a platform where you can sell and buy beats. i've sold a few beats on there, though really not many. the other way i try to get in touch with artists is via collaborations with their followers that they organise, and right now i've only received some praise by a few artists but no real placement. guess i'll have to keep trying lmao

Looks like you're on the right path. That seems very interesting! Since you're very musically inclined, what are your biggest musical influences? What are your favorite artists? What genres do you like listening to the most?

that's a very hard question to answer, since i listen to a huge amount of different genres lmao. i range from italian rap (mainly underground) and indie, to liquid drum&bass and jungle, to bossa nova, to synthwave, to '90s rock, and many more. recently my genre obsession has been glitchpop and other experimental electronic genres; through my listens i've discovered that italy has a very sick glitchpop scene, and i fell in love with the genre. as for my favourite artists, i'll give you one for each genre: for italian rap i'd say Mattak; for italian indie Ticky B; for liquid dnb i don't have a clear favourite so i'll say Spor; for bossa nova i'll go with Toco (massive shoutout to the album Memoria); for synthwave for sure Home (i need Before the Night back on spotify PLEASE); for rock i'll go with Red Hot Chili Peppers, my sister's favourite band, that has managed to slip a lot through my listens; and for italian glitchpop probably EMMA, a crazy good (and also mentally crazy probably) producer which makes some incredibly weird stuff. his latest album "ERA L'INIZIO" is most likely gonna be my album of the year.

Can't say I've heard of most of those, except for RHCP which I like very much lol. I'll check them out though, especially the Bossa Nova one. Nice to see you like a brazilian rhythm. You also said you like cycling, how often do you do it? Do you prefer cycling on the road or off-road? Any other sports you enjoy?

i cycle to get to a lot of places to be fair, my village isn't huge and it's very safe for bikes so very often when i need to get somewhere i just take my bike. every now and then i also like to do long cycles through the countryside, though with winter approaching i've been doing them less and less frequently. it's just a way to keep in shape. as for other sports, i don't practice nor follow much; i used to watch a good amount of football (soccer), i was an AC Milan fan, but i've kinda grown out of it. i still watch italy's games though, especially with friends. i also like every now and then to play soccer with my friends; i'm not very good at it but neither are most of them, so we have fun in being bad together

Not the best time to be an Italian football fan, for sure. Not only the national team is doing bad, but the clubs also aren't performing particularly well in the Champions League. You also said you like cooking. What do you like cooking? Any favourite cuisines? Do you get mad if we put any unusual toppings on pizza?

i mostly like to experiment in the kitchen: i come with an idea, i don't look at any recipe, i look at what ingredients i have and i make something work from there. sometimes i discover good recipes, sometimes i end up taking two slices of bread and putting plums inside. anyway, one of my main points of experimentation is pasta, and especially sauces; i keep trying new stuff to season pasta with and most of the times it works. considering what i've done to my own traditional kitchen i really can't be mad with whatever you put on pizza lmao

Diego is out here challenging the cooking traditionalist italian stereotype, I respect it. What is a cool combination that ended up working for your recipes? Now we have to know your secrets

canned tuna in amatriciana sauce is most likely one of the weirdest experiments that ended up working, it's genuinely pretty damn good, i still do it every once in a while. apart from that, i often like to combine sweet and savory; stuff like pears + blue cheese, lemon + licorice, or caramelised onions + chilies are interesting combinations that can be worth a shot

Nice, cooking is a great skill to develop, since we need to eat everyday lol! You also mentioned you like gaming! What are some of your favorite games? And most importantly, have you finished Silksong?

some of my favourite games of all time are mainly my most played childhood titles: pokemon platinum, inazuma eleven 1 and 2, and above all, the professor layton series. when i was a kid i replayed the original trilogy over and over on my nintendo ds, and when i got older i also got to play the second trilogy and loved it. they hold a special place in my heart and i'm massively excited for the return of the series. as for silksong, exams and other irl business have got in the way of playing, but i've finished act 1 and i've been slowly progressing through act 2, though the game has been feeling harder and harder as i go on

Hope you get to finish it, but yeah, it is not an easy game. Silksong has become one of my favorite games of all time! Before we move into the next part of the interview, it is time for the one and only pet tax™. Do you have a pet? And if so, are you willing to share a picture of them with us?

i do yea, i have a cat, his name is Tom! we got him from a cat shelter a little over a year ago at this point, and he quickly became part of the family. he's a bit of a scamp, often bringing dead mice or parts of dead birds into the house, but he's very cute, especially when he sleeps. i don't have many cool pictures of him so here's this one i took today while he was sleeping

Cute picture of diegoyuhhi's cat Tom chilling

Nice, another pet tax™ win! Tom looks very comfy sleeping! Is he friendly? What's the grossest thing he ever brought to you guys as a gift?

he is very friendly yup, with strangers as well. not really gross but there was this one afternoon this summer where he kept bringing lizard tails into the house and leaving them next to his water bowl, i think at one point there must've been like 7-8 of them lmao

That's not as bad as mice lol. He just likes collecting things! Let's move onto mons now! How did you first get in touch with Showdown and Smogon? Also, how did you end up all the way down in ZU?

i started playing on showdown in summer 2019 after a pokemon youtuber i followed organised a random battles tournament. i then kept playing, at first just random tiers (not only zu but 1v1, monotype, and doubles ou) while interacting a lot in the italian room, which is probably the main reason why i kept playing in the first place. in late 2020/early 2021, i was playing a lot of zu, and so i decided to join the room to confront other people about the meta. needless to say that after so many years it really became my main tier. the reason why i joined in the first place is probably because pokemon like musharna and heatmor, two of my favourites of all time, were ranked all the way down here, even if they were probably unusable even back then

I stand by Musharna being usable in SS ZU lol. Think people take it for granted but it is insanely bulky! What is your favorite ZU metagame? How would you rank them from most to least favorite?

my favourite zu metagame is definitely SS, it's the one i have the most fun building in and playing, i think it's very close to being a perfect tier by my standards. my rankings right now would be SS > ADV > SV > ORAS > SM > BW > DPP > RBY > GSC. adv i picked up this year a little before zupl after not playing it seriously since the first ever unfreeze, and i gotta say it's quite a cool tier, especially now with clamp banned. i built a lot of stuff during cup, and it really doesn't feel overwhelming to build in it either. sv i think is pretty healthy rn, especially compared to some previous metas, but i still do not like tera as a mechanic and it can feel hard to cover everything in the builder (even though admittedly, tera can help mitigate that). oras is very overwhelming in the builder with how many threats it has but i find it pretty enjoyable in game. sm is a fine metagame, though a bit too offensive for my liking. bw and dpp are also fine, i just don't particularly enjoy some dynamics. rby is not my thing, and gsc, despite the pre-unfreeze version being one of my favourites, is just very bad right now, every game feels like a shit fest where you have to dance on thin ice to not leave yourself vulnerable to being swept at any moment, and sometimes you just don't have an answer to something.

Fair, but ADV is #1. Since you're a SV ZU council member, let's discuss the current metagame a bit. How do you feel about it? Do you like how Braviary, Grafaiai and especially Venusaur influenced the meta?

i think venusaur was a godsend, i really like the options that it gives in the builder. there's a very serious argument to be made for it to be the best mon in the meta right now, though i still think mesprit is superior. i haven't found it broken even though some people complained about it, i think it's very healthy on the contrary and it doesn't feel overwhelming to answer. braviary was also a very nice addition, removal is always appreciated, and it has some good set variety too; i've been building a lot with bulky defog and bulk up, but agility power herb is also a good set. grafaiai i haven't used much but it's definitely a good option to have in the builder, both the prankster pivot set and the poison point scarf one are cool in the right teams, especially the former can be a good anti-cheese measure which actually feels good to use right now, unlike whimsicott

Yeah, they were cool additions in my eyes too! If you could retest something from ZUBL, which Pokémon would you choose? Do you think anything is worth reintroducing into the tier?

i really don't think any mon in zubl right now is worth bringing back, they've already showed why they're busted and they're fine staying where they are. if we're talking about mons that rose that i would bring back, i think both qwilfish formes were very good to have in the metagame and really felt healthy overall. same goes for brute bonnet, i really miss the strong sucker punch it offered, and its typing would be quite nice in the metagame too

Not even Bellossom? I could see a case for bringing it back considering all 3 new mons handle it quite well! You also said SS is your favorite. If you could drop 3 Pokémon from PU to help the tier, which ones would you choose? I thought 1 would be too easy because the answer would obviously be Eldegoss (I think)

as i've stated many times before, eldegoss would be a godsend for ss zu; a ground resisting spinner with regen and options like aroma would be very nice into the metagame without being busted, since the things it offers can already somewhat be done by other mons, it's just nice compression. another mon that felt really good was wishiwashi; in ss zu we lack good fat water types, and wishiwashi would be an interesting pick to handle stuff like klinklang, rapidash, and many more. as for the last one, i'll stay on the train of the bulky water types and go for lanturn: a less-traditional volt immune that also offers a kk check, pivoting, and cleric capabilities thanks to its access to heal bell. lack of recovery would stop it from taking over the metagame but it would still be a very solid pick

Good picks, would basically be mine too with Garbodor over Lanturn! Do you play any formats outside of ZU? If so, which ones are your favorites?

i do sometimes play other tiers yes. my main interests outside of zu are adv ou, draft and lgpe. adv ou i picked up about two years ago after a friend of mine started really getting into the tier and suggested me to try it; it's good fun with a solid mixture of playstyles and good skill expression. personally i'm a big tss and spikes offense fan, you can never go wrong with those. draft i don't play too often because of the commitment it requires to join a league but i really enjoy the counterteaming format; i play some speed tours in the draft room every once in a while so you can catch me there. as for lgpe i've gotten into the format somewhat recently but i really enjoy it, the lack of options but with modern mechanic is pretty refreshing to play. i especially enjoy the lower tiers; i made it to finals of the latest lgpe uu cup, and i went 11-2 combined in lgpe ru between lgpl i and lgpl ii. this latest lgpl i managed too but it was a disaster lmao, i had some good fun at least

Ah, some different tiers here! Now let's go into the fun questions. Who do you think is the most likely ZUer to put pineapple in their pizza?

i'll go for Zpice and zause; idk why but they give me vibes of people who would enjoy the cursed combo

Username checks out lol. Now for the second one... You're now a famous musician and you have to form an entourage of ZUers to accompany you in your world tours. Who would you choose and why?

hmmm that's a good question... i know sleid makes music, or at least used to, so he would be perfect. THE_CHUNGLER and BloodAce could be great technicians i feel like, and skrimps could come to lighten up the mood

Good picks! Do you have a team you would like to share with us? Add a description if you can!

(super)

(dark)
this is a team i've shared many times, but i still think it's my favourite ss zu team i've ever built. i built it all the way back during olympiad 2, when i was on blaze; i didn't think it was the type of team that could fit fish (which was starting ss for us that year) so i kept it for myself and used it in many many occasions. this team can play very aggressive, thanks to many offensive mons in the team: the combination of sd qwilfish + resttalk darkvally is able to both put pressure early on and set up in the endgame to win; belgium duggy, despite being very uncommon back then, seemed like a good fit, offering a good combination of defensive utility and offensive prowess; and scarf jynx is a very threatening mon on top of pretty nice speed control. it can also play defensively though: coal and gour-xl form a very nice hazard stacking core together with duggy, and every single one of the offensive mons having some kind of defensive utility really helps keep the team together. a few cool techs worth mentioning are the bulkier spread on qwil, to improve matchups such as rapidash, and heal bell on jynx's last slot, as a last effort click that can save you in some scenarios. team is somewhat weak to a well played skuntank but it's playable

Cool team, I like some Coalossal love in SS! Unfortunately, we are nearing the end of this interview! Is there anything you want to say? Is there anyone you want to shout out?

just thank you for having me, it's truly been a pleasure!

And with this we end another issue of Player of the Week! Thank you diego for being here with me today! Until next week, everyone!

Feel free to ask diegoyuhhi any questions you want!

Apagogie · 2025-11-25T06:51:46-0500

It is the second time Musharna is taken since I also picked Musharna as my Pokémon for the interview; you have great taste. More seriously, I really enjoyed the interview because you consistently play SV and SS and I see you as one of the most proactive players when it comes to theorymonning about the current gen metagame on Discord. It’s always insightful to hear your perspective on recent trends.

Anyway:

My partner and I are thinking about visiting Milan once our budget looks okay. Do you think it’s a good city to visit or would you recommend somewhere else? We mainly want to see the mountains which is why we were thinking about Milan.

Also, I’ve been wanting to revisit SS. Let’s forget Haunter and Turtonator for now, do you think Ninjask could realistically be tested in an SS Olympiads slot? What would be the counterplay? And would it be an interesting addition to the metagame?

Next, could you rank these potential Pokémon in the current ZU: Zangoose, Eelektross, Toedscruel, Veluza, Medicham and Rotom-Frost? Are they all solid or are some of them questionable? And which one would you be most excited to build a team around?

Finally, imagine you suddenly get promoted to ZU room owner and feel the urge to reform the Discord server. Which channels would you delete or merge, which would you rename and is there any new channel you would add?

zause · 2025-11-25T07:01:23-0500

I'm going to deny the pineapple on pizza allegations, but I have a friend who says he puts bananas on pizza. What are your thoughts on that Diego?

kriegueur · 2025-11-25T07:58:11-0500

czim said:
inazuma eleven 1 and 2

which version of Inazuma eleven 2 did you play ?
Also what do you think is the best game of the series and why is it inazuma eleven 3 ?
Also curious if you use Max on all your teams

THE_CHUNGLER · 2025-11-25T08:29:05-0500

Your life is on the line, your captor says you must cook a meal they will enjoy or you’ll be executed. What are you cooking for them? Whats Diego’s ace in the hole meal that you know anyone will like?

Project Player of the Week - diegoyuhhi

czim

Apagogie

Zee you later

zause

Sigma Gamer

kriegueur

THE_CHUNGLER