Interview with Sam
| « Previous Article | Home | Next Article » |
Of all the places I've ever pictured myself, upstate New York has never been one of them. Unfortunately, a man named Sam has been calling incessantly asking about an interview for at least a month now, and I'm sick of coming up with excuses not to interview him, so I'm finally caving. Upon reaching his house nestled deep in Hippieland, New York, I'm drowned by stale air weighed down with pungent fragrances, Steelers memorabilia, and boxes labeled "As Seen On TV!" Right in the center of all the frat boy chaos is Sam, who offers me a small spot of cleanliness in the mess.
antemortem
Hi, Sam the Man.
Sam
Hello, Ant the Mortem.
antemortem
Can you describe exactly what we're listening to on plug atm? It's nice, but your taste in music confuses me sometimes. D:
Sam
This is instrumental hip hop/triphop.
antemortem
What is triphop? You listen to a lot of shit like this.
Sam
It's sorta like psychedelic electronica with hip hop elements.
He shifts a bit uncomfortably in his seat, and I can't tell if it's from the music I'm playing or if it's from his incredibly tight-fitting jeans...
antemortem
Anyway, can you tell me a little about who you are and what you do irl?
Sam
Hello! I am a 22-year-old guy going into my senior year studying chemical engineering. I work at one of my school's libraries. Outside of school and work, I'm into most sports (especially baseball) and fashion.
antemortem
Ah, chemical engineering? What exactly does your dream job entail?
Sam
Not exactly sure, to be honest. Chemical engineering is a pretty diverse field, so there are a lot of different options. I've done research in both the oil and gas and nano-biotechnology fields, but I'd still like to try more out. Something like doing process engineering for a cosmetics company seems like it would be pretty interesting.
antemortem
Speaking of fashion and cosmetics, tell me a little about your obsession with colognes.
Sam cocks his head slightly, motioning to an extravagant glass cabinet filled top-to-bottom with vials of all shapes, sizes, and colors with particularly foreign names written on them. Perhaps obsession is a bit of an understatement...
Sam
Haha, I do have quite the obsession. When I started college, I made an effort to dress better. I was the type of person who wore shorts and a t-shirt every day in high school. When I was buying clothes, I eventually looked in to fragrances because I had never owned one. I bought one that I enjoyed wearing, and that made me buy a few more. Cut to two years later, and I probably own around 40. I find it really fun and interesting to match my fragrance with how I feel, what I'm wearing, etc.
antemortem
40... 9.9 I've probably never smelled more than 10 in my lifetime. What's your favorite fragrance (besides the one yer mum wears)?
Sam
I wouldn't say I have a favorite—different fragrances work better than others for certain occasions and seasons. This past summer, I wore Silver Mountain Water by Creed and Comme des Garcons 2 a lot. For the colder months, I'm looking forward to wearing Chergui by Serge Lutens and Noir de Noir by Tom Ford.
antemortem
This is a sponsored interview y/n
Sam
lol y
The uncomfortable air seems to have subsided, fortunately, as the music takes a refreshingly old school poppy turn.
Sam
You grabbed this song from me. :o
Sam
y
antemortem
Okay, switching gears for a bit (don't worry, we'll come back to fragrances and you can tell me what you wear for important tournament battles or something), you rose relatively recently in ranks and popularity on Smogon. How did that all start for you?
Sam
I didn't really become super active on Smogon until late 2013. I was pretty much a ladder hero for the entirety of BW. When I saw that UU beta had started, it quickly became my main tier. I hung out a lot on IRC and got to know people that way. I was also pretty active in the UU PS room. I was still an average player for a while, but I was able to play against pretty good opponents such as Nas, Psychotic (RIP ;-;), Bad Ass, and kokoloko for a while, until I was eventually added to the UU council in August 2014.
antemortem
What filled the gap between your addition to the council and your promotion to UUTL? You were pretty heavily involved in SPL this year, weren't you?
Sam
Not too long after getting on the council, I was made a forum moderator. I was only a moderator for a few months before I was promoted to Tier Leader. UU was going through a weird phase at the time where a lot of the old-time contributors and players were quitting or becoming less active. I guess I was in the right place at the right time. I did play in SPL 6 this year, but I was very close to not getting picked up in the auction. Were it not for some internal conflicts with the BIGs first UU choice, they wouldn't have gotten me as a backup UUer.
antemortem
Ah, and how did you perform on the BIGs?
Sam
I think I did pretty well. I went 4-2 in UU (and 0-1 in ADV OU .-.)
antemortem
ADV OU... who were you subbing for that one? lmao
Sam
That one was kind of a joke. We already clinched playoffs by the last week, and I had been trying to pick up ADV from McMeghan throughout the season. I was still pretty bad at it by the end of the season, but I enjoyed the chance to play it at the highest level.
He wipes the corner of his watery eye and reapplies a disgustingly poignant fragrance while I think that maybe he'll have better luck in the Smogon Classic next year or something.
antemortem
Backtracking to UU again, what's your tiering philosophy like? Does it differ from kokoloko's?
Sam
I think kokoloko's system worked well at the beginning of UU. UU was a mess right after beta because there were a LOT of things that probably should have been OU at the time but were not. His tiering worked pretty well initially, and I wouldn't be opposed to starting off the generation like it. I'm not sure if I favor a council system just as much as he did, and I think the banning nature of the system has certainly affected UU voters. My tiering philosophy is more standard, I suppose.
I made UU suspect tests standard instead of on a council system (though koko was going in that direction anyway). However, I definitely think there are some faults with the suspect system in that I think it's a little too ban-happy now, so I've taken a more cautious approach to tiering.
antemortem
Do you think that the UU metagame is in a state of homeostasis at the moment, or does it still need some balancing?
Sam
I think it's pretty stable right now.
antemortem
So all it took was Mega Pidgeot's head on a silver platter?
Sam
Well, it was honestly pretty stable before that too! Suspecting Mega Pidgeot is probably one of my bigger regrets so far.
antemortem
Care to elaborate on why? I, for one, miss Bird Jesus and want to hear your testimony. >: |
Once again, he shifts uncomfortably, but he seems to have an answer prepared this time.
Sam
A big issue with Mega Pidgeot was possible overcentralization, and that's the reason we decided to suspect it. However, a lot of the posts in the suspect test were about things like confusion chances from Hurricane and 'versatility' (on a Pokémon that runs like six possible moves...) that were pretty overblown.
antemortem
Maybe when UU bans Scald you can retest Mega Pidgeot to further rustle the collective jimmies of the UU community. :)
Sam
-_-
antemortem
Moving away from Smogon for a moment, tell me about other things you like to waste your time doing on the internet, such as buying triangles.
Sam
I hate Jirachee -_- I'm pretty active on some sports subreddits and fragrance forums. I also spend a lot of my time on the internet looking for new music.
antemortem
There are entire FORUMS dedicated to fragrances?? Jesus. As far as music goes, though, what do you gravitate towards aside from triphop?
Sam
You'd be surprised at the fragrance resources out there!! I generally listen to indie-ish stuff, mostly lo-fi and indie rock.
antemortem
Cool. So, quickly, to round this out: favorite "indie-ish" artist and favorite Pokémon?
Sam
Favorite artist is probably Guided By Voices. As surprising as it may be to anyone on IRC, my favorite Pokémon is Starmie.
antemortem
Is this where you plug #underused...........
Sam
SPEAKING OF IRC, JOIN #UNDERUSED—IT'S GREAT!
| « Previous Article | Home | Next Article » |