Approved by Akir
Inspired partially by the previous iteration of Player of the Week as well as Player Interview
Akir
Favorite Pokemon: Parasect.
Most used DPP PU Pokemon: Victreebel
Most used BW PU Pokemon: Jumpluff
Most used ORAS PU Pokemon: Monferno
Most used SM PU Pokemon: Primeape
Most used SS PU Pokemon: Mawile
Most known for: PU Tier Leader, hardworking old gens enthusiast, PUPL VI host.
Hello, Akir. How are you doing on this wonderful day?
Pretty good, just got back from a nice walk. How about yourself?
Doing well too, thank you! Can you tell us a bit about yourself outside of Smogon?
Well I am a 27 y/o guy who is currently waiting out the pandemic with my wonderful GF of 5 years and my newly-acquired cat. Other games I play...well I am an avid MMO person. Been playing a lot of WoW Classic and PSO2. I also like racing games! People refuse to play Mario Kart with me now cuz I got so good :(
Aw, whats the name of the cat if you don't mind me asking? Thats gr8, ill hit ya up if I end up getting Mario Kart for sure lol!
Her name is Lady Mochi, but we call her Lady for short. Adopted her about a week ago and she is 5 years old. She is a very refined cat! You don't come to her for petting, she will come to you.
Also absolutely, I love talking time trials with people!
Wonderful, im sure we'd all love to see Lady Mochi in the disc at some point! On the topic of....time (awful transition, ik), how did you get started in the tier?
I got started a long time ago during XY. A buddy of mine named November Rain (my eternal rival you see) told me to play in this tournament for "PU". I was feeling pretty burnt out at the time due to me really hating megas, and I remember PU from BW and wasn't impressed much, but I joined anyway. I actually did really well, beating multiple tournament players and a guy on the council, so I decided to stay. I have been here for...7 or 8 years now.
Thats awesome. Humble beginnings for a humble tier. This is a question that I had asked Specs but that interests me a lot in noticing the development of our tier. What's something you miss about those old days in which PU was developing and what's something that you're happy has changed over the years?
The big thing that I miss is the old community. Had a lot of great friends, and PU was small enough that just about everybody knew everybody. The council was half of the mains at the time haha. Back then too, there was a lot more leeway given for just trying really weird ideas just for the fun of it. Nowadays PU is much bigger, and the competitive aspects of PU has blossomed into something to be proud of.
Looking back at your time as a new PU player during XY, who was a sort of communicative and lead figure in the community that helped you find your place as well as pave the way for what we have now?
The person that sits in my mind was Galbia, who was TL for probably the longest stretch out of everyone with the title. Funny enough it was them that gave me the opportunity to host PUPL II, which is where I really started to get into leadership roles in the tier. I also have to give shoutouts to 2xTheTap and PTF for all of the long conversations into the night that let me grow into the player that I am now. Also, Shuckledeath was my first true friend in the tier and growing with him was a great time way back during ORAS.
I've always thought that those around you are as relevant to the player you are now as your own person sometimes. After all, you're the connections you make. Evolution will be a topic of discussion through this whole interview, so lets get started with some SS. While SS PU seems to be finding a bit more stability in these last weeks, we know that a huge chunk of drops as well as the occasional DLC are just around the corner. What are your thoughts on the current SS PU meta?
I think the current metagame, while flawed, still has a lot of merit to it. However, at this point I am of the opinion that we should try to let the tier sit and organically figure itself out as much as possible. Constantly changing the format, while necessary at times, leaves the metagame in a state of flux that hinders it as much as broken mons. So while there are still mons like Throh and Lilligant...and my attempts to get rid of Gapidash are also well documented at this point...I think that letting the tier adjust to their presence and then judge them is a privilege we have earned and should use.
Of course, im right with you on that Gorse motion lol. Lets move this over now to another important aspect of the tier right now and thats our community! With an ever evolving group of people and a new gen that has been sure to bless the tier with new faces, what are some of the goals of the tier regarding improvement of the community that you'd wanna share as tier leader?
The biggest thing that I want to accomplish now is reinforcing the idea of the greater PU Community and how we are all a part of it. I will be the first to say that many people, both past and present and including myself, have fallen short of making everyone in PU feel like they are all a part of the same community. The same gears all working together towards the same goal. I have seen cracks in our community, splinters even, that I think are a result of many people feeling disenfranchised or unsure about their place. However, everyone in PU is my friend by virtue of being in the community. We may fight, we may disagree heavily, but it is those disagreements that make us better. No one person or one group can have the perfect solution to any problem, so it is our ability to discuss and compromise and debate that makes the tier better. But the most important part of all of that is knowing that we all debate in good faith, and after all of the dust settles we are still all a part of PU. Perhaps this is a dream, and maybe I'm not the man for the job, but it is my dream and I will do what I can to get there.
I really appreciate that response, and im sure others will as well. We just gotta aim towards that goal together! Regarding tiering, an initiative like Council Minutes has been a great way of keeping everyone up to date with what's in the mind of council. For you personally, whats the next step to take towards making SS PU a better tier? How are you guys preparing to handle the upcoming DLC?
The next step is more events for me, things to get people excited again for the format. WCOPU is coming soon, and I have a few more ideas in the works to flesh out but I'm confident that they will at least be worth a laugh. As for tiering, I think a valuable lesson was learned for myself with the first wave of DLC. I personally would rather ban more in a giant pile and then heavily entertain the idea of which ones to retest then banning in weekly updates. Even if the tier does have a big outlier...well, what tier doesn't have a few outliers? It is more important that we allow the tier to grow organically, so we need to buy that time.
Exciting! Many things to look forward to for PU after PUPL Working as a host for PUPL allows you to have a great overview of what happens in the tier competitively as well as community wise. What do you look forward to the most with the start of a tour like this? Do you think that your expectations were reached?
The biggest thing that I look forward to is the huge amount of new ideas and great battles that happen. As far as that is concerned, this PUPL was a huge success! Heck, DPP PU alone had about 2 major shifts of meta development during PUPL. That is crazy! Not to mention all of the new ORAS ideas (people thinking Rotom-Frost is broken is new!) all of the new BW ideas (Scraggy is cute haha) and all of the further refinement of SM PU (it really felt like we didn't lose any time at all). Huge success on that front.
Mhm, we definitely got plenty of those. This PUPL also brought a good amount of first time PUPL players to stand out from some of the great established faces of the tier or outside of it. Who have been some of your favorite new people in the scene?
Well hey, you did pretty well this year! Our horribly-named friend
twitch.tv/Bag_of_Trixx also has a pretty decent run, and
SpacialRendevous was also an interesting watch. Also I am old enough to recognize good ol
SOMALIA, and be excited to hear his thoughts on the tier.
Trixx is quite close to his goal of 100 post, this really is quite exciting news. On the topic of development, With PUPL finally coming to an end, the constant meta shifts in SS have often been a theme of discussion, but of course old gens have evolved greatly too. Can you tell me your thoughts on the development of each old gen after this PUPL?
Well I have to admit that I don't have nearly as interesting opinions on SM and ORAS, since they can't be changed anywhere near as easily as the other two. However they still had good showings. DPP imo proved that it has staying power, going through multiple shifts in both meta development and meta opinion and
still having solid play throughout without anything coming forward as obscenely broken. On that front, I honestly do not want to change much of anything about DPP. People have been asking about a Roselia resuspect (it was banned way back in 2016) and I am willing to field that but I personally am not hopeful. BW deserves its own big post that I'm working on, but basically we either ban nothing or ban about 5-7 mons. BW has gotten better every PUPL since I took up its revival, but it has been incremental. How BW got to this point is a great story though for another time.
Surely these developments are only possible by great players who have been willing to experiment and get the upper hand in some of their MUs. Which have been some of your favorite performing old gens players? What are some of their techs that you've enjoyed the most?
LST still stands as one of my favorite SM players. His willingness to push boundaries and really go beyond the norm always makes him a treat to watch. For BW, EviGaro has been bleeding edge for years and their record just proved that further. Watching Lilburr slowly learn BW was also fascinating, since I am always interested in what newer players think and do within these older generations. And of course, the highlight oldgen match of Drud vs GeneralAnnoyance was one that I even put the time of it in my calendar.
Lots of talent and love for old gens from old as well as newer players was quite pleasant to follow along. Now in our new segment, "Spill the Sinistea", ive decided to stir some controversy! Name one overrated and underrated mon from every PU gen. You can elaborate on the whys's if you consider it appropriate.
DPP: Underrated is Armaldo and Overrated is Torkoal. Armaldo is the better spinner atm and I will stand by that. I would say Magmar but people caught on to that a while ago.
BW: Underrated is Simipour and Overrated is Bronzor. Bronzor is finnicky, but Simipour is a few steps away from being a complete menace.
ORAS: Underrated is Chatot and Overrated is Mawile. Mawile lost Baton Pass so it isn't as good as it was, and I think people forgot that Chatot can just blow through offense like a hot knife through butter.
SM: Underrated is Combusken and Overrated is Pom-Pom. People have been talking about Simisear but not enough about Combusken, and I think Pom-Pom's winrate speaks for itself.
SS: Underrated is Mime-G and Overrated is Gourgeist-Large. Mime-G has a lot of untouched potential, but Gourgeist-Large is just stuck in between its better sized brethren and doesn't have a niche because of it. I voted to UR personally.
Thats a cool list, let's see how hot the discussion about this becomes below the interview kek. This might overlap a bit with the previous question, but can you give us some hot takes regarding the old gens? Whichever you might wanna refer to.
Team Preview was a mistake. That's all.
Hard hitting words from Akir. If you could only play one tier for the rest of your life (in this scenario your choice has a solid player base and community, events, etc.), which would it be? Why? Doesn't have to be a PU tier ofc.
BW1 OU or DPP OU. BW1 was a hot mess but it was my mess, and that's when I played a lot with my college friends and those are some great memories. DPP OU is where I began though, so it makes since that that's where it all ends as well.
Awesome. Thank you so much for your answers. Would you wanna mention some of your favorite people in the community?
That is a lot of tags! First one will be
November Rain. I know he won't see this but I still hope he will return someday. Will also mention
MZ and
2xTheTap for being the other admins that stop me from taking on too much on and going crazy haha. There's also
Specs ,
PTF , and
ShuckleDeath who always stop by and say hello...even years later. But man if I could tag everyone I would lol
Ofc, you've always been welcoming and friendly to approach and im sure that the people in the community appreciate that, even if they remain untagged lol. Finally, is there any last words you'd like to say regarding this PUPL, now that it's all over?
It was very fun and I'm always happy to host, but I am looking forward to an uneventful Sunday lunch with my GF and my phone off lol
You deserve it, thank you so much for your time.
In the spirit of old and new, Akir has been kind enough to send us a BW and a SS team!
Here is a SS PU team I have been using as of late just to play around. Originally it was a Morpeko/Klinklang Voltturn core but Volt Switch on Klink fell out of style. Drifblim is there for Defog (it's imo the best hazard remover in the format atm) and has boots for it but if you wanted to run no item with Acrobatics for a second Lilligant answer and Poltergeist immunity then thats very reasonable. Lilligant is here as the potential wincon, and the Scarf Gourgeist actually makes a pretty interesting Grass Spam core. You can use Scarf Gourgeist as a midgame revenge killer and then win with QD Lilligant, or you can use Lilligant midgame and then use the Scarf Gourgeist as the wincon...all depending on the match! Drednaw is there to round everything out: defensive typing to soak up holes in synergy and rocks, and with an extra Shuca Berry to lure in greedy Dugtrio-As and murder with a quick Liquidation. Overall pretty fun with a lot of room still for improvement and customization.
Here is a pretty standard BW PU team that I made during PUPL. Actually this has been panned as being
very standard, but that only makes it a good team for beginners. The wincon is SubSalac Simipour, who can choose how they want to win. If you want speed, Salac is easy and gets you Torrent as well. Need to break walls? Nasty Plot. Greedy? Go for both, its easier than you think. After that you have a Voltturn core with Natu and Zebstrika (Natu is the best hazard control in the format and walls half the rock setters, and Zebstrika is further speed control) and you have Throh as a backup set-up wincon while being the special sponge (trust in it). Torterra is there, notably without Grass STAB but instead with Stone Edge to better round out coverage, as your rocker and physdef wall. The Beheeyem is pretty simple: the EVs make it so that Psychic kills Audino on the switch...even if it Protects for the extra Leftovers. Try the tier out, tell me what you think!
Shoutout Akir for hosting PUPL VI and having the time to interview him.
As always, hmu if you have some feedback on the project!
ASK MR. AKIR SOME EPIC QUESTIONS!
