All Gens Ruins of Alph Player of the Week: Fear

Ojama

Banned deucer.
why did people start calling you kingpin?
favorite anime?
kratosmana and blunder started calling me that in spl 7 just to joke around and it stayed. unlike most ppl think, i didnt start the kingpin meme. but fsr that name has become popular and more and more ppl have been referring to me as the kingpin and it kinda amuses me because i associate it with "the kingpin marlo stanfield" from the wire, who is my fav show and he's my fav character in it.

fav anime is hunter x hunter, but i also really really like hajime no ippo, one punch man, monster, cowboy bebop, parasite, fate zero, samurai champloo...
 
Hey Kingpin! Coming from someone who looks up to you, I wanted to know:

What are your thoughts on growing the scene of competitive Pokemon on Smogon? Are there any newer players you think might have an impact on the tour scene from the Smogon community or the French community?

Did you approve elodin of Kingpin Jr.?

You obviously play USM at a high level, do you think the Zygarde banned was necessary for a healthy meta?

What advice would you give someone when it comes to teambuilding?

Who is the character in your avatar?

What's your favorite season of The Wire?

What are some of your favorite movies?

What music do you like to listen too?

That is all! :]
 
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Ojama

Banned deucer.
Hey Kingpin! Coming from someone who looks up to you, I wanted to know:

What are your thoughts on growing the scene of competitive Pokemon on Smogon? Are there any newer players you think might have an impact on the tour scene from the Smogon community or the French community?

Did you approve elodin of Kingpin Jr.?

You obviously play USM at a high level, do you think the Zygarde banned was necessary for a healthy meta?

What advice would you give someone when it comes to teambuilding?

Who is the character in your avatar?

What's your favorite season of The Wire?

What are some of your favorite movies?

What music do you like to listen too?

That is all! :]
I'm not sure if there are ways to really improve the tournament scene, because that would require changing the mentality of the current generation of players and I think we hit the point of no return a few years ago. The non-official tournaments are pretty much dead when they used to be extremely popular back in the days. It's all about winning and receiving the acknowledgment of the Smogon community by winning a trophy or performing very well in several official tournaments. People don't build anymore, they just steal and use standard teams. It is what it is, and I don't even think hosting cash-prized non-official tournaments would really help dealing with the real issue of the tournament scene. People have kind of forgotten that the main purpose of playing a game is to have fun and this is kind of sad. As for new players, I gotta admit I'm not really familiar with the newer generation of players.

I did not...

I think banning Zygarde was the right move and I was at first not too convinced about it but I have to admit that banning Zygarde opens more possibilities teambuilding-wise.

Build your own teams would be my advice to anyone. Pick a core or a set up sweeper to center your team around would be my other advice.

Chrollo Lucifer from Hunter x Hunter

Season 4 is my favorite season and most certainly the best or one of the best ever written seasons on tv, followed by Seasons 3 and 1. Season 2 is criminally underrated, I really loved it. Season 5 is probably the "weakest" regarding the theme the season is based off (Journalism), but it shows the evolution and the conclusion of all characters, mainly those from season 4, and I love it.

I watch a lot of TV Shows but I haven't watched that many movies. My favorite movies have to be The Dark Knight, The Shawshank's Redemption, Seven, Usual Suspects, Memento, Silence of the Lambs...

Pretty much everything that isn't Metal. If I had to pick that would be electro.
 

Ojama

Banned deucer.
in retrospect, how do you feel about the SSD II Serpents team overall
i still wonder how we won that tour with poshito in our ranks. solid team overall with a very good low tier core. OU could be stronger but on paper it didn't look that bad.
 

Sceptross

The words were voted out by a landslide
is a Community Contributor
I'm not sure if there are ways to really improve the tournament scene, because that would require changing the mentality of the current generation of players and I think we hit the point of no return a few years ago. The non-official tournaments are pretty much dead when they used to be extremely popular back in the days. It's all about winning and receiving the acknowledgment of the Smogon community by winning a trophy or performing very well in several official tournaments. People don't build anymore, they just steal and use standard teams. It is what it is, and I don't even think hosting cash-prized non-official tournaments would really help dealing with the real issue of the tournament scene. People have kind of forgotten that the main purpose of playing a game is to have fun and this is kind of sad. As for new players, I gotta admit I'm not really familiar with the newer generation of players.

I'd just like to take off my e-hat to you for this. Being what I guess is on the newer side of tour players on this site (late 2017 is when I started), I completely agree with your opinion. It's refreshing to see someone that's been around for a while say something I've defended since I've been around, basically (and discussed with several people already).

I can't change people's opinions but I can do my part by voicing my own and continue taking part in "smaller tournaments" and caring for them as much as I do for official tournaments (specially if, for instance I'm in a team tournament where I really love the team environment and my teammates - I'm looking at you, Sunyshore City Shaymins :blobuwu:).
 
Hey Ojama

I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on how to approach prep in official tournaments... do you think trying to heavily counterstyle your opponent is the best approach, do you just use 'good teams' or do you apply a healthy mix of both and does it depend on what type of opponent you are facing?
 

Diophantine

Banned deucer.
Hi Ojama,

As a pretty new player I've tried my hand at pretty much every tier and enjoy most, if not all, of them with varying preferences. As you've established yourself as a top player in pretty much every generation of Pokemon, I wanted to ask if you would suggest I (and players like myself) focus all my efforts into a single tier and take them on one at a time, or continue learning each one here and there at the same time?

I ask this because I feel like I'm OK at most of them but I wouldn't consider myself amazing at any single one, and I noticed that there seems to be a distinction between top players who specialise in one or two tiers and players that seem to be able to play anything at a really high level.

What do you do in your day-to-day life? How do you manage to find time for your hobbies?

Which Ojama is your favourite?


Thanks :psyglad:
 

Ojama

Banned deucer.
Hey Ojama

I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on how to approach prep in official tournaments... do you think trying to heavily counterstyle your opponent is the best approach, do you just use 'good teams' or do you apply a healthy mix of both and does it depend on what type of opponent you are facing?
I don't think solely basing your preparation on counterstyling your opponent is the best approach. Sure it can work in early rounds assuming you're facing a "random", but you'd probably get the same results by just bringing a solid team. I think focusing on yourself is the best approach. It doesn't work one way. If you think your opponent isn't also thinking about counterstyling you or changing their playstyle so your counterstyle will be ineffective, then you're wrong. Sure, everyone has patterns but when it comes to winning an official tournament, you are facing the very best of the best, whether it's playing-wise or teambuilding-wise, so a very simplistic approach of counterstyling just cannot work. But that's just my opinion of course. I think having a good idea of what your opponent likes to bring is necessary, just to keep in mind what you can't be weak to against them, but that's about it. The rest of your preparation needs to be focused on yourself. This is my personal approach and I'm sure every top player has their own. I think this is what makes the game more enjoyable and challenging, bringing stuff you rarely use in key matches. To make it short, don't be predictable, use different stuff from one game to another without being counter-nature (if you suck at stalling, don't stall), be offensive, bring win conditions.

Hi Ojama,

As a pretty new player I've tried my hand at pretty much every tier and enjoy most, if not all, of them with varying preferences. As you've established yourself as a top player in pretty much every generation of Pokemon, I wanted to ask if you would suggest I (and players like myself) focus all my efforts into a single tier and take them on one at a time, or continue learning each one here and there at the same time?

I ask this because I feel like I'm OK at most of them but I wouldn't consider myself amazing at any single one, and I noticed that there seems to be a distinction between top players who specialise in one or two tiers and players that seem to be able to play anything at a really high level.

What do you do in your day-to-day life? How do you manage to find time for your hobbies?

Which Ojama is your favourite?


Thanks :psyglad:
I think playing different generations helps in having a better overall understanding of the game and a more complete teambuilding. Facing top players in every generation is what has improved my teambuilding, because every generation has specificities and being able to adapt your teambuilding to every generation, with their own mechanics and trends, makes you a very flexible teambuilder. I'm not saying being good at ADV makes you better at SM, I'm just saying that it helps widening your field of vision teambuilding-wise. I also strongly believe that switching from one gen to another helps a lot at not burning out. It's paradoxical but Pokémon is a game that needs to be played the least possible. Or well, let me rephrase it: one needs to use their time perfectly to enjoy this game as long as possible. Watching replays of top players, playing in official tournaments and building + using your own teams is what will make you improve a lot. I can't stress enough the importance of building and using their own teams. With all the aspects within this game, hating the game can be pretty easy. Make good use of your time is my advice.

I'm a regular guy, who is 1 year away from becoming a physiotherapist. There is a real difference between a physiotherapist in France and in the US. I won't go into details but in France you need to go through 1 year of medicine and take a super hard exam where only 50 people out of 3000 are accepted. So I'm currently in 3rd year and will then specialize in the sports field. Otherwise I play tennis at a high level and play football, I watch a lot of TV Shows/Movies/Anime and read a lot of mangas as well, and I spend time with my friends. As for the management of my time, I just happen to skip class a lot because most of my classes aren't mandatory so I just study home which gives me a lot of free time.

My favorite Ojama is Ojama Knight.

Tits or ass?
Both ?? Ass if I had to pick.
 
Fear

How did you get involved with competitive Pokemon?

I played the cartridges when I was younger, Yellow > Gold > RubyRed in this order upon their release. Eventually I found myself searching for pokemon movesets for my Ruby squad with a wacky 56 kbit/s dial up internet line in gamefaq's and IGN back in 2004. Literally raw material and whatnot, eventually ended up downloading TVsIan Netbattle at the age of 15. Actually while answering this, I realised that this paragraph can get really long if start reminiscing past recollections so I'll keep it as short as possible.
There used to be a lot of communities back then(PokeRealm anyone?), as smogon was relatively very fresh and people that were coming from boards/playing the cartridges had a fascination with in game villainous teams and started forming groups each with their own invisionfree boards and whatnot like team Rocket, Team Magma, Team Oblivion ect. Netbattle itself as a program was different than what PS is today; There were no replays or sharing info and it was a very user friendly program that had a lot of users piled up on the main server every day usually with (Clan) tags. I got involved in clan wars very early, eventually I found myself as the leader of the biggest clan in Netbattle, Antiquity. It was no easy task having to run a clan back then and the most integral part of it was the need to be constantly competitive. People held upmost respect for leaders when they could not be beaten and submited eventually in getting recruited into the clans or befriended in order to be around the strongest figures of the game. You will not believe how many clans I shut down single handedly or how many members I 'stole' just because I could play, just ask UD, Taylor, Rewer, Asta or Jabba.
To cut a long story short, gen4 was released coincidentially around the same time as mandatory army service when I was 18, and the new shoddy simulator built to support gen4 wasn't as good as NB. I played for a bit longer until I eventually faded out of the game until 2015. After a really long hiatus, I was back in 2016 where I picked GSC to main in order to play some pokemon online tournament and later on wcop and stayed around since.

What past gen tier are you most known for playing, and what are some of your greatest achievements in playing (in either this tier or in general)?

I'm at the moment known for being one of the best GSC players on the field, racking up considerable success(and experience) over the past 3 years, culminating into winning SPL 9 while having a personal 9-1 record in GSC. Additionaly, I'm being widely considered as an ADV legend, the gen I played before resurging in 2016.
I made SmogonTour Playoffs twice back in my time when it was RBY - GSC - ADV solely carried by ADV tbh (pretty much droped participation after it became DPP UU,OU,Ubers and later iterations of it)

What are your favorite old gen tiers and why?

GSC > ADV > RBY >> BW > DPP in this order. I consider the first 3 gens more balanced besides the fact that they were pretty much what I grew up playing with. DPP onwards, the game starts to become somewhat unbalanced for my taste with the introduction of stronger mons, moves(hello Draco Meteor ), abilities and items that the newer gens require constant attention and time investment.

What are some of your most commonly Pokemon in the tiers that you play?

RBY: Alakazam
GSC: Snorlax, Raikou, Gengar
ADV: Tyranitar, Celebi, Jirachi, Gengar
DPP: Scizor, Shaymin, Tyranitar
BW: Garchomp, Landorus, Tyranitar

What type of playstyle do you enjoy using the most in these tiers?

I enjoy playing offensive teams that favor heavy reads and planning ahead. Additionally, I like exploring the tiers and innovating with sets; you might often see me playing something unconventional from times to times. With that said, I am extremely versatile in what I can play and I am not necessarily labeling a specific playstyle to myself, often times I'll use what I think it will win over 'comfort'.

Do you consider yourself having innovated or popularized any sets throughout your time playing?

As a matter of fact, I do consider myself as a big innovator. I have been building all of my teams for the past 3 years in GSC and I have been involved in shaping of modern ADV in a lot of ways especially around 2016-2017.

Altho there is not a lot of room for innovation in a metagame as old as GSC, a lot of the past years GSC trends can be redirected to me. The rise in Jynx's popularity is notable, I had spread a Jynx team around in 2017 used in classic and onwards of that year by a lot of people which resulted in a huge spike of Jynx usage nowdays. Sub IB LK Nighmare Jynx is a mon I have brought in SPL this year. Psychic Misdreavus is another set popularised be me. Smeargle with Spikes SacredFire Present Spore was made to spread status to steels/rocks, used vs MR.E in SPL9. More recently, I used Ancientpower Marowak in my SPLX game vs Lavos, ect
In ADV back in the day I had created and popularised a lot of sets. Some examples were the dreaded Fearlax (Rest Talk Return Curse bulky ev'ed Snorlax), SD Celebi (SD Fight SBall Recover) DEMence (DE FB BBreak RSlide physical based). Recent creations include Protox Refresh Swampert, ToxicFireWishTech physically bulky Jirachi, SpecDef Invested Claydol and Celebi spreads, Explosion on zero att investment Gengar, hard to track but I'm pretty sure I was the first to do/share one on Antiquity back in 2015(screenshot).
Altho I haven't been actively building in DPP besides the recent Latias suspect, I also had my fair share of creativity in DPP back in 2009. Notably lead sash Tyranitars that were dominating the early shoddy ladders by me and ViL were mine(both physical and special based), rest talk ice beam psycho shift Cresselia in the garchomp meta. Recently I toyed around with Charge beam | Rain dance Latias sets.

Are there any specific games you've played that you consider really great?

Some tournament games to check in GSC are VS Earthworm SPLX in a week when it was of the utmost importance for us to win in order to get in playoffs. VS Tiba SPL 9 had a lot of tension behind it and was probably the most important game of last season that I played, us being down 5-6 in the semifinals, bringing the series to tiebreak(and eventual win).
This ADV game vs TDK in Callous Invitational has some remarkable reads that highlight my prefered style in ADV.
I have to say that in a span of 15 years I have had and I'm yet going to have a lot of incredible games looking forward. The community is shaped by passionate people that makes spending time in this game worth it.

Favorite competitive memories?

The last 3 previous iterations of SPL are part of my most memorable time in smogon for diffrent reasons each. The team environment formed by people that were mostly unknown to me with whom I can now call friends is a remarkable experience that transcends winning or losing.

What are your top 5 competitive regrets and points of pride?

Regrets:
-I really wanted to play Lavos in SPL9, and I was saving up for our game which was supposed to be somewhere in the playoffs. I did not want to share even a tiny bit of prep before that. We finally had our "main event" game this year and we'll have more to come.
-I remember I put both my smogon tour 5 semis games and my smogon official 3 quarterfinals game on the same day. I learned the harsh way never to stack important games after that.
-Not playing a lot of individual tournaments after coming back on the scene in 2016. The gens that interest me are usually held in the first half of the year(August till Januray is really stale for old gens)
-Not giving the space and time that the game deserves is a regret that ties somewhat with the above point. I used to play much much more when I was younger, now every extended tournament drains from my work and real life and I am really careful what I am joining. For that reason, I have been extremely motivated in SPL(s) ever since I came back, as I consider it to be the most prestigious tournament to win and the team setting allows you to go all out with prep/games.

Pride:
-I have a stack of old netbattle game logs saved up with wins against everyone considered good that played ADV back in Netbattle.
-Having solid records in every SPL I participated, being a leading figure for my teams. Winning SPL 9 obviously.
-The trust and respect that my friends and team mates have been showing through time is the achievement I am most proud of.

Are there any changes to older tiers that you think would be beneficial?

-Most of the older tiers are pretty set in stone, I don't think any change made from how the tiers are played today is going to be beneficial in the span of time, at least in RBY, GSC and ADV.
-DPP is much more interesting with Latias in, altho its still the most unbalanced metagame to play because of the absurd power levels (caused by the physical/special split, better mons and moves introduced, choice scarf and stealth rock) and no team preview.
-There is a lot of work already done and constantly checked in BW so far by players better in it than myself. Reuniclus seems busted.
-Oras feels a bit incomplete, there are a lot of threatening pokemon you need to check when team building, often resulting in MU dictating games. Volcarona is disqusting in ORAS with less speed control around.

Who do you look up to as a player and/or person, and which players are you close friends with?

-I looked up to players like imperfectluck, Husk and ViL back then. There are a lot of players I respect now, BKC, Earthworm, ABR, McMeghan, Blunder, Soulwind to name a few.
- Tony, Astamatitos, Rozes, Charmflash are my closest friends at the moment. BKC, ABR, Nails and TDK have given me outstanding discussions, thoughts and games these past years. Roudolf, MysteriousM and Ace11, MDragon, Conflict, Soulwind, Mr378, August, UD, FlamingVictini are great friends and some of the people I find myself talking to often at the periods I'm most active.

Are there any old players who you wish would come back?

A big percentage of returning older players usually dont end up adapting correctly to today's standards and dont give the proper attention to the game. If I had to pick some people, those would be my buddies Husk, Giga Punch, imperfectluck and goofball. Actually I kinda miss personalities like Aeolus, skarm, chaos, Mekkah, Mystica, Taylor being around to mess with. Imagine them as managers smashing keyboards.

What teams that you've made from any point of history are you most proud of? What about others'?

There have been many teams that I'm proud of building, I have rarely recycled teams and I keep building fresh teams every year. For the sake of answering this question and the spirit of sharing, I'm posting some teams that were mentioned earlier:

GSC
Jynx team aka "the 378 slayer" https://pokepast.es/ed980c27296537bf Featuring Psychic Misdreavus and Jynx, probably the team that is spammed the most against Mr.378(yeah I was asked to share this team more times than what I can remember in 2017-2018)

ADV
Jolteon control speed offense, an edit off the first team I build after resurging back in 2016 https://pokepast.es/11ca49142509706d

The 4attack Jirachi Skarmbliss DDttar Control team https://pokepast.es/45c2974dea02d87b, focuses on spike+walling until its ddttar time. You may have seen Astamatitos or MDragon use this one in ADV events of the past years. Use 4AttJirachi to blow holes in DDttar answers(DynamicPunch + 3 special attacks is also an option).
 
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Mr.E


What past gen tier are you most known for playing, and what are some of your greatest achievements in playing (in either this tier or in general)?
GSC, obviously. I don't know how many particularly great achievements I have but I went down to I think semifinals in Chromatics Last Stand Tournament, AKA Sneak 1, one of the best tournaments in community history during the ending days of RBY and the tourney series of which Smogon Premier League is a spiritual successor. I lost to EeveeTrainer because he froze my maxed-Evasion Alakazam. I've always had pretty bad luck in individual events but I won Marble Palace's first Gen 3 tournament, the only individual event I've ever won, when we still played 200.

I have two SPL trophies performing well in GSC for my team. I'm particularly proud of the Scooters victory during SPL's inaugural season, since I practically dragged my team kicking and screaming into the playoffs after Week 7 against all odds... where I proceeded to go 0-2 but my team finally picked up the slack at that point and brought me over the finish line! And most of my teammates were my old friends in the community that have all since left or went into the official side of things once VGC became a regular thing, a connection I miss in modern SPL where my teammates are just my teammates. That's likely the main reason why I didn't play in SPL X, I don't have any really good friends left on Smogon so nobody bought me despite my skill at the game.
i swear to god you are never going to drop this

you lost to eeveetrainer because you are/were inferior
 

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