Project Player of the Week - Zpice

czim · 2025-12-02T07:57:41-0500

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: 29th of November and 01st 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 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 have one of our Room Drivers, whose favorite hobby is hoarding ZU Old Gens, taking over as Tier Leader on ADV and GSC ZU recently! Most importantly, he also gave us the best Pet Tax™ in the project's history! Without further ado,

Ampharos Jasmine GIF - Ampharos Jasmine Pokemon - Discover ...

Mankey Pokemon GIF - Mankey Pokemon Zpice - Discover & Share ...

a cartoon drawing of a monster with yellow eyes

Zpice !!
Favorite Pokémon: :ampharos:

(ZU Old Gens Leader, ADV and GSC ZU Tier Leader, Room Driver)

Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Mankey!

*mankeeee*

Hello Zpice and welcome to another edition of ZU Player of the Week! Hope we have a fun one here today. To start, you know the drill, the most basic question. How are you doing today?

I'm doing good. Having to tackle through uni stuff at the moment but things have been solid outside of that. How about you?

Doing fine today too. We just had the Copa Libertadores final today and the club is dislike the most lost, so I am pretty happy at the moment! What can you tell us about the in real life Zpice? What are you studying in university?

Flamengo have been looking crazy strong right now so it doesn't surprise me to see them come out on top here. I've currently been studying a coaching course at the moment where I aim to become either a full time personal trainer or PE teacher in the future. I've also been training on and off with Cricket, keeping myself fit and active. Things have been a bit intense but I'm enjoying it so I can't complain.

Yep, they will likely win the Brazilian league too. Better them than Palmeiras though! Do you follow south american football?

I'm not an avid follower of South American football but I do occasionally tap into it every now and again. The atmosphere in the Brazilian and Argentine leagues are amazing though so it'd be fun to book a flight to watch a game or two. If I were to pick my favourite team in South America though, I would say I have a soft spot for Sao Paulo, especially as Gabriel Sara (one of my favourite players) transferred from there to the team I support and while he at our club he was amazing. To those who aren't familiar, which club do you support Czim?

I am a Corinthians supporter, both São Paulo and Palmeiras are our biggest rivals, especially the latter. The atmosphere is definitely great though, I've been to games in Rio and in São Paulo (where I live) and I hope you can experience it one day! Why Gabriel Sara though? Seems kinda random, not a big name here for us in Brazil. Which team do you support?

Hopefully I didn't upset you too much saying Sao Paulo then haha. Norwich City is the club I've supported since I was a kid, and when he moved from Sao Paulo to Norwich he was our best player for the few seasons there. He moved to Galatasaray last season unfortunately and we've been missing him since, especially when you consider where we are in the Championship at the moment.

Ah, Norwich City, I know this one. They used to be in the Premier League a few seasons ago, right? Yeah, I just checked and it does not look good, this will be a rough season where you fight against relegation for sure. Have you ever been to the stadium to support them?

I've frequently been around at Carrow Road and there's been those ups and downs, my favourite of those moments being when I went to watch us play Manchester City and we upset them 3-2. Todd Cantwell setting a light as well was amazing to see. I haven't been to the stadium as much as I've had other things on my mind as of late but regardless of Norwich City's struggles I will always be around to support them!

That's the spirit, hopefully you guys make it back into the Premier League soon enough! You also said you play Cricket, how often do you do it? Do you play competitively or more with friends? Any other sports you enjoy?

I've been playing Cricket since I was nine (so about 11 seasons up to this point) where I primarily play as a middle order batsman and wicket keeper. A lot of the people at the current club I'm involved in I would consider as friends though, so I guess you can say both? Outside of Football and Cricket, I've been passionate at other sports like basketball, tennis, karting, and boxing, but Cricket is the only sport I currently play up to this point. How about you, what other sports are you interested in?

I only follow mostly Football, but I also enjoy watching Volleyball, Gymnastics and Basketball. You seem like a very active person, no wonder you chose to study PE, makes sense. I won't pretend I know anything about Cricket so I'll ask, what does a middle order batsman and wicket keeper do? Do you guys play other teams? Is there a league of sorts?

A middle order batsman is someone who tends to bat somewhere around 4-8 (there are 11 batsmen for reference) and you often want to stabilise your innings or aim to hit the boundaries and score runs quickly to improve your score. A wicket keeper's goal is to stand behind the stumps, stopping the ball from passing in the event the batsman misses the ball, or to try and get the batsman out (through catching an unintentional hit from them, or stumping them out if they are out of their crease (the position where they bat)). I often need quick reflexes and a lot of focus during the course of a game. Being a wicket keeper is challenging, especially as around my level the speeds of fast balls end up around 65-70 mph, but I like the thrill of it. The club I'm a part of has regional leagues of 10 teams and the top two of each league gets promoted to the division above. There are multiple teams a club can register, and I'm in the mix of the second and third teams, where they play in division 3 and 6 respectively. Sometimes you require a bit of luck (no rain) to succeed, and while they can be very competitive sometimes, they are great fun and a lot of the people you meet around those levels are brilliant too!

Seems like you're pretty good at it then! Other than sports, what are your interests? What else do you like doing in your free time?

Outside of sport I would say I'm somewhat crazy over music. I don't actively play at the moment but I was doing a bit of drumming during my high school times. It has been a while but it was a good stress relief and building that rhythm and reactions helped a little bit for Cricket. My family has a fairly long history in farming and I'm having to take care of the crops from time to time. I also play a fair bit of videogames from time to time.

A lot of good stuff for me to focus on here. Let's start with Music. Did you ever have a band or anything of the sort? What kind of music do you like? Any favorite artists or genres?

I've not been in a band unfortunately, it was mainly a past time for me that I picked up, but maybe I'll get into one at some point in the future, especially considering I have two brothers with a strong history of being in a band. In terms of what I listen to, my primary genre is hip-hop, but I'm also interested in jazz, indie, and hard rock/metal music. If I were to give you some form of top five right now I would probably say: JPEGMAFIA, Stevie Wonder, Three Days Grace, Danny Brown, and Nujabes, but that list changes all the time. What music do you listen to Czim?

Good picks, Stevie Wonder, Three Days Grace (my girlfriend especially loves this one lol), Nujabes are all artists I also enjoy. I consider myself to be very ecletic, from brazilian rhythms like bossa and MPB to Rock, Pop, Electronic Music, Reggae and so. My top 5 listened artists right now would probably be like Oasis (I also attended their concert here), Djavan, Jorge Ben Jor, Lana Del Rey and Hozier or Yellowcard last most likely. Music is hard not to love to be honest. I need to know more about the farming now. What do your family farm? Have you actually worked there with them?

One of my mates is a massive Hozier fan and he listens to him a ton, overall great picks and I'll check out Djavan and Jorge Ben Jor (only two I haven't listened to) at some point. In terms of farming, we grow apples, strawberries, tomatoes, green beans, and pumpkins. We used to have a chicken coop and a couple horse stables outside the house but we've ended up giving them to friends of the family to reduce our workload. I've had to work in these farms on a few occasions to make sure the animals were getting fed and the plants are getting watered, but I had to step up this year in particular as other family members are busy and we were expecting a large amount of apples and strawberries especially this year.

Oh yeah, they are some famous old brazilian artists, wasn't expecting you to lol. That's so cool though, must be peaceful in the farm. Do you actually live in a farm? Also what are your preferred activities to do there? Any type of animal you prefer handling?

I mean I live in a house. On a serious note, there is a fairly large garden where most of the work gets done and then we have the animals live in another place which is around a 5 minute walk from our house to get there. I prefer growing crops to raising livestock but both are fun activities in their own right. Horses are fun animals to hang around with and I've often been tasked to clean them whenever I'm at the farm, but I would probably consider the geese and ducks the animals I prefer handling most, given they help with maintaining the fields and lay eggs (among just being fun animals) while being low intensive animals to take care of.

Ah, so it's almost like living on a farm lol. Seems to be nice to be around nature overall though. Since we are discussing animals, it is time for the pet tax™! Do you have a pet? If so, would you be willing to share a picture of them with us? I will accept farm animals, my expectations are now very high Mr. Zpice.

Outside of our livestock, our family are currently obsessed with cats. We have six at the moment but for how long I've been alive we've had upwards of 15 that has came and went in my lifetime. My sister is obsessed with them the most and takes a bunch of pictures so I'll fetch some of her pictures here. We mainly keep these cats outside as they would be difficult to maintain indoors with the large family I'm in but they're a joy to have around nonetheless. Here are a couple pictures of the geese and chickens:

Pictures of Geese and Chicken - yay Farm animals!

This is Misty. She is an outdoor cat that we've been blessed with our presence for around 12 years at this point. She's went through many a journey and she is my sister's favourite. She has a couple hundred of Misty alone but I've narrowed it down to 4 of my personal favourites

Very cute pictures of Misty, Zpice's Cat (and her pet Deoxys)

Mimi has been around for 8 years. Bit of a grumpy cat but we still love her nonetheless.

Very cute pictures of Mimi, Zpice's Grumpy Cat

We've also had Topsy for around 8 years, but she did recently pass away earlier in the year (RIP). She was my personal favourite.

Very cute pictures of Topsy, Zpice's Favorite Cat

Had a bit of trouble finding photos of this one but this lil fella is called Abraham. He is one of the five children to Mimi (we've ended up donating three and keeping two). Had him for around 3 years. We have another cat called Abraham (similar species to Topsy) but I've struggled to find anything here unfortunately

Very cute pictures of Abraham, Zpice's Cat and Mimi's baby

I've also struggled with finding photos for Looby-Loo, who we've also had for around 6 years. My apologies for giving you the complete Pet Tax™ experience but I'll make things up to you with some more stuff. Here are a couple images of some sheep that the family that have now acquired this section of the farm own

Pictures of Sheeps and a really nice field - yay more Farm animals!

And one of our neighbours own an emu. I dont know why, but I thought this was cool to share.

Picture of the Emu - I swear it is there (very small)

That is everything for the Pet Tax™ while still keeping things relatively concise. Figured I'd go all out for this one

This is the biggest Pet Tax™ win in history. I don't think this will ever be topped. I loved your animals and I'm sorry for your loss of Topsy, she seemed like a cutie! They all seem very well cared for, and I loved Misty's pet Deoxys! How do farm cats work? Do they live outside or inside? I wanna know more

Farm cats tend to rest inside shelters and pens for shelter. Our oldest, Misty, often roams around chasing and killing pests like mice that decide they want to inhabit our gardens which may eat crops. The other cats are more dependent, but they appreciate climbing around, keeping insects out of their shelter. I have more often than not had to deal with slugs however as they make a habit of wanting to steal their food.

I imagined they had to earn their share lol. Do you have any favorite movies, tv shows or anime?

My all time favourite movie is Whiplash. The concepts of perfectionism while challenging the ideas of ambition where one needs to sacrifice themselves to be the best in this fast paced drama always keeps me on the edge of my seat. I've watched this movie dozens of times and I've learnt something from every watch. Otherwise, I do find that I tend to be a bit basic with tv shows and movies. I enjoy Breaking Bad, Peaky Blinders, and Jujutsu Kaisen. My other personal favourite movies are The Big Short, Nacho Libre, and Oppenheimer. What are your favourite movies or tv shows to watch?

Whiplash is one of my favorites as well, that movie is very inense. Some of my favorites include Arrival, Wall-E, V for Vendetta, City of God and Cabin In The Woods. For shows my personal favorites are the obvious Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul duology, Scrubs, Gravity Falls, Marvelous Ms. Maisel and my all time favorite and one I recommend to everyone, Community! Some good picks there on your end too! You mentioned you like playing video games, what are your favorites outside of Pokémon?

Also some excellent picks. V for Vendetta is one of my sister's favourites. The Cabin In The Woods seems to be a fascinating movie, so I'll probably look to add that onto my watchlist. As for the videogames, I am part of the surprisingly large community of Smogonites that played Geometry Dash for a fair bit before pivoting over to Smogon. In fact there are still a fair few people that recognize me from my "BlueHuseey" days (quick shoutouts to DerpySuX). I have a survival world on Minecraft that I have been on and off on for the past 4 years at this point and I've been attempting (and failing) a few mega projects, most notably I've been trying to get a castle made but I've struggled with the teraforming process. I play on Xbox Bedrock so unfortunately I don't have access to something like Litematica which would've helped a ton but oh well. I was addicted to FIFA until around 2025 after the game got too rage inducing for me. I've also dabbled into games such as The Escapists, Football Manager, Slime Rancher, Sea of Thieves, Mario Kart, and Gang Beasts. I've been primarily a Xbox and Nintendo console player but I am looking to pivot to Nintendo and PC in the future.

Some cool picks there. What is your favorite Pokémon game?

My favorite Pokemon game of all time is Pokemon Emerald. While some may not consider it to be the best Pokemon game objectively, it is the one I've played the most, whether through physical copies or emulation. The Pokemon themselves are amazing, with the Bagon, Beldum, Mudkip, Spheal, Torchic, and Trapinch lines to name a few. I enjoy the exploration of Pokemon Emerald, with the diverse ways you have to explore different sections of the world, most notably through the use of the Mach and Acro Bikes, and the Dive mechanic. I appreciate post game content a lot, and I've sunken a fair amount of time into Pokemon Contests and the Battle Frontier as a kid. All in all, Pokemon Emerald has a lot of things to offer about it, combined with it being the first Pokemon series I completed, it brings a lot of memories for me which is why I appreciate it so much. Just wish they made the champion Steven Stone instead of Wallace haha. What would you say is your favourite Pokemon game Czim?

My favorite is Heart Gold/Soul Silver, but I have a soft spot for Emerald and Platinum as well, and yep Wallace is a meh champion. How did you first get in contact with Showdown and Smogon? How did you end up all the day down here with us in ZU?

My first experience with ZU came during current gen Sun and Moon. I've always had some form of itch for using less viable Pokemon and I got myself caught in with a bit of the rage content of 2017-18 with The Garbodors being the first name that popped into my mind. A bunch of mates irl was also playing Pokemon Showdown at the time so I thought it'd be cool if I tried it out. I have a really old team somewhere and while the team itself was far from impressive, I was having a lot of fun with it casually playing on ladder. Here is the old ZU team for reference:

I stopped playing around 2019 just before Sword and Shield because I couldn't find my initial account and my motivation for Pokemon dropped a bit for other games like FIFA and Minecraft at the time, but content from BigYellow's RBY 7U videos and then subsequently RBY 8U from a good friend of mine Aiden. I got sucked into a bit of an extreme lower tiers pipeline which allowed me to get into SubZero Used (below ZU), and then I made my complete return to ZU when there was an ADV ZU spotlight tour, in which I made the finals of. Probably the strangest of origin stories but every step of the way I can say has been amazing and I would do this all again in a heartbeat.Here is one of the old RBY 8U videos which got me back into Pokemon Showdown for another reference point:

.
While the video itself isn't the best in quality, it was the itch I was looking for to getting back into the community and eventually Smogon as a whole.

Terrible team, very nice. Wish I still had some of my old ones as well lol! Think we all mostly just ended up in ZU because we wanted to use bad mons, and what better way to use the worst mons there is than playing ZU Old Gens? As most of my readers probably know, you recently got promoted to Tier Leader in GSC ZU and ADV ZU. What are your plans for those metagames in the near future? And of course, congratulations

Every other old team I have is on an old computer somewhere so it'll be difficult recovering them unfortunately. As for GSC and ADV ZU, both tiers shall recieve a bit of an overhaul at some point with numerous plans currently in the works. GSC ZU is in dire need of a few changes and there's been discussion over bans for numerous Pokemon (and even moves) within the last couple weeks. An official decision will be made sometime closer to Olympiad (or ZUCL). As for ADV ZU, we have been working on shuffling around council positions, so expect there to be an update sometime during the week on that front. We shall also have a fresh set of resources for both tiers given that we need new samples (for both tiers), and how most of the resources we currently have were made before the most recent VR changes. The future for both tiers shall be an exciting one, and hopefully we can make the grand push for both tiers to receive greater spotlight, whether it'd be GSCPL, or ADVPL.

Nice, seems like the future of ZU Old Gens is bright! Since we are already discussing them, time for another question I often ask! What is your favorite ZU metagame? How would you rank them from your favorite to your least favorite?

My order shuffles around all the time, but it probably looks something like this:1) ADV ZU, 2) ORAS ZU, 3) RBY ZU, 4) GSC ZU, 5) SM ZU, 6) DPP ZU, 7) SV ZU, 8) SS ZU, 9) BW ZUADV ZU is the tier that allowed me to breakout into the ZU community and I will always have a passion for that tier. My ORAS ZU experience in the most recent ZUPL allowed me to express a new interest in the tier and I would consider it my favourite Fairy generation. RBY as a generation has slowly grown to become my second favourite and ZU is no exception to that rule. GSC ZU while has its flaws was the tier I first played in teamtours during ZUOL II and my first individual tour win came from GSC ZU as well, so it also holds a special place for me. SM ZU has its quirks and while I'm not amazing at it, I do enjoy the tier and I am keen on learning it at some point in the future. I've never really been a huge DPP fan but ZU has taken an interest to me due to the depth at its disposal while keeping relatively simple. SV ZU is low down on this list because I've often found the tier to be incredibly overcentralised right now. Charizard, Floatzal, and Rotom-Mow were incredibly common for a time. I also found a statistic somewhere that ever since Venusaur dropped to ZU, it has recieved over a third of usage in tournament play. Mesprit having two thirds as well for a SV tier right now doesn't sit right with me, but I guess I'm more of the minority here (the picture should be a reference at what I was on about). SS and BW I've just struggled to properly get into, they're not bad tiers by any stretch and I appreciate a lot of the aspects surrounding those tiers, but they are certainly my weakest ZU tiers in terms of skill, which is why they are at the bottom of the list.

I've probably offended a couple people with this list but there are no wrong answers, and every ZU tier has a level of charm towards them. I hope people can reason with my reasonings for what might be controversial takes.

To each their own, as long as ADV ZU is ranked #1! Very detailed explanations why you like or dislike each gen though, I appreciate it! Let's focus on your new kids now, if you could drop a Pokémon or 2 (if you want) from ADV PU and GSC PU to help these ZU Old Gens get even more interesting, which ones would you choose and why?

Starting with GSC, I think the tier struggles to handle a lot of the recent wallbreakers within the tier at the moment. Pokemon such as Charmeleon, Ariados, Grimer, and Teddiursa all make for really difficult Pokemon to answer at the moment with their setup sweeping capabilities. If it was up to me I'd just reverse the shifts to the metagame we had in ZU Olympiad III but as we can only have two Pokemon, I think Clefairy and Wartortle would be much appreciated additions in this metagame given they are defensive Pokemon that care capable of stopping a lot of the current Curse sweepers. Voltorb would also be a much appreciated Pokemon for this tier right now with its speed, strong Thunder, and Explosion being valuable wallbreaking tools for this metagame right now.Moving onto ADV, this tier could really fancy another Spikes user right now. Omanyte was on the cusps of dropping into ZU these most recent shifts and would've been an amazing asset to have for this tier. Vibrava was also another Pokemon in talks of dropping to ZU and that too barely missed the mark. A Levitate user that can operate on both the offensive and defensive end should help ease some pressure with Omanyte dropping in mind and it would also be a amazing glue for ADV ZU.

Good picks, my ADV ZU ones would also be these mons! Do you play anything outside of ZU at the moment? What are your favorite non-ZU metagames?

I play a strong variety of metagames. Subzero Used features some of my all time favourite metagames with ADV and RBY being standout picks. Little Cup is probably my favourite Smogon community with its incredibly dedicated playerbase and I have met a lot of people within the couple of years from there. I've been involved in RBY significantly over the past year, having to play NU, PU, and LC among others. I was involved for Europe for PUWC in which I subbed in and won my game. I play BDSP and LGPE on occasion. I have been involved in the PetMods community as well for a couple years now with Do Not Use and Blank Canvas I have sunk the most time into. GSC and ADV NU are fun tiers and I also come back to them every so often. I could probably list a bunch more metagames but those are the ones I most regularly play.

A lot of cool metagames there, I also used to play LC a lot in the past, but haven't in a while! It is time for the fun questions! Since you are an experienced farmer, you are in charge of assembling a crew of 5 ZUers to help you with daily work on the farm! Who do you pick, why and what chores do you delegate to each person?

I'm unaware of the secret farmers of ZU but if I were to pick, I feel BP knows a bit about mechanics and would do a solid job at repairing and maintaining equipment, anything related to labour and he is the go-to guy. Greybaum probably has a vast understanding of tractors and combine harvesters. zause has experience in farming simulator so he'll be a good understudy to BP and Greybaum (especially with the Flamencos connection), with some small duties of applying pesticides and herbicides to crops. I feel plznostep would be amazing around animals so I'll have him making sure the livestock maintain good health and welfare, and I would have sleid transporting animals and crops in and out of the farmyard. This would go either really well or really poorly, nothing in between, but it would be a fun experiment.

Even if I do think some of the people mentioned have never seen actual grass in their lifetimes, it seems like good picks overall, or maybe not lol! I'd be excited to see this crew working together though lol! Time for fun question #2. How would you make your Cricket team like it was a ZUPL team? Which mascot would you pick and who do you think would be a good assman?

If I were to assemble 11 players to play alongside me, here are my picks:
Batsmen:
DeadByDaylight - Top end batsman, would be amazing at hitting it out the park
LustfulLice - Top end batsman, very disciplined given his GSC record, would be the defensive complement to DBD's aggressive style of play
Drud - Our batsman of choice to round out the top end, Drud would be incredibly at hitting out bad balls for 4s and 6s.
Shadow079 - Middle order batsman, is an Aussie who I feel knows a little bit of Cricket and its fundamentals so is in the team by default.
Michael Jordan - Rounding out the middle order, could do a job at boundary hitting
Bowlers:
risin_glory - has mentioned somewhere that he can bowl spin, would probably be a solid tailender batsman who can anchor up the last few overs in the event we need a draw.
Tuthur - This man is going to be taught how to fast bowl one way or the other.
BeatsBlack - Solid locker room bloke, would do a service as a crucial seam bowler this team would need.
Wicket Keeper:
Myself - Putting myself in the sticks, I should solidify any balls that fly past the batsman.
All-Rounder:
BloodAce - Very disciplined batsman being a GSC player and I reckon would be a decent medium pace bowler to clean up wickets.
sleid - Continuing the theme of discipline, Sleid is strong at this aspect and would perform a service as a middle-tailend batsman. He can probably put the pickleball skills into good use here too. I reckon Sleid might also be pretty good with the arm and I fancy him bowling a fiesty leg spin.
Honourable Mentions:
IncredibleKing - I don't know how active this man is in terms of ZU, but he is the only other guy who has brought up Cricket in some capacity in the ZU server, so he deserves a mention.
zause - Give it a couple years and I reckon he'd cook.
In terms of a mascot, Kobo is probably the safest option, but Mesprit would also suffice as a solid mascot. Big Tony 2014 or the aforementioned Zause would be good candidates as assman.. Tryna keep things in one message but going into detail for MJ, he has the physicality to hit boundaries, hence why I believe he would fair a good shot as a middle order batsman

Cool picks (except for Kobo) and nice reasoning, now how would you name the team? Has to sound like a ZUPL team

The Mesprit Mayhem Makers would be a cool name, or if you would prefer Kobo to be the mascot, I think the Kobo Clashers should also suffice.

I would not prefer it to be Kobo! Do you have a team you'd be willing to share with us? Add a description if you can!

This is my favourite ADV ZU team I've built. This team is built around Sharpen Porygon with a solid core of Pokemon that are sufficient at dealing with numerous threats within the metagame. Choice Band Seaking is one of if not the scariest Pokemon in the tier and it is capable of 1v1ing most leads outside of the Electric-types and Choice Band Doduo 70% of the time. Gloom and Flaaffy are amazing paralysis spreaders with Flaaffy also supporting as a Heal Bell Cleric. Ponyta is a catch all fastmon with priority which could be used to whittle away slower threats. Rhyhorn rounds out the team as a Rock-type that can threaten opponents with significant damage. Rock Blast could be teched on instead of Rock Slide to handle Bug-types like Anorith and Beedrill.

Awesome, free ADV teams are always nice (and we are getting a lot of those lately!). This interview is unfortunately nearing its end now. Do you have anything you want to say? Is there anyone you want to shout out?

There's a few people I'd like to namedrop here as I believe they have been massive influences in who I am today. Firstly, I'd like to say a big thanks to missangelic for being a massive influence in my Smogon career thus far, to Toto and TWiTT for picking me up during ZU Olympiad II which allowed me to spark my interest for ZU even further, and I'd like to thank you Czim for taking time out of your day to interview me. It has been fun, and I greatly appreciate the extensive effort you put into this work. I hope everyone has an amazing day!

I also want to thank you for being here and especially giving us the biggest and best Pet Tax™ we ever had! Hope you had fun answering all my silly questions and that my readers enjoy this one! See you all next week!

Feel free to ask Zpice any questions you want!

Michael Jordan · 2025-12-02T09:28:10-0500

If you had to pick 3 old Norwich players to bring to your current team, who would you choose and why

You've managed alot of team tours, what was your favourite management experience and why?

tell us about your favourite football manager save?

bello figo · 2025-12-02T09:32:50-0500

If you had to nominate one fellow Pokemon player you’d love to have dinner with, who would it be?

zause · 2025-12-02T10:11:34-0500

Yooo a fellow fm enjoyer what kinda saves do you brochacho

Zpice · 2025-12-02T12:21:12-0500

Michael Jordan said:
If you had to pick 3 old Norwich players to bring to your current team, who would you choose and why

Can I choose a whole 11?

I'm going to base the criteria on the age and ability they had while they were at Norwich, so I can't just pick Harry Kane haha. I will also base this on the last 20 years (Duncan Forbes, and Chris Sutton deserve mentions however)

1) Wes Hoolahan - The midfield is desperately in need of creativity, and the Irish Messi would be amazing in that regard. He wouldn't be afraid to shoot outside the box or dribble too, which would give the fans a bit of excitement more than anything.
2) Russell Martin - Norwich City frequently suffer from conceding a lot of goals, often down to the player's defensive awareness, positioning, and set pieces. While Timm Klose or Andrew Omobamidele could be argued for their ball playing capabilities, which could alleviate some of that positioning, especially considering Omobamidele's pace, I've opted for Russell Martin as he is most capable at putting in a challenge and isn't afraid to take someone on. Norwich City also suffer from a lack of reliable leadership at the club, and Russell Martin would be an incredible role model for the rest of the team. He is a big part in the numerous promotions he had achieved throughout his career.
3) Oliver Skipp - While I could've mentioned someone like James Maddison or Teemu Pukki here, I felt Oliver Skipp would be another effective cog in the scenario. He has bags full of energy and he's also not afraid to put a tackle in. During our promotion to the Premier League in the 21/22 season I was desperately hoping we would've acquired Skipp on another loan move with an option to buy if we stayed up but alas it wasn't to be. It was unfortunate too because I felt our midfield that season outside of Mathias Normann was absolutely abysmal. Nonetheless, I suppose the saying of "never fall in love with a loan player" rings true here.

Zpice · 2025-12-02T12:57:09-0500

Michael Jordan said:
You've managed alot of team tours, what was your favourite management experience and why?

Tough question. While I haven't managed that many team tours thus far, I think I would toss it up between ZUPL and PetMods Premier League of this year.

In PetModsPL we constructed a really strong roster of clickers and mainers. Quick shoutouts to Eeveeto and Jawabarat for absolutely killing it that tour. JeoZ also did an exceptional job as manager too. Only thing I wished we could've done better on was feeding LpZ with better knowledge at Vaporemons but what can you do about that?

ZUPL was equally as great for the amazing vibes that were brought on that tour, even if we didn't quite make it to playoffs. Ninja was absolutely killing it in SS, Tizio stepping in mid-season for BW was an amazing sight to see, seeing you assisting around was greatly appreciated, and even the smaller contributions of Incognition bring great energy and scouts every week or I Feel Stabby rocking up into week 7 with a Gloom into triple fire and winning. While there was a collective agreement that I think we could've gotten a player or two, everyone was amazing that tour and I'm glad that even after elimination, a lot of people were still buzzing to play.

I suppose I'll mention this here, I was gonna post this when doing a summary of my own ZUPL season but I never got around to it. Congrats to Michael Jordan for winning the Player's Player of the Season. With a strong majority, he was the main man through and through this tour and we certainly wouldn't have "overachieved" if it wasn't for him.

Project Player of the Week - Zpice

czim

Michael Jordan

formerly Inferno Monferno

bello figo

losing is only a sign that you really tried

zause

Sigma Gamer

Zpice

Zpice