Approved by 5gen & S1nn0hC0nfirm3d | Amazing Art by Albatross
(Interview Date: 20th of August 2021)
Hello everybody and welcome back to "ZU Player of the Week"!, the project where some of ZU's finest community members are interviewed about their Pokemon and personal lives. I am grateful I have already had the chance to interview so many amazing ZU players, and I hope the interviews in the future will be just as great. Our next guest is our newest Room Moderator...
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Leafeon!
*Leeaf*
Hello Shwifty, how are you today?
Hey Jett, had a long, but pretty chill day at work, so overall I'm fine. Hbu?
I'm doing well, thanks for asking. What sort of work do you do?
My dad is a carpenter and I'm currently helping him out until my first semester of university starts. We're about to finish building a whole house including interior design. Since it's supposed to be perfect the pressure to perform well is quite high
Oh wow, that sounds awesome; hope it goes perfectly for you.
We are way ahead of our schedule and will ideally finish a whole month before the deadline. Even more so than myself my dad is a very passionate perfectionist. He has always been a very important role model for me!
That's actually really impressive and that's very cool that the two of you are working on this project together
Apart from your job, could you tell us more about yourself in general
I'm usually pretty bad at describing myself, but for the sake of the interview I'll give it a shot. I'm 21 years old, was born and raised in a very dedicated and hard working family in Austria (yes, the one without kangaroos). I love sports, especially martial arts, snowboarding and volleyball, but I'm also kind of a nerd. That's the reason why I'll study physics and chemistry at one of Austria's top science universities. After that I'd like to teach both of those subjects at my old high school.
Very nice :> and that's an apt description of yourself. You definitely have a lot of goals in mind which is great since im clueless about myself haha
You described yourself as "kind of a nerd", so it makes sense you ended up on PS/Smogon, but how did this actually happen?
Well, I actually ended up here because I was a pretty "bad" student in high school and played Pokémon instead of paying attention lol. But I still managed to get good grades so here I am on my way to becoming a teacher myself.
oh lmao I see
Congrats on your recent promotion to mod! As someone who has been around for a while and risen up through the ranks, what are some things you miss about ZU and the community from "ye olden days" and what are some good changes that have occurred?
Well, while I do like the current state of our tier and the community playing it, I definitely miss some former users which went missing during the transition from gen7 to gen8. Special shoutouts to Tsareentje and Graceclaw (green voice gang forever).
Hmm makes a lot of sense; always sucks to have some of your closest peers leave the mons scene
Even if it's not directly related to the good old times, one of my favorite changes was Ho3n's transition from just owning us on ladder to actually owning us. I truly respect the growth as a player and person.
Ah ye, ho3n's journey as a person and player gives off main character vibes lmao
Moving onto the metagame itself now, what are some of your favourite Pokemon to use at the moment and do you think the metagame is in a good state at the moment?
As my name might already suggest I'm a huge fan of offensive grass types, especially Flapple and Shiftry. Since Ground ally got banned you can actually fit those on a team now! Overall the meta is in a good state, but Alcremie is definitely on my watchlist (no, not because it beats shiftry).
ah ye alcremie is definitely something to watch out for still but Pokemon like Skuntank feel easier to use now so should be interesting
If you had to choose 1 Pokemon/Item/Ability to come back from ZUBL, what would it be and why?
None, but I would love to free snow warning! Even if that might end up getting vish banned
ah fair, I miss Vanilluxe being good
ZUPL is going to be underway very shortly, as an unbiased player (since you're not managing) could you rank the team names!
Actually I'm very biased and still mad that czim didn't claim team Palp Fiction. But since that isn't an option I'll give #1 to Ho3n's team for historical reasons, go stunkys!
oh lmao fair enough
Do you prefer playing/building SS or SM and why?
I prefer SM because Z moves add a whole different layer to building and playing.
ah that makes sense
z moves were incredibly fun
Sinnoh remakes are due to come out in about 3 months time, are there any SM ZU staples you'd be excited to see back
I would love to get our previous BO ground types, torterra and golem, back. They're among the most versatile gen7 staples and it's a shame that they were taken from us!
Also I still hope that Z moves will return at some point.
Ah ye with how strong electric types have been, most notably rotom, and we've been in need of ground types or at least good ones, especially with Silv ground gone now
Moving away from mons now, could you tell us a little more about the hobbies you do, starting with sports?
Well, as I previously mentioned my favorite sports are Taekwondo, snowboarding and volleyball. Especially Taekwondo has become a part of my life I couldn't imagine living without. Originally I started practicing in TKD in middle school to stand up for myself and my beliefs, but also to cope with stress and anxiety, which a lot of people can probably relate to. But over the years it has become so much more to me. Especially the mental and emotional journey surprised me more than then physical. Within a decade I turned from an insecure and angry child into a confident adult, which stands his ground in a rational and non-violent way. I would like to thank my trainers and colleagues for being part of this journey and for becoming a second family to me (they probably won't read this anyway).
I also like drawing, so sorry for drawing this answer out that much lmao.
Oh that's really interesting, thanks for sharing and don't worry about, was a nice pun
Definitely happy to see that things have turned out well
You also mentioned that you were going to study physics and chemistry, what about these subjects do you enjoy so much?
Well, ever since I can remember I've been a very curious person. Whenever an average kid would just respond with "woah" I always asked "How does this work?" and "Why does it work that way?". So 15 years went by and here we are.
For me it's about going above and beyond being average. (Should probably thank my dad for that mindset)
I see, that's very intriguing but it's cool you had this passion since you were young.
Do you listen to music often? If so what are some of your favourite genres/artists?
I actually listen to music all the time. While this isn't directly related to genres I prefer music with meaningful texts and clever wordplay. If I had to narrow it down my favorite genres are probably (pop)punk and rap. I grew up with green day, Linkin Park and Eminem and I still love the genres.
ah classics
Some of my personal favorite songs are Woke up by Hi-Rez, You better die young by Nomy and Distance by Mammoth WVH. Simply because the songs carry a message.
Those are some very good choices :D
you have good taste
I often question society and the way we live and those songs just blend in nicely with that. Also ty :D didn't expect you to know all of them.
ah that's pretty cool
time for the weirder wackier question of the interview; in smog city resides an evil villain called czim who refused to manage palp fiction, you decide to setup an organisation to force czim to manage but only have time to hire 2 fellow staff members, who do you choose to help you on your task?
1. Ho3n since he has experience in stomping staff 2. 5gen since this is practically a suicide mission and nothing of value would be lost. (if you are old enough to get these references: ILY). Jokes aside, I just like them, hope I didn't step on too many toes^^
Great response! In this hypothetical situation im sure czim would become a manager again
Alright rounding things off, do you have a ZU team to share?
This is a team I built for the previous zupl. It's built around subtox Lapras but also features some neat techs like hp water Rotom to allow Furfrou to push buttons after killing golem. Also bulky sucker Golem to fake a more passive set and pick up surprising kos on frail threats like Kadabra and chipped Swanna
While I didn't play it myself, it won us a week and just made me feel good, because all techs worked out perfectly in the same match.
ah nice nice
thanks for sharing some very cool techs
Last but not least, do you have any final remarks and shoutouts you'd like to give?
First of all I would like to thank you for doing all these interviews for the community, you're the real player of the week here. I would also like to shout out every single zu staff member, you guys are doing a great job and I'm grateful for being part of this. Last but not least I'd like to salute my fallen gen7 comrades, I had a great time with you and hope you're doing well in life.
Also a shoutout to anyone that bothered reading through all of my oversharing!
no worries, these interviews are always enjoyable!
Shwifty out, have a nice day!
Feel free to ask to z3ll1 any questions you want!
