How did you get involved with competitive Pokemon?
I played the cartridges when I was younger, Yellow > Gold > RubyRed in this order upon their release. Eventually I found myself searching for pokemon movesets for my Ruby squad with a wacky 56 kbit/s dial up internet line in gamefaq's and IGN back in 2004. Literally raw material and whatnot, eventually ended up downloading TVsIan Netbattle at the age of 15. Actually while answering this, I realised that this paragraph can get really long if start reminiscing past recollections so I'll keep it as short as possible.
There used to be a lot of communities back then(PokeRealm anyone?), as smogon was relatively very fresh and people that were coming from boards/playing the cartridges had a fascination with in game villainous teams and started forming groups each with their own invisionfree boards and whatnot like team Rocket, Team Magma, Team Oblivion ect. Netbattle itself as a program was different than what PS is today; There were no replays or sharing info and it was a very user friendly program that had a lot of users piled up on the main server every day usually with (Clan) tags. I got involved in clan wars very early, eventually I found myself as the leader of the biggest clan in Netbattle, Antiquity. It was no easy task having to run a clan back then and the most integral part of it was the need to be constantly competitive. People held upmost respect for leaders when they could not be beaten and submited eventually in getting recruited into the clans or befriended in order to be around the strongest figures of the game. You will not believe how many clans I shut down single handedly or how many members I 'stole' just because I could play, just ask UD, Taylor, Rewer, Asta or Jabba.
To cut a long story short, gen4 was released coincidentially around the same time as mandatory army service when I was 18, and the new shoddy simulator built to support gen4 wasn't as good as NB. I played for a bit longer until I eventually faded out of the game until 2015. After a really long hiatus, I was back in 2016 where I picked GSC to main in order to play some pokemon online tournament and later on wcop and stayed around since.
What past gen tier are you most known for playing, and what are some of your greatest achievements in playing (in either this tier or in general)?
I'm at the moment known for being one of the best GSC players on the field, racking up considerable success(and experience) over the past 3 years, culminating into winning SPL 9 while having a personal 9-1 record in GSC. Additionaly, I'm being widely considered as an ADV legend, the gen I played before resurging in 2016.
I made SmogonTour Playoffs twice back in my time when it was RBY - GSC - ADV solely carried by ADV tbh (pretty much droped participation after it became DPP UU,OU,Ubers and later iterations of it)
What are your favorite old gen tiers and why?
GSC > ADV > RBY >> BW > DPP in this order. I consider the first 3 gens more balanced besides the fact that they were pretty much what I grew up playing with. DPP onwards, the game starts to become somewhat unbalanced for my taste with the introduction of stronger mons, moves(hello Draco Meteor ), abilities and items that the newer gens require constant attention and time investment.
What are some of your most commonly Pokemon in the tiers that you play?
RBY: Alakazam
GSC: Snorlax, Raikou, Gengar
ADV: Tyranitar, Celebi, Jirachi, Gengar
DPP: Scizor, Shaymin, Tyranitar
BW: Garchomp, Landorus, Tyranitar
What type of playstyle do you enjoy using the most in these tiers?
I enjoy playing offensive teams that favor heavy reads and planning ahead. Additionally, I like exploring the tiers and innovating with sets; you might often see me playing something unconventional from times to times. With that said, I am extremely versatile in what I can play and I am not necessarily labeling a specific playstyle to myself, often times I'll use what I think it will win over 'comfort'.
Do you consider yourself having innovated or popularized any sets throughout your time playing?
As a matter of fact, I do consider myself as a big innovator. I have been building all of my teams for the past 3 years in GSC and I have been involved in shaping of modern ADV in a lot of ways especially around 2016-2017.
Altho there is not a lot of room for innovation in a metagame as old as GSC, a lot of the past years GSC trends can be redirected to me. The rise in Jynx's popularity is notable, I had spread a Jynx team around in 2017 used in classic and onwards of that year by a lot of people which resulted in a huge spike of Jynx usage nowdays. Sub IB LK Nighmare Jynx is a mon I have brought in SPL this year. Psychic Misdreavus is another set popularised be me. Smeargle with Spikes SacredFire Present Spore was made to spread status to steels/rocks, used vs MR.E in SPL9. More recently, I used Ancientpower Marowak in my SPLX game vs Lavos, ect
In ADV back in the day I had created and popularised a lot of sets. Some examples were the dreaded Fearlax (Rest Talk Return Curse bulky ev'ed Snorlax), SD Celebi (SD Fight SBall Recover) DEMence (DE FB BBreak RSlide physical based). Recent creations include Protox Refresh Swampert, ToxicFireWishTech physically bulky Jirachi, SpecDef Invested Claydol and Celebi spreads,
Explosion on zero att investment Gengar, hard to track but I'm pretty sure I was the first to do/share one on Antiquity back in 2015(screenshot).
Altho I haven't been actively building in DPP besides the recent Latias suspect, I also had my fair share of creativity in DPP back in 2009. Notably lead sash Tyranitars that were dominating the early shoddy ladders by me and ViL were mine(both physical and special based), rest talk ice beam psycho shift Cresselia in the garchomp meta. Recently I toyed around with Charge beam | Rain dance Latias sets.
Are there any specific games you've played that you consider really great?
Some tournament games to check in GSC are
VS Earthworm SPLX in a week when it was of the utmost importance for us to win in order to get in playoffs.
VS Tiba SPL 9 had a lot of tension behind it and was probably the most important game of last season that I played, us being down 5-6 in the semifinals, bringing the series to tiebreak(and eventual win).
This ADV game
vs TDK in Callous Invitational has some remarkable reads that highlight my prefered style in ADV.
I have to say that in a span of 15 years I have had and I'm yet going to have a lot of incredible games looking forward. The community is shaped by passionate people that makes spending time in this game worth it.
Favorite competitive memories?
The last 3 previous iterations of SPL are part of my most memorable time in smogon for diffrent reasons each. The team environment formed by people that were mostly unknown to me with whom I can now call friends is a remarkable experience that transcends winning or losing.
What are your top 5 competitive regrets and points of pride?
Regrets:
-I really wanted to play Lavos in SPL9, and I was saving up for our game which was supposed to be somewhere in the playoffs. I did not want to share even a tiny bit of prep before that. We finally had our "main event" game this year and we'll have more to come.
-I remember I put both my smogon tour 5 semis games and my smogon official 3 quarterfinals game on the same day. I learned the harsh way never to stack important games after that.
-Not playing a lot of individual tournaments after coming back on the scene in 2016. The gens that interest me are usually held in the first half of the year(August till Januray is really stale for old gens)
-Not giving the space and time that the game deserves is a regret that ties somewhat with the above point. I used to play much much more when I was younger, now every extended tournament drains from my work and real life and I am really careful what I am joining. For that reason, I have been extremely motivated in SPL(s) ever since I came back, as I consider it to be the most prestigious tournament to win and the team setting allows you to go all out with prep/games.
Pride:
-I have a stack of old netbattle game logs saved up with wins against everyone considered good that played ADV back in Netbattle.
-Having solid records in every SPL I participated, being a leading figure for my teams. Winning SPL 9 obviously.
-The trust and respect that my friends and team mates have been showing through time is the achievement I am most proud of.
Are there any changes to older tiers that you think would be beneficial?
-Most of the older tiers are pretty set in stone, I don't think any change made from how the tiers are played today is going to be beneficial in the span of time, at least in RBY, GSC and ADV.
-DPP is much more interesting with Latias in, altho its still the most unbalanced metagame to play because of the absurd power levels (caused by the physical/special split, better mons and moves introduced, choice scarf and stealth rock) and no team preview.
-There is a lot of work already done and constantly checked in BW so far by players better in it than myself. Reuniclus seems busted.
-Oras feels a bit incomplete, there are a lot of threatening pokemon you need to check when team building, often resulting in MU dictating games. Volcarona is disqusting in ORAS with less speed control around.
Who do you look up to as a player and/or person, and which players are you close friends with?
-I looked up to players like imperfectluck, Husk and ViL back then. There are a lot of players I respect now, BKC, Earthworm, ABR, McMeghan, Blunder, Soulwind to name a few.
- Tony, Astamatitos, Rozes, Charmflash are my closest friends at the moment. BKC, ABR, Nails and TDK have given me outstanding discussions, thoughts and games these past years. Roudolf, MysteriousM and Ace11, MDragon, Conflict, Soulwind, Mr378, August, UD, FlamingVictini are great friends and some of the people I find myself talking to often at the periods I'm most active.
Are there any old players who you wish would come back?
A big percentage of returning older players usually dont end up adapting correctly to today's standards and dont give the proper attention to the game. If I had to pick some people, those would be my buddies Husk, Giga Punch, imperfectluck and goofball. Actually I kinda miss personalities like Aeolus, skarm, chaos, Mekkah, Mystica, Taylor being around to mess with. Imagine them as managers smashing keyboards.
What teams that you've made from any point of history are you most proud of? What about others'?
There have been many teams that I'm proud of building, I have rarely recycled teams and I keep building fresh teams every year. For the sake of answering this question and the spirit of sharing, I'm posting some teams that were mentioned earlier:
GSC
Jynx team aka "the 378 slayer"
https://pokepast.es/ed980c27296537bf Featuring Psychic Misdreavus and Jynx, probably the team that is spammed the most against Mr.378(yeah I was asked to share this team more times than what I can remember in 2017-2018)
ADV
Jolteon control speed offense, an edit off the first team I build after resurging back in 2016
https://pokepast.es/11ca49142509706d
The 4attack Jirachi Skarmbliss DDttar Control team
https://pokepast.es/45c2974dea02d87b, focuses on spike+walling until its ddttar time. You may have seen Astamatitos or MDragon use this one in ADV events of the past years. Use 4AttJirachi to blow holes in DDttar answers(DynamicPunch + 3 special attacks is also an option).