Approved by 5gen & S1nn0hC0nfirm3d | Amazing Art by Albatr0ss
(Interview Date: 23rd of July 2021)
Hello everybody and welcome back to "ZU Player of the Week"!. This project will feature interviews from some of the ZU's greatest community members so that we can discover more about their Pokémon and personal lives. I am thrilled that I will have the chance to interview so many amazing ZU players and I hope that you enjoy these as much as I do. I'm glad to announce that we'll be starting on a new "miniseries" focussing on the old gens of ZU, starting with this year's SM ZU Cup Winner...
a fruitshop owner!!
Favourite Pokemon:
(ZU Driver, SM and ORAS ZU Council member, ZU Classic III SM ZU Cup Winner, still moonlighting as blalib)
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Dragonite!
*arr oo*
Hey A Fruitshop Owner, what are you selling today? I mean how are you doing today!
Great day, glad it's Friday and the weekend has arrived how about you Jett.
That's great to hear! I'm doing pretty good myself, very nice weather so I went for a nice walk.
Alright well tell me and the community a bit about yourself outside of ps/smogon via a brief introduction.
I'm a third year college student studying mechanical engineering at school. I enjoy playing frisbee, basketball and hike casually on the side. Right now I'm home for the summer working enjoying the time off going to the beach when I can. Outside of pokemon I enjoy other video and board games as well
Very very nice! How did you first come across PS and Smogon?
My friend and I started playing probably 6/7 years ago during ORAS; we would do a skype call and ghost OU ladder. I joined the forums few years later when I joined my first PU tournament.
Wow, quite a long time ago but sounds like a lot of fun.
It's probably safe to say you're one of the older ZU players. How did you first get into the metagame and what's something you miss from back then?
I found zu after my short run in pu ended from using gimmick broken belly drum linoone. I don't remember exactly how I became part of the community but I liked the idea of being part of a movement for a lower tier which I knew naturally would become from the addition of pokemon. Early SM zu was strange we had mons like ursaring and rotom frost which I definetly do not miss. Shiftry is a fun pokemon from SM that I miss it was very good but I like mixed wall breakers and there are not very many of them.
Ah very interesting, power creep has been quite insane this gen so at least we'll probably be keeping Shiftry this time around!!
I'd also like to congratulate you on your recent victory in the SM ZU cup; if I'm not mistaken you've had a great amount of tournament success over the years and been consistently putting out great records. Who do you owe thanks to for that? Is it yourself or are there people who guided you along the way?
Thank you, ive always been able to test with several members of staff and councils for testing my teams they all play and give honest feedback which is something I am grateful for being able to test with high level players like them. Other than the testing its build and rebuild to get the team you like that works.
That's good that it's a mix of the two and it makes tournaments far more enjoyable.
How much do enjoy playing SM ZU; what's good/bad about it (or any general thoughts about it)?
Id give it a solid 4.5/5 stars. It is definitely a very versatile metagame. There are instances where im facing an opponent with 6 different pokemon than me but both our teams are viable and effective. This versatility can be dangerous and intimidating for someone just picking up the metagame especially with z-moves that add another factor of randomness. I think right now it is in a pretty solid state the like additions of torterra and eggy towards the end of the generation have been large factors in the meta. There are continuous new creative solutions to deal with these threats and there are many different options that can work for a team which goes back to why I enjoy playing gen7.
hmm i see, thanks for the very detailed explanation. I guess that makes it very unique when compared to other ZU gens. Is the current iteration of SM ZU your favourite or did you prefer a past meta?
I did like SM more before shiftry ban where shiinotic and z-hurricane shift could be used but I think right now is a good situation for SM. It is better than the frostom days tho, sub, zblizzard, painspit is not healthy.
oh abomasnow was awesome too forgot about that legend
Z-hurricane shift and aboma being meta seems really cool
Without revealing too much cause I'm sure you want to keep some opinions hidden given ZUPL is coming up, what Pokemon do you think are underrated and overrated in SM ZU atm?
Grimer-Alola I think is a really cool pokemon right now it can absorb tspikes and can come into eggy and completely walls bronzor which either two mons is likely to be seen. Vigoroth is another pokemon people forget about when building if you lack a reliable fighting or ghost is will win your haze mare with not beat that taunt set :P. I am not onboard with silvally dragon and I also believe pinsir is a terrible pokemon are my two overrated pokemon currently
Ah cool, and I've played a couple SM ZU games with one of quag's teams which features Grimer-Alola and it's a lot of fun
A question on the current gen now, what do you think of the current SS ZU metagame? Any Pokemon you'd deem banworthy at the moment?
I played the the money tournament and enjoyed building for in. My favorite mons were the thick fats Appletun and Miltank. Spike stacking is a common style seen which as someone who loves playing bulky offense can be annoying to fight against. I do not think anything is ban worthy at the moment I think people with continue to create creative solutions to deal will the threats at large in the meta
oh right, miltank and appletun are pretty fun to use. Good take and I'd have to agree as someone who also is fond of BO.
Moving away from Pokemon now, you mentioned you enjoy playing board games and you're also a Room Owner in the Board Games room. What board games are you favourite and why?
I have played chess since a young age love that it is a game that you can always continue to get better at and theres little luck so you cannot blame a missed focus blast on your loss. Chess always is very rewarding in my opinion because you are able to get decently good with alittle bit of time put into it which makes it addictive but has a high skill ceiling. I like other games like othello, scrabble, and I play card games with my friends.
parcheesi is a sleeper board game pick too
That sounds like a lot of fun, and it's also awesome you've been playing chess for such a long time.
still garbage tho
haha
ah rip, it's a difficult game
You also mentioned you play a bunch of sports, do you also watch any and if so do you prefer playing or watching?
It is tough to pick a favorite would put basketball at 1 but ultimate frisbee is a close second. I watch whatever I do not follow anything too closely but I will do some sports betting its enthralling
nice, and as long as it's responsible lmao
naturally never chase your loses kids
never expect to win either
haha
haha, what are your favourite styles of music and what artists do you enjoy?
I really listen to whatever my mood changes quickly I could listen to 80's then switch to something more modern instantly. Although between like 2008-2012 is golden as far as my music taste.
oh that's pretty cool
large variety of music is always great
yeah its kinda basic i dont follow too closely haha
it's still good music tho
By "pure coincidence", our next question is a fruit question?
If you had to give out some fruit as gifts to 5 ZU users of your choosing, what fruit would you give to each user and why?
czim - pineapple- I think they have them in brazil
5gen - apple- I see green in 5 gens name
DurzaOffTopic - banana- nicest user
Spook - mango- sweet friendly guy had to pick co-owner I would give them cherries but that does not do spook justice. Spook is better than cherries because there are no pits in a mango I would not want to have them spit out the pit because it is a hastle to clean, like where do you put them all also cherries can stain which would not be the image I am trying to portray spook as.
Greybaum - coconut- legendary battler
that's actually an amazing answer, way better than one i was expecting for a memey question
Starting to wrap things up, do you have a particular SM ZU team you are particularly fond of and wouldn't mind sharing?
I think its okay to leak this after 2 years here's sub curse trev surrounded by brokens sub curse protect repeat is the strategy for this team. optional if busken can win go for it :
(dark) 
s/o Greybaum
pressure with tspikes and switch around until trev and safely set a sub up on something
dont be at less than 50% when you click curse Temporal Totodile
Wow this team looks like a whole load of fun, thanks for sharing
3-0 in the last sm cup
its still valid
ah very nice
Any shoutouts or final remarks you'd like to give?
LPY will never read this but it was fun playing against you for awhile they really pushed me to get better at the tier. Also 5gen one of the greatest leaders of all time has put a ton of time and love into this tier thank him for that. Everyone else is awesome too
oh one more final remark, on paper Lampent should be able to wall combusken
awesome, thanks for answering the questions!!
thanks for having me and doing this you did a fantastic job
Feel free to ask to a fruitshop owner any questions you want!
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