[AMA] Subject 18

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Username: Subject 18

Areas of Expertise: Pokemon Showdown!, OU, RMT

Background: I got interested in competitive Pokemon about a year and a half ago. I found out about the competitive scene from watching shofu, Haydunn and NBZ. Watching those guys got me wanting to play for myself since is sounded like a fun thing to do. After watching for a few months to try to build up my knowledge, I gave it a shot on Pokemon Online. I quickly realized that this was much then the videos made it look. Since I timed trying to learn Pokemon right around the end of my senior year with finals, AP Tests, Prom etc, I put it down and would give it another shot when I'm less busy. I came back to playing last November, after facing some struggles playing I decided to get tutored. My tutor, HuntofTheLion, taught me how to play OU and showed me around the site. With his help I started getting more involved with the RMT forums by rating teams and working up for a badge. During that time, I became a Moderator on Pokemon Showdown in about two and a half months which earned my current badge. With XY recently being released I have started working on C&C by helping write some analyses and helping make sets optimal for onsite presentation.

Hobbies: I'm a huge sports guy. Mainly basketball and football with some knowledge of baseball. I like to play basketball and football. I read a decent of books. Watching TV is something I tend to do when I'm lazy such as Game of Thrones, Dexter, House of Cards. I do indeed play Pokemon (clearly), I spend a good bit of time on IRC and Smogon. I'm currently studying Biochemistry in my second year of college getting ready for Med school in a few years. I'm also fluent in French and I used to speak Russian but I forgot it :(.

Favorite Pokemon: Lucario!

Good Questions to Ask Me: I'm willing to help out with just about anything. I can answer your questions regarding the OU metagame or how to get more involved with Pokemon Showdown. I'm an adept teambuiler so I can help you make a team or fixing some holes in your team. Don't hesitate to talk to me about anything outside of Smogon since making friends around the site can really be beneficial. I also speak French and can help you get around the language barrier. I'm usually pretty free to talk if I'm on IRC or on Skype if need be. Ask me anything you want, you aren't limited to purely Smogon/Pokemon questions. Ask away!
 

FireMage

Disgraced
is a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
What first attracted you to the RMT section of the site?
What advice would you give to new people looking to get into RMTing?
 

scorpdestroyer

it's a skorupi egg
is a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
I'm learning French but unfortunately I'm not extremely good at it. One big problem is with the huge number of exceptions for every rule there is. How do you go about mastering that?

What keeps you interested in OU?
 
What first attracted you to the RMT section of the site?
In general, I tend to be a helpful person and the idea of helping newer or even more experienced players improving their teams felt really rewarding and RMT was a good place to do so.

What advice would you give to new people looking to get into RMTing?
Team Rating isn't nearly as intimidating as it sounds. Don't be afraid to post any team can always be improved. Starting out, I would focus more on looking for big issues with the team. Such as being really weak to a certain Pokemon or having movesets that don't really work and suggesting basic standard sets. As you start doing more and more rates things like playstyles matchups and more optimal EV spread/movesets.

Generally, you don't want to change more than three Pokemon since it is no longer that user's team. Use the resources like that tier's threat list to see how well they can handle common threats. You can always get feedback on your rates to see how you did by posting in the Rating Basics thread with a link to the RMT and your rate for that team and a Team Rater will answer back with ways to improve.

I'm learning French but unfortunately I'm not extremely good at it. One big problem is with the huge number of exceptions for every rule there is. How do you go about mastering that?
That's probably the hardest thing about learning French. I lucked out on that a bit since my parents are French speaking and I learned it at a very young age. There really isn't a clear way to just learn them besides spending time around French speaker and you can pick up on what they do. I had a few friends who spent some time watching shows/movies and reading a few books in French and they said that helped them.

What keeps you interested in OU?
Right now, its the new generation and the learning of the metagame. My goal right now is to be good enough to start playing in major tournaments and be good. I've played Ubers and I really enjoy it but I haven't played long enough to be any good at it. I plan on trying out UU, RU and NU this generation.[/quote]
 
How do you start building a teamwork of any type of class? How many Pokemon should be the ones I actually want (for example, I would really want to get Staraptor or Talonflame onto my OU team) vs how many pokemon I would need to balance out the ones I want?
 
I want to learn how to battle competitively, but I also want to keep playing other games, specially Startcraft 2, which takes a long time to play, so, my question is, how much time will I have to dedicate every day on learning to the fullest ans mastering the competitive battling?
 
How do you start building a teamwork of any type of class? How many Pokemon should be the ones I actually want (for example, I would really want to get Staraptor or Talonflame onto my OU team) vs how many pokemon I would need to balance out the ones I want?
Well, since you are building with Talonflame or Staraptor on your team then you need to have a rapid spinner or a defog user. Then you need to have a way to beat its checks/counters such as Rotom-W, Tyranitar, Heatran (PokeBank OU) etc. After that you have freedom to add Pokemon almost as you wish without making yourself weak to too many things.

So for example you could use Talonflame and Excadrill. Excadrill can spin away the rocks and can wear down Rotom-W and Tyranitar and can beat Heatran (if you are playing Pokebank). From there you can go a multitude of directions and it all depends on what you want to do with the team.


I want to learn how to battle competitively, but I also want to keep playing other games, specially Startcraft 2, which takes a long time to play, so, my question is, how much time will I have to dedicate every day on learning to the fullest ans mastering the competitive battling?
I would say playing about 10-15 battles a day and you should have a good understanding of how to play. Playing 10-15 games will take you about an hour. So about an hour a day maybe and probably more depending on if you want to end up playing in major tournaments or not.
 

Audiosurfer

I'd rather be sleeping
is a Top Tutor Alumnusis a Site Content Manager Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
Do you enjoy the contribution end of the site more or would you consider yourself more of a tournament player?

Would you say being tutored had a large effect on you as a user?

Why did you choose the username you did?

What field of medicine are you looking to go into? (Sorry in advance if I'm dumb and biochem is the answer)

Do you enjoy modding on ps?
 
Do you enjoy the contribution end of the site more or would you consider yourself more of a tournament player?
I like contributing to the site, though I haven't contributed a whole but I have started to. Tournament wise I haven't played my many of them I do plan of playing a lot more this generation and see how I stack up against other players.

Would you say being tutored had a large effect on you as a user?
Yes. Huntofthelion definitely did a good job of tutoring me battling wise and showing me around the site. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have even made an attempt at trying to contribute or getting involved around the site instead I would have just lurked the whole time.

Why did you choose the username you did?
Well, I didn't originally have this name when I made my account. I was originally ADProdigy but I lost the email/password and ended making a new account as Black Russian. I chose that name because I am Black and I was born in Russia so it made sense to me. I then changed my name again because Subject 18 was the name I used on PS! and when I became part of staff I asked chaos if he could change my forum name. The name is actually a reference to Assassin's Creed, since the Animus users are referred to as Subject ##. The number is kind of random 18 just sounded better than other numbers and just being "Subject" would just be weird.

What field of medicine are you looking to go into? (Sorry in advance if I'm dumb and biochem is the answer)
Nah, don't worry. I want to be a doctor and specialize in Neurology (most likely).

Do you enjoy modding on ps?
It does get to be a bit of a burden at times especially recently. However, I haven't just sat down and modded in the main lobby for an extended period of time in really long time. Since my attention has been on school and site stuff. I still like getting on and modding for a little bit.
 
I Have a problem. so I have been playing smogon for half a year now And I feel like I make pretty good teams, but I feel like I am making really dumb errors when I shouldn't and losing to people I shouldnt. I just dont know how to get better, the highest I get on ou is about 1690. Is their any blanket advice you could give me on how to improve my game?
 
I Have a problem. so I have been playing smogon for half a year now And I feel like I make pretty good teams, but I feel like I am making really dumb errors when I shouldn't and losing to people I shouldnt. I just dont know how to get better, the highest I get on ou is about 1690. Is their any blanket advice you could give me on how to improve my game?
From the sound of it, it sounds like you may not be thinking your moves entirely through. Which tends to happen lot when you start out playing or you feel as you opponent is just so much worse than you that you can afford to not take it seriously. I would get into the habit of making a gameplan at team preview. Lay out how you are going to win, what Pokemon are threats to your opponents team, what Pokemon on your opponents team are threats to you. While actually battling pay attention to little things like who gets hit by weather first, who eats lefties first etc, as this a big clue to telling you thing like speed investment and seeing who is faster to avoid being caught off guard. For every move take a little bit of time to think about executing your gameplan, what is your best/worst move here, what is my opponents best/worst move. Meanwhile keep in mind of what your opponent's gameplan is and what you need to do to avoid losing. When you are in a position to have to predict weigh out the Risk vs Reward of making this play. If I get this prediction wrong, how does this affect my chances of winning? Can I still win? If so, how? Is the reward of making this play greater than the effects of getting it wrong? These are questions you should be weighing out having to predict.

I think this should help you a good amount. If not I would watch this and this. These should help since you have some examples of how some scenarios play out.
 
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