An Interview with Acast
interviewed by scpinion, posted on 12/17/2014
Hi Acast!
As always, we'll start with just some basic information.Tell us a bit about yourself IRL. Location? Still in school? Job? Other generic information you're willing to share?
Hi!
Well, my real first name is Alex and I was born and raised in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm 19 years old at the moment and I'm in my third semester of college at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. At the end of this semester (fall 2014), I'm going to be taking some time off of school to work full time while I figure out exactly what I want to do with my life. I don't know what kind of job I'll be working, but I'll be applying pretty much everywhere. Pokémon is definitely one of my obsessions, but another topic that I've been fascinated about since I was young is dinosaurs and ancient life as a whole. Needless to say that I really like the fossil Pokemon haha, especially Rampardos, Tyrantrum, and Aurorus. Also, I'm absolutely obsessed with the Avatar series, both The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. If I wanted any fantasy universe to be real, it would be the Avatar universe and I would want to be an earthbender!
That's awesome. Dinosaur questions incoming!
Are you stoked for Jurassic World?
Haha I should have guessed you would prey on my love of dinosaurs.
I am definitely excited for Jurassic World, but I'll have to go back and watch the first three movies again because I barely remember what happens in them XD
What is your favorite dinosaur? Why?
I'd have to say my favorite dinosaur is Pachycephalosaurus, which is the dinosaur Rampardos was based on. I think I like it so much because we know so little about it even though it's the largest and most famous of its group of dinosaurs (the bone-heads). All we have from it is a skull with a thick dome on top, so scientists have to make assumptions on what the rest of the body looked like based on its relatives, which we have mostly complete skeletons of. I love that even now, we're still learning and deepening our understanding of it. You can tell I'm a bit of a dino-geek lol.
How long before we see a based rock team built around Rampardos, Tyrantrum, and Aurorus?
To be honest, you're tempting me to make a fossil rock team right now. I'll see what I can do and maybe I'll be able to make it work!
Alright, now is your chance to brag. Tell me one thing you think is awesome about yourself.
Hm...that's a tough one. I'd have to say that I'm proud of my ability to cook. I've cooked meals for my family a lot and I love making my own creations. I usually don't use a recipe or anything. I just see what ingredients I have available to me and do what I can. Even if it doesn't end up being great, I'm almost always hungry so I'll still eat it anyway haha.
We differ there mate. A George Forman Grill and rice cooker is my go-to for dinner...
Lets shift gears over to Pokemon stuff. What got you into PS!/Smogon? Why did you chose the Monotype room?
Well I think it was when I was freshman in high school that this guy I knew told me about a Pokemon simulator called Shoddy Battle. It was Smogon based and it was basically the precursor to Showdown back in Gen 4. I didn't know anything about competitive Pokemon at the time, much less Smogon, but I loved it and I would play it all the time for a while. After I took a year off from it, I decided to look for a better quality simulator and eventually I found Pokemon Showdown and I've been using this simulator ever since. I actually started in the Tournaments room back in August of 2013 when it was a relatively small and unorganized room. I became staff a month later and I like to think that I helped it become the official room it is today. As far as monotype goes, I played around with monotype a little back in my Shoddy Battle days because I wanted to join a league. One of the few openings they had at the time was Ghost leader, so I made my first Ghost team back in Gen 4, even though it was ridiculously bad lol. (side note: I did join that league, but I ended up joining as a specialist in Green monocolor teams and I eventually became an Elite Four member named "Verda E4 Vine" before I finally quit). Anyway, I got back into monotype towards the start of Gen 6, again because I wanted to join a league, this time with the Imperium League where I have been an off and on Ghost type Gym Leader/Trainer since around March.
I chose to hang out in the monotype room because the Ghost type was starting to get boring for me and I wanted to branch out, so I started making new teams of different types and testing them out against people in the mono room until I had a basic understanding of each of the 18 types. I also love the community, which is why I stuck around even when I wasn't testing teams!
Wow, that is quite a story!
Many users want to know:
What is your favorite Pokemon?
What is your favorite Type?
What type do you specialize in?
I don't really have one favorite Pokemon to be honest. It's always changing from week to week so I just tell people that I have a lot of Pokemon I really like.
My favorite type and the type I specialize in are both the same. Ghost!
Dakuora-Senpai apparently dislikes Klefki and wants to know: Acast do you think Light Clay should be banned?
Dakuora-Senpai, I'm sorry but I think Light Clay is perfectly fine. Klefki hasn't been too annoying for me since Swagger was banned. Honestly, if there's any Fairy type prankster that I dislike, it's Whimsicott. I'm convinced that thing is evil...
We often do the monoOM tours in the room. What is your favorite monoOM?
For Mono-OMs, I definitely like Tier Shift the most. I love using my Tier Shift Normal team because some sets that I want to use in regular Mono are actually viable in Tier Shift. (Belly Drum Linoone can be OP)
If you could change one thing (literally anything) about the metagame, what would it be?
If I could change one thing about the metagame...hm...that's not easy to decide. Perhaps give Electric teams a better physical attacker. (Mega Luxray or Zebstrika plz) Electric is one of my favorite types to use, but it's annoying that it's so easily walled by the likes of Chansey and other special walls. It really only has one good option for a physical attacker in Electivire. I try to make do with Eelektross as well, but a better physical attacker than either of those two would be nice.
You were recently promoted to Moderator in the Monotype room. How has that changed your activity in the room? The community? On the forum?
Honestly, I feel that being promoted didn't change my activity in the room or the monotype community much. Most of the things that I've been doing as a moderator are the same things that I was doing as a driver (beyond starting the occasional tournament of course). On the forums, I've felt a little more obligated to be part of the discussion on bans/suspects in monotype, so I've been lurking in the Monotype Ladder thread lately and chiming in with my opinion every now and then. But I've been contributing to the Monotype Viability Rankings thread ever since Anttya started it up, so not too much has changed.
You have been a blast to interview mate; thanks for taking the time to do this! To conclude, what words of wisdom/sage advice do you have for all the Monotypers out there?
Thanks to you as well for doing these interviews! It's been fun. ^_^
For all you Monotypers, I'd say never stop trying new things. Keep trying new types and making new teams. Edit your old teams and see if you can make them better. The moment you stop changing is the moment you stop improving! (This works for irl situations as well as monotype btw!)
interviewed by scpinion, posted on 12/17/2014
Hi Acast!
As always, we'll start with just some basic information.Tell us a bit about yourself IRL. Location? Still in school? Job? Other generic information you're willing to share?
Hi!
Well, my real first name is Alex and I was born and raised in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'm 19 years old at the moment and I'm in my third semester of college at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. At the end of this semester (fall 2014), I'm going to be taking some time off of school to work full time while I figure out exactly what I want to do with my life. I don't know what kind of job I'll be working, but I'll be applying pretty much everywhere. Pokémon is definitely one of my obsessions, but another topic that I've been fascinated about since I was young is dinosaurs and ancient life as a whole. Needless to say that I really like the fossil Pokemon haha, especially Rampardos, Tyrantrum, and Aurorus. Also, I'm absolutely obsessed with the Avatar series, both The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. If I wanted any fantasy universe to be real, it would be the Avatar universe and I would want to be an earthbender!
That's awesome. Dinosaur questions incoming!
Are you stoked for Jurassic World?
Haha I should have guessed you would prey on my love of dinosaurs.
I am definitely excited for Jurassic World, but I'll have to go back and watch the first three movies again because I barely remember what happens in them XD
What is your favorite dinosaur? Why?
I'd have to say my favorite dinosaur is Pachycephalosaurus, which is the dinosaur Rampardos was based on. I think I like it so much because we know so little about it even though it's the largest and most famous of its group of dinosaurs (the bone-heads). All we have from it is a skull with a thick dome on top, so scientists have to make assumptions on what the rest of the body looked like based on its relatives, which we have mostly complete skeletons of. I love that even now, we're still learning and deepening our understanding of it. You can tell I'm a bit of a dino-geek lol.
How long before we see a based rock team built around Rampardos, Tyrantrum, and Aurorus?
To be honest, you're tempting me to make a fossil rock team right now. I'll see what I can do and maybe I'll be able to make it work!
Alright, now is your chance to brag. Tell me one thing you think is awesome about yourself.
Hm...that's a tough one. I'd have to say that I'm proud of my ability to cook. I've cooked meals for my family a lot and I love making my own creations. I usually don't use a recipe or anything. I just see what ingredients I have available to me and do what I can. Even if it doesn't end up being great, I'm almost always hungry so I'll still eat it anyway haha.
We differ there mate. A George Forman Grill and rice cooker is my go-to for dinner...
Lets shift gears over to Pokemon stuff. What got you into PS!/Smogon? Why did you chose the Monotype room?
Well I think it was when I was freshman in high school that this guy I knew told me about a Pokemon simulator called Shoddy Battle. It was Smogon based and it was basically the precursor to Showdown back in Gen 4. I didn't know anything about competitive Pokemon at the time, much less Smogon, but I loved it and I would play it all the time for a while. After I took a year off from it, I decided to look for a better quality simulator and eventually I found Pokemon Showdown and I've been using this simulator ever since. I actually started in the Tournaments room back in August of 2013 when it was a relatively small and unorganized room. I became staff a month later and I like to think that I helped it become the official room it is today. As far as monotype goes, I played around with monotype a little back in my Shoddy Battle days because I wanted to join a league. One of the few openings they had at the time was Ghost leader, so I made my first Ghost team back in Gen 4, even though it was ridiculously bad lol. (side note: I did join that league, but I ended up joining as a specialist in Green monocolor teams and I eventually became an Elite Four member named "Verda E4 Vine" before I finally quit). Anyway, I got back into monotype towards the start of Gen 6, again because I wanted to join a league, this time with the Imperium League where I have been an off and on Ghost type Gym Leader/Trainer since around March.
I chose to hang out in the monotype room because the Ghost type was starting to get boring for me and I wanted to branch out, so I started making new teams of different types and testing them out against people in the mono room until I had a basic understanding of each of the 18 types. I also love the community, which is why I stuck around even when I wasn't testing teams!
Wow, that is quite a story!
Many users want to know:
What is your favorite Pokemon?
What is your favorite Type?
What type do you specialize in?
I don't really have one favorite Pokemon to be honest. It's always changing from week to week so I just tell people that I have a lot of Pokemon I really like.
My favorite type and the type I specialize in are both the same. Ghost!
Dakuora-Senpai apparently dislikes Klefki and wants to know: Acast do you think Light Clay should be banned?
Dakuora-Senpai, I'm sorry but I think Light Clay is perfectly fine. Klefki hasn't been too annoying for me since Swagger was banned. Honestly, if there's any Fairy type prankster that I dislike, it's Whimsicott. I'm convinced that thing is evil...
We often do the monoOM tours in the room. What is your favorite monoOM?
For Mono-OMs, I definitely like Tier Shift the most. I love using my Tier Shift Normal team because some sets that I want to use in regular Mono are actually viable in Tier Shift. (Belly Drum Linoone can be OP)
If you could change one thing (literally anything) about the metagame, what would it be?
If I could change one thing about the metagame...hm...that's not easy to decide. Perhaps give Electric teams a better physical attacker. (Mega Luxray or Zebstrika plz) Electric is one of my favorite types to use, but it's annoying that it's so easily walled by the likes of Chansey and other special walls. It really only has one good option for a physical attacker in Electivire. I try to make do with Eelektross as well, but a better physical attacker than either of those two would be nice.
You were recently promoted to Moderator in the Monotype room. How has that changed your activity in the room? The community? On the forum?
Honestly, I feel that being promoted didn't change my activity in the room or the monotype community much. Most of the things that I've been doing as a moderator are the same things that I was doing as a driver (beyond starting the occasional tournament of course). On the forums, I've felt a little more obligated to be part of the discussion on bans/suspects in monotype, so I've been lurking in the Monotype Ladder thread lately and chiming in with my opinion every now and then. But I've been contributing to the Monotype Viability Rankings thread ever since Anttya started it up, so not too much has changed.
You have been a blast to interview mate; thanks for taking the time to do this! To conclude, what words of wisdom/sage advice do you have for all the Monotypers out there?
Thanks to you as well for doing these interviews! It's been fun. ^_^
For all you Monotypers, I'd say never stop trying new things. Keep trying new types and making new teams. Edit your old teams and see if you can make them better. The moment you stop changing is the moment you stop improving! (This works for irl situations as well as monotype btw!)