Welcome to the Random Battles Community Interview! The goal of this project is to interview well-known members of the Randbats community every month and learn more about them. These members may include players who’ve been successful in tournaments, high-ladderers, format/forum contributors, and more! Check out past interviews here!
Tarrembeau
alright! let's break the ice with a simple unrelated question: what is your favorite pizza, if you have any?
GXE
oh that's a great question, I've grown up in the New York/NJ area so it’s a fact that we have the BEST pizza in the world. Growing up near me there was a pizza place that would experiment with different toppings and I'd go there once or twice a week to try them out. One time I went and they had noodle pizza (it’s just what it sounds like, penne pasta noodles on pizza), and the way they made it was so life-changing. It actually became so popular they added it permanently, and then even tried making the pizza with different sauces like vodka sauce, and to this day I still love that slice
Tarrembeau
I am extremely conflicted right now as I both want to defend Italian pizza since it IS the best, and try this noodle pizza because it looks like the stupid kind of idea I'd love aha! Speaking of growing up, did you pick up Pokemon as a kid?
GXE
LMAO I was a traditionalist before I decided to have fun too. I started playing the pokemon games when I was much younger, although I didn't start competitive until much later. The first game I ever played was Diamond, after we had a cousin visit from a few hours away and play the game at our house. Little did we know the cartridge had somehow ejected from his DS, and we found the cartridge a few months after he visited. Me and my sister had a DS so we tried the game, VERY sorry to say he never got his cartridge back
Tarrembeau
Lol I feel sorry for your cousin, I lost a Heartgold cartridge when I was a teen and I'm still sad about it. How did you start competitive pokemon from there?
GXE
Considering I always loved the games I decided I wanted to play simulators for fun, and when I looked up pokemon battle simulators at the time showdown was the first to come up. Keep in mind I had no idea about anything in pokemon (evs/items/even the newer pokemon themselves). There used to be some sketchy websites that would have imports of teams (I didn't even know what smogon was at this time), so I'd take the imports from there and play with them. I'd like to blame the teams but I think truthfully I was terrible because I could never even crack 70 GXE.
Tarrembeau
Well gotta start somewhere. My first ladder was ADV OU, I was just copying sets from smogon analysis and I’d lose to every single baton pass team in existence because I had no clue how to defeat them lol. When and what was the breakthrough for you?
GXE
it's weird, I'm not sure I can point to a specific time where I'm like "yeah, this is what changed everything for me." I played exclusively on ladder for just over a year, before I became more involved in the tournaments room. I became overly committed to roomtours haha, and I focused on winning those. The first real tournament on smogon I ever played was TLT, a tour put on by the tournaments room. I ended up making top 8 I believe, and was quite happy to do so well in my first tour. This ended up introducing me more to smogon as well
Tarrembeau
Is it at the same time you started Random Battles or did it come later?
GXE
I definitely played random battles here and there, I feel like that has to go for almost everyone on showdown. I never took it too seriously though, and my first RBTT didn't come until much later down the line
Tarrembeau
You first played in RBTT3 right? How was the experience back then?
GXE
I'm glad you did your research because I could not have told you that LOL. I honestly wish I remembered more about that specific tour, I can tell you that the first few RBTTs I played in I always had a ton of fun but very much underperformed. Up until this most recent RBTT my record on the Rands sheet was even slightly negative. I think at time the aspect I didn't like was just the sheer variance, there were some formats I'd play in later RBTTs like Monotype Rands where I especially felt like everything was out of my control. I've come to appreciate it more recently, but in earlier tours it was something I needed to learn to deal with for sure
Tarrembeau
Yeah as much as I love Randbats it's necessary to admit that not every game can be won, and some formats have bigger emphasis on matchup than others. With WCOR ‘23 and this current RBTT, though, you’ve known really great success; do you think anything changed in the way you play the game?
GXE
yeah that's a good question, I've tried thinking about it myself, I think I can point to a few things but even then it's hard to say. I think two of the most important were improving in other areas as a player, such as general positioning and really just using my clock when I need to (it used to be very click-first, think later for me). The next is terastallization in rands, which I felt like I probably had a better grasp on than dynamax. The last is FINALLY installing the rands tooltip and showdex after like three RBTTs. Trust me they really help
Tarrembeau
Oh yeah definitely, I don't use showdex myself but the tooltip was a game changer. Being good at playing under pressure, dealing with emotions is also a big part of the competitive side of the game. How do you manage to keep your cool if undesirable events occur?
GXE
I think I react differently to RNG in randbats than in other formats. In formats like OU or NU I think you really just need to breathe, readjust, and come up with a new gameplan (oftentimes this involves playing more aggressively to make up whatever lead has been lost). I think in rands you have to be almost mentally equipped to start 5-6, or play with tspikes on your field with four grounded non-poison mons in the back. And the thing is, in rands, it may be ok playing from a deficit. You can't gameplan for your opponent’s team when it's random. All you can do is assign your own mons some value—some are better as sweepers, some you think can apply some immediate pressure—and go from there. It's a very go-with-it format I feel
Tarrembeau
Yes I do agree. What I noticed is that from playing almost exclusively Randbats I'm much better at dealing correctly with short sequences than long gameplans. Do you approach the tournament games and the ladder differently? We've seen you meet success there as well!
GXE
one-hundred percent yeah. people on ladder are often in the same click-first mindset I find myself in, and it means you can't play with the same assurances you would against a player in a tournament who is often going to make the "right" play. On ladder I think I rely on just playing my position as well as I can, predicting only in the times that I feel it’s very beneficial or necessary. I think through tournament games differently, oftentimes going for more under the assumption that I actually know what my opponent is going to do
Tarrembeau
Yes, I find myself in the same situation, where I don't know if I can trust my opponent, and it's tiresome sometimes. Do you play any other ladder than the current generation one?
GXE
In terms of old gens I unfortunately don't play many, just because of wait times and a general feeling of wanting to play with the newest, most up-to-date formats. I think it's always fun to go back and play formats like SS BSS Factory or even just randbats to play with dynamax again though
as a side note you won't catch me dead playing RBY rands
Tarrembeau
Yeah I play in dead hours a lot and sometimes waiting 5 minutes for a gen5 game to gain a mere +7 elo is just not it. But the old formats are fun. I don't remember you playing in the Rands Slam? Is this an event you skip? Are there any other Rands events you're looking forward to?
GXE
I think rands tournaments in general seem like a ton of fun because of how low-commitment time-wise they feel for me. I've never played a rands tour outside of WCOR or RBTT though, and it really does just boil down to time. Finishing up school with a job takes up a lot, and I like to spend my other free time doing other hobbies. I decided to play this RBTT because I didn't have much interest in SPL (I honestly just wanted a break from prep and building and all that), so it's the only tour I'm in at all right now. Going forward not sure what might change, but I really don't play that much at the moment, really trying to focus on one or two tours at a time
Tarrembeau
Yes I can understand that very well, it takes time nonetheless and also mental energy which could be used for something else. Is the no-prep, low commitment your favorite aspect of Rands? Is this anything else you enjoy or don't enjoy about it?
GXE
It's definitely a huge draw, but harkening back to an earlier point I think I really have come to enjoy the variability of random battles. In other tiers you start seeing the same things over and over again, and from personal experience I can attest to getting stuck using the same 10-30 mons on every single team. In rands you don't get that, in one game you're playing miraidon and in the next you're playing a dunsparce (AND THE DUNSPARCE MIGHT BE BETTER), and that's just something I'll always find cool
Tarrembeau
Ahahaha did you pull that example from the rands room banner?! Do you have some favorite pokemons to roll in any format?
GXE
ON MY LIFE I DID NOT KNOW THAT WAS THE BANNER. THAT IS CRAZY LMAOOO. I guess it's just a sentiment a lot of people share, because that's pretty awesome. In Gen 9 I love rolling some obvious broken pokemon like lilligant-hisui or comfey, but even less immediately broken pokemon like alomomola (alomomaomaomal?). That thing is super over-leveled and will never die while wishing up your entire team. I cannot stand playing versus it, though
Tarrembeau
GXE
I looked it up immediately after you mentioned it
I cannot say I remember ever seeing it before
pretty cool
Tarrembeau
it really is
Alomomola is also one of my favorite mons fwiw, I love this kind of feel-safe mons which will always put up heavy work for you and fit against most matchups. Alright, this interview is coming to an end, but first, do you have any piece of advice you would give to someone getting interested in playing Random Battles and getting better at it?
GXE
I'll try my best ! I'd say the first is to download the two things I mentioned earlier (the rands tooltip, and showdex). I think for newer people both tools are immensely helpful, helping you refine your rands head-calcs while simultaneously accounting for all of the sets your opponent may have. The second piece of advice would be to really review your games, if you're interested in taking it to the next level. It's incredibly easy to chalk something up to matchup, and load game after game after game, but I think it is immensely helpful, and even rewarding, to be like "what could I have done better," even in the face of this bad luck. It's something I think even more weathered tour players could learn from . Finally, do try to have fun with it! Losing is absolutely a part of rands that is unavoidable, so take the metagame for what it is! A fun, accessible, and low-commitment format that is really really great, imo
Tarrembeau
This is a very sensible answer I agree with wholeheartedly! Thanks a lot for your time and for your answers!
GXE
This was my first smogon interview so I was excited to do one haha ^^ thanks for your time!
Thanks again to GXE for the great interview! Feel free to ask them any further questions in this thread and keep an eye out for future interviews![/user][/user]
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