Interview with kokoloko and Limitless

Interview and flavor by EonX. Art by Andrew and Bummer.

I'm walking about, looking for a tall building that's said to be a bustling hive of activity. It takes me a while, but I finally find it, along with the two people I'm due to meet up with to discuss the upcoming UU Open. We shake hands and find a table just outside the building to sit down.

Obviously the UU Open is one of the premier tournaments that focuses on UU, so I'm sure you're both excited for it to start, but before we discuss that, I'd like to get both of your thoughts on the current state of UU as a whole as we close in on the start of the UU Open.

UU is a very fun metagame, but currently misunderstood. The phenomena that I started (pink core) has given UU a bad name, in my opinion. People think it's a very defensive and stallish metagame. But it's far from it. Bulky offense is by far the best playstyle at the moment. Stall and heavy offense are the worst, but definitely still viable against unsuspecting opponents.

UU is, in my opinion, the only good tier in XY. I legitimately think the way we approached tiering this generation has made a huge impact on how quickly we got to a balanced state. This is amazing for something as important as the UU Open, since it means we won't be making any drastic changes mid-tournament like every other open is bound to do. Regarding the actual metagame state, yeah I agree with Limitless that he ruined people's perception of UU—as always, fucking shit up. zzzz.

I raise an eyebrow at the last comment while Limitless simply chuckles and shakes his head as if he's used to this kind of thing.

Hm, I see. Since you touched on the UU Tiering Policy kokoloko, do either of you think that the different way UU goes about Tiering things may have an affect on the UU Open? Or is it just one of those things people read too much into?

I definitely think the latter is the case. As I said before, the tier is balanced and will pretty much remain the same for the entirety of the open (bar the drops that will happen in September, but that's not tiering policy-related), so unless people are talking about their inability to test teams for a suspect-less metagame on the ladder, then no, UU tiering won't be affecting the tournament in the slightest.

We're definitely going to be seeing more diverse teams. The way that we do tiering pushes anything even remotely broken out of the metagame till we can test them. What this means is that the metagame is far from centralized. This leaves an abundant amount of creativity and playstyles competitively viable compared to other metagames, where they would try and exploit the most broken elements.

And creativity and versatility is never a bad thing. Staying on UU as a whole for the moment, care to discuss the past month or so? It surely seems to have been a crazy one with all of the drops from the June tier shift.

Yeah, the June drops completely changed the metagame. Before that, stall was a hell of a lot more viable, but then the monsters known as Lucario and Infernape dropped, and stall shat its last brick. Don't get me wrong, stall is stall and will still do what it always does—beat garbage players—but its overall viability took a hit with the drops. The shifts also caused the council to look at suspects differently, I think. Since then, the rest of the council has been a lot more lenient and voted more towards the UU side—as you can see by Haxorus's reintroduction into UU. Whether or not this means we've given up on stall as a playstyle worth preserving I can't say, but I believe pure stall is a garbage playstyle anyway, and if it wants to survive, it should adapt to its metagame.

Though we got a lot of interesting drops like Infernape and Lucario, I'd have to say the most game changing Pokemon that dropped was Blissey. It's not the most flashy Pokemon, but it made a lot of special sweepers in the metagame flat out unviable. We used to see things like Porygon-Z, Vivillon, and Mega Houndoom be very effective special sweepers, but not anymore. Without even being able to break Blissey, they just became wasted slots on a team. This also presented an interesting case with Hydreigon, who now has a lot less pressure with Blissey in the metagame, specifically in regards to Mega Houndoom. In regards to if I think the June drops affected how effective defensive teams are, I don't agree with that. I think the metagame just adjusted.

My stomach goes in a few knots at the mere mention of Blissey. "I must really hate that fat, pink blob," I think to myself.

Couple of interesting takes on it. Ok, and now to what everyone wants to know. There are quite a few people participating in the UU Open, but who are some of the favorites we should be watching to possibly make it all the way to the Finals and why?

hmm... the obvious picks are the UU titans Nas (aka RT), FlareBlitz (if he even joined), Limitless, myself, bad ass, and other council members like Kushalos and Calloflochie, but I think Bloo and McMeghan will pull their usual "I play every tier equally well" bullshit and somehow make it in deep, lol. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few of the other obvious picks, but I'm too lazy too go check the signups.

I'm just going to specifically focus on UU players (everyone else just steals our teams). Some of the top players I think could win are FLCL, Bad Ass, Psychotic, kokoloko (if he stops posting every team he builds), and Meru. Besides Meru, all of these players have loads of tournament experience. That combined with extensive UU experience will be the game changers. In my opinion though, the winner of this tournament will be the one that uses the most creativity, which any of these players could use.

A lot of solid choices there. I wouldn't bet against them, that's for sure. Straying away from the big names everybody is probably familiar with, who do you have your eye on as a potential dark horse in the UU Open who may sneak up and beat some of the top players and why?

kokoloko sighs, and begins looking through numerous sheets of paper. Limitless smirks slightly before answering.

Some lesser known players would be Kitten Milk, Calloflochie, and st123. All three of these players are extremely creative. For Kitten Milk and Calloflochie, if they were able to convert their very creative and competitive sets into solid teams, they'd be top competitors for sure. Most players who frequent UU knows that st123 (known as xmarth on the ladder) isn't really a small name. But for everyone else, he's a dark horse. If I had to pick a dark horse, and he actually tried, st123 would be my pick.

I guess I'm gonna have to check the signups anyway huh? I think if I had to make a pick for a dark horse it'd probably be Swamp Link. He's shown to be pretty proficient at the game in general and has been pretty solid in UU from what I've seen. There's also ladder players who joined the tournament like Fat Lenny and The Leprechaun who could do well if they can adapt to the tournament environment. Also marth didn't join, scrub Limitless.

Limitless sighs, as if he's saddened by this news or frustrated that he didn't know this off-hand.

Also kael because he rules. That is all.

I believe that qualifies under "actually tried."

I can't help but chuckle at kokoloko's evil grin and Limitless's clear frustration.

Some interesting names that we'll have to be on the lookout for. Has having a co-host made it easier to organize a big tournament such as this one?

Nope, I still did all the work.

kokoloko gives Limitless a quick glare while Limitless just stares at kokoloko, almost as if he's asking "are you serious right now? really?"

What he means is, he organized round 1, and I have everything after that.

Uh-huh, I see. I'm almost done, but there's one question left. After all of the battles have been waged, if neither one of you wins the final battle, who will we be crowning as UU Open Champion?

kokoloko begins to answer, but stops immediately, almost as if he forgot part of the question for a moment.

If not me, I'd have to say Bad Ass. He's shown that he can build high-caliber teams with a good amount of creativity involved.

Me, but since I can't say me, then FLCL. Or Bad Ass. FLCL will win if he manages to not give any fucks while Bad Ass will win if he manages to give a few. Only time will tell.

Alright then. We'll see if those predictions come true. Anyway, thank you for taking some time to talk about the UU Open, and best of luck to both of you in the UU Open, as well as all future tournaments you two happen to participate in.

No problem, shoutout to Edgar for being canamexican and to cbb for having found true love.

I shake both of their hands, although kokoloko keeps a firm grip on my hand to give me a bit of a glare. They both walk off back toward the building as they have plenty to do if they hope to emerge victorious.