byulharang
formerly Holy Ghost
Approved by Nayrz with idea from Arii Stella
Banner by my good friend Six
Welcome to Ubers Player of the Week! I'll be interviewing top Ubers players that have had success and are respected in the community. You will be able to ask questions to the player I interview by commenting on this post. Everyone cannot be interviewed but you can VM me or DM on Discord suggestions, hope you enjoy!
Lasen
Favorite Pokemon?
or
Most known for
Resident Ubers shitposter, (sometimes) funny, going 0-5 in a single UPL and being the best gartic host the Ubers discord knows. Oh, I've also been playing since forever ago, so some people vaguely remember me from PO :]
Any backstory on your name?
It's actually an amalgamation of my first and last name, I wanted something short and sweet that was "good for gaming" as cringe as that sounds. Few letters from my first name and a few from my last, make it sound exotic and not indicative of the game I play nor of where I'm from so that I could use it for a lot of stuff and voila :kiss: :ok_hand:
How did you get into competitive Pokemon?
Been playing Pokemon since I can remember myself and one day I saw a video of a YouTuber sweeping someone on DPP with Ninjask passing boosts to Marowak and thought "woah, people can do that? That's so cool!" This was back in 2008 and the video is still up (Link to video). This was my first proper view of Wi-Fi battles and wanted to get in on the action. Unfortunately, my DS never let me connect to Wi-Fi for some reason, but I circumvented that problem by playing PBR on my Wii at the time! This also lead me to finding out about Hydropoleon and Gigatitan, two names I'm confident no one will recognise . I kept googling for "free Pokemon online games" after that, which lead to my discovery of Shoddy Battle and eventually Pokemon Online. Good times.
Favorite and least favorite Ubers generation?
BW and RBY respectively, but idk if RBY really counts? I guess I'd have to go for USM as least favourite. I grew up playing BW and it's the tier that I feel makes the most playstyles shine, while also having 3 different weathers be equally viable and able to be mixed and matched together. USM just doesn't seem right to me, maybe it's because I was actively put off from learning it by multiple unfortunate experiences until it was near the end of its life span. RBY isn't a gen that anyone genuinely enjoys btw, don't @ me.
Thoughts on the current state of SS? Excited for the next DLC?
I don't enjoy metagames that are way too volatile, and sadly, Gen 8 falls under this category at the moment. Casually, it's a really fun experience but I wouldn't bet on myself to win a ssnl or anything. Thankfully, there's discussion about kicking Dynamax off the tier and DLC 2 is right around the corner, so who knows? Maybe things are gonna turn up Milkhouse.
Do you look up to any players?
I wouldn't say I look up to any Ubers players as I grew up playing alongside them and my ego never allowed me to considering myself inferior, even if I am if you look at the stats haha. I can tell you who I don't wanna disappoint when I team up with them, though: Reje because he is a perfectionist who will call my dogshit in my face if I play bad and even if I win but I didn't follow his line of reasoning of playing 100% perfectly Tape aka March Fires because he has an unparalleled work ethic considering how little time he ACTUALLY spends playing and building and the Swedish duo of Kebabe + Hack who just seem to "get" some metagames better than anyone else. Special shout-out to the OG Perfectionist, Astounded because he truly is a mad genius and a puppet master.
What are your thoughts on Farceus DPP?
I've been local in the past that Farceus is a mistake of an unban. It feels really limiting in the builder, where at times, you want to run something nice and innovative, but you have to default to the usual 3 same Arceus (Normal/Fighting/Steel) with an occasional different form rearing its head. I do enjoy that the existence of Arceus in the metagame punishes some extremely greedy players from trying to get a "perfect win" by clicking buttons and not thinking and I definitely don't consider it as much of a must have as BW where you lose in builder if you're not running Arc or some EvasionPass bs (ban soon! ™️) but it really just feels like the counterplay isn't quite there. Not a fan at all, but wouldn't cry if I was forced to continue playing the tier.
How do you feel about the recent BW evasion discussion? Do you think it should be banned? Thoughts on baton pass being allowed in Ubers in general?
I can only parrot what others have said as my stance is the same as the majority's. Evasion has no place in any core metagame and the fact that BW Ubers is not only the only BW tier, but also the only Uber tier that allows it makes it crystal clear it's just a poor decision taken in the past, which, thankfully, we are able to reverse at the moment. The amount of control that slips from both players' hands and goes straight into winning nothing more than a game of chance every turn warrants a ban. Baton Pass honestly only got stronger every generation, as the amount of better recipients and tools this "strategy" uses only grew larger. I don't condone a blanket ban across Ubers and I'm actually against banning it in any past gen that it is currently legal, but I wholeheartedly agree with the SM and SS ban.
Favorite teamstyle to use in BW Ubers?
Hyper Offense, for sure. Nothing quite like just bringing absolute nonsense where E-Killer can potentially kill you at any given moment because it carries the correct 4th move and item combo to invalidate everything you stand for as a builder. Really gets me in the mood when I'm in those "kill or be killed" situations.
How was your experience on the Dialgas this UPL?
Mixed bag, honestly. The team was amazing, don't get me wrong - genuinely think we had the best team on paper and in the playing field. However, I just wasn't in the right head-space for a couple of key weeks and seeing us lose matches we should have definitely won left a much sourer taste in my mouth than any other tournament I've played. Maybe I was just too invested in this tournament? But also not at all if that makes sense...
Favorite game you've witnessed?
There were a couple of amazing games I witnessed that have stuck with me (Ramiel vs. V0id in XY Ubers and DracoNinja vs. MenceMeat in ORAS OU) but from games I could provide you a replay link to, I'd have to say Terracotta vs. Leru in UPL 6 [USM] Terracotta zygod VS leru (purely because my memory is shit and I remember instances of games but very few games or who played them, sorry!). It was I am pretty sure the first high level USM game I watched and my team chat was bitching about Goth being an absolutely zoinker of a mon, something that made the tier unhealthy and match-up reliant but who tf cares, right? Terra plays aggressive, the team can pressure goth with hazards and it only really traps, like, 1 mon and that's Waterceus. Load into game, lo and behold, Goth is sitting menacing on opposing preview. After a really bad early game for terra, he gets Salamence quite low and Yveltal gets Toxic'd with the FINAL 'mon being BU Marshadow, who expertly lives a Foul play and proceeds to LITERALLY reverse 6-0 Leru's entire team. What a banger game.
Any advice to new players looking to break into Ubers?
I'm gonna be honest and tell people that Ubers isn't the easiest scene to break into as the people that frequent it tend to be very elitist and stuck in the past. A good piece of advice I can give people is "lurk more" - that's to say don't jump into the discord and start talking instantly, wait for a bit, see how people interact with one another and what is seen as OK. We're actually quite welcoming of people wanting to get into our tier, but our history of various users being alts makes us a bit more cautious. Regardless, if you can accept the differences that Ubers has a tier and as a community and don't mind getting playfully teased, you'll fit right in!
You've been in the Ubers community for some time now, how do you feel about the progression in the tier throughout the ages? Do you think Ubers is on the right path to being back in officials?
I feel like Ubers has taken a few steps forward and a few steps back throughout its course. We've suspected everything, from mons, to abilities to even clauses and it's quite fascinating to look back, maybe with rose tinted glasses. Overall I've enjoyed the direction this tier has taken and a lot of the decision making has been good, with us not jumping the gun on a lot of things people wanted banned such as Kyogre back in BW1. There's always room for improvement, obviously, but I trust we're on the right path to being added back to at least Snake, which is something that would honestly thrill me. Ubers has a very passionate playerbase and it sometimes leads to hijinks that could have been avoided, but make no mistake - our heart lies in the right place.
Team I brought vs. Carl Murray this year's UPL, Rocks Ghostceus is very good because it's a noob trap and also sets up rocks consistently vs. Magic Sun. Ferro + Ogre is the standard SDef duo that wins a lot of games with phasing, knocking and hazard damage. Excadrill is speedy sp def that checks stuff like Ghostceus and Dragons, the only spinner that can do good damage to Gira-O (Cloyster who?). Team is rounded out with scarf Genesect who is honesty top 3 mons imo and Roar + Surf Latios who phases out greedy E-Killers when they try to set-up on you after you draco while also catching Ttar on switch-in. Very happy with this build!
Closing thoughts
I'm overall interested to see where Ubers is going to go as a tier. I've never been the blind optimist type, especially because GameFreak has time and time again proven they don't care about their competitive player-base and if they do, they CERTAINLY don't care about those of us that play Singles with Ubers getting shafted every year more and more. I'd like to see DLC2 shake up the metagame, seeing new innovations is such a blessing and since teambuilding is "solved" but still volatile as heck, maybe seeing Galarticuno slap everyone around when it's least expected is gonna be fun. I'm also looking forward to the Tapus coming back, the terrain moves they got makes me rub my hands in anticipation.
Personal Question: Top 3 Ubers players of all time?
I am gonna say Tape / Hack / Donkey in no particular order. All 3 are insane and did it for 2-3 generations straight.
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Thanks for your time Lasen! Feel free to ask him questions in the thread below!
Banner by my good friend Six
Welcome to Ubers Player of the Week! I'll be interviewing top Ubers players that have had success and are respected in the community. You will be able to ask questions to the player I interview by commenting on this post. Everyone cannot be interviewed but you can VM me or DM on Discord suggestions, hope you enjoy!
Lasen
Favorite Pokemon?
or
Most known for
Resident Ubers shitposter, (sometimes) funny, going 0-5 in a single UPL and being the best gartic host the Ubers discord knows. Oh, I've also been playing since forever ago, so some people vaguely remember me from PO :]
Any backstory on your name?
How did you get into competitive Pokemon?
Favorite and least favorite Ubers generation?
Thoughts on the current state of SS? Excited for the next DLC?
Do you look up to any players?
What are your thoughts on Farceus DPP?
How do you feel about the recent BW evasion discussion? Do you think it should be banned? Thoughts on baton pass being allowed in Ubers in general?
Favorite teamstyle to use in BW Ubers?
How was your experience on the Dialgas this UPL?
Favorite game you've witnessed?
Any advice to new players looking to break into Ubers?
You've been in the Ubers community for some time now, how do you feel about the progression in the tier throughout the ages? Do you think Ubers is on the right path to being back in officials?
Team I brought vs. Carl Murray this year's UPL, Rocks Ghostceus is very good because it's a noob trap and also sets up rocks consistently vs. Magic Sun. Ferro + Ogre is the standard SDef duo that wins a lot of games with phasing, knocking and hazard damage. Excadrill is speedy sp def that checks stuff like Ghostceus and Dragons, the only spinner that can do good damage to Gira-O (Cloyster who?). Team is rounded out with scarf Genesect who is honesty top 3 mons imo and Roar + Surf Latios who phases out greedy E-Killers when they try to set-up on you after you draco while also catching Ttar on switch-in. Very happy with this build!
Closing thoughts
Personal Question: Top 3 Ubers players of all time?
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Thanks for your time Lasen! Feel free to ask him questions in the thread below!