Art by Syrinix
Shoutouts to sharpclaw for grammar checking
Approved by Forum Moderators
Hosted by:
Tarrembeau and Syrinix
Welcome to the Random Battles Community Interview! The goal of this project is to interview well-known members of the Randbats community every month and learn more about them. These members may include players who’ve been successful in tournaments, high-ladderers, format/forum contributors, and more!
Without further ado, let’s move on to the interview itself:
Syrinix
Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed, we're excited to have you on board! Let's kick things off with an easy question: who's your favorite music artist, and what's your favorite track by them?
Clementine
Hello and thanks for the interview as well, it's always nice to have an opportunity to share things that I like!
That's a very good question, I'm not sure I have a single favorite music artist because I like a lot of different genres and songs. I love Pink Floyd, I grew up listening to The Wall and Wish You Were Here because they are my father's favorite albums, and I like how "varied" what they made is. Some of their songs are like 20 minutes long and I like the fact that you can listen to specific parts of the song depending on how you feel. My favorite Pink Floyd track is probably Brain Damage on The Dark Side Of The Moon; you should always listen to this album from start to finish, but Brain Damage is one of two songs on this project that can be listened to "on its own."
Aside from that, my top artist in 2022 according to Spotify is Alpha Wann, a french rap artist that I highly encourage y'all to check out, I love his stuff and we come from the same part of Paris. My favorite track is probably "la lune attire la mer," it's almost a perfect song.
Syrinix
Pink Floyd is a classic, The Wall definitely has to be one of their best albums imo. Great tastes.
Do you happen to listen to any music while you battle on Pokemon Showdown?
Clementine
I listen to music whenever I can, and battling on Showdown is no exception.
I always have some music on when I play on ladder, whether I'm sitting at my desk or playing on my phone while on the bus, it helps me focus a bit more.
As for tournament games, I try to play with some music when I can. I often turn down the volume on tough turns where I really have to think, and turn it up when I make some crazy plays™.
I used to have an entire playlist called "Poke" with tracks I exclusively listened to while laddering or playing tour games, but I haven't updated it in a looooong time.
Syrinix
That's an interesting way of listening to music while playing tours, I should try that out one day. I'm curious to see what kind of music is on your Poke playlist once it's updated... Maybe it'll help me win more, lol
Now onto the meat of the interview! When and how did you get involved with the Random Battles community?
Clementine
I've been playing Randbats on Pokémon Showdown for a LONG time.
The first registered alt I can remember goes back to 2015, I remember playing Gen 6 Rands on my phone and popping off when I made it to the 1500s for the first time.
I kinda stopped playing Pokemon and video games as a whole around the end of high school, I didn't have much time for them, and I mostly played Smash Bros when I had the chance to play.
I got back into it in 2nd year of engineering school because a friend of mine played Pokemon competitively as well, and during my exchange semester in China, early 2019, I really got into it. I dusted off my old Smogon account, started signing up for tours, and played a LOT of Randbats on the ladder.
I hit top 10 for the first time on the Gen 7 Rands ladder in April or March of 2019 and DAMN was I proud.
I then joined the Randbats room in July or August when I got back in France, started playing in room tournaments, then I signed up for RBTT 3 and got drafted by Cake and Roginald. I met a lot of very cool people (shoutouts Team Hoopa 2020), started talking more and more in the Random Battles room and I got eventually promoted to Voice, then staff.
Syrinix
That was quite the journey you've been through over the past few years. Very cool how you got drafted into RBTT3 the same year you joined the room. It seems like you've played a whole lot of Randbats back then, but how often do you play nowadays and do you have a go-to/favorite format?
Clementine
I played a lot of Randbats these past few weeks to practice for Rands Slam, especially since I had 0 doubles games played before October. I definitely don't play as much as I used to, mainly because school-related activities take a lot of my free time, but I try to play a couple of games per week to stay in shape.
As for my favorite formats, Gen 7 Battle Factory has grown on me recently; it's probably a nostalgia thing though, as Gen 7 lower tiers are among my favorite formats. Gen 3 Randbats has been one of my absolute favorite formats ever since I've practiced with Roginald in RBTT3— I'm a huge fan of Gen 3 mechanics when it comes to battling, and I feel like it's one of the more skill-rewarding randomized formats.
Syrinix
Gen 3 Rands and Gen 7 BF are very fun formats for sure. On the topic of Rands Slam, considering your latest win, do you have any sort of strategies you use while battling, for anyone hoping to emulate your success in various Rands formats?
Clementine
I have faced a couple of opponents who were more experienced than me in a couple of formats and were simply better than me.
I knew that playing passively could cost me a lot, and I often try to identify high-risk/high-reward situations, where progress can be made after a risky play. I'm always trying to get the most out of what I have on my team, and I think a good example of that is the Gen 2 game LoSconosciuto and I played during finals.
I knew my Jynx was extremely threatening to their team, mainly because the only Pokemon on their team that resisted both Psychic and Ice, Sneasel, had no way of recovering HP. Jynx was able to 2HKO pretty much everything on their team besides Sneasel, but most Pokemon could threaten it back due to its poor physical bulk. I think I made a couple of risky plays that helped me get progress in this game. By double switching to Jynx multiple times, I forced LoSco to either let their only resist take some damage, or let something drop to Ice Beam. Even with the good matchup I rolled this game, I tried to play as offensively as possible.
Syrinix
That's some great insight into a thrilling match that was very fun to watch live. Nothing feels better than successfully pulling off high-risk/high-reward situations. Do you have any aspects of Random Battles that you particularly dislike? This can be an individual Pokemon's set, an entire format, etc.
Clementine
Minior.
Syrinix
Haha, fair enough!
On the flipside, what's your favorite Pokemon to roll in Randbats (from any generation)?
Clementine
That is a very interesting question. I don't think I have a favorite Pokemon to roll, moreso sets I like having on my team. The big brokens like Scarf Kyogre in Gens 4-7, Double Dance Magearna in Gen 8 or Calm Mind Latias in Gen 3 always make me feel safe about my plays since there is very little room for mess-ups with these.
My favorite kind of Pokemon to use in general are slow breakers, and Gen 8 Pangoro is a perfect example. It always rolls Choice Band and threatens basically anything, whether it's with raw damage output or item removal via Knock Off. It's also quite bulky and can eat even super-effective hits (not Fairy moves, obviously) to strike back really hard.
Syrinix
Totally—it feels very satisfying to do big damage against mons like Blissey and Toxapex without any setup.
You've participated in most of the major events held within the Randbats community throughout the past year. Which one is your favorite?
Clementine
I'm a big fan of most old gens randomized formats (emphasis on most, Gen 2 got me crazy during World Cup), so Rands Classic was probably my favorite Slam tour.
Hackmons Cup Open was also quite fun, shoutouts my man Altthiel for all the late night HC practice.
While I really enjoyed RBTT this year, being the non-playing manager sometimes felt a bit depressing, so my favorite Team Tournament was Challenge Cup Cup. I like to think I'm a cc2v2 menace, and I can't wait to pull out some sick tricks for the next iteration of this tour!
Syrinix
Glad to hear you'll be around for future tours! That should be very fun indeed.
Before we wrap things up, what kind of advice would you give to players looking to get into Random Battles, or to any new faces wanting to contribute to the community?
Clementine
If you want to get good at random battles, here are a few tips that really helped me when I started getting into things competitively:
- Check out the random battles resources thread. This is a no brainer as every single piece of information you can learn there will be valuable at some point. If some guides, such as the article I wrote a couple years ago, are a bit outdated, you can probably find the answer to whatever Random Battles related question you’ve got in this thread. Also, use the incredible Randbats Tooltip.
- Take as much time as you can, even when you are 100% sure your play is the best possible one. Random Battles are about collecting information and analyzing what's happening on the battlefield. Take some time to see how your opponent reacts to your plays, and what information you give them by reacting as well. It takes practice and a bit of brain work, but you will significantly improve your results.
- Play regularly, this is no secret, practice makes perfect. Random Battles sets (and levels for some gens) are updated on a regular basis, which will change a lot of interactions during the course of a game. So stay updated, follow changes, and keep an eye on the sets discussion threads.
- Follow our monthly room events on Pokemon Showdown, events such as our Monthly Marathon, our room Leaderboard, and even the Auth Challenge. These mini-tournaments are very good ways to play multiple formats and face more than solid players (plus they're super fun).
Syrinix
These are some fantastic tips! I'm sure the readers will make good use of them.
That about finishes things up. Thanks for taking the time to be interviewed and providing wonderful answers—we really appreciate it!
Thanks to Clementine for the great interview! Feel free to ask them any further questions in this thread, and keep an eye out for future interviews!
