Project Player of the Week

Dj Breloominati♬

born to play, forced to john
is a Top Tiering Contributor
UPL Champion
our player for this week is none other than !!

The Number Man !!
Favourite pokemon : :tornadus-therian: , :dragapult: and :tapu koko:
Favourite CAP : :Astrolotl:
( CAP 29 playtest winner , 5-0 in the recently concluded CAPPL )

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Heyyo tnm!! Hows your day been so far

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Pretty good, i paid off some parking tickets today (paid parking is extortion) and i just finished my lunch. How about yours?

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As the name suggests , a member of Libertarian Sigma (LIGMA), is an honest citizen. Ive enjoyed my day so far mostly due to the nice weather ( i like rainy days ) Do you have any preferences when it comes to the weather ? What would your ideal day be ?

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Of course, I would never do anything illegal aha... Well obviously a sunny day is better than a cloudy or rainy one, but it shouldn't be too hot. Esp in the summer days can be very hot where i live which is not ideal. Ideally its sunny and warm enough that the sun feels warm on your skin, cause that's optimal workout weather

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A cold glass of lemonade/soda on a hot day sounds heavenly >///<
can you tell me and the community a bit about yourself via a brief introduction, both on and off smogon. Name, age, favorite color, your favourite way to annoy Atha , whatever you would like to say! Since you mentioned working out , do you have any more hobbies irl ?

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Yeah lemonade is my go-to drink during the summer. Sure, most of you know me as The Number Man or more recently just TNM. Im a boomer (26yo) and currently employed as an assistant professor at university. It's not my favorite way but atha gets insanely tilted when he sees my teams because i don't order moveslots "correctly", which is funny af. Not really tbh, altho watching shitty tv series with my gf is a guilty pleasure of mine.

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I relate to the fact of not having many hobbies besides mons '_'
lets get into some fun questions. How did you get into pokemon ?

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lmao, well im usually all-in into something once it draws me in.

i started playing pokemon when i was like 7 or something, when my aunt got me pokemon silver for my birthday. ended up playing religiously through gen3 up until diamond which i never even finished. i got back into mons around the time i was in my last year of high school, because i realised emulator apps for smartphones existed. i needed a way to pass the time during school lessons cause the teachers were really annoying when i talked to my friends during class, so i put rom hacks on my phone and played them with the phone hidden in my pencil case lmao

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such things make for great memories tbh , looking back now i wish i did more things like that x_x though i think ive had my fair share of fun

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high school was the best tbh, just fucking around with the boys

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Is there anything in particular that made you join/stick around the community?

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i found ps back in 2014, played for a few months but then ditched it cause my irl friends picked up league again. i came back in 2019 which was a really bad year for me, id hit a low point in terms of my health due to a series of injuries following an earlier surgery which left me unable to do much with my time. with a lot of time and not much to do i rmbd PS and decided to try it out again. i joined to play mons, but stayed because i found friends on this site

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Hopefully youre doing better now :heart: Im glad that you stuck around and im sure many people feel the same way :]
For our readers who are not familiar , can you tell us what other tiers/communities you like participating in ?

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yeah i've come a long way, im not 100% yet but im much better thankfully. i can actually work out and engage in physical activity again

well apart from cap (obviously) i'm probably best known for being # in om mashups as well playing oms, mostly AAA these days altho i am also on the council for camomons and inheritance

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that's quite the list of accomplishments you got there o.o
But ye oms are great ! Used to play them when they were current gen, my favourites include oras aaa and usum mnm, mostly because I was good at laddering them (^_^;) But I did have a lot of fun playing aaa vs you in practice games this ompl , might consider getting into it when I can !
Let's get into topics related to CAP. What sparked your interest in the tier originally?

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glad to hear you enjoyed aaa, its in a really good spot atm and ive been having alot of fun w it speaking of oms check out the om spotlight league (spiritual successor to om snake draft, where managers drafted various snakes to play oms) since i am managing the uwu urshifus there with everyone's favorite greek god (scrub) lasen (link here: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/om-spotlight-league-week-1.3690469/#post-8968652)

i honestly cant remember what exactly made me get into cap
i think it was probably the fact that i knew some people that played it - initially snafu and binpin, then i met atha as well
so i decided to give it a try when CAP 28 playtest went up with the intention to steal teams from atha, and somehow ended up finishing as the runner up
in the mean time i also signed up for cap snake, which was a very fun experience

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Imagine having such an insane year tourwise ( the BANNER man :pimp: ) when you decide to pick up a tier on a whim , goat tbh

But yeah , continuing off of the previous point , you've done extremely well in every your you've signed for, ranging from ssnls to playtest , and more recently cappl. What are playstyles you like / dislike ? Correlating this with another point , would you like to talk about your capple team and overall experience ?

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Yeah idk, CAP just fits my playstyle well id say. Speaking of, as some have already noiced probably, i mainly enjoy using balance and bulky offense. I'm not a fan of stall nor HO cause they generally lead to less engaging and less interactive games. I enjoyed capple a lot. Going into it I expected to be passed teams but I really hit my stride building wise so I built a lot and i really liked all my teams, so I'm very happy with my performance. Obviously the way we lost was unfortunate, but I still believe our team was the best team in the tour, at least when it comes to SS, which was reflected by our overall SS record i think.

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Yeah you did go undefeated while using BIG navi :swole:

Any other mons that you think are great rn ? I know that you rate glowking quite highly

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LMAO that team was actually kinda bad, cause the zera MU is a bit shaky, but in testing it still felt playable so i decided to take the risk and i paid off
yeah glowking is insane. i like av as well, but CM + resist berry glowking is disgusting
other than that im a big fan of electric wincons - BU zera and CM koko, and i think they pair really well with wisp astro​

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Disgustingly good ;)
on a similar vein , are there any new/underrated player(s) that you feel will make it big in the coming future ?

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Hmm well both raj and arnav were my teammates this capple and they've both been doing well recently
arnav had a very good PL, iirc he was 4:1 or something? whereas raj won the ssnl
and last, i have to mention the legend himself: poopidoopi , getting bodybagged by him was an eye opening experience for me, i really hope he starts playing in cap tours more


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Team India Wcap 2021 ftw :heart:
I agree about poopi btw , imagining a world where all slots of the team he's on rolling up with 6 caps keeps me up at night

As I said earlier , you've been killing it in tours all year long :>> What advice do you have towards maintaining such a high level of consistency? Any advice oriented towards newer plays just starting out?

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LOL thats a terrifying prospect indeed

I wouldn't say all year long since my OMPL season wasn't the best, but i guess it holds true for CAP at least. I also can't give any concrete advice apart from the general stuff everyone talks about - focusing on the game, thinking through your plays, using the calc, identifying and playing to your wincon. Some personal stuff I've noticed - i play best when i consciously decide to "play" instead of just clicking. As for teambuilding, my most successful teams I usually have a good feeling about even before testing them. For newer players - join individual tours and pester people for test games. Most people you play with will be glad to offer advice after the game. Its a good way to pick up the meta as well as make friends with the players.

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I strongly relate with the fact of how a good team "feels" good , and as u said it's something that comes with practice
Lastly can you tell us about your favourite tour experience ? Any people you'd like to s/o for being awesome?

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My fav tour experience has got to be the first TPP (Tours Plaza premiere, for those who are unfamiliar with the acronym), back in late 2019. It was my first ever team tour and I was managing it alongside best gal after being asked by to do so by the TP room owners... We had no idea how to draft a team or anything, but somehow ended up putting together a winning team. Winning is obviously part of why I enjoyed it so much, but the team atmosphere we had back then was amazing, we basically just shitposted our way through the tour, it was glorious.

As for shoutouts there's honestly too many people to do individual shoutouts, so instead id like to shoutout all my friends from different communities for making my time on this site so enjoyable!

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This interview was very fun bro, thanks for your time ! Any words you'd like to sign off with ?

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Thanks for having me, and deez nuts


Huge thanks to tnm for giving us such an informative interview !! As always , ask away !!
 

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D2TheW

Amadán
Hey TNM

Will we see you in a 3rd playtest final in a row? :flushed:

Most underrated/overrated mons in the meta in your opinion?

Any cool facts about Slovenia?

What do you teach as an assistant prof?

Do you have any interest in participating in the cap process or nah?

Why aren't you vr council yet? :boatogostandode:

Coolest aaa tech you've made recently?

Whats your favourite game/series you've played in a cap tour?
 
Hello Sloven folk,

First and foremost, can you explain that one to me ? If I remember correctly you lived in Ljubljana or whatever it's spelled for some time, how was it ? Could you name one or two places that you like particularly there ? Where does your username come from ? Please share some music you like. Please also share some Slovenian music, whether you like it or not. Why is Drake's last album so terrible (I would be you don't listen to Drake but I'd like a reason still) ? If you make some baby numbers with The Number Woman I'd like to teach them how to order their moves myself if you don't mind. Why would you like Torn-T when its stab has 70% accuracy ? On a scale of 1 to 10, how much nostalgia do you feel when listening to the earlier Pokemon games soundtrack ? If your life depended on winning a game, would you rather have an ubers team or an aaa team ? If your life depended on winning a CAP game, which mon would you start building with ? Do you enjoy testing with Dj Breloominati♬, or, like me, do you hate his ridiculous moves that always work for no reason ?
 
Sup D2

Im currently taking a break from joining any more tours until the winter team tour season, but if CAP 30 looks really cool i might reconsider.
Most overrated mon imo is Weavile. I get why this guy is taking OU by storm but i just can't get behind S- weavile in a meta where Arghonaut is legal. As for underrated its big Rev. I know its been breaking out recently, but man the mon is so strong. Poltergeist + its natural bulk lets it nail pretty much every drain punch resist.
Cool facts about Slovenia... hmm. It's a very small country, so it only takes 3-4 hours to get from its southwest corner to the northeast corner.
I'm currently overseeing lab work for a couple psychology related courses, as an assistant professor i don't actually teach any classes yet.
Following the cap process can be fun, but I haven't been temped to actually participate yet. Maybe this will change in the future tho.
Ask the CAP mods smh :blobtriumph:
Coolest AAA tech... It's not very heat, just a variation on a standard meta set but I'm proud of it cause it won me a game where I was really behind in a recent series - CM Dauntless Shield Mew (CM, Softboiled, Body Press, Psychic). Basically its a compression of two Mew sets into one. Mew is usually either a DShield pivot, or a Magic Bounce Cosmic Power wincon. CM Dauntless is kinda the best of both worlds - the early game defensive utility of DS with the lategame win potential of MBCP.
Favorite series... I really enjoy Bo3s, especially in team tours, so it has to be the series vs Voltage in w5 of Cap Snake. Was a really enjoyable series where I won g1, Voltage brought rain g2 and i won g3 with sun. A close second is probably my game vs Jordy in this CAPPLE, which I should not have won but somehow did. Was really nice winning the game that i checked out of once my skarm was trapped by his chomper.
Hello Sloven folk,
Hello my french friend

Lmao whats wrong with it?
I did live in Ljubljana and you actually spelled it correctly, nice. Hmm i really liked a thai place that sometimes also hosted quizes and karaokes but it had to close a few years ago sadly. Another "place" i really loved was the university gym complex where students could go work out and play various sports for free, I used to go there pretty much everyday either to work out or play basketball.
My name comes from the superhero web serial Worm, where my namesake character uses the power of perceiving the world in mathematical notation in order to very elegantly and precisely murder people with a pen or by ricocheting a bullet multiple times with a sniper rifle. Back when I read this in 2013 I found it cool as fuck so I named my account after him.
Music - in general i like pop punk, alternative rock, some metal bands and various other rock-adjacent genres, here's some more specific examples:
Citizen is a really good band that recently released this album:
If you want a smaller sample, jet is a rly good song by them
Four year strong is another band ive been enjoying recently
Pendulum is also a band i enjoy, s/o to lasen for reminding me of this song
Slovenian rock - Siddharta:
Insanely good slovenian rap diss track (i dont usually listen to rap but this one is rly good)
Lmao baby numbers (the number kids?) might be coming in the near future :eyes:
Cane is for sure a shit move but NP torn is insane, how can you not like the mon?
Not really nostalgic, but the gen2 rival theme is really good. In general the gen1 and 2 rivals were the best ones imo.
AAA team 100%, im incompetent at piloting ubers. (inb4 you suck at aaa too comments :weary:)
The (glow)KING for sure.
Lmao yeah spitfire makes insane plays but it keeps you on your toes, so I dont mind it. Its also fun getting tilted from a crackhead play if you get what i mean.

E: oops forgot to answer the drake question, but idk i dont really listen to him since i always thought he was kinda bad
 
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with regard to tomohawk...
i dont really have a preference tbh. its an ugly mon tho so ig metas where its bad so i dont have to look at it lmao

hmm probably glowking, but that's a cop out answer since i keep mentioning it. another one is astro, i think astro is still quite solid in the current meta. probs mentioned this alr, but wisp astro enables electric wincons very well and firelash utility is always useful.

its crazy to me that hail is a top tier strat tbh, but i get that arcto under hail is pretty hard to prep for. gets all the coverage it needs so you cant even be sure if your zolt check actually checks (pert gets dried, ferrotran get lowkicked). i personally am not a fan of it, mainly cause i want all my mons to be standalone threats, whereas ninetales and arctozolt are a one-two punch that significantly loses power once one of them is gone.

big navi is the GOAT

what are your thoughts on the economic status of DN
DN are a very valuable resource so there is very high demand for them. i personally think investing in DN is a good move. stonks go up

FMK Boyn/Stitchuu/lph...
i honestly wanna kill YOU for asking me this question LMAO

damn i hate both those countries equally (i dont actually) so tough choice, but i guess if i really had to pick id rather be croatian

hopefully in the near future
 

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