OU Player of the Week #10: FlamingVictini

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Welcome to the SM version of OU Player of the Week! This project will feature interviews from some of the most accomplished and influential users in the tier so that we can learn more about them.
If there is a user that you would like to see interviewed be sure to let me know.

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FlamingVictini
most known for: Smogon Tour Top 8, VGC Tour Top 4, doing well in SPL/WCoP, my teambuilding
favourite pokemon: Victini! :D
most used pokemon: Lando-T or Garchomp

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself outside of Smogon?
I’m a 17-year-old rising senior in high school, i’m mostly interested in STEM (Science Tech Engineering Math) fields but I’m not really sure what I want to study in the future yet. I love music, I play chess competitively (I like strategic games in general), and I really enjoy playing tennis/table tennis and soccer. I also have a youtube channel for competitive mons, and I play Pokemon Go semi-casually!

Where did you get your name from?
Well basically I was a middle schooler excited about playing on pokebattle while it was in beta, and I needed to choose a name to register. I really like victini so i put in the first thing i thought of with victini in it, and there ya go. :P

How and when did you get into competitive Pokemon?
Well it started with just playing the games on the DS, and once i started to get a drift of EVs and IVs and such i started watching youtube videos. I noticed in these videos that they were playing on some website and not on the DS, and I eventually found showdown online. I didn’t play a lot of mons until pokebattle though, which is when I started to spend a significant amount of time into playing mons, since I had a lot of free time to kill (and a lot of sleep that I shouldn’t have killed). I made the transition over to Smogon for the first OLT during my first year of high school (when I also wasted a shitton of time playing this), and it took me a while to get into the community and understand how things work around here, but that’s really when i first got into the truly competitive scene.

What’s your favourite generation of OU and why?
I’d have to say ORAS, I just understand oras ou better than I understand any other generation since I’ve been playing it for so long. I also basically got into the tour scene with its start so I feel a lot more connected to it.

What’s your favourite playstyle to use and why?
I loved offense in my initial stages of playing mons especially in my pokebattle days and the time around OLT I and II. However I actually tend to stay away from offense nowadays, as I feel a bit more comfortable with everything (although I still definitely love a good ho team, as they tend to have very high skill caps for how well u can play yourself out of different mus, not many ho are truly good). I’d say my tends tend to gravitate more towards balance than BO, but I don’t really have a strong preference either way. I also think its fun to play with stall esp. when the oppo doesn’t basically autolose (although obv if they do, i don’t mind taking the win).

What are your thoughts on the current metagame? How do you feel about SM in comparison to ORAS?
I feel like in SM, knowledge management is even more important than before. Discerning sets quickly and accurately can make a huge difference in how a game turns out and you really have to be careful about the assumptions you make about the opponents team (this holds for every gen, but I just feel its especially vital in SM). As for the metagame, I feel like it’s mostly pretty good rn and definitely a huge improvement to the meta at the start of SPL.

Are there any Pokemon that you believe are overrated/underrated in the current metagame. Why?
I’m not sure about overrated, I guess i’m not a huge fan of tangrowth as I think he’s sometimes splashed around a bit too much (def a good mon though). Eject Button is def being overused when it finds its way onto a latios. Kartana is definitely a big underrated threat, its super good whether it is running scarf or just a simple sd set (could be defog, 3 atk, or even grassium return which is something i’ve been wanting to try). Electrium/Specs Koko also deserve more usage, and camel is another cool mon who has been starting to gain some attention. I’ve also been interested in toying with araquanid as of late, although i’m not too sure atm if he has a place in the meta atm.

Do you believe that anything deserves a suspect test in the near future?
Definitely duggy, and possibly magearna. Gear might be more of a flavor of the month thing but its a very versatile mon and it requires a lot of resources to adequately handle all of the possible sets it could use on shift gear sets alone.

You have had a good individual record in both the past SPL and this WCoP. What do you think was the biggest factor that allowed you to have that success?
I think a lot of it comes from simply enjoying team tournament formats more and having a lot more drive to do well, while I’m also having a lot more fun. It of course also makes a huge difference to be in the team environment and have people to talk to about scouting/building and play tests with, as none of this is very readily available for indiv tours. I can’t feel as much of a drive for indiv tours like OST/Slam/Classic just because the tour could end for you at any time, whether it just be because of a shitty week and ur game is off, or rng is just screwing you over. For such tours I tend to take it easy and only plan to put effort into them if I make it deep into the tour. I took the same approach for smogon tour this year as I just played it for fun since I found the time, and since I made it to playoffs I started to put actual effort into it. For something like the VGC tour, I liked how in the first stage you could afford to lose one or two sets and still make playoffs. I ended up losing one in round three, took it as a learning experience and changed what I was doing, and didn’t drop a single set afterwards, taking me into playoffs (when i put in more significant effort) and eventually top 4. OLT is just a whole other beast due to the nature of laddering and the playoffs stage being decently long, i’m not sure how motivated I’ll be to even try it this year (I just eventually didn’t bother for OLT III despite doing it the past two years). While I def want to win an individual tour I just enjoy the team tours more and I think that reflects in my performance.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone trying to break into the tournament setting?
Just keep playing, but be reflective. Practice is only gonna help if u can look back on your games — even the ones you won — and discern the mistakes you made (or the ones your opponent made) and learn to iron those out of your usual play. A lot of it can come from intuition built from playing a lot, but taking that extra step can really help u improve in a much more noticeable manner. As for teambuilding, you just gotta keep doing it, and if you want to develop versatility you need to again be able to reflect on your teams. There’s no shame in recreating established squads through your own thought process, but it’s not gonna get you anywhere to simply use other people’s teams the whole time. I do think its a good idea to use teams that are well established when you’re first starting out though, since it not only ensures you have the tools to learn and develop good playing, but also helps you get a better sense of what makes a team good. If your struggle is to get noticed for team tours, one way is obviously to do well in an individual tournament, not just results wise but also by how people perceive your teams, your game, and your mannerisms. This obviously won’t work for everyone, but if you can show a prospective manager that you aren’t a risk but rather an investment (and a potential steal) then u can really improve your odds at being picked up. Just look at BHARATH_THEBEST. It’s been a while since I last rated one of his RMTs, and he just kept at it on the ladder, on youtube, and on the forums. But really the most important thing is that he has a great personality and is very easily likeable. Aside from playing for India in this wcop qualifier stage, he helped a lot of people with their teams and is now pretty well respected despite being a “newcomer” to the tour scene — I’m sure he’s on the radar for snake draft managers (as he very well should be). BTB is a good example of what you should do to make a good entry into the tour scene.

Who are some of your favourite people in the Smogon community?
Oh boy there are too many people to list individually and I will most certainly forget someone, but to the pokebattle crew and mostly everyone I’ve played on team tours with, you guys are all awesome. There are a lot of great people besides these guys but i’m gonna tag these guys anyway: Stone_Cold Philip7086 yond ABR PDC Tesung TDK BKC John Jayde Stathakis august Zamrock Bad Ass dragonuser -Tsunami- Folgorio idiotfrommars Christo Tobes uragg Nails Pearl rozes Tony Astamatitos Fear Gingy Chill Shadow choolio Void hellpowna Sken Fiend Kaori LuckOverSkill qsns The Trap God Vinc2612 aim blunder Obliviate Finchinator ict ZoroDark Posho Omfuga undisputed Braverius Cicada love you all.

Finally, can you provide us a team that you think reflects your current playstyle, with a brief explanation of how it works?
Scribble (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpD
Relaxed Nature
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Knock Off

Drowning (Toxapex) @ Shed Shell
Ability: Regenerator
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Calm Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Infestation
- Toxic
- Recover
- Toxic Spikes

End Credits (Greninja-Ash) @ Choice Specs
Ability: Battle Bond
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Dark Pulse
- Water Shuriken
- Spikes

Fumes (Celesteela) @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 232 Def / 24 SpD / 4 Spe
Relaxed Nature
- Heavy Slam
- Flamethrower
- Leech Seed
- Protect

circles (Landorus-Therian) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- U-turn
- Punishment

Nocturne (Heatran) @ Leftovers
Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 248 HP / 8 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Magma Storm
- Earth Power
- Taunt
- Toxic
This is a team ABR and I built and I used vs Jamvad vs wcop (PDC also later used it vs Trosko). It specifically was meant to match up well vs jamvad, and I felt Clef was a really consistent rocker that could help me keep up good pressure against a lot of mons that jamvad likes but are weak to hazards. ABR came up with shed pex and we settled on the infestation toxic set as I felt I didn't direly need scald or haze (play around sub tran by pp stalling with clef and pex btw), and infestation is really effective with toxic and tspikes, and generally keeping up good switch momentum. Steela rounds out the core defensive backbone and Tran fills in some holes really nicely while keeping up good pressure for breaking. Taunt is really appreciated on this team, and while the variant that has been going around via abr/blunder has protect > toxic, I really think toxic is really good to make tran more self sufficient and not reliant on good mu with pex, and also specifically helps vs zapdos a lot. Scarf Lando is nice since I have mons like Volc pretty well covered, and punishment was specifically to deal with reuniclus because zamrock kept shitting on me with it in test games and I just couldn't accept the massive weakness to it, so I wracked my brain until I finally managed to come up with him. Ninja is ninja, spikes are legit another wincon vs a lot of teams and he has a lot of offensive and defensive merit with the other 5. This team is super solid overall, although the MU vs stall is going to be long and sort of an uphill climb since u have less useful tools than they do. It did its job of taking down jamvad handily, but I think it has a lot of merit for general use.

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Cold Skin (Clefable) @ Leftovers
Ability: Magic Guard
EVs: 252 HP / 244 Def / 12 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Stealth Rock
- Moonblast
- Soft-Boiled
- Toxic

Dry Bone (Ferrothorn) @ Leftovers
Ability: Iron Barbs
EVs: 252 HP / 88 Def / 168 SpD
Impish Nature
- Spikes
- Leech Seed
- Knock Off
- Power Whip

SUPERHUMAN (Heracross-Mega) @ Heracronite
Ability: Moxie
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Close Combat
- Pin Missile
- Rock Blast
- Swords Dance

Jump (Greninja) (M) @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Protean
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
- Hydro Pump
- Ice Beam
- Rock Slide
- U-turn

Outbreak (Garchomp) @ Dragonium Z
Ability: Rough Skin
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Outrage
- Earthquake
- Fire Fang
- Swords Dance

Get It All (Zapdos) @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 216 HP / 8 Def / 32 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Hidden Power [Ice]
- Roost
- Defog
Since that team has already sort of been going around and wasn't something I built by myself, I wanted to share one more team that I really enjoyed making and using. This one sort of has a similar premise with rocks clef and spikes, but with a different approach. The team started with Jolly Hera to pressure basic heatran tang cores that I thought my opponent might resort to, and is also pretty good vs a lot of cheesy offense teams. Rocks clef is just so solid, and I chose toxic here specifically to give the middle finger to zapdos and mew which were being spammed on a lot of balance teams (and hitting zap is also crucial in the stall mu). Ferro is just a great mon overall with a lot of utility in spikes and knock alone, and he helps me win the hazard war vs double defog stall archetypes alongside clef and pressure zap. Not only does my zap have a lot of defensive utility while still being useful on offense (he's not 3 atk cuz this team definitely appreciates the defog option, especially vs tspikes), but pressure is a boon for the stall mu and basically allows my strategy of setting up the hazards and going in with chomp + hera to actually work (u pressure away their defogs so ur hazards can last). Speaking of chomp, he's an awesome breaker with sd z-outrage, and I was even toying with sub to ease prediction and fuck up toxic non whirl skarm, but not hitting bulu just doesn't work on this team. Scarf ninja gives me much needed speed and rking/cleaning ability, and gives me an easier time setting up a good lead mu vs certain teams. I find this team is very versatile and deals with a wide variety of playstyles, and is also super fun for me to use personally, so I hope u guys like it :D
 
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Hello there flaming victini. Definatly one of the coolest people on smogon. Your fun to face, a good teambuilder and when your avaible good to just have a chat with. Would like to see you around more tho thats time zones talking. Nice to see a few more Strategy gamers about, If you haven't tried them I recommend you play advance wars, Fire emblem awakening and Total annihilation (Best RTS ever made, First 3d RTS, Huge maps even today and while seemingly inbalanced at first is equalled by as ridiculous counter strategy and is part of its charm) .

Anyway onto the Questions

Why are fairy pokemon the best thing Since sliced bread and why are you looking foward to mega diancies eventual release, Will it change the current meta?
Do you think Greninja is suspect worthy and if so why?
If you could make any change to the ORAS metagame now what would it be?
Snow vs ABR in a battle of the team builders for the fate of humanity. Who wins this showdown?
As for Games and anime which would you recommend I try?
 
do you still enjoy ru as much as oras meta or do you think you're still as good as you where in oras

if you had to be on a different world cup team what team would you be on

do you play any oms

favourite musical artist(s) / favourite horror show or movie
 

FlamingVictini

FV - msg on discord FlamingVictini#3784
is a Top Tiering Contributorwon the 16th Official Smogon Tournamentis a Three-Time Past WCoP Champion
Hello there flaming victini. Definatly one of the coolest people on smogon. Your fun to face, a good teambuilder and when your avaible good to just have a chat with. Would like to see you around more tho thats time zones talking. Nice to see a few more Strategy gamers about, If you haven't tried them I recommend you play advance wars, Fire emblem awakening and Total annihilation (Best RTS ever made, First 3d RTS, Huge maps even today and while seemingly inbalanced at first is equalled by as ridiculous counter strategy and is part of its charm) .

Anyway onto the Questions

Why are fairy pokemon the best thing Since sliced bread and why are you looking foward to mega diancies eventual release, Will it change the current meta?
I'm excited for Mega Diancie, she's a pretty cool mon and I don't think she'll be too much for the meta even with instant speed just cuz a lot of defensive mons can avoid the 2hko decently well. You never know though, that extra 4th move slot could be menacing with CM or something of the sorts. We'll have to wait and see!

Do you think Greninja is suspect worthy and if so why?
Not really, I don't think ash or protean is broken and both allow for some useful role compression which can help out in teambuilding.

If you could make any change to the ORAS metagame now what would it be?
Hm honestly suicune isn't so bad even though everyone hates on it, you just can't ignore all of its strategies when teambuilding. I would consider banning dugtrio and unbanning mega sab, but i'm not completely sure if this would improve the tier or not (I imagine it would though).

Snow vs ABR in a battle of the team builders for the fate of humanity. Who wins this showdown?
Wait till the next world cup to find out ;)

As for Games and anime which would you recommend I try?
I don't really watch anime, but I really like board games like Stratego, Settlers of Catan (less so cuz fuck the dice), and other similar strategy board games. Chess is of course my favorite such game. Hashi is a puzzle game that ABR showed me which is also pretty fun.

do you still enjoy ru as much as oras meta or do you think you're still as good as you where in oras
Both RU metas are fun, I guess I enjoy SM a bit more now just because no one plays ORAS anymore and there are more new things for me to try than there are in ORAS.

if you had to be on a different world cup team what team would you be on
Europe cuz woofpack. I don't want to be on another World Cup team :(

do you play any oms
Nope, although some of them seem fun

favourite musical artist(s) / favourite horror show or movie
Tristam and Eden. I don't watch horror, so some regular shows I like/enjoyed are Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey (yeah this is nerdy) and White Collar. I don't really have a "favorite" movie but I enjoyed The Martian.

who do you fuckin hate on smogon
There are some people I don't like and will avoid interacting with, but no one is worth hating cuz its just a waste of my time and energy.

whos the shittiest player uve ever played
The ladder. Especially the ones that shittalk and then proceed to get creamed.
 
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