Welcome to the Random Battles Community Interview! The goal of this project is to interview well-known members of the Randbats community every month and learn more about them. These members may include players who’ve been successful in tournaments, high-ladderers, format/forum contributors, and more! Check out past interviews here!
Without further ado, let’s move onto the interview itself!
eva
Thanks for agreeing to do this interview! So I’ve noticed you play a lot of Pokemon challenge runs, and they’re really entertaining to watch. What was your favorite one to play through so far?
Buhrito
Good question! I’d have to say the challenge run of a pokemon game that has been the most memorable for me was completing an HC Nuzlocke of Emerald Kaizo, which was all the way back at the beginning of 2021. Back then, the game was still largely unexplored, and people thought the game was impossible to nuzlocke until a streamer by the name of gian_97 beat the game, which actually inspired me to set up a twitch account and stream my own run of the challenge. I remember getting a deep run and having like 5 viewers in the chat during my Tate and Liza fight, which was huge to me since the rest of the run was just 0-1 viewers. From there I began integrating with the nuzlocke community more until I beat the game a few weeks later with like 30 viewers watching! The whole experience was surreal to me and will definitely continue to live on as a great memory for me.
eva
Damn, that’s some dedication. Really impressed that you managed to beat it and I’m glad to hear you’ve had an audience to experience it with you! Do you think doing these sort of harcore challenge runs has helped you get better at competing against other players in tournaments on Showdown?
Buhrito
Yea, it definitely has. Nuzlocking and competitive mons have a ton of overlap, mechanics aside. One major thing is how well you can manage your resources and make the most out of every turn, especially in randbats where your resources are different every game. Also making game plans is a huge part of nuzlocking that you sometimes have to do on the fly, which I think has definitely overlapped into making me a better battler overall.
eva
Interesting, I’ve been meaning to seriously do a nuzlocke playthrough at some point but I’ve never got around to it LOL. Maybe it’ll help me get better at Randbats too… Speaking of Randbats, your first tournament in the Randbats scene was RBTT VI. How did you find out about the tour and what compelled you to sign up for it?
Buhrito
Well before playing tournaments (and nuzlocking), I primarily just laddered random battles on showdown, getting top of the ladder in a bunch of different formats. I was never really familiar with Smogon until my fellow nuzlocker MANNAT recommended that I play in some tournaments here on Smogon since I had good ladder results. From there I thought the idea of a random battle team tour sounded awesome, so I reached out to some managers and the rest is history.
eva
Thank you MANNAT. Shoutouts to pokeblade for facing you on the Randbats ladder and vouching for your skills during the RBTT draft to get you on his team. I’ve noticed that you've been participating in the Rands Slam tournaments this year as well. What has been your favorite Randbats tournament to participate in so far?
Buhrito
My favorite randbats tournament so far has definitely been WCOR, playing for US Northeast. All of us were so involved and the vibes were great - it was an absolute blast playing last year. Really excited for WCOR again this year so we can finally take the Greedent trophy home :nutnut:
eva
Having co-hosted WCOR last year, I’m glad to hear that you and a lot of others enjoyed playing in the tournament. Maybe Team USNE can make it all the way this year! What’s the most memorable series you've played in a Randbats tournament so far?
Buhrito
Hmmm, so many to choose from… an easy answer would be my first RBTT vs Petros, where I knew I had to make a name for myself and there was a lot on the line for me. A really funny series was my series in that same RBTT vs Xceloh, where he missed Psycho Boost to lose g2, and then I missed head smash to lose g3 immediately after LOL.
eva
LOL, RNG giveth, and RNG taketh. Xceloh and Petros are definitely not easy players to go up against. What kind of strategies do you like to use while battling?
Buhrito
Well, this question I could spend a lot of time answering, but I'll try to keep it short. At the start of a battle, the first thing I look for is hazards or hazard control (rocks, spikes, defog, etc), and try to get a similar read onto my opponent based on their early plays. Sometimes early I'll make a double switch to my hazards setter if I think my opponent might also switch to get an extra turn of initiative. Hazards can really make or break some MUs in randbats, especially in some old gens. Another thing is to just be patient and use the timer, might sound cliche but making a conscious effort when deciding on a move will usually be better than just clicking. Also, use the bathroom before every tour game so you can be maximally locked in, truly goated strategy credits to Glopper.
eva
I’ll make sure to keep this in mind, especially if I ever face you in a tournament game again aha… All jokes aside, this is truly some great advice to keep in mind, especially the last point about using the bathroom before playing LOL. Which Randbats format do you like to play the most, and why?
Buhrito
I've 100% had the most fun with gen 9 randbats over the past couple of tours, it's not perfect but with tera I feel like I have potential to outplay almost any MU. Also thanks to heavy duty boots hazards aren't as oppressive which can make MUs feel less lopsided - which is always a good thing. I have been enjoying it the most since the dlc2 mons got added as the extra variety makes the tier feel less stale and more lively to play.
eva
Bless them boots fr. Gen 9 Rands is also one of my favorites to play. On the flipside, what’s your least favorite aspect of Randbats?
Buhrito
Hmm, interesting question. I think right now randbats is in a great place, as the dev team has done a fantastic job making it overall more balanced over the last few years. But admittedly I'm not the most fond of a recent change which basically removed the type restriction, meaning you can roll two mono-electric types on the same team for example. Although this opens up some cool niche cases like Kyogre + swift swim Golduck on the same team, I think in 99% of cases this will only hinder your overall type resistances and make it more difficult to overcome a bad MU.
eva
The amount of work the dev team puts into fine-tuning the format is amazing for sure. That’s a respectable take on the type-restriction removal, though at least rolling weather teams can be satisfying at times! Do you have any specific Pokemon you enjoy using in Randbats?
Buhrito
Some of my favorite pokemon to roll are bulky high-level setup sweepers like Misdreavus or Bellossom, if you position them correctly in a battle with tera, you can get a lot of free wins because of just how hard they can be to answer at times. Oh and also Greedent, that guy never dies.
eva
The amount of times I got swept by a Bellossom is pretty embarrassing… Also yeah, Greedent eats almost any move. Looks can be deceiving… Before we wrap things up, what kind of advice would you give to new players to get drafted into tournaments like RBTT and WCOR, or players seeking to improve their battling skills?
Buhrito
If you are looking to get drafted, I think the first step is laddering a lot and improving. Once you start getting results on the ladder, you can show these results to managers to show why you would be a good pick for a team tournament. Tournament battles however will always be a bit different than ladder, so I also suggest playing in some Rands Slam Tournament Opens, anyone can join them and they are great practice for tournament play.
As for improving, the straight-up best thing you can do to improve is to take a moment and reflect on your games instead of blaming hax. I'll admit, it's really easy to blame hax after things don't go your way, but good and bad luck will happen to everyone and they are simply factors out of our control. Competitive mons is all about luck management, not simply getting lucky. It's important to instead focus on what’s in your control and how you can change those things to have better odds of winning the game. I would say this advice can apply to almost every elo range, and if you make an effort to try to analyze your mistakes, your elo will skyrocket! (also use showdex and tooltip).
eva
It’s definitely easy to make excuses about why you lost a game. This is well-thought out advice for people looking to get drafted and improving their game! I’m sure the readers will make good use of it. That about does it for this interview. Thank you so much for participating in this interview and the effort you put into your answers, it’s very appreciated!
Thanks again to Buhrito for the great interview! Feel free to ask them any further questions in this thread and keep an eye out for future interviews!
