Approved by 5gen & S1nn0hC0nfirm3d | Amazing Art by Albatross
(Interview Date: 12th of October 2021)
Hey frens, I'm Jettrem and welcome to Player of the Week. This is the project where we discover more about the well known players of the ZU community through a series of questions. Sadly, this will be the last edition for this series but I expect that this project will return at some point down the line, but hopefully you've enjoyed reading these so far. Onto the good news now; this week I thrilled to announce we have an extra spicy interview with one of the winners of ZUPL III; more specifically the manager of the Fiery Flamencos...
DurzaOffTopic!!
Favourite Pokemon:
(Manager of the Fiery Flamencos, Winner of ZUPL I and ZUPL III, Former ZU Moderator, Former ZU Council, Father of BW and DPP ZU, Formerly on several old gens councils)
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Bisharp!
*bisharp*
Hi Durza, how are you doing?
Good, currently in class right now but I’m doing well. Thanks for having me!
Good to hear and delighted to have you on.
Most people should at least know of you by now but would you mind telling us a bit about yourself (in mons, irl, w/e you feel like sharing)?
I’m a 20 year old classical composition major with a minor in piano performance originally from Philadelphia but studying in Baltimore. As far as mons goes, I joined pokemon showdown exclusively to play mafia in the mafia room. Eventually, Gen6 Mix and Mega caught my eye and I got into OMs that way. I eventually branched into lower tiers and got my name out by tryhard building for RUPL and NUPL teams and I found team tournaments on Smogon to be some of the most fun experiences I’ve had. Strictly on a ZU basis, I’m a former council member and moderator and am pretty much the father of BW and DPP ZU as well as helping progress old gens in general as a whole. I’ve also managed for ZUPL 3 years in a row, winning the first and third iterations while barely losing in semifinals tiebreak my second year.
Oo interesting, and the end of that paragraph leads well onto our next segment. I'd like to congratulate you on your recent win in ZUPL, which was very well deserved. Funnily enough the last time you were interviewed was also right after you won ZUPL I. How does it feel to be the manager of most decorated team and how have you managed to be so consistent across multiple tournaments? Perhaps other managers/aspiring managers could use some tips, or not if you want an easier time winning in future years!!
Thank you! It feels great honestly. I care about these tours a lot and I also love ZU so its been a great opportunity to be able to manage these last few years. I definitely couldn’t have done it without my amazing players though!
As far as tips go, this may sound obvious, but creating a budgeting outline before the draft has worked wonders every time. Lots of times it feels like ZUPL managers have been too scared to buy people when in reality they had the money for it, and then they get stuck with lots of money near the mid-end of the draft with all the value players gone onto teams already. While it may be apparent that I value conventional tour players for obvious reasons, I do think it’s worth finding people who will be more motivated than the average tour player, which is something I learned the hard way last year when kay and I burned out pretty hard. It’s all about creating a nice team environment where everybody feels comfortable working and motivating each other, and the key to that is balancing tryhard quality mainers with tour players. Also, mainers who can’t build are pretty useless. Big tip there.
Thanks for sharing some advice. I was certainly impressed with the attitude of all your players when I joined your team discord so it's clear you've done a lot to foster that. How was your overall ZUPL experience? What were some of things/some of the people that surprised you the most?
Overall my ZUPL experience was amazing. I was so proud of my team. I was really hesitant to not buy myself especially when everybody else did, especially as I consider myself one of the better SMZU players. Luckily my bet paid off and my team really showed up every week with their best stuff.
As far as surprises go, there are two big ones that really contributed to this awesome experience more than others: Mirbro and TWiTT. Mirbro was one of the most delightful humans i’ve ever had the privilege of teaming with. He was always positive, always helping, and honestly felt like the backbone of the team in so many ways. He’s a genuinely incredible guy and he was willing to do whatever it took to win. A big decision in the last week was who to play where - I really wanted to play mirbro because I think he earned that starting spot more than anybody, but there was a situational lineup where we were able to play Twitt even though his weekend availability has not been too easy because of timezone and work. I communicated with him and we talked about it and he gave even more effort than he had ever given before that last week. He wanted to win this tournament and I feel like he encapsulated the “team spirit” perfectly. It was a joy to work with him and I seriously cannot believe he almost didn’t get drafted.
Twitt on the other hand was fantastic as well. I know I mentioned it in my shoutouts, but he’s genuinely one of the most raw players and builders I’ve ever seen. He was always in my pms giving me good advice and insight on little management choices and even though he was usually busy in the backends of the week, he always got the team off on the right foot. I genuinely think if he played “real tiers” he could be playing and performing well in official team tournaments. He’s really that good. It was a genuine pleasure having him on the team as well and he was easily the biggest steal of the draft.
Not to rehash shoutouts too much but I was really proud of avarices performance this season as well - they came in and kicked ass. Of course, I’ve drafted Heysup 3 years in a row so I know just how great he is so there are no surprises there… but its nice to win another title with someone who was on the OG squad.
Just wanted to highlight some of who was making the wheel that was the flamencos run so smoothly, often behind the scenes
It also surprised me how broke drud was… like damn shawty that designer was fakeeee! shoulda given me Greybaum…
rip Greybaum's trophy.
Anyways, that's awesome to here that you had a blast with the team, and that each member stepped up in their own right, because now we're gonna change the mood a little with this next question. Rank your teammates from this ZUPL from coolest to least cool and yes I am essentially asking you to throw someone under the bus :>?
mirbro
cleffa
heysup
avarice
twitt
rav3
kay
roxiee
dani
watashi
procrastinasian
shwiftyshiftry
easy
LOL nice
Do you already know whether you intend to manage again next year to defend your title?
Definitely! I love managing and I think I’ve proved myself a reliable and capable manager by this point. I fully plan on winning every zupl going forward ;)
Looking forward to it, and if that's the case please pick me up and don't trade me away :>!
No promises ;-]
Jokes aside, part of being a capable manager is obviously helping out with teambuilding, and you're someone who is well versed in old gens as well as current gen. What are your general thoughts on each of the metagames that were featured in ZUPL?
Well, I personally don’t like SS very much but that's not really reflective on ZU as it is the current generation of Pokemon.
SMZU is the peak metagame. Potentially across all Smogon tiers. It’s insanely fun and creative and there’s infinite things you can do when teambuilding. It’s awesome.
ORAS, particularly BW, and to a lesser extent DPP are somewhat problematic though. I don’t necessarily think this is a problem with the metagames themselves, but rather the lack of playerbase required to foster development and progression which is very important. In my opinion the ZU old gens councils need to work on promoting old gens and creating a playerbase that plays the tier because they love it rather than because they think they’re not good enough to make a name for themselves in current generation. It seems that people are pretty passionate about GSC for example, despite the fact that as a tier its significantly more inaccessible than the newer old gens. I think the old gens council needs to completely revamp and rebrand BWZU. Questionable tiering decisions need to be made to prioritize a fun metagame and then once the playerbase is developed to a point where the meta can progress, we can slowly start reintroducing elements to see how they would affect the metagame as a whole. Right now it is stagnant and pretty sad. I also think the BW and DPP councils should be wiped and restarted - there are some people out there who care a lot about these tiers but aren’t really able to do anything about it because of lack of activity in these councils. There are people who would work to make a change in these tiers and they’re frankly just flying under the radar. I wasn’t the best old gens tier leader myself but a long look from the outside gave me a lot of perspective on things that could help these tiers stop bleeding and start healing.
Going out to find the right people is extremely important and I think large scale projects are in order to salvage what could be some really fun tiers and staples of ZUPL at this point.
That's a fair take on the whole situation. Now that PL is over, there is definitely a lot of time to unlock the potentials of each of these metagames so we'll see how each council ends up tackling this, since there were a decent amount of people who have been quite vocal about old gens in ZUPL. Do you think you'll ever return and contribute again to one of these projects seeing as you have quite a bit of experience with leading metagames and being on council etc. or do you plan to just chill and play a more passive role, perhaps playing if the old gens get revitalised?
I’d certainly be willing to help out in an official context if things got a serious revamp and restructuring. Otherwise, I would totally be down to give input on the side if my opinion is asked for by the powers that be. It’s not about what I can do on a personal level necessarily as it is about these tiers that I really do love. I can say for certain if these tiers saw the necessary changes both from a tiering authority and meta standpoint, I would become an active lover and participant in these old gens :)
Makes sense, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the current councils/higher powers think on what they wanna do with their respective metagames moving forward, but hopefully we get to see some exciting changes where your advice is used since you're quite passionate about them
Moving onto your other hobbies now. Are there any kinds of video games you enjoy outside of Pokemon and which ones?
I love league of legends. Moving on!
In general, I get bored of games pretty quickly if they don’t present some sort of challenge or end grind goal that remains fun. However I definitely have some favorites!
Some of my favorite games are the “SoulsBorne” genre of games by FromSoftware. Personal favorites are Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. These games give me a rush of satisfaction that I don’t find present in many other games, as they are challenging but (mostly) fair. They are also masterfully crafted in terms of aesthetics and music and I like them immensely.
I also love the Borderlands franchise- particularly Borderlands 2. I’ve played it more than any other game probably (maybe league has eclipsed it by now) and while I don’t love the story of 3 I’ll always be a fan of the franchise.
Lastly, I recently played Ghost of Tsushima and immensely loved it. It was one of the most aesthetically pleasing, beautiful, and immersive games I have ever played with great characters and story. I’m a big fan of this game and it probably cracked my top 5 of all time. I got the platinum trophy on both Ghost of Tsushima and Bloodborne which I’m pretty proud of as well.
Ah that's pretty neat, grats on the trophy. Definitely a lot of cool games there, a couple which I'll probably have to do some research on later.
What are some of your favourite animes or mangas that you've seen or read?
Gintama is my favorite anime of all time. It’s unmatched in terms of humor, characters and narrative. It starts off a bit slow but its one of the most amazing pieces of media I’ve ever seen.
My second favorite anime is Monogatari series. while there are definitely some misses in terms of its installments, its one of the most cleverly written stories I’ve ever seen with next level characters and convincing character interactions. It’s a bit weird but I would highly recommend it for some cultured individuals. It has unmatched aesthetic, particularly in the Kizumonogatari movie trilogy. The manga is also great and a lot more “accessible” than the anime to some people.
Some other favorites include: Jujutsu Kaisen, Hunter X Hunter, Attack on Titan, Assassination Classroom, Kuzu no Honkai, Steins Gate, and many others!!
Nice selection of shows. Kinda suprised you like Monogatari so much to be honest, but I agree that it's great.
Why did you decide on something music based for your degree? What genres of music do you listen to normally and who are some of your favourite artists?
I used to study piano pretty heavily growing up - I studied under one of the most prestigious teachers in modern history at the most prestigious music school in the world. I practiced 4-6 hours every single day, I was pretty good. I felt really pressured into it though and kind of got "bailed out" by a hand injury that allowed me to focus on pursuing my main passion of composition. I still regret not focusing on piano as much now but I do love writing music.
I listen to just about every musical genre imaginable. I have the most diverse music taste of anybody I know. My favorite artist is easily a Japanese band called Lamp. They just are masters of composition and arrangement and produce some of the most harmonically rich and complex music I've ever seen. I love pretty much every one of their songs and would highly recommend them to just about anybody. My most listened to music is definitely Japanese music though. Heres my lastfm if anybody wants a peak: https://www.last.fm/user/durzaot
Oh damn, that's a lot of time spent practicing. Also nice to hear you enjoy a wide variety of stuff and i'll be sure to check your lastfm soon.
Do you know what sort of career path you intend to follow in the future once you're done with studying?
I'm not completely sure yet. Ideally I'd like to write music for media like video games but in this industry its a lot about what opportunities open up for you at any given time. I'm kind of going with the flow right now.
That would be fire ngl. Maybe we'll see your name pop up in the future of some video game credits, who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hopefully, that would be pretty cool!
A wackier question now, let's say you're a criminal mastermind, how would go about robbing a bank without anyone knowing?
I'm not a criminal mastermind so I'd pay someone expendable to do it for me
Fair enough lmao
Do you have a team that you've recently built that you're particularly proud of that you'd like to share?
I built this SM team for mirbro during ZUPL this year, and while he didn't win he definitely had the tools to do so. The team is really strong and takes advantage of some of the strongest Pokemon/sets in the tier and features a criminally underused set of Bulk Up Komala:
(water) 
(super)I had a lot of fun building this team and I probably put the most work into it of all the teams this year.
I unfortunately know very little about SM ZU but that's a really cool set. Pretty neat team which I hope to try out in a room tour. What are your thoughts on Eggy by the way since that had a fair bit of discussion at some point during the tournament?
I think Eggy is one of those "broken on paper" Pokemon that actually struggle to get in a lot in a meta that should be able to abuse it. It's just a really strong breaker. People are so caught up in their teambuilding habits that lots of times they think the meta should adapt to them instead of them adapting to the meta. Lots of players got away with spamming Mareanie all gen for free as a crutch and Eggy has a tendency to punish those types of teams, which honestly were too strong to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I can see issues with Eggy being very difficult to switch into, but its really just punishing lazy teambuilding at the moment and can be abused
I see, solid opinion. Iirc Eggy didn't even do that amazingly either across all the SM games so I wonder what council will do, if anything.
Closing in on the end of this interview now, is there anybody you want to give a quick shoutout to?
I'd like to shoutout my friends in the Derk, and some specific ZU friends: Greybaum, kay, LPY, Tuthur, and all my other friends who I enjoy interacting with. Thanks to you for the interview and your successful history of interviews! It's an honor!
Thanks a lot, and that leaves me with my final question, who is the worst ZU player at League of Legends and why is it Procrastinasian (sorry fren, is just a joke :P)?
Dude can literally only play one or two champions decently... and then he wastes sums flashing in and dies for it... perhaps I should have recorded a video of his most recent ADC gameplay....
LOL feelsbadman. Poor guy. We're probably all p bad tbh.
And on that note, thanks a lot for taking some time out of your day to answer these questions Was a pleasure to host.
Thanks for having me again!
Feel free to ask to DurzaOffTopic any questions you want!
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As I mentioned at the start, that wraps it up for my time hosting this project, at least for now. I hope that someone is willing to take on this project again or maybe when I have some more time, I'll be willing to take on the interviewer role again. Hopefully, more players will get a chance to be interviewed in the near future as there are many deserving members. I had a lot of fun doing these and I'm extremely thankful to that Ho3n, 5gen and Apa approved this since I believe it was one of the most successful projects yet and I had a lot of fun coming up with the initial formatting and the art ideas etc.. Thanks to those who took a few hours of their day to answer these questions and especially thanks to the those who have continually read these interviews or have asked questions. It has been an honour and a pleasure to host this.
