Approved by UU Moderation / Amazing Art by Moutemoute
Hello and welcome to.. "Player Interview"! This project will allow you to discover or re-discover some well known players of the UU community. This time around we will be focusing mainly on important contributors to the forums such as Tier Leaders, Forum Moderators, Community Contributors, and Council Members. Let me first say that I am honored to be following in the footsteps of an esteemed and accomplished list of interviewers: Moutemoute, Feliburn, Kink, and Cynde. Thank you are very much for your work!
Hello TDK! How are you?
heya i'm doing fine
how about yourself?
I am doing pretty good!
Alright well tell me and the community a bit about yourself via a brief introduction. Name, age, favorite color, weapon of choice in a free-for-all battle to the death, whatever you would like to say!
well as a lot of the community knows from Discord interactions my real name is Carson and I'm 23 years old. I'm figuring out what career I want to pursue exactly and strongly considering attending law school once I can afford it. My favorite colors are blue and purple and I'm not picking one because I'm indecisive. I would bring Adaam as the weapon of choice because after seeing him eat all those eggs I know he's built different
I'm actually considering law school myself. And yes adaam is a very good choice for a weapon.
One might say we have an iconic history. This is my second time interviewing you. How do you feel about all of this?
LOL I still feel bad because I never wanted that log to be as widespread as it is cuz I didn't hold any negative feelings towards you at the time (and still don't ofc). It was a funny moment to me and someone I showed it to shared it. Regardless it's a funny memory and I hope it's the same for you!!
I honestly am kinda a different person on the ladder tbh
if someone speaks up I'm not one to be quiet so I always talk back
I don't really get mad or tilted at laddering easily but I'm much quicker to talk there than elsewhere
Yeah it's hilarious. I absolutely had to ask this question.
It's safe to say you've been around this game for a long time. When did you join and what brought you to Smogon and Showdown?
lol well a bit of a long story buuut
I was always into Pokemon; played every gen except for gen 1 (when I first started playing I was like 4 and got Blue + Crystal a the same time, and Crystal had pictures of Pokemon in the PC, while Blue didn't, so I never played Blue after realizing this). Around the time XY first started getting announced and information started leaking out, which was January 2013, I got really sick irl and couldn't really do anything for 2+ months, which got me more and more following the Pokemon news and joining the Serebii forums to keep up with it. After being on there for a month or so I learned of PS and Smogon and made accounts there as well. Between one Serebii friend and people I met through the PS OU Room, I established connections to some of my first big Pokemon friends; through them I met ben gay, and he rated me as a builder, which got me a spot in SPL. I didn't really get active on Smogon until then, to which I started doing OU QC work and the like and got added to OU Council within a year~ or so of being involved with Smogon.
Very interesting story. What does TDK stand for and why did you choose that as your name?
lol I hate my name tbh cuz I thought i was being funny / witty but it stands for The DragonKnight, a ~pun~ on Dragonite.
it's pretty cringe but kinda late for anything to be done about that
Oh yeah you're just a little too well known for a name change at this stage.
Perfect segue into the fact that you are one of the Leaders of the Under Used tier, that is kind of a big deal. Do you like your job? Would you say you wake up in the morning jumping for joy at the power you possess on this platform. Do you perhaps regret your life decisions? Somewhere in between?
I do like being involved with UU a lot! I love the community and it's been very consistently a great metagame to play in, bar maybe like 2-3 months out of the 4 years I've been involved with the tier. I love having great co-TLs (Hogg and now Lily) who I think are both incredible people. I definitely don't regret taking up UUTL but I do maybe regret not stepping down from OU before I did lol.
What brought you to UU and not another tier?
lol honestly the year I got really into UU I just signed up for every side PL; Ubers, OU, UU, RU, NU, and LC. From there I actually loved building and playing UU and just consistently played the tier after that, and got added to UU Council shortly after it. The vast majority of SM UU teams that the Monsters used in 2017 and 2018 were made by Pearl or myself. After that tour, I laddered in SM UU more than any other tier by a substantial margin. That's pretty much why I only got involved with UU. I did also like RU at the time but I didn't have anything to keep the interest going and after some shifts I lost interest in the tier.
Well that answer provides some insight to this next question. Somewhere down the line you became known as the stall guy. Are you okay with this or are you upset that the variety of teams you can wield has been ignored?
lmao nah I don't really care. It's true I am a huge stall addict in general but I don't really bother with it unless I think the team has the tools to play around with a lot of matchups. I used stall a ton on ladder and have spammed it in tours like UU Open and other stuff. I think SM UU stall is really incredible and has tools to work around the vast majority of matchups; between the different variants you can pick and choose what things you're weak to. I don't really think I have a typical style but I definitely have some noticeable go-to Pokemon and cores at times, but the thing that has the most lasting impression to people is probably the stalls.
You are allowed to be modest but I will say that you have had a tremendous amount of tournament success. Who do you owe thanks to for that? Is it yourself or are there people who guided you along the way?
I've definitely learned a lot over the years tbh, a lot from my own experiences and a lot from others, but I don't really have many things I could attribute to one person. In general, I think a vast majority of my improvements are from my own accord; building is something I get assistance with when I first pick up a tier, and then I quickly come to trust myself more than anyone else. In terms of play, the biggest way to improve is through experience in my opinion, so it's not really something that can be attributed to being taught by someone.
If I were to attribute any improvements, I'd say the main people who have helped me get to where I am are BKC and bro fist. I learned a lot from my time on East with them. BKC is easily the reason I gained knowledge in DPP and BW, and has helped me improve in general quite a lot. I've played countless test games with bro fist over the years, and value test games with him differently than anyone else. He plays every game very calculated and makes me push myself harder even just when I'm figuring out if I like the team or not. I feel I've learned a lot from him through playing alongside him, even if it's not through direct advice or anything.
Very interesting answer! Do you have a role model in life (not including yourself)?
lol tbh I've never really had role models :x I've never really been a very envious person but I have looked up to a few people on Smogon at least, such as bro fist who I mentioned before. In a more IRL element I've never really looked up to anyone, but I am a fan of people who put in serious effort to make good changes to the country, despite the Republicans best efforts to stop them.
Valid. What about TV, movie, and music interests? Do you have a favorite song, movie, or TV show?
I'm honestly quite uncultured in terms of TV/movies. I do watch anime more than I do TV shows and movies in general but even that I don't do a ton, or maybe as much as people probably think I do lol. I do love music though; my favorite song right now is probably Cherry by Rina Sawayama. I kinda ignored how fitting some other songs were and just made it the Latias np song instead TBH. My top three artists on Spotify in 2020 were: Rina Sawayama, Tove Lo, and Charli XCX. I also listen to video game OSTs a pretty good amount, varying between Persona, the Kiseki series, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and some other games.
Well I have a massive tier list of comedies I don't mind sharing. Really nice list of stuff I'll check some of it out.
I was in the lab for months coming up with this next question. Marry, ban, demote: Hogg, Truth, Ark?
marry hogg for sure
demote ark
and ban truth cuz ive never spoken to them
I'd back that as well. For sure throw away my life to be Hogg's side thing. (For legal purposes this is a joke)
Could you perhaps share a team of your own design that you are especially proud of?
this is probably my favorite team to use atm
I'm obsessed with Mew atm and all of its varying sets, and I've had a hatred for just slapping on Scarf Krook to all the teams I've been using, which kinda led to this team.
Mew is the only real way to make use of FS + Port in this tier, and it's not very easily punished, really only Scizor can. To not have to use Scarf Krookodile I decided on using Scarf Mienshao, as its speed tier is incredible and fast CCs + Knocks + U-turns are really hard to punish, especially with a FS up. CB Krook is something I thought up due to how all of the teams are structured in this metagame. People just relying on Salamence for their Ground resist and Krookodile switch in general get abused hard and CB Krook is strong enough to take down things like AV Tangrowth, Zarude, and Buzzwole coming in thanks to its coverage moves + powerful Knock Offs. Krookodiles offensive typing is really just superb atm and I think non-Scarf Krookodiles are so hard to take on in this metagame.
the speed on Scizor is because I want to be able to pivot around opposing Scizor and into Salamence as safely as possible when the situation arises
I switch around the last move on Tangrowth. Brick Break / Infestation / Body Slam / Sleep Powder are all fair options because this move really wont be clicked too often.
Awesome team! Looks really solid. Banded Krook is really unique and Brick Break Tang is personally something I like using just because of why spammable Screens are right now.
Would you like to shout out anyone or give some final remarks?
gosh I really don't now how I'd manage to shoutout everyone I talk to or have been close friends with, but I will say I really appreciate all the active chats I've been over the years. Namely the ones atm being Kong, TMBJ, TLC, the Rurk, etc.
Well thank you very much for sitting down for this interview and for all your thoughtful answers. As always its a pleasure to speak with you!
of course!
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