An Interview with the Non-Monotype Team DQ Master: Koren
interviewed by scpinion, posted 12/05/2014
Hi Koren,
Lets start with some basic info. Tell us about yourself IRL? Location? Are you still in school? Do you have a job? Is there anything else of that matter you're willing to share?
IRL? I'm some loser college student who still lives with his parents, which is somewhat common I guess. I am a junior and a computer science major, which is why my last few semesters will probably keep me mostly too busy for PS. It's going to be a lot of never leaving campus coding fun!
Job? Lolplz. Lack of money won't stop me! But I should really look into one of those soon. (Anyone need someone to ruin their self-esteem for cash??)
Anything else to share? IDK I'm pretty boring, not much else. I spend most of my free time playing pokemon? But you already knew that.
A number of the users wanted to know where you are from/where you go to school. Are you willing to share that?
Well I go to Cameron University, small college in my town, I was too lazy to drive to a bigger college and come back for the holidays.
Where I'm from? That's never been a question I've known how to answer. I've been a lot of places; we move a lot.
You said you were studying computer science. Computer Science is undeniably an awesome field. Do you have a favorite language to code in? Gripes about particular languages?
Hmm, as a programming language... probably SQL or C++, since they are the ones I am most familiar with atm, and the basics for one language is practically the basics for every language. If we are talking non programming language, than anything not english... I've just never liked it, even though its the only language I'm fluent in.
Gripes? I confuse JS and PHP sometimes, and they both equally piss me off.
php seems to be a common gripe among many of my comp. sci. friends as well. Not that I know anything about it though...
What is the coolest thing you have coded?
Myself, not much. But I do help my friend from another Uni do his coding work. Specifically I've helped him make one of those missing-piece sliding puzzle games, that was really annoying but fun. We also had this root bisection program, but all that really did was hurt our brain.
A couple more generic questions/requests before we get into Pokemon stuff. First, tell me something you think is awesome about yourself!
Something awesome about myself? I don't really know... I can make about any girl cry? Does that count? It sure is fun to do. I can also confuse people into oblivion, that's extremely fun.
Is there anything else outside Pokemon you nerd about?
I don't exactly know what 'nerding out' entails.. but... I'm a giant fan of JRPGs I guess. And a super math fan as well. Those probably don't count though. Oh and technicalities! I love technicalities.
Nice! What is your favorite JRPG or JRPG series? Why?
I should know that answer shouldn't I? But I'm going to say Pokemon Gold, cuz that game is absolute amazement. Other than that, I really enjoyed Chrono Trigger, Paper Mario series, and absolutely love the Mother (earthbound) series.
Why do I like them? Probably because I'm a fan of doing tedious nonsense over and over again, and trying to solve problems and puzzles when the answers aren't just given to you with little effort.
This may not count, but I also like mario party and fortune street. Best way to ruin any relationship you have. Hate your friend? Want to be disowned? Invite them to play these games!
Pokemon Gold is my favorite for nostalgias sake...I about had heart attack when I walked into Kanto. Also, speaking from experience, Mario Party makes for an excellent drinking game. :)
Alright, lets move on to some Pokemon questions. What got you into PS!/Smogon?
PS allowed me to build teams without actually having to go through all the breeding/EV nonsense just to realize that it was terrible. I first heard about it through pimpnite, so I thought "might as well?"
Why did you chose the Monotype room?
Why mono? Why the hell not! But practically because I hate having options, I couldn't focus on how to build a team in ou, so I thought I would remove most of the options from myself, and get myself closer to my dear Umbreon and Weavile <3 And Hollow was here and Nani was active! Who would want to leave with that combo?
Awesome! Many of our user-submitted questions pertain to Pokemon so let me go through a number of them.
Many users want to know:
What is your favorite Pokemon?
Umbreon, then Weavile, then Based Whitney. All of my life.
What is your favorite Type?
Dark, then Grass and Normal are tied, followed by Ice.
What type do you specialize in?
Grass for the most part. Dark and Normal when RNG-Mono is making me rage. Ice when I'm feeling cheeky in OMs.
Snaquaza wants to know: What is your favorite MonoOM?
I love Tier Shift. Using water back in gen 5 TS or SwaggerPlay Liepard + Mandibuzz bulk was just about the meanest thing anyone could do.
BreakingMew is looking for some true insights: Who are you, and what are you doing here?
I'm that guy who shows up when he's procrastinating, otherwise you probably won't see me. lol. See earlier this year for proof!
As always, Katy asks the important questions: Who your bae Koren? .3.
Myself for life : D I'm the only one who can come close to putting up with myself for extended periods of time, and yet I still don't.
If you could change one thing (literally anything) about the Monotype metagame, what would it be?
Can I ban the drilbur line just to spite DM? But for a more serious response, if I could lower the speed of the Justice Friends (Keldeo and friends) by like... 3 points I would in a heartbeat. The power is one thing, but the speed is what I have the most trouble with. It's great for scarving and bands/specs.
I think DM would cry. :)
Huty wants to know: What are the biggest challenges you face as Driver during the OM tours?
OM Tours can turn out to be a nightmare. I'd say the biggest problem would be people not being informed/claiming of the rules that relates to a specific OM. There are also the issue of the staff not being on a consensus of what is, and is not, allowed in a specific OM. You get into a lot of situations like "But another staff member said I could/couldn't do this" and when you ask who they say "I forgot". It's true that it may just be some users trying to frame another member of staff, but in some cases it's actually true.
Sometimes it's a problem of looking for a rule break that isn't apparent, so you have to look for very specific details in every battle, or else it becomes a giant mess of "But you didn't DQ this person" or "The tourney accepted my team, you can't DQ me for it." There's also those people who say "BUT IT DOESN'T SAY MONO ON THE TOUR!!!" There's also the issue of people hosting tours, not reminding the chat of its rules, or mono necessity, through walls and such, and I end up DQing ppl for those things. They have a legitimate case of "No one told me", and it's hard to prove to them that that's how it is.
One last thing to conclude. What words of wisdom/sage advice can you offer up to the Monotypers out there?
Always aim for the new meta! The amount of generic sets is boring, and new metas really get people raging. Also never fear going back a meta or two : >. People should never get used to the current state of things, and we must remind them of that!
Thanks for taking the time to do this mate. You were loads of fun interview!
Lets start with some basic info. Tell us about yourself IRL? Location? Are you still in school? Do you have a job? Is there anything else of that matter you're willing to share?
IRL? I'm some loser college student who still lives with his parents, which is somewhat common I guess. I am a junior and a computer science major, which is why my last few semesters will probably keep me mostly too busy for PS. It's going to be a lot of never leaving campus coding fun!
Job? Lolplz. Lack of money won't stop me! But I should really look into one of those soon. (Anyone need someone to ruin their self-esteem for cash??)
Anything else to share? IDK I'm pretty boring, not much else. I spend most of my free time playing pokemon? But you already knew that.
A number of the users wanted to know where you are from/where you go to school. Are you willing to share that?
Well I go to Cameron University, small college in my town, I was too lazy to drive to a bigger college and come back for the holidays.
Where I'm from? That's never been a question I've known how to answer. I've been a lot of places; we move a lot.
You said you were studying computer science. Computer Science is undeniably an awesome field. Do you have a favorite language to code in? Gripes about particular languages?
Hmm, as a programming language... probably SQL or C++, since they are the ones I am most familiar with atm, and the basics for one language is practically the basics for every language. If we are talking non programming language, than anything not english... I've just never liked it, even though its the only language I'm fluent in.
Gripes? I confuse JS and PHP sometimes, and they both equally piss me off.
php seems to be a common gripe among many of my comp. sci. friends as well. Not that I know anything about it though...
What is the coolest thing you have coded?
Myself, not much. But I do help my friend from another Uni do his coding work. Specifically I've helped him make one of those missing-piece sliding puzzle games, that was really annoying but fun. We also had this root bisection program, but all that really did was hurt our brain.
A couple more generic questions/requests before we get into Pokemon stuff. First, tell me something you think is awesome about yourself!
Something awesome about myself? I don't really know... I can make about any girl cry? Does that count? It sure is fun to do. I can also confuse people into oblivion, that's extremely fun.
Is there anything else outside Pokemon you nerd about?
I don't exactly know what 'nerding out' entails.. but... I'm a giant fan of JRPGs I guess. And a super math fan as well. Those probably don't count though. Oh and technicalities! I love technicalities.
Nice! What is your favorite JRPG or JRPG series? Why?
I should know that answer shouldn't I? But I'm going to say Pokemon Gold, cuz that game is absolute amazement. Other than that, I really enjoyed Chrono Trigger, Paper Mario series, and absolutely love the Mother (earthbound) series.
Why do I like them? Probably because I'm a fan of doing tedious nonsense over and over again, and trying to solve problems and puzzles when the answers aren't just given to you with little effort.
This may not count, but I also like mario party and fortune street. Best way to ruin any relationship you have. Hate your friend? Want to be disowned? Invite them to play these games!
Pokemon Gold is my favorite for nostalgias sake...I about had heart attack when I walked into Kanto. Also, speaking from experience, Mario Party makes for an excellent drinking game. :)
Alright, lets move on to some Pokemon questions. What got you into PS!/Smogon?
PS allowed me to build teams without actually having to go through all the breeding/EV nonsense just to realize that it was terrible. I first heard about it through pimpnite, so I thought "might as well?"
Why did you chose the Monotype room?
Why mono? Why the hell not! But practically because I hate having options, I couldn't focus on how to build a team in ou, so I thought I would remove most of the options from myself, and get myself closer to my dear Umbreon and Weavile <3 And Hollow was here and Nani was active! Who would want to leave with that combo?
Awesome! Many of our user-submitted questions pertain to Pokemon so let me go through a number of them.
Many users want to know:
What is your favorite Pokemon?
Umbreon, then Weavile, then Based Whitney. All of my life.
What is your favorite Type?
Dark, then Grass and Normal are tied, followed by Ice.
What type do you specialize in?
Grass for the most part. Dark and Normal when RNG-Mono is making me rage. Ice when I'm feeling cheeky in OMs.
Snaquaza wants to know: What is your favorite MonoOM?
I love Tier Shift. Using water back in gen 5 TS or SwaggerPlay Liepard + Mandibuzz bulk was just about the meanest thing anyone could do.
BreakingMew is looking for some true insights: Who are you, and what are you doing here?
I'm that guy who shows up when he's procrastinating, otherwise you probably won't see me. lol. See earlier this year for proof!
As always, Katy asks the important questions: Who your bae Koren? .3.
Myself for life : D I'm the only one who can come close to putting up with myself for extended periods of time, and yet I still don't.
If you could change one thing (literally anything) about the Monotype metagame, what would it be?
Can I ban the drilbur line just to spite DM? But for a more serious response, if I could lower the speed of the Justice Friends (Keldeo and friends) by like... 3 points I would in a heartbeat. The power is one thing, but the speed is what I have the most trouble with. It's great for scarving and bands/specs.
I think DM would cry. :)
Huty wants to know: What are the biggest challenges you face as Driver during the OM tours?
OM Tours can turn out to be a nightmare. I'd say the biggest problem would be people not being informed/claiming of the rules that relates to a specific OM. There are also the issue of the staff not being on a consensus of what is, and is not, allowed in a specific OM. You get into a lot of situations like "But another staff member said I could/couldn't do this" and when you ask who they say "I forgot". It's true that it may just be some users trying to frame another member of staff, but in some cases it's actually true.
Sometimes it's a problem of looking for a rule break that isn't apparent, so you have to look for very specific details in every battle, or else it becomes a giant mess of "But you didn't DQ this person" or "The tourney accepted my team, you can't DQ me for it." There's also those people who say "BUT IT DOESN'T SAY MONO ON THE TOUR!!!" There's also the issue of people hosting tours, not reminding the chat of its rules, or mono necessity, through walls and such, and I end up DQing ppl for those things. They have a legitimate case of "No one told me", and it's hard to prove to them that that's how it is.
One last thing to conclude. What words of wisdom/sage advice can you offer up to the Monotypers out there?
Always aim for the new meta! The amount of generic sets is boring, and new metas really get people raging. Also never fear going back a meta or two : >. People should never get used to the current state of things, and we must remind them of that!
Thanks for taking the time to do this mate. You were loads of fun interview!