Hello there! Thanks for accepting this interview.
Heya, no problem! Good to be here.
Let's start by the basics:
how would you introduce yourself in one or two sentences?
I'm a student who just loves doing things on the internet really. Like, enjoying some memes, or just chatting with others. Not really some out-of-the-blue features.
Eh, that's the case for most of us I believe. And wandering on the internet,
how did you first hear about PS?
It was actually via some pokemon mobile phone app. In that app, you could share teams with others, as well as having battles with an AI. While I was searching the internet for competitive sets, I landed on Smogon and not long after that, PS.
Oh really? I never heard about it. Do you remember its name?
I'd rather not say that because there is a battle mode in the app named after me. A thanks from the developer to me for finding so many pokemon mechanic bugs in the battles.
Oh, that's pretty cool. Going back even further,
how long has Pokémon been apart of your life and how did you discover it?
For as long as I remember lol. My older sister watched Pokémon around the time I was born so I quickly became interested by it as well and it has kept my interest ever since.
Haha, I got into Pokémon through the anime as well. It was such a big thing back then.
Hot topic now: what was your first video game, and what was your favorite one?
Firered. I got that one after me and my sister both saved money to buy a DS for her. With the money, she would get the DS, and I her gameboy + games. It's very hard not to like the first game you played, and it applies to me as well. Firered will always have a special place in my heart.
Not saying that other games I played, like Platinum and B2W2, should be set aside. I would objectively find those games better than firered, but childhood experience outweighs that.
I agree. When I hear old games' OSTs on Youtube it sometimes hits hard.
And what's your biggest hobby outside of Pokémon?
Gaming. Not really much to say here. :^)
Oh? What are your favorite games?
It are mostly the so-called "Souls-Likes". It's poorly-defined but usually it's similar to the Dark Souls series. Well-knowns as Dark Souls III, Hollow Knight, and lesser known gems as Lucah: Born of a Dream, Salt & Sanctuary or Dead Cells.
Sounds cool. Does your (classy) custom avatar come from one of those?
Nope! It comes from a boss in Demon Souls, the predecessor of Dark Souls.
Oh ok, it's pretty much the same style. A bit of a trivia question now: living in Nederlands,
is there a place you would really like to travel to one day?
There isn't something on my shortlist as of recently. However, I would love to go back to Porto, Portugal. I've been there last year on vacation and it was gorgeous.
Looks great! Now back to the topic on hand. You are a (checks notes) PS Global Driver, Tournaments Owner, Help Moderator and Nederlands Moderator. That's a lot of responsabilities around there.
When and where did you start contributing to the sim?
That has to be my language room, Nederlands. I joined PS early 2017, and I believe I got roomdriver there around november-december of that same year.
As a nice chat contributor?
Yeah I think so. For the Tournaments room, I was also a rare promotion at that time of being a good chat contributor, rather than hosting often or being good in tours. For Help, there's not much to be said. You can't really get promoted there for anything else than what the room is for.
There was a handful of rooms that I was in when I joined PS, because the subjects interested me or I felt like I could contribute there. For Nederlands, it's my language room so that's a given. For Help, I was still green and sometimes had questions. Later on, I was able to answer them.
For Tournaments, I had this weird feeling that I had to play battles on this site because that what's it for, so I joined the room so I could start doing that. I eventually ended up just chatting there, and set aside this idea as a misconception on my end.
Is that your first PS account by the way? Or did you use other ones before?
This is my first PS account :^)
Ah, sticking to one account all this time.
that's something I've never been able to do Where does your username come from?
"Robb" is the first part of my real name. The "576" is from a long time ago in a place, far, far away. Can't really remember. I have a lot of joke reasons as to what it stands for though!
Oh? What would be one of those joke reasons?
576 is the dex number of Gothitelle, so I would just do /dt 576 and yell "SHADOW TAG IS NOT BROKEN"
That's a pretty shady past indeed. You said that you "had to play battles on this site because that what it's for".
What tiers do you play?
Well ... nothing really. I eventually figured out that the competitiveness is nothing for me, as I mostly want to use PS to relax. I know that I would pressure myself into having to achieve good results, and I didn't want to do that. The only tier I would call myself a main in is cc1v1. I have sometimes joined tours on smogon/PS because I found them fun and they had a nice gimmick, but that's about it.
This pressure thing over results is a feeling I can very much understand. While you are here to relax and enjoy,
what would you say are the hardest & coolest parts of being a global staff member?
There is not really a "hardest part of being gstaff" in my opinion. You can do as much as you feel yourself comfortable with. The bars you set for yourself here can break you up the most. Other than that, cases where you judge A, but the user who reported it hoped you'd do B, are pretty hard too. Now for the coolest thing ...
Might be a bit different, but for me, it has to be a feeling of being part of something. In my childhood, I struggled with feeling part of an actual group that did big stuff, and that I had to prove myself over and over again. Being global staff gave me a huge boost of confidence in handling things, both on the internet and in real life.
That's really great, and I'm glad you are happy to be part of the team. We have been going on for one hour so I won't take much more of your time, but one last question: in that spirit,
what would you say to newcomers wanting to contribute?
If you contribute, it should be because you're enjoying doing it, be it talking about good sets for pokemons in tierrooms, having conversations in lobby, or being active in one of the many gamerooms here. It's the main thing why at least I am here, because it's what I enjoy doing. Being genuine about things will give both you and others a better experience.
Great! Well, that's all for me, anything you would like to say to conclude?
Numbers in your name are fine. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Duly noted :D Well thanks for your time, have a nice day!
It was great being here. Enjoy yours too \o