LC Player of the Week 3: OP

Corporal Levi

ninjadog of the decade
is a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Team Rater Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Community Leader Alumnus
Though he is a room owner, council member, and one of LC's more consistently solid tour players, OP's most defining trait is undoubtedly his love for Squirtle. Unfortunately, his taste in Pokemon came as quite a hindrance during this SPL season, when several of his opponents took advantage of it for their counterteams and brought Sun, which easily defeats Squirtle. This obviously powerful user is also a C&C mod, though his position also pairs poorly with being a Squirtle fan, seeing how Squirtle won't be getting an analysis this generation.

Player of the Week 3: OP
Inside the Mind of Dedicated John
Tell us about yourself. How did you get into Pokemon and Smogon?

I've been playing Pokemon since I was about 5 or 6. My first memories of the game are watching my brother play Silver while he taught me all his great tips like "press B really really fast to catch pokemon more often" and "use your master ball on any legendary you see, they're impossible to catch." I eventually got into the card game and made my parents spend money on card packs and a gameboy. I also played a couple games on our gamecube like Pokemon Stadium and another one where you had to purify bad pokemon or something.

As I got a bit older I mostly lost interest until one day I was goofing around with some friends and we were looking for a game to play. Someone mentioned Pokemon Showdown and I had a ton of fun with it, so I would come back every so often and I tried to get good at OU. I was so proud when I managed to get into the top 100 as a brand new player, but looking back I only managed to do that because I exploited the terrible ladder system used at the time. I had no idea smogon existed until I had been introduced to LC by Naykart a.k.a. THE MASTER OF LC and he said I should check it out to play in tournaments and get better. I really wanted to ladder higher than Wobbyble and Annie Leonhardt, so I followed his advice and began my career of wasting time making bad posts



OP flees from an attempt to schedule with him.

The LC ladder is often subject to ridicule, but it was how many of today's top LCers, including yourself, got into the tier; in fact, you were among the first LCers to be able to play the tier at a high level, being one of two LC mains to reach quarterfinals of the LC Open of 2014. How do you feel the quality of play in tours and at the top of the ladder has changed since you started out?

Back in my ladder hero days, I really wasn't very good at the game, but I'd still be able to consistently put up good results. That could be partly attributed to the aforementioned glicko-1 ladder system, but I think the quality of the ladder was also just quite poor. I would rarely if ever play anybody considered to be top tier. Now, I think the ladder is in a much better place. It's still not great and many players still don't really use it, myself included, but at any given time there's always some threatening players near the top of it like zeb, dundies, serene's, eniigma, etc.

I think the tour scene has also improved very significantly. The fact that zeriloa and I were the only "LC mains" to do well reflected pretty poorly on our tour scene at the time. Compared to the more recent opens, the later rounds were filled with dedicated LC players. Now that LC is actually in SPL now and almost 20 players were drafted for LC related reasons is also a testament to how many high level players there are now. I'm also really happy LC is finally doing seasonals as they will provide constant opportunities for people to prove themselves to be good at LC and it should help the tour scene grow even more.


The other big names of early XY LC have since gone inactive or have been unable to keep up with metagame trends, whereas you continue to be considered one of the best LC players. The playerbase has improved overall, sure, but what about the metagame? Do you feel that it is more or less friendly to newer players? Has it gotten more or less stable, and is it easier or more difficult to be creative in the tier? How well do you think a formerly strong LC player like zeriloa or naykart would do if they got back into LC now?

I think the metagame has shifted to include more complex, less intuitive strategies than in the past like sun, aurora veil, trapping, unique set-ups sweepers like Vullaby and Pumpkaboo-Small, and some wild z-moves. Those things add another element for new players to learn, making it a bit tougher to get into LC, but I appreciate the added layer of depth they contribute and I think they make for a more interesting metagame.

The metagame is incredibly stable thanks to us carrying over the ORAS banlist and being able to adapt to the differences in the generations quickly. We have a pretty good idea of what strategies are spicy and which are dicey. That said, I think there's more room than ever for creativity, largely due to z-moves. They created a massive amount of lures and neat sets for mons that never would've existed without them. A stable metagame also encourages players to punish strong strategies that become predictable with tech options that could otherwise be too risky to be worth using.

I feel the biggest challenge for returning players would be learning how to effectively teambuild for the current meta. The way you play LC is very similar to the past and doesn't require any particularly drastic adaptions, but it's a completely different game to prepare for. There's a huge number of threats to cover and many ways of going about doing so, making it a challenge to build a top tier team. But if a returning can shake off their rust and spend some time refining their teambuilding skills, I think they can return to form in a pretty quick manner.



OP laughs off any efforts at scheduling the match before Sunday.

Which users did you most look up to when you first started out? How about now?

The first guy I really looked up was Blarajan, when he was TL. I was a big fan of his tiering philosophies, particularly his suspect system. He was also just a nice guy who would answer my incredibly nooby questions. I was really into SPL and loved staying up to date with the LC matches; seeing him go 11-0 was pretty awesome.

atomicllamas was another big inspiration to new user h¡dden power. He was the first person I ever lost to in a forum tour and he absolutely demolished me. He later took over my first LCPL team, the route 101 rascals, after ryan dipped on us. I wasn't good and relied on cheesing people with bad zigzagoon teams to get a 3-2 record, but he didn't really care and would encourage & help me teambuild anyway. Now he's my SPL manager, so I guess we're destined to stick together

The last person I looked up to a lot was Al_Alchemist. As much of a massive pooter he was, he was absolutely hilarious and a fantastic mons player. It was always a good time when he joined the irc channel or ps room and started his usual antics.

There's a lot of other guys I could talk about like Rowan, Vileman, dsr, etc who were all amazing users to me as a new guy, but talking about everyone would take way too much time, but I really do appreciate them a lot.

Nowadays the person I look up to most has to be Quote. As much as he'll tell you otherwise, he's an amazing tier leader and a solid player. He has a remarkable ability to see situations as objectively as possible. He's always open to listen, but he'll also tell you if you're being retarded. I'm really glad he's stuck around in LC as long as he has.

I also look up to you, Levi! Your meta knowledge is always on point, your SPL run has been very impressive, and you get me giggling all the time. Half the time I get a question about C&C stuff, I just redirect them to you because you're literally never wrong. Keep up the awesome work man.


What do you like the most about the LC community? What do you like the least? In which areas do you feel it has improved?

My favorite part about our community is that it just feels like one big group of friends to me. I can joke and mess around with just about anyone and there's very little actual conflict outside of Star bickering with his lovers. There's so many people I absolutely love in the community and almost nobody that I don't like. I think the biggest area of improvement is that we have become a lot more open to newcomers. We can still work on that, but I felt like we used to be much more closed off from outsiders whether it be because of the "cliques" that were around or just people's general attitude. The part of the community I like the least would probably have to be kingler12345.



Opponent: We're scheduled to play right now!
OP: Give me a few minutes, I'm busy partying​


Speaking of Kingler12345, which of the following do you agree are broken? Sun, Diglett, Vullaby, Foongus

I don't think any of them are broken, particularly that ugly wannabe pokeball. Sun is obviously the closest to being broken. While I don't think it's too strong, I could see it being a bit too restricting on team building. I don't think people are preparing adequately for it right now, but I also get why. A lot of the sun checks feel suboptimal to include, but some new things are emerging like Fire Punch Timburr or really fast scarfers that make the sun matchup better, while still being good against other things. I'm super curious how the suspect for it is going to go.

I feel similarly about Diglett as well. In battle, it feels nowhere near broken to me, but it can be very annoying when teambuilding. It does drive the viability of some mons down, but many Diglett-weak things still flourish and I don't think it's particularly unhealthy.

Vullabys numerous sets and wide range of roles make it tough to face, but it feels very manageable. There's a lot of room for counterplay against the sweeping sets because you have to willingly give them a speed boost. It usually isn't too difficult to determine the set and play around it accordingly. I would be really surprised if Vullaby ever got suspected.


Lastly, is there a team you would like to share with us?

Sure! I made this team just before the Cutiefly ban in anticipation of the new meta and it became one of my favorites to use for couple months. The idea is to pass SD from Mienfoo to Mudbray, Doduo, or Ponyta. Against offense teams, I usually passed into Doduo or Mudbray. Between the ground, rock, steel, fighting, flying, normal, and dark coverage the two had, it made it unlikely the opponent had an answer for all of them coming from a fast +2 attack mon. Ponyta usually shined against bulkier teams where being able to switch moves and recover let it take down mons that Mudbray and Doduo couldn't OHKO. After it got passed an SD and used Flame Charge, very few mons could stop it. Staryu and Cottonee were there because they provided very important support and checked most of the meta. This team had some success in the tour The Quasar hosted, taking wins against Agammemnon in round 3 and Tricking in the semifinals. It's probably a bit outdated, but I enjoyed the concept a lot and I'll probably revamp it eventually.

Mienfoo @ Eviolite
Ability: Regenerator
Level: 5
EVs: 156 HP / 116 Def / 196 SpD
Impish Nature
- Drain Punch
- Knock Off
- Swords Dance
- Baton Pass

Mudbray @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Stamina
Level: 5
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 36 HP / 196 Atk / 36 Def / 236 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Heavy Slam
- Rock Slide
- Close Combat

Ponyta @ Eviolite
Ability: Flame Body
Level: 5
Shiny: Yes
Happiness: 0
EVs: 156 Atk / 156 Def / 196 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Flare Blitz
- Flame Charge
- Wild Charge
- Morning Sun

Doduo @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Early Bird
Level: 5
EVs: 236 Atk / 236 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Brave Bird
- Return
- Knock Off
- Jump Kick

Staryu @ Eviolite
Ability: Analytic
Level: 5
EVs: 116 HP / 116 SpA / 236 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Ice Beam
- Rapid Spin
- Recover
- Scald

Cottonee @ Eviolite
Ability: Prankster
Level: 5
EVs: 36 HP / 116 Def / 60 SpA / 36 SpD / 228 Spe
Timid Nature
- Dazzling Gleam
- Memento
- Knock Off
- Stun Spore

Thank you for the very entertaining answers, OP! This may be our most interesting interview yet.

---

Thanks for reading our third player of the week, and stay tuned for the next interview in two weeks!
 

Xayah

San Bwanna
is a Community Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
So it's time for a serious question. OP, you are easily one of the people I look up to the most, both in battling skill and C&C work. So my question is, how did you get to be C&C mod and do you like doing it?
 

Merritt

no comment
is a Tournament Directoris a Site Content Manageris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Dedicated Tournament Host
Head TD
Congrats OP!

Mind sharing the thing that keeps you coming back to LC?

Do you like any other "bad" mons than Squirtle?
 
Congratulations, OP!

Three questions:

1) What's it like to be LC's second biggest nerd (only behind WaterlessMelon)?

2) When will you start playing mafia again?

3) Do you think you're going to make top NA Arena players for February y/n?
 
hey awesome user OP,
when was the first time you started to like Squirtle or was it love at first sight?
I had a pet tortoise when I was really young so I always thought turtles/tortoises were cool. Squirtle was also the first card I ever owned. It's also insanely adorable and I don't see how anyone doesn't love it!

So it's time for a serious question. OP, you are easily one of the people I look up to the most, both in battling skill and C&C work. So my question is, how did you get to be C&C mod and do you like doing it?
Back in late 2014, LC C&C was apparently very slow and desperate for help, so the one and only Goddess John asked me to join the QC team. This was the first time I had ever heard of analyses. I was eager to help and had way too much time on my hands, so I checked literally every single analysis in the subforum. I eventually did enough to earn the Contributor badge without finishing any analyses. After a awhile, all the C&C mods became inactive apart from Mambo, so I was nominated for the job because of how active I was and the lack of other qualified candidates.

As for whether I like doing it or not, it's not exactly the most thrilling job in the world. I mostly just upload analyses, approve new ones, and bother people to get their stuff done. I don't mind the work and I'm happy that I can help out, but I'm not super passionate about it anymore. Maybe if the other c&c mods did any of the boring work it'd be more fun :pirate:

Congrats OP!

Mind sharing the thing that keeps you coming back to LC?

Do you like any other "bad" mons than Squirtle?
The community for sure. There's too many people I love to leave for too long.

are you calling squirtle bad?!?

Congratulations, OP!

Three questions:

1) What's it like to be LC's second biggest nerd (only behind WaterlessMelon)?

2) When will you start playing mafia again?

3) Do you think you're going to make top NA Arena players for February y/n?
1. I've never seen a more hypocritical question in my life

2. Who knows

3. I'm not very confident, seems like a lot of people tried harder for Feb. We'll see!
 
How long did it take for you to become good at the game? And what are some important things you learnt about LC/Mons in general that could help struggling players like me?

Also you're cool and fresh.
 
How do I become a QC legend great and powerful OP
$20 paypal to join the team
How long did it take for you to become good at the game? And what are some important things you learnt about LC/Mons in general that could help struggling players like me?

Also you're cool and fresh.
Still trying to get good yn. The thing I've always thought was most important to getting better is to figure out your opponents best plays, figure out your own best plays, and work from there. You need to consistently know what plays are going to be optimal for both players before you can reliably predict and outplay people. Another big thing is that people tend to play way faster than necessary. During serious games, I try to consider every possibility I can think of and constantly use the calc to figure out opponent's spreads and my exact odds in any scenario.

Thanks :toast:
Are you single? (asking for a friend)
Also thoughts on Alolan Vulpix, our lord and saviour
yep
Delete your rmt, you've ruined the ladder ;_;
 

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