Cynde
toasty
credit to rozes for the artwork
Hello, and welcome to UU's Player of the Week, where I interview
some of Smogon's most accomplished and well known 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, shoot me a PM!
Tony
Favourite Pokemon: Flygon (almost as surprising as my favourite pokemon being cyndaquil)
Most Used Pokemon: Hydreigon
Most Known For: uu council, uu mod, uu majors host, back to back uupl winner
my absolute favorite is blobcheer. it has been and still is my go-to blob. other than that i adore blobsmilesweat2, blobsweats and blobhammer too. the newly introduced blobguns is pretty great as well
blobcheer
blobsmilesweat2
blobsweats
blobhammer
blobsmilesweat2
blobsweats
blobhammer
No love for blobnom? or blobnomcookie?
to be honest picking between blobs is like deciding which of your children you love most (i imagine). it's an impossible decision
(insert blobsmilesweat2 here)
Good answer, things were close to getting heated. Something else that you're known for is puns. What makes a pun great and can you give an example of a great pun?
hmmmmmmm. well i feel a pun has to be clever and apply to the situation at hand. i think being spontaneous and in the moment is key.
r0ady - 04/27/2017
Egypt sounds gross
Omfuga - 04/27/2017
ew hows it gross
Tony - 04/27/2017
Oof r0ady's in the pyramidst of it now
Omfuga - 04/27/2017
njbu9aso d;b'hdsbh-9o[p STOP
Tony - 04/27/2017
Nile do what I want tyvm
Omfuga - 04/27/2017
.
Tony - 04/27/2017
THATS RIGHT
context: omfuga is of egyptian descent
Egypt sounds gross
Omfuga - 04/27/2017
ew hows it gross
Tony - 04/27/2017
Oof r0ady's in the pyramidst of it now
Omfuga - 04/27/2017
njbu9aso d;b'hdsbh-9o[p STOP
Tony - 04/27/2017
Nile do what I want tyvm
Omfuga - 04/27/2017
.
Tony - 04/27/2017
THATS RIGHT
context: omfuga is of egyptian descent
Puns can sometimes be lumped in with dadhumour which is generally of the completely unfunny variety, do you agree with this categorisation?
i gotta say that i have a soft spot for dad jokes. while i arguably have some shortcomings as a potential father, my dad jokes are on point.
I suppose to some extent they do appeal to everyone. And uh speaking of jokes that appeal to everyone, here's something about the TD team.
being a td; the gift that keeps on giving
How accurate is this comic and does it accurately portray your personality?
well i do aim to be a nice and approachable person both irl and on smogon/discord. i'm honored to be considered vibrant too. i admittedly have my weak moments when it comes to being nice, mostly during trophy tournament playoffs. but hey i do what i can
Lets focus on trophy tournaments for a little bit. You're riding a pretty hot streak as a manager reaching the finals in two trophy tours and now looking to clinch one in SPL. What do you think is required to be a successful manager and what do you look for when you draft a team?
i think there is not like a certain way to manage in order to become (almost :[ )successful. i prioritize team chemistry above all else. making sure you have an active and enjoyable team chat is huge, imo. if you like each other and have fun together it becomes much more natural to help each other and work hard too. other than that i'm a very paranoid person that wants to go over every ev, every item etc. even if i don't know the metagame like at all (sorry sken and marilli).
Do you think you'll be making a grand return as a player sometime soon? And do you prefer playing or managing?
yes i wanna play more next year than i did this year. i wanted to manage in snake bc it's a new format and it seemed really interesting to prep for such a draft, but i'm probably going to sign up to play in the next one. and i think managing is more my thing. although in order to be a good manager i feel it's important to play and grasp the game at at least a decent level as well, so i intend to stay sharp and play a bunch of tournaments as well.
Is there any tournament in particular that stands out as a particularly memorable one?
wcop this year was an incredible experience and definitely my favorite tournament so far. we went from not making playoffs in the past few years to making the final and had a fantastic atmosphere throughout our run. both my uupls were amazing as well. the first being as a player lead by the handsome omfuga, the second as a manager with an extremely good team across the board. not sure what my plans are yet for the next uupl but i plan on making it 3/3 wins either way :D
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm well i don't wanna reveal my preferences too much for strategic reasons, but i think snake tour starters like bugzinator, lycans, manipulative and sacri aren't unlikely to be starters in spl too. christo and dodmen were managers who signed up now so i imagine them playing for sure. bushtush and yourself had strong showings in uu majors, so i wouldn't rule you guys out either. there's a good amount of other uu mains as well, as well as general tournament players willing and able to pick up the tier. should be competitive tier (again)! :O
Oh look at that! I almost forgot to ask you about yourself! I guess your Pokemon career is just too fascinating.
i'm tony and i'm a meds student from the netherlands studying to become a doctor. as previously established i like puns, blobs and pokemon, with uu being one of my favorite metagames. as for uu i guess i'm mostly known as the second most handsome council member after hogg, a whacky team builder and i'm now a moderator as well.
I also MUST mention that I love that we both appreciate the value of Amaroq-based Discord nicknames.
Amaroq your body
Amaroq your world
Amaroq and roll all nite
Amaroqruff
I'm a Rock
Poe Damaroq
Zamaroq
Zamroqin UUPL
Alabamaroq
Amaroq your world
Amaroq and roll all nite
Amaroqruff
I'm a Rock
Poe Damaroq
Zamaroq
Zamroqin UUPL
Alabamaroq
What and when got you started with competitive mons? did you start immediately with uu?
nah i'm mostly and primarily an ou player, but i enjoy almost every tier. my first experience with competitive pokemon was actually the wii game pokemon battle revolution. you could do 'random wi-fi battles' which was kind of like laddering in 3d without an actual ladder lmao. anyway i wanted to gradually improve my teams and starting looking into it more and more and thus discovered evs, ivs, and eventually the pokemon online simulator. on pokemon online i met feminist activist and overall humanitarian omfuga, who reeled me back into mons through a twitter dm during spl 7. he then told me to sign up for nupl, and after that uupl (he managed in both) and after meeting people like pearl and hogg during those i kind of stuck around in uu. and here we are now i guess lol.
Kommonium-Z and scolipede got banned recently. what are your thoughts on the meta currently? do you think anything needs to be dropped or banned to improve uu right now?
hm well for starters i'm confident that given time we can make uu a good and balanced metagame. we did it during uupl and imo we did it during the mega latias meta as well. i'm happy my fellow council members agreed on the kommonium z and scolipede bans, because they did way more harm than good. i think bl has a few mons that are worth looking into again, but not necessarily because we need to. i think we need to just keep playing and building teams in order to gradually develop the metagame. as for the bl mons that i think have potential to be reintroduced, i think breloom is my current favorite choice. for now i think we await the next round of usage stats first though.
Breloom is one of my top two picks too! do you think that there's any underrated mon running around that deserves more attention?
during snake i was preaching seismitoad a lot, but i think that's picking up in usage and discussion already so i'm not sure how underrated that really is anymore. i also really like bewear and its ability to function both as a breaker and a back-up check to a number of physical attackers thanks to fluffy.
Who do you fuckin love in smogon?
team europe (wcop), my uu mans, bushmasters and the disgusting circlejerks i'm in (you know who you are ). special mention to omfuga.
Lastly, could you share one of your favourite teams?
http://pokepast.es/32df84b48b1fb3c9
the team i built for the snake tour final between bugzi and teal. bugzi also laddered with this to #1. full disclosure, the evs on this import are simplified bc i don't wanna reveal my own. :p i don't think too much of a description is necessary other than maybe worry seed on amoong, which is mostly as a back-up for gliscor (it takes toxic damage after you change its ability), while also preventing crocune and snorlax to rest back to full.
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thank you so much for taking the time to do the interview Tony. If you have any questions for him. feel free to leave them below!
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