Approved by 5gen & S1nn0hC0nfirm3d | Amazing Art by Albatross
(Interview Date: 3rd of September 2021)
It's lovely weather today, nice to finally have a break from all those interviews. Wouldn't you agree Ditto?
*smirks*
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Kingler!
*ko ki ko ki*
and then 
Hey there 5dots, how are you doing today?
I’m feeling chill today, finished some sketching this morning.
That's good to hear.
To get things started, could you tell us more about yourself in general?
I’ve played chess for over ten years, competed in a lot of tournaments, and I like to draw a lot. I also enjoy skiing, running, drawing, and theatre. Also currently studying computer science and history right now.
Oh wow, sounds like your quite a busy person with quite a diverse amount of hobbies.
We'll definitely be digging into some of those topics later cause it all sounds super interesting.
How did you first get your start on PS/Smogon and then later ZU?
I started watching FSG videos around last year and started looking at PU/ZU analyses at SM; I started fooling around PU to see what mons were left and didn’t like the power creep there. I went down to ZU and found the tier to be a lot more fun and laddered around a lot before the omastar ban and lurked around discord for a while.
I see, you mentioned that you've played chess for a very long time, do you think there are comparisons between chess and Pokemon seeing as both are competitive strategic games? Has either had any influence on your performance in the other?
Chess and Pokemon have some similarities, as both require a player to predict the opponent’s plan and build their teammates around it. Both games have archetypes developed (hyper offense/defensive builds). Pokemon has a lot more variables to play around with (status stats hazards) and you can make a rough assumption from team preview. Chess doesn’t have team preview and you have to guess what your opponent’s going to do throughout the match.
A lot of concepts (sacrificing, current state of pieces/pokemon) feel similar and I like meshing the ideas together.
Oh wow, that's pretty interesting that you take ideas from both in order to improve in the other.
Do you mind sharing whereabouts your ELO is for Chess, and how successful you've been at tournaments over the years?
Current elo is 1800; won a lot of local tournaments and I’m doing okay at regionals. Pandemic’s killing everything but I’m looking to compete again soon
Ah ye I can imagine that does suck a lot for tours.
That's pretty impressive though, wishing you the best of luck when they start up again!
Thanks
Since you also mentioned archetypes earlier, do you have any favourite openings / strategies that you generally like to employ in Chess? Given how you've experimented a lot of nicher Pokemon in ZU, I wouldn't be surprised if you had an arsenal of gimmicks as well in chess!
I actually play quietly in chess - Usually I go with slow openings like Hungarian or the King’s Indian and wait until the endgame to overwhelm the foe. When I’m about to lose I focus on promoting my pawns or repeatedly attack the opponent’s king in hopes i can repeat the position a lot and ruin focus. Last resort i wait for stalemate or try to burn time on the opponent’s clock.
Oh neat. The "stall?" of chess except infinitely less painful to play against, i think.
Stall chess luckily does not have a rook that regains hp each time it moves to the back rank.
haha that's a pretty funny analogy to make
That was super insightful, back to mons now; what are your thoughts on the current metagame? What are some of the Pokemon you have enjoyed using since the Silvally-Ground ban?
The meta is quite settled. Rotom-F and Alcremie are pretty frightening to face if given a free turn, but I feel there’s enough consistent checks to prevent them from being too problematic. I’ve started using more HO and balance lately without A+ mons and I’ve been able to get relatively smooth results. TR is also fun against speed-reliant and sun teams popping up. Fez just goes bonkers against teams w/o flying resists. Resttalk Perrserker is a fun set for balance.
Hmm that's interesting to hear. A lot of fun stuff you've been trying out as well which is always very cool.
You also play a bit of ORAS if im not mistaken, is that mainly because of Regigigas? Do you enjoy it more or less than current gen?
Regi being good in ORAS is one of the main factors; also like how uncommon pursuit is. Rain, sun, and TR being viable also makes the meta fun and diverse to play. I like the volatility and emphasis on balance gen 8 brings a bit better, though gen 6 is also really fun as well for how many viable NFEs and LC mons there are.
Ah ye, there's definitely been a lot of power creep over the generations so the pool of mons are vastly different but i'm glad you enjoy both of them.
RBY ZU when
I wonder what would even be legal in that
All the psychics will be gone - at least machamp will finally be able to put 55 special to use
wild
How has ZUPL been for you so far? Hoping you get some game time at soon!
It’s been quite eventful: (almost) got to see 100% shedinja win rate, then got to see ivy and unfezant getting spotlight too. Also got to see some eye-opening sets like shuca berry skuntank and sun being seen. Balance and stall being common is kind of expected, but skunk and frosttom being common should disrupt stuff soon
That's good to hear you've been enjoying everything, and ye it's a pretty good time for innovation and building.
I've reused this question a ton but it's always interesting to gauge opinions, could you order the ZUPL teams from your favourite to least favourite?
1. Morpek a boos 2. Fiery flamencos 3. Lucky stunkys 4. Pay day Persians 5. Humilau hakomo os 6. Butterfrees
Good job Toto , everyone seems to like your team name
I auditioned for the cheerleader role and ended up getting kicked out of tryouts
Rip that sucks to hear, probably happy to have you again if persians are out before playoffs and we're still in :P
Moving away from mons, another one of your hobbies is drawing. What kinda things do you like to/tend to draw and what were you sketching earlier?
Usually i like sketching pokemon, but i also draw stuff on nature and food.
I sketched a drawing on frosttom.
ooo, definitely would be interested to see some of these drawings if you feel like sharing them.
Wait frostom was really SU? before all of this.
Nice drawing!
It'll definitely be rising to proper ZU status in no time.
Ye it’s an absolute monster there.
Should’ve suspected that instead of gurdurr and dark vally.
lmao I had no idea that those two were in SU either tbh.
they're all just really good mons in ZU so it's surprising but ig ladder is weird.
You also mentioned some sports you enjoy, running and skiing. Where do you do those?
I usually travel to Canada to ski; running I usually compete in my school team around the neighborhood.
I sometimes run at local 5ks on weekends.
Ah I see, that all sounds pretty fun, how often do you ski? How well do you do normally in running?
I often ski at the winter when my school’s at break - usually I ski near Canada and like being at the top of the mountain. My distance at 5Ks is ~30 minutes.
Ah that's pretty cool
For my wackier question, if you've ever read of seen Harry Potter before you know in the Philosopher's Stone, the main characters end up controlling chess pieces, while on top of them. If you were tasked to beat an anonymous enemy, who would you choose to take control of each piece?
I’d put SBPC for the king, 5Gen for the queen, OBB and Landon for the Rooks, Hitmonstars, POAT, beauts, and 275P for the bishops, me and lockjaw as the knights.
Pawns can be me and all my strategies
lmao nice, the persians squad!
Do you have a team that you mind sharing with us?
(poison)
(small) 
I was using this for reqs - Unfezant + gourg provides the wall breaking power, Rhydon provides the role of a tank/rocker, sawk provides speed control, silvally poison provides pivoting, rotom-fan polishes the voltturn core and ensures the team isn’t too weak to physical walls .
looks fun, unfezant definitely been rising up recently as a niche breaker so it'll be interesting to see whether this continues!
Would you like to shout out anyone or give some final remarks?
Thank you for taking the time to arrange the interviews, and thanks to all the ZU staff and playerbase that’s made ZU such a fun experience!
Feel free to ask to 5Dots any questions you want!
