Hello everybody and welcome back to "ZU Player of the Week"!. This project will feature interviews from some of the ZU's greatest community members so that we can discover more about their Pokémon and personal lives. I am thrilled that I will have the chance to interview so many amazing ZU players and I hope that you enjoy these as much as I do. This week our guest is the first Room Owner for this edition of the project...
Apagogie!!
Favourite Pokemon:
& 
(ZU Room Owner, ZU Council Member, Global Driver, ZUPL II Manager and Champion)
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Musharna!
*mu shar*
Welcome to the show Apagogie, how are you doing today?
i'm okay, thank you for asking, glad it's sunny today ;3
i hope it's in your case too ~
yes i'm doing pretty well as well, and the weather is alright for once for UK standards
we got pretty big inundations here few days ago so it's a blessing that the sun came back
ah ye, I saw that on the news, I hope everything isn't too bad over there
and that things go back to normal swiftly
yeah dwww i have been safe on my side
that's good to hear at the very least
To start things off, do you mind sharing a bit about your personal life outside of Smogon?
Sureee. I am from Belgium, I'm 22 years old. I study computer science at the university. As for my other hobbies, I really like travelling around the world when it's possible, I especially have a big passion about China. Otherwise, I unironically enjoy studying & chatting about random stuff with people. I guess I like eating as well, especially asian food or things with a lot of sugar
Very nice! And how did you first stumble across Smogon/PS and what was your journey to becoming one of the Room Owners of ZU?
I actually first found out about Pokemon Showdown by watching videos about a french youtuber called Fildrong. I tried OverUsed at first like a lot of people then I stuck around in Other Metagames but without really picking a main tier or chatting in the room. I remember playing some late games of FU (previous game of ZU) but without interacting with the community at all and I eventually tried other things. When gen7 was released and especially PU gen7, I was kinda upset toward the powercreep in PU and i complained about it in the PU Room. I think Aaronboyer linked me in pm a discord link toward the ZU discord. At that time, we didn't have any room and also no thread on Smogon. I stuck there to play with my favorite mon at that time which was Electivire and I finally enjoyed the tier. I stayed in the community and after many years, I finally become Room owner mmh
ah that's pretty cool.
You weren't always known as Apagogie, do you mind sharing why you decided to change names (does Apagogie has any special meaning?), and what are some of your favourite/least favourite nicknames that your peers have called you?
Mmh Union Caboche was a very random name. I already told this story many times but it was originally the move "Mind Blown" (Caboche Kaboum) and considering i was kinda bored in playing ZU on a side server, I joined Monotype league where you needed Union in the name.
People knew me under that name so I kept it but I had absolutely no love toward this nickname. It sounds pretty bad in french actually, it doesn't mean anything, Caboche is almost slang, I'm highlighted by réunion/Ultra Beast (UC in french), European Union. UC even means in french verlan "ass", it was just a terrible name to have. I looked at the dictionary to find a better nickname, I just wanted to find a pink nickname which started by an A (i really like that later & it's easy to find in an userlist where there are 1000 of users). I saw that Apagogie wasn't taken, I read the definition and I fell in love with the nickname. I'm also quite sensitive of the melody of the name; i really like the sound of it. I think it also fits better with some parts of my personality.
I don't remember everything. I disliked when people called me "ape" when i just nickname changed bc even if i like monkeys it was kinda insulting (even if i learned after that Apa means monkey in swedish i think but i'm okay with that :3). Stuff with Onion Cabbage were alright/funny when it was not too spammed, i just disliked a lot about the nickname itself & i kinda want to forget that i choose this name a day
a very insightful and detailed answer, thank you
Onto ZU itself now, what are your thoughts on the current metagame, and do you mind revealing what you will be voting in the ongoing Centiskorch suspect?
I will vote DNB, even if it's apparently an unpopular opinion. If I acknowledge the apparent restriction in the teambuilding, I think we don't focus enough on the drawbacks of Centiskorch, notably the hard time it has to come on the field against what it would like (taking toxic/koff really suck), it's not either a pokemon which is hard to offensively pressure & you can lure it in pretty easily. Defensively, i think we focus too much on the best case for centiskorch and forget it sometimes doesn't have the opportunity to win 50/50s. Stuff like Audino + Coalossal can also pretty much prevent Centiskorch from making too much progress. Restriction can be seen as annoying, even irritating but I accept it. Generally speaking, I'm pretty conservative when it comes to the state of a tier. As long as something is not outrageously broken, I'm fine with it being allowed and building/playing around it. I could have mained AG in an other life.
I actually enjoy playing the metagame. I think it's pretty diverse and we have some unique aspects that you don't find in any other tier (Stakeout Thievul, a bunch of Vally forms, Fire lash, KangaSpikes). I think we are in an interesting state.
Ah I see. Good to hear that you enjoy how things are at the moment; also agree that there is a lot of variance and cool mons here with of different Silvallies on the rise as of recent with how much experimentation is occurring
Are there any interesting sets or mons that you have been using since the latest shifts? If so would you mind sharing some.
I use mainly classic stuff. I liked Flapple Band recently. Even if its offense match up is not the best, this pokemon doesn't have any switch ins except Ferroseed slightly. It abuses common structures core very well. I think it's not underrated though, it's fine when it is in the VR. Tuthur also wanted me to build an Electric Vally team and I did. Yeah, that's it for the interesting stuff
Honestly haven't seen too much band Flapple and I've also been a fan of Silvally-Electric as well. Cool stuff
You previously mentioned that you started playing ZU during early SM, do you prefer SM or SWSH ZU and why?
Good questions are generally hard to answer.
SS metagame is far more volatile than it was in SM and I think it's the reason why it's hard to judge and probably harder to get into. I think SM is more competitive overall. I would like to have a stable SS tier with a banlist which doesn't change every month to have deeper development. We had a bit of quiet period post ZUPL & UMPL but the variance is too big otherwise, which I think, hurts the competition.
That being said, competition aside, if I don't have to answer objectively, I prefer SS more than SM. We simply have more interesting mons to play that we had back in the days and more unique strategies to explore. The introduction of boots changed the gameplay a lot, I don't know if it's for the best or the worst but I'm used to it now. It's also a bit more entertaining to discover new stuff overall than what you already know.
That's a very fair assessment of the two metagames, will definitely be cool to see games for both during the next ZUPL.
Speaking of ZUPL, are you going to defend your title this time around, and are you looking forward to it? Also you don't have to reveal anything but do you have any intentions to play some more games this time around?
There will be a Hakamo manager, myself or an other person if someone wants to take back the team. I'm looking forward to getting the perfect score and to beat every team again. ZUPL I, we made final, ZUPL II, we won in being second seed, ZUPL III we will win in being first seed.
If I manage, I think I will buy myself anyway. I'm unsure if people know this story but I had planned to play more last year but I couldn't play week 1 because I was in Greece. Since all my team was winning, there was no reason to bench winners. My main was SS and my SS slots were really good. In the last week, when I noticed that my SM slots were having a hard time, I decided to put myself in the LU but my team won before I had the chance to play. Gratz team.
Ah that makes a lot of sense
looking forward to seeing how it pans out for both the Hakamo-os and yourself
Moving away from mons now, obviously the pandemic has certainly limited where and how often you'd be able to travel to places, but before this, what places were some of your favourites to go to?
Asia mainly especially China, I always go to the same place but it's a really a little moment of heaven in my life. I'm so grateful to the family that have allowed me to meet this place. I advise anyone to go there (although, being able to speak chinese is better). For me, it's the perfect place on earth. I go there about twice per year since my childhood now. It's almost exclusively there that I went before pandemic.
Outside of China, I really liked Laos. I didn't know that place before but it was really landscapes of a novel. You had the feeling to travel in time back to the XIX centuries. It's a bit adventurous so maybe you have to be used to travel before picking but it's a great experience. Also, if you speak french, you still meet few people who speak french due to the colonisation so it was useful in my case. I absolutely don't remember the food there though.
Also, and of course, I advice anyone to visit Japan. No other country looks like Japan, it's really unique, expensive but pretty easy to go compared to most asian countries. Food is S tier even if they don't give you a lot. Japanese culture is intriguing & interesting and you have really a lot of place to go. If you have money & time and you don't know what to do with them, take a trip to Japan really
That's amazing, will definitely add Laos to my list of places I want to visit as well
Are there any specific foods that are your favourites? They can be from the aforementioned countries or from any where in the world?
I'm addicted to Italian and Asian food.
Italian food is pretty known (pasta, lasagna, tiramisu etc) but about asian food and especially chinese food, the food from north of china is pretty tasty. I especially like the small bread of vegetables they make or fruits caramelized with apples of even sweet potatoes.
What I particularly like about these two kind of food is that there are easy to order for someone like me who is vegetarian. Italian food surprisingly doesn't contain a lot of meat and chinese cuisine is often composed of many different dishes by meal so you can easily pick up one without any fish or meat. It's also the reason why I have more problems with french/south-america/west african food because there is a lot of meat inside.
Those all sound delicious. Now I'm little hungry haha. Another benefit of chinese cuisine is it allows me to be picky about things since you get to choose what you have rather than order 1 whole meal, you have all the vegetables and meat in the middle of the table; at least this is how it is done in my family and most of the restaurants i have been to
Yeah, exactly, it's also the same for me!
When you're not on PS, what other hobbies do you enjoy doing?
Chatting with people a lot (it's probably the activity i enjoy the most), taking walks outside and studying in listening to music basically. I admit that I'm not used to these big long holidays without travelling so I'm taking other activities. I will start going to the gym/pool from Monday. I waited till the end of my Bulgaria trip to start
I'm surprisingly not too much into video games
oh wow
do you have any music recommendations to the viewers
welp i have really shady tastes in term of music lol. In mainstream stuff, i like ost of videogames (nier, prof. layton), or lofi music. I like celtic music, it's also good to study. For more uncommon stuff, i like some new french songs that usually french people despise. I also like almost every decently fast remix of every popular song. Covers of anime songs are good too, despite the fact I'm not very knowledgeable into animes sadly.
hmm very interesting
Do you watch any series or movies and do you have any favourites?
Noooo, I'm really not into film, series or anime. That's out of my scope
Sorry ugh ><
no worries lmao
time for the more unique question now: if you were a superhero what would be your special power, and which zu user(s) would be the villain
I always liked the idea of stop the time flow but it's a pretty busted power mmh. Just moving really really fast otherwise. As a villain, I would say Tuthur because he won't be mad at me to be a vilain. I'm sure he would even enjoy the role of this casting.
That's pretty cool, tuthur is pretty evil anyways so this is fitting. Good answer
he has the evil power of choo-chooing, it's devilish
indeed!
Rounding off this interview now, could you share a team that you've enjoyed using along with a short explanation?
(electric) 
I think I will just share the team I made with Mixed Vally Elec. Spreads can be adapted to your liking but it's a cool squad featuring Vally Elec + Stack hazards. Vally Elec is the main member of the squad (BoltBeam + Surf to hit Piloswine). Qwilfish + Tangela covers most of ZU threats we currently have. Skuntank gives you a good way to pressure stall decently outside of Vally Elec & can Taunt defogers & also provides you with a mon to deal with Double Dance Alcremie. Sandslash answers Frosmoth + Spin/Rocks. Rotom acts as speed control + ground&fighting immunity+antispin. Trick is also useful.
Great team, thanks for sharing
Finally do you have any last words/shoutouts you'd like to give before we end the interview?
I would like to shoutout the whole ZU community, you are a daily entertainment for me for many years and a small part of my life now. Same goes for french auth, the staff is really great. I also like to highlight how lovely are people from the happy place, you are all wholesome. Thank you also for the whole global staff who do an incredible work in making this website a safe place. If i have to shoutout 3 people especially on PS, i'd shoutout Chokepic , Tuthur & Zayele . You are all cool.
Epic
Thanks for taking some time out of your day to do this interview!
And thank you for your time in organising this project as well, it's also lovely ~
Feel free to ask to Apagogie any questions you want!
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