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Dark Pulse and paysa
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! Check out past interviews here!
For our 18th interview, we are interviewing za and Buhrito! Squirrel aficionados, long time players and most importantly, managers of the USNE WCOR team who won it all this year!
Pulse
To kick things off: It was a long tournament, but your team finally came out on top. How do you feel?
za
It feels good! Obviously everyone is biased for their own team, but we believed we were the best team in the tournament going into it. With that being said, mons is mons, so it’s hard to go in expecting much beyond just making the playoffs. We were ready for any result, everyone was having a lot of fun and I really cannot stress enough how great this team's vibe is... with that being said, actually getting to finish with the win was definitely a highlight of my time on this site, especially that 4 series streak during that one hour.
Buhrito
Like za said, it feels amazing, especially after coming so close in previous years. We always knew we were a strong team, and knew that all we needed was confidence and a little bit of luck to take it home. I’m super happy with how everything turned out, not only the win, but also our team spirit throughout the tour, and I’m really happy that all of us have been able to experience this win together.
Pulse
Glad to hear the team had great vibes! Which leads me to asking, how did you select team members? It looks like everyone was a returning player except for your Doubles player, and that was a format newly added to WCOR. Do you feel the team has gotten stronger over the years?
za
Like you said, our team was very similar to last year's, so most of the work had already been done. We felt very confident in the last WCOR that we put out a roster with as much talent as possible, and the team environment was the best I’ve ever been a part of, so we didn’t really feel like we needed to change much. Obviously we needed a doubles player, and when we saw Arcticblast signed up we immediately knew he would be the one (heard nothing but good things, understands set generation well, impressive results, etc). We did actually bring in one other new player in Nat, who reached out to us during signups and ended up being a great contributor to the team. We weren’t opposed to new faces at all and we did legitimately check every signup, but at the end of the day we decided that this was the best roster we could make.
I definitely do feel like the team got stronger this year. Not only did everyone just naturally improve with time, but I think we optimised our lineup a bit better. Lady Writer stepping up to play Gen 2 and King Edgy performing so well on Gen 4 despite it not being his main format were both super important, while AMP finally got the chance to shine on Gen 1 with an insane 8-1 record. A lot of the formats were just easy to stick with, with guys like Borida and betathunder being GOATs of their respective formats, but I think that overall the little tweaks helped put us over the edge.
Buhrito
Yup, even though USNE gets a good amount of signups, our team was so strong last year that it was hard to justify making many changes. On top of what za said, I think one of the most important switches that we decided on involved King Edgy willing to flex outside of Gen 1 in order for our team strength to shine to its fullest potential. And I really wanna shout out King Edgy for being so flexible and STILL putting up numbers, as I think this flexibility may have actually snowballed us into winning the whole tour.
Pulse
Changing up your formats really worked out for you! On the topic of picking your formats, you had a tiebreaker in the quarterfinals with Benelux, last year’s champion. Was that nerve-wracking? How did you choose your players & formats?
za
Yeah, for sure... in my opinion, Benelux was the 2nd strongest team in the tournament and we were less than excited about having to play them round 1 despite finishing as the 2nd seed. As far as format choice, it was honestly pretty straightforward. Despite what some of the ignorant kids on here will try to tell you, Gen 1 is a relatively skill based gen of rands. In addition to that, we felt like we had one of the strongest players in the pool in AMP, and while Kip is definitely a great player, we did think it was (due to them having such a stacked roster) a relative weakness of Benelux’s. Jisoo on Gen 3 was an obvious choice, amazing player of the format and we knew that they were as motivated as ever after their loss to xGang during the week. We considered a lot of people for the Gen 9 slot, but ultimately Boris just seemed the most confident and available... plus he's performed in that exact same situation before. But yeah, after winning that tiebreaker our confidence was pretty high that we could go all the way.
Buhrito
Yup, and it’s truly a blessing that we have so much gen 9 talent on our team, as it let me focus on things outside of Pokémon that week (even though Boris didn’t have to play LOL). beating Benelux in quarterfinals tiebreak after losing to them in quarterfinals last year was definitely a highlight of the tour for me, maybe even THE highlight, and the fact that we went on to win the tour after they won the tour last year was pretty poetic.
paysa
USNE definitely fields a very strong team on paper, with even the subs being very well known and experienced players. Must have been cathartic to both beat Benelux AND then go on to win the whole thing, truly poetic like you said! I think it can be intimidating for newer players to sign up or feel like they have a chance of getting on such a stacked team. Do you have any advice for said players?
za
I mean tbh… not much, other than the obvious stuff. As I mentioned, we already look through every signup and truly do field what we believe to be the best team possible. I’d recommend aiming to succeed in tournaments, on the ladder, all the usual stuff like that to get noticed… but beyond that, there’s really not much.
Buhrito
Yea, the best ways to get noticed are with strong ladder and/or tournament results, and by showing that you are passionate and have a high motivation to play and win by reaching out to managers. Even though our current lineup is super strong, anything can happen so don’t feel like it’s impossible to make the team. Like za said, we do look through every signup to make sure that we never regret our final roster.
paysa
Sounds good, aspiring players can rest assured that they're in good hands. Speaking of next year, I hear there's rumours of your retirement, za. Does that mean you won't participate in WCoR next year? And will you come back to manage Buhrito?
za
Well I'm flattered that I'm relevant enough for there to be "rumours of my retirement" heh, but I guess it depends on how you define retirement... I decided to sign up for RBYPL, which I'm currently playing in, and that will almost certainly be the last tournament I actually play in... I've also obviously stepped down from rands staff, but I don't plan on disappearing and never did. I still talk to people from this site quite regularly, and I'm open to managing RBTT with Losco again. As far as WCOR goes, I'm not really sure... a year is a long time, but I've been here for 8 of them so realistically there's a good chance I give it another go... but we shall see.
Buhrito
Assuming nothing crazy happens, I’m definitely open to managing again, the whole thing was a blast. Either way, I’m for sure looking forward to having another great season next year whether it be as a manager or player.
Pulse
Alright, let’s pivot to a couple more short questions. What was your favourite single game in the tournament?
za
Tough question... while there's a lot of contenders, I think I'd have to go with Game 1 of AMP vs Livid in finals... very biased due to recency and being a gen 1 player myself, but that was such a close, well played, high stakes game... super exciting to watch as a spectator.
Buhrito
Favourite single game…now that’s hard to say, there were plenty of awesome and crazy games this season! As for a single best moment in this tournament, I would for sure say that it was during finals - when 4 of our players ALL won within a 15 minute period - watching all of the games at once and seeing the wins come in like that in finals was a truly crazy experience.
paysa
That was wild to watch, you look at one game for a minute and two mons have fainted in another, you press skip turn in one match and see a total of eight down, and going back and forth was just so hectic, it felt like watching an in-person tournament. On a lighter note, many would like to know what’s with the Greedent/Nut obsession...could you enlighten us?
za
When Nate and I managed this team in the first WCOR, Greedent was the one mascot we were both able to agree on… I brought it up in the conversation mostly jokingly because it’s my favourite Pokemon, but he liked it enough and so it stuck and everyone just kinda rolls with it.
paysa
I mean it worked out, the Greedent feels quite iconic, and I know a lot of people are curious about what the custom avatar is going to look like!
Last one to wrap it up: this year’s WCoR definitely subverted expectations: no Benelux/China finals, Oceania going from qualifiers to finals, and many other teams performing contrary to expectations. Amidst all this, how do you feel about your chances next year, and are there any other teams you think we should keep an eye on?
za: I mean, I do believe that we have the strongest region on paper, and I don’t anticipate that changing next year… even if we lose some people, our current bench players would be starting on most teams. There’s plenty of other strong teams as well, of course… Benelux will always be scary, Italy had an amazing regular season, US South is due for a run, and I could go on… but at the end of the day, a lot of this just comes down to RNG when the gaps between the top teams are relatively so small. We’re still the best tho so everyone else will have to catch up…
paysa
Yeah, it is Randbats at the end of the day, and RNG will make all the difference at the top level, as I’m sure you’re both all too aware of. Glad to see you’re confident and looking forward to seeing what you guys pull off next year!! Thank you both for this interview, it’s been a pleasure for both me and Pulse, and wishing you guys the best of luck in your future endeavours :D
PSA from za & Buhrito
October is Squirrel Awareness Month! Take some time to observe the squirrels in your backyard, town park, or city green space. Watch their antics, get to know them, and enjoy these adorable, mischievous critters. There are many excellent children's books about squirrels to share this month, too!
