Double Interview with blarajan and McMeghan

Interview and flavor by Jellicent and Eraddd. Art by Bummer.

As I entered the Grand Slam Stadium, I spotted FLCL and Zebraiken gearing up for their finals bout. I gave them both a nod of encouragement and continued on to one of the luxury boxes at the top. The RU and UU Open winners had agreed to a joint interview and were waiting for me up there. When I opened the door, I saw McMeghan standing with a dignified air, arms respectfully crossed behind him. Off in the corner, blarajan was twitching and muttering swear words under his breath.

Good evening, gentlemen.

Good evening, Jellicent.

Hi Jelli.

Urk..."hello", blarajan...

Fuck you.

What was I getting myself into?

By the way, Eraddd wants this interview to be uncensored.

I'm a sir. Don't worry about my language.

That's unfortunate.

Where is Eraddd? I decided to just dive into questions. He could play catch-up later.

So, you've both proven to be quite solid in several metagames. Do you have any tricks or secrets on how you are able to adapt so easily?

Honestly, Grand Slam was just a good tournament for me because i played all the metagames. I was pretty familiar with all of the tiers even before Grand Slam. Since OU never appealed to me, I played everything else, so i already knew the tiers.

I've always been an OUer, and only a dedicated OUer. I play a lot of tournaments (almost all), and I think that helped me to adapt fairly quickly in the other metagame. Also, I have to admit that I have been able to have a good run so far thanks to some people involved in other metagames that would answer my questions and, even more important, help me with teambuilding, which was a huge weakness as I was not into the other tiers before Grand Slam.

Yeah, same with McMeggers; I've gotten a lot of teambuilding help or teams from people.

At this point, Eraddd ducked in.

Hi.

Hello Eraddd =)

Good afternoon to the both of you.

Better late than never.

Were there any metagames that you guys felt more comfortable in?

Little Cup is my metagame, and it's what i'm the most comfortable in. Rarelyused is pretty cool, too, and is what i'm second most comfortable in. Other than that, it's about even—I know Ubers, Neverused, and Underused, but not as well as the first two.

Well, BW2 arrived, like, 2 weeks before Grand Slam, so I hadn't any "recent" knowledge in any metagame before the Open started. Though, I was feeling good in RU because I involved myself in it a little for an RU tournament that happened like one or two months before (BW1). I mostly learned by watching my friends playing and reading RMTs.

You've each won one of the opens; do you consider each other the largest threats right now, or is there a dark horse you're watching out for?

Fuck Heist. That's pretty much it, in my opinion. I have the hardest time against Heist.

Heist is the player I fear the most. I think blarajan would be a huge issue—

That better not be sarcasm, Frenchy.

Because he's—in my opinion—the best LCer (dedicated to the tier, but not close-minded in it), while LC would be my worst meta, I guess.

Okay, good; it wasn't sarcasm.

You may now kiss.

Sadly, they did not...

If I had to go past Heist, I'd be the most annoyed playing McMeghan, since he's just fucking good and has shown he knows his stuff pretty damn well.

But yeah, Heist would be the person I'd not want to face if he makes Top 8.

What he said. Since I know I don't have to play McMeghan Round 1, I'm fine as long as Heister doesn't take the 7 spot.

Bloo is also a huge threat because we kinda know ourselves inside out.

Gross.

Didn't know you guys were that close...

Wow, Bloo is sleeping on the side? Apart from Iconic and Haunter?

McMeghan looked about nervously. Had he said too much?

And he's just a great player who makes great decisions, so that means he's able to win in every tier/metagame as long as he has a good internet connection to check the Smogon analyses ahah!

To confirm McMeghan's statements, Bloo was checking analyses the entire time while playing me for Round 2.

LC is looking like it will be a big determining factor in this tournament; how confident does that make you guys feel?

^_^ LC being a big deal for this tour just makes me really happy to be honest. As McMeghan said earlier, that is MY tier.

I am now rooting for blarajan to lose.

The fact that I'm the only one who actually plays LC—like actually plays plays—in the top 8 makes me pretty confident in that I know if I play well, I should at least have that game to fall back on against anyone. Also, I want to win two Opens and watch McMeghan lose in Ubers finals, so even if I'm in second place, I can beat him in number of won Opens.

Well, I have no feeling about LC being a determining factor because it doesn't determine my fate (so far, it might be in playoffs lol!) But, it's rather interesting to see a tier so underplayed being the tier that will decide the Top 8 for a bunch of players.

My phone began to ring. To my surprise, it was Ginku, with an interview-relevant question. How did he get my number?

blarajan, Ginku asks: Do you enjoy telling people to suck your dick after you get a crit on their win condition?

Only after they hax the fuck out of me game 1~

I relayed the message and quickly shut my phone. Back to the real questions!

Be honest: who do you two predict will walk home with the trophy?

Well, I honestly want me to win it, lol. But, if I can't say me, it would either be McBabes or Bloo, assuming the current Top 8. Bloo's had a really modest showing because of his luck.

I'll be as honest as possible: I'm doing good so far (way more than I expected), and I would like to take the opportunity to win the trophy. I want to. Like, I really want to win this Grand Slam now that I've gotten this far and done that well.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat as McMeghan here.

McMeghan other than yourself, pick someone.

Heist would be a great winner, as he's one of the players I like the most regarding his Pokemon skill. But he still has to qualify for Top 8, lol!

blarajan suddenly bolted up and began shouting.

YOU HEAR THAT HEIST! You're not even Top 8 and McBabes thinks you'll win.

The yelling was quite loud... I think he heard.

Do you guys have any closing thoughts you'd like to share?

Honestly, I'm just really surprised. After my Round 1 out in UU, I actually got really upset and had a mini Smogon rage quit, etc. because I was taking the game too seriously. But then I came back much better and I've gotten a lot more confident throughout Grand Slam, so I'm just really happy about how this tournament's been going and has made me respect myself more as a player too, I guess.

Ah! Oh yeah, I have a big one. I want to thank whoever made Grand Slam an official tournament. Thank you! It got me involved into every BW2 tier and I enjoy them all very much.

Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with that—this tournament's a great idea. If only more of the people who only play OU actually participated.

I really love playing every Grand Slam tier and it was great opportunity to discover them. I'm sure I will keep my auto-join to every tier channel on IRC even after Grand Slam is done.

Eraddd took a quick jab at my arm.

Goddamn it, I have one more question.

Fine, Eradddddd.

Going on McMeghan's closing statements that he enjoyed the Grand Slam as opposed to a few select individual thoughts that Grand Slam was a terrible idea (Name starts with L, ends with avos Spawn), do you think the Grand Slam has increased interest in Smogon's lesser-played tiers?

Honestly, I don't know about that. I think the people who were originally interested in learning the tiers or branching out really adore Grand Slam giving them a reason to do so, but I think the people who only play OU or are more suited to older gens just didn't care in the first place. I think for newer users like me, who started late DPP and only had BW to blossom, it's a great way to get better involved with the tiers.

Eraddd, I've talked with some Grand Slammers and they told me that Grand Slam was also a great surprise for them as they enjoyed discovering lower tiers. I don't know if that will continue after Grand Slam is done, but I'm pretty sure that every time Grand Slam will be around the corner, some people will start involving themselves—not that much or a lot—into Smogon's lesser-played tiers. Official tournaments make things interesting eheh!

With that, I shook both men's hands.

Thanks both of you for agreeing to this. Oh, and good luck to you guys ^.^

Thank you for proposing it to us =)

Assuming everything was over, blarajan randomly began ranting to himself.

Goddamm it! I have to drink less milk =/

Keeping that for the interview.

No you're not. That was off the record!

Nothing is ever off the record.

That's unfortunate.

Welcome to journalism :3

=( Fuck you!

How classical from blarajan. What's with the SMD complex, by the way?

It's a medical condition.

We began to pack up and leave as our interviewees continued rambling.

Anything I'm involved with looks pretty.

That's also going on the record.