Malley
Dominachu
First up, I'll come clean and say that bartimaeus is a personal friend. I won't try to hide any potential biases (although I will try to remove them). Some hard facts though: he has been #1 on the Random Battles ladder multiple times, and held the highest GXE on the ladder (86.2 I believe) for a long time, until some of the more random elements were removed and the teams generated became more reliably viable, with the result that higher GXEs became easier to attain. He hasn't laddered seriously since that change, so I can't directly compare him to the people at the top of the ladder now.
Essentially, I feel that random battles aren't treated with enough respect - the idea that they are 'skill-less' is fairly widespread - and so I would like to write an exposition on the skill and strategy involved, looked at through the lens of an incredibly skilled randbats player. I am fairly competent in randbats myself, so the interview would be complementary to the investigation of randbats strategy as a whole - rather similar to how TV documentaries use a presenter and an expert guest. I would be the presenter, as it were, and bartimaeus (a rather awkward person) would be the guest.
I can talk at length about why randbats is definitely not skill-less, but in short: you have to figure out how your team works in seconds - win cons, synergy, etc. - while also engaging with opponent's team in the manner of DPP and earlier, with no team preview. There is a massive number of variables, and the skill comes in processing them all as efficiently as possible and then battling as normal based on that.
An additional option is incorporating the thoughts of Tom Bus into this, who is a very good 'standard' battler and who also reached #1 on the randbats ladder. I've talked to him a few times and we're in a private room together, so I could approach him about some input if that seems like a good idea.
I look forward to hearing your views,
Thanks
Essentially, I feel that random battles aren't treated with enough respect - the idea that they are 'skill-less' is fairly widespread - and so I would like to write an exposition on the skill and strategy involved, looked at through the lens of an incredibly skilled randbats player. I am fairly competent in randbats myself, so the interview would be complementary to the investigation of randbats strategy as a whole - rather similar to how TV documentaries use a presenter and an expert guest. I would be the presenter, as it were, and bartimaeus (a rather awkward person) would be the guest.
I can talk at length about why randbats is definitely not skill-less, but in short: you have to figure out how your team works in seconds - win cons, synergy, etc. - while also engaging with opponent's team in the manner of DPP and earlier, with no team preview. There is a massive number of variables, and the skill comes in processing them all as efficiently as possible and then battling as normal based on that.
An additional option is incorporating the thoughts of Tom Bus into this, who is a very good 'standard' battler and who also reached #1 on the randbats ladder. I've talked to him a few times and we're in a private room together, so I could approach him about some input if that seems like a good idea.
I look forward to hearing your views,
Thanks