Approved by ishtar (duh).
Inspired partially by the previous iteration of Player of the Week as well as Player Interview.
Art by the awesome Citadark Isle, Ishtar, and me :3.
Interviewee: ishtar
Favorite Pokemon:
Most used SV PU Pokemon:
Inspired partially by the previous iteration of Player of the Week as well as Player Interview.
Art by the awesome Citadark Isle, Ishtar, and me :3.
Interviewee: ishtar
Favorite Pokemon:
Most used SV PU Pokemon:
Hello Ishta and welcome to this new episode of Spill the Sinistea! (must be weird to not be the interviewer this time around) How have you been?
Hii, Bella! Thank you for having me and thank you so much for taking over the thread, I am really excited to see what you have in store! I'm doing fine, just finished my semester two days ago and I am still settling back into having a lot less to do lol. How are you?Congrats on finishing your semester! I've been ok myself. On the topic of school, can you tell the people a little bit more about your IRL life outside of Smogon? Sure! I'm a philology student from Costa Rica, which means that I study the structure of language and literature throughout history. Since I was a kid I wanted to be a writer which is how I ended up in this field. Art is still my passion to this day, so most of what I do outside of gaming relates to that, playing/writing music, consuming different forms of media and hanging out with cool people!Sounds really cool! It's nice you are following the dreams you had since you were a kid! We'll get back to media later, so for now lets talk a little bit of PU. You started playing PU all the way back in USUM, which released nearly 7 years ago now! What got you into PU in the first place, and what has made you stay around in the community for such a long time? 7 years ago?? Oh goodness....I started my smogon life as a lil sprout playing UU cuz I wanted to use my other fav Pokemon, Togekiss! There I met the MSPL guys like Clefable and vivalospride. Clefable aka Mengy is actually the person who suggested I try out PU when I wasn't enjoying UU very much, and so I did. I quickly met some of my earliest PU friends: Specs, PTF and gum, all of whom I still love and talk to regularly nowadays! I think what attracted me the most about PU was the contrast between sort of quirky mons and dynamics within the tier. I also remember being quite surprised that NFE Gurdurr was a viable and decent choice at the time! Since then, PU has become my home, though not without it's highs and lows through the years. The reason why I've stuck around is the same as before: the people. I've met some of my closest friends through this community and if there's one thing that unites us all is our love for, not only the mons aspect of things, but for the people that make PU what it is. I believe that as long as that continues being our priority, this community will never die down.Yeah, it was 7 years ago! (I was 10). And I agree with you on the community; although I started off playing LC, I eventually moved to PU because the community was so kind and welcoming, and it's honestly part of the reason PU is sort of my second home! Speaking of the community, it seems like as of late the community is seeing a divide on Inteleon's presence in the tier, with both calls for a ban and a dnb with the Inteleon suspect going on. How do you personally feel on Inteleon, and do you think anything else within the tier could be seen as potentially problematic atm?Oh, dear....You're gonna hate me for this one! I dislike Inteleon's effect on the meta. I think its obnoxious in the builder and equally commanding when used in practice. Its toolset is frankly quite honest with not much else other than a strong STAB, ok coverage and U-turn, but the Speed just pushes it over the limit for me in conjunction with the pivoting options. I dislike how it's able to force balances to resort to one of 3 or 4 counters, while still granting the Intel player to gain momentum on these sort of passive archetypes with U-turn. Ofc this is far from special from any sort of fast breaker with pivoting moves, but I believe the defensive limits make bulky archetypes boring, restrictive and warping, despite its shortcomings when it comes to being revenge kill-able by faster stuff and priority. I think its winrate in PUPL matters very little when its effects on the builder is so massive, and new developments I've seen to deal with it havent been fully satisfactory to me, as someone who went into this tournament being solidly anti ban, and who has slowly shifted to the other side. I just wanna be able to run some other slower guys without having to put myself in this tiny box of water-y slime-y blobs. I will say, stuff like Croak and Poliwrath are cool, and I think they could be explored more, but I've seen more than enough of this lizard.Fair enough to dislike Inteleon! Although i personally don't find it that overwhelming, I understand the ban sentiment from some. On the discussion of PUPL, the tour is going on right now and is entering its fourth week! (Go Goodras). How have you liked PUPL so far? Has it been what you expected? Have you seen any other non-Inteleon metagame developments in PUPL that have interested you so far?PUPL has been fun! I gotta admit I've been so busy for like half of the weeks of this tournament that I havent been able to fully take in everything that's been going on, but thankfully Meri, asa and ofc all of y'all have been amazingly supportive at handling things within our awesome team. I'm pretty happy with all of the logistic decisions that we ended up with regarding this tournament, since as my first time being TL for it there were a lot of tough decisions to make, but I think people are happy and enjoying it, particularly happy with BO3 and Raikou ban recently. As for interesting developments, I think a couple of guys like Belli and Golurk have proven to be more fraudulent than people initially thought, but a lot of the other top tier threats have managed to remain fairly consistent: Skunk, Intel, Decid, Glowbro to name a few. I feel like I've finally developed a list of guys that I think are fairly unappreciated and I'm excited for us to try them out this tournament, but I will NOT be leaking it here, but we can talk about it in my channel later nyeheheheh.... It's awesome to hear your enjoying it! I am too, it's been really fun teaming with a lot of my friends and making new ones! Being a tier leader must be a lot of work, especially as so many decisions in the tier will be looked at from outsiders as being from you and asa. With that said, how has it been being tier leader, and has it been everything you thought it was going to be? Being a tier leader has been good! I'm very lucky to be TL w the wonderful asa, she's always so helpful and understanding, mainly through the last very busy month of my life, Doug is ok too ig. But nah like, the main takeaway from me as TL is that having the priority of the people and hoping you make right decisions is as hard as it can be rewarding. That's not to say that I "enjoy" every aspect of it, but it's rewarding to be in a spot where you can hopefully lead the tier to a better future. It can also be a bit crushing when you get it wrong, but hopefully we can be in a spot where we can rectify and accept our mistakes. I gotta thank EviGaro, Akir, Specs and Shaneghoul for giving me the philosophy to lead the tier, since I always had tremendous respect for the way in which they carried their work, even with the own mistakes I'm sure they'd tell you they made along the way. TL has been kinda what I expected, a lot of work. It sucks when it becomes a bit thankless and people can definitely sometimes misinterpret our decisions, but for the most part I'd like to believe that people are happy and that even when things don't work out, everyone can sorta know we had good intentions and know that we aren't afraid to say when we're wrong. I've definitely made mistakes as TL, but I've noticed a closer connection between staff and player base in recent times in different tiers. I think we are very transparent and wear our hearts on our sleeves, sometimes for better or worse rofl. Hopefully that helps PU become even more welcoming though and we can find a healthy balance! So if there's anything anyone has an issue with or needs help with, don't be afraid to reach out! Being a tier leader must be rough work! (especially because you have to work with DugZa.) Anyways, its time to move onto the media segment! You said earlier that you've consumed a lot of media since you are a philology major and love the arts, so what's some movie / show / game / book / music / etc you've found yourself interested in recently? Does any one piece of media have a special place in your heart, and if so, why? My consumption of stuff this last month has been more limited than usual, but there's a few cool stuff nonetheless. Last night I started reading A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, whose one of my fav authors of all time. Earlier this month I was playing Animal Well, a really neat and gorgeous metroidvania with 0 dialogue and a really interesting world, and with a focus on puzzles rather than combat. One of the most fun I've had playing a game in recent time was playing Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster with Meri Berry. It's her favorite game oat and I had an absolute blast through it and loved it greatly, it was also my first FF game so it will always hold a special place in my heart for many reasons. Music wise I've been listening to a lot of different stuff from Talk Talk, Black Dresses, Lauryn Hill, Burial, Portishead, Laurie Anderson, Jeff Buckley to, of course, the new Charli XCX album! Oh, I've also been watching Nadia: Secret of Blue Water with Meri! We also play a lot of Minecraft and the newly released Emerald Rogue 2, which people should definitely check out since its at least equally as good as Pokerogue. Also watching this this banger from one of my fav content creators.Wow, a lot of variety in your tastes! I've actually have played Emerald Rogue 2 as of late, and it's pretty fun and i actually prefer it over Pokerouge! Virginia Woolf is also a great author, I really liked reading through Orlando. Anyways, back to PU discussion. You've been in the community for a longggg time and have seen a lot of different metas come and go. What did you find to be your favorite metagame to play in from any generation you've been involved in, and do you have a team from that metagame you particularly like and care to show off? Orlando is great, yes! Also thanks for making me feel old YET again....I think my favorite PU generation is ORAS. ORAS PU is probably my second favorite tier of all time after SM NU. I just love its multitude of offensive options as well as quirky little defensive guys that can put on weight against such a multitude of threats. It feels like SM but more extreme in how the tier can be played really offensively but also has a solid amount of defensive options. This is a meme team, it was created from an old team that originally had Rotom-Frost. Specs and I kept joking that Pika Belle would go hard in early SS if it had Fake Out and Espeed like regular Pika did back then, so I decided to bring the GOAT to a tier where it could shine (and definitely not be outclassed by the actual good Electric). Pika Belle isnt viable but Trixx DID use this and won a game of PUWC with it. Who knows, maybe it's time to try out Pika-Belle again in PUPL.... Woah, nice team! Haven't seen Pikachu Belle before being used in ORAS. Maybe we should tell Abraham to bring Pikachu Belle mwahahahahhahaha. Anyways, now its time for the spill the sinistea segment! I took a page out of your book for this one, and asked a bunch of yours (and mines) friends and PUPL teammates for a wide variety of questions!katerina asks: Favorite pu gen? favorite food?
Meri Berry asks: What's your second favorite gif because this one is your favorite
Chloe asks: which Minecraft mob do u relate to the most
gum asks: what experience would u say has shaped u the most on this website?
EviGaro asks: now that you are a prestigious and established tier leader, what is your tiering philosophy? How do you plan it?
Aurist asks: If you could take 1 unconventional tiering action in PU what would it be
asa asks: what is your favorite and least favorite fire emblem game?
gulch asks: what's your starting price for a bribe for PU tiering
Hi, katerina! I just answered your question about fav PU metas, so I’m gonna have to disappoint you with answer to your second question. I don’t know what my fav food is, I’m not a very picky eater and I don’t particularly “care” for most food? Ik that that’s a very unusual answer, so I might’ve turned ppl off and freaked everyone out, so ty kat!
Hi, Meri Berry! I read this question in call with you, and I started going thru my fav gifs. It was really hard to choose a second favorite, but I believe this is it right now.
Hi, Chloe! This is a great question that prompted me to open the wiki. I think I relate to the parrot the most cuz they dance to music and I love dancing. I also die if I eat chocolate.
Hi, gum! Your question was the one that sent me thinking the post, but I think I’m fairly satisfied with my answer, though it might not be surprising to you. Its not a particular experience or memory, but the entire time we spent in Sprite during covid when I was going through a lot of changes is probably the period of time in which I felt like I changed the most, and I was happy to have friends like you and the rest of yall to help me through that, so I’ll never forget it. Your other question is stupid, and frankly insulting, and idk u and idc who u are.
Hi, EviGaro! Your question is very good, and the answer is more long winded than anyone would care to read. I kinda delved into it earlier in a previous question, but I think what people like you taught me is that running a tier isn’t simply about deciding what’s always correct tiering wise, what’s always written on our little ambiguous rules, or trying to be always right, or pleasing everyone, or letting people know how much more you know than them. It’s also about being diplomatic, flexible, able to listen, and most importantly, it’s about dealing with decisions that human beings care about, and trusting others. It’s also about knowing when to stand your ground. I do not think that I’m a people pleaser, and a lot of my decisions have reflected this, but I’d like to believe that I’ve been able to balance my own personal opinions with a level headedness that has allowed me to not be clouded by my position, which is something that has been a problem to many people in the past before in this site. If that ever changes, I expect to be called out on it.
Hi, Aurist! This might be my favorite question, so congratulations. What an interesting thought experiment! There are many ways to approach your answer. I could mention how I wish we could be freed from the shackles of usage tiering, or how I wish we could make certain decisions about certain bans caused by higher tiers, but these are all very obvious issues that every lower tier TL will probably feel similarly to while knowing that alternatives aren’t really on the table right now. After thinking about it a fair bit, I think I’d ban Scald ROFL. There u go, free Raikou tbh.
Hi, asa! Real original, oomf! Still, I love and appreciate your question <3 Thracia 776 is my favorite Fire Emblem game by a mile. It’s got a lot of the quirkiness of obscure JRPGs that I absolutely love. It’s sometimes unfair and unapologetic, rather obtuse as well, but the number of amazing tools at your disposal more than makes up for that. Stealing from enemies, scrolls to increase your odds of leveling stats upon level up (even move), the best assortment of staves in the entire series, personal weapons, skills, secret items and maps. Thracia has it all, and on top of that it has an absolutely banger story, only second to its prequel which takes place in the same world. My least favorite Fire Emblem games are the Fates games. They have very fun gameplay but the story is so ass I can’t interest myself in playing them. I know enough story beats regarding it to know that it’s not for me, with or without the very hot character everyone talks about.
Hi, gulch. To PU tier, one has to give away their soul.
Wow! Thank you so much for answering all of these questions! One final question before our shoutouts: aside from the return of Spill the Sinistea, is there any other projects relating to PU the people can be excited for that you can share?Of course, thank you as well for asking them! I think our schedule is quite full with Classic and PUPL going on, so in terms of tournaments we are pretty full. Have some pretty big plans for the PU Youtube channel though, that we should be unveiling soon, apart from the recaps that are already going on, so like and subscribe to keep up with those!Ohhhhh… neat! I will keep up with the PU youtube channel then! Do you have any shoutouts you would want to give out to close out the show?Shoutouts are really hard, and I will inevitably forget someone and feel like an asshole about it later, but there are a few people I do wanna mention who I’ve been friends with for a very long time or potentially are outside of like actual communities, so if you, the reader, are not here it’s not cuz I don’t love u and appreciate u: Meri Berry, cyanize, EviGaro, gum, Jett, Chloe, Denial, asa, Tsuki, etern, Brandon, DrReuniclus , Bag of Trixx, DugZa, PTF and Specs. I’ve known y’all for years now and our friendships have changed a lot through time, but one thing that has remain constant is your constant love and support. It does not go underappreciated. Apart from that I also wanna thank the people in SUU, Nyoom, Sprite, milk and Chirch, and lastly, but not least importantly, everyone in PU and RU, staff and regulars, who make the communities into what it is.Any questions left unanswered from ishtar? Well ask her here so we can continue to Spill the Sinistea!
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