Mentours Coverage: First Month

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Introductions

In this article, Xylen, Redew, and I (Darnell) will be going over Mentours and the highlights that happened during the first month. We'll even have an interview with the winner of the Mentour with questions specifically relating to their point of view of each month. We haven't forgotten to mention what Mentours actually are and how you too can get involved with them, so I hope you guys enjoy!

What are Mentours and why did they begin?

The Mentorship Mini-Tournaments, or Mentours for short, is all about getting you involved with Smogon and Pokémon Showdown! in a casual way while having fun with the tournament! The main goal of the Mentours is for users to meet new users and make friends with them as well, exchanging strategies in battles as well as learning different tiers. Hopefully this will make your experience on Smogon and PS! a whole lot better!

Who hosts Mentours and where are they hosted?

The Mentours are held in the Community Mentoring room. The room staff will host the Mentours four times a day, at 7am, 10am, 7pm and 11pm GMT+0. An announcement will be made in the Lobby whenever a Mentour is about to start, so look out for those.

How was it in the beginning?

The first Mentour was definitely a fun one to host. We reached 32 participants and over 60 users in the room! The first week of Mentours were really hard to get participants for, as we had to use Challonge. Getting participants for the Mentours became much easier once the scripted tournaments came back. The last week of month 1 was definitely a fun week. Many new users came to the room, showing interest in Smogon as well as participating in the Mentour.

Prizes

The prizes are pretty simple, but good nonetheless. For first place, you get a CT (custom title) on Smogon and room Voice in Community Mentoring room on PS! A custom title is what you see under a user's name on their postbit. Normally, only badgeholders can have CTs, but they are given out as prizes in some forums. Having a CT on Smogon is something that you can brag to your friends about since they are pretty rare!

Battle Showcase

Summary of the Battle

I must say that although I ended up winning the Mentour, it was really due to luck, and this battle shows exactly why. It was an amazing battle and honestly the closest that I've had in a long while. The only reason why I went through to the next round is because Mob Boss's Arceus unfortunately got paralyzed the second-to-last turn, but it still ended in a pseudo-draw due to my final Pokémon fainting from Life Orb damage. It's funny how one turn of hax can change the whole outcome of the match. You may be wondering why Lugia is hovering above and not Arceus, but it's simply because Lugia put in the work that match. Lugia was able to take hits, avoid a sweep from Arceus, and hand out multiple Dragon Tails. It would have be nice to get up some hazards from Klefki before proceeding with that tactic, but it all worked out in the end.

Summary of the Battle

This was the first ever Mentour hosted, one that you can look back on and remember the memories. Although the finals ended with a 4–0 victory for Confide, it was once again filled with outplays and hax that could definitely keep you entertained. When you start to watch it, you could easily think that Adil had the early advantage from those powerful Earthquakes on Hippowdon and Manaphy, while at the same time forcing Lucario to switch after setting up a wasted Swords Dance on the first turn.

After Landorus took a Scald from Manaphy, its HP was low enough to the point that Lucario could set up a Swords Dance on the Landorus switch-in and, despite the Attack drop from Intimidate, still take it out with Life Orb-boosted Extreme Speed. From there, it only got worse for Adil; he brought in his Azumarill, which quickly got OHKOed by an Iron Tail; next came in Ferrothorn, which couldn't take a Close Combat, so he was then forced to switch to Pinsir, which resists Fighting-type moves, yet it still took a solid 80%, forcing him to go back to Ferrothorn. Something had to be sacrificed; this turned out to be Ferrothorn, as it quickly fainted from a Close Combat on the next turn. He then brought in Mandibuzz. Are you wondering what happens next? Watch the battle to find out!

Interview with Meteordash

Conclusion

When I first started Mentours, I didn't expect them to get this kind of coverage or have as much help as they have today. We even have some people tweeting about the Mentours now! Back then we only had Challonge, and keeping track of everything was a little difficult. Now that scripted tours are here, it makes things a lot easier. We also didn't have this kind of a schedule; back then it was a general "This is what we want to do, and someone will host if they can." Now, we have a Google Spreadsheet with times and people willing to host them assigned to those times. It's a very cool feeling being able to see my mentors having fun hosting a project that I used to host. The fun that I had hosting is, hopefully, the kind of fun that they have.

So, in short, Mentours are basically a fun way to get introduced to the many tiers that Smogon has. Ideally, there will be a mentor present that you can all bug for some team tips/battle help/etc. If not, you can always hop on #mentor to see if someone's on! Through Mentours, we're hoping that you can try out the different tiers and find something that you like, maybe even more than the main tier that you play! If you're looking for some fun tours or a place to hang out, come to Community Mentoring! Call a mentor, signified by their room Moderator (@) status, by their name for help or type /smogintro in the chat box. You can also PM "!mentours" to DratiniBot for a link to the spreadsheet and the main thread for more information. We hope to see you participating in the future!

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