Approved by 5gen & S1nn0hC0nfirm3d | Amazing Art by Albatr0ss and butchered by me | Thread formatting stolen from Jett
(Interview Date: 20th and 23rd of December, 2021)
Ho Ho Ho3n friends and welcome to ZU
Mirbro !!
Favorite Pokémon:
(Room voice, ZUPL 3 Champion with the Fiery Flamencos, ZU Secret Santa host)
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Dragonite!
*rooooar*
Hey Mirbro, how are you doing today?
Fine czim preparing for my most beloved time of the year Christmas! You? ^^
Doing fine as well, looking forward to the holidays because the food is always the best! I'm really hyped for having your here and thank you for joining me on the 30th edition of Player of the Week (The Christmas Special!)! To start, do you wanna tell us a bit about yourself outside of Pokémon?
Yeah of course! As some of you already know, my name is Jordi and I am a 28 years-old guy from Barcelona, Catalonia. My professional career is in the academic path as I studied Biology and then I specialized in Neuroscience with one master and PhD. However, I have always been the theoretical guy of the group and I have just started a master in theoretical and practical philosophy. Beyond that, I love to have some free-time to spend in Pokémon, with some friends hiking here and there (I love nature as a biologist that I am) and sharing some beers but I also spend a bunch of time reading (philosophical essays and thrillers, I have a goodreads account if anyone is interested to share some books with me jeje) and practicing sport (mainly tennis, gym, and volleyball). Tldr; I do not have enough time to do all the things I want to do
Great introduction! A lot of info for us to dig into! Let's start with your professional career then! Why Biology and Neuroscience? How did you first get into it? When did you decide to go into a more academic route?
Good questions and I have some foggy answers for them. I studied Biology because I wanted to understand how living organisms were organized in micro- and macro- structures. I doubted quite a bit with Medicine but I wanted to do some research so it was better going for that route. Afterwards I picked Neuroscience after tasting different fields such as enthomology and oncology because I have always loved to understand our minds and brains. I have always thought that a neuroscientist is a self-painter because tries to understand/paint/draw its own mind and brain. A complex task because it is a brain trying to understand itself. But anyway, I did some research in the degree about hippocampal areas (related with memory) and afterwards with stem cells as treatment for some neurodegenerative diseases in the master. At this point is when I realized that I liked the idea of writing projects, experiments and creating/reading knowledge. That's why I pursued an academic path performing a PhD about how the immune system participates in the progression and onset of Parkinson's disease. Anyway, I have enjoyed this path quite a bit but it burns you out more than gives you pleasure (at least for me). Tough path of raw resilience.
I feel dumb reading this lmao but I like it, good stuff! Getting to study our minds like that is really cool and it makes sense that you also got interested in the most philosophical aspects as well! How do you think your masters in philosophy will help you in neuroscience?
Again great question! I basically switched my focus to philosophy because I thought it could be helpful to my main aim that is understand our minds/brains. Inside philosophy, there are many different fields and, among them, there is philosophy of mind. In this subfield of philosophy distinct authors try to understand important topics for the human species such as self, consciousness, free will, among others. I have always been interested specifically with consciousness and how this "thing" can "think" and mix and/or create new ideas. There is a thought experiment that I enjoy doing: Try to stop for a moment, close your eyes and just think of a sofa, a typical, common, standard sofa but it is golden and blue; try to describe this sofa as much as you can with all types of information from all your senses. Once you reached one point of extreme precise description of the sofa, it seems that you had already seen this sofa before, it seems alive, real. But in reality, I am practically sure you hadn't seen this sofa before (who chooses this combination of colours for a sofa...). It seems brutal to me how with only imagination we practically can create something very real for us. Four our conscious and unconscious beings.
Overall, this type of discussion and argumentation is easier to make and create once you have studied philosophy of mind. It really helps increasing your understanding of the brain. Typical biological neuroscience is like too mechanical sometimes and you just lose your focus of what is your brain capable of doing. But the most amazing thought is: how a bunch of interconnected neurons can send information from one to another and these electrical/chemical pulses can create just an imaginary sofa.
Well, this is getting trippy lol! I'll definitely try to do that later but my sofa is already gold and blue sadly! Since you said you like reading, are there any books you'd recommend for people who're interested in philosophy/neuroscience? What other stuff you also like to read? Any favorite books?
Discussing with me is always going to become trippy haha. For anyone interested in biological neuroscience I recommend "Principles of Neurocience" by Kandel (Nobel Prize) that is a big Bible but pretty easy-going in reality. For raw philosophy this is tough because this depends on the author or philosophical current you want to read. In general, there are some authors that are easier to read (Seneca, Ortega-Gasset, Schopenhauer) than others (HEGEL, Niezsche sometimes) but there are some manuals that help you going through them and make some points more clear. "Sophie's world" is an easy good pick if you want to start with philosophy as it is a novel that gives some points about important authors throughout history. If you want to combine philosophy and neuroscience there is a good book called "Philosophy of Mind and Cognition" by David Braddon-Mitchell and Frank Jackson. But, as you may probably know, there are a bunch of books that are interesting in these topics.
Other topics that I read are mainly thrillers (police ones), dystopies, and some that make you think. For the first group John Verdon is my go-to with an amazing series for David Gurney policeman, Alex Michaelides is also a newbie author who is having great success with his books. For the second group of books "Utopia" by Thomas More, "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley ("revisited" is also an AMAZING essay), and "1984 "by George Orwell (brutal). For the third group "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera is amazing and one of my favourites. I would also recommend my favourite book that is "Animal Farm" by George Orwell. This is also a dystopia but it is so simple, short, and well-written but at the same time it just helps you understanding how an autoritarian society can be created from zero. It is a book that everyone can understand and these topics are not always easy so... Always my first pick :).
Great picks, I'm also an Orwell fan, good reads! You also said you like hiking! Any notable places you've been to? How often do you hike?
Well I mainly go hiking in my country or during holidays in some other country but easy paths. I like to go hiking in mountains with marvelous landscapes but at the same time I love to visit and hike through different small and "unexplored" towns. Last summer I was in Greece and I just went around the country discovering its culture and beautiful landscapes (just search for Meteora or Peloponnesus beaches).
I definitely wanna go to Greece eventually, it looks beautiful! I envy you europeans because you have all those tiny countries that are so close to each other and that makes it easy to travel around! What other places did you travel to? Any favorite country/city?
Well, you can envy us but we envy you because South-America has amazing countries, cultures, landscapes, and biological diversity :). I have been mainly in Europe (Germany, France, Hungary, UK, Finland, Italy, Russia, Austria....) and just once in USA (Chicago). I would love to visit Sout-America, and specifically Brazil, really. I have this travel in standby with a friend because we wanted to go in 2014 during Rio's games. But we ended up not going because we were too busy finishing our degress at that moment. But I have some good relationship and vibes with Brazil and I would like to go at least once in my life. I would also love to visit Egypt and some other african countries. I do not why but I have always been less interested with asian countries but if I have the chance to go there I would do it for sure :). If I had to choose one country would be Catalonia really and city Girona up to now. Catalonia has everything that a country needs: landscapes, mountains, amazing beaches, nice metropolitan cities... and evertying is between 2-3 hours by car at maximum. Girona is where I studied and it is a small city that has everything you need (mountain and beaches at 45 minutes at maximum by car) and at the same time has medieval vibes which I have always loved. I suppose I am a bit melancholic talking about it :).
Yeah, big countries also have their benefits, it is like we have several small countries here with a lot of cultural diversity and we all speak the same language! Hope you visit Brazil eventually! And I definitely want to go to Catalonia sometime, looks beautiful! Do you have any other gaming interests outside of Pokémon? What are your favorite games?
I am glad to see you recommend Brazil and you wanna come to Catalonia sometime. Regarding the games I do not play anything else besides Pokémon right now. When I was younger, I played Golden Sun, Metroid, Mario, FIFA, Castlevania, Layton, ... different game boy color and advance games. Pokémon was my favourite one though and I started in generation 1 with Blue and I kept playing it up to now. However, just often, I also play chess as it has some similarities to Pokémon and I can play with some close friends. Board games are also fun.
If I had to choose my favourite videogame would be Pokémon Gold very tied with Golden Sun. These series were brutal, underrated videogame ngl. Medarot was also close tho them.
Good picks, I'm also a sucker for old games because of my boomer nature. I swear everyone plays chess in ZU lol. What kind of music do you like? Any favorite artists?
Yeah, it is typical to play chess here haha but I play it like for fun, I do not ladder though. Regarding music, I like many different types of music: 1) 80's and 90's songs and groups are my favourite ones but I can also listen some recent pop. For working I prefer to listen lofi, classical or jazz styles. I also like industrial metal such as Rammstein. I do not know, I like so many things and my spectra here is so diverse. I probably do not enjoy hip-hop or rap though. I do not have any favourite artist but there are some that are qutie repeated in my Spotify as far as it told me: Empire of the Sun, Rammstein, Kygo, els Manel, Amics de les arts (these are catalan specifically), among others.
Empire of the Sun is fun, I like it! Since this is the holiday edition, time for a themed question! What's your favorite Christmas song? Any song you find annoying?
Oh!! Another Empire of the Sun fan! Amazing :D. I love Frank Sinatra, his voice is awesome. Typical songs could be: Have yourself a merry little christmas, fly me to the moon, let it snow, among others. I also like "Mi burrito sabanero", that is an unknown and funny song. And I do not hate any Christmas song, all of them are awesome (L). It seems pretty clear I am a Christmas fan, doesn't it?
Not even "All I want for Christmas is you"? Dang. And well, you're in this edition for a reason lol! What kind of stuff do you like to watch? Any favorite movies/tv shows/youtube channels?
Yeah, I loved to be 2021 Secret Santa. I like to watch thrillers, terror, psychological movies, in general. But I also watch some animes but the typical ones: trigun, code geass, one piece, bleach, death note... this kind of things. If I had to choose a movie would be the Dark Knight saga and many films produced by Nolan such as Memento. I love sagas in general (Harry Potter, Star Wars...) but I would choose Batman one from all of them. Regarding TV shows, "Breaking bad" really hit me hard this last summer. This altogether with "How I met your mother" make the perfect couple for thrilling and funny moments. I watch a lot of youtube but I am not a fan of one or another channel, I just switch around. In the past I watched quite a bit pokeiam, blunder, emvee, among others. Right now I do not enjoy their content. The only want that kept during all these years is a spanish channel called Karimero which is awesome for Pokémon theory content.
Cool stuff, I'm a fan of Nolan stuff overall as well like The Prestige and Interstellar! Again with a holiday question, what's your favorite Christmas movie?
I like both films too :). This question is tough not gonna lie... Harry Potter movies in general are a bi tof Christmas but if I had to choose one specifically could be: "Love actually" or "A Christmas Carol". Pretty sure I am leaving some important ones though.
Where's the Grinch love? That's the only correct answer. Now let's change the topic a bit into mons. How did you first get into PS and smogon? How did you end up in the best format ever (also known as ZU)?
Haha I like Grinch but it is not my favourite one, sorry to dissapoint you, I would add these too: Home Alone. Very funny series. I started playing competitive Pokémon around 2013-2014 in Pokémon Online software when I was in the middle of the degree. At those times I played in a server as a gym leader (bug type to be honest). Then I left Pokémon for a couple of years and I came back to it in PS at 2015 when finishing the degree. This was end of ORAS metagame and was quite good in my opinion. I kept some activity until beginning of SM when I was finishing my master. I didn't like the idea of Z-moves in general and I had no free time with the PhD thesis so... I left. In 2018 I came back again and I started laddering with BanDisnDatnMe and Pinkacross who were RMTer (Pinkacross still is and an incredible one). Finally I switched to small tiers like RU after logging in Smogon. I was looking for a kind community with which to learn and enjoy some games. RU was not the one though (eifo was a great user nevertheless). Afterwards, I went to PU where stall was great and I met tlenit the stall ladder hero in that moment. We enjoyed a lot laddering and battling together.
After some time, I asked for hosting a tour in PU and they approved it. I hosted a GAU and I convinced tlenit to participate in this tour as he only played ladder (but was amazingly good). It was very funny because in the signing up post he said he was going to be the "not the first in but the first out". He ended up winning the tour. Amazing results. This was his beginning and now you know where he is. Part of blame is mine though, poor PU having him as TL... At the same time of hosting it I started playing ZU for fun and because stall was good too (yeah, I am a stall player, you all know that). And here it is story, I played the best tier: Zuper Used hosting briefly the project Battle of the Week. I also mained NFE after PL I or II being in ORAS NFE council for a time. However, the thesis got me hard at the end of 2019 and I had to leave Pokémon for a year and a half. The rest is history.
Nice, another fellow retired gym leader! You recently won ZUPL 3 with the flamencos mainly playing SS. How was your experience in the tour?
It was amazing, up to now, the best one I have had in PS and competitive Pokémon. I enjoyed a tone scouting, discussing, preparing, and testing teams. I did this for SS but also for different generations (that's why I am rn maining BW). It was pretty funny and we were a team. We started preparing teams and everything from Monday. TWiTT and I tested a lot for SS and ORAS (like each of us was the battle doll for the other one). I had the chance to experience kay's teambuilding and it was awesome too. He prepared a ton of teams and he always was changing things to make it more comfortable for the user/player. daniYSB was always available to play and dedicate a ton of time in the tour. I also had the chance of practicing and testing with Heysup which was quite nice after seeing that he is a DPP God (and more with the help of Procrastinasian in the mid-tour). Regarding my games, I felt quite good playing SS. First week I brought stall as I am a stall player against Landon (I was subbed at the end of the week). This win was huge for my morale not gonna lie. Second week I was in Greece and I subbed too at the end of the week and I had to use some BO with no preparation. Moreover, I had to play tlenit who we know each other a lot. He brought some anti-stall as expected and I could do some good plays but MU wasn't the one I expected unfortunately. Third week went amazing as I was playing from the beginning and I got a win against a stall pal like pokemonisfun with a BO team which is awesome, the best team kay built for me.
Fifth week I played SM because I had experience in that generation and Rav3 wanted to rest for a week. I was hyped but I had to play the beast itself: a fruitshop owner. Preparation didn't go that well and we ended changing the team at 1 hour away the match. This with only one game of testing make it hard for me. Moreover, I misplayed my wincondition Komala against its Drifblim... I had the chance to be positive in this ZUPL and win but I was not able. In the finals we decided was better for me not to play in order to have a consistent line-up, this decision was tough but it worked and I was happy for that. Thanks to this tour I am right now switching my playstyle to more offense (BO and balance) as stall is dead in ZU right now.
Yeah, it's cool how you ended up getting more interested in old gens because of ZUPL, even joining the BW ZU council. Talking about BW ZU, what are your thoughts on the metagame right now? Are spikes gonna be looked into once more?
Yeah, I got interested in the past, in 2019. But this interest is higher now with old gens more developed than before. I enjoyed BW ZU although hazard stacking was tough. In general, I think that the tier is better now than before (I mean during ZUPL III). Spikes do not seem that hard to avoid and it is more and more difficult to pull them off. More and more Taunt users have been hanging around and both Shelmet and Venipede are not that good against many meta Pokémon. I think Spikes are looked very tightly but, currently, I do not think they are broken. The success that I had with hazard stacking is no longer there, my hazard stacking teams are much worse than before with no doubts. However, both Shelmet and Venipede can have a niche which is good because this means we can still use hazard stacking and not losing this playstyle at all.
Yeah, I think having to ban 4 spikers was a hard decision but BW is just a weird generation. What do you think of the current SS metagame? You said you have limited time, so it is good that stall is dead, no? At least now you can enjoy your Pokemon time with other archetypes!
Hahahah a good one here. Yeah, banning 4 was tough but we did we thought was the best for the tier so... We are happy with it. Regarding SS, I think it is in a good and healthy state. As I always say, both Rotom and Aurorus are really really good at the moment. Rotom does so many jobs and you cannot always stop all the different sets with one or two Pokémon. Aurorus hits hard and set up rocks. Its job seems easy but pressures a tone the teambuilding process. I think that ZU discussion about brokenness will be and stay around these two Pokémon for a while unless PU steals something from us in two weeks :(.
Yeah, shifts are just around the corner! Anything you want to potentially get from PU?
Audino stall would be great again! Realistically, anything will be fine. More Pokémon means more hype and this is always cool. In the case the Pokémon is broken then we can ban it so... anything will be fine (hitmonlee better no because we already know it will be quickbanned).
Ripmonlee. Think it's more likely that we'll be getting rises though lol. Enough of the metagame talk! You're also known for being a room voice and being our beloved ZU Secret Santa host. How are you enjoying being the host of the project? Any favorite teams so far? Who gave the worst request so far in your opinion? Be honest lmao
Hahaha yeah, pretty sure we are gonna lose something... Sad. As I said, I love being this year Secret Santa. Everybody is participating correctly and with joy. I have seen all the requests and the worst ones are from Aaronboyer (Rapid Spinda in BW... I suffered to make it work) but, due to the fact that he was bad requesting it, he got, in my opinion, the worst request around a big Cosmoem. Yeah, that was itchy.
My favourite teams so far are Jett 's (really cool pairing of Flapple + Klinklang), Heracross2.0's (innovative TR team) and sexywooper's (I requested they a difficult task but they got me 2-3 different teams if I remember correctly which are GREAT) teams. I just want to use the teams sexywooper gave me on ladder and try to peak high as I did with my last team :).
Nice, great picks! At least Toto didnt ask for a SD+Block Licki this year. Now a more whacky question, but holiday themed! You've been promoted to Santa Claus and you need to pick 3 to 5 ZUers to be your elves and help you! Who do you pick and why?
hahah funny question. I would pick TWiTT because he has great creativity for new toys, thebtboy because he is a hard-worker, Jett for answering letters, DurzaOffTopic as a grinch, and you because we need some bossa nova
Can't work without the proper soundtrack. Alright, the presents are done! Now you need to decide who is on the naughty list and will get Coalossal teams instead of actual gifts! Which 3 ZUers would be on the naughty list and why?
1) thebtboy because he annoyed me during ZUPL, 2) Schnittie testing because I hate its eterrain teams, 3) Serving Suggestion for beating me for the first spot on the ladder.
Lol, Btboy definitely deserves a Carkol team even! Now into a more wishful kind of vibe. 2022 is right around the corner, so what do you hope the year will be like for you? Anything you want to accomplish? What do you expect to happen in the world?
It could be cool for the world to overcome this pandemic. It has been annoying and deadful. This would be like my first wish. Second one would be to find a new job as I have one until March... A new exciting job could be cool. I would love to play next ZUPL and win again, this would be awesome too :P. But in general, to be happy with all my beloved ones next to me (they happy too of course).
Nice, think we are all pretty much tired of the pandemic, so I hope it settles down. Do you have a team you'd like to share with us?
v1:
v2:
Of course!!! I have a team that I have used for a while in the ladder with great success and I want to do a RMT with it in the foreseeable future. This team is around hazard stacking with Malamar. I started with Qwilfish as I liked it a bit more than ASlash to set up Spikes. Typical fast set with Rocky helmet and Taunt. Liquidation was chosen to deal more damage. Then, I chose Cofagrigus to avoid Rapid Spin. This Cofagrigus is ResTalk to not be passive against Sawk and Thwackey. Underrated Pokémon. Initially I added Rapidash as a physical defense wall too due to its speed and helping against Thwackey but with hail I had some issues (due to Morning Sun), that's why I chose Tangela over it at the end. Rapidash was a suggestion from you and tuthur, a great one indeed. For rocks, I initially chose Stunfisk because is a great spdef wall and electric-type Pokémon immunity that helped against Skuntank and Rotom. However, with hail around Piloswine worked better in general and it gives some priority with Ice Shard. Due to the fact that the team does not have Rapidash, here it is better to run Rock Slide for Jynx. Another slot was Eldegoss for Rapid Spin. It made a FWG core with Dash and Qwilfish and also was important to avoid Rocks from Rhydon (that's why speed EVs). Second variation of the team presents Cryogonal that helps against Skuntank, ice-type Pokémon in general and also is useful against set up Pokémon and it is your Rapid Spin user. Last but not least, Malamar is your wincon and spdef wall. Moreover, with its ability if anybody wants to Defog you can get some Evasion that can be really deadly.
Cool team, I really like it! Well, we are starting to wrap this up so, is there anything you want to say? Anyone you want to shout out?
Well I would like to thank everyone of the community to make ZU so great and funny. I have had so much fun lately with ZUPL and other team tours I am playing right now. I will never forget the chance that DurzaOffTopic gave me in this last ZUPL, I think I needed it to find my final spot in the tier. I also wanted to thank BW ZU council for giving me this opportunity (specfically SBPC ). This year I met thebtboy who initially was "the joker" during ZUPL (I am still angry with you) but I discovered he is a great and funny guy who has a great passion for Pokémon and ZU. I am glad to see you around always :). I also wanted to thank you czim for all our discussions, your tips, teams, and because you are funny but at the same time you worked like nobody for the tier. You do a ton of job (like in this interview) and good luck for the circuit finals, I am thrilled to watch them as they will be amazing!! Both you and Tuthur deserve to be there. It has been an awesome year for me in the real life but also here and I hope all of you can help me to make the next year equal or even better!!!! Merry Christmas to everybody and a happy new year (L)
Thanks for the shoutouts and for the kind words to everyone! You're a great part of the community! Thanks for letting me interview you and honestly, I just hope you had fun being here because this is the goal! Sorry if I got too whacky or trippy in some questions but this is a special edition after all!
No problem, I enjoyed it a lot and I feel very praised because you decided to interview me in this special. Thanks again, I love to discuss so your questions were in point for me (I am always available to discuss these topics). And see you all around Pokémaniacs!
Feel free to ask Mirbro any questions you want!
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Again a small announcement from me, gonna take a couple weeks off from this project but I wanna come back for 5 more editions at the very least before we end it. Thanks to everyone who've read it during the 30 editions we've had so far. Hopefully this has given the community a chance to know our players a little bit more and bring people with the same interests closer. See you all soon!
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