An Interview with FreeRoamer
interviewed by scpinion, posted on 12/30/2014
Hey man,
Thanks for taking the time to do this. As always, lets start with a bit more about yourself to place some context on the interview! Who are you in real life? Location? Occupation? Still in school? Job? Anything of that matter you would like to say?
I'm a university student at Loughborough studying Mathematics, I'm in my first year and really enjoying it so far. I guess you could say I'm quite good at that kind of stuff lel. I don't currently have a job at the moment, studying takes up most of my time but I work most summers, usually doing bar work or something similar. I'm no stranger to being on the other side of the bar either :P
I'm going to assume Math majors are not in the majority around here. What drew you to mathematics? Brag about your math knowledge: what is the highest math class you've made it through so far? :P
I've always been drawn to maths just cos I suppose I've always been the best person I know at it. That's not meant to sound cocky, all I'm trying to say there is that I am and always will be a competitive person, and I love being the best at stuff. I suppose another reason is that I found it really enjoyable to be able to constantly expand your knowledge cos I always picked stuff up really quickly and it was fun being able to apply my skills to more and more things. As for highest classes, erm in my GCSE's which is what you get at the end of our version of high school, I got 93% and then in A-Levels I actually did 2 Maths A-Levels, Standard and Further. I got an A* in Maths and an A in Further so not bad at all heh.
Nice. Competitive Pokemon is a perfect mix of the competitive drive and problem solving skills! So, you said did bar work over the summer. Best Smogon-appropriate story? Also, when should we expect the epic battle between DM on Drink and Death on Drink? Will you c-team him? :)
Ahah I've got many a story but as you say, some of those probably aren't appropriate here :P I've seen so many people doing stupid stuff, but the best times are always football (soccer if you're like me) games, especially England ones. Myself included when I'm not working but people really get into it, I've seen someone manage to spend £250 in one night, and perhaps unsurprisingly, they ended up going to hospital to get their stomach pumped but in their words, "England won so it was all worth it". Quite a character aha! Loool a drunk battle is something I'd love to see but for the most part I've managed to stay away from PS and Smogon while drunk so my drunk history isn't too bad yet. DoW is quite incredible in how often he gets drunk, and that's coming from a fellow student. Impressive stuff.
One more question before we get into pokemon stuff. I've asked everyone else this and its one of my favorite questions/requests. Tell us something you feel is awesome about yourself.
I'm a really strong skier, I've been on holiday quite a few times, both with school and with friends and I just love the sport, the sense of freedom you get standing at the top of a snowy piste just makes it for me.
That's awesome! So on to Pokemon questions. What got you into PS!/Smogon? Why did you chose the Monotype room?
I'd always liked the Pokemon games, I was an avid player of gens 1-3, got gen 4 sometime later, and then kinda stopped for a while as I was into a lot of other games too. Quite by chance, I was looking to make a team to take on the battle frontier in Soul Silver, and I wanted to know which level a certain Pokemon learned a move, I think it was an Infernape and I stumbled on to Smogon. I was quite amazed by the amount of information that was there, and I wanted to explore more so I eventually made my way onto PS and started playing some OU. While I was there, someone said I should try Monotype, and so I'd seen a little bit first hand about how strong Excadrill was in gen. 5 (I joined not long before it got banned) so when I came into Monotype at the start of gen 6, I just wanted to make a Ground team with Hippo and Exca, and eventually I started getting more involved in the room, and well, here we are.
On to some of the user submitted questions:
There are many users curious about your favorite Pokemon? Favorite type? And what type you main?
Ayah people should know what type I main, once a Ground user, always a Ground user, although I have been branching out recently. Favourite type would also be the Ground type, cos who doesn't love spamming Earthquake? Also from a competitive standpoint, I very rarely build teams without a Ground type somewhere as they offer great offensive and defensive synergy as well as hazards in the form of Stealth Rock. As for my favourite Pokemon, Excadrill and Empoleon are both tied, really fun things to use and can fulfil a lot of different roles. Plus they both look freakin awesome, the mole and the penguin!
Lucina would like to know: Which tier do you think is the worst and why?
Hmm worst tier, that's an interesting one, out of the standard tiers I've played, I'd have to say RU because it seems to be inherently stally this gen, whereas I've always preferred balanced or bulky offensive styles of play which is why I like UU a lot at the moment, cos those kind of teams thrive.
FPT has two interesting questions: How long do you think you'll be playing pokemon for? What cool new feature would you like to see in the later generations of Pokemon?
I honestly couldn't answer that, until I get bored of it I guess lol. For a more relevant answer I can't see myself carrying on with it past university, cos I imagine a lot of things will change in my life then and I'll probably want to move on and experience other things. As for a cool new feature, I'd love to see some development into some of the stranger field conditions such as Trick Room and Gravity, maybe things that can auto-set them or a turn-extending item. I'd also love to see Bug as a typing given a bit of balancing because I thought it was unfairly nerfed with the Fairy type resisting it which means that as a STAB it's pretty bad in most standard tiers.
MegaMamo is curious about staff dynamics: What do u bring to the staff team?
What do I bring to the staff? That's something other people are better placed to answer I guess but if I had to say what I thought I brought, it'd be a positive and active chat presence who's always willing to help people out, whether it be other staff on policy matters or whatever, or regular users on Monotype. I'd also hope that my experience in Monotype and Mono OM's helps me bring an educated view when we're discussing rules / implementation.
It wouldn't be a staff interview without a contribution from QueenieKaty: DM, who is your bae? .3.
(note: weebly doesn't easily do strikethrough text so please read the underline as a strikethrough)
Definitely not Katy. In honesty, I don't really have a bae at the moment, I have a lot of good friends who make whatever we do, be it just chilling or actually going and doing things fun, so that'll do me for now.
What is your favorite monoOM? Why?
Mono AAA is by far my favourite Mono OM, I just feel it allows for so much creativity in your team building and more of an opportunity to overcome your weaknesses. It's also fairly offensive, which as always can only be a good thing.
If you could change one thing about the Monotype metagame (literally anything), what would it be?
Reducing the dominance of Flying teams in the metagame. With the new bans coming into play, we seem to be heading into quite a centralised meta, in that Flying hasn't been nerfed despite being the obvious strongest type overall. I understand that this is hard to do because nothing is obviously broken, but it's something that needs to be looked at in my opinion.
Last thing for the interview: What words of wisdom/sage advice do you have for all the Monotypers out there?
Always be creative, remember it's not a gimmick if it works! Couple of examples of this is when I used Sub Excadrill to troll Mega Mawile and Bisharp on their Sucker Punches, or Vacuum Wave Gallade to beat Bisharp for Psychic. That being said, don't use strange stuff just for the sake of being creative, standard sets are standard for a reason, because they do their job well. Also stay chill, at the end of the day it's just a game.
interviewed by scpinion, posted on 12/30/2014
Hey man,
Thanks for taking the time to do this. As always, lets start with a bit more about yourself to place some context on the interview! Who are you in real life? Location? Occupation? Still in school? Job? Anything of that matter you would like to say?
I'm a university student at Loughborough studying Mathematics, I'm in my first year and really enjoying it so far. I guess you could say I'm quite good at that kind of stuff lel. I don't currently have a job at the moment, studying takes up most of my time but I work most summers, usually doing bar work or something similar. I'm no stranger to being on the other side of the bar either :P
I'm going to assume Math majors are not in the majority around here. What drew you to mathematics? Brag about your math knowledge: what is the highest math class you've made it through so far? :P
I've always been drawn to maths just cos I suppose I've always been the best person I know at it. That's not meant to sound cocky, all I'm trying to say there is that I am and always will be a competitive person, and I love being the best at stuff. I suppose another reason is that I found it really enjoyable to be able to constantly expand your knowledge cos I always picked stuff up really quickly and it was fun being able to apply my skills to more and more things. As for highest classes, erm in my GCSE's which is what you get at the end of our version of high school, I got 93% and then in A-Levels I actually did 2 Maths A-Levels, Standard and Further. I got an A* in Maths and an A in Further so not bad at all heh.
Nice. Competitive Pokemon is a perfect mix of the competitive drive and problem solving skills! So, you said did bar work over the summer. Best Smogon-appropriate story? Also, when should we expect the epic battle between DM on Drink and Death on Drink? Will you c-team him? :)
Ahah I've got many a story but as you say, some of those probably aren't appropriate here :P I've seen so many people doing stupid stuff, but the best times are always football (soccer if you're like me) games, especially England ones. Myself included when I'm not working but people really get into it, I've seen someone manage to spend £250 in one night, and perhaps unsurprisingly, they ended up going to hospital to get their stomach pumped but in their words, "England won so it was all worth it". Quite a character aha! Loool a drunk battle is something I'd love to see but for the most part I've managed to stay away from PS and Smogon while drunk so my drunk history isn't too bad yet. DoW is quite incredible in how often he gets drunk, and that's coming from a fellow student. Impressive stuff.
One more question before we get into pokemon stuff. I've asked everyone else this and its one of my favorite questions/requests. Tell us something you feel is awesome about yourself.
I'm a really strong skier, I've been on holiday quite a few times, both with school and with friends and I just love the sport, the sense of freedom you get standing at the top of a snowy piste just makes it for me.
That's awesome! So on to Pokemon questions. What got you into PS!/Smogon? Why did you chose the Monotype room?
I'd always liked the Pokemon games, I was an avid player of gens 1-3, got gen 4 sometime later, and then kinda stopped for a while as I was into a lot of other games too. Quite by chance, I was looking to make a team to take on the battle frontier in Soul Silver, and I wanted to know which level a certain Pokemon learned a move, I think it was an Infernape and I stumbled on to Smogon. I was quite amazed by the amount of information that was there, and I wanted to explore more so I eventually made my way onto PS and started playing some OU. While I was there, someone said I should try Monotype, and so I'd seen a little bit first hand about how strong Excadrill was in gen. 5 (I joined not long before it got banned) so when I came into Monotype at the start of gen 6, I just wanted to make a Ground team with Hippo and Exca, and eventually I started getting more involved in the room, and well, here we are.
On to some of the user submitted questions:
There are many users curious about your favorite Pokemon? Favorite type? And what type you main?
Ayah people should know what type I main, once a Ground user, always a Ground user, although I have been branching out recently. Favourite type would also be the Ground type, cos who doesn't love spamming Earthquake? Also from a competitive standpoint, I very rarely build teams without a Ground type somewhere as they offer great offensive and defensive synergy as well as hazards in the form of Stealth Rock. As for my favourite Pokemon, Excadrill and Empoleon are both tied, really fun things to use and can fulfil a lot of different roles. Plus they both look freakin awesome, the mole and the penguin!
Lucina would like to know: Which tier do you think is the worst and why?
Hmm worst tier, that's an interesting one, out of the standard tiers I've played, I'd have to say RU because it seems to be inherently stally this gen, whereas I've always preferred balanced or bulky offensive styles of play which is why I like UU a lot at the moment, cos those kind of teams thrive.
FPT has two interesting questions: How long do you think you'll be playing pokemon for? What cool new feature would you like to see in the later generations of Pokemon?
I honestly couldn't answer that, until I get bored of it I guess lol. For a more relevant answer I can't see myself carrying on with it past university, cos I imagine a lot of things will change in my life then and I'll probably want to move on and experience other things. As for a cool new feature, I'd love to see some development into some of the stranger field conditions such as Trick Room and Gravity, maybe things that can auto-set them or a turn-extending item. I'd also love to see Bug as a typing given a bit of balancing because I thought it was unfairly nerfed with the Fairy type resisting it which means that as a STAB it's pretty bad in most standard tiers.
MegaMamo is curious about staff dynamics: What do u bring to the staff team?
What do I bring to the staff? That's something other people are better placed to answer I guess but if I had to say what I thought I brought, it'd be a positive and active chat presence who's always willing to help people out, whether it be other staff on policy matters or whatever, or regular users on Monotype. I'd also hope that my experience in Monotype and Mono OM's helps me bring an educated view when we're discussing rules / implementation.
It wouldn't be a staff interview without a contribution from QueenieKaty: DM, who is your bae? .3.
(note: weebly doesn't easily do strikethrough text so please read the underline as a strikethrough)
Definitely not Katy. In honesty, I don't really have a bae at the moment, I have a lot of good friends who make whatever we do, be it just chilling or actually going and doing things fun, so that'll do me for now.
What is your favorite monoOM? Why?
Mono AAA is by far my favourite Mono OM, I just feel it allows for so much creativity in your team building and more of an opportunity to overcome your weaknesses. It's also fairly offensive, which as always can only be a good thing.
If you could change one thing about the Monotype metagame (literally anything), what would it be?
Reducing the dominance of Flying teams in the metagame. With the new bans coming into play, we seem to be heading into quite a centralised meta, in that Flying hasn't been nerfed despite being the obvious strongest type overall. I understand that this is hard to do because nothing is obviously broken, but it's something that needs to be looked at in my opinion.
Last thing for the interview: What words of wisdom/sage advice do you have for all the Monotypers out there?
Always be creative, remember it's not a gimmick if it works! Couple of examples of this is when I used Sub Excadrill to troll Mega Mawile and Bisharp on their Sucker Punches, or Vacuum Wave Gallade to beat Bisharp for Psychic. That being said, don't use strange stuff just for the sake of being creative, standard sets are standard for a reason, because they do their job well. Also stay chill, at the end of the day it's just a game.