Approved by Sam and Hikari
Hello, and welcome to UU's player of the week where I interview
some of Smogon's most accomplished and well knowns players in the tier to give
some insight on who they are and their views on certain aspects of the metagame.
If there's someone you want to see interviewed next week, shoot me a PM!
Omfuga
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I'm 17 years old from central jersey and I've been playing mons competitively since I was 12 years old. Currently I'm a high school student who stresses about SAT/colleges and, of course, Pokemon! My name is Ryan and outside of pokemon, mostly, I enjoy just chilling with my friends.
Most Known For:
Been a pretty avid lower tier player since gen 5. Got top 15 in gslam, and made top 8 in UU open. So far I'm 7-1 in UUPL and managing the #1 seed, the Jynxes! I slowly rose to power as tier leader and a relevant player on PO, then as PO's community started to whittle, I came to Smogon and rapidly climbed to RU and UU council. Unfortunately, I had a pretty bad SPL (1-3 record), but hope to redeem myself in future tours such as Gslam.
Favorite Pokemon:
Jynx or Starmie for sure! The first pokemon game I had was pokemon Stadium, followed by Blue and Red. In pokemon Stadium the best rental pokemon was Jynx, and I loved it because it always ended up being my MVP. Starmie was what I used in-game with recover/surf/ice beam/tbolt which basically beat the whole elite four for me, and I've loved both since.
Also special shoutouts to Magneton.
Most used UU Pokemon:
Probably Porygon2 at the moment. P2 is, in my opinion, the best staple for ORAS teams. It walls things like pidgeot and can take on almost half the tier. It's simply too hard to kill this thing. Its passivity, in my opinion, is outweighed by its attributed.
I also like Gligar/Machamp/Aromatisse/Defensive Salamence, but I haven't been using them as consistently in ORAS as I have been using P2.
Where did you get your name from?
Omfuga was some dumb code word that my brother and I had when we were much younger... Eventually, it kinda just stuck, and it's been my name on forums like Neopets since I was 10 years old lol. Originally I was "Omfuga216;" the 216 comes from my birthday, February 16th.
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
I was watching some Youtube videos to help me for in-game stuff, and youtube videos by some guy called "TheKillerNacho" came up. Granted, he wasn't the best player, but it intrigued me to see the competitive battling aspects of pokemon. I was in probably 6th grade at this time, and I was under the assumption Wifi battles were the only way to play competitive pokemon. At some point in 7th grade, I once again stumbled on some competitive youtube videos, and ordered a flashcart from Amazon and downloaded pokegen. I created a pass-able team, but issues with my Wifi disallowed me from playing.
A year later, in 8th grade, I stumbled upon pokemon online. It was awesome for me. I could finally play without the hassle of manually EV training and looking for opponents. I went to the "Smogon" server on PO because I recognized the name from the smogon analyses I used to read. I became known as a "ladder hero" as I climbed the Smogon UU, RU, and NU ladder for about a year and a half. When Smogon originally left PO, I was sad because I knew friends like@reachzero would go to pokemonshowdown, and I absolutely hated the showdown simulator. So, I left Smogon PO and started going on the PO main server. After becoming accustomed to PO tours, I got tier leader there, and decided that I wanted to play Smogon tours-- specifically, Grand Slam. My first Smogon UU game was actually in grand slam, and although I'd never played the tier before, I managed to make it to top 8.
I eventually joined UU and RU council, and started participating more on forums. Now marks almost a year of me playing pokemon on Smogon again.
Opinions on ORAS compared to XY?
I actually really enjoy ORAS UU right now. I think that UU was really fun in the UU open-era when Mienshao used to run the tier, and Zygarde was still banned. At some point, Zygarde and Mega Alakazam came back to the tier, and UU became sour for me. Once Alakazam and Zygarde were banned again, I was unsure how I felt about ORAS. Recently, though, I've really enjoyed ORAS and especially love the viability of every mega (my favorite is sceptile). I think at the moment, ORAS UU is better for me than XY UU ever was.
What is your favorite playstyle and why?
I prefer balance for sure. I think balance is the most reliable, least match-up-reliant style. It's nice to have things to take hits, but also things to dish out hits in order to keep pressure up but also defend myself. I hate hyper offense and stall, but I will sometimes use offense and semi-stall, and I like to variate with bulky balance and offensive balance.
Do you think any playstyle is blatantly dominant or weak in the current meta?
Uhh... I think Hyper offense would be hard to pull off. Stall in current ORAS UU is kind of an undiscovered gem imo, not that I'd ever encourage using stall. There are some really nice attributes that UU stall has now. Hyper offense just seems kind of dry to me at the moment, worrying about all these sweepers and priority users such as Mamoswine/Gatr/Entei seems troublesome. Also, Slurpuff is a massive threat to hyper offense and also an attribute to it. Hyper offense seems like it could be too hit-or-miss imo.
Do you think any mon is suspect worthy atm? If yes, which and why.
I think Gatr is absolutely suspect-worthy. I don't think there are any UU teams that aren't weak to SD or DD feraligatr, its sweeping capabilities are simply too dominant.
A lot of people think Pidgeot/Mamoswine are suspect-able, however I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. Pidgeot I could see going, but I'm not sure about Mamoswine.
At what point do you think you became a ‘known’ player?
I'm not trying to sound arrogant, but I think I became a known player pretty early in my time here on smogon. After all, like I said, I've only been active on forums for the past year. Being active on IRC + doing well on tours was enough for me to spread my name.
Favorite moment of SPL?
Seeing playoffs without the scooters/cryos loool.
Really though, my favorite moment would probably be the game where CTC brought a specs Salamence and just started putting in work. I remember actually laughing and enjoying a BW OU game, which is a tier i'm not really fond of.
What is some advice you can give to new players who want to get noticed?
Like I said before, being active on IRC and performing well in tours, as well as being active on forums and contributing good content is probably the best way.
How do you go about preparing for tournament matches?
First I like to notice any exploitable weaknesses/patterns in my opponent's building. Then I like to stick with defensive cores that I like, while adding offensive cores that tend to beat the people I'm playing. Generally, this has worked pretty well for me.
Also sometimes I listen to Christmas music for a game I'm nervous for because it's relaxing haha.
Who are some of your favorite people in the Smogon community?
Long list but:
Finchinator, Cased, blunder, Afro Smash (rip), New Breed, FLCL, Sam, -Tsunami-, Tesung, dodmen, atomicllamas ,kokoloko , aim, KratosMana, ZoroDark, Isa, Stathakis, Vermillion Project, and Contradanza
I may have missed a few sorry I just forgot D:
Finally can you provide for us a team that you think reflects you as a player with a brief explanation of how it works?
This team debuts most of my favorite mons to use in UU, and is the basic cookie-cutter Omfuga balance. The main goal of this team is to use Swampert as a rock-setting tank, generally keep momentum with Rotom-mow, and hitting like a truck with Hydreigon to weaken balance cores. A defogger is needed on almost any balance team, and defensive Salamence is one of my favorites. Machamp is a fantastic special tank, and with confusion/heavy slam it can really throw balanced teams for a loop. Machamp is very hard to wear down, and it's also dangerous offensively, which is the reason I love it. Although an uncommon hydreigon set, I actually like modest specs with flash cannon. Flash Cannon can 2HKO Florges, and its dracos hit extremely hard. Dark pulse is also nice to lock yourself into late-game to finish off weakened, slower teams.
-------------
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions for fuga leave them down below!
Hello, and welcome to UU's player of the week where I interview
some of Smogon's most accomplished and well knowns players in the tier to give
some insight on who they are and their views on certain aspects of the metagame.
If there's someone you want to see interviewed next week, shoot me a PM!
Omfuga
I'm 17 years old from central jersey and I've been playing mons competitively since I was 12 years old. Currently I'm a high school student who stresses about SAT/colleges and, of course, Pokemon! My name is Ryan and outside of pokemon, mostly, I enjoy just chilling with my friends.
Most Known For:
Been a pretty avid lower tier player since gen 5. Got top 15 in gslam, and made top 8 in UU open. So far I'm 7-1 in UUPL and managing the #1 seed, the Jynxes! I slowly rose to power as tier leader and a relevant player on PO, then as PO's community started to whittle, I came to Smogon and rapidly climbed to RU and UU council. Unfortunately, I had a pretty bad SPL (1-3 record), but hope to redeem myself in future tours such as Gslam.
Favorite Pokemon:
Jynx or Starmie for sure! The first pokemon game I had was pokemon Stadium, followed by Blue and Red. In pokemon Stadium the best rental pokemon was Jynx, and I loved it because it always ended up being my MVP. Starmie was what I used in-game with recover/surf/ice beam/tbolt which basically beat the whole elite four for me, and I've loved both since.
Also special shoutouts to Magneton.
Most used UU Pokemon:
Probably Porygon2 at the moment. P2 is, in my opinion, the best staple for ORAS teams. It walls things like pidgeot and can take on almost half the tier. It's simply too hard to kill this thing. Its passivity, in my opinion, is outweighed by its attributed.
I also like Gligar/Machamp/Aromatisse/Defensive Salamence, but I haven't been using them as consistently in ORAS as I have been using P2.
Where did you get your name from?
Omfuga was some dumb code word that my brother and I had when we were much younger... Eventually, it kinda just stuck, and it's been my name on forums like Neopets since I was 10 years old lol. Originally I was "Omfuga216;" the 216 comes from my birthday, February 16th.
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
I was watching some Youtube videos to help me for in-game stuff, and youtube videos by some guy called "TheKillerNacho" came up. Granted, he wasn't the best player, but it intrigued me to see the competitive battling aspects of pokemon. I was in probably 6th grade at this time, and I was under the assumption Wifi battles were the only way to play competitive pokemon. At some point in 7th grade, I once again stumbled on some competitive youtube videos, and ordered a flashcart from Amazon and downloaded pokegen. I created a pass-able team, but issues with my Wifi disallowed me from playing.
A year later, in 8th grade, I stumbled upon pokemon online. It was awesome for me. I could finally play without the hassle of manually EV training and looking for opponents. I went to the "Smogon" server on PO because I recognized the name from the smogon analyses I used to read. I became known as a "ladder hero" as I climbed the Smogon UU, RU, and NU ladder for about a year and a half. When Smogon originally left PO, I was sad because I knew friends like@reachzero would go to pokemonshowdown, and I absolutely hated the showdown simulator. So, I left Smogon PO and started going on the PO main server. After becoming accustomed to PO tours, I got tier leader there, and decided that I wanted to play Smogon tours-- specifically, Grand Slam. My first Smogon UU game was actually in grand slam, and although I'd never played the tier before, I managed to make it to top 8.
I eventually joined UU and RU council, and started participating more on forums. Now marks almost a year of me playing pokemon on Smogon again.
Opinions on ORAS compared to XY?
I actually really enjoy ORAS UU right now. I think that UU was really fun in the UU open-era when Mienshao used to run the tier, and Zygarde was still banned. At some point, Zygarde and Mega Alakazam came back to the tier, and UU became sour for me. Once Alakazam and Zygarde were banned again, I was unsure how I felt about ORAS. Recently, though, I've really enjoyed ORAS and especially love the viability of every mega (my favorite is sceptile). I think at the moment, ORAS UU is better for me than XY UU ever was.
What is your favorite playstyle and why?
I prefer balance for sure. I think balance is the most reliable, least match-up-reliant style. It's nice to have things to take hits, but also things to dish out hits in order to keep pressure up but also defend myself. I hate hyper offense and stall, but I will sometimes use offense and semi-stall, and I like to variate with bulky balance and offensive balance.
Do you think any playstyle is blatantly dominant or weak in the current meta?
Uhh... I think Hyper offense would be hard to pull off. Stall in current ORAS UU is kind of an undiscovered gem imo, not that I'd ever encourage using stall. There are some really nice attributes that UU stall has now. Hyper offense just seems kind of dry to me at the moment, worrying about all these sweepers and priority users such as Mamoswine/Gatr/Entei seems troublesome. Also, Slurpuff is a massive threat to hyper offense and also an attribute to it. Hyper offense seems like it could be too hit-or-miss imo.
Do you think any mon is suspect worthy atm? If yes, which and why.
I think Gatr is absolutely suspect-worthy. I don't think there are any UU teams that aren't weak to SD or DD feraligatr, its sweeping capabilities are simply too dominant.
A lot of people think Pidgeot/Mamoswine are suspect-able, however I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. Pidgeot I could see going, but I'm not sure about Mamoswine.
At what point do you think you became a ‘known’ player?
I'm not trying to sound arrogant, but I think I became a known player pretty early in my time here on smogon. After all, like I said, I've only been active on forums for the past year. Being active on IRC + doing well on tours was enough for me to spread my name.
Favorite moment of SPL?
Seeing playoffs without the scooters/cryos loool.
Really though, my favorite moment would probably be the game where CTC brought a specs Salamence and just started putting in work. I remember actually laughing and enjoying a BW OU game, which is a tier i'm not really fond of.
What is some advice you can give to new players who want to get noticed?
Like I said before, being active on IRC and performing well in tours, as well as being active on forums and contributing good content is probably the best way.
How do you go about preparing for tournament matches?
First I like to notice any exploitable weaknesses/patterns in my opponent's building. Then I like to stick with defensive cores that I like, while adding offensive cores that tend to beat the people I'm playing. Generally, this has worked pretty well for me.
Also sometimes I listen to Christmas music for a game I'm nervous for because it's relaxing haha.
Who are some of your favorite people in the Smogon community?
Long list but:
Finchinator, Cased, blunder, Afro Smash (rip), New Breed, FLCL, Sam, -Tsunami-, Tesung, dodmen, atomicllamas ,kokoloko , aim, KratosMana, ZoroDark, Isa, Stathakis, Vermillion Project, and Contradanza
I may have missed a few sorry I just forgot D:
Finally can you provide for us a team that you think reflects you as a player with a brief explanation of how it works?
Swampert @ Swampertite
Ability: Damp
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
Machamp @ Assault Vest
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Dynamic Punch
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- Heavy Slam
Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Toxic
- Roost
- Defog
Rotom-Mow @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 156 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Tri Attack
- Recover
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- U-turn
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flash Cannon
Ability: Damp
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Ice Punch
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
Machamp @ Assault Vest
Ability: No Guard
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Dynamic Punch
- Knock Off
- Bullet Punch
- Heavy Slam
Salamence @ Leftovers
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpD
Impish Nature
- Dragon Claw
- Toxic
- Roost
- Defog
Rotom-Mow @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Trick
Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Trace
EVs: 248 HP / 104 Def / 156 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Tri Attack
- Recover
Hydreigon @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Modest Nature
- U-turn
- Draco Meteor
- Dark Pulse
- Flash Cannon
This team debuts most of my favorite mons to use in UU, and is the basic cookie-cutter Omfuga balance. The main goal of this team is to use Swampert as a rock-setting tank, generally keep momentum with Rotom-mow, and hitting like a truck with Hydreigon to weaken balance cores. A defogger is needed on almost any balance team, and defensive Salamence is one of my favorites. Machamp is a fantastic special tank, and with confusion/heavy slam it can really throw balanced teams for a loop. Machamp is very hard to wear down, and it's also dangerous offensively, which is the reason I love it. Although an uncommon hydreigon set, I actually like modest specs with flash cannon. Flash Cannon can 2HKO Florges, and its dracos hit extremely hard. Dark pulse is also nice to lock yourself into late-game to finish off weakened, slower teams.
-------------
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions for fuga leave them down below!
