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Doubles OU Player of the Week #41 - Stax
- Thread starter ryo yamada2001
- Start date
Not really, I kinda like walking around my room before though, it kinda helps me get off of autopilot. It isn't much of a ritual though. However, I do have a ritual AFTER games (if I get SAVAGED) If I get smashed really fuckin hard in a game (i.e. losing to Tricking's Nidoran-M in POWC), I end up watching a bunch of Korean shows/an anime to take away the sadness. I don't watch them otherwise though.
yea definitely that watermelon bomb slot won't fill up itself.
Hi everyone, sorry for this way overdue interview. MajorBowman should've been interviewed quite a while ago but I'm lazy. However, I've picked up motivation again so I'll be dropping some hot interviews the following weeks and we're starting with #33, MajorBowman.
1. Hi there! Could you tell us who you are by giving a small introduction about yourself?
Hey my name is Jake, and I’m a 21 year old Meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma. I spent 2 years at Auburn University before coming to OU, and l’ll be here for 2 more years before probably going to grad school. I was born in Orlando and lived there until I went off to college, but my family moved to Dallas after my freshman year. After I’m finally done with school I’d love to forecast for an airline or for the National Weather Service.
2. Where does your username come from, and why did you stick with it?
This is really lame, but back in 9th grade I was playing Call of Duty with a friend and we kept getting no-scoped by this guy named MajorBowman. I thought the name was cool so I just…“borrowed” it. It wasn’t registered on any of the sites I ever frequented so it stuck. The number of times someone has assumed my last name is Bowman is actually pretty funny.
3. When did you start playing competitive Pokémon, when did you start playing competitive Doubles, and why did you stick around?
I got into competitive Pokemon at the tail end of the DPP era. I definitely remember playing during the period between the Japanese and American release of BW because some of the Japanese names of BW Pokemon stuck in my head, RANKURUSU being my favorite. I mostly just stuck with OU, dabbling in UU and Monotype, until stumbling upon the live stream of the 2013 VGC World Championships. I had no idea there was a live circuit and I thought it would be fun to try a different format, so I picked up VGC and that’s been my main format ever since. Around mid 2015 I started to play some DOU games after seeing a blog post from Braverius with all the teams he used in SPL that year. I played off and on until a couple weeks before SPL 7 started, when I dove in and tried to learn more about the metagame in case I was drafted. Thankfully that worked out pretty well. I’ve stuck around because the people I’ve met through Pokemon are pretty great, and I’m glad I can call a lot of them my friends. Competing is fun and all, but it would be a lot less enjoyable if it weren’t for the people.
4. What is your favourite Pokémon to use competitively and why? What is your favourite Pokémon overall and why?
From just a feelgood standpoint, Mega Metagross is definitely my favorite Pokemon to use competitively. I used my Substitute Mega Metagross team almost exclusively for the first 4-5 months of the VGC 2015 season and got super comfortable with it. I broke onto the VGC scene with this team at 2015 Missouri Regionals and used it again at the last 2015 Premier Challenge on December 31, so it’s pretty safe to say it means a lot to me. Metagross is even fun to use in DOU! I brought it to one of my SPL matches and have a few more teams with it too. If you want a boring answer, I guess Landorus is probably my favorite Pokemon to use competitively because it’s just so good. I’m even the poster child for the THANK YOU GENIES meme!
Overall my favorite Pokemon is easily Victini. He’s so cute and adorable and if you try to fight me and say another Pokemon is better I will win because Victini is literally the Victory Pokemon.
5. Do you think there's a Pokemon or set that is currently underrated in the meta?
I’ve liked Choice Scarf Kyurem-B a lot when I’ve used it. The ability to outspeed and bop Pokemon like Mega Diancie and Choice Scarf Landorus is really valuable, particularly for Charizard teams. I’ve used the Sub Lefties set too and I definitely see its value, but Scarf feels a lot more immediately threatening to me.
6. Do you believe there is anything broken or suspect worthy in the current metagame?
It might be because I come from a format where player-initiated bans don’t exist, but the concept of a Pokemon being ban worthy isn’t something that I often think about. I’m quicker to make sure teams I use have good matchups against the best Pokemon than campaign for their removal. You probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I don’t think Mega Salamence should have been banned in DOU, but that’s a different conversation. I think the only things I would actively like to see suspected are things that take the outcome of the game out of the players’ control, like Swagger or Moody.
7. Could you give us a team that resembles your playing and building style and give a little explanation about it?
This is the team I used in my first SPL 7 match vs TFC. I also used a variation of it vs Kamikaze in DPL with Hoopa-U over Rotom. I really like Pokemon that are bulky enough to stick around but still exert some offensive pressure, and I feel like every Pokemon on this team follows that standard. The Charizard spread is a pretty good example of the balance between offense and defense I enjoy, surviving a couple common strong attacks will still using a Modest nature to threaten KOs. Having solid switch options is also pretty important to me, and there is rarely a situation when you can’t switch one of Aegislash or Landorus in pretty easily. When teambuilding, I’ll usually start with the mega or a specific core and go from there. In this case, I wanted to build a Charizard team since I hadn’t seen too many around and thought people may not be prepared. Ironically, TFC also brought Charizard to our SPL match.
8. Do you think there is a significant difference between Doubles and VGC players in building and/or playing?
There is definitely a difference between DOU and VGC in building and playing aside from the obviously different banlists. I think the biggest one is 6v6 in DOU vs Bring 6 Pick 4 in VGC. Team Preview is a lot more important in VGC, since you have not only prepare for leads but guess which 2 Pokemon they will leave behind while also determining which 2 of your Pokemon aren’t necessary for the matchup. KO’s are also much less significant in DOU than in VGC since you’re losing a smaller portion of your team. One aspect of teambuilding that’s pretty different is the option in VGC to run two mega evolutions. That’s way less viable in DOU since you can’t just leave your second mega behind.
9. What do you play outside of Doubles and VGC, what are your favourite metas and why?
If I’m not playing DOU or VGC I’m probably just screwing around in Random Triples. I don’t actively play any other metas, but sometimes when I’m curious I’ll rip a team from the RMT section and play some games in a new tier. I also mod the VGC room on Showdown and I’ll start some fun tournaments from time to time, like Battle Factory or Monotype Random Battles.
10. How is it to work together with KyleCole and other VGC players on the Oreburgh Ancients?
I was really happy that our team turned out the way it did. Kyle had told me that was his plan beforehand and I couldn’t have pictured a better team. I’m good friends with Sam and Dawg and Kyle had asked me to record a couple YouTube videos with him already so I knew there would be some great chemistry.
11. Who do you think will be the toughest opponent(s) in the DPL?
I thought Stratos and qsns had the best drafts (aside from the Ancients, of course). We already played Stratos’ team and ended up tying, so I’m looking forward to playing the Space Jams soon. I talk to qsns a good bit since we were SPL teammates, so that’ll be a fun match.
12. A lot of people doubted you before the SPL, but you went off with a 4-0 record. Do you feel like you've established yourself as a top-tier player now?
I don’t know if I’d say top-tier player. I have a really bad record in seasonals, I think I’ve only won 1 set that didn’t go to activity. I do feel like I got pretty unlucky in most of those losses but it’s not really an excuse, I need to step up my game in that arena. I am definitely proud of my SPL record and I think I’ve proven I can hang with the best, I just need to make sure I bring my A game to every tournament set.
13. What are your hobbies outside of playing Pokemon? What are you interested in?
I mentioned I’m studying Meteorology, which is a relatively demanding major, so a lot of my time is spent at the National Weather Center on OU’s campus doing homework or studying with some of my friends. I have a job as a research assistant with one of my professors that involves editing radar data from a big field study performed last summer, so I put a good amount of time into that as well. I love watching and playing tennis. I played 4 years of varsity in high school and 2 years of club tennis at Auburn. I still play off and on, but I have less free time than I used to so it’s become harder to play regularly. As for other video games, I love Destiny. A lot of my friends at OU play Destiny as well, so it makes for a good time.
14. Is there anything else you would like to say or speak about? Is there anyone you want to shoutout?
Gotta give a big shout out to tennisace for taking a chance and picking me up for SPL. Glad I could do you proud and hope to see you again soon. Also thanks to qsns for being a great teammate and throwing teams at me/testing with me during SPL, I really appreciated your help. This was a fun interview, thanks for the opportunity and the honor. I'm looking forward to getting more involved in Doubles in the future!
1. Hi there! Could you tell us who you are by giving a small introduction about yourself?
Hey my name is Jake, and I’m a 21 year old Meteorology student at the University of Oklahoma. I spent 2 years at Auburn University before coming to OU, and l’ll be here for 2 more years before probably going to grad school. I was born in Orlando and lived there until I went off to college, but my family moved to Dallas after my freshman year. After I’m finally done with school I’d love to forecast for an airline or for the National Weather Service.
2. Where does your username come from, and why did you stick with it?
This is really lame, but back in 9th grade I was playing Call of Duty with a friend and we kept getting no-scoped by this guy named MajorBowman. I thought the name was cool so I just…“borrowed” it. It wasn’t registered on any of the sites I ever frequented so it stuck. The number of times someone has assumed my last name is Bowman is actually pretty funny.
3. When did you start playing competitive Pokémon, when did you start playing competitive Doubles, and why did you stick around?
I got into competitive Pokemon at the tail end of the DPP era. I definitely remember playing during the period between the Japanese and American release of BW because some of the Japanese names of BW Pokemon stuck in my head, RANKURUSU being my favorite. I mostly just stuck with OU, dabbling in UU and Monotype, until stumbling upon the live stream of the 2013 VGC World Championships. I had no idea there was a live circuit and I thought it would be fun to try a different format, so I picked up VGC and that’s been my main format ever since. Around mid 2015 I started to play some DOU games after seeing a blog post from Braverius with all the teams he used in SPL that year. I played off and on until a couple weeks before SPL 7 started, when I dove in and tried to learn more about the metagame in case I was drafted. Thankfully that worked out pretty well. I’ve stuck around because the people I’ve met through Pokemon are pretty great, and I’m glad I can call a lot of them my friends. Competing is fun and all, but it would be a lot less enjoyable if it weren’t for the people.
4. What is your favourite Pokémon to use competitively and why? What is your favourite Pokémon overall and why?
From just a feelgood standpoint, Mega Metagross is definitely my favorite Pokemon to use competitively. I used my Substitute Mega Metagross team almost exclusively for the first 4-5 months of the VGC 2015 season and got super comfortable with it. I broke onto the VGC scene with this team at 2015 Missouri Regionals and used it again at the last 2015 Premier Challenge on December 31, so it’s pretty safe to say it means a lot to me. Metagross is even fun to use in DOU! I brought it to one of my SPL matches and have a few more teams with it too. If you want a boring answer, I guess Landorus is probably my favorite Pokemon to use competitively because it’s just so good. I’m even the poster child for the THANK YOU GENIES meme!
Overall my favorite Pokemon is easily Victini. He’s so cute and adorable and if you try to fight me and say another Pokemon is better I will win because Victini is literally the Victory Pokemon.
5. Do you think there's a Pokemon or set that is currently underrated in the meta?
I’ve liked Choice Scarf Kyurem-B a lot when I’ve used it. The ability to outspeed and bop Pokemon like Mega Diancie and Choice Scarf Landorus is really valuable, particularly for Charizard teams. I’ve used the Sub Lefties set too and I definitely see its value, but Scarf feels a lot more immediately threatening to me.
6. Do you believe there is anything broken or suspect worthy in the current metagame?
It might be because I come from a format where player-initiated bans don’t exist, but the concept of a Pokemon being ban worthy isn’t something that I often think about. I’m quicker to make sure teams I use have good matchups against the best Pokemon than campaign for their removal. You probably wouldn’t be surprised to learn that I don’t think Mega Salamence should have been banned in DOU, but that’s a different conversation. I think the only things I would actively like to see suspected are things that take the outcome of the game out of the players’ control, like Swagger or Moody.
7. Could you give us a team that resembles your playing and building style and give a little explanation about it?
Charizard-Mega-Y @ Charizardite Y
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 232 HP / 56 Def / 112 SpD / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Protect
Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 108 Atk / 44 Def / 132 SpA / 224 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Iron Head
- Fusion Bolt
Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- Knock Off
Aegislash @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
Conkeldurr @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 108 HP / 152 Atk / 104 Def / 144 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 16 Spe
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off
Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 100 SpA / 40 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 232 HP / 56 Def / 112 SpD / 108 Spe
Modest Nature
- Overheat
- Heat Wave
- Solar Beam
- Protect
Kyurem-Black @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Teravolt
EVs: 108 Atk / 44 Def / 132 SpA / 224 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Ice Beam
- Earth Power
- Iron Head
- Fusion Bolt
Landorus-Therian @ Assault Vest
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Superpower
- Knock Off
Aegislash @ Safety Goggles
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Spe
- Shadow Ball
- Flash Cannon
- Wide Guard
- King's Shield
Conkeldurr @ Assault Vest
Ability: Iron Fist
EVs: 108 HP / 152 Atk / 104 Def / 144 SpD
Adamant Nature
IVs: 16 Spe
- Drain Punch
- Mach Punch
- Ice Punch
- Knock Off
Rotom-Wash @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Levitate
EVs: 252 HP / 116 Def / 100 SpA / 40 SpD
Calm Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Protect
This is the team I used in my first SPL 7 match vs TFC. I also used a variation of it vs Kamikaze in DPL with Hoopa-U over Rotom. I really like Pokemon that are bulky enough to stick around but still exert some offensive pressure, and I feel like every Pokemon on this team follows that standard. The Charizard spread is a pretty good example of the balance between offense and defense I enjoy, surviving a couple common strong attacks will still using a Modest nature to threaten KOs. Having solid switch options is also pretty important to me, and there is rarely a situation when you can’t switch one of Aegislash or Landorus in pretty easily. When teambuilding, I’ll usually start with the mega or a specific core and go from there. In this case, I wanted to build a Charizard team since I hadn’t seen too many around and thought people may not be prepared. Ironically, TFC also brought Charizard to our SPL match.
8. Do you think there is a significant difference between Doubles and VGC players in building and/or playing?
There is definitely a difference between DOU and VGC in building and playing aside from the obviously different banlists. I think the biggest one is 6v6 in DOU vs Bring 6 Pick 4 in VGC. Team Preview is a lot more important in VGC, since you have not only prepare for leads but guess which 2 Pokemon they will leave behind while also determining which 2 of your Pokemon aren’t necessary for the matchup. KO’s are also much less significant in DOU than in VGC since you’re losing a smaller portion of your team. One aspect of teambuilding that’s pretty different is the option in VGC to run two mega evolutions. That’s way less viable in DOU since you can’t just leave your second mega behind.
9. What do you play outside of Doubles and VGC, what are your favourite metas and why?
If I’m not playing DOU or VGC I’m probably just screwing around in Random Triples. I don’t actively play any other metas, but sometimes when I’m curious I’ll rip a team from the RMT section and play some games in a new tier. I also mod the VGC room on Showdown and I’ll start some fun tournaments from time to time, like Battle Factory or Monotype Random Battles.
10. How is it to work together with KyleCole and other VGC players on the Oreburgh Ancients?
I was really happy that our team turned out the way it did. Kyle had told me that was his plan beforehand and I couldn’t have pictured a better team. I’m good friends with Sam and Dawg and Kyle had asked me to record a couple YouTube videos with him already so I knew there would be some great chemistry.
11. Who do you think will be the toughest opponent(s) in the DPL?
I thought Stratos and qsns had the best drafts (aside from the Ancients, of course). We already played Stratos’ team and ended up tying, so I’m looking forward to playing the Space Jams soon. I talk to qsns a good bit since we were SPL teammates, so that’ll be a fun match.
12. A lot of people doubted you before the SPL, but you went off with a 4-0 record. Do you feel like you've established yourself as a top-tier player now?
I don’t know if I’d say top-tier player. I have a really bad record in seasonals, I think I’ve only won 1 set that didn’t go to activity. I do feel like I got pretty unlucky in most of those losses but it’s not really an excuse, I need to step up my game in that arena. I am definitely proud of my SPL record and I think I’ve proven I can hang with the best, I just need to make sure I bring my A game to every tournament set.
13. What are your hobbies outside of playing Pokemon? What are you interested in?
I mentioned I’m studying Meteorology, which is a relatively demanding major, so a lot of my time is spent at the National Weather Center on OU’s campus doing homework or studying with some of my friends. I have a job as a research assistant with one of my professors that involves editing radar data from a big field study performed last summer, so I put a good amount of time into that as well. I love watching and playing tennis. I played 4 years of varsity in high school and 2 years of club tennis at Auburn. I still play off and on, but I have less free time than I used to so it’s become harder to play regularly. As for other video games, I love Destiny. A lot of my friends at OU play Destiny as well, so it makes for a good time.
14. Is there anything else you would like to say or speak about? Is there anyone you want to shoutout?
Gotta give a big shout out to tennisace for taking a chance and picking me up for SPL. Glad I could do you proud and hope to see you again soon. Also thanks to qsns for being a great teammate and throwing teams at me/testing with me during SPL, I really appreciated your help. This was a fun interview, thanks for the opportunity and the honor. I'm looking forward to getting more involved in Doubles in the future!
Good interview, good to see someone who also appreciates Metagross in dubs :D I didn't realize that you were the guy who used Sub Mega Metagross in VGC and made it known. When I first heard of it, I tried it out in DOU and fell in love with it, that thing's dope and it got me some success in big tours around here too. Good to see you around in DOU bro 
>mfw name isn't capitalized :'(
I don't know if I have a favorite playstyle actually. I guess my teambuilding tends to gravitate towards balance, but there are times I like to go hard with offense or play it really slow. I guess it depends on the team I'm using and the state of the game.
I wasn't playing DOU when Skymin was still legal so I never really saw it in action. I guess I wouldn't be opposed to it being retested, but playing against base 127 Serene Grace Air Slash sounds: not fun
wtf is an audino
I tried so hard to work that joke in somewhere but I couldn't do it naturally :(
kyle kamikaze arcticblast in that order
I don't know if I have a favorite playstyle actually. I guess my teambuilding tends to gravitate towards balance, but there are times I like to go hard with offense or play it really slow. I guess it depends on the team I'm using and the state of the game.
I wasn't playing DOU when Skymin was still legal so I never really saw it in action. I guess I wouldn't be opposed to it being retested, but playing against base 127 Serene Grace Air Slash sounds: not fun
wtf is an audino
FURIOUS. Not sure if I'm going to KC, but I'm definitely excited for Madison!
I expect nothing less
dont bring me into your fetishes pls
does ur meteorology degree help vs weather teams?
here i am again with a
interview
1. Hi there! Could you tell us who you are by giving a small introduction about yourself?
Hi! My name is Sam, I'm an 18 year old college student from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I'm majoring in Journalism and plan to attend the University of Wisconsin in a few years. I like dogs a lot, leave dog pics below please
2. When did you start playing competitive Pokémon, when did you start playing competitive Doubles, and why did you stick around?
I started with competitive Pokemon in the summer of 2013. I found Pokemon Online through some Youtube video, then moved to Pokemon Showdown. I just hung around in lobby like a casual, joining Challonge tournaments before the Tournaments feature existed. I ended up on a server called Amethyst and stuck around there for a long time playing singles formats. Eventually through a number of outside factors including Tumblr and the Justin Flynn Facebook group, I ended up playing VGC. I've been doing that for over 2 years now, and my good friend Braverius interested me in Doubles OU through his SPL teams and seeing that I could use my favorites like Keldeo. I've stuck around mainly due to the amazing VGC and DOU communities, both are amazing and I've made a ton of friends in both.
3. What is your favourite Pokémon to use competitively and why? What is your favourite Pokémon overall and why?
My favorite Pokemon to use competitively is probably Porygon2. I used it at Fort Wayne Regionals to win a 92 person premier challenge and Top 16 that regional. It was such an amazing Pokemon at the end of 2015 and I really wish we would have had that format another year instead of VGC 2016, which is incredibly awful and none of you ever try it please.
My favorite overall is Totodile, Pokemon Silver was my favorite game and I remember doing a Totodile solo run as a kid. Not as a challenge, it just never occurred to me that catching other Pokemon as anything other than HM slaves was a good idea
I also really like Porygon and Meloetta, I can't wait for the 20th anniversary Meloetta stuff this December
4. Do you think there's a Pokemon or set that is currently underrated in the meta?
I think Porygon2 is generally undervalued. Ice Beam/HP Ground give it Kyube like coverage with a lo of bulk, reliable recovery, and you can go with Trick Room, Toxic, or another coverage move in the 4th slot. Might be my VGC 15 bias, but it was honestly amazing there and I think it deserves some use. Honorable mentions: AV Landorus-T (<3 u Stratos), Hoopa-U, and Reuniclus
5. Do you believe there is anything broken or suspect worthy in the current metagame?
I'd like to see a Mence suspect without Jirachi a lot. Salamence really was insanely balanced and offered so many more team archetypes that I think would be helpful to the DOU metagame. Jirachi is insanely good and I think it deserves a suspect at the least, although I'm not sure about a ban necessarily. I also just really want an excuse to play my favorite VGC 15 teams in DOU.
6. Could you give us a team that resembles your playing and building style and give a little explanation about it?
[sample team]
I'm gonna go with my SAMple team. I generally tend to only build with Kang, Gardevoir, or Diancie, and tend to like a lot of balance teams that give me opportunities to make big plays. I don't build very many teams that don't include Landorus-T since it's just an insanely good Pokemon, and like to have redirection on almost every team as well. Thundurus is one of my favorite Pokemon as well, even as something I didn't use much in VGC 15 I appreciate it a lot more in this meta. I also tend to favor Amoonguss over Jirachi for its ability to check Azumarill and Trick Room more effectively. I'm also a huge supporter of non-prankster Encore, whether its on Gardevoir, Politoed, etc. I also tend to use Heatran much more than I did in VGC 15 since you can use it much more freely as a win condition. I think it's a better option than Volcanion on a lot of teams that we've been seeing recently, but people just want to test out the new Pokemon rather than build efficient teams. (this also includes myself on a few ssnls/dpl teams)
7. Do you think there is a significant difference between Doubles and VGC players in building and/or playing?
I think VGC players naturally favor the things we used in VGC 15 (see: AV Lando, Shucatran) but on the whole I don't think our teams are too dissimilar. I really like a lot of the teams me and Majorbowman have used in DPL/Seasonals/his run in SPL. I think the tier can definitely be expanded upon in teambuilding, Gardevoir seems to be pretty under appreciated in my experience for how good of a mega it is. I think Diancie teams can go a lot further as well, it's just a mega that has so many strong stats and options that the teambuilding around it has so much potential. As far as playing goes, I think VGC players tend to think a lot more about leads since it's something that we're forced to consider extensively when we play VGC.
8. How is it to work together with KyleCole and other VGC players on the Oreburgh Ancients? Do you think having fellow VGC players on the team helps?
I think it's both a positive and a negative. It builds a strong synergy between MajorBowman, Dawg, Kyle and I in our testing and building, but I don't really get to interact with the other players on our team much which is kinda sad. I think that ends up speaking in our results, where the "VGC players" are all undeafeated and the rest of the team has managed one win for the whole season thus far. I believe in them though, and I think we could definitely win it all!
9. I find it interesting that you've put VGC players in brackets. Do you think there is a divide in the community between DOU and VGC players, or is that just something people think exists?
I think don't think there's a super significant divide. Whenever I talk to VGC friends about Doubles OU, they all seem highly interested and obviously Dawg/Bowman/myself have all done quite well with the format. I'd expect more VGC players to be joining in as time goes on, and for it to become less of a divide. Obviously some people possibly named n1n1 like to make a bigger deal about people being VGC players, I think it's more of a vocal minority than anything.
10. Who do you think will win the current Seasonals, and why?
I predict Dawgie to win the current Seasonals, he's one of my best friends and I really want him to possibly become the first Seasonals winner without a profile picture. Level 51 is also a cutie so I'd give him a chance.
11. How do you reflect on your first serious Seasonals? Do you feel like you did well?
I think it went well yeah. I decided to start taking it more seriously when I saw that I would play Stratos round two and thought that it'd be fun if I could beat him. Doing that gave me a lot of excitement for the tier and I started building more and more teams. I'm definitely looking forward to the next Seasonals and all the other currently running/upcoming DOU tournaments. I think Round 9 is pretty solid for my first serious seasonals, I'm never truly satisfied unless I get first but this is a good start. I look forward to competing in even more of them in the future.
12. Is there any other metagame you play outside of Doubles and VGC?
Not any that I play quite as seriously, but I'm definitely interested in learning some Smogon tiers. I also tend to play a lot of the Battle Spot competitions and I'm definitely looking forward to the Johto Classic, playing a few games of it on PS has been a lot of fun.
13. What do you like doing outside of playing Pokemon? Is there anything you're interested in?
I just received my Eagle Scout so that was something I did for a long time. I like camping and fishing a lot, just generally being outside is really enjoyable. I like hanging out with friends doing god knows what, traveling to as many places as possible, and meeting new people. I also enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners, and my name is Sam but you can call me anytime.
14. Is there anything else left you want to say?
I just wanna give a shoutout to all the pear, to Dawg and MajorBowman for being especially good friends, and a shoutout to Braverius for housing me during my trip to Seattle that I'm starting next week. Also for all the people I've met through playing competitive Pokemon, it's a dumb game but there's too many people to list that have changed my life.
15. Is qsns cute irl?
Qsns is super cute irl and someday we are going to convince his parents that I'm not an ax murderer and take him to a VGC event. (and then murder him with an ax, obviously)
22:37 SamVGC his parents
22:37 SamVGC actually used the term ax murdered to describe me
1. Hi there! Could you tell us who you are by giving a small introduction about yourself?
Hi! My name is Sam, I'm an 18 year old college student from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I'm majoring in Journalism and plan to attend the University of Wisconsin in a few years. I like dogs a lot, leave dog pics below please
2. When did you start playing competitive Pokémon, when did you start playing competitive Doubles, and why did you stick around?
I started with competitive Pokemon in the summer of 2013. I found Pokemon Online through some Youtube video, then moved to Pokemon Showdown. I just hung around in lobby like a casual, joining Challonge tournaments before the Tournaments feature existed. I ended up on a server called Amethyst and stuck around there for a long time playing singles formats. Eventually through a number of outside factors including Tumblr and the Justin Flynn Facebook group, I ended up playing VGC. I've been doing that for over 2 years now, and my good friend Braverius interested me in Doubles OU through his SPL teams and seeing that I could use my favorites like Keldeo. I've stuck around mainly due to the amazing VGC and DOU communities, both are amazing and I've made a ton of friends in both.
3. What is your favourite Pokémon to use competitively and why? What is your favourite Pokémon overall and why?
My favorite Pokemon to use competitively is probably Porygon2. I used it at Fort Wayne Regionals to win a 92 person premier challenge and Top 16 that regional. It was such an amazing Pokemon at the end of 2015 and I really wish we would have had that format another year instead of VGC 2016, which is incredibly awful and none of you ever try it please.
My favorite overall is Totodile, Pokemon Silver was my favorite game and I remember doing a Totodile solo run as a kid. Not as a challenge, it just never occurred to me that catching other Pokemon as anything other than HM slaves was a good idea
I also really like Porygon and Meloetta, I can't wait for the 20th anniversary Meloetta stuff this December
4. Do you think there's a Pokemon or set that is currently underrated in the meta?
I think Porygon2 is generally undervalued. Ice Beam/HP Ground give it Kyube like coverage with a lo of bulk, reliable recovery, and you can go with Trick Room, Toxic, or another coverage move in the 4th slot. Might be my VGC 15 bias, but it was honestly amazing there and I think it deserves some use. Honorable mentions: AV Landorus-T (<3 u Stratos), Hoopa-U, and Reuniclus
5. Do you believe there is anything broken or suspect worthy in the current metagame?
I'd like to see a Mence suspect without Jirachi a lot. Salamence really was insanely balanced and offered so many more team archetypes that I think would be helpful to the DOU metagame. Jirachi is insanely good and I think it deserves a suspect at the least, although I'm not sure about a ban necessarily. I also just really want an excuse to play my favorite VGC 15 teams in DOU.
6. Could you give us a team that resembles your playing and building style and give a little explanation about it?
[sample team]
I'm gonna go with my SAMple team. I generally tend to only build with Kang, Gardevoir, or Diancie, and tend to like a lot of balance teams that give me opportunities to make big plays. I don't build very many teams that don't include Landorus-T since it's just an insanely good Pokemon, and like to have redirection on almost every team as well. Thundurus is one of my favorite Pokemon as well, even as something I didn't use much in VGC 15 I appreciate it a lot more in this meta. I also tend to favor Amoonguss over Jirachi for its ability to check Azumarill and Trick Room more effectively. I'm also a huge supporter of non-prankster Encore, whether its on Gardevoir, Politoed, etc. I also tend to use Heatran much more than I did in VGC 15 since you can use it much more freely as a win condition. I think it's a better option than Volcanion on a lot of teams that we've been seeing recently, but people just want to test out the new Pokemon rather than build efficient teams. (this also includes myself on a few ssnls/dpl teams)
7. Do you think there is a significant difference between Doubles and VGC players in building and/or playing?
I think VGC players naturally favor the things we used in VGC 15 (see: AV Lando, Shucatran) but on the whole I don't think our teams are too dissimilar. I really like a lot of the teams me and Majorbowman have used in DPL/Seasonals/his run in SPL. I think the tier can definitely be expanded upon in teambuilding, Gardevoir seems to be pretty under appreciated in my experience for how good of a mega it is. I think Diancie teams can go a lot further as well, it's just a mega that has so many strong stats and options that the teambuilding around it has so much potential. As far as playing goes, I think VGC players tend to think a lot more about leads since it's something that we're forced to consider extensively when we play VGC.
8. How is it to work together with KyleCole and other VGC players on the Oreburgh Ancients? Do you think having fellow VGC players on the team helps?
I think it's both a positive and a negative. It builds a strong synergy between MajorBowman, Dawg, Kyle and I in our testing and building, but I don't really get to interact with the other players on our team much which is kinda sad. I think that ends up speaking in our results, where the "VGC players" are all undeafeated and the rest of the team has managed one win for the whole season thus far. I believe in them though, and I think we could definitely win it all!
9. I find it interesting that you've put VGC players in brackets. Do you think there is a divide in the community between DOU and VGC players, or is that just something people think exists?
I think don't think there's a super significant divide. Whenever I talk to VGC friends about Doubles OU, they all seem highly interested and obviously Dawg/Bowman/myself have all done quite well with the format. I'd expect more VGC players to be joining in as time goes on, and for it to become less of a divide. Obviously some people possibly named n1n1 like to make a bigger deal about people being VGC players, I think it's more of a vocal minority than anything.
10. Who do you think will win the current Seasonals, and why?
I predict Dawgie to win the current Seasonals, he's one of my best friends and I really want him to possibly become the first Seasonals winner without a profile picture. Level 51 is also a cutie so I'd give him a chance.
11. How do you reflect on your first serious Seasonals? Do you feel like you did well?
I think it went well yeah. I decided to start taking it more seriously when I saw that I would play Stratos round two and thought that it'd be fun if I could beat him. Doing that gave me a lot of excitement for the tier and I started building more and more teams. I'm definitely looking forward to the next Seasonals and all the other currently running/upcoming DOU tournaments. I think Round 9 is pretty solid for my first serious seasonals, I'm never truly satisfied unless I get first but this is a good start. I look forward to competing in even more of them in the future.
12. Is there any other metagame you play outside of Doubles and VGC?
Not any that I play quite as seriously, but I'm definitely interested in learning some Smogon tiers. I also tend to play a lot of the Battle Spot competitions and I'm definitely looking forward to the Johto Classic, playing a few games of it on PS has been a lot of fun.
13. What do you like doing outside of playing Pokemon? Is there anything you're interested in?
I just received my Eagle Scout so that was something I did for a long time. I like camping and fishing a lot, just generally being outside is really enjoyable. I like hanging out with friends doing god knows what, traveling to as many places as possible, and meeting new people. I also enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelit dinners, and my name is Sam but you can call me anytime.
14. Is there anything else left you want to say?
I just wanna give a shoutout to all the pear, to Dawg and MajorBowman for being especially good friends, and a shoutout to Braverius for housing me during my trip to Seattle that I'm starting next week. Also for all the people I've met through playing competitive Pokemon, it's a dumb game but there's too many people to list that have changed my life.
15. Is qsns cute irl?
Qsns is super cute irl and someday we are going to convince his parents that I'm not an ax murderer and take him to a VGC event. (and then murder him with an ax, obviously)
22:37 SamVGC his parents
22:37 SamVGC actually used the term ax murdered to describe me
MFK: Arcticblast, Stratos, KyleCole (Don't worry you're not in it this time Kami)
Thoughts on playing BW Doubles and Doubles UU?
Seeing that you just got your Eagle Scout, what do you think was the hardest BS rank for you to earn?
Do you have any dogs irl?
Favorite thing about the Doubles OU community versus the VGC community?
Thoughts on playing BW Doubles and Doubles UU?
Seeing that you just got your Eagle Scout, what do you think was the hardest BS rank for you to earn?
Do you have any dogs irl?
Favorite thing about the Doubles OU community versus the VGC community?
Will you remove vgc from your name since you have become active in dou and bc vgc16 sucks?
CorruptedOmega
Banned deucer.
Stratos, KyleCole, ArcticBlast
Eagle was definitely the hardest since I was a senior in high school and incredibly lazy.
I don't, my brother has a fur allergy so that complicates things. Someday I will own a Shiba tho
I love how laid back everyone is, nobody takes themselves too seriously and the room is 10x better than VGC room on PS
I would but I don't feel like asking for a second forum name change/already have auth on SamVGC on PS. I would just be Sam here like I am on Nugget Bridge but that's taken :(
I don't wanna quote the whole pic but that's a super cute doggo CorruptedOmega
i hate u
love you too
Will you marry me yn
the wedding is already booked for madison
