All Gens RoAPL 3: Talk Thread

[Lutra]

Banner by TrainerSplash | Auction assisted by OrdA | Official RoAPL Discord Server | Spreadsheet

Manager Signups | Player Signups | Talk | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Semifinals | Finals

FINAL ROSTERS

Dewford Dogs

Bidders (2): Finchinator (Manager), d0nut (Assistant Manager)
Players (15): Posho, reyscarface, Jimmy Turtwig, JabbaTheGriffin, New Breed, ToF, HSA, Welli0u, Marcop, Funkasaurus, Analytic, Googly, Not Troller, urban, -herO-

Snowpoint Sneasels

Bidders (2): Foggi (Manager), Astamatitos (Assistant Manager)
Players (15): Bomber., Fakes, Alexander., Bad Ass, choolio, Kingler12345, Tricking, Updated Kanto, Vileman, Bushtush, SunnyORAS, The Idiot Ninja, benbe, Always!, CZ.

Pyrite Town Pichus

Bidders (2): Genesis7 (Manager), Ary (Assistant Manager)
Players (16): idiotfrommars, Cowboy Dan, papai noel, The Quasar, Sam, Empo, Eternal Spirit, Crystal_, NightFox, roscoe, Aurious, Golden Gyarados, Tom0410, Kenzo, pokebasket, Fiction.

The Navy Spheals

Bidders (3): Huston (Manager), Luigi (Assistant Manager), Mr.378 (Player)
Players (15): Mr.378, undisputed, teal6, Steve Angello, Diegolh, lighthouses, badabing, Rodriblutar, HANTSUKI, hellpowna, Sergi, Arifeen, Klefkwi, silver ghost, Darkdevil

Viridian Vaporeons

Bidders (2): p2 (Manager), Ice Tea (Assistant Manager)
Players (16): Peasounay, -Tsunami-, Jayde, Lax, Malekith, Kushalos, Mizuhime, 1 True Lycan, slurmz, Leru, North, Sabella, Star, miltankmilk, Coconut, Erz

Eterna Eevees

Bidders (3): TraceofLife (Manager), MetalGro$$ (Assistant Manager), Pearl (Player)
Players (15): Pearl, ZoroDark, Level 56, Tony, Heysup, dekzeh, FLCL (Trade from Koniko Klan for Get this Money), rozes, Vinc2612, SamVGC, Magellan, Teddeh, Meru, col49, xdevo13

Koniko Klan

Bidders (4): osgoode (Manager), Tokyo Tom (Assistant Manager), Get this Money (Player), Triangles (Former Manager)
Players (17): BKC, Jirachee, zf, Bedschibaer, Get this Money (Trade from Eterna Eevees for FLCL), haru., Void, fatty, Prague Kick, Chill Shadow, soviet, Mix, Imperator Caesar, Rumor, sulcata, Mimolette, Hangover

Pacifidlog Typhloons

Bidders (2): Typhlito (Manager), z0mOG (Assistant Manager)
Players (16): UD, -Snow, PDC, obii, Mister Tim, Blightbringer, ADVANTAGE, Contact, Mindnight, LuckOverSkill, Shoka, Texas Cloverleaf, Melle2402, JACOB, Lord Ninjax, Zokuru

Auction Log by OrdA

https://pastebin.com/raw/Y07T7yEP

Price Logs

Sorted by price, by OrdA: https://pastebin.com/raw/DQ7eb4gm
Left chronologically by sulcata: https://pastebin.com/raw/KxSb25Mv
Sorted by teams -> players alphabetically, by sulcata: https://pastebin.com/raw/V53m1qs8​

 

[Lutra]

Fixtures

Week 1 - April 3rd

Dewford Dogs vs Pacifidlog Typhloons
Snowpoint Sneasels vs Koniko Klan
Pyrite Town Pichus vs Eterna Eevees
The Navy Spheals vs Viridian Vaporeons

Week 2 - April 10th

Pacifidlog Typhloons vs Viridian Vaporeons
Eterna Eevees vs The Navy Spheals
Koniko Klan vs Pyrite Town Pichus
Dewford Dogs vs Snowpoint Sneasels

Week 3 - April 17th

Snowpoint Sneasels vs Pacifidlog Typhloons
Pyrite Town Pichus vs Dewford Dogs
The Navy Spheals vs Koniko Klan
Viridian Vaporeons vs Eterna Eevees

Week 4 - April 24th

Pacifidlog Typhloons vs Eterna Eevees
Koniko Klan vs Viridian Vaporeons
Dewford Dogs vs The Navy Spheals
Snowpoint Sneasels vs Pyrite Town Pichus

Week 5 - May 1st

Pyrite Town Pichus vs Pacifidlog Typhloons
The Navy Spheals vs Snowpoint Sneasels
Viridian Vaporeons vs Dewford Dogs
Eterna Eevees vs Koniko Klan

Week 6 - May 8th

Pacifidlog Typhloons vs Koniko Klan
Dewford Dogs vs Eterna Eevees
Snowpoint Sneasels vs Viridian Vaporeons
Pyrite Town Pichus vs The Navy Spheals

Week 7 - May 15th

The Navy Spheals vs Pacifidlog Typhloons
Viridian Vaporeons vs Pyrite Town Pichus
Eterna Eevees vs Snowpoint Sneasels
Koniko Klan vs Dewford Dogs

Semifinals - May 22nd

Koniko Klan vs Dewford Dogs
Pyrite Town Pichus vs Pacifidlog Typhloons

Finals - May 29th June 5th

Dewford Dogs vs Pyrite Town Pichus

Winner: Pyrite Town Pichus​

 

[Lutra]

Hosting Hitmontops: Administrative Decisions

Host: Lutra
Mentors: Crestfall (Arbitrator), Jellicent (Arbitrator)

Arbitrations
​

April 1st: All forum banned, "I could be banned" and Tournament Banned players are not selected for and are actively removed from the signup pool.

April 1st: Can an assistant manager veto a manager's decision? No.

April 11th: Astamatitos becomes acting manager of Snowpoint Sneasels following Foggi's forum ban.

Ruleset Changes / Clarifications
​

April 3rd: DPP OU Evasion Ability Clause change - Sand Veil & Snow Cloak are now banned only for Pokémon with more than 1 ability. See vote.

April 8th: Statement in the OP: "Dead games will be declared." -> "Dead games will be declared and battles ending in a tie will be not replayed (both are worth 0 points)."

April 17th: Adding statement to the OP: "In the event of a playoffs tiebreak, management of both teams will rank their preferred tiers from #1-#3. Points will be assigned to the ranks in the following way: Higher Seed (#1 or #2): #1 - 100000, #2 - 1000, #3 - 10, #4-6 - 0 | Lower Seed (#3 or #4): #1 - 10000, #2 - 100, #3 - 1, #4-6 - 0. The point values are arbitrary but represent the relationship of higher seed > lower seed > higher seed > lower seed > higher seed > lower seed in terms of weighting. The 3 tiers with the highest number of points will be selected for the tiebreak set and managers will then choose any 3 unique players from each of their teams to play in the determined tier spots. If there's a tie in seeds that can't be broken, the same process will be used but with equal weighting of 100, 10, 1 and the 3rd tier will be decided at random if a tie persists."

 

[Vileman]

so wheres the standard bad power rankings? Cant have a premier league without those

 

[z0mOG]

1. My team
2. Other teams
3. Vileman's team
4. p2's team

enjoy ur rankings

 

[eden]

Well he DID say bad power rankings, guess he got what he wanted

 

[M Dragon]

Damn I missed this
No midseason?

 

[Lutra]

Damn I missed this
No midseason?

unfortunately not

 

[Lutra]

First team interview of the week: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/roapl-3-—︎-week-2.3600773/page-3#post-7319385

The plan is to interview a team each week. I'll also try to interview a player from each generation each week.

 

[Mr.E]

who do I root for

I guess, uhh, well Klan because they're all my Falcons bros + BKC but what's a koniko

 

[Lutra]

RoAPL 3 RBY Power Rankings

SPL Veteran Rankers: Floppy, KratosMana, Isa, Lusch, marcoasd
(and thanks to Tobes for providing a top 5, which wasn't used in the end, but was pretty close to final result)

Duo List

Koniko Klan: Bedschibaer (#2) & Prague Kick (#7)
Solid and consistent SPL & Seasons RBYer Bedschibaer teams up with the less established RBY Global/World champ, Prague Kick.

Pyrite Town Pichus: Crystal_ (#3) & Golden Gyarados (#9)
Straight from SPL, Crystal_ continues his comeback, while Golden Gyarados is looking for a turn in fortunes.

Dewford Dogs: reyscarface (#4) & Not Troller (#8)
Former RBY Cup champion reyscarface teams up with powerful italian SPL (EGL) RBYer, Troller.

Viridian Vaporeons: Peasounay (#1) & Leru (#14)
Two RBY OU Global finalists find themselves on the same team. Leading SPL presence Peasounay, plus focused johning rookie Leru.

The Navy Spheals: HANTSUKI (#5) & Diegolh (#10)
HANTSUKI is looking to get some RBY respect back, while Diegolh is looking to get his name out more.

Pacifidlog Typhloons: Mister Tim (#6) & Texas Cloverleaf (#11)
RBY OU Global semi-finalist Mister Tim pairs up with RBY Cup semi-finalist Texas Cloverleaf.

Eterna Eevees: Teddeh (#13) & Pearl (#15)
Newcomer RBYer Teddeh continues his RBY introduction while Pearl seeks more of the RBY spotlight.

Snowpoint Sneasels: The Idiot Ninja (#12) & Vileman (#16)
The 15th RBY italian talent joins forces with not-to-be underestimated Vileman.

Sorted by highest/lowest voting points, which corresponded closely with ranks.

Individual List

1st: Peasounay
2nd: Bedschibaer
3rd: Crystal_
4th: reyscarface
5th: HANTSUKI
6th: Mister Tim
7th: Prague Kick
8th: Not Troller
9th: Golden Gyarados
10th: Diegolh
11th: Texas Cloverleaf
12th: The Idiot Ninja
13th: Teddeh
14th: Leru
15th: Pearl
16th: Vileman

Sorted by highest voting points and ties were broken by highest rank given by a ranker.

PS: I'm pretty close to 1k likes, so call this my 1k like post.​

 

[Lutra]

RoAPL 3 Player Interview (RBY): Peasounay

Lutra: I'm joined tonight by RBY Global Champion and SPL 8 top RBY record holder, Peasounay. You've just recently won, by your words, your biggest Pokémon achievement to date. Can you run through the memories you have of the tour, which started all the way back in January?

Peasounay: Well it's one of the two biggest RBY tournaments of the year with RBY Cup, so I obviously wanted to do well, and the chosen format this year was very cool. I knew it was gonna be very long though, so I simply took the games one after the other at first while giving my best every time, and kinda coasted all along. I had to play two very tough tiebreakers in round 3 and 4, notably against my friend Poek in round 4, after that I really settled the tour as a goal, and it became obviously more and more difficult, everybody was tough to beat, so it gave me more and more motivation. Afterwards it's just a rby tournament: I played well, didn't get lucked too hard, got my moments too and won - but i'm very happy I won an "RBY major" if we can call it one of those since they're rare and therefore valuable. I'm even more happy with my general consistency.

Lutra: Cool. What about SPL? What were the highlights and were there times you felt bad over mistakes made?

Peasounay: Well aside from all the good times with my team mates which was the main thing, if we focus on my games I think I played really well overall (or at least I'm happy with my plays), I adapted very well to every opponent which is I think one of my strengths. My only loss was to Lusch and it was fair. I overthought spots too much and he played better. I also got outplayed and lucked Alexander in week 8 so I wasn't really proud of that one. Other games were tough but I did well. The fact that this was a team tournament forced me to step up even more, which made me improve... and I think I got even better.

Lutra: You were pretty well known even before SPL on Smogon via RBY Cup / WCoP performances, how did you find out about RBY Cup and how did you make it in the team for WCoP?

Peasounay: Honestly I don't remember how I first found out about it. I had played the Global Championship from last year (and didn't go very far as It had been 4-5 months since I had started). It was probably because you linked it somewhere and I came across it, but funnily enough when it started I had no idea it was part of an even bigger tournament (smogon classic etc.) I just saw it as a big RBY tour. I just played rounds one after the other and went far. It was during this tour that (I don't remember who it was exactly, giara or Ojama) contacted me to ask me if I could eventually play WCoP. I said yes, and when I won against Earthworm in top 8 Ojama pm'd me "Welcome to team France" lol. After that it all went very fast, I started doing better and better on Pokémon Perfect too. A lot of my "Pokémon career" went quite fast.

Lutra: What do you think of RoAPL so far?

Peasounay: I'm not very emotionally invested in it if i'm honest. I signed up for it on the day my team was out of SPL because I realised how cool team tours are so I just felt "why not". I don't know if I would've signed up if I had realized beforehand that it was bo1 because it's a format I don't really like. So far I kinda just played my games without doing a lot more, but I like how I got the opportunity to face some players I hadn't played in a tour before (and more are to come I hope), and it's a good tour to give visibility and chances to decent to solid players (at least in RBY, i have no idea who does what in other gens). So it's a pretty fun tour, good job on that !

Lutra: What about the recently revealed RoAPL RBY Power Rankings? Does the consensus from the independent panel of experts match closely with your view?

Peasounay: I don't really know how I would order RBY cores myself - it's not easy to do. If you have a top 3 player with a 15th placed one and another pair considered between 5 and 10, how do you rank them ? It's almost impossible. There's too much to take into account, especially when you have that many teams. I think a lot of cores are more or less even in what kind of record they'd bring. As for individual rankings, I don't completely agree with them, but I think one reason for that is because some players in there I have no information on, as I never saw them play (or very little).

Lutra: You mentioned that you like facing new RBY opponents, what would your top 5 wish list of players you want to face be?

Peasounay: The 3 players who instantly come to my mind are Tiba, Isa, and you. All of you are considered legends and RBY figures, and I'd die to play you all in a tournament. Unfortunately you and Isa are retired, and facing Tiba now that RBY is out of WCoP is unlikely... so i'll stay frustrated. As for new players I don't really know, I don't think anybody is intensely growing right now. If we stick to RoAPL I think The Idiot Ninja has the potential to become more than solid (I mean he's italian so duh). I'd like to face other-gen guys like BKC and reyscarface who like RBY, but I'd like to play them in a Bo5 (or Bo3 since I know Bo5 isn't popular on smogon) - Bo1 leaves you hungry. Texas is, I think, very slept on as an RBYer and when we played in Global Championship this year he gave me a very hard time... why couldn't I play versus him in a longer series. Mostly I'd be happy to play any smogon RBY enthusiast, since I've pretty much played everybody on PP.

Lutra: Let's talk Pokémon. What kind of sets and teams do you recommend to good players starting to learn how to be successful in RBY?

Peasounay: I'd say just stick to what is known to work: Zam/Jynx lead; big 4; with a rock/water/electric filler - the stuff that is the easiest to use. I think it's best to basically try everything to understand the ins and outs of every Pokémon. What's good in RBY is that you can actually do that pretty quickly in my opinion. I'd say start with Zam/Jynx lead, Starmie, Lapras, Zapdos, Rock fillers, then you can go further and further (Starmie and Gengar lead, Zam last, Slowbro , Cloyster , Jolteon). Start with Fishlax and Beambolt chansey and then experiment with the reflect sets, and just try to figure out what you're comfortable with. The first goal must always be to understand how everything works, and then keep what you like. Don't drop the big 4 (just don't at first, and actually it's something you're never forced to do ever lol), and don't use inconsistent and bad stuff like Persian, Dragonite, or Victreebel, as these mons sound cool but they're considered much lower down the rankings than what I previously mentioned and I personally think they're hard to make good use of.

Lutra: Good tips. What projects do you think are most needed in the RBY community to keep it alive? Is endless amount of tournaments enough?

Peasounay: That's a really tough one, I think the RBY community despite not being very big is extremely passionate and competitive. If i'm honest I think the existence of Pokemon Perfect pretty much saved the gen in every aspect: tournaments, research, exploration, and competition. I don't know what kind of level would the RBY community have without this forum - some tournaments on there are harder than the SPL pool. I think having a lot of tournaments is very important for a community like this, which is constantly seeing new players come in. RBY being split into two domains is very good too: PP has the intensity with a shit ton of tournaments, and Smogon basically has 4 (well 3 now) tournaments: GC, Cup, SPL, which happen to be the 3 biggest ones in terms of numbers or relevance. Cutting out RBY from WCoP is definitely not doing any good to the gen itself. (By saying that I'm not criticizing the decision in any way, it is what it is, just saying what it does to RBY). I think the RBY community will stay alive as long as you have passionate people willing to play the gen and to keep it alive by maintaining activities on the forums and such. It will die on the day not enough people are interested in it (or if no role models are left), but hopefully this doesn't happen.

Lutra: Having achieved a lot already, is your motivation high to keep achieving? Can you see your retirement or is it a long way ahead?

Peasounay: My retirement is a very long way ahead indeed. I've invested a lot of times in other games before and this one is the one I feel I was destined to play. My motivations are to keeping achieving indeed. I just love tournaments. My main goal is to keep having fun, keep being consistent (in a game like RBY, it's what is the most important to me), keep improving and finding new lines of plays, keep studying the game, exploring new team structures, stuff like that. I'll probably never "quit" in a brutal way, I'll gradually stop on the day I stop having fun. Even if I end up being very busy I'll make sure I have the time to play. I've also made a lot of friends during this SPL so it will always be a reason to stick around.

Lutra: That's fascinating. Thank you for your very informative answers. Any last things you want to mention?

Peasounay: Nothing comes at the top of my head, just thank you for having me :)

Lutra: A pleasure.

 

[Lutra]

It's hard for me to find GSC rankers for RoAPL's set of GSCers, so PM me a GSC Rankings #1-#16 if:

1. you are not a player or a (assistant) manager in RoAPL.
2. you feel comfortable with ranking 3/4 or more of the players.

Player List

Dewford Dogs: Funkasaurus, Jimmy Turtwig
Snowpoint Sneasels: choolio, Bomber.
Pyrite Town Pichus: idiotfrommars, Kenzo
The Navy Spheals: Mr.378, Arifeen
Viridian Vaporeons: -Tsunami-, slurmz
Eterna Eevees: rozes, SamVGC
Koniko Klan: BKC, sulcata
Pacifidlog Typhloons: Contact, Melle2402

 

[Real FV13]

Hi, Lutra asked me to write Power Ránkings for Gsc, so I'm here, obviously is my personal rank:

Individual List

1st: Bomber
2nd: idiotfrommars
3rd: Mr.378
4th: BKC
5th: -Tsunami-
6th: Jimmy Turtwig
7th: Sulcata
8th: Rozes
9th: Arifeen
10th: Slurmz
11th: Funkasaurus
12th: SamVGC
13th: Contact
14th: Kenzo
15th: Melle2402
16th: Choolio
​

 

[Lutra]

RoAPL 3 GSC Power Rankings

GSC Rankers: Earthworm, Floppy, giara, Isa, Real FV13

Duo List

Koniko Klan: BKC (#1) & sulcata (#5)
USA East veteran & Smogon Tour legend BKC partners with RoA GSC ladder topper sulcata.

Snowpoint Sneasels: Bomber (#3) & choolio (#9)
PP seasons topper Bomber teams up with the elusive tournament player choolio.

The Navy Spheals: Mr.378 (#4) & Arifeen (#8)
Mr.641 in SPL 8, Mr.378 joins with the jack of old gens Arifeen.

Viridian Vaporeons: -Tsunami (#6) & slurmz (#10)
The super almighty Smogon Classic II & GSC Cup II champ joins forces with reigning RoAPL champ slurmz.

Pyrite Town Pichus: idiotfrommars (#2) & Kenzo (#16)
One of SPL's finest and USA East veteran IFM plays beside an unknown quantity in Kenzo.

Dewford Dogs: Jimmy Turtwig (#7) & Funkasaurus (#13)
Both better known in BW, Turtwig's played 1 SPL GSC battle, while Funkasaurus played GSC in POWC.

Pacifidlog Typhloons: Melle2402 (#12) & Contact (#14)
Melle and Contact, a couple of GSC enthusiasts that have yet to put any big GSC achievements to their names.

Eterna Eevees: rozes (#11) & SamVGC (#15)
rozes is another unknown in GSC, and SamVGC apparently invented RBY tanklax in a past life.

Sorted by highest/lowest voting points, which corresponded closely with ranks.

Individual List

1st: BKC
2nd: idiotfrommars
3rd: Bomber.
4th: Mr.378
5th: sulcata
6th: -Tsunami-
7th: Jimmy Turtwig
8th: Arifeen
9th: choolio
10th: slurmz
11th: rozes
12th: Melle2402
13th: Funkasaurus
14th: Contact
15th: SamVGC
16th: Kenzo

Sorted by highest voting points and ties were broken by highest rank given by a ranker.​

 

[Lutra]

RoAPL 3 Player Interview (GSC): Texas Cloverleaf

Lutra: Today I'm joined by GSC player Texas Cloverleaf. I gather you played BW RU in a couple of earlier SPLs, when did you start playing GSC regularly?

Texas Cloverleaf: It was actually during SPL that I started to pick up the tier. On one of the seasons where I was with the Frogs I was fortunate to have Colchonero as a teammate. He gave me a classic DrumLax/Marowak stall team and started teaching me the ropes of the tier. About a year and a half after that I started branching out with my teams to the classic Explosion team I still use today and the rest is history.

Lutra: That's interesting, how many team tours have you played GSC (including of other communities) now?

Texas Cloverleaf: Oh man. With Smogon I've done the World Cup of Pokemon with team Canada and the ROA Premier League, Pokemon Online was where I first transitioned to GSC from Gen 5 RU with numerous PO World Cups, I've been part of the Pokemon Perfect Premier League as well. Pokemon Online was where I first started to make a name for myself as a GSCer, I consistently performed well in that particular tour environment and that encouraged me to continue developing my play. I've been fortunate to be part of so many great teams!

Lutra: And you've also participated in GSC Cups and PP Seasons tournaments, but yet you were one of the significant players not bought for SPL 8 as I understand. Do you have faith you can get in next time, similar to the injustice of Mr.378 being left out last SPL, but making it this SPL?

Texas Cloverleaf: I think that is still to be determined. From my perspective there were two contributing factors to why I was excluded. One was that I'd been managing the Falcons for two seasons and so that, in combination with my primary tournament presence being on other sites and my r3 loss to McMeghan in GSC Cup, meant that my capabilities were not as well known as I had thought they might be. The other, more important, reason is simply that many people including several SPL managers have a perception of who I am as a teammate or person that, fair or not, works to my disadvantage for being selected. Part of what I've been working on since December is making an effort to show people who I am and what I'm capable of as a teammate and that's resulted in some very good team environments with Team Ice in the PPPL and with the Pacifidlog Typhloons in ROAPL. I'm hopeful that this positivity will continue into the future.

Lutra: Great attitude. You reached the semi-finals of the RBY Cup, and have subbed in for RBY this RoAPL, do you feel you will have an RBY playing career after you are done with GSC or not?

Texas Cloverleaf: I think at this point in my career GSC is my main tier until I'm done playing. I'm no longer capable of keeping up with tier shifts like I was when I was part of the RU community so a more stable tier is more fitting. Ironically I actually enjoy RBY for the reason it infuriates so many people: the hax. When you know that hax is inevitable it greatly lessens the impact of losing because of it. That said, it's not a tier I'd ever choose to main, what I would like to do though is improve my ADV game. That's the tier after GSC that I think best matches my skill set and its one that I've always wanted to do better with.

Lutra: Cool. So you expressed that you felt that the RoAPL 3 RBY & GSC Power Rankings were dishonest for including you as an RBY Player instead of a GSC Player, what rank do you think you would be if inserted into the GSC Power Rankings and do you largely agree or disagree with the rest of the final ranking?

Texas Cloverleaf: As far as the rankings are concerned I think they are generally accurate, though I don't agree with BKC being in the first slot. He's an excellent player but I would have shifted him to fourth and move the three GSC mains below him up one slot.

As for where exactly I'd fit into the list I'd rather have left that to the subjective judgement of the panel, I think they would have likely slotted me somewhere in the top 5. Part of that depends on what the rankings are meant to measure - the top end of the list and I have played each other many times and so how exactly the rankings play out depends on how much you value head to head records as compared to versatility as compared to teambuilding innovation. Someone like bomber for example might not have the consistency in play to top the rankings but his innovation provides an undeniable advantage.

Lutra: GSC is now arguably the least popular generation, and is certainly struggling against ADV and later generations, what things do you feel are key to revive the player base? Do you feel a change in ruleset or development of lower tiers is needed?

Texas Cloverleaf: Realistically there's only so much you can do for older gen playerbases, new players are inherently driven towards the newest generation and gsc is one of the tiers with the greatest gap in playstyle and performance. The only thing I would like to see changed is the public perception people offer about the tier. It's common refrain to talk about GSC as a stall-fest and to quip about 600 turn games which I believe to be toxic to the development of the tier. In reality there is a lot of room to play an offensive style and the strategy with such teams is arguably higher than any other tier or generation. Yes, games can and will often go between 30-70 turns on a good day but this needs to be seen as a positive for long-term strategic thought rather than derided as a waste of time, as it so often is in public speech.

Lutra: Any new GSC players we should look out for or any old players that you feel are reaching the top level?

Texas Cloverleaf: One name that's jumped into the scene recently on PP that's probably unknown on Smogon is Ch01W0n5h1n, he had an excellent run en route to winning a tournament and I'm curious to see how well he performs if he participates in any future tournaments.

Hard for me to comment on old players as so many have retired or had their skills slip and people like IFM and 378 are my contemporaries in terms of when we started up, but the gold standard in this day and age continues to be Conflict. I'm always looking forward to any chance to play him and count myself fortunate when I can take wins off him.

Lutra: Thank you very much for answering my questions, anything else you would like to mention? Maybe tell us your favorite GSC Pokémon you use competitively.

Texas Cloverleaf: My favorite overall has to be Zapdos, consistently reliable and capable of getting out of a tight spot. I would just like to conclude by encouraging people not to be afraid of stepping away from the status quo. Surf was the default STAB for Cloyster for years and years until I started advocating for Ice Beam as a preferable choice in the metagame. Surf is still the more common option and the best default choice in combination with Toxic, but I've noticed a distinct and prominent increase in the frequency of Ice Beam+HP Electric on more offensively inclined teams. There's lots of small tweaks to standard movesets that people are frequently afraid of doing with GSC but it's much more accessible that people think in terms of adapting things to your playstyle.

 

[Lutra]

Manager Interview for last week is up: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/roapl-3-—︎-week-4.3602045/page-4#post-7339023

 

[Lutra]

RoAPL 3 ADV Power Rankings
ADV Rankers: CALLOUS, Floppy, k3nan, M Dragon, We Three Kings

Duo List

The Navy Spheals: undisputed (#1) & teal6 (#4)
The finalists from ADV Cup II and fellow USA West team mates, undisputed and teal6 team up to form the undisputed duo according to these rankers.

Pacifidlog Typhloons: UD (#2) & obii (#12)
UD debuted in SPL this year and had a less than stunning 4-6 result, whilst obii was, according to his team, his team's MVP.
UD has nevertheless been making waves like a Beautiful Swan ever since bursting back onto the ADV scene, such as recording a 90% GXE on the ADV ladder.
(Description by Disaster Area, last fact by Astamatitos)

Dewford Dogs: JabbaTheGriffin (#3) & New Breed (#9)
USA Metro & SPL veteran Jabba The Griffin, who achieved 6-2 in ADV in SPL 7, joins forces with SPL ADVer New Breed, who went 4-1 in ADV in UK's impressive run to the final of POWC 2015.

Snowpoint Sneasels: CZ. (#5) & SunnyORAS (#10)
Top ADV commentator and starter for UK, CZ pairs with SunnyORAS (Eden's Embrace), who's also yet to achieve anything big, but plays ADV for Team Asia on PO and played in EGL (italian SPL).

Eterna Eevees: Heysup (#6) & Vinc2612 (#12)
LC Veteran Heysup has been building up his ADV skills since at least the DPP era and played ADV last WCoP for Canada with success. Vinc2612 also achieved a good record playing ADV last POCL.

Pyrite Town Pichus: Cowboy Dan (#7) & Sam (#14)
Cowboy Dan returns from a 5-0 ADV record last RoAPL and joins up with Sam, who achieved a 6-3 ADV record in POCL around the same time.

Koniko Klan: Jirachee (#8) & zf (#11)
Jirachee has participated in nearly ever team tournament going back the past few years but played DPP, BW and ORAS mainly, if not exclusively. zf is mostly known as an LC player but did well in ADV seasons on PP.

Viridian Vaporeons: - Mizuhime (#15) & Star (#16)
Multiple-tier player Mizuhime had an unsuccessful ADV run in POWC a while ago and LCer Star appears to be a newcomer to high level ADV.

Sorted by highest/lowest voting points, which corresponded closely with ranks.

Individual List

1st: undisputed
2nd: UD
3rd: JabbaTheGriffin
4th: teal6
5th: CZ.
6th: Heysup
7th: Cowboy Dan
8th: Jirachee
9th: New Breed
10th: SunnyORAS
11th: zf
12th: Vinc2612
13th: obii
14th: Sam
15th: Mizuhime
16th: Star

Sorted by highest voting points and ties were broken by highest rank given by a ranker.​

 

[Mizuhime]

rude i just beat the 3rd ranked player :/

 

[Lutra]

RoAPL 3 Player Interview (ADV): CZ.

Lutra: Representing ADV for RoAPL, I'm joined by RoA Room Moderator CZ. You finished with a solid 4-1 record in RoAPL 3 playing ADV, did you enjoy all those battles?

CZ.: Yeah, for sure. ADV is personally my favourite gen and it always dishes up fun battles

Lutra: I think you uploaded a battle or two to your YouTube channel. What inspired you to do that? I think your communication of your thoughts in those battles was very good. I would like to see more of your commentaries.

CZ.: Yeah, the battles vs Teal6 and Heysup, both were after I started to upload again. I did it because I often get asked about what my thought processes are before and during a game, so I decided to upload one of my PP games and people liked it stating that I was very thorough and in-depth in my commentary. After the positive feedback I decided to upload all battles I felt I could give strong insight into. I would love to upload more, but I just don't battle enough to acquire many good battles, and I only want to upload battles I deem a great representation of the top level. I have reached out to other ADV players about possibly allowing me to use their battles as well, either with a duo commentary or with some notes of theirs so I don't misrepresent them and can accurately portray their thought processes.

Lutra: Will you be representing UK in ADV for this coming WCoP? Hopefully you'll have some quality games to upload if so. Who would you most like to face in ADV out of the top players?

CZ.: While we are still finalising the roster, I will most likely be the main ADV player for the UK WCoP squad again. And yeah, I will upload if they turn out solid, win or lose. That's a tough one, ADV is usually so loaded with great players that I'd be happy to play most of them. Astamatitos is my number 1 choice to play as we test a lot together, but have never played in a major tour. UD is another, because I just love our games. M dragon again, I won last time due to a very fast Swampert, I have matured as an ADV player since then though and would like another. Dekzeh, because I've never had the pleasure.

Lutra: Cool. Snowpoint Sneasels finished last in the RoAPL 3 season in the end. From your point of view, what went wrong in terms of not being able to make the playoffs?

CZ.: Yeah, it sucks that, such a good group of lads as well. I think a few games just didn't go our way, be it a bit unlucky or misplays, and those games count up over time. I'm still glad I got to play with such a fun group though!

Lutra: Will you be coming back for RoAPL 4 if you are still playing in a year's time?

CZ.: Yeah, no doubt. I had fun and I need to go x-0 next time c:

Lutra: Nice ambition! So how did you get into ADV in the first place and during what era did you enter the competitive Pokémon scene? DPP, BW or XY?

CZ.: I got into ADV during the Smogon Tour era of ADV / DPP / BW1. Real life obligations prevented me from playing week to week, but I played whenever I could. I was taught the very basics of ADV by the Falchat group, shout outs to Faladran, TonyFlygon and the rest of that old old group. As for competitive, I've only been confident in my ADV knowledge to compete in harder tours since coming back to mons last year. Last WCoP was my first ever real test in ADV. I started with Shoddy Battle in the late DP era, with my awesome lead NP Azelf that would 6-0 every single opponent ever (I thought), I just laddered for fun mostly and peaked no1 once or twice, but usually hovering around top 30. When BW1 came out I started to play tours a bit more, POWC and WCoP, so I guess you could say BW1 was really when I really started competitive mons.

Lutra: What are your key goals in ADV? I assume you want to play in SPL. Do you feel top ADV players have now got a good reason to stick around for the whole of the year, now with SPL, WCoP, ADV Cup and the RoA major tournaments, along with what other communities offer, such as PO and PP?

CZ.: Playing ADV in SPL would be fun. If I'm honest, as long as I keep enjoying my game, I'm doing well in tours and I have my group of ADV friends around, I'm happy. I think there is incentive to stay around, but some still choose not to, which is a shame because the ADV community has some amazing people. I have also contacted a TD to discuss a possible tour idea for older gens that I hope would keep a lot of players around, but that's a working progress atm. I cannot speak for PO in all honesty, as I only play the POWC there. However, PP has attracted a lot of newer players to old gens, specifically ADV, and I think it's great, brings new ideas and new competition.

Lutra: Interesting, do you feel tutoring is a big part of keeping ADV alive? What kind of teams do you recommend people to learn how to use well?

CZ.: Yes, completely. As a tutor with B101 myself, I can vouch that with old gens as a whole, if you ask for help trying to learn, you will get help. I've taken on a few recent tutees in ADV/DPP and it's great fun seeing people learn metas you enjoy so much. Good question. If someone were learning ADV after only knowing modern gens (ORAS/SM) I would suggest a more offensive team consisting of pokemon such as Dragon Dancers / Magneton / Lax / Meta / Aero, something along those lines. However, with that said, everyone should make sure they know how to play with and against standard stallish TSS (Toxic, Sand, Spike) teams such as Tar / Skarm / Gar / Swampert / Bliss, etc... as those teams are consistently used by many players, and knowing how to play against it is vital.

Lutra: What do you think of the ADV RoAPL Power Rankings?

CZ.: I think the rankings are fair overall. I got to say, I didn't realise how stacked it was before seeing the rankings. Sam and Obii are two underrated players, and Sunny is a good friend who, one his day, can beat anyone. Dan is quite low, he should be around me, if not higher than me, but he was in a slump during this tour, now he's back to his normal self and winning every game. I was surprised I was put 5th honestly, I always find it hard to actually put myself above other solid players, no matter how cocky I sometimes come across.

Lutra: Are there any new ADVers on Smogon that will surprise everyone with their success?

CZ.: New ADVers on Smogon? That UD guy signed up in 2016, I hear he's kinda ok. I find it hard to rate new players, because ADV is so much about consistency. There are a couple I have seen who have impressed me thus far though.

Lutra: Is that the main character from Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie in April) on your Smogon Avatar? Are you big into anime and who's your avatar for Discord/Youtube?

CZ.: Yeah, it is a hand drawn piece of the character Kousei from that amazing Anime. The last episode of that Anime is my favourite single episode of any anime series after Dragon Ball Episode 1. The girl in my Discord/Youtube picture is Victorique DeBloris from my favourite anime and novel series Gosick, she happens to also be my favourite character after Kid Goku. I used to watch a lot of Anime and read a lot of Manga, my MAL has a pretty overwhelming amount of days logged in both. Unfortunately, I don't get much time to watch it anymore with my legal career taking off, but I read Manga if and when I can.

Lutra: Thank you for taking part in this lengthy interview, anything else you'd like to mention?

CZ.: Cheers for having me! And since I said I would do it... UD sucks. #UDforPres #VenuIsMediocre. Cheers again and thanks for reading if you made it this far n_n