Interview with Hugendugen

Heya Flora; thanks for having me! I'm 20-years-old studying economics, mathematics, and politics at the University of Copenhagen. Even though I'm half Danish/Irish, I only recently moved to Denmark in late 2013. I come from a diplomatic family, so you'll notice I have a pretty weird background.

I've lived in Denmark for a little over 9 years total, so it's probably the closest thing I have to a home country. It's pretty small, so there ain't that much to see. Except Copenhagen. Copenhagen is fantastic—definitely one of my favorite cities in the world. Great atmosphere, the people are friendly, and it's super easy to get around. Oh and of course I'm here, for the time being.

Haha, where to start? So, my mum works for the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which means we've pretty much lived all over the world. Specifically, Lesotho, Denmark, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, the United States, and now Denmark again. It's weird, but I've sort of gotten used to the nomadic lifestyle. It has reached a point where if I live in one place for too long, I begin to feel restless, as if it's time to move on.

That's actually one of the reasons I moved from Australia to the US. Even though I had started a degree at the Australian National University, my mum got posted to DC, and I figured that was as good a time as any to try something new. I ended up interning for a congressman on The Hill until I decided to transfer to Copenhagen.

It's another name for the United States Congress. Basically where political idealism goes to die. Specifically, I worked for a democratic representative from northern California. Mostly I just answered phone calls from crazy people who saw something on the news and wanted to complain. Still, I also got to write a few speeches for the congressman and was a part of planning a successful NDAA amendment to end the War in Afghanistan in 2014. I have lots to say about American politics, but I'll leave that for another time.

Other than wasting spending time on PS! and Smogon, I'm a big fan of extreme sports. After finishing high school, I went on a major trip around Australia and New Zealand, where I did everything from mountain climbing and spelunking to bungee jumping and skydiving. I also got my scuba diving instructor's license. Sadly, there aren't as many opportunities to do that stuff here in Denmark, so mainly just football and hanging out with friends.

This is actually the third username in a series of poor choices. I was Moe_Joe back on Serebii and when I first joined Smogon. Then I was Oohlala for like a day and finally I settled on Hugendugen. It was actually one of my nicknames in high school, since my Australian mates thought that was what Danish sounds like. Basically think the Swedish Chef from The Muppets. Others included The Great Dane, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Gurdi Gurdi, Dirty Gerty, Pork F*cker, and Shiner (because of my last name). I think I made the right choice.

Not many people know this story, but I joined for one reason and one reason only: Mysterial, the final Colosseum leader from Pokémon Battle Revolution. I tried for weeks, but he had a Choice Scarf Kyogre and a goddamn Lustrous Orb Palkia. Seriously, apart from a few weird sets, he would have had a legit DPP Ubers team. I mentioned it to a friend and he suggested we practice for a bit on Shoddy Battle. From there, I heard about Smogon and quickly got into Ubers (obviously to prepare for that top hat-wearing, mustachioed wanker).

Eventually, I found out that Kingdra swept half of his team, but at this point I was already caught. I'd spend hours upon hours on the Ubers ladder. That was where I met trickroom, who'd also recently started playing competitively. We'd speak daily and basically just taught each other how to play Pokémon.

I've been the Ubers leader since Bojangles stepped down at the end of BW2. Basically, I've just been a part of the community for a long-ass time, ever since early Gen 4 Ubers, where I spent most of my time laddering with trickroom. This carried over to 2011, when I returned from my hiatus in the middle of BW1. trickroom and I would test with Stallion (who I went to university with) incessantly and eventually we got pretty good, to the point that I won a couple of tournaments and did fairly well in SPL. From here, I started joining metagame discussions in #ubers and #pokemon, and met good peeps like ibojangles, Theorymon, and Poppy. Eventually, when ibo stepped down, he picked me to fill his shoes. Senior Staff trusted me with the job and the rest is history.

While XY Ubers is chugging along just fine, I'd like to bring some of the previous Ubers gens back into the limelight. This will probably include a subforum overhaul, as well as a couple of tournaments to get people playing BW and DPP Ubers again. Lots of people will agree with me when I say that Pre-Arceus DPP Ubers was definitely one of the most enjoyable Smogon metagames. The problem is just that not too many people play it anymore, so it'll be great to get some fresh blood. Sweep, for example, who didn't join until Gen 5, recently picked it up and has been absolutely killing it (mainly because of his Omastar fetish). This isn't to say that we won't still be focusing on Gen 6, just that we'll be diversifying a little.

My advice for anyone wanting to learn a new metagame: ladder and just keep on laddering. If you're starting from scratch, it can be helpful to pick up a team or two from the RMT section, perhaps one of Donkey's teams from SPL. Then, once you've gotten a good idea of the metagame, try building some of your own. If you need a hand, you can always join #ubers on synIRC or the Ubers room on Showdown to ask for for help. Another great resource is the SPL replay thread, where you can watch and learn from some of the best players around. Just be aware that there are some fairly unorthodox strategies, which might look weird at first, but make sense once you have a little more experience.

Two Pokémon to look out for that are tearing up the XY metagame are Geomancy Xerneas and Mega Gengar. One can quickly set up and power through opposing teams, while the other can be used to eliminate a specific Pokémon that really gives you trouble. And, of course, even though Drizzle was nerfed with 6th gen weather mechanics, Kyogre is still a massive threat that you should keep in mind whenever you're building a team.

Don't worry, I understand the confusion. We all have different roles, but if you're really interested, this thread gives a pretty good run down. The short version is that Zarel owns the site and does most of the dev work (with help from other Admins (~) and Leaders (&) like V4, Joim, TheImmortal, and Quinella), while I do most of the policy leadership. With help from Jasmine, Haunter, and a number of our policy leaders, I make sure that the global staff runs smoothly, that new rooms are made and staffed appropriately, and that any other issues that might arise from a policy standpoint are dealt with properly.

I actually started off as a driver and then a mod back on the Smogon PO server, but slowly moved up the ranks until Zarel eventually pushed for me to take over as the main PS! policy admin in June 2013.

Tough call, but probably shawarma. Just found a great place right next to where I study. Hasn't been good for my wallet. :S

Definitely Ratchet & Clank. I've played every non-handheld game in the series. If you see a R & C related alt on PS!, chances are it's probably me.

Latios, because it was the first shiny I ever caught and because it can fly faster than a fricking jet plane.

Thanks for having me Flora! It's been fun to talk about myself for 3 hours.