USUM UU Manager of the Week #2: Tony

Cynde

toasty
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Past SPL Champion


credit to rozes for the artwork

Hello, and welcome to UU's Player of the Week, where I interview
some of Smogon's most accomplished and well known players in the tier to give
some insight on who they are and their views on certain aspects of the metagame.
If there's someone you want to see interviewed, shoot me a PM!



Tony

Favourite Pokemon: Flygon (almost as surprising as my favourite pokemon being cyndaquil)
Most Used Pokemon: Hydreigon
Most Known For: uu council, uu mod, uu majors host, back to back uupl winner

Which blobs are the best blobs? I know this is highly contentious so I need an expert opinion.
my absolute favorite is blobcheer. it has been and still is my go-to blob. other than that i adore blobsmilesweat2, blobsweats and blobhammer too. the newly introduced blobguns is pretty great as well

blobcheer


blobsmilesweat2


blobsweats


blobhammer


No love for blobnom? or blobnomcookie?
to be honest picking between blobs is like deciding which of your children you love most (i imagine). it's an impossible decision

(insert blobsmilesweat2 here)

Good answer, things were close to getting heated. Something else that you're known for is puns. What makes a pun great and can you give an example of a great pun?
hmmmmmmm. well i feel a pun has to be clever and apply to the situation at hand. i think being spontaneous and in the moment is key.

r0ady - 04/27/2017
Egypt sounds gross

Omfuga - 04/27/2017
ew hows it gross

Tony - 04/27/2017
Oof r0ady's in the pyramidst of it now

Omfuga - 04/27/2017
njbu9aso d;b'hdsbh-9o[p STOP

Tony - 04/27/2017
Nile do what I want tyvm

Omfuga - 04/27/2017
.

Tony - 04/27/2017
THATS RIGHT

context: omfuga is of egyptian descent


Puns can sometimes be lumped in with dadhumour which is generally of the completely unfunny variety, do you agree with this categorisation?
i gotta say that i have a soft spot for dad jokes. while i arguably have some shortcomings as a potential father, my dad jokes are on point.

I suppose to some extent they do appeal to everyone. And uh speaking of jokes that appeal to everyone, here's something about the TD team.
being a td; the gift that keeps on giving

How accurate is this comic and does it accurately portray your personality?
well i do aim to be a nice and approachable person both irl and on smogon/discord. i'm honored to be considered vibrant too. i admittedly have my weak moments when it comes to being nice, mostly during trophy tournament playoffs. but hey i do what i can

Lets focus on trophy tournaments for a little bit. You're riding a pretty hot streak as a manager reaching the finals in two trophy tours and now looking to clinch one in SPL. What do you think is required to be a successful manager and what do you look for when you draft a team?
i think there is not like a certain way to manage in order to become (almost :[ )successful. i prioritize team chemistry above all else. making sure you have an active and enjoyable team chat is huge, imo. if you like each other and have fun together it becomes much more natural to help each other and work hard too. other than that i'm a very paranoid person that wants to go over every ev, every item etc. even if i don't know the metagame like at all (sorry sken and marilli).

Do you think you'll be making a grand return as a player sometime soon? And do you prefer playing or managing?
yes i wanna play more next year than i did this year. i wanted to manage in snake bc it's a new format and it seemed really interesting to prep for such a draft, but i'm probably going to sign up to play in the next one. and i think managing is more my thing. although in order to be a good manager i feel it's important to play and grasp the game at at least a decent level as well, so i intend to stay sharp and play a bunch of tournaments as well.

Is there any tournament in particular that stands out as a particularly memorable one?
wcop this year was an incredible experience and definitely my favorite tournament so far. we went from not making playoffs in the past few years to making the final and had a fantastic atmosphere throughout our run. both my uupls were amazing as well. the first being as a player lead by the handsome omfuga, the second as a manager with an extremely good team across the board. not sure what my plans are yet for the next uupl but i plan on making it 3/3 wins either way :D

remind me to figure out a way to get on your team To be an effective manager one has to have a good eye for talent, so who, in your opinion are the top prospects for UU this SPL?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm well i don't wanna reveal my preferences too much for strategic reasons, but i think snake tour starters like bugzinator, lycans, manipulative and sacri aren't unlikely to be starters in spl too. christo and dodmen were managers who signed up now so i imagine them playing for sure. bushtush and yourself had strong showings in uu majors, so i wouldn't rule you guys out either. there's a good amount of other uu mains as well, as well as general tournament players willing and able to pick up the tier. should be competitive tier (again)! :O

Oh look at that! I almost forgot to ask you about yourself! I guess your Pokemon career is just too fascinating.
i'm tony and i'm a meds student from the netherlands studying to become a doctor. as previously established i like puns, blobs and pokemon, with uu being one of my favorite metagames. as for uu i guess i'm mostly known as the second most handsome council member after hogg, a whacky team builder and i'm now a moderator as well.

I also MUST mention that I love that we both appreciate the value of Amaroq-based Discord nicknames.

Amaroq your body
Amaroq your world
Amaroq and roll all nite
Amaroqruff
I'm a Rock
Poe Damaroq
Zamaroq
Zamroqin UUPL
Alabamaroq


What and when got you started with competitive mons? did you start immediately with uu?
nah i'm mostly and primarily an ou player, but i enjoy almost every tier. my first experience with competitive pokemon was actually the wii game pokemon battle revolution. you could do 'random wi-fi battles' which was kind of like laddering in 3d without an actual ladder lmao. anyway i wanted to gradually improve my teams and starting looking into it more and more and thus discovered evs, ivs, and eventually the pokemon online simulator. on pokemon online i met feminist activist and overall humanitarian omfuga, who reeled me back into mons through a twitter dm during spl 7. he then told me to sign up for nupl, and after that uupl (he managed in both) and after meeting people like pearl and hogg during those i kind of stuck around in uu. and here we are now i guess lol.

Kommonium-Z and scolipede got banned recently. what are your thoughts on the meta currently? do you think anything needs to be dropped or banned to improve uu right now?
hm well for starters i'm confident that given time we can make uu a good and balanced metagame. we did it during uupl and imo we did it during the mega latias meta as well. i'm happy my fellow council members agreed on the kommonium z and scolipede bans, because they did way more harm than good. i think bl has a few mons that are worth looking into again, but not necessarily because we need to. i think we need to just keep playing and building teams in order to gradually develop the metagame. as for the bl mons that i think have potential to be reintroduced, i think breloom is my current favorite choice. for now i think we await the next round of usage stats first though.

Breloom is one of my top two picks too! do you think that there's any underrated mon running around that deserves more attention?
during snake i was preaching seismitoad a lot, but i think that's picking up in usage and discussion already so i'm not sure how underrated that really is anymore. i also really like bewear and its ability to function both as a breaker and a back-up check to a number of physical attackers thanks to fluffy.

Who do you fuckin love in smogon?
team europe (wcop), my uu mans, bushmasters and the disgusting circlejerks i'm in (you know who you are :heart:). special mention to omfuga.

Lastly, could you share one of your favourite teams?
http://pokepast.es/32df84b48b1fb3c9
the team i built for the snake tour final between bugzi and teal. bugzi also laddered with this to #1. full disclosure, the evs on this import are simplified bc i don't wanna reveal my own. :p i don't think too much of a description is necessary other than maybe worry seed on amoong, which is mostly as a back-up for gliscor (it takes toxic damage after you change its ability), while also preventing crocune and snorlax to rest back to full.

---

thank you so much for taking the time to do the interview Tony. If you have any questions for him. feel free to leave them below! :toast:
 
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Amaroq

Cover me.
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
I hate you and Cynde so much.

General Pokemon Stuff:
Who do you think are the top five SM UU players and why (feel free to list the top ten if you feel like ranking that many players and feel free to skip this entirely if you think it would reveal too much about your SPL draft plan)?

Who do you think are some good up-and-coming UU players?

What do you think of UU's current tournament structure? How do you think it could or should be improved?

What is your opinion regarding the influence Z-Moves have on the competitive metagame? How do you feel about this mechanic?

What do you think should be done to help the UU community continue to grow and develop (feel free to talk about any or all of the following aspects: increasing the size of the playerbase as a whole, increasing the competitiveness of the playerbase at any and all levels, fostering more forum contribution, helping new players network with more experienced players, etc.)?

If you could go back and balance old UU metas, what would you do and why?

Team Tours (UUPL, Snake, SPL. Feel free to skip all or part of these questions if you don't feel comfortable answering them. I know that the UUPL questions in particular are months out of date, but I'm interested in hearing your answers):
What did you think of UUPL/Snake? Did teams and players perform more or less as you expected them to?

Which player or team's performance surprised you the most (this can be positive or negative and applies to both UUPL and Snake, as do most of the following questions)?

How closely did your team's final draft align with your expectations/desires?

What did you think of the auction/draft as a whole?

What good decisions do you think managers made before or during the draft (for example, Shiba retaining HT)?

What bad decisions do you think managers made before or during the draft (for example, Shiba spending 10,000 credits on that Amaroq idiot)?

What decisions related to the draft do you find just plain confusing (for example, Shiba being allowed to manage to begin with)?

Did the various managers draft more or less the way you thought they would, or did some of them surprise you?

What is your thought process when building a team for a Premier League or the Smogon Snake Draft? What plans do you make before the auction/draft? What thoughts do you have and what actions do you take during the auction/draft?

Beyond the obvious "can win games", what do you look for in a player when building a Premier League or Smogon Snake Draft team?

What do you think of the decision to add retention rights and relegations to UUPL?

Do you ever intend to manage UUPL in the future?

What words of wisdom, if any, would you like to share with aspiring managers?

What is your favorite team tour format?

How do you think that managing/playing in SPL differs from smaller Premier Leagues?

Non-Pokemon-Related Questions
How many languages do you speak?

Do you think Smogon provides non-native speakers with opportunities to learn and practice English in a relatively "safe" and supportive environment?

What do you think about meeting and interacting with people from all over the world through Smogon?

Do you watch live-action shows or movies? If so, what genres, shows, and/or movies are your favorite?

Do you play any sports or get any other forms of exercise?

Do you like to read? If so, what books/genres are your favorite(s)?

Thank you for your time, and good luck in SPL.
 
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Sacri'

the end is here
is a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Top Tiering Contributor Alumnus
What makes managing more appealing than playing in team tournaments for you ?

Do you consider getting back to playing soon ? (as in more than a few games in uupl) ?

How do you feel about the UU community as a whole, do you feel like we are doing enough to get people interested in playing uu tournaments or get involved on smogon in general ?

Do you feel like the uu playerbase has been improving this past year ?

Which SPL teams do you expect to do well ?

Any UU games you look forward to in the near future ?

Do you think you'll be able to befriend the entirety of smogon someday ?
 
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i'm fighting both of you in uupl, you hags :triumph:

how often do you eat pasta
not too often, but definitely at least once a week, sometimes more. if you have some hot recommendations then by all means shoot me a pm! c:
What makes managing more appealing than playing in team tournaments for you ?
it just suits me i guess? i enjoy the social aspect of smogon the most and i think my 'skillset' aligns more with management than playing.

Do you consider getting back to playing soon ? (as in more than a few games in uupl) ?
yes. well, i don't think i'll play more than a few in uupl unless i sign up to play (which i might), because as a manager i very much prefer keeping my players happy. i intend to see classic and slam through in 2018, though. i'll probably also sign up to play for the next snake, but who knows. :o

How do you feel about the UU community as a whole, do you feel like we are doing enough to get people interested in playing uu tournaments or get involved on smogon in general ?
yeah i'd say so. i hosted uu majors not too long ago and there were a ton of players from other metagames that signed up to play with sample teams for example. uu open had a huge amount of sign ups, too. :o

Do you feel like the uu playerbase has been improving this past year ?
yes? the uu player base manages a lot in team tournaments though lmao. i think there's room for improvement, but there always is i guess.

Which SPL teams do you expect to do well ?
the wolfpack is winning spl9, so them for sure. i don't think any other team will be anywhere near the wolfpack's level, so just them really. :3

Any UU games you look forward to in the near future ?
uu in spl! all of the games really, but i guess christo's and dodmen's in particular since they didn't play in snake.

Do you think you'll be able to befriend the entirety of smogon someday ?
unfortunately i hate amaroq, so no. :c
alright here we go then... i've legit answered a bunch of these the last time i was interviewed so i'll just answer the uupl/snake ones about snake.

I hate you and Cynde so much.
:heart:


Who do you think are the top five SM UU players and why (feel free to list the top ten if you feel like ranking that many players and feel free to skip this entirely if you think it would reveal too much about your SPL draft plan)?
in alphabetical order: christo, dodmen, lycans, pearl, sacri

Who do you think are some good up-and-coming UU players?
bushtush and cynde were impressive during uu majors, so they're my top 2 in terms of up-and-coming i think. c:

What do you think of UU's current tournament structure? How do you think it could or should be improved?
i think our circuit is hot fire. our tournament structure blows the other lower tiers' out of the water tbh.

What is your opinion regarding the influence Z-Moves have on the competitive metagame? How do you feel about this mechanic?
broken, please ban. just for fun you should glance over at the BL list and think to yourself how many of them were banned just because of Z Crystals. :c

What do you think should be done to help the UU community continue to grow and develop (feel free to talk about any or all of the following aspects: increasing the size of the playerbase as a whole, increasing the competitiveness of the playerbase at any and all levels, fostering more forum contribution, helping new players network with more experienced players, etc.)?
i think we're doing the right things right now! more tournaments = better

If you could go back and balance old UU metas, what would you do and why?
i'm not exceptionally happy with hydreigon staying in oras. :c he's a broken dragon. :c #banentei

What did you think of Snake? Did teams and players perform more or less as you expected them to?
uupl was won by the most handsome group of users and unsurprisingly so. as for snake i think the main observation was the close uu records. no real stand out record (two players with 7 wins being the best). as for the power rankings in snake, i suppose they turned out quite inaccurate. both uu (bugzinator 9th!) and overall teams as well. :o

Which player or team's performance surprised you the most?
i think lacus clyne surprised most people in terms of individual record. i guess the sidewinders underperforming after being ranked 1st in the power rankings surprised as well, although they had their share of unlucky games.

How closely did your team's final draft align with your expectations/desires?
very! it's worth noting that you can only really base your plan off of your 1st round pick, since you don't know the order of the draft beforehand. i will say that i didn't think i'd be able to get both abr and omfuga. i planned drafts for multiple different r1 picks and the abr version turned out very closely to what we had in mind.

What did you think of the auction/draft as a whole?
very interesting. the snake format was really interesting to me and the strategy that comes with it is entertaining as hell.

Did the various managers draft more or less the way you thought they would, or did some of them surprise you?
i think most of them got people they were expected to get. people like their friends and predictable patterns can be found for every team i'd say. bkc drafting sweepage was surprising though!

What is your thought process when building a team for a Premier League or the Smogon Snake Draft? What plans do you make before the auction/draft? What thoughts do you have and what actions do you take during the auction/draft?
i don't want to reveal too much in terms of strategy, but i will say that i primarily focus on team chemistry. having a good atmosphere is the #1 priority in team tournaments in my opinion!!!

Beyond the obvious "can win games", what do you look for in a player when building a Premier League or Smogon Snake Draft team?
that entirely depends on a number of things. if nobody else on the team can build teams well in their respective metagame for example, then i'd want them to be self sufficient in that regard too. and to tie into my answer to the previous question, i look for someone nice, preferably funny and active in the chat. c:

Do you ever intend to manage UUPL in the future?
i'm not sure. i really enjoyed the last uupl, but i don't think i'll be able to draft a team i'd be as happy with as the last one.

What words of wisdom, if any, would you like to share with aspiring managers?
don't draft/manage with gingy!

What is your favorite team tour format?
spl's format is my favorite. having said that i do enjoy all team tours and their formats! c:

How do you think that managing/playing in SPL differs from smaller Premier Leagues?
after having done both i can say i was much more nervous for my debut spl game than the smaller premier league ones. i have now managed in official team tournaments as well, and i lost the final of both. i usually win the premier leagues i join so for that reason alone losing was really shitty, but the fact they were official tournaments definitely adds to it. subforum pls are much more casual, and while the "it's just a game either way" argument can be made, i'm just not like that. i desperately wanted to win both the wcop final and the snake one. :c

How many languages do you speak?
i used to speak 4 languages at a decent enough level, but my french and german have been lacking of late. fluent in dutch and considering i'm a 'foreigner' i suppose my english is fine too.

Do you think Smogon provides non-native speakers with opportunities to learn and practice English in a relatively "safe" and supportive environment?
it provides them with opportunities sure, whether or not those are safe i wouldn't be so sure of. :p

What do you think about meeting and interacting with people from all over the world through Smogon?
it's the best part about the whole thing! i don't even like pokemon!

Do you watch live-action shows or movies? If so, what genres, shows, and/or movies are your favorite?
i do! i don't really eliminate anything based on its respective genre; if something might be good i'll give it a shot. i like comedies i find them funny, but i hold them to a very high standard so i eliminate a ton of them. my favorite shows are the serious but superbly executed ones. the best example of which being the wire.

Do you play any sports or get any other forms of exercise?
i play football casually. i used to play at a high youth level, but i just play with friends for fun now. i worked at a fitness centre for a number of years and still have a membership there now, but i admittedly don't go as much anymore. :c

Do you like to read? If so, what books/genres are your favorite(s)?
i do! i also read a lot of publications in the medical field, but i won't bore you with those. my favorite genre in terms of books are crime thrillers most likely. i haven't picked up a book in quite a while though, maybe i should..

Thank you for your time, and good luck in SPL.
no, thank you!
 

pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
Sorry I should have asked before you posted - but if you're still answering -

How much of Pokémon do you think is luck and how much is skill? Is it fair to describe Pokémon like that?
 

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