cryalot
senza telescopi
Approved by Anty
OP stolen from Leer in RU, who took it from Lord Alphose and xzern in NU
Past Players of the Week: Magnemite, galbia, gasquakee, scorpdestroyer, Simipour, Anty, Raiza, 2xTheTap, TONE114, Megazard, Dundies, RawMelon, Kay, amber lamps, ShuckleDeath, Marogod, Haund
When you thought i abandomned this project, when you thought this wouldnt happen any more, after more than a month, PU Player of the "Week" is back! This time, we will get to know a bit better the well known PU room moderator Akir ! Feel free to leave some questions below and enjoy!
Most Known For: Being the nice mod and hosting PUPL II
Favorite Pokemon: Parasect
Most Used Pokemon: Mr. Mime
Can you tell us a bit about yourself outside of PS?
I'm a recent college graduate. When I was in college I was the president of a video game club, secretary of an anime club, founder of a political debate club, member of a mental health advocacy club, full time student, and part-time manager at my job. I even had a girlfriend to top it all off. Now I am on the job hunt and work a full-time retail job. Kept the girlfriend though, so that's cool.
As for other games I play, I play a lot of WoW and I also enjoy speedrunning Metroid games. I've also been enjoying Subnautica lately and enjoy a good management game every now and then. Total War is also a favorite, as is Advance Wars.
Where did you get your name from?
Well, before I joined Smogon proper, I used to ladder in NU a lot. I had 4 alts that were named after elemental lords from WoW: Neptulon, Therazane, Baron Geddon (couldn't get Ragnaros), and lastly Al'Akir. Al'Akir was the one that I topped ladder with, so when I joined Smogon to play more NU in gen6 I used that name for possible name recognition. Obviously I didn't get any, but I kept the name and later shortened it to Akir. No relation to the musical artist Akir.
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
Way back in gen3 I fancied myself a Pokemon Master and spent time making powerful mons and dunking on my poor friends. However, the drive to get better got to me, so in gen4 I hopped on a computer and literally typed into Google: "Professional Pokemon". After poking around I found this weird site named Smogon that had a good layout and used words that made me sound like I knew what I was talking about so that's when I started competitive proper.
What's your favorite playstyle and why?
Hyper Offense Hazard Stack without a doubt. The teams are easy to build, easy to play, and finish matches within 5 minutes. This makes these teams ideal for quick breaks from studying/work. I also just love how they play in general. There's something so nice about seeing a giant pile of hazards on your opponent's side, watching all of the hp drain away as they switch in, and using your mons to blast through your opponent like a knife through hot butter. Overall, they are just really fun to me.
In your opinion, are there any underrated or overrated threats in the current meta?
For underrated I will have to go with Lumineon. I honestly think Lumineon is better than Pelipper, or at minimum I find myself putting Lumineon on to more teams. Lumineon's role compression is fantastic as it is a Water check, Cacturne check, Golem check, Monferno check, defogger, and slow U-turn all rolled into one mon. Obviously it doesn't do everything on that list perfectly in a single match but the fact that it has the potential to is very good in my opinion. The lack of recovery hurts yes, but a low B+ would suit Lumineon just fine.
As for overrated I find this answer easy: Dodrio. I think A viability is good for it but people really love trying to push it to A+ because the Scarf set is/was so overhyped. The thing just has so many switchins. Do people really think that Scarf Dodrio is as effective as Stoutland or Mr. Mime? Hate to sound harsh, but that would be overrating Dodrio.
Can you name any up and coming players showing good potential?
I recently played Plans and GenZeon in the First Blood tour and was pretty impressed by them. There's also the usual lobby crowd of Slowbroth, Lord Sample Team, EnemyJurist, iRebel, @PokemonmasterTj,5gen, and others who really only need more experience and time to really start to shine.
Who do you look up to / admire most as a player and as a person in the PU scene?
If I had to pick someone it would be 2xTheTap, who really sticks out in my mind as the guy who was nicest to me when I first joined PU. Beyond that he is a solid player who is still willing to try new and crazy things just to see if they work. Great guy.
You're a moderator in the PU room. How do you feel about the community, either on PS or on Smogon?
Too many bad memes.
But seriously, everyone is an interesting mix. I have always had the philosophy of, "inclusion is always better than exclusion" so I always try as a mod to follow that ideal. Through that, there are a lot of people who get along and have a lot of jokes to share and I like that. I wouldn't spend so much time here otherwise.
There is also a rather bizarre split between the Discord chat and the PS chat that occurs every now and then. for example, PS chat figured Cacturne would be A- and Discord was sold on A+ and S. Cacturne is very much so A+/S, but the fact that there was such a split at all was rather concerning to me...and no, it wasn't all just skill level differences. I think the two should try to merge more.
There has been discussion in the NP thread (insert link here) about suspecting Cacturne. What are you thoughts on this?
I feel like the the suspect does have some merit to it, as Cacturne does cause massive problems to all playstyles and forces people to run the fairly small number of checks for it. The fact that Cacturne, after setting up, has only a couple switch-ins in a rather scary prospect as well. Top it off with being strong on both ends of the attacking spectrum and having the most powerful priority in the tier and it really deserves S.
However, I always urge caution on suspects as people are always eager to ban something for the sake of banning. Cacturne does have difficulty setting up a good amount of the time and a lot of Cacturne's checks are great in their own right (Monferno, Vullaby, Clefairy, etc). Some solid offensive pressure and using mons that are already good anyway can keep Cacturne reasonably at bay.
Overall, I personally would rather wait a little bit more for the last bit of Cacturne hype to die down and then watch the meta evolve a bit more before I'd fully support a Cacturne suspect. If the meta starts to revolve around the thing, then it's time to go.
What do you think about the idea of renaming PU?
Personally we could call the tier QU or XYZU and I really wouldn't care. Those names would give us the same amount of questions about the name anyway. I do think that we need to keep the "XU" format though, as it's part of the Smogon Brand (tm). It's part of our heritage and a huge portion of our identity as tier players and as Smogonites as a whole.
If you could make one change to the tier (anything), what would it be?
I can't really think of much to be honest, but I suppose if I could change anything I would like Torterra back in PU. That or Pinsir/Primeape, just to watch the carnage.
What kind of music do you listen to?
I'm actually one of the few people on this planet who doesn't like music. Wow. Incredible.
Can you provide a team that reflects you as a player, as well as the current metagame?
So as per usual for me, I'm currently unhappy with all of my teams so I decided to deliver on what I stated previously and just made a HO hazard stack team in 5 minutes. I won't go too much into it as it takes me a solid paragraph just to summarize but here's the brief version: Crustle is standard lead, Muk is wallbreaker that lures in Steels that I want gone and it sounded fun, Monferno is glue that also lures in defoggers, Mr. Mime is wincon and also HW support, Rotom-Frost just decimates the tier in general, Missy fills in synergy gaps and wallbreaks/spreads paralysis. Has enough checks for things like Cacturne and Monferno, but I could also see it having issues with Muk Defense. Looks pretty similar to the Sample Team but that's just how the archetype goes sometimes. Very fun team though if you play well, so that's the important part.
OP stolen from Leer in RU, who took it from Lord Alphose and xzern in NU
Past Players of the Week: Magnemite, galbia, gasquakee, scorpdestroyer, Simipour, Anty, Raiza, 2xTheTap, TONE114, Megazard, Dundies, RawMelon, Kay, amber lamps, ShuckleDeath, Marogod, Haund
When you thought i abandomned this project, when you thought this wouldnt happen any more, after more than a month, PU Player of the "Week" is back! This time, we will get to know a bit better the well known PU room moderator Akir ! Feel free to leave some questions below and enjoy!
Most Known For: Being the nice mod and hosting PUPL II
Favorite Pokemon: Parasect
Most Used Pokemon: Mr. Mime
I'm a recent college graduate. When I was in college I was the president of a video game club, secretary of an anime club, founder of a political debate club, member of a mental health advocacy club, full time student, and part-time manager at my job. I even had a girlfriend to top it all off. Now I am on the job hunt and work a full-time retail job. Kept the girlfriend though, so that's cool.
As for other games I play, I play a lot of WoW and I also enjoy speedrunning Metroid games. I've also been enjoying Subnautica lately and enjoy a good management game every now and then. Total War is also a favorite, as is Advance Wars.
Where did you get your name from?
Well, before I joined Smogon proper, I used to ladder in NU a lot. I had 4 alts that were named after elemental lords from WoW: Neptulon, Therazane, Baron Geddon (couldn't get Ragnaros), and lastly Al'Akir. Al'Akir was the one that I topped ladder with, so when I joined Smogon to play more NU in gen6 I used that name for possible name recognition. Obviously I didn't get any, but I kept the name and later shortened it to Akir. No relation to the musical artist Akir.
How and when did you get into competitive battling?
Way back in gen3 I fancied myself a Pokemon Master and spent time making powerful mons and dunking on my poor friends. However, the drive to get better got to me, so in gen4 I hopped on a computer and literally typed into Google: "Professional Pokemon". After poking around I found this weird site named Smogon that had a good layout and used words that made me sound like I knew what I was talking about so that's when I started competitive proper.
What's your favorite playstyle and why?
Hyper Offense Hazard Stack without a doubt. The teams are easy to build, easy to play, and finish matches within 5 minutes. This makes these teams ideal for quick breaks from studying/work. I also just love how they play in general. There's something so nice about seeing a giant pile of hazards on your opponent's side, watching all of the hp drain away as they switch in, and using your mons to blast through your opponent like a knife through hot butter. Overall, they are just really fun to me.
In your opinion, are there any underrated or overrated threats in the current meta?
For underrated I will have to go with Lumineon. I honestly think Lumineon is better than Pelipper, or at minimum I find myself putting Lumineon on to more teams. Lumineon's role compression is fantastic as it is a Water check, Cacturne check, Golem check, Monferno check, defogger, and slow U-turn all rolled into one mon. Obviously it doesn't do everything on that list perfectly in a single match but the fact that it has the potential to is very good in my opinion. The lack of recovery hurts yes, but a low B+ would suit Lumineon just fine.
As for overrated I find this answer easy: Dodrio. I think A viability is good for it but people really love trying to push it to A+ because the Scarf set is/was so overhyped. The thing just has so many switchins. Do people really think that Scarf Dodrio is as effective as Stoutland or Mr. Mime? Hate to sound harsh, but that would be overrating Dodrio.
Can you name any up and coming players showing good potential?
I recently played Plans and GenZeon in the First Blood tour and was pretty impressed by them. There's also the usual lobby crowd of Slowbroth, Lord Sample Team, EnemyJurist, iRebel, @PokemonmasterTj,5gen, and others who really only need more experience and time to really start to shine.
Who do you look up to / admire most as a player and as a person in the PU scene?
If I had to pick someone it would be 2xTheTap, who really sticks out in my mind as the guy who was nicest to me when I first joined PU. Beyond that he is a solid player who is still willing to try new and crazy things just to see if they work. Great guy.
You're a moderator in the PU room. How do you feel about the community, either on PS or on Smogon?
Too many bad memes.
But seriously, everyone is an interesting mix. I have always had the philosophy of, "inclusion is always better than exclusion" so I always try as a mod to follow that ideal. Through that, there are a lot of people who get along and have a lot of jokes to share and I like that. I wouldn't spend so much time here otherwise.
There is also a rather bizarre split between the Discord chat and the PS chat that occurs every now and then. for example, PS chat figured Cacturne would be A- and Discord was sold on A+ and S. Cacturne is very much so A+/S, but the fact that there was such a split at all was rather concerning to me...and no, it wasn't all just skill level differences. I think the two should try to merge more.
There has been discussion in the NP thread (insert link here) about suspecting Cacturne. What are you thoughts on this?
I feel like the the suspect does have some merit to it, as Cacturne does cause massive problems to all playstyles and forces people to run the fairly small number of checks for it. The fact that Cacturne, after setting up, has only a couple switch-ins in a rather scary prospect as well. Top it off with being strong on both ends of the attacking spectrum and having the most powerful priority in the tier and it really deserves S.
However, I always urge caution on suspects as people are always eager to ban something for the sake of banning. Cacturne does have difficulty setting up a good amount of the time and a lot of Cacturne's checks are great in their own right (Monferno, Vullaby, Clefairy, etc). Some solid offensive pressure and using mons that are already good anyway can keep Cacturne reasonably at bay.
Overall, I personally would rather wait a little bit more for the last bit of Cacturne hype to die down and then watch the meta evolve a bit more before I'd fully support a Cacturne suspect. If the meta starts to revolve around the thing, then it's time to go.
What do you think about the idea of renaming PU?
Personally we could call the tier QU or XYZU and I really wouldn't care. Those names would give us the same amount of questions about the name anyway. I do think that we need to keep the "XU" format though, as it's part of the Smogon Brand (tm). It's part of our heritage and a huge portion of our identity as tier players and as Smogonites as a whole.
If you could make one change to the tier (anything), what would it be?
I can't really think of much to be honest, but I suppose if I could change anything I would like Torterra back in PU. That or Pinsir/Primeape, just to watch the carnage.
What kind of music do you listen to?
I'm actually one of the few people on this planet who doesn't like music. Wow. Incredible.
Can you provide a team that reflects you as a player, as well as the current metagame?
Crustle @ Custap Berry
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Rock Blast
- Knock Off
Muk @ Choice Band
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
- Gunk Shot
- Shadow Sneak
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
Monferno @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fire Punch
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch
Mr. Mime @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Focus Blast
- Healing Wish
Rotom-Frost @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Pain Split
- Thunderbolt
- Blizzard
Misdreavus @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 28 HP / 252 SpA / 228 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Nasty Plot
- Thunder Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
Ability: Sturdy
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Spikes
- Rock Blast
- Knock Off
Muk @ Choice Band
Ability: Poison Touch
EVs: 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe
- Gunk Shot
- Shadow Sneak
- Fire Punch
- Ice Punch
Monferno @ Life Orb
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Fire Punch
- Close Combat
- Mach Punch
- Thunder Punch
Mr. Mime @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Soundproof
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psychic
- Dazzling Gleam
- Focus Blast
- Healing Wish
Rotom-Frost @ Life Orb
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Substitute
- Pain Split
- Thunderbolt
- Blizzard
Misdreavus @ Eviolite
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 28 HP / 252 SpA / 228 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 Def / 30 SpA / 30 SpD / 30 Spe
- Nasty Plot
- Thunder Wave
- Shadow Ball
- Hidden Power [Fighting]
So as per usual for me, I'm currently unhappy with all of my teams so I decided to deliver on what I stated previously and just made a HO hazard stack team in 5 minutes. I won't go too much into it as it takes me a solid paragraph just to summarize but here's the brief version: Crustle is standard lead, Muk is wallbreaker that lures in Steels that I want gone and it sounded fun, Monferno is glue that also lures in defoggers, Mr. Mime is wincon and also HW support, Rotom-Frost just decimates the tier in general, Missy fills in synergy gaps and wallbreaks/spreads paralysis. Has enough checks for things like Cacturne and Monferno, but I could also see it having issues with Muk Defense. Looks pretty similar to the Sample Team but that's just how the archetype goes sometimes. Very fun team though if you play well, so that's the important part.