Hello. I've been playing Pokemon a long time, but I've only started competitively recently (recently being at least 6 months ago). I do have a PS account under the same name. BTW, I'm not really 25, I just don't want to give away my actual age for privacy reasons. My favourite Pokemon is Sceptile, and I like to think of myself as a master of using Sceptile and it's mega (Interestingly, I actually used the Rocket Butt Mega Sceptile set back before it was even published to Smogon (or before I found out it was, anyways)). I dabble in a few metas, but the main ones I play are OU, UU, Ubers, and VGC/Battle Spot Singles and Doubles. I first found out about Smogon through references to it in Youtube comments, and, after some research, decided to dabble in competitive. Since then, I like to think I've gotten good (or at least, respectable) at Pokemon from a competitive aspect, and already have plans to play the next gen games a bit differently as a result. Namely, NOT capture all of the legends immediately like I did in OR/AS (it was before I got into competitive). RIP me using Heatran in OR/AS Battle Spot. However, I did recently SR for a Timid Diancie, so I guess that's something. I didn't bother with the IVs beyond the 3 perfect ones already there (because ORAS legendary mechanics), as, while having perfect IVs are good and all, I think having all of them perfect is a tad wasteful/unecessary. Well, I wish that was the reason. The real reason was because it took SO ARCEUS DANG LONG to get just Timid. I've yet to train it. TBH, the Diancie is more of a test to see if I can SR for decent natures. I also learned that day that Synchronise doesn't work for Event received legends :(.
I've yet to ladder on PS because I don't really have the dedication to do it - I usually get beaten a couple times in a row and then I get deterred for a day or so, instead of modifying my team to deal with said threats (I do sometimes), usually because it's the stuff that low ladder throws at you (like full teams of Eviolite stallers). As such, I've yet to breach 1400 in any of the ladders. My current favourite mega to use is Mega Sableye, as it snowballs pretty quickly after fairies and special tanks are removed (I run DP over SB as I don't want to give Normal types the chance to set up).
I tend to avoid copying the Smogon pages for Pokemon sets, choosing to make my own and using the Smogon set as a reference. As a result, I run Adamant on Garchomp instead of Jolly, because having an effective base attack stat of over 180 with Life Orb is too much to pass up for me. I've not found many situations where Adamant Garchomp doesn't outspeed threats it would have with Jolly.
At the moment, I'm in the process of designing my own meta - Heck, I've even written most of the PS code for it. Fortunately, I'm able to program in a few languages, mainly Python, Java, and a bit of Javascript, so it's pretty straightforward for me.
And one more thing, in case you hadn't noticed, my posts are quite long. I'm a pretty detail focused person. I try to cut down, but I've yet to succeed. Heck, I even got a too long message from PS in one of the chat rooms when I was discussing the best way to run a team with Mega Sableye.
