Project Player of the Week - lettuce

czim · 2025-12-09T07:36:07-0500

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: 04th of December, 2025)

Hey friends and welcome to this edition of ZU ~~Palpitoad~~ Player of the Week. I'm very excited to be doing these interviews again and I hope you enjoy reading them 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 have with us one of our beloved room voices, and someone who hasn't been part of the community very long! You could also probably find this person in Zpice's farm or at the nearest supermarket, in the fresh produce section. Without further ado...

a couple of cartoon characters blowing bubbles in the sky

a bunch of pink pokemon with green leaves and the words go my hoppips on the bottom

a purple and white explosion in the sky with a blue background .

lettuce !!
Favorite Pokémon: :primarina:

(ZU Room Voice, Vegetable)

Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Hoppip!

*hoooppiiiiip*

Hello Lettuce and welcome to another edition of ZU Player of the Week! For starters, the most simple question of all, how are you doing today?

I'm doing pretty good! My sleep schedule is pretty bad so I just woke up, but so far the 20ish minutes I've been up have at least resulted in coffee so I cant complain

Well, at least you have some coffee to help you out. Why is your sleep schedule messed up? Working, studying or something else?

Work and the fact that my nighttime routine includes opening YouTube until 1am lol. I work nights at a front desk and do audiovisual tech on the weekends, so I'm home at 10pm on a usual day. I feel like I could be a morning person if I had something to do in the mornings and pushed that 1am to like 11:30 or something reasonable, but it's not like I have work in the morning that I need to wake up for so I kinda just sleep in

Ah that's fine, sometimes people just have different schedules. I used to be more of a night person before too. What kind of audiovisual tech work do you do? Is that something you had to study for?

I work at a church so all I need to do is put song lyrics up on some projector screens. It wasn't something I needed to study for, I actually needed volunteer hours when I got the job but my boss said 'ok cool we're paying you,' and outside of college I've been there since. I recognized the equipment from doing the morning annoucements in high school (we ran it like a news studio so we had some fancy equipment), and I've done other AV tech work in college

Cool stuff, seems like an easy job and the extra money seems nice! Other than the stuff you already mentioned, what else can you tell us about yourself in real life?

I live in US West and not California, I'm 21, and I graduated college early with a BA in Journalism, and I've been "job searching" for the past year in this economy. My minor was graphic design and I guess you can say graphic design is my passion. My least favorite font is Cooper Black, mostly becuase I can and do recognize it everywhere and it bothers me.

Some things for me to work with here, very nice! Why did you choose to study Journalism? Would you prefer working with it or Graphic Design? And I thought Papyrus or Comic Sans were more hated, do you like those ones?

I've kinda geared more towards graphic design because when I started with just journalism I started to miss doing graphic design, and I walked through the arts building at college one day and they had some graphic design projects hanging up and I really wanted to do that project. I got into journalism in high school and did enough for the morning announcements/news show to where the school knew me by my full name because I'd announce it every other morning lol. I didn't really know what I wanted to do when I entered college between design and journalism, and there was enough design in the Journalism school where I felt like I could make it a later issue. As for the fonts, I don't have any strong feelings towards Papyrus even though I love the SNL sketch, and at one point Comic Sans was the font I hated the most but I kinda grew out of it because I hated Helvetica more (for being everywhere again), and eventually Cooper Black took over the title.

Yeah, that skit is legendary lol. My girlfriend is a Graphic Designer so i know a little bit about fonts! At least I think the two fields can kinda complement each other a bit, so it probably should work in your favor! How did you first got into doing the news on your school? Any memorable ones you had to do?

Oh nice, I always love hearing about other people that know abt graphic design because you learn to see the world differently. I got into it bc some people from my future high school came to my middle school announcements class and showcased what they did there, and I fell in love. I haven't thought abt some of the stories I did in high school in a while, but I think one of my favorite ones was when I interviewed the new graphic design teacher lol. Covid was during my junior year in high school, and I did a lot of work for the announcements then, with some highlights being a commercial where I flopped on my bed as a PSA to not do that during class, a story where people from a local museum showcased stuff to a history class that I sat in the zoom call for while also in my virtual spanish class, and one where the fire alarm went off (late enough in covid where teachers were back in the building but students weren't) and it was goofy telling that story. I think I used firetruck stock footage as B-roll for it to make it seem scarier than it was

That's nice, a lot of cool ones lol. You seem like you had your fun in it! Let's change the topic a bit. What are your interests outside of Pokémon? What do you like doing in your free time?

Mostly graphic design and watching youtube until 1am lol. Obviously I like video games, but I haven't played much outside of PS these days. I'm a huge mario kart fan but I didn't feel like I wanted to buy a Switch 2 just for the new Mario Kart World, even though I'm really excited to hopefully use a friend's switch 2 soon bc he's somehow a bigger mario kart fan than I am. But outside of that I've played a lot of soccer growing up and I still miss playing as much as I used to.

Let's start with the Youtube you already mentioned. What do you usually watch to stay up that late? Any favorite channels?

When I'm being intentional with what I watch, it's usually Hermitcraft/Minecraft videos. I really like how creative the server is, and I think if I had a favorite hermit it'd be either Grian (bc obviously) or Mumbo (his builder arc has been fun to witness). I also like watching drag content, but I dont have a specific artist I folllow. Oh, and pokemon content obviously, again nobody in particular

So you like Minecraft then? Do you also play it frequently or mostly just watch people playing it?

I don't have the commitment to really play Minecraft long-term. If there was a ZU server I'd offer a medium level commitment for like a month and then disappear. I played minecraft growing up but I don't play it much now. My building skills are a level behind what I think i can do even though I don't think I'm bad

I usually don't commit that much into games like that as well, to be honest. I often tend to drop them if they start feeling like a job or if I feel I could be using that time to do something else lol. You also mentioned you played, and may I correct you, football growing up. Do you practice any sport at the moment? Is there any sport you also like to watch?

Yeah, somehow I didn't learn how to play american football until middle school, but the football the rest of the world knows that I call soccer is one of my favorite sports. I played from like age 3 to when I left for college. I always played at a low/rec level but I'd say I'm not bad. I played a lot of defense and shifted towards midfield as I got older and they started letting me play on bigger fields, but on some teams I'd fit more in an offensive position bc I kept making runs bc nobody else did. I don't play soccer rn except for the once a week a group I played with before college meets up if I somehow don't work on a weekday, and working nights makes me feel like it'll be hard to commit to more soccer. I don't watch much sports but I should def get into soccer more. My parents are fans of Liverpool/Arsenal and I know a bit abt English football but I don't follow it

That's fine, sometimes we just don't have the time to commit to stuff like this. I'm not huge on european football, but that's usually where the best players are, so it's nice to follow. What kind of music/podcasts do you usually listen to? Any favorite artists and genres?

Not much of a podcast person, but I describe my music taste as that of a stereotypical white girl. My top 2 artists are Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, and I like a lot of other pop artists like Chappel Roan and Avril Lavinge. I'm not much into rap/hip hop but I should get more into it, I need my songs to have lyrics and from the little bit of Eminem I've consumed I would like that genre

Lana is an excellent artist, one of my personal favorites as well. What's your favorite album of hers? Mine is a toss-up between Ultraviolence and Norman F Rockwell! Nothing bad about liking pop music, it is pop for a reason! Also, what's your favorite song of hers?

I think my favorite album is definitely Born to Die, listening to it on repeat got me interested in hearing more of her songs and I don't think there's a song on that album I'd skip. My current favorite song is probably A&W though. I recently listened to Did you know there's a tunnel under ocean boulevard (the ablum) on repeat bc I was in the mood for that vibe, and I think that song is just a masterpiece. Honorable mentions to Carmen and National Anthem though.

A&W is really good for sure, one of my favorites. If I had to pick some favorites today, the top 3 would be, in no specific order, Cruel World, Old Money and White Dress. I like most of her work. Anyways, i forgot to mention but Avril Lavigne is also a good one, and that's from my generation lol! Do you have any favorite movies, tv shows or anime?

With how much youtube I watch it's kinda odd that I don't watch a lot of movies and TV shows. I know a lot of anime fans so it's a bit weird that I also don't watch much anime either. I think The Amazing Digital Circus is probably my current favorite show (and surely it counts). Some other highlights are Miraculous which I need to finish, Worst Cooks in America which I am not caught up on, and Demon Slayer, which is probably my favorite anime that I watched over my cousin's shoulder

Solid picks, Demon Slayer was pretty good from what I remember, but I haven't watched the whole thing! It is now time for everyone's favorite question, the Pet Tax™. Do you have a pet? And if so, would you be willing to share a picture of them with us? Remember, Player of the Week only survives because of cute animal pictures!

Sorry to disappoint, but I don't have any pets unfortunately. The only pets my parents let me get were fish, and I've killed 11 of them somehow. The first 9 I had no idea what I was doing and the tank wasn't ready for them. When I noticed the next 2 were sick, I walked in the pet store for help, but since I last went they added a new 'dont sell fish to 16 year olds without parents' and I didn't realize they thought I wanted to buy fish and wasn't just lost on what fish medicine to buy until after I gave up on them. The 3 important fish were named Platnium, Diamond, and Pearl though. I would want another shot at fish but there's a reason I don't own a tank anymore

Fish can be tricky to have to be honest. They require a lot of maintenance on the tanks, so it happens to the best of us. I used to have one Betta Fish when I was younger too, but it didn't last long. I like the names though. Do you plan on having a pet in the future? If so, what animal? A pet Lettuce does not count

RIP i could def take care of a lettuce

You'd probably eat it though

True. I feel like a dog would get me out of the house more if I could commit to taking care of one, but I'd need to actually be ready to commit to leaving the house lol. I'd be down for a cat and I've volunteered at a cat shelter before but I'm no cat whisperer. A rabbit also feels fun since I had a DND character with a pet rabbit but I'd have to do more research

I'm also petless at the moment, so I understand you! I personally do not feel ready to commit to a pet too. Cats seem more chill though, so I'd probably go for that myself. You also mentioned you played a lot of Mario Kart. Do you play it competitively or something like that? What's your favorite character and setup to use? Also what other games do you like?

I don't really play it competitively, I never felt like grinding time trial strats or paying for Nintendo Online lol. I grew up on Mario kart Wii/Mario Kart 7, and the latter game was my awakening to 'I don't completely suck at video games.' I did get farther than the friend whose switch 2 I intend to borrow soon™ for the new game in a little tournament at college my freshman year, but I haven't done anything too serious. My favorite character is Daisy, but Wiggler is a good second favorite and as a Mario Kart Wii player I obviously like Funky Kong. I'm equally good at Mario Kart and Smash Bros, where if you're a casual I'm better than you but if you've put any amount of time in the games, I clearly know what I'm doing but you're better than me

I barely played any of those games to be honest, so you're likely better than me lol! I mostly play single-player games these days, they're more chill. Do you have a favorite Pokémon game outside of Showdown? I'll take a guess that it is Platinum (RIP Platinum the fish)

I actually started with gen 7, so my first game was just regular pokemon moon. I think that's my fav pokemon game, bc the other contenders are Sword (which is actually a close second) and Scarlet/Violet. BDSP doesn't count. I need to actually play more of the mainline games tho, I know I'm missing out. If you count it, Pokemon Go was my first actual pokemon game, and I don't play it much nowadays because I dont like going outside that much, but I do still open it up from time to time. I think it'd be fun to go into older titles blind and nuzlocke them, but as someone who hasn't finished a nuzlocke and sacked like 2 mons trying and failing to catch a delibird, I'm not sure how good of an idea this is

I'm too much of a boomer, I never played any mainline game past gen 5 with the exception of Legends Arceus because of the (deserved) praise it was receiving. One day I might play them, who knows! I also played my share of Pokémon Go, it is a nice game, but not the same as the usual games! Let's switch the topic now. How did you first get into Showdown and Smogon? And how did you end up in ZU of all places?

I learned about PS from watching/playing it with some friends play on it in class. We were playing Gen 7 OU at the time and I was destroying them with Tapu Lele. I mostly laddered for fun on monotype (with just 1 mono ice team) all through gen 7, although I legally had touched ZU by then. I was mostly just bouncing around tiers until gen 8 came around, where I think it was around Talonflame/Virizon meta that I landed in PU. I actually tried to get into gen 8 ZU, but I clicked Air Slash with a scarf fantom against a Block Acupressure Malamar on ladder (i thought superpower meant Malamar was tera fighting ig LOL) and kinda just gave up on ZU that gen. I came back to ZU in gen 9 bc Skrimps told me to join ZUWC after PUWC ended, and since shifts meant it was the same meta I just played in PUWC, I stayed around

Cool, quite the journey lol! We are glad you stayed around! A very important question now, why Lettuce or LettuceLeaf? I need to know the origin of this nickname

At some point in time, I decided that "applekid444" didn't fit so I picked the much mature username of "lettuceleaf07." It's really not much deeper than that - both were picked mostly on a whim - but I think that "lettuce" fits me well enough

What happened to LettuceLeaf 1 to 6 though? Did they become part of a salad somewhere?

I guess lol, I also thought numbers were cool when I picked it originally and didn't realize they were cringe until i already committed to the username (no offense to anyone with numbers). If they were part of a salad it's probably a Mediterranean salad or a good ceaser salad

No offense as well to people like OranBerryBlissey10, because the number is actually not the worst part of their name. Enough talk about Lettuces now, and you know who (probably?) likes Lettuce? Frogs. And SV ZU just got its newest frog in Toxicroak. What are your opinions on the newest drop? Do you like the current SV ZU metagame? Do you think Toxicroak will be good for it?

Ooh, I'm a little nervous about the frog since on one hand it'll make my favorite PsyFangs Basculin worse with Tera Dark + Dry skin, but on the other hand, Basculin deserves a viable hard counter so I can't be too mad. It's also gonna be nice having an offensive 'dark' type in the meta, and with how we've had Sneasel-H in the meta all this time I don't think Toxicroak is gonna ruin the tier or anything. I've had a lot of fun building in the meta recently and despite how it makes other grasses so much worse I'm really happy to have Venusaur in the tier. I'm gonna miss Braviary in January though. I'm at a point in the meta where I want to use weird things and try to crack it open with the next Spiritomb, but I'm laddering with Furret of all mons I'm not trying that hard and I'm enjoying the freedom of not building for a tour rn.

Fair, I do think Toxicroak might become the tier's best breaker, due to its versatility of going physical or special, while also bringing some nice defensive utility to the table! If you could get 1 or 2 drops from SV PU to help the metagame, which ones would you choose and why?

The Qwilfishes are sorely missed in the meta and the idea that Brute Bonnet might possilbly be dropping soon excites me, but I feel like I can be a little more interesting than that. It's not like these are that much more inventive, but I want Cramorant and Bombirdier in the tier. It'd be nice to have another good defogger and Gulp Missile is always fun to work with, and having a good pivot, scarfer, knocker, dark type, and rocker all in one would be amazing for ZU.

Good picks, we definitely need some birds in the tier. I do not like our current selection much! Looking at SV ZUBL, do you think anything could be retested into the tier? If so, why?

Could be? I was DNB on Bellossom and I think the meta has gotten worse for it especially with Venusaur and Orthworm being more viable now. I think anything else would be ridiculously broken in the meta (including Floatzel plz no), and even then I don't know if Bello should be let back in.

I think Bello could definitely drop, both Braviary and Grafaiai annoy it as well, and Croak too can beat it! I'd love to see it back. Have you dabbled much in ZU old gens? If so, do you have a favorite?

I've dabbled, but not much more outside of doing random test games. I like oldgens and I do want to get more into them, but its a bit tough to focus on SV and to learn like 8 other tiers at once (I might be incapable of picking just one). I think my ranking today would be ORAS > ADV > BW > SM = DPP > GSC > SS > RBY. I feel like ORAS has been the easiest to get into, and ADV/BW have been fun to mess around in. SM is kinda hard to build in with what I know about it, and I haven't touched DPP and GSC much but see myself playing around in them. I guess that Malamar incident makes me hate SS lol. But seriously, I feel probably the most lost in SS outside of RBY which I have never touched and can't comment on. The more Lice plays GSC though, the more I want to also play GSC.

You're traumatized forever because of a Malamar lol. SS ZU is fun though, but it is one of the bulkier metagames we have. If you like ORAS, you'll probably like SS in my opinion. Do you also play anything outside of ZU? What are your favorite non-ZU metagames?

The last time I tried to build in smth outside of ZU I kept automatically adding 'zu' into my /ds searches lol. I haven't rly had a chance to touch anything outside of ZU, but SS NU is a tier I want to learn. I think I was better at it than SS PU somehow (we're splitting hairs here I wasn't good at either) but I've had fun building that tier. I tried to get back into PU for PUWC but I think tour burnout made me not have any desire to put much effort into it, and I couldn't find a foothold in the meta

That's ok, I rarely branch out of ZU too, it is hard to keep up with that many metagames lol! Let's start with the fun questions now. First one, and I know this is very silly lmao. What kind of Zpice and zause do you prefer to put on your salad?

Oooh, I've never actually put much zpices on my salad. In that regard, I usually let whatever greek olives, cheese, and/or croutons ig flavor it. I'm a huge zause fan though, with my favorite being italian salad dressing. For a while i liked italian salad dressing + carrots, but these days I go ranch + hot sauce

Nice picks, I do love Black Pepper in my salads though, I'd recommend you try this Zpice. Second question, and yes, still salad related. You have to make a salad consisting of 3 to 5 (probably grass-types but I won't restrict you) Pokémon. Which ones do you think would be the tastiest?

Oh how did i forget about pepper I love black pepper. As for grass types to eat, I don't think about eating pokemon a lot but that's probably because Jumpluff is a pokemon you wear bc it's cotton, not eat. I might actually have to pull up a /ds for this lol, but I'll try not to. I think bounsweet would add a lot to a salad and be able to add a balanced flavor, I think you can get an olive from Arboliva sustainably and I love olives. There isn't really a lettuce pokemon so the base needs to be a grass type that won't die if you take a leaf from it. I have a feeling Leafeon tastes bad and Tropius would die if you harvested leaves from it, but it's ability is harvest so we can throw it into the salad for something anyways. I guess you could shave Gogoat leaves for a salad?

That's what I want lol, good picks! What about Applin for a sweet fruit flavor? Or maybe Foongus or Amoongus for a mushroom that we will hope is not poisonous? Too many options lol. Now for the 3rd and last fun question. You have to rename 3 to 5 ZUers as if they were vegetables, which names do you pick for them and why? Onion Cabbage for Apagogie isn't valid

I'd rather take from Appletun, I feel like i'd kill the poor little applin, and there's no way those aren't toxic mushrooms. I'm also a bit iffy on mushrooms but I would try an Amoongus salad. As for who becomes a vegetable, renaming HAVOCKNIGHT feels easy to pick for a renaming so he becomes Daikon bc why not (even though I've never had one). skrimps already feels like he could become a vegetable if he wanted to become one so he is now raddish, zause is a cop out so he can become pickle instead, and you're artichoke. These names have the same thoroughness that I put into choosing my own, so you're welcome.

You forgot the numbers though, we aren't complete vegetables yet! Do you have a team you would like to share with us? Add a description if you can!

OH thats an issue, apologies to Daikon040, r4ddish/raddish01 (skrimps is too cool for numbers), pickle67, and artichok337.

This is a team I built for Esteb4n in UMPL that Toto then stole for ZU SSNL finals. This is probably the biggest platform a team I built ended up outside of teamtour finals, but of the lettuce builds™ that have been brought to the finals of anything, I think this is the best one. It's a fat/(semi) stall team (I'm not good at classifying teams but that does describe it well enough). The original paste was tera grass on Nacl and non-offensive Cryo, but Esteb4n fixed the cryo and when Irene stole it she countered tomb with fairy nacl, so i stole it back. I think this team was inspired by ZU Ladder Achievements of all things, where I used a resttalk worm to try to get pacifist + long game in 1 go (i never did). Here, it's used to be a basc switch-in and a spiker with longevity, and half of the team's teras are water since basc just wave crashes. I mostly chose it bc I didn't think I was good enough for someone to see a team I made and think 'im gonna steal that,' but I guess when you have someone like Esteb4n piloting ur builds anything is possible.

I mean, didn't Toto use this like, 4 times vs Drud? This team is legendary at this point lol, great share! We are unfortunately nearing the end of this interview. Is there anything you want to say? Is there anyone you want to shout out?

Huge shoutouts to skrimps and sleid, who welcomed me into ZU. I really enjoy the community, and I'm glad to be a part of it!

Thanks for being here with me today! Hope you had fun answering my questions and sorry for the awful salad related questions lol, but I could not resist! This concludes the last issue of ZU Player of the Week hosted by me, and I know this may come as shocker for some of you reading this! I'm glad I did these interviews again and I am happy to bring this project back, and this does not mean the project is over forever!
This time I can not say I will see you all next week, but for what it's worth, it's been a pleasure. Thanks to everyone who let me interview them, followed the project, read the interviews or asked questions for our guests. ZU Player of the Week only exists and has been a success because of you!

Feel free to ask lettuce any questions you want!

Project Player of the Week - lettuce

czim