Approved by 5gen & S1nn0hC0nfirm3d | Amazing Art by Albatr0ss and butchered by me | Thread formatting stolen from Jett
(Interview Date: 05th to 07th of November, 2021)
Hey friends and welcome to ZU
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Absol!
*aaabsoool*
Hey Landon, how are you doing today?
i'm doing good! i definitely need to catch up on some sleep though! how about yourself?
Same deal, had a rough work week here and am looking forward to the weekend lol. Anyways, I'm glad to have you here on Player of the Week! First off, can you tell us a bit about yourself outside of PS/Smogon?
Yeah, I get that. As a college student I'm always waiting for the weekend to come. I'm currently a full time college student and am in my freshman year. I'm actually still undecided on my major, so I'm not too sure what I want to do just yet. I spend a lot of my free time involving myself in sports. As a matter of fact, I currently play American football at the college I'm at. Other than that I try to live life to the fullest!
Yeah, college can definitely be rough sometimes! You said you're still undecided on your major, but is there anything you're currently leaning to? What fields interest you the most?
I wouldn't say anything is set in stone yet, but I do have some interests. Environmental studies, wildlife biology, exercise and sports science, and finally finance are some fields I'm the most interested in. It's quite the diverse mix, so picking one is going to be tough.
That seems like some very different paths yeah, but you do seem to have a lot of interests regarding stuff that could be done in open spaces! Following that, you said you play Handegg, oops I mean American Football, for your College. What position do you play in? If it works out for you do you see yourself following this career path too? Also are there any other sports that interest you?
I currently play cornerback for my college. I definitely won’t pursue a career out of it. I heavily considered not playing in college; however, when most of my school gets paid for because of it I’m all in! I also have interests in baseball and basketball as I’ve played those my whole life too.
Well, since you look very into sports, do you also like watching them? Any teams you support?
I thoroughly enjoy watching sports. Some of the teams I favor are the Chicago Bears, Chicago Bulls. St Louis Cardinals, and Illinois Fighting Illini. Other than those I’ll watch pretty much any team.
That's a lot of teams. What are your other gaming interests outside of Pokémon?
I honestly don't play a lot of video games outside of Pokemon; however, I do enjoy playing Minecraft, most of the COD games, GTA V, NBA 2k22, Madden, and Super Smash Bros.
Great picks. What kind of music do you like? Any favorite artists?
I would say my taste in music is quite varied. Some of the different genres I listen to are hip hop, dance/edm, electronic, indie, alternative, good pop, and country. Picking an absolute favorite artist would be almost impossible for me. Here's a list of some of my more favorite ones in no particular order: 03 Greedo, Kayne West, Joey Bada$$, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Kendrick Lamar, Smino, Denzel Curry, Lil Uzi Vert, Drake, Kid Cudi, A$AP Rocky, Mac Miller, R3HAB, Avicii, Dennis Lloyd, Tiesto, Felly, Daniel Caesar, Frank Ocean, Happy Birthday Calvin, Foster the People, and Jeremy Zucker.
I don't personally know many of those outside of the very mainstream ones like Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar and Avicii (rip), but I'm also a Foster the People fan, Houdini is one of my overall favorite songs! Now let's get into movies/shows, what do you like to watch? Any favorites?
Again, I have so many favorites when it comes to tv shows and movies. I'll also watch pretty much any genre of movie as well! Some of my top tvs shows are Game of Thrones, Vikings, The Peaky Blinders, Demon Slayer, Into the Badlands, Love, Death & Robots, Castlevania, The Sopranos, American Horror Story, and the Office are all ones that come to mind. Now onto the movies! The Harry Potter series I can rewatch anytime because I enjoyed it so much. I also love most the Marvel movies, Star Wars series, Lord of the Rings + Hobbit series, and the Batman trilogy. Finally, some other movies that I thoroughly liked are: Scarface, The Shawshank Redemption, Django Unchained, and Pulp Fiction.
Lot of great stuff there. I personally also really like your animated show picks and the Tarantino movies. Now let's change the topic a bit. How did you first get started in PS/Smogon? How did you end up in ZU?
I first joined PS about 5 years ago. I really have no clue how I found out about it, but I spent my days playing pretty much only Gen 6 PU. I soon got into the tier of 1v1 and for a solid 3 years played that, PU, NU, and RU. After playing day in and day out I ended up taking about a 6 month long break from it. When I came back from my hiatus I dived into the tier of Gen 7 ZU. I really enjoyed the tier and the ability to use some of the less common/good mons in the game. Because of that and the people I met in the community, I ended up sticking with it for a long while and still enjoy the tier.
You've been around ZU for while! What are your thoughts on the current ZU metagame and on the ongoing Rotom suspect?
I actually like the metagame right now. Besides a few mons, I think the metagame is pretty balanced which allows me to experiment and use some creative sets/unused mons. I'm still undecided on if I want Rotom gone or if it's fine in the tier. It has such a variety of sets and not too mention it's pretty easy to throw it on a team. I am happy that it's being suspected and it will be interesting to see what the community thinks of it as well.
Yeah, Rotom has been a very controversial subject for me as well. To be completely honest, I still haven't made up my mind on how I'm voting. Is there anything you'd want to retest from ZUBL? Also, is there any mon you'd like to get from PU?
Honestly, I'm pretty content with not retesting any of the ZUBL mons. I'd kinda like to see Claydol drop though.
Claydol would be interesting for sure. Good utility while having a decent MU vs some meta staples like Rhydon. Since you've been around since the SM ZU days too, do you have any thoughts on the metagame? There was discussion for bans on Exeggutor, Swanna and Combusken. How do you feel on those?
I personally liked Z-Moves as it changed how my opponents and I played the game. Z-Moves also allowed for some creative freedom. I think Exeggutor is probably the most broken out of those and wouldn't mind seeing it banned. Swanna is cool because it has a variety of sets and Z-Moves make it even more scary. I don't personally think it should be banned though. Combusken is something I'm not quite sure about. It can be dealt with, but it does restrict teambuilding a bit since you have to bring one of the mons that can actually deal with it like Mareanie. So, I'd say Exeggutor would be something I'd ban and then I'm not entirely sure on Swanna and Combusken.
I kinda share the same opinion. I want Eggy to go and maybe Combusken too. Swanna is fine though! Anyways, now for a less serious question! Since you like American Football, if you could pick one game that happened in the past to watch it live (or play in), which one would it be?
If I could pick one game that happened in the past to watch it would probably be the Bears vs Saints game in 1984. That game would be cool because Walter Payton passed Jim Brown for the NFL's all-time leading rusher and I'm a big Bears fan.
That's nice. I don't know much about the game myself but there's always so much history in sports and we've only been around for a little part of it. Do you have a team you'd like to share with us? Could be from any gen
Of course!
In fact, this was the team I was going to bring against you for ZUPL, but that game sadly didn't end up happening. For some odd reason I really like using specs Lilligant as it hits quite hard. The team overall I've found to be pretty solid and enjoy using it.
Thanks for the team. I like how we've been able to use more and more niche breakers as the meta evolves. We're starting to wrap this interview up so, is there anything you want to say? Any advice for newer players? Anyone you want to shout out?
Some advice I can give to newer players is to keep playing games, whether on ladder or tournaments. By playing games you get accustomed to common sets/mons/playstyles and start to learn when to predict plays as well. Also visit some of the rooms in PS and visit Smogon. They are all helpful tools for getting newer players started! There's a good amount of people to shout out, so I'll make it more broad. Shoutout to the SUU room, Zu room and community, and my 1v1 buds.
That's it then! Thank you for being in Player of the Week and hopefully you enjoyed being interviewed here!
I appreciate you having me and I appreciate you doing these interviews! The idea of these interviews are very cool and it helps the community get to know some of the players.
Feel free to ask to Landon any questions you want!
