Approved by ghost
Inspiration taken from this and this
Amazing photoshop by me
LeJames Chonk
Favorite LC Pokemon: Phanpy
What I'm known for: Drinking
Fun Fact: 2024 LC Discord Fantasy Champion
Inspiration taken from this and this
Amazing photoshop by me
Favorite LC Pokemon: Phanpy
What I'm known for: Drinking
Fun Fact: 2024 LC Discord Fantasy Champion
Good afternoon LeJames Chonk, or Cooper as many people call you. How are you doing today? Welcome to the fourth edition of Little Cup Convos, and thank you so much for taking the time to get interrogated by me >:)
I’m doing great! Looking forward to this one of kind opportunity!
That's good to hear! And I'm sure the LC community is also looking forward to learning more about you. Speaking of which, do you mind starting off by telling us how you got involved with Smogon/LC?
Of course! I was told about showdown by a classmate sometime between 2013-14. I’m not sure exactly how I found my way to LC, but once I discovered it I never looked back. Shortly after falling in love with the tier Eniigma took me under his wing and I was bred into the ultimate ladder hero during ORAS. I was actually never too active on Smogon during that time, I would usually just join tournaments here and there when Eniigma would inform me of them. However, I quickly learned from those experiences that the competition level was much different than what I was facing on the ladder. It really wasn’t until the launch of SV that I became really active in the smogon side of things and ingrained in the LC community, and I'm enjoying every bit of it right now.
Oh woah, I didn't realize you were around for that long, and it's cool that both you and Eniigma are still playing 10 years later! Back then you played under the name of a different account right? Could you explain the origin of that name, as well as your current name LeJames Chonk? You've definitely got some of the funniest usernames in the community!
Yes! Back then I was the infamous Horny Miltank. It’s hard to say exactly what influenced that name. Miltank is one of my favorite Pokémon and I guess my young teenage mind thought that would be funny. To be completely honest back then I was sort of a menace in the LC room frequently being locked and muted, the name at the time fit my rather rebellious nature. Unfortunately that account is now completely locked and inaccessible. When I made my return to SV and got more involved with the community I felt a name change would be best. For my current name, obviously I wish LeChonk James was available, but I decided to settle on the next closest option. The switch happened right before LCWL at the beginning of SV. I’m actually not the biggest fan of my current name, and would be open to a change if I could find something that felt right.
Horny Miltank was certainly iconic - i distinctly remember laddering against you in SS and early SV, but it's sad to hear that that account is gone forever. At least you live on through another iconic username though! But if you're looking to name change maybe you can incorporate Cooper, as that's what you go by most frequently. Perhaps Pooper Cooper? Just a thought.
Anyways, thank you for telling us a bit about your lore! As for Cooper in real life, what do you enjoy doing? Do you have any fun hobbies or facts that you'd like to share with us?
I don’t think I’m too sold on Pooper Cooper, but I appreciate the idea.
Outside of Pokémon I’m a very social person. The idea of getting home from work and sitting in my apartment by myself all night sounds so terrible. I always try to make plans to meet friends out to watch football or basketball, and usually enjoy some drinks while doing so. A lot of the LC community would call me an alcoholic. When I’m not with friends I consume a lot of Barstool Sports content. I listen to nearly every episode of Pardon My Take, Mostly Sports, The Yak, Unnecessary Roughness, The Dozen and right now am loving the Surviving Barstool series. An interesting fact or hobby I have is collecting sports cards. I love watching and occasionally buying into card breaks or repacks. Unfortunately it can be a really expensive Hobby, but it’s a fun investment.
Well if you change your mind I'll let you use the name free of charge, no need to credit me.
As for your hobbies and personal life, I think that all makes a lot of sense! You seem like a very sociable and fun person in the LC discord so I can understand how that's similar to your character offline. I'm not too familiar with it myself, but since you're a big card collector have you been playing new mobile Pokemon card game? And for the audience of legal drinking age in their respective countries, what is one of your favorite drinks that you would recommend people try?
I actually haven’t explored the new Pokémon card game. Given that it’s just a mobile game I might have to check it out.
As far as my favorite drinks I usually keep it simple, and it’s pretty situational. A casual outing with my friends on a week day is usually just gonna be Coors light, that’s about the only beer I will drink. If the plan is to go hard one of my go tos has always been Water, Vodka, and Mio. A nice 60/40 split of water and vodka with some good mio flavors will do the trick. If I’m really looking to kick things up a notch or get the night going I always love a double vodka Red Bull. Other than that you can never go wrong with a vodka soda or Jack and coke. I’m still looking forward to drinks on you the next time I’m in Dallas.
Unfortunately I don't drink Red Bull, but maybe I'll try that water, vodka and Mio mix, that sounds interesting and customizable! And unfortunately for you, whenever you're in Dallas next I'll be out of town again. Sorry!
Good thing you are coming here for the Notre Dame and Arkansas game next season!
Hmm we we'll see about that one...
Let's talk some mons for a bit. The LCBC draft just happened at the time we're doing this interview so I wanted to ask: what was you reasoning to manage with Laroxyl, and how you feel your team's draft turned out?
Laroxyl has always been a player I’ve respected, everyone knows he is one of the best at this game. I also think his drive to win and overall competitiveness is unmatched. I drafted Laroxyl in LPL a couple of seasons back and he was pivotal in our success as we had one of the best seasons ever by a team in LPL. When I noticed his good friend Howkings cheated on him with Envy I decided to swoop in and see if he would be interested.
As far as the draft itself I think we wanted to be a little more creative and aim for upside in a lot of our picks. Given that I’m the playing manager on our team most people would see me as the worst player in that pool, and with the format of this tour we started with an immediate disadvantage from most people’s view. However, I am confident in my ability and know I can compete with anyone. Approaching the snake part of the draft we had honed in on Shing as our first selection in the days leading up to the draft. Me nor Laroxyl are too knowledgeable in ADV and the gap between Shing and the 2nd best ADV player is larger than that in any other tier. With our next 3 picks we were able to add proven winners, talent, and a massive team morale booster in dvs. In the auction part of the draft I think we were able to add a lot of potential break out and motivated players. Although I don’t think the PRs will be friendly to our roster I believe we constructed a team with a lot of flexibility and untapped potential. Most importantly I can already tell this team is going to be very active and that will be an important driver in any success we might have this season.
True Laro is one of the best, so it's a bit odd to see him not playing this time around. That being said, I wouldn't say your team is at a disadvantage just because you're the one playing! If you guys have as strong of a draft as you believe, then I think you could definitely win it all. It made a lot of sense for you to target the tiers you're least familiar in with your snake picks and then round out your roster from there. I think I would have done the same thing if I were in your shoes.
Outside of your own roster, which other teams stand out to you, either in a positive or negative way? And how did you feel about this new draft format?
The two teams that stand out to me as being the best based off their week 1 starting lineups would be the Fennekins and Pichus. Both seem to have two solid rosters with little or no obvious weaknesses. If I had to pick one team that looks the strongest I’d say the Pichus. As far as a team I don’t think looks good, I’d say the Slugmas. I genuinely don’t know who the fuck 80% of their roster is. When Quinn tried trading for Rarre I told him his team was ass. Luckily for them Eseque is obsessed with Quinn and will probably let them get away with blatant cheating all season long.
I'm glad to hear you said the Fennekins look strong, and I would agree with you that the Pichus seem daunting as well. And oooh interesting take about the Slugmas, seems like there's a bit of a rivalry already. Hopefully those words don't come back to bite you, but I like the fact that you're stirring the pot.
In a similar vein, last month when we agreed you'd be the next interviewee there were a few questions that you said you could answer, so I'm going to hold you to them. In your opinion, who are (if any) the most overrated LC players? And could you provide us with a definitive #the_pool rankings?
Right now I think the most overrated LCers are Hacker, Quinn, and Eric. Hacker is a LPL and Greedy_eb merchant, and he will never win a forum LC tour. He has flopped in every SCL but will continue to get drafted because of name value and disappoint. It was mindblowing to me to that Quinn got drafted for SCL. The only explanation for that is some make a wish shit going on. It haunts me every day that I once lost to Quinn’s bum ass in LCPL. Eric did have one good SCL run, and I used to joke that I have never seen him lose. However, I feel like it’s turned into the exact opposite. Every time he links a gen specific PL match or anything that he partakes in I don’t think I’ve ever seen him win in the past 18 months. If a team tour draft were to happen right now both Hacker and Eric would be amongst the most expensive players and they feel destined to go 3-4.
Here are the definitive, 100% correct pool rankings as of 12/24/24. I’ve definitely got a bias towards people that know ball. Rankings are subject to change.
S Tier: Shrug, Aurora, jhm5, antgeezy
A Tier: Zeriloa, Nineage, dvs, drfiting, dc
B Tier: Ghost, Coconut, Ashley, Gali, Collette, yelllowin, fiend
C Tier: Midas, Camden, Kip, bww
D Tier: Shandeur, Eric, gummy, eseque
F Tier: Bella, Gawain, Kate, Romedawg
A Tier: Zeriloa, Nineage, dvs, drfiting, dc
B Tier: Ghost, Coconut, Ashley, Gali, Collette, yelllowin, fiend
C Tier: Midas, Camden, Kip, bww
D Tier: Shandeur, Eric, gummy, eseque
F Tier: Bella, Gawain, Kate, Romedawg
I'm all for positivity an supportiveness within our community, but I'd be lying if I said mons wasn't a bit more fun and entertaining with some beef and rivalry. This is definitely not my project to revive, but maybe in the future we'll see LC Beef Battles once again. And thank you for this definitive tier list. As someone who only frequents the wild west that is #the_pool on occasion, I'll make sure so stay away from nefarious users such as Gawain and Gummy, and only involve myself with the superior chatters at the top of the list. To the audience - make sure to be safe out there!
Anyways, even though this was mostly satirical, I appreciate you answering some more controversial questions that we've been missing in LC Convos so far! However moving away from your opinions about others, I would like to ask you a few more questions about yourself. Mr. LeJames, is there a favorite LC team (any generation) that you'd be willing to share with us with a brief explanation?
For nostalgia purposes I'll share a couple of the early ORAS teams that Eniigma had me laddering with when I was learning LC. I've always kind of thought that learning how to win with what might be considered "unmons" made me a better and more creative player in the long run. I vividly remember peaking the Ladder for the first time as a kid with the Phanpy + Skrelp team and feeling like I was on top of the world.
https://pokepast.es/6b644928bb3c6479
https://pokepast.es/cc61b4a916f59cf9
As you can see we loved Phanpy. Even when I use Phanpy today I actually find it to be a rather good pokemon in ORAS. Usually with these teams Phanpy is led most of the time. It is EV'd to be able to live Fake Out, Knock, and HJK, from your typical Mienfoos. With it's sneaky HP stat it is actually able to live a Hydro Pump from a Chinchou, even after rocks. Phanpy also possesses a unique moveset being able to hit hard with EQ, click knock, prio in ice shard, and the ability to set up hazards. Even if it's role is to just get rocks and knock Mienfoo that is generally very helpful. Unfortunately a lot of replays from showdown have been nuked. To access most other replays I'd have using either of these teams I'd need to be logged into Horny Miltank, and as we discussed earlier thats no longer possible. These teams might not come across as serious but even when testing and playing ORAS today I find them to be very competitive. I'd confidently load these into any ORAS tour, and we might get to see Phanpy in LCBC if I continue to play ORAS.
Ooh these are really cool! I feel like these teams definitely represent who you are as a player, and a bit of your backstory behind how you established yourself in LC. I'll also make sure to look out for some Phanpy usage in LCBC! Thank you so much for sharing these!
Obviously you like Phanpy a lot, but are there any mons that you absolutely dislike throughout any of the LC generations? Or perhaps banned mons that you'd love to see given a second chance? Boiling this down a bit more - if you were the LC tier leader for a day, what would you do and why?
That's an interesting question. As far as mons I don't like I'm not sure there is really any that come to mind. I'd say there are sets and general playstyles that I dislike. One specific set that comes to mind is Nasty Plot Vullaby. I swear that set is so ass every time I use it, and I can never get it setup in a good position. However, when I run into one of these I feel so hopeless as it runs through my entire team. Another pokemon that has historically made me feel this way is Meowth, I'm fully convinced my opponent's Meowths do twice as much damage as mine. I swear a feint from meowth has never hit one of my mons for less than 60%. I guess one mon I'm not the biggest fan of is Glimmet. While I recognize toxic debris can create unique pathing and strategy in battle, I find it is rather restricting in the builder. I’d LOVE to see building in SV if teams weren’t nearly required to use at least one poison type. I feel like right now more than ever we are stuck with Foongus being the best toxic spike absorber and foongus counter and it’s creating for bad gameplay (sleep isn’t the issue, foongus just happens to be the best counter to itself, the best fight resist, toxic spike absorber, and a top tier defensive Tera option).
Usually I prefer more offensive pokemon so while sometimes they are necessary I'd rather not use Foongus, Mareanie, Spritzee, Shellos, Slowpoke, etc. As far as banned mons I like to see get a 2nd chance I'm not sure there are any. I've never voted DnB on a suspect, and usually prefer the route of moving forward instead of taking steps back.
If I were LC tier leader for a day first and foremost I would kick Greedy_eb off the Viability Ranking council, we don't need Nymble inflation votes. Second I would probably free Aipom into SV. I really can't fathom why this hasn't been done already. I honestly think that it wouldn't even be that great. I think generally we wait too long to act on things within most tiers. Like right now all 7 people who play and enjoy SS are crying about Abra so let's do something about it.
Those are definitely some fair opinions — nasty plot vullaby is a historically frustrating set, and I totally agree with meowth! I feel like that guy just clicks buttons vs me everytime I face it.
As for your overall sentiment towards a lack of tiering action in LC, I do also think that’s a justified criticism to hold. As a council member I can certainly take partial responsibility for that. But maybe we’ll see you on the council some day in the future?
Speaking of the future, for my last question I’d like to ask if you have in mons related goals or aspirations for the new year? I’m sure you’re hoping to win LCBC, but will we see a Cooper SCL push, or perhaps a run for the ribbon?
Council is something I’d possible be interested in if the opportunity came. I probably have as many current gen LC games as anyone, and believe I could offer a lot.
My biggest goal for the new year would really just be to continue to manage every LC team tour. I find team tours to be the most fun, and I’ve learned that I’d much rather manage than just being a player. I know Antgeezy and I are planning on saving LPL this upcoming season and I hope it’s in the cards for me to earn the chance to manage the other tours as well.
It’s hard to say definitively “I’m going to make an SCL push” because that is so dependent on success in tours. As a person in my position if things don’t go your way for the first couple weeks of LCPL then your push is over before it really ever started. However if I were to have a great run of team tours leading up to SCL then maybe I’d test the waters a bit.
As far as a ribbon chase I really don’t sign up for individuals anymore. I believe the only circuit tour I joined this past year was the ladder tour and that was just because I always ladder regardless. Depending on how I feel I may join the first couple circuit tours and see what happens.
I appreciate you sharing this with us and I wish you the best in these endeavors! Knowing you, I’m sure you’ll be successful if you put your mind to it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today! If there are any final words you’d like to leave with us, or any shoutouts you’d like to make feel free to do so!
I appreciate you having me and I hope I was able to provide an interesting enough interview! I'd just like to shout out my Henny Wednesday crew Greedy_eb, reggg, MOHAMEDALL, grape tylenol, and Kaboom. They are a big part of why I enjoy doing this so much.
~~~
Please feel free to ask Cooper any further questions below!
Please feel free to ask Cooper any further questions below!
Links to previous LC Convos:
LC Convos #1 - ghost
LC Convos #2 - tazz
LC Convos #3 - Fille & Rhydonphilip
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