Monotype Player of the Week #15: Entei

Status
Not open for further replies.

Confluxx [Old]

Banned deucer.
Approved by scpinion
Based off of other potws



Banner by Acast

Hey everyone and welcome to the fifteenth installment of Monotype Player of the Week!

This week I have a well known player and former council member, Entei! Before we get into it, this will be a weekly thing where I interview well known players to try and see into their mind a bit. If anyone has any suggestions on who I should interview, feel free to contact me on PS. Anyway, let's get to it!


Entei
To start off with, tell us a little bit about yourself.
My name is Zachariah, I'm 18 years old, and I live in Israel(Born in Russia). I'm trilingual, I speak fluent Russian & Hebrew, and well by my answers in this interview you decide on my English :p
Around 2 months ago I graduated from school (THANK). Right now, I'm serving in the IDF, still a PVT, it's tough and all but I've adapted quickly and met some awesome people. Regarding hobbies and other stuff, I absolutely love music, I listen everything besides like heavy metal and similar genres, and well other PC games, mostly shooters besides Rocket League which I can easily say is my favorite game.

What is your favorite Pokemon?
My favorite Pokemon is Entei. (<-Unironical period) (editor's note: his username was Entei. at the time of this interview). Mostly because it's design, it just has some sort of majesticity to it, resembling a lion, with its sun-looking emblem thing that looks like a mane(colored silver gold & red) & that cloud thing on its back(doesn't look like a dog too me;p).
I've always liked fire types too, and it's name, it's name's origin is like a fire emperor or something? I don't remember but yeah those things, to me at least, are what that I feel differentiate it from all other Pokemon.

How did you get your username?
Read the second answer ll

How did you get into Monotype?
My whole time playing Pokemon before showdown was spent playing past generation games on emulators. I literally haven't played XY/ORAS yet :(
I always liked the idea of having 6 mons of the same type in my team, I don't actually know why, probably has something to do with my OCD lol, otherwise I really have no idea.
Anyway I found out how to make the wifi work using an emulator, and later discovered smogon wifi-battle matchmaking. I played random people for like 6 months, mostly ou because monotype wasnt popular enough at the time, but some people agreed to try it out and enjoyed it as well ;D after those 6 months I found out 'SMOGON' has other uses besides matchmaking, and that's how I got there.

What do you feel you're most known for?
Probably my smogon presence in 2015, much bold many caps and lots of arguing(I've changed I swear), that and choking in battles I literally couldn't lose in, but I always found a way to do so -_-. <- This is probably what I'm known for.
Being objective about yourself is pretty tough so I could never actually answer this question, I feel. :/
I haven't played mons in a pretty long time bec of finals and the army, so to new players reading this, hi!

What is the Pokemon you use the most?
Definitely Charizard. I often use fire & flying, and I don't really use other Megas on either type, so it's mostly Zard-Y
And I use it a lot in OU, I feel it's offensive presence, of either form(X/Y), puts tons of pressure on all teams, which I like to abuse :p.

What is your favorite type to use in Monotype, and what is your favorite type overall?
The type I like to use the most is Water. It's versatile as hell, that being because of the amount of viable Water mons out there, and it doesn't really have any bad matchups besides Grass, and with the introduction of Volcanion to the meta, I feel makes it even better.
My favorite type overall is Poison. Basically it's a type built off of average mons and Mega-Venusaur. I feel a good Poison team is a team that has a good immunity core. Such as Psychic-Ground-Priority(I'll explain below) core.
I guess I don't need to explain why Ground & Psychic immunities are important so I'll move right into priority.
What I meant was, specifically using Gengar as a mon that's immune to the most common priorities(and ground which is a huge bonus) such as fake out, espeed, quick attack, and Mach punch(Poison does resist Fighting, but it can always revenge kill ;p). By switching Gengar in on those you can escape damage your really don't want to take, forcing another mind game for your own good. My advice to you if you're ever building a Poison team :)

What playstyle do you prefer?
Easily hyper offense. I'm pretty rash, irl too, I don't really like battles that take too long :(

How do you feel about where you stand in the community right now?
Similar to what I'm most known for, I don't really know. I feel I've definitely left a mark in the community, maybe not a very good one when it comes to Monotype staff, because I don't see eye to eye with the higher ups, but within the general community itself.. A better one I guess? I tend to help if I'm asked, by anyone really, but sadly right now I am in the IDF so I don't really know too much about what's going on.

Are there any players you looked up to when you were starting out or still look up to?
The people I looked up to were iLight Godchef and Kaiser. Individually they're all creative builders, insane players, and awesome people, the community definitely lost a lot with each of those guys' departure. But the main person who took me under his wing and taught me like the basics of the competitive game, is St. Dennis. Veterans reading this will find the name familiar, he tolerated me and stood by me regardless of how much of an annoying newbie I used to be. Sadly he he quit too, but yeah, he's really great.


Any players that you think are underrated and that we will see a lot from in the future?
Besides SirSkit, I don't think so. He's probably one of the nicest people in the community, and he's much better than people deem him to be. Keep up the good work bud ;D

What advice would you give to newer players?
In all honesty, don't blindly listen to staff regarding competitive adivce. Note I said competitive, behave kids! Voices to Room Owners, in Monotype(as I'm sure in every other format/tier, but specifically Monotype) the staff sometimes may not entirely know what they're talking about, as the advice they may give you can be 10 times better coming from a different source. Most auth are auth because they're friendly and talk-active people in the room, and may not be as experienced as other people are. Just ask around, eventually you'll find the best answer for your question.
Also read around older threads, if you know how Monotype was in the past, I personally feel it will help you a ton learning the meta itself instead of simply using what's best/using what everybody else uses. Unlike other tiers/formats, Monotype is extremely limited to maximum 25 viable Pokemon per type, so it doesn't have too much creativity. Just try making the best of it.

What are you looking forward to in Gen 7?
Flying resist for Poison :(. A good Ghost/Fairy or Ghost/Fighting, bringing back type bans(at the end of the day, Monotype is a type based format), better Physical attacking Electric types, and the poisonous fire salamander thing to be good :s

When will you get Entei?
Never say never.

How is it in the army?
As mentioned above, I'm adapting well and gladly I have weekends off, so I get to spend time with my friends and family, and have some time to myself to rest, play games and check PS! (I have my own M16 XDDD).

Favorite Entei emote?
Please stop using those :(

To finish things off, could you share a team with your favorite type and playstyle and give a short explanation for it?
I guess I'll just drop my main Fire team. It's an offensive no Torkoal team w/ Defog Zard-Y, dual scarf(mixed Physically biased Victini & Volcanion), AoA Infernape(with thunderpunch mainly for gyarados and well water or flying types generally I guess, a powerful STAB in close combat and a stab & iron fist(which also boosts thunderpunch) boosted priority in Mach punch.), Fletchinder that tears apart fighting/bug/grass teams, and helps a ton with dragon, and finally Heatran myrock setter, fairy counter, and a ground immunity w/ air balloon(Poison immunity & Psychic resistance are also great).
Yes I call myself Entei and don't use it, it's just how the meta is right now :p

Fletchinder
Ability: Gale Wings
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Acrobatics
- Roost
- Swords Dance
- Will-O-Wisp

Infernape (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Close Combat
- Flamethrower
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch

Victini @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Victory Star
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- V-create
- Energy Ball
- Bolt Strike
- U-turn

Heatran @ Air Balloon
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 250 HP / 252 SpD / 8 Spe
Calm Nature
- Lava Plume
- Flash Cannon
- Earth Power
- Stealth Rock

Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 6 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast
- Solar Beam
- Defog

Volcanion @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 30 SpA
- Steam Eruption
- Flamethrower
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Sludge Bomb


Well that concludes this interview, feel free to ask your questions down below!
 
how did you feel about the recent hoopa suspect results?
what do you think is the most underrated underused type that could probably do well in tournaments etc if people started using it?
grats on Entei :]
e: 200 posts =)
 

scpinion

Life > Monotype... unfortunately :)
is a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
What advice would you give to newer players?
In all honesty, don't blindly listen to staff regarding competitive adivce. Note I said competitive, behave kids! Voices to Room Owners, in Monotype(as I'm sure in every other format/tier, but specifically Monotype) the staff sometimes may not entirely know what they're talking about, as the advice they may give you can be 10 times better coming from a different source. Most auth are auth because they're friendly and talk-active people in the room, and may not be as experienced as other people are. Just ask around, eventually you'll find the best answer for your question.
Also read around older threads, if you know how Monotype was in the past, I personally feel it will help you a ton learning the meta itself instead of simply using what's best/using what everybody else uses. Unlike other tiers/formats, Monotype is extremely limited to maximum 25 viable Pokemon per type, so it doesn't have too much creativity. Just try making the best of it.
Well, this irked the shit out of me... Just for the record, the room staff aren't there to be the one-stop-shop for competitive battling advice. These forums, however, are. At no point have we (the room staff) claimed to be the top players. The staff consists of people that are active, respectful, courteous, level-headed, and just generally polite, while having a good understanding of how to play. Some of the staff are among the best of the best, but that is by no means a prerequisite. Often, a new player's first interactions with the community/metagame are in the room and that aforementioned list of qualities is much more likely to lead to a positive experience than having a group of "good players" running the show.

Also, there isn't a need to be mysterious/secretive about who to message for advice when someone wants to know who to get advice from... To any new player that ends up reading this, I encourage you to browse the Monotype forum as you're learning. It is full of helpful resources developed by some of the top players in the meta (they're the ones he's referring to).

The room is a great place to casually chat, get some immediate feedback on a team idea, or play in live tournaments; but if you want top-level advice from an individual, message the people you see actively contributing and giving good advice here on the forums.
On to some questions!

Do you think you'll be able to actively contribute again when SUMO comes out?

When you're building a HO team, what are some things that you keep in mind that are specific to the Monotype metagame (not just HO builds in general)?
 

Entei

TIMMEHHHHHHHHHHHHhHhhhh
is a Tiering Contributor
how did you feel about the recent hoopa suspect results?
what do you think is the most underrated underused type that could probably do well in tournaments etc if people started using it?
grats on Entei :]
e: 200 posts =)
* Regarding Hoopa.. I'm not too happy, to be frank. Elaborating why is complex, for me at least, but to sum up I feel it reverts Psychic's matchups way too much toward its own favor(unnecessarily if you ask me, its already top 3 lol).
Speaking of Dark, I don't think its too broken on Dark, but it definitely gives the type a whole lot more than any other 6th mon you could imagine. I'm not sure if people kept it to abuse it more or just don't really see the problem. Since I dont want to leave any of you hanging I'm gonna have to direct you to Attribute / iVid . I can say with confidence both these guys know Psychic inside out, and should answer your question better than I could. For better insight on how it works on Dark, speak with Clearly & Wyn , again, they're a lot more experienced than I am using Dark, so please go ahead and ask!

** As mentioned in the interview, I haven't been playing much lately, so I'm not really familiar with the current meta(past 6 months). What I do know is, that with Hoopa staying, logically Dark & Psychic will rise a ton in usage. Newbies being excited about something being suspected but not banned, so they'll surely try that first, and obviously veterans and the rest of the community, that are already familiar with Hoopa and its shenanigans, will continue using it in tours and the ladder and whatnot. With the rise of Psychic & Dark I __think__ it's safe to say Poison is definitely a very good type to start exploring. Yes it's weak to Psychic & 'tends' to struggle with Dark, mainly because it has better options/ better mons overall, using Scolipede/Beedrill turns those matchup around entirely. Balance a Poison team around Scolipede/Beedrill correctly and you got yourself a great & fun team to play with. And one last thing: Poison as a type is better in tours, than on the ladder (IMO). Ladder is home to all the higher tiered types, that arent only Dark & Psychic. It struggles a lot against Flying, Stall/Swift Swim Water teams(Venusaur usually handles balance/offense teams mostly by its own), and Normal teams which I feel is underrated. Eviolite core is really hard to break, specifically using Poison. I don't know why Normal isn't as used anymore.

***Thanks!! Wish I got it on PS! though lol..

****Grats on 200 posts ;D

Also I just realized there are some spelling mistakes in my answers, I'll get Balor to fix them once I catch him online.
 
If you could reasonably change any one thing about Monotype, what would it be? I'm leaving this intentionally broad, so really anything remotely related to Monotype is applicable. Just please make sure it's still Monotype at the end of the day! Don't say to let players use two types of course.

Why on earth do you have Bagon in your signature when Entei's in your name? Are you two-timing?
 

Entei

TIMMEHHHHHHHHHHHHhHhhhh
is a Tiering Contributor
Well, this irked the shit out of me... Just for the record, the room staff aren't there to be the one-stop-shop for competitive battling advice. These forums, however, are. At no point have we (the room staff) claimed to be the top players. The staff consists of people that are active, respectful, courteous, level-headed, and just generally polite, while having a good understanding of how to play. Some of the staff are among the best of the best, but that is by no means a prerequisite. Often, a new player's first interactions with the community/metagame are in the room and that aforementioned list of qualities is much more likely to lead to a positive experience than having a group of "good players" running the show.

Also, there isn't a need to be mysterious/secretive about who to message for advice when someone wants to know who to get advice from... To any new player that ends up reading this, I encourage you to browse the Monotype forum as you're learning. It is full of helpful resources developed by some of the top players in the meta (they're the ones he's referring to).

The room is a great place to casually chat, get some immediate feedback on a team idea, or play in live tournaments; but if you want top-level advice from an individual, message the people you see actively contributing and giving good advice here on the forums.
On to some questions!

Do you think you'll be able to actively contribute again when SUMO comes out?

When you're building a HO team, what are some things that you keep in mind that are specific to the Monotype metagame (not just HO builds in general)?
*Regarding the "rant", I'd love to make a more elaborate response privately, if you're willing to listen, until then read this and delete everything after these italics onto the next couple astersiks below afterwards:
That paragraph was not an attack on Monotype Staff or whatever you think deemed it to be, and I wasn't being secretive about who to ask about advice, I'm just not going to mass tag people.
The question clearly orders to give an advice, to me an advice is an opinion formed by experience and just facts that are out there, from my own objective POV, this is how things are.
I haven't said the staff are bad people, bad presence, bad players and all that, I literally said what you mentioned in your first sentence: "the room staff aren't there to be the one-stop-shop for competitive battling advice."
When a newbie enters the room, and theyre looking to learn the metagame, just talking w/ people is great, but if theyre looking to learn the meta, the first impression of any room given to newbies is that the authority in the room is who you turn to to get competitive advice. They will immidiately turn to the auth for building advice, generally what centerallizes the meta, predictions ect. Like it or not that's how people think, and from your experience of being staff for about 2 years now, you really can't argue with that, I know I still do it when if I engage in a tier/metagame that is completely new to me, and I do not know anyone who plays it.
The way I phrase things usually misleads people, so I apologise for that, but again, I was solely talking about competitive battling advice. I dont have anything against how the staff/voices function, and it really is none of my concern atm.


**I probably will, I'll be finishing my training in roughly 2 months, after that I'll have a lot more free time, I'll be home a lot more and all that, I assume I'm going to.

***When building any Monotype team I tend to balance it like all the time. Sometimes I tell myself Im building an HO team and I end up using 2 fat mons none of which have an effective offensive move lol. That's just a fun fact. Back to your question, my building doesnt really differ when I build different playstyles. The building process is somewhat like this:

I start off with a core or 1 Pokemon, and go from there; Think of a few mons, that cover/check either whole types, individual threats to my type or specific team, or an individual Pokemon with a specific set that is problematic for my team/general type etc. , but still synchronise well with my current Pokemon/core, general example:
Building a Fighting(which is one of the best examples to represent hyper offense) team -> See its weak to Water -> Add Breloom.
Items and EVs are more specific to what a certain Pokemon is supposed to do on my team, so elaborating at the moment is problematic, apologies.
As shallow and simple-minded as it sounds that kind a concludes my building in Mono, sorry to disappoint ;p.
Obviously I test a ton after a team is done, you wouldnt see me play a tour game with a 5 second team, I test on ladder/friends and modify it a lot after its creation. Not all things that good look on paper work the same way. Hope I actually answered your questions, I get carried away writing ;p
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Entei

TIMMEHHHHHHHHHHHHhHhhhh
is a Tiering Contributor
If you could reasonably change any one thing about Monotype, what would it be? I'm leaving this intentionally broad, so really anything remotely related to Monotype is applicable. Just please make sure it's still Monotype at the end of the day! Don't say to let players use two types of course.

Why on earth do you have Bagon in your signature when Entei's in your name? Are you two-timing?
*The thing that irks me the most about Monotype is the abandonment of type bans. I still dont understand how a type based format is going to function best without something so basic.
I used the word basic because that's what I feel it is.. It really doesnt make sense to me, not having type bans anymore. I still enjoy Monotype though!

**It was my OMPL team's mascot, managed by baconbagon, I just put it there and never bothered to take it off once the tournament was over lol.


so to new players reading this, hi!
hello! :))
What is your favorite tier outside of Mono?
*I enjoy PU a lot, I enjoy how balanced it is, as in the tier itself, it also has a really friendly community. I also enjoy OU, especially building, it just has so many options and combinations tiers below it doesnt have, which I find really cool, and is what really attracted me to OU.
 
is this really you?



As a someone who has been playing this game for a long time and had great runs in MPLs, ULCs, BOTLs, LvLs and not to mention your recent OST performance, Whats your favorite match you have ever played? (a replay and probably a short paragraph describing the game would be nice) :]

gl trying to not get shot in the army
 

Attribute

HYPNOS | pulp
is a Top Tiering Contributor
Monotype Cup Winner
1.) opinions on:
User: entei
FormatEloGXEGlicko-1COILWLTotal
Random Battle10481540 ± 123 (provisional)--101
?????
 

p2

Banned deucer.
why am i the best at rocket league

why are you obsessed with koksinels and variants of the word

do you believe that theres too many anti semites in the monotype community
 

Entei

TIMMEHHHHHHHHHHHHhHhhhh
is a Tiering Contributor
is this really you?



As a someone who has been playing this game for a long time and had great runs in MPLs, ULCs, BOTLs, LvLs and not to mention your recent OST performance, Whats your favorite match you have ever played? (a replay and probably a short paragraph describing the game would be nice) :]

gl trying to not get shot in the army
*Will edit when i find the right match..
1.) opinions on:
User: entei
FormatEloGXEGlicko-1COILWLTotal
Random Battle10481540 ± 123 (provisional)--101
?????
:((((((
What are you willing to do to get entei?

If you could buff one type, which one and how?

Who ru again and why do you like to spam people?
*Contribute more once I'm finished with the army!

**Cant really pick, the ideal is that all types become competitively viable in the future, hopefully g7 is the time.
But to mention a few stuff like rock/ice/grass, these types are lacking proper immunities against SE types respectively.

***Youre literally the one that cant start a conversation without spamming ffff:?:)&;:&399:9
why am i the best at rocket league

why are you obsessed with koksinels and variants of the word

do you believe that theres too many anti semites in the monotype community
*You stopped playing :(

**The pronunciation of the word is just funny. Its slang in israel too so im really used to it.

***Yes
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top