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Welcome to OU's Player of the week, a project where I interview well known players to gain insight on how they battle, as well as get to know some things about them. The goal of this thread is to have these high level players give insight to other players in this community in hopes of creating a better overall experience in the OU environment. As always, if there's someone you'd like to see interviewed, feel free to shoot me a PM. So without further ado, lets get to it! Yes, this was late. However, there is a legit reason for this, so don't worry about it.
Bad Ass
Most Known For: Winning Grand Slam II, a piece of the US East megatron, won SPL with the Classiest, general lower-tier destruction.
Favorite Pokemon: Flaaffy
Most used Pokemon: Tyranitar
Where did you get your name from?
My friend General Empoleon came on to Shoddy Battle one day with a self professed bad ass nickname. This triggered a natural response in my impressionable 12 year old mind and I immediately logged back in with my name. Somehow, out of the dozens of usernames I'd tried by that point I decided that this was the pinnacle, that my username-dom had reached its unequivocal peak with the nickname Bad Ass. So it stuck.
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
Like most everyone, I enjoyed the cart games a little bit too much. I made an account called GarchompHata on Serebii back in 2008, almost exactly 7 years ago.
How do you feel about how ORAS plays compared to XY?
I like the function of the new megas in ORAS. They give you the tools to bust through the opposition. In XY, everything was just so BALANCED. Everyone was just switching around dealing chip damage and burns until one team eventually lost a key member and succumbed. Those stall teams that pretty much sat around for 150+ turns to win games are also gone, thank god. In ORAS, though, you can't win playing that passive bullshit. Have fun letting SR chip my team with your double switches while I maneuver you to keep taking hits from a M-Metagross or LO Alakazam or M-Altaria...
I think that makes for a MUCH better metagame. I think Game Freak managed to balance out a lot of things with ORAS and struck a fantastic balance between threats being very powerful and pressuring and the tools that teams have to slow them down. So for example, you have mixed M-Metagross, a Pokemon that on paper puts the momentum in your hands almost always. However, an aggressive player can keep it tamped down until late game by not giving an opening to mega evolve, by carrying a Rocky Helmet guy like Skarmory or Garchomp, can try to Pursuit it with a ScarfTar. But at the same time, if you constantly let your opponent pull double switches into Metagross on your Clefable, it has the potential to break through for you rather nicely.
And that is the core of why I like ORAS. There is enough power that the skilled player has, bad teams notwithstanding, the room to outplay but the power creep isn't so much that the skill is mitigated by goodstuffs spamming. It promotes skill!
To add onto the above, thoughts on the team matchup issue?
Small but present. Should be taken care of in teambuilding, you should always have a strategy against every archetype and if you auto-lose to one and go into a battle knowing that, don't complain about it. You're bad. Of course it isn't possible to cover every threat but by playing proactively and keeping momentum you shouldn't let too much set up.
What are your thoughts on the Aegislash suspect test currently going on? What about the proposed King's Shield Ban?
Aegislash with King's Shield is one of the most hilariously uncompetitive concepts for a Pokemon that has ever existed. The amount of skill-less 50/50s you are nearly guaranteed to cause with King's Shield is hair tearingly frustrating. Banning moves leads to precedent to ban more moves, even if King's Shield is relatively unique we should never ban moves to make Pokemon more viable.
And I haven't read the proposal, but if it is a blanket King's Shield ban then that's just abusing a loophole considering only Aegislash uses it.
What's your favorite playstyle and why?
The style I like to use most is balanced offense, but the style I think is the best is stall. I like to use balanced offense because I have room to work around other threats (usually by virtue of good resistances and immunities rather than hard counters) and then I can put the slam on with some strong sweepers or good offensive synergy.
However if I was actually good at this game I'd play stall. Stall should never just be surviving a little bit longer than the opponent; stall is a dominating playstyle. You need to know your team inside and out (and I'm really thinking more of DPP for this whole thing), play a hundred matches with it against every playstyle. Never be surprised and have to react to your opponent, but rather use your deep metagame knowledge to hard predict what unrevealed they'd send out after you see only 2 Pokemon. Get the hazards up and then step on the throat of any attempt at comeback. A well played stall team is the epitome of skill in the game and utterly gorgeous.
What's your favorite generation of OU and why?
ADV is the most balanced and skill-promoting but I never played it enough to get deep into metagame tricks. One dude who did was/is Triangles. He is a great example of how ADV players can maximize winning chances and the chances that their predictions work out.
My personal favorite is DP though. I grew up with it and I kind of prefer the vaguely overpowered stuff in the tier (mostly because of no team preview). Gently finessing double switches and piling up seemingly insignificant chip damage on a Swampert to set up a DD Mence sweep in ADV is a very pretty thing, but there's nothing like pulling out something as ridiculously powerful as a MixApe on a free switch and asking yourself what the other guy's more likely to sacrifice.
How do you go about preparing for tournament matches? Does the process differ depending on the tournament?
I get nerves when the game starts which severely cloud my judgment so I try to cut that down any way I can. Jerk off, smoke a cigarette, walk around for a few minutes, warm up games. Whatever I'm feeling. I also like to listen to the song Shit Luck by Modest Mouse before I play important sets so I don't have any shit luck.
Favorites to win OST and Smogon Tour?
I'll take BKC for OST because I feel like he is a very good player and if he gets some good teams going (not gimmick stuff like CG Altaria + Tyrantrum + Gatr....) he's real hard to beat.
I'm taking Smogon Tour. Inevitably failing that, Heist is my favorite. PDC has shown massive improvement in the last year and I would not be surprised if he made a run to semifinals or beyond. SoulWind can be clinically precise with his plays when he's on point, expect him, and I always think Leftiez has a good shot
Thoughts on the newly introduced Smogon Classic? Favorite to win?
A big name, almost certainly. I reckon it'll be impossible to slip into finals of that unless you really know what you're doing. BKC stands out as a favorite, he's so fucking good across a lot of tiers.
If you could change one thing about OU, what would it be and why?
Ban Landorus-I. He provides instant offense that is a little bit too strong and, frankly, it is pretty hard to justify not using him on a team (IMO). Whenever Landorus enters the field, no matter how the momentum was hanging earlier, it is now in favor of the Landorus user. He forces you to react to him which usually promotes skill (they have to outplay to get him in, you have to outplay to leave no room), but in the case of Landorus it is just impossible to fit enough pressure on your team to not let him in (two immunities, immune to Spikes), and once he's in something's going to die.
Do you have any advice for newer players for playing, and for Smogon in general?
Think. You're playing a real human being so a large part of prediction is psychology. If you look at your replays and seriously analyze each turn, think about why you made your move and if it worked why it did and if it didn't why it didn't. Create long term game plans; no play you should make should EVER just be "just because". You need to have a goal to work toward, big or small, that will end in you winning the game. Stop making ultimately useless double switches, chart out your risk/reward. When you get deep enough into it, individual Pokemon are meaningless. There are roles to fill for each team, there are careful connections between Pokemon (what you'd call synergy). Most people, when they make a 'good team' just stumble upon something that satisfies these connections and works well together. TL;DR think about overarching patterns in players and do lots of analysis :^). Also if you're new prepare not to be good until you have memorized a disgusting number of statistics and calculations.
If you could change one thing about Smogon as a whole to make it better, what would it be and why?
Smogon is simultaneously a fantastic community and a cesspool. I love the ridiculous variance in cool people here but I hate the memetic aspect of cliques and parroting. The Style clusterfuck was pretty weird too.
However, the one thing that I would really like to change would be the prevalence of "teamplay". It's fucking everywhere now! A lot of players believe it to just be something that cuts down on the silly mistakes you make in a match. But the match is YOUR match! If you make a silly mistake, you don't DESERVE to win the game! I think this is a large part of the devaluing of trophies (at least in my eyes). I don't think anyone has any doubt that Loki's trophies came from him whooping ass, not him and a couple of his friends and a few dudes who hopped on his bandwagon and......
"Teamplay" is ghosting. It is cheating, and it makes players' wins not match up to their skill. Please don't do it :[
What players do you look up to / are good friends with?
Heist has an utterly brilliant approach to the game. He is the progenitor of the aforementioned playing as if each turn was exactly as important as the other. Also a generally hilarious guy to be around. Triangles is similarly clinical with his optimization. BKC is a tough nut to crack with his defensive teams and has great (though twisted) music taste and generally awesome personality. Modest Mouse rules. I'll shout out Danilo for being one of the coolest nigs on the site (his vitriol gives me frequent and turgid erections), Floppy for being real AF in any category you wanna go for, Gouki for supporting me in my smogon tour semifinal run when I was 13, dice for being my shoulder and blightbringer for zhabrimba es lallia fara i wakasawa (he'll know what i mean)
Finally, can you provide us a team that's a good fit for this metagame and reflects your playstyle, with a brief explanation of how it works?
Alakazam @ Life Orb
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 16 Def / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Encore
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 112 Def / 148 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
Latias (Latias-Mega) (F) @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 96 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Soft-Boiled
- Calm Mind
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Flash Cannon
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Taunt
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 16 Def / 240 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Focus Blast
- Shadow Ball
- Encore
Hippowdon @ Leftovers
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 248 HP / 112 Def / 148 SpD
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Slack Off
- Stealth Rock
Latias (Latias-Mega) (F) @ Latiasite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 248 HP / 216 Def / 44 Spe
Bold Nature
- Recover
- Hidden Power [Fire]
- Ice Beam
- Psyshock
Clefable @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 96 SpD / 4 Spe
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Moonblast
- Knock Off
- Soft-Boiled
- Calm Mind
Ferrothorn @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Relaxed Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Gyro Ball
- Power Whip
- Leech Seed
- Spikes
Heatran @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 30 Atk / 30 Def
- Flash Cannon
- Fire Blast
- Earth Power
- Taunt
Allows me to cover all threats very, very well as well as put a lot of pressure on my opponent with Spikes + SR, Taunt Heatran, and especially Life Orb Alakazam, all the while the opponent has to make sure their CM Clefable counters don't get worn down. Spikes Ferrothorn is absolutely essential because it allows you to dictate the course of the game (either they try really hard to get in their defogger or they keep eating Spikes), and you can take advantage of that. LO Zam is an amazing cleaner. Kind of has trouble with SD Roost Mega Scizor because Heatran will get really worn down and it'l sweep you if you're not careful. Gotta play this aggressively or else the other person is going to overwhelm you, but that is the beauty of ORAS. You have a good team, you need to play it well to apply the pressure. This is a great example of a team that rewards skill.
Ask me questions of theory on the game (which I think a lot about), my life, music, that time I donked Floppy, whatever, man.
"I catch dinosaurs, make love to Elizabeth Taylor..."
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As always, leave any questions you have for Bad Ass down below. See you next week!