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RoAPL RoAPL V: Talk Thread

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Excal said:
You basically cited one series to rank Alexander below most of the pool instead of looking at overall consistency across a number of years. Yes, I agree that less experience in tours =/= automatically worse player, but your rankings don't factor in any tournament results at all. You can't just make a list that subjective and allow it to have any credibility whatsoever.
Click to expand...
I did consider tour results, the top 5 in my rankings are pretty much all based on recent results, despite any personal opinions I have on their skill. I will concede though Alexander might have been a bit of an oversight, I've played most of the pool but never personally played him and it's obvious that I'm a bit new to the tour scene. I made the rankings for fun, not for anything official.

Though I will stand by that if Alex gets matched up vs Eb0la or Maya I'll favor Eb0la and Maya over him, I did watch replays for these rankings, and of course they are subjective but I had a pretty good track record of predicting games in SPL. It's also worth considering that past results don't always translate to being great currently if a player is rusty. For example I recently played Peasounay for a PP tour, I know he was considered a GOAT RBY a few years ago but since he is now rusty his skill had fallen off a bit.
 
Alpha Male Psyduck said:
haha, nah man. i guess i should have clarified, as much fun as it is for me to rate these players I wouldn't considered myself qualified for that. i'm too new to the scene and don't know the player pool nearly well enough.
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167221

Someone's gotta update this then LOL
 
Taken from Smogon's rules:

"Do not flame or abuse other members. The anonymity of the Internet does not give you a license to treat the users of this forum disrespectfully. Of course, posts in Firebot may be an exception, but please refer to the rules of that forum. This rule goes at least triple if the member in question is a moderator or administrator, as alluded to above. "

I'm no longer affiliated in any way with RoA or have any position of power whatsoever, but I'd just like to point out this exists.
 
RE: Koniko Clan

Some issues were raised over the name, Koniko Clan, due to the references it has to a certain undefendable organisation. After a lot of discussion, we decided to force the team to change their name. We have already changed all mentions of the old name in the week 1 and replay thread to Konikoni City, but if the team decides, before the end of the week, that another, non-controversial, name is better, we will allow it!

Although changing a teams name during a tour is not standard, this is definitely a situation where it is appropriate and we should not have allowed it in the first place. This decision is final!

crayon pop Finchinator
 
RoAPL 5 RBY Power Rankings

Power Rankers:
Alpha Male Psyduck (>30 RBY Monday wins)
Diegolh (RBY starter in SPL IX)
ErPeris (RBY starter in RoAPL 4)
FriendOfMrGolem120 (RBY starter in SPL X)
Lusch (RBY starter in SPL VIII and IX)

Duo List

Mt.Moon Men: Heroic Troller (#1) & MetalGro$$ (#6)
The current RBY #1 is performing brilliantly in both team and individual tournaments alike, while his Mt.Moon partner has great longevity and has been knocking on the door to the RBY throne room for years.

Hearthome City Heatrans: Nails (#4) & Bedschibaer (#5)
Smogon's favourite VGC main Nails is coming hot off an SPL, and is looking to continue his recent success, this time teaming up with beloved memer and Kinnikuman at heart Bedschibaer, who is looking to reclaim his 2017 glory after an average SPL.

Aspertia Arcanines: Alexander. (#3) & Maya Chansey (#7)
After a rough SPL in RBY, the Italian DB lover Alexander. is hoping his GOAT form returns. Teamed with highly touted prospect Maya Chansey, who is spoken very highly of by many RBY players despite having only RoA Olympics as an earlier tournament result.

Sunyshore City Shaymins: Kaz (#2) & Thiago Nunes (#15)
Kaz's pickup, in the most recent SPL, proved any doubters wrong with a solid 6-3 record. Alongside him is a newcomer to the scene: Brazilian player Thiago Nunes. Many have questioned if the latter is a worthwhile pickup in this pool, but time will tell.

Konikoni City: Hipmonlee (#9) & EB0LA (#10)
Hipmonlee, one of the greats when online play was in its infancy, has found it difficult to reach the same heights recently, bar an impressive winter seasonal victory, is paired up with fellow Winter Seasonal boss who aims to break into the top RBYer crowd.

Pyrite Town Pichus: Genesis7 (#8) & The Quasar (#13)
After subbing into ORAS in SPL, WCoPer Genesis7 is back in RBY, with most people expecting him to be able to hold his own. Paired up with him is The Quasar, a real old-timer, who made it to the RBY Championship semis, before being halted by Alexander. Skywalker.

Po Town Porygons: Pearl (#12) & Tobes (#14)
Top 6 in the the latest Winter seasonal, and the odd game in the last couple of RoAPLs, point to a good RBYer in Pearl, while WCoP 2016's surprising RBY lord, Tobes, complements him in the first generation lineup.

Mauville Magnetons: teal6 (#11) & rozes (#16)
teal6, another WCoPer like Genesis7, also with medium levels of success, completes the duo with his fellow ex-TD, whose performance in RBY is the most unknown. Hopefully The Idiot Ninja's name proves ironic concerning this matter and he knows stuff we don't.

Sorted by highest/lowest mean ranking.

Individual List

1st: Heroic Troller
2nd: Kaz
3rd: Alexander.
4th: Nails
5th: Bedschibaer
6th: MetalGro$$
7th: Maya Chansey
8th: Genesis7
9th: Hipmonlee
10th: EB0LA
11th: teal6
12th: Pearl
13th: The Quasar
14th: Tobes
15th: Thiago Nunes
16th: rozes

Sorted by highest/lowest mean ranking and ties were broken by highest rank given by a ranker.

Written by Lutra and Djokra​
 
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RoAPL 5 Player Interview (RBY): Nails

Lutra: For RBY, we are interviewing Nails, who's had some very impressive results in RBY in the last year. Nails, you've been playing pokemon a long time, what do you think has led to you dominating this SPL, last RoAPL and coming very close to a finals in the last GC, all in RBY?

Nails: There's a few reasons for my success. I think that starting to play RBY when I did, which was pretty soon after the body slam mechanics changes, was very helpful, as I never had any preconceptions about Pokémon strength that I had to overwrite, like a lot of veterans did, while having an experience advantage on newer players who have come since. I put in a bunch of time playing and thinking about RBY when I first started, which allowed me to figure out my own reasons for why certain things were or weren't strong, and those reasons happened to be better than other people's reasons (though in retrospect my teams that I made when I first started were garbage). For the most part, I haven't really trusted what others have thought was good and, for better or for worse, have stuck to my guns. As a player I guess i'm just pretty good at clicking buttons sometimes. Not sure what to say about that one other than i'm getting close to 9 years of playing this game (in many forms) and I love it and try to keep getting better. I also think of myself as a lucky player, and most of my sets have some evidence of this. Calling someone a lucky player very rarely tells the full story, and it doesn't with me, but I have tended to be luckier this SPL.

Lutra: Do you think your latest SPL success is your peak achievement so far in Pokémon? What are your previous achievements that have given you long lasting pleasure?

Nails: My VGC achievements still outweigh anything I've done on smogon, though this SPL is my best Smogon tournament performance I've ever had. My best VGC season was in 2017, where I was (imo) the best player in the world for about a 3 month period of time at the start of the season (mid December to mid March) and still elite for most of the rest of the season. In VGC, overall (not just that time period) I have 2 regional wins, 4 more regional semifinals appearances, a pair of international championship top 8s, and a pair of 2nd place finishes in massive (~800+) man online open tours over the past 3 years. For a single achievement I'm most proud of it'd probably be my first regional win, the team I used can be seen here https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pok.../#team-nick-navarre-masters-division-champion I'm not gonna go into it too in-depth because this is an RBY interview, but the short version is that it boosts a Snorlax defensively in a bunch of different ways.

Lutra: Very nice, and what about the team tours you've won on Smogon? What are your best memories?

Nails: My favorite memory from any of the east years is (in general) the ghosting calls from east before that was stamped out of Smogon. I really miss ghosting and I credit the biggest jump in my development as a player from being present for the late BW and early XY calls with hugo. Hearing how he thought about the game completely shifted my mindset about what was possible when playing the game. It's gonna sound pretty lame, but since I wasn't a starter for any of the trophies I won, my favorite personal memory is a play I made in someone else's game. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-ou-80111 on turns 46 through 48 we were playing around a super threatening mega alakazam that was low hp and had traced regenerator, while we had a gliscor at ~40%, a ttar at ~45%, and a bunch of other mons that couldn't really stop zam long term. I saw a line that we could comfortably get a roost off with gliscor, because if it took a kill then tar could come back in and pursuit; if zam stayed in it would die to sand, and so long term the biggest problem for team would be taken out. Instead of taking 2 kills and sacking his wincon, he preserved his threat but we also got to roost with gliscor, and so we undid a bunch of offensive pressure that he'd built up. We weren't out of the woods yet but that play was a big momentum swing (and gliscor ended up cleaning up that game). It's hard to have singular plays that swing a Pokémon game aside from big predictions near the end of the game, but that one is up there for me.

Lutra: TIN's made a recent post about RBY OU ruleset changes, would you make any changes to the RBY OU rules?

Nails: I straight up don't understand people's issues with RBY. I don't think the tier has any problems that need to be solved in its current form. Reflect mirrors are healthy imo; there are adequate means of dealing with a Reflected Snorlax (and Reflect Chansey is not very good); and without it, physical attackers run rampant. With that said, I think that tradebacks is probably a correct change for the tier. The mons are legitimately obtainable in the games; so for ruleset consistency with other gens, they should probably be allowed. I have no clue if tradebacks is a better format, but since people seem to be up in arms about RBY atm i'd be ok with changing for the sake of freshness.

Lutra: Interesting, how do you feel about wrap?

Nails: It's weak and the mons which have the move are bad. Paralysis is a death sentence for any wrapper. Victreebel is the strongest/most problematic, but it's very fragile, and is mostly just punishing to the builds which don't respect it. Dragonite sucks. Cloyster and Moltres are related, and are stronger (Moltres isn't really good either but Cloy is), and I assume you're asking about them too, so I'll touch on them. PP and accuracy are significant issues for clamp and fire spin, and just like with wrap, being paraed means that the mons can no longer function as a wrapper. Cloyster has some saving graces, in that it can both boom while paraed and viably run rest, both of which make it much less all in on the wrap accuracy check than any other mon. Clamp tends to merely be a way to deal with Chansey and provides free switches for teammates. Cloyster is up there for one of my favorite RBY mons. I think that wrap is more of an issue on paper than in practice. It's pretty un-interactive, and can do silly things in a minority of games; but more often than not, the wrap mon contributes less than a more generally useful pokemon would. If players want to 35/65 their way through a tournament, I'll take my 65% against them and toss the dice.

Lutra: How important do you think predicting your opponent's Rock-Electric-Water is in RBY sets?

Nails: Pretty unimportant from a team selection perspective, moderately important while playing. Maybe it was more important in the past, but you tend to have some counterplay to the lastmon with your normals, and you can shift some of the burden of checking an unwelcome lastmon over to the rest of the team. You obviously can't force a Zapdos vs Rhydon endgame, and it's slightly negative; but Zapdos remains a looming threat so they can't play recklessly with their Rhydon either, and so both sides can play chicken with that knowledge. Big 4 comps tend to be prone to matchup disadvantages anyways, and I tend to avoid playing them for that and other reasons.

Lutra: What are your thoughts on the RBY player base? Are the gaps left by semi-retired and retired players always adequately filled up by the growing talent of players in tournaments, or is there a problem?

Nails: I don't really pay attention to the RBY player base outside of team tours. I care about the format, but I've been more or less a lone wolf in RBY the whole time i've played it. Everyone else tends to hang out on PP, which i've almost completely ignored with the exception of a couple tournaments in a couple years. I don't really feel qualified to comment on the player base as a whole. I'll say that there was a dropoff in talent in spl this year after the top 7-8 slots (FriendOfMrGolem was a pleasant surprise, and i trust that Alex will bounce back if he wants to in the future), but I don't want to speculate on the root causes of it. In defense of my tier, lots of other player bases had members who put up a poor showing, and that isn't a new experience. I think maybe the midseason rule changes contributed to it, but i'm drifting away from the intended scope of the question.

Lutra: Do you feel more team tournaments should be created to allow people that get overlooked in most drafts to participate? Either just lots of them, so the more famous players can't join all of them, or in the case of SPL, a lower league?

Nails: I think there's a bunch of team tournaments already? My understanding is that for lots of them, all you need to get drafted is to tell a manager that you're serious about it and have a moderate amount of skill in the tier you want to play. I suppose if there's demand for them, sure. They're a good way to make connections in a community that can otherwise be weird to approach from the outside, and in general team tournaments are the best way to experience Pokémon.

Lutra: Thanks for your answers. One final question. Why Fire Blast Tauros?

Nails: For people not as familiar with RBY, unlike in later gens, Fire Blast has a 30% burn chance, with 120 BP and 85 accuracy. The appeal of the move is largely in the burn chance. Fire Blast Tauros wins the Tauros mirror more often than EQ, and I feel that not using it sets you too far behind an opponent who has it. Opting into an unfavorable mirror is a poor play, and so you feel (or should feel) pressured to switch out of it. Having a Tauros which is scared to fight other Tauros feels extremely punishing to play with, since Tauros is already extraordinarily hard to switch into. Aside from the mirror, burn has underrated utility in other matchups. https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen1ou-409856 (turn 60) one endgame that sticks in mind was this one in the RBY invitational where 100% Tauros had to defeat 100% Tauros, ~80% Rhydon and sleeping Starmie, and the best play after beating his tauros was Fire Blast burn Rhydon into Blizzard hit, instead of needing a Blizzard crit. Burning Snorlax who want to Selfdestruct is good as well, and even burning Chansey or Starmie (or Gengar) is fine, the damage adds up over time. And a last point, burned Gengar loses 1v1 to mono-Normal moves Reflect Snorlax.

Edited by Lutra​
 
RE: Trap

Trap has been permabanned and is not allowed to play in RoAPL V. The Aspertia Arcanines will be allowed to sell back Trap for 3k credits to draft another player from the pool.

RE: I attract E-Girls

I attract E-Girls has been banned and their ban will not expire before the end of RoAPL V. The Mt. Moon Men will be allowed to sell back I attract E-Girls for 3k credits to draft another player from the pool.

For the replacement player to be valid, managers must start a forum PM with all the hosts: HSOWA, Smoochyena, and tjdaas. If you want the new player to be available next week, you need to pm us before Saturday the 6th 23:59PM EDT. We will announce the sellbacks on the Sunday, and let you know earlier if there are any sellback replacement request clashes.

Tagging the relevant managers: Mysterious M, roudolf13, Gilbert arenas, PDC
 
RoAPL 5 GSC Power Rankings

Power Rankers:
Century Express (SPL VIII and IX starter)
Earthworm (SPL VII, VII and X starter)
FriendOfMrGolem120 (3 RoA Tour individual wins)
k3nan (SPL IX starter)
Texas Cloverleaf (PP season winner)

Duo List

Aspertia Arcanines: Mr.378 (#4) & Melle2402 (#8)
The guy that first got rejected, next went 5-0, then went on a losing streak in SPL, is hoping his fortunes are good this RoAPL, as he partners with last year RoAPL's GSC dominator, Melle2402.

Mauville Magnetons: Lavos (#1) & Diophantine (#12)
The GSC GOAT, who's managed to better his already great SPL record from last year, is assisted in GSC by newcomer Diophantine, the latter seeming to be reaching towards the top at a fast rate.

Sunyshore City Shaymins: Hyogafodex (#6) & Sceptross (#7)
Current RoA Tour champ, GSC OU GC semi-finalist, who had a good RoAPL last year too, is joined by former RoA Room Owner Sceptross, who won the last PP season.

Konikoni City: dice (#3) & TSR (#11)
GSC Cup finalist dice, who boasts plenty of achievements in ADV and BW, as well as making Smogon Classic and Smogon Tour playoffs, is alongside GSC typecast: TSR.

Po Town Porygons: BKC (#2) & Slick Willy (#16)
GSC Boss of SPL 8, and the man that tries to win everything except RoA Room Championship, BKC joins a player called Slick Willy, that came out of nowhere and put up a decent RoAPL record last year.

Pyrite Town Pichus: HSA (#5) & Vileman (#14)
GSC Lower Tier King HSA looks to cement himself in GSC upper tiers too, but he's got an uphill struggle to unite the monarchies while a few GSCers are still in action. He teams up with Vileman, who played GSC in WCoP a couple of years ago.

Hearthome City Heatrans: Oibaf (#10) & Arifeen (#13)
Oibaf took a life off Lavos in this year's Global Championship and almost made it to semifinals last year, combined with a decent record on PP, is teamed with Arifeen, who ascended to GSC backup this SPL, and beat Cased.

Mt.Moon Men: Kingler12345 (#9) & Coconut (#15)
Kingler is a decent multi-tier player. As for the second player, coconut is a mysterious choice, but maybe the manager was sipping on a piña colada at the beach during the draft.

Sorted by highest/lowest mean ranking.

Individual List

1st: Lavos
2nd: BKC
3rd: dice
4th: Mr.378
5th: HSA
6th: Hyogafodex
7th: Sceptross
8th: Melle2402
9th: Kingler12345
10th: Oibaf
11th: TSR
12th: Diophantine
13th: Arifeen
14th: Vileman
15th: Coconut
16th: Slick Willy

Sorted by highest/lowest mean ranking and ties were broken by highest rank given by a ranker.

Written by Lutra with contributions from Excal and a little help from jacob .​
 
RoAPL 5 Player Interview (GSC): Hyogafodex

Excal: Hey everyone! For GSC, we have my retain Hyogafodex who's had some very impressive results in GSC, namely being a semifinalist of GSC Global Championship 2018 and a finalist of the Past Gen GSC Championship. This year, although he did not play GSC, he participated in SPL, showing his versatility by beating linear in ADV and zf in BW. Hyoga, what do you think contributed to your breakout GSC performances in 2018?

Hyogafodex: Century Express helped me a lot with practice and building, but other than that I’m not really sure why I started having somewhat good results last year.

Excal: Your team is just one tiebreak away potentially from the coveted SPL trophy. How has your SPL experience been overall? Do you enjoy GSC more than ADV/BW? How would you compare your skill in GSC to the two gens you played during SPL?

Hyogafodex: SPL was pretty great for me. I like my teammates a lot as people, and I really enjoyed playing when I was given the chance. GSC has been my favorite gen for quite some time, although I’ve always liked ADV and started liking BW quite a lot lately. Regarding my skill level in each gen, I have played a lot more GSC, so it’s usually easier for me to make decisions and evaluate scenarios. So overall I think GSC is currently my strongest gen.

Excal: How would you compare GSC to ADV/BW? Would you say that perhaps the tiers are more similar than meets the eye? Or do they require completely different skills in certain ways?

Hyogafodex: GSC is pretty different from the other gens like BW and ADV because it’s much simpler. It has very few mons comparatively, and one layer of spikes with some other mechanics make it way more slow paced than other gens. I think that until BW, all gens are pretty different one from one another. ORAS and SM are the most similar from what I can see. It’s all Pokémon though, so it’s not as if they have completely different skills needed to play, in my opinion. They just have some differences that make them have a different way of playing.

Excal: I see, you've been around for a long time and you've played in many tournaments. What would you say is your favorite memory while competing?

Hyogafodex: Probably either my first game for WCoP or when I got nominated during the SPL draft. I was quite surprised that I was nominated.

Excal: So, back to GSC. In GSC there have been a few threads creeping up about potentially re-testing Celebi and Ho-oh. While this is likely to not happen, what are your thoughts on the idea?

Hyogafodex: While I don’t think they are broken I also don’t think they would make the meta any better, so I’d be against it. They would be huge presences (Celebi especially). And like I said they are not broken per se but they would also not make the meta more balanced or enjoyable, so right now I wouldn’t support them being unbanned.

Excal: Do you feel that the current iteration of GSC is the best it can possibly be? If there's anything you could change about the meta, what would you change?

Hyogafodex: The only possible change I think would be banning Jynx. It is a heavily luck and matchup-based pokemon that doesn’t add much to the meta. It makes it way more possible for someone who is worse to win because of luck or an advantageous matchup.

Excal: Oh that's interesting, what are some pokemon that you think are really underrated right now in the meta? Is there a specific moveset for a pokemon that you think is unexplored and has potential?

Hyogafodex: Not really, only some small niche mons that could be used sometimes here and there, but no criminally underrated mons I think. As for sets, not really as well, although you can explore a bit with lax/zapdos sometimes. I think that just using standard sets tends to be more effective though.

Excal: What's your favorite niche Lax/Zapdos set?

Hyogafodex: I like 3 attacks Zapdos as well as the swagger set dice posted in the Underrated Sets thread. For Lax I like Surf Thunder Double Edge and boom. I’ve also seen Belly Drum Protect lax put work.

Excal: Oh those sound really cool. What are your thoughts on the current GSC playerbase? Who would you say are some of the best current GSCers, and who are some people who seem to be up and coming and have high potential?

Hyogafodex: I think that GSC might be the most competitive old gen regarding playerbase in SPL as or now, and there are many solid GSCers who play other gens as well. I think that the best GSCer is Lavos by a far margin. There are other great ones like BKC and Conflict, but Lavos is ahead of everyone right now. I don’t like thinking about potential in this game, because I believe that anyone can become good if they try. There are some new guys that are becoming good but they have just as much potential as everyone else.

Excal: I’ve got one last question: what are your expectations for this tournament?

Hyogafodex: Winning.

Excal: Couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you very much for this interview, it was a pleasure!

Hyogafodex: Thank you for interviewing me.

Edited by Excal ​
 
RE: sig

sig has been permabanned and will not be allowed to participate as assistant manager in RoAPL V. The Sunyshore City Shaymins were allowed to pick one of their players to assume the role of assistant manager, and they chose Hyogafodex. Hyogafodex will still be allowed to participate as a regular player during all the weeks, but will also serve in official capacity as the assistant manager if needed by the hosts.
 
RoAPL 5 ADV Power Rankings

Power Rankers:
Astamatitos (SPL VIII & IX starter)
Deluks917 (POCL 2017 starter)
Sadlysius (ADV WC Semi-finalist)
Stockings (OUPL I / POWC 2019 starter)
undisputed (SPL VI, VII, VIII & IX starter)

Duo List

Mauville Magnetons: Golden Sun (#2) & Triangles (#4)
SPL Veterans unite, hero of its fifth edition, Golden Sun, teaming up with a very un-PC racist brexiteer in Triangles, who made a decent debut in the same tournament.

Pyrite Town Pichus: thelinearcurve (#1) & z0mOG (#10)
The Maestro of Callous Invitational tournaments, thelinearcurve, has managed to earn $450 by finishing 1st and 2nd respectively in each. He joins one of the most troublesome users (to spell case sensitively), who's a good all-rounder.

Aspertia Arcanines: Heysup (#7) & CZ. (#11)
The LC Veteran has proven he's very good at ADV with putting up 6-1 and 5-2 records in the last 2 RoAPLs. He partners current and ex- RoA Room Owner, CZ., who is a quality YouTuber.

Po Town Porygons: Fakes (#3) & CMx (#16)
German veteran and SPL VII ADVer, Fakes, who has been playing ADV OU since ST12 and is considered a top player in the tier, accompanies a mysterious player, CMx.

Sunyshore City Shaymins: eden's embrace (#5) & A Hero's Destiny (#14)
The Indian god for ADV, eden's embrace, managed a decent record in the most recent SPL for the eventual winners Ruiners. He enters Shaymins ADV lineup with the World's Longest Tournament Cycle 0 champion , A Hero's Destiny.

Hearthome City Heatrans: Hclat (#6) & SamuelBestt (#13)
The Ivy League ADVer, Hclat, who is known to be creative in the teambuilder, completes Heatran's gen 3 lineup with perhaps the greatest haxer in the history of ADV OU, Rock Slide enthusiast SamuelBestt.

Mt.Moon Men: Void (#8) & robjr (#12)
DPPer in denial and PBC? Mysidia? (think the equivalent of Pokerealm on PO) alumni, Void, plays ADV alongside robjr, someone who's a lot more well known in SM, but has put up respectable showings in ADV in smaller tournaments.

Konikoni City: elodin (#9) & Souf (#15)
Classic 1 semi-finalist elodin pairs up with fellow old man Funkasaurus Souf, the latter winning one match of ADV all the way back in RoAPL 1. These two are a lot more well known as BWers in the land of SPL. Is this team swapping BW and ADV slots on purpose?


Sorted by highest/lowest mean ranking.

Individual List

1st: thelinearcurve
2nd: Golden Sun
3rd: Fakes
4th: Triangles
5th: eden's embrace
6th: Hclat
7th: Heysup
8th: Void
9th: elodin
10th: z0mOG
11th: CZ.
12th: robjr
13th: SamuelBestt
14th: A Hero's Destiny
15th: Souf
16th: CMx

Sorted by highest/lowest mean ranking and ties were broken by highest rank given by a ranker.

Written by Lutra with contributions from Excal and a little help from BKC​
 
RE: GZ

gz left the Mauville Magneton's Discord and deleted his Discord account. Additionally, he was inactive in the team's Discord. The Mauville Magnetons have decided to sellback gz for 3k credits and acquired W2S for 3k credits.
 
RoAPL 5 Player Interview (ADV): Hclat

Lutra: Today, we are joined by the ADVer ranked #6th in the Power Rankings, Hclat. Hclat, how did you first get interested in competitive Pokémon and ADV in particular?

Hclat: My story is probably pretty different from other users on the site. I didn't actually play any of the cartridge games growing up. I did, however, really enjoy the competitive aspect behind board games, video games, and sports. Sometime in high school, a couple of friends found Pokémon Showdown and were playing against each other, in [gen3ou] . In their eyes, gen 3 was the last good generation. I had an exchange with one of them like, "How's that a fun game? Don't you just always just click the best move? There isn't any strategy in it." They responded something like, "There's 0 chance you could beat me, so clearly it isn't that simple." Well, at first they were definitely right, but eventually I got a very loose sense of the metagame and strategy behind it, or at least enough to beat two other people who didn't know what they were doing. That was enough to get me hooked on ladder, and the rest is probably history.

Lutra: Interesting, once you got more familiar with the metagame, were there any cool chain switches or predictions you remember learning from watching top players, or did you learn mostly by experimenting yourself?

Hclat: I think most of my in-game decision making has developed on its own. Earlier on, I certainly played a lot less safe, always tunnel-visioning what I expected an opponent's next move to be, which would often lead to me losing games in which I had an advantage. I think that I have gained at least a bit of game-planning ability from watching and listening to players like sunny, UD, and linear.

Lutra: What do you feel are your biggest achievements inside and outside of tournaments in ADV?

Hclat: My biggest tournament achievements are 1) setting the Pokémon Perfect forum record for most bronze medals in a single tier, and 2) Netting an impressive 4-4 record against a mighty player field in the ADV2 slot in the last WCOPP, carrying players like Lavos, Marcop, and starmaster to a title. Outside of tournaments, my greatest achievement is occasionally beating good players with bad pokemon, using my knack for shit talk to make the rare win remain in peoples' memory more than the many losses.

Lutra: What do you feel are your biggest weaknesses that stop you from being the very best at ADV?

Hclat: 1) I'm just not as good at formulating a game plan and dissecting an opponent's strategy than many of the elite ADV players, and 2) I don't care enough about winning. These two things work in conjunction, where I will often bring a wack team with hopes of styling on an opponent, click a couple unsafe moves; or have a teambuilding oversight exploited, and then get dumpstered.

Lutra: What are examples of bad mons/teams you've used?

Hclat: I'm probably most notorious for spamming Jynx on the ladder. Unfortunately, I don't really have a lot of tour success with it. I guess I brought it a bunch in the RoA Olympics ADV field (I have no idea what that tour is; Cowboy Dan just told me to play in it.) I've spammed a good deal of Houndoom, and am coming to like it again with inspiration from thelinearcurve. Generally, though, I think my builds can be characterized as mostly-standard, offense leaning, and with 1-2 high-upside random techs hidden somewhere. Throwing protect on slow-ish (especally pressure) setup mons is super fun too. I like putting counter on random mons like Tar, Pert, even Marowak. Ground Skarm is a super fun cheese set that has gotten waaay too much use recently. The team I brought this past week in RoAPL, in which I sorta combined a weird linear team with a weird dice team, has 4 relatively-unusual mons.

Lutra: Is there anything in ADV OU you wish was banned?

Hclat: fullpass.

Lutra: What kind of rule would you put in place? No more than 2 Pokémon having Baton Pass has been tried off of Smogon, would you go with that?

Hclat: A rule like that could work. I would make it no more than 3 or 4, but the idea there is fine. Just banning Mime or banning Mean look+Baton Pass would do the trick as well.

Lutra: What are your goals for competitive Pokémon? In general and in ADV.

Hclat: I wish I had a concrete answer. When it comes down to it, I really just play for fun. The pressure of tournaments, especially as stakes rise, can be exhilarating, which is the reason I play them. I ladder simply because I think the game is fun to play. So I guess my goal is either "have fun" or "win all my games ever." Both are kinda trash answers, but I don't have anything better.

Lutra: Do you want to learn any tiers?

Hclat: I'm a retired veteran of DPP and RBY already, with an impressive resume in both generations, including an SPL appearance and a top-8 finish in Pokémon Perfect's RBY WC, so I'm kind of a jack of all trades already. I also won a RoA room tour in BW OU with a sample team once. So that being said, I don't feel the need to learn any tiers.

Lutra: Anything else you'd like to talk about?

Hclat: Not in particular. I'll take the opportunity to say that I think ADV is in a really cool spot right now, and surprisingly ripe for innovations. It's always sick to see some of the players at the top of the game, like Marcop, linear, UD, Asta, undisputed, and others, using stuff that likely has never been used before. And I'll give a quick shout out to those who have attempted to help me get good, you know who you are. And thanks Lutra for taking the time to listen to me.

Lutra: Thank you for your interesting answers. :)

Edited by Lutra​
 
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