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Interview TENNISACE

What's the most beautiful place you've ever been to? — Mimas

I really like The Fells. From the top, you can see most of Boston's skyline, and it's a pretty nice and easy hike. I recommend going right when the leaves are starting to turn in the fall.

How would you like to change the world? — Mimas

I just want to improve our health care system as much as I can. I work as a civil engineer at a hospital running construction projects for new buildings, and the facility I work for is horrifically outdated.

Which badge is the best/worst looking out of them all? Similarly, is there any badge you would want but wouldn't realistically obtain? — Kalalokki

I've always loved the current live chat contributor / former SOp badge, but lordy I don't have the time to get it again.

Favorite movie or series? — lyd

Favorite stand-alone movie is probably Pulp Fiction because I'm a sucker for Tarantino. Favorite series is a tie between Back to the Future and The Naked Gun.

Cereal first then milk or milk first then cereal? — vzxt

What fucking heathen puts the milk first? Do you get off on cleaning up spills from the counter? Do you just decide "I don't know how hungry I am, let me roll the dice and see what fits in the bowl!"? Whomst even,

How did you come up with your username? — TJ

Honestly I made it when I was 13, and the most interesting thing about myself at the time was that I played tennis. Not much has changed, apparently, though I did ditch the numbers (0227) sometime before 2010.

What good song/album or music group have you been listening to lately? — Havens

Been jamming to the Cadence of Hyrule OST lately, also liked IGOR and hoping for a new Kendrick album this year.

Least Favorite Smash Ultimate Character? — Leader Wallace

Corrin just for that one WoL fight where they have instant sudden final smash + a second instant sudden final smash. Bitch you ain't no dragon get the fuck back on the ground.

Favorite mons game? — Lux92

Pokémon Volt White 2, a rom hack by Drayano. It's everything a Pokémon game should be, and I am convinced that man is a goddamn wizard.

If you could steal someone's username, whose would it be? — Cheese5555

Yours, soon-to-be-Cheese5556.

If it wasn't already revealed, how would you feel if your Pokémon does not make it into Sword and Shield? — Estronic

Boutta roll up to Game Freak with some Area 51 tech if my boy GOGOAT misses the cut.

You're at a party and you want to entertain the group of people you're talking to. Do you tell them a joke or an obscure fact as a conversation starter? What would be the joke/obscure fact? — Estronic

Jokes are the best ice breakers imo because everyone appreciates good jokes and most people appreciate bad ones too. The best humor is a quick topical comeback though. Like recently I was talking to the head of ophthalmology at the hospital I work at, and he was expressing gratitude that his department will be able to expand, even though we couldn't give them exactly what they wanted (a new surgery suite). He said something along the lines of "don't worry about it, we won't look a gift horse in the mouth", to which I replied "well why would you, you're an ophthalmologist". He awkwardly stared at me for an uncomfortable second before it clicked and he started laughing.

What's your favorite childhood memory? What makes it so special? — Mimas

Hanging out at my grandparents' house after school, playing wiffleball in the backyard with my grandpa, and getting homemade snacks from my grandma. I used to go over there every day after school till my parents got out of work, and I got to hear all their stories, get help on homework, and just relax. My grandma passed away a few months ago, so I'm glad I got to spend a lot of time with them growing up.

When you're having a bad day, what do you do to make yourself feel better? — Mimas

I go over and see Thor, my dog who currently lives with my parents, as I can't have pets in my apartment. He is the goodest boy, as voted by me.

tennisace ne1 wanna build a bass??? — SalTheThief

If u release OOSOS 2: Planetary Boogaloo I'll build u a cobble gen

Interview HOGG

If you had to learn a new language, which one would you choose and why? — lyd

I think Spanish would probably be the most useful to learn in my day-to-day life, since it's fairly common in my neck of the woods.

pineapple pizza n/n — Scizorphobic

I'm not like morally opposed to pineapple pizza, I guess? But it usually goes hand in hand with ham, and I don't get down with eating hogs.

Does anyone in real life know you're a Smogon admin? If yes, how did they find out? — Mitsuki

My wife knows I'm an admin and how much time I spend on this site. Other people I know IRL know that I play Pokémon, and some of them know that I'm involved with a Pokémon website, but we haven't really discussed specifics.

What was your first contact with the Pokémon series and when was it? — Mitsuki

I'd seen people playing RBY, but I didn't own a Game Boy at the time, so I missed a lot of it. My first time actually playing was some time early in high school, when the person next to me in computer lab was playing a partially translated ROM of Pokémon Gold. It looked interesting, so I asked for a copy, and twenty years later I'm still playing, so I must have enjoyed it.

If you had to delete every user that has a certain badge, which badge would it be and why? — Estronic

Let's just Thanos snap the Tiering Contributor badge so that we knock out like 40% of the community and start fresh. (jk all of our badged users are lovely and wonderful)

What's your opinion on jorts? — Estronic

I'm not big on shorts in general unless I'm working out or playing sports, but you do you.

What genre of music do you like the most? — lyd

Hard to say. I tend to like individual artists or groups rather than genres as a whole. As far as whole genres go, I think the genre I listen to the most is R&B or soul (especially neosoul).

Had you ever considered that you would become a Head Tournament Director before it happened? — Ryota Mitarai

Not really, no. But with the way the TD team organizes itself and makes decisions, "Head TD" is really just a title; we're a small group, and we make basically all of our decisions collectively.

How and when did you get into competitive Pokémon? — TJ

I hung out a lot on the GameFAQs forums (I know, I know) shortly after Ruby and Sapphire came out in early to mid 2003. At some point the forums got raided by some folks from other forums who came on to troll, and afterwards I looked up some of the users in question and from there ended up finding IRC and the GSBots/RSBots, as well as some other small communities like Marble Palace and Azure Heights.

What advice do you have for aspiring Tournament Directors? — Leader Wallace

TD is a bit hard to perfectly quantify requirements for, especially since we tend to only promote people as needed (rather than as soon as someone meets X standards). In general, though, when we're looking at new TDs, we tend to look at a combination of established experience with hosting tournaments, good presence in tournament policy discussions, and a great work ethic. Thick skin helps, too.

Favorite food? — Lux92

No specific favorite but I love to cook.

What's the best match you've ever played, and what made the game so good? — Lux92

I don't want to write a whole treatise on it, but I'm pretty happy with the game I played against Calloflochie in semifinals of SPL 7. I was still relatively unknown on the tour scene overall then, and while I'd been coming off of a decentish UU Open run and had a few weeks of SPL under my belt, this was probably the first game where I had a ton of eyes on me.

How did Pokémon Showdown and Smogon impact your life? — Mimas

No more than any other hobby. I spend a decent bit of time here and I've made some great friends, but mostly I try to keep a healthy distance between what I do online and my life outside of Smogon. Some of it bleeds over, of course—I don't think it would be possible to put as much energy into this site as I do without some of it carrying over into the rest of my world. But in general, I try to treat Smogon and competitive 'mons the same way I treated skating or backpacking or any of my other hobbies: something I (mostly) enjoy and do when I have time, but not something that defines who I am.

Interview SAM

What's the most beautiful place you've ever been? — Mimas

An unnamed gorge in Ithaca, NY.

On a scale of 1-10, how responsible do you consider yourself? — Mimas

Like a 3?

What is the best piece of advice you've received? — Mimas

You aren't always going to be able to change the way people think and that's OK.

Do you practice any sport? If yes, which one do you like the most? — lyd

I don't really play organized sports anymore—in high school I ran hurdles in track. Right now I play racquet sports occasionally; I think squash is my favorite.

If you could immediately change one thing on the forums, what would it be? — lyd

I'd get rid of tennisace.

How heavy is your workload as admin? What are some responsibilities as admin that you didn't have as a smod? — TJ

As of now my workload is definitely less than it was a few years ago when I was really the only one involved with tiering. The biggest responsibility of admins is to be the "final" say on deliberations and such.

How do you like your steak? — Estronic

Medium well.

If you could time travel, when would you go to? — Mimas

I don't know, I like the comfort of modern life so I'd probably just stay put.

Why and how did Fly Dragonite suddenly become a thing? — Social Media

Z-Moves!