Username: Lasen
Tell us a little bit about yourself, outside of pokemon showdown:
I am a 23 year old Greek college student currently pursuing his 2nd degree in European studies and English Literature. I did a 4 year degree in Computer Engineering, took a gap year to finish my conscription then started doing whatever the hell this is haha. I'm also an avid Yu-Gi-Oh player, even though COVID has made this hobby even more unsustainable than the monetary constraints called "Just build a GOAT deck bro". I enjoy travelling around the world and I wanna visit every European country and continent by the time I'm 40; I'm more than halfway there so fingers crossed!
Where’d you get your username from?
This is a weird kind of story, but it's a mixture of some letters from my first and last name. Mixed and matched back in 2010, sounded vaguely foreign; plus, it's short and sweet. Memorable, too, so I stuck with it.
Favourite CAP: Oh man, design-wise, I'd have to say it's Mollux. This cute lava lamp and cone snail combination is perfect! From its colours, its design, its shiny... What's not to love? Big shout-out to
Mos-Quitoxethey did a great job! Competitively speaking, I'd have to say I'm a big fan of things with no switch-ins so Aurumoth, albeit nerfed, is my baby. Do I habitually sack it to get Final Gambits off? Maybe. Do I also abuse weak armor as an ability to make Toxapex users regret ever running Knock Off? Absolutely. Wish it still had Tail Glow but beggars can't be choosers, can they?
Favourite CAP OM: Hmmm I'm normally a STABMons player, but it doesn't pull me in as much when combined with CAP- the options just aren't as cool! My answer will have to be CAAAP because it 1) allows Bulletproof Libra to be run, an absolute LOVELY Pokemon which I have
no idea why it was nerfed and 2) I was a big fan of Toxic Heal stall before it was banned so now I have to settle for things the next best thing: Mold Breaker Necturna. If I can't run stall, no one can! My opinion might change once LCAP becomes a fully fledged tier, though!
How you got started in CAP/What drew you in?: "Yo Aurumoth thing kinda looks like Volcarona but it can run Illusion?! I am definitely trying this out!" I then scrubbed out because Tomohawk kept raining on my parade and I softquit for a bit, only to come back during ORAS to build some really stupid stall team that topped the ladder exactly once that got lost when I purged my old pastebin account. Sorry!
As far as what drew me in... I'd say it was the promise of an OU metagame that regulates itself with fanmade pokemon that break the mold (ha) of just "le ebin 800 BST Dragon/Dark that wins you teh game if you get a OHKO XD". In this gen, I played two CAPPLs in a row and felt that the meta was bad for both (Release Equilibra was impossible to play around + stall-ish meta of release Astrolotl was really ass for my type of play) so I stuck around for
Marjane's sake because she wanted me to win ghosting tour
for with her which I promptly did! Thought to myself, "hey these people are cool I should stick around..."
What is your secret to Geoguesser?: Being from Eastern Europe means you either never leave your country or you travel around the world and as I said earlier, I fall under the 2nd category. I also am a polyglot so being able to read signs or at the very least tell what language they are in helps! Shit-out to Kyrgyzstan for ruining literally every streak of mine it shows up in.
What’s your favourite playstyle to use in CAP and why?:
Hyper Offense because I consume copious amounts of alcohol when building teams with the sole purpose of milking the VR dry of everything it has and then some; case and point,
Rabia bringing my HO in seasonal finals twice, where the building process went something like this:
Rabia: Build me a team, inferior Ubers main.
Me: Sí, señor Mewbby.
I then remembered we recently unranked Blaziken and just kinda
Also built the
crackhead Hail team, "
Avatar the last Horsebender" and "
Horse on horse violence" so you can tell I have an affinity towards more high ceiling teams that test the pilot alongside the opponent.
Whats your favourite part of the process?
I honestly don't know what to pick first- even though I'm "the metagame guy" I find the movepool and ability stages a bit boring. The beginning part where we assess a concept is hype because you get to see some really cool and crazy ideas thrown around. Then there is the art segment.. oh lord what talented artists this community has! I swear, every CAP blows the last few out the water. The naming stage is also really interesting to me, I get to see linguistic combinations that leave me on the floor like Sonny Liston after his fight vs. Ali. Banger after banger!
Thoughts on the current CAP metagame?
Big fan! We have some really good Pokemon that more or less make up a solid core, especially with Astrolotl being nerfed and thus no longer dictating the hazard game. But we also have a lot of variety in viable playstyles! All weathers have been used to a certain degree before, HO is viable, bulkier offense is also tremendous. Balance builds make up the majority of our samples and stall rears its head in from time to time. I'm really happy with where the metagame currently stands and I'm eagerly looking forward to CAP 29's inclusion to our metagame.
What was your favourite moment from a CAP tour?
Marjane wanted me to build for her in SM CAP for CAPPL 1 for her match vs quziel. I couldn't give her tests because we couldn't be online at the same time to save our lives so I wrote her a 3k word flowchart on how to win every match-up; I dropped in on turn 9(?) of just type "FLOWCHART" because I knew she'd forget to consult it every turn like I had told her to. She won the game and now she owes me a croissant(?) or something idk what half French half British people eat...
Oh I also brought a NatDex RMT for a game vs. D2TheW where I changed the team's Dark-type to a Colossoil and flipped the mon order. Offler was fuming because the nicknames immediately gave it away.
How has being a Mod impact how you see CAP or showdown as a whole?
I just got mod
I was driver up until this weekend and I tried my best to lead by example; I was serious when situation demanded it, but also I felt like I was approachable. I also tried to help as many users as possible and I provided my inter-metagame knowledge to draw parallels for CAP. Tried to also keep the room's atmosphere a bit light with some fun polls, something I felt was missing which has now become a staple. Getting mod also came with the downside of some users approaching me just to be Mr. smartypants and bring up a replay from early 2020 to remind me they beat me in a roomtour once, but otherwise, I'm still just a regular guy when it comes to any other part of my Pokemon experience.
Share a particular team you are proud of?:
Double Choice item sand, adapted from an old OU build my friend Jacked built. Arghonaut is super glue and Psycho Cut Kartana deals with ugly Tomohawk, a mon that usually comes in for relatively free on the origami. Specs Tornadus-T is moreso a tech for outside CAP, where Slowking doesn't have 300% usage rate but it gets the job done here regardless.
Can you give some advice for new CAPers starting off in the metagame?
Don't be afraid to fail! Something I see a lot of people do, myself included, when trying out a brand new metagame is they are too scared to take a leap of faith. Start nice and easy, our sample teams are built with ease of use in mind, read up on our plethora of resources and if you're still confused: just ask! There is no stupid ques- OK never mind there's a lot of stupid questions, but the people who will answer them will do so without belittling you. All you have to do is sit your butt down and say "I am gonna play CAP today, even if I lose I'll learn something" and with this mindset, you'll be seeing results in no time!
