Interview with up-and-comer, Lavos Spawn!

Interview and flavor by ballabrown24. Art by RitterCat.

I walk into a dark alley in Boise, Idaho. My regular guy was not there. I turn around and was shocked to see rising star Lavos Spawn looking directly at me. I fear that he is suspicious of my activities. I formulate a plan to interview him, as to decrease his suspicion of me. Luckily, he accepts. Now I just have to think of questions to ask.

First and foremost, Lavos, your name originates from the game Chrono Trigger. How much of Chrono Trigger have you actually finished?

I have finished all of CT many, many times, and it's still the best game I've ever played.

Ah! So I see. With that now out of the way let's get into the serious stuff. Although you are fairly new to the Smogon competitive scene, you have caused quite a stir among battlers with your impressive battling ability and unique attitude. How do you respond to this uproar?

First of all, thanks for the compliment. I wouldn't exactly call my battling skills "impressive". I think there are two reasons why I caused such a stir on Smogon.

One is, of course, that I was a complete asshole the first 2-3 weeks of WCoP. I treated my opponents like trash, didn't respect anyone else's opinion, etc. Obviously that's going to make some people upset.

The other reason, though, is that I don't think Smogon is used to having random inexperienced players joining one of their major tournaments, tying for the most wins overall, and finishing with a trophy. I think I caught some people off-guard, and they disliked me because of it.

To those who said I wasn't worth shit after losing my first match, I hope I proved them dead wrong.

There has been a user like you before by the name of Snunch. He dominated SPL in his second season and went on to win ST8 despite being hassled early in his career. Do you think you can replicate Snunch's success, and how?

It's going to take a while before I deserve to be compared with Snunch. I helped my team win WCoP, but he won ST8 all by himself, a much bigger feat in my opinion. However, I do feel like I'll be able to match Snunch in the long run. Hell, I just started playing this game a few months ago. I've got a lot of time to work on my game, and I'm not going away anytime soon.

I'm going to stick to my guns and ignore the haters, and I promise you'll be seeing a lot more of me in upcoming tours.

I hope I do! Now many users originate from smaller forums other than Smogon. Is there a forum that you consider your birthplace and do you still keep it closest to your heart?

I started out on the PokeBattleCenter forum, back in late November of last year. I wasn't very active, and didn't find it very appealing, so I quit it in February and found Smogon a month later. Gotta say, Smogon is far superior to all the other Pokemon forums, mainly because there are less idiots.

Unfortunately, even in the most desolate corner of the globe, there is always a reyscarface or two.

Speaking of reyscarface, is there a player that you truly dislike to the bone, or just think is outright overrated?

Yondie was the first person in WCoP to tell me I wasn't good enough to compete on Smogon's level. I've borne a grudge ever since. I've got a trophy and he doesn't, though.

F**king wrecked, if I do say so myself.

Ah yes, I would imagine West's victory over Yondie's team in the Finals made that trophy even sweeter. On a lighter note, are there any players that you admire or think are on a completely different level?

Yes, I legitimately admire two people on Smogon, and I was lucky enough to have both of them as my teammates in WCoP.

First, Philip7086, the recent Frontier winner and all-around good guy. Not only is he a fantastic battler, he's one of the most sincere and friendly people I know.

The other one is Oristeros, a guy with under 20 posts but still the best OU battler I've ever seen. The first time I played against him, he wiped the floor with me. Ever since I've been following his battles closely and he never ceases to amaze me. Misplays are once in a blue moon for him. He's on a whole different level than his competition.

You had a lot of success in the WCoP, with BW1 now being a dead metagame, what was your key to success? What playstyle did you prefer the most?

My key to success is being unpredictable. Nobody knew who I was coming into the tournament, and I used that to my advantage. I switched playstyles almost every round; from balanced sand to weatherless hyper offense to balanced rain to sun offense.

Of all those that I used, I'd have to say my preferred team was the HO I used in matches 2 and 3 of prelims, consisting of Aerodactyl/Rotom-W/Salamence/Scizor/Lucario/Cloyster. I would have kept using it throughout the tour, but one of the logs was leaked before Round 2, so I had to ditch the team.

He has played directly into my trap, now to play the question we have all been dying to know.

Speaking of leaked logs, how do you view the mostwanted / reyscarface drama that caused reyscarface to lose his badge?

I can't claim to know much about it. All I can say is that I'm glad rey lost his badge. Any member that behaves like him does not deserve to represent this fine community.

I was legitimately surprised that he even answered this question, so I will take it. Besides, any bashing on reyscarface is good material.

Yes, reyscarface does indeed, suck. Now one of the more notable new Tournament rules was the Sportsmanship rule. This rule was brought largely in part to Folgorio's constant bitching. How do you feel about this rule?

Thank god for it lol. Before the Sportsmanship rule was enacted, I saw no end to the relentless bitchfest in WCoP thread. Once it was implemented, I was glad to see the unsportsmanlike conduct die down quite a bit.

Whoever decided to make that rule, props to you.

I agree, the sportsmanship on Smogon is outrageously bad, especially all of Latin America's. To end things off I want to get some predictions out of you. Who do you think will win the Smogon Grand Slam, and who do you think will win Smogon Tour 14, other than yourself, of course.

I don't even care who wins Grand Slam. Let's say Phil, just for kicks.

For Smogon Tour 14, I'd certainly like to win it, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the Spanish wonder Malekith will redeem his subpar finals showing last time and take this Tour.

Both are undoubtably strong choices and we could easily see that outcome in the near future! Unfortunately, that's all the questions my brain could conjure up, but I'd like to thank you again for taking your time to answer Smogon's most burning questions. Good luck in your future endeavors!

Thanks for the interview, I'll take all the publicity I can get. Good luck to you too.

We say our goodbyes and go our separate ways. I take this time to reflect on how shitty Eo Ut Mortus is.