NU Player of the Week - meeps [week 2]

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meepsvictory
Favorite Pokémon:
Tyranitar
Most used Pokémon: Rotom-Mow
Most known for: winning a lot on ladder room tours and nupl
Earth: Hello, meeps! What’s up?
meeps: not much, just woke up not too long ago, but i'm pretty relaxed rn

Earth: You’re known for using original and unknown Pokemon in NUPL, such as Alolan Raticate and Oricorio. How did you come up with such ideas?
meeps: when i teambuild for nu, i strive to look for ways to beat balance, sometimes i look to get creative. some of it comes from seeing the ladder use it (this is mainly in the case of raticate-alola), but i thought i could optimize it and use it with sd normalium-z paired with probopass to effectively utilize its z-move once per battle. for oricorio it seemed like a neat pokemon for breaking down steelix/slowbro cores while also being able to pivot out of checks with u-turn.

Earth: Interesting. You have also been quite a star player lately, mainly because you’re undefeated in NUPL. Do you feel some sort of pressure because of that?
meeps: somewhat, it does make me keen to try and maintain my record in nupl and i do feel some nerves in nu open even against opponents with little experience in the tier since i am expected to perform well there, but in general i do feel like my grasp on the tier and solid builds still allow me to succeed

Earth: What made you want to play Pokemon again after not playing for two years?
meeps: i still periodically talked to some friends, most of whom i'd known from playing on pokemon online. my friend SteelEdges wanted me to go on ps so he could more easily chat with me in his private room starting in february of this year, and with the teambuilder and find battle button right in front of me, i was lured back into playing some for fun, and after a while i got really into it again and started playing in tournaments again on smogon, beginning with uupl

Earth: What are some of your favorite battles that you have played in your Pokemon career?
meeps: me vs finchinator in spl 6 was a nice one, even though i lost, mainly on the basis that we've been close friends for a long time, and this was his first spl game and my second, so it was nice we got to play each other on a major stage. a couple of my wcop battles have been enjoyable for me as well, such as me vs lohgock in wcop, where i felt i played really well and may have been one of my peaks in my pokemon battling history, also me vs jamvad in this last wcop where i also felt a played and prepped for the game well, allowing me to beat a player with one of the best wcop's records
Earth: How did you get into competitive Pokemon?
meeps: i wanted to succeed in battle subway on pokemon black, starting in winter/spring of 2011 and i started to learn about iv and ev spreads and what not. after some months of playing and searching i started reading some smogon analyses and eventually stumbled upon pokemon online which i downloaded and started playing around july 2011. my first stint didnt last too long there, only playing a month of two, then i started playing again in april 2012 and began to get involved in the po community a couple months later

Earth: Are there any Pokemon that should leave the tier currently, in your opinion?
meeps: i think meloetta for sure should leave as of now since it can be very difficult to check given its ability to successfully wield choice specs set which is very difficult to switch into and a cm colbur set which isn't as easily revenge killed by drapion or meloetta, potentially giving it opportunities to ko multiple pokemon. machamp too i think may be too much but i am a bit borderline on this, since i feel balanced teams can still run sufficient checks in golbat, slowbro, and vileplume, but its offensive breaking power in general is still difficult to combat if it finds opportunities to safely come in. and this may probably be a relatively unpopular opinion right now but i think rotom-c may be too much for the tier, the main problem with it being the specs set which i believe is much better than scarf, but is simply not being used so much, as the number of solid switch-ins to it is very limited to pokemon like vileplume and guzzlord, but it can chip them and pivot to teammates that can more effectively handle its checks, and unlike most volt switch pokemon it can very effectively handle the ground-types of the tier, which may allow for rotom-c to more effectively use volt switch later in the game.

Earth: If you don’t mind, we’re gonna talk about something that’s not related to NU or Pokemon for a bit! Could you tell us more about yourself?
meeps: sure! i am a 20 year old student entering my third year of college at purdue university, working on a double major in meteorology and applied statistics. in the future i plan on attending graduate school and focusing on getting a master's degree in one of the aforementioned fields. some of my hobbies include playing other games mainly civilization and football manager series, but i've not played much of either since i came back to play pokemon. i also enjoy solving rubik's cubes, averaging a solve time around 20 seconds with a personal best of 9.77 seconds. i like to travel as well, my most recent trip being a europe trip this past may, where i visited denmark, germany, sweden, and the czech republic. one of my more significant trips was last fall where i studied abroad for a semester in melbourne, australia. i also find elections interesting, and like to apply my statistical/mathematically knowledge to try and predict outcomes so i can bet on such elections. i like following sports as well, primarily baseball and football (american), my favorite teams being the chicago cubs and bears respectively. i also really enjoy following college football and basketball as well, i like these sports better at the college level because i feel there is more of a personal connection with teams, since i root for my school in both sports, and i can easily attend games. i also follow soccer fairly vaguely (non-american leagues), but i dont really have any favorite teams

Earth: Very cool to know! Who are some of your favorite musical artists?
meeps: i'm not too much of a music follower honestly, so i cant accurately answer this, but i'm generally ok with listening to whatever is popular on the radio, as long as it dont listen to it too much. i also like to listen to some latin pop from time to time as well

Earth: Now going back to Smogon, are there any players you look up to? Do you have any memorable day that you shared with your friends on Smogon/PS?
meeps: probably ict and omfuga since they are both established lower tier players with funny personalities. i wouldn't say there are too many memorable times but in general i do enjoy laddering with friends.

Earth: Lastly, could you share a SM NU team that fits your current playstyle team and give an explanation about it?
meeps:

Oricorio @ Flyinium Z
Ability: Dancer
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hurricane
- U-turn
- Revelation Dance
- Calm Mind

Raticate-Alola @ Dread Plate
Ability: Hustle
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Crunch
- Pursuit
- Sucker Punch
- U-turn

Rhydon @ Eviolite
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 HP / 16 Atk / 228 SpD / 12 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Rock Blast
- Megahorn

Rotom-Mow @ Choice Specs
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Leaf Storm
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Trick

Golbat @ Eviolite
Ability: Infiltrator
EVs: 248 HP / 204 Def / 56 Spe
Impish Nature
- Brave Bird
- U-turn
- Defog
- Roost

Emboar @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Reckless
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Wild Charge
- Superpower
- Brick Break

this is the oricorio team which i used against lax in nupl week 3. the main focus is using oricorio and rotom-mow to break down defensive cores and luring in threats like steelix and rhydon with golbat, oricorio, and raticate-alola for rotom-mow to break down, and luring in vileplume and what not for oricorio to break down. raticate-alola provides some neat pursuit support, particularly for slowking to help oricorio and emboar, while also having access to sucker punch and u-turn. end goal can lead to emboar sweeping late game after bulky waters like slowking, jellicent, and slowbro are removed.

Thanks for your time, meeps! If you guys have any questions for him, feel free to ask them below. :toast:
 
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Finchinator

-OUTL
is a Tournament Directoris a Top Social Media Contributoris a Community Leaderis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Top Dedicated Tournament Hostis a Senior Staff Member Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past WCoP Championis the defending OU Circuit Championis a Two-Time Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
OU Leader
Salutations esteemed Rat and Bird enthusiast Meeps!

You're stuck on a deserted island with two fellow Smogon users, Hootie and Kiyo. Kiyo is mindlessly eating his shoe and instructing an imaginary child how to swim as he is hallucinating and that is all he is good for in life. Hootie is trying to convince himself, despite being in denial, that he is not like his fellow super moderators and is actually a straight, socially competent, and in-touch with the times individual. There are multiple options to get off of this island and you're limited on time, the only sane person left, and out of food, so you have to pick one quick in order to survive. You can either take a two-seated boat and strand one of the others, throw out your pokeball and ride your CB DARM's Flare Blitz to safety alone, or admit that Steelix is the best Stealth Rocker in the SM NU tier and then have a boat for three appear to guide you back to safety -- which do you pick and why?

When you truly surfaced on Smogon a few years ago during SPL 6 (and during the WCOP prior, even if that wasn't on as large of a scale and you did not do poorly in that tournament), you did not have the consistent success that many argue you are having right now, despite it not necessarily being at an SPL level quite yet. Back then, you didn't know too many tournament players outside of the PO group that was making a splash on Smogon and you where far from integrated into the UU, NU, or tournament communities. Now, you're very much ingrained in the culture of the communities (at least NU) and members of it (or simply the social circlejerk that accompany it). Do you think that you are a better player now than you where prior to your hiatus and, if so, do you think that there is a positive correlation between your social exposure/landscape on Smogon and level of play? While on this topic, do you enjoy the current Smogon community and do you think there's anything that you would like to fundamentally improve if you had the power to do so? Finally, do you find playing the ladder on PS, something which you do actively each and everyday, or tournaments, something that you also frequent as of late, more enjoyable and why?

You're known predominantly as a newer generation lower tier player and this is unquestionable. However, it is true that you've dabbled a fair amount in SM OU, as you've stated in your interview when discussing WCOP. What have you learned about the game, on a fundamental level, that can be applied to every tier and playing in general from the time you have spent in OU and do you feel this has changed your outlook or gameplay in any way in newer generations? Mainly asking this as OU is, arguably, a fairly polarized metagame with clear extremes and various forms of established "cheese" and you at the type to naturally build "anti-metagame" type of teams, as shown by your usage of things like Raticate + Probopass and Oricorio in NU and if you happened to expand this mindset to OU building and playing, it would be a whole new set of challenges that certainly would force you to test your skill.

Do you think that, so far, the NU Council has done their job well (speaking strictly from a generation seven perspective)? Do you think the council should have more power than it currently does in the later stages of the metagame? Do you believe that the NU metagame is enjoyable right now and do you enjoy teambuilding in the metagame despite doing it far less than actually playing?

If you could remove any one element -- be it a Pokemon, move, mechanic, etc. -- from the SM NU metagame without any questions or consequences, that you could not justify removing as a member of the NU Council, what would it be and why?

Finally, a series of less tryhard, more fun questions:
  • Top three WCOP moments/quotes from Central?
  • Is Steelix good yet?
  • Worst five users from old PO days?
  • Favorite metagame of all time?
  • Do you ever feel like a butterfly drifting through the wind wanting to start again?
  • Do you plan to travel anywhere interesting in the next year or two? If so, where?
  • Remember when I was a 24 year old accountant that acted like a 13 year old shithead?
  • Remember when I was an 18 year old college student that acted like a 13 year old shithead?
  • If you could drop three RU or BL3 pokemon to NU, which would you drop and why?
  • Why is zorodark so fucking fat?
 
Hey I'm that one guy who keeps spamming trick room on the ladder and somehow keeps going against this monstrosity of a team. Alolan raticate is the biggest pain in the ass to deal with. Keep up the good work!
Question: What would you name your irl alolan raticate?
 

SPACE FORCE meeps

LAW & ORDER!
is a Tiering Contributoris a Past SCL Champion
god i hate finchinator

who do you fuckin hate in smogon

whos the shittiest player uve played
finchinator and lax respectively

who do you fuckin love in smogon

whos the bestest player uve played
ict and omfuga respectively

how does it feel to have your rightful place as nutl ROBBED by the degenerate known as Hootie
very disappointing but it actually relives some pressure since behind the scenes im actually the nutl and hootie is functioning as my puppet (but no one needs to know this)

yeah finchinator's post is so fucking long i need to put it in hide tags

Salutations esteemed Rat and Bird enthusiast Meeps!

You're stuck on a deserted island with two fellow Smogon users, Hootie and Kiyo. Kiyo is mindlessly eating his shoe and instructing an imaginary child how to swim as he is hallucinating and that is all he is good for in life. Hootie is trying to convince himself, despite being in denial, that he is not like his fellow super moderators and is actually a straight, socially competent, and in-touch with the times individual. There are multiple options to get off of this island and you're limited on time, the only sane person left, and out of food, so you have to pick one quick in order to survive. You can either take a two-seated boat and strand one of the others, throw out your pokeball and ride your CB DARM's Flare Blitz to safety alone, or admit that Steelix is the best Stealth Rocker in the SM NU tier and then have a boat for three appear to guide you back to safety -- which do you pick and why?

rhydon is better than steelix so i can't admit that so i'll just ride my CB DARM to safety. i opt not to pick the first option because it forces me to make another decision which is simply too much effort for me

When you truly surfaced on Smogon a few years ago during SPL 6 (and during the WCOP prior, even if that wasn't on as large of a scale and you did not do poorly in that tournament), you did not have the consistent success that many argue you are having right now, despite it not necessarily being at an SPL level quite yet. Back then, you didn't know too many tournament players outside of the PO group that was making a splash on Smogon and you where far from integrated into the UU, NU, or tournament communities. Now, you're very much ingrained in the culture of the communities (at least NU) and members of it (or simply the social circlejerk that accompany it). Do you think that you are a better player now than you where prior to your hiatus and, if so, do you think that there is a positive correlation between your social exposure/landscape on Smogon and level of play? While on this topic, do you enjoy the current Smogon community and do you think there's anything that you would like to fundamentally improve if you had the power to do so? Finally, do you find playing the ladder on PS, something which you do actively each and everyday, or tournaments, something that you also frequent as of late, more enjoyable and why?

i think i probably am a better player, some of it does have to do with being closer with a higher quantity of better players, i was still friends with a number of solid players on PO who helped me get quickly ingrained in the smogon community after returning. i think the smogon community in general is pretty good, but i do feel to an extent it does require knowing some people in order to advance in the community, but still with proper effort and getting noticed in other ways such as individual tours, players should be able to advance if they're willing to work for it. i find playing a lot enjoyable since it lets me kill time and entertain me and i don't really get that mad while playing so i can play for long periods effectively.

You're known predominantly as a newer generation lower tier player and this is unquestionable. However, it is true that you've dabbled a fair amount in SM OU, as you've stated in your interview when discussing WCOP. What have you learned about the game, on a fundamental level, that can be applied to every tier and playing in general from the time you have spent in OU and do you feel this has changed your outlook or gameplay in any way in newer generations? Mainly asking this as OU is, arguably, a fairly polarized metagame with clear extremes and various forms of established "cheese" and you at the type to naturally build "anti-metagame" type of teams, as shown by your usage of things like Raticate + Probopass and Oricorio in NU and if you happened to expand this mindset to OU building and playing, it would be a whole new set of challenges that certainly would force you to test your skill.

i think in general it helps to more deeply analyze gameplay in regards to noticing wincons and when to execute double switches and what not, and yes, i do feel i put more thought into the game than i have better which has helped me improve as a player in my opinion. i haven't really tried to dab too much into ou teambuilding considering i've built like 5 teams in the tier so far, but it still should be something i look into at some point.

Do you think that, so far, the NU Council has done their job well (speaking strictly from a generation seven perspective)? Do you think the council should have more power than it currently does in the later stages of the metagame? Do you believe that the NU metagame is enjoyable right now and do you enjoy teambuilding in the metagame despite doing it far less than actually playing?

they've done fine, effectively handling a lot of cases in regards to broken pokemon in the tier, although i do wish cofag was banned sooner but most of the council decisions in general have been fair. i think in later stages of the metagame, council doesn't really need to much power, what they have right now is perfectly fine, since the koko method during beta helped provide grounds to produce a stable metagame. i do really like the nu metagame right now, there is a nice amount of creativity and a good amount of untapped potential still in the tier in my opinion, i'm generally fine with teambuilding, i just like playing more than teambuilding, so i just opt to play more instead

If you could remove any one element -- be it a Pokemon, move, mechanic, etc. -- from the SM NU metagame without any questions or consequences, that you could not justify removing as a member of the NU Council, what would it be and why?

u-turn and volt switch because they really just so easy to abuse and make gameplay a lot easier for the user and more difficult for the opposing user who may either lose a pokemon or lose momentum when mispredicting

Finally, a series of less tryhard, more fun questions:
Top three WCOP moments/quotes from Central? - meat 4 call, you saying i wouldn't make the roster and then adding me to the roster channel four days later, my stall v stall matchup ending faster than the rey vs blunder game
Is Steelix good yet? - no
Worst five users from old PO days? - purpleseamonkey, yagura, slowkii, km0007, macrarazy
Favorite metagame of all time? - bw2 uu maybe
Do you ever feel like a butterfly drifting through the wind wanting to start again? - no
Do you plan to travel anywhere interesting in the next year or two? If so, where? - probably will go to the uk in the near future, also gonna do some more domestic travelling if possible; may also check out some places in central/south america
Remember when I was a 24 year old accountant that acted like a 13 year old shithead? - yes
Remember when I was an 18 year old college student that acted like a 13 year old shithead? - yes
If you could drop three RU or BL3 pokemon to NU, which would you drop and why? - golispod so grass pokemon don't win every game, heliolisk which might inspire more usage of other rockers like uxie, blastoise for a usable spinner
Why is zorodark so fucking fat? - too much waffle
thoughts on cofagrigus49198506 and CB DARM?
memorable moments of when u got shittalked but shat on ur opp?
when nutl b
cofagrigus49198506 is truly one of the great visionaries to touch the sm nu tier, i wish he played more after cofag got banned. CB DARM is the biggest threat in uu and crushes anyone who disrespects it

not sure if there are too many, generally people don't try to shittalk and i don't really bother to remember occasions in which i did get shittalked

hopefully next week at the rate im going

ily meeps!! GOAT!!!
thoughts about being my uupl player AND snake draft player.
thx ict ur so good!!! me and u are unstoppable core, gonna tear up snake draft (only luck stopped us in uupl)

Hey I'm that one guy who keeps spamming trick room on the ladder and somehow keeps going against this monstrosity of a team. Alolan raticate is the biggest pain in the ass to deal with. Keep up the good work!
Question: What would you name your irl alolan raticate?
thanks! i'd probably name it dog because i like dogs a lot even though raticate isn't really a dog!

How do you do it to not miss any move with the fatass rat?
Will you battle me ever or will you keep avoiding me like you did in NUPL?
How does it feel to be a member of the council?
usually i have to take my pokemon to the mountains so they become better trained

maybe but i could still avoid you if your team dodges the playoffs haha

pretty good, nice to know i am respected as a player in the by the current council and the nu community in general

Who is better: you or cased?
Who do you think wlll NU in snake? What round would you pick them?

Unlike Hootie, do U think i can do well in nu open?
case is better at being alpha but i am better than him at other things like pokemon

my predictions may very well be way off but i'll give it a shot, hopefully no one takes them too seriously. it's somewhat a matter of tier preference for some players, particularly finchinator, blunder, flcl, who all realistically should be drafted in rounds 1-3 but they could play nu. rw will probably be one of the higher nu picks, maybe 5-6; i think i'll go somewhere around 6-8, but i could go higher because i can be an asset in uu and ou too maybe, same for hootie. kiyo maybe 7-8. col49 seems to be enjoying the tier a bit so he could also play and be 6-8 or so, maybe higher. the goomy, eternally, jarii, and blast are also options around 8-10. some like lax, disjunction, and hjad could be sub options picked around 9-12 or so. again i hope no one takes these too seriously and i don't mean to offend anyone, i'm not a manager, i'm not going to be picking for snake draft and i don't really know how it will unfold given this is the first one too.

):

do you have any anti shoutouts

thoughts on uu

one of finch omfuga and case will protect you while the other two will try to kill u. who do u choose
not really, i have at least a neutral opinion on most people on smogon

kinda bleh right now, at least conk got banned and mega pert rose, but weavile seems a lot worse now since now three solid checks to it are gone (tbf regular pert is still solid vs weavile).

omfuga of course

fleggumfl

(dog)
 
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