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E11 // Sjamesp21: #1 in both Go Battle League and now in Show Six, Pick Three
141 Plays9 months ago
Join us for this episode of Tap Tap Cast where we chat with Sjamesp21! If getting second place in your first ever tournament and then winning the second is "flying under the radar," then Sjay is apparently the master of it! He is the captain of the team Elite TMs, has hit number one on the Go Battle League leaderboards multiple times, and he sits down to talk with the crew about his love for Pokemon Go pvp.
Follow the crew!
Amanda // www.twitter.com/Lundberger
Martijn // www.twitter.com/InadequancePOGO
Special Guest // www.twitter.com/sjayp21
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Transcript
Introduction to Pokémon Go PVP
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, and welcome in to the next episode of Tap Tap Cast, where we talk about everything Pokemon go, PVP.
Meet the Hosts: Amanda and Martijn
00:00:07
Speaker
I am Amanda, also known as Lundberger. And my name is Martijn. You may also know me as Inadequance. I'm happy to be here again with you. Yeah, good to see you, my friend. We're recording this one a little bit
Community Day Adventures and Anecdotes
00:00:18
Speaker
early. It was just community day for you, I believe. True. Yeah, we have the Bounce Suite community today. I'm actually opening the game right now real quick to count all the
00:00:27
Speaker
The shiny that I called as I keep mistyping the name bounce with a shiny 28 today in about two and a half hours And then we went for
Humor and Misunderstandings
00:00:38
Speaker
curry. I am still on a mission to convince me that I'm in Boston while I was actually in Rotterdam, but I
00:00:46
Speaker
Hopefully she doesn't hear. Yeah. Well, we'll release it a little bit later. Your secret's safe with me for now. Yeah. And now Tristan and Totechto are also in on the joke. Totechto was also saying like, yeah, like I've been joking that I eat lobster all the time in Boston, even though I'm like allergic to shellfish. And Totechto says, yeah, I'll be there to eat vegan lobster.
Photos and Timing in Boston
00:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Oh, that's pretty good. Really well.
00:01:11
Speaker
I don't think she's buying it. Maybe she's even getting rather annoyed by it. But yeah, I'll hear about that if she actually hates me for it. Funny that actually at this moment, in this current moment of time that we're recording, Tisson just posted a picture of us that we took at the pier in Rotterdam. And then he said, I'm here with the Boston local.
00:01:35
Speaker
But we posted at the start of when the Community Day would start in Boston. Well, we are already out of
Achieving High Ranks in Pokémon Leagues
00:01:41
Speaker
it. Smart, smart. Yeah. I also got a Rank 1 Ultra League Serena. That's the name. And a Rank 10 for Great League. So, yeah, I'm pretty much set on this borderline useless. Yeah. Well, are you going to be using it in Catch Cup then? Because of course it will have its Community Day
Pokémon Battle Strategies
00:02:01
Speaker
move. What is it? Yeah.
00:02:04
Speaker
High jump kick, yes. Perhaps for content. But I will probably be still using Tertenator. I have a rank four Tertenator. I traded with Auden. One of the top colors. Yeah, he's a Smurf.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yes. Well, you gave me your smurf gave me a rank four tour today. It's a zero for 13 or something. And I went 14 one in three sets with, um, what was it? Victory Bell magic belief, which has the inadequate approved IVs. Of course. Uh, I made a graph about it a while ago with top, my new top of Feeney.
00:02:43
Speaker
That is like a rank 124. It's quite good. And I need the turner. The turner has been crushing teams. Charge stacks are quite expensive, though, which is unfortunate.
Catch Cup Event Tactics
00:02:53
Speaker
Yeah, it takes a while. Are you running it with Overheat and Dragon Pulse? Overheat and, yeah, Dragon Pulse. I was considering Flash Cannon, but then I was like, well, four incinerates?
00:03:05
Speaker
It's a little bit too much. It's a lot. I'm also playing a team with fire, but it's mostly because confession time. I haven't been playing as much and I was looking through and I was like, oh, I don't have very many useful Pokemon for this. So I'm trying to put together a team. I have a very bad Likitung. Well, actually, it's a great Likitung. It's a four star Likitung. But I was like, I'm not going to invest extra stuff into. So I built that one up. Unalogan Marowak.
00:03:35
Speaker
That's Zionical. Yeah, I'll have to pass it on to Ryan.
Trading and Regional Event Prep
00:03:38
Speaker
And then what was, I can't even remember my, my third. But you call a lot at the regional. Yeah, but, um, so I left my go plus plus in Europe. I know I'm, I'm not good at this sort of thing. And, uh, I've been trading a lot for distance candies. So I didn't even think about catch cup. I was not looking ahead in the, the go battle league and.
00:04:02
Speaker
Yeah. Well, realistically, you've only attended one event then since this season where you had the Go++.
ELO Ratings and League Experience
00:04:11
Speaker
Yes. That was interesting. Yeah. And then the other ones you don't. I know. I know. Because you don't want to compete. I know. I know. That's funny. I love hearing this. Are you going to hit let's do this? No, I'm definitely not. I'm like, this might be the... I might need a grace season.
00:04:33
Speaker
What is your Eula right now? I think it's still in like the, I think I even went down with this team, Shocker. Like in the 2600s now. So, yeah. How much time do we have left? When does this... I'm actually at 2763 now. Yeah, you've definitely passed me then. Maybe you should try. Yeah, well, I would have to catch one, right? That's the whole problem with Catch Cup.
00:05:01
Speaker
All right, I'm looking at the schedule right now. Okay, I have until June 1st at 3 p.m. Yeah, so catch cup is until this Friday and then we have a leak shift. All right. Which is great because you'll be casting Los Angeles, so you won't be casting Los Angeles. So realistically, you have about five
00:05:29
Speaker
maybe even less if you're you're also going to be in new orleans right yep yep maybe i'll just uh yeah you can just sit over my shoulder and coach me oh this is this is fantastic yeah this is a this is not my season turns out now i'll come back i'm i'm not too worried no you think you're uh no i realistically probably not i don't have that much time left but i mean sometimes all you need is just like one good streak like i feel like last time i
00:06:00
Speaker
was in the 2600s at one point. And then I just went on just a rampage. I think I had positive sets for three days. And then I was like, oh, I'm legend.
Santiago Regional Recap
00:06:10
Speaker
or two days even, so I'm not too concerned. Yeah, that makes sense. Sometimes takes one lucky day. Before we head over to our guest, I just want to give a quick recap over the Santiago Regional. We only had one championship this weekend, which was in a Latin one. And in our top cut, we had a dark type Pokemon on every single team. 50% had Mandabas on their team.
00:06:36
Speaker
On top of that, Mandibuzz had not won a single tournament yet to date, but this time Varoo, from Sheila,
Upcoming Tournaments Preview
00:06:43
Speaker
won with a Mandibuzz! Okay, alright!
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, we actually had a man about grand finals with decent who came in from the loser's bracket. He I believe he knocked down or he knocked out Paulio touch one of the best Brazilian players, right? Won the 20 to 50 Sao Paulo regional. He defeated ventu ski a grassroots champion then defeated Memi and another grassroots champion.
00:07:06
Speaker
Yep, yep. And then he lost to Varoo in the grand finals. The Abomasnow and Mandibuzz course is so good for both plays. Like Abomasnow put it on a big show as well. A Pokemon we usually see in Europe, so that was
Interview with SJ: A Top Player
00:07:20
Speaker
pretty cool to see. And then, like we just discussed, next weekend, I believe there will be the last tournament in this Pokemon Go season. So we have Los Angeles, we have the special event in Lima.
00:07:32
Speaker
And I believe there was another one that I can't remember. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah, I remember it was the Asia qualifiers in Taiwan. That was it. We have those three championships. Yeah. So yeah, still still a lot to go in the end of the season, but it's kind of exciting to see how this is going to be shaping up.
00:07:53
Speaker
Absolutely. I think the meta has been shaping up for a little bit. And today we're going to someone who almost doesn't lose in this meta. Yeah. We have the winner of Indianapolis, the second runner up in Peoria. We have SJP21. All right. And here we have SJ, who doesn't know this guy, one of the most flawless players I've seen welcoming SJ. Good to have you here.
SJ's Journey to the Top
00:08:21
Speaker
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
00:08:23
Speaker
Yeah. Thanks. Uh, thanks for having me. I, uh, I go by S James P 21 in the game, but a lot of the people in the community that know me, uh, know me as SJ, uh, I'm captain of elite TMS faction. You may or may not have heard of. Nope.
00:08:42
Speaker
And I've been playing the game for a long time, I think since the very beginning. There was like a two year period where I took a little bit of a break and then COVID hit. I came back to it and I don't think I started PVP immediately. It might've been like the second season of GVO, but I've been playing the game for a long time, so.
00:09:02
Speaker
Nice. Speaking of GBL, I mean, we've kind of talked about it for a while. Everyone who talks about you says, oh, yes, he was the GBL person. He's the one I knew ahead of
Community Involvement and Platforms
00:09:11
Speaker
time. Walk us through, like, yeah, how you got so good at that, especially if you didn't start PvP from the very beginning. Yeah, so I specifically remember just back in the day, I was kind of obsessed with trying to get good at the game.
00:09:26
Speaker
I think very early on I was just using what I liked. I remember using like Lucario and Metagross, stuff like that in Ultra League. But then I just started watching some Twitch streamers, probably people like Inadequents. Yeah, I don't know who that guy is.
00:09:49
Speaker
Inadequance, I think
Role as Captain and Team Dynamics
00:09:50
Speaker
like how Stark maybe Valor Ash some like the OG streamers I started watching trying to pick up little things on their gameplay And then also just like trying to learn things by myself. I just remember like in between games I would look up energy counts for Mons that I wasn't sure of like in between and just try to memorize those things and I think pretty quickly
00:10:13
Speaker
Um, like I turned from a player that wasn't able to hit legend to like somebody that hit like first page on a leaderboard like a season later So I was just like almost obsessed with trying to become like the best that I could So how long did it take for you to actually hit legend or or rankton? I don't know when the first time was
00:10:34
Speaker
I don't remember it might have been season two or season three You didn't hear you didn't hit the highest rank for one season and that's when you became good for all the I'm pretty sure I mean that's the double-check. I think that information's on Draco is but I
00:10:56
Speaker
Um, yeah, I don't think it took very long. Um, and I didn't really know a lot of people in the community. I didn't even know what discord was for a very long time, but I just started playing a bunch of people hanging out in Twitch streams. And then I got introduced to discord and, uh, met a lot of really cool people through there and.
00:11:14
Speaker
I don't know, it just turned into what it is today where I hang out with a bunch of people, a bunch of my friends on Elite M's and it's kind of the reason why I still play the game is because of the relationships that I've made and they just make it fun for me.
00:11:30
Speaker
For those who may not know, yeah, so Elite TMs was one of the factions when still factions with a thing. So it's like a group PVP sort of thing. You said you're the captain. How did you go about selecting the people to be on your team for this? I mean, because I know that my time wasn't asked. I definitely wasn't asked. But we were already on team. So of course, I'm guessing that's why. I think Yasser actually did insinuate to me, or he tried to hint, are you available or something at some point.
00:11:59
Speaker
But I mean, Yasser, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, how I got to the team was I think it wasn't even Yasser that recruited me. Yasser didn't know who I was until I think I ended up winning season two of GBLA. And that's where they kind of got familiar with me. But I also knew I don't know if you guys know Signal. Signal recruited me on the team like he had been a lot of Twitch streams. He knew who I was. He knew I was I was a pretty good player.
00:12:29
Speaker
So I joined the team and then I think a few seasons passed and I ended up taking over as captain as Yaster kind of wanted to step down. But the thing with Elite TMs is like we already had a good chunk of our players from the original team.
00:12:44
Speaker
And then every now and then like a player here and there wouldn't want to step down and then we kind of have to keep on recruiting. We know a lot of people in the community. There's a lot of people that we've reached out. I didn't know that you asked to reach out to it. I think that was like one of the beginning days of ETMs. It's been a very, very long time.
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean we have a pretty
Elite TMs Team Personalities
00:13:07
Speaker
good idea of like the kind of players that we want to target. Not only players that are really skilled but kind of like fit
00:13:16
Speaker
um just like the kind of people that we want to be around like there's a i know like players that want to betray let's unite like pranav and illo yeah yeah no i know i know what you mean yeah we have a great fishing pool for you well i know i know we had some some pretty big personalities on all etm's in the past um not even more that could kind of ruffle some feathers i don't know if we're quite that way anymore i personally didn't love all the the banter that we had in the past uh but
00:13:47
Speaker
Yeah, we just look for people that we think that we would be like good friends with, like Elon or a couple of people that we added recently, Monaghan, Brandon Y, people like that. But by great personalities, do you mean as in a Twitch streamer or as a player or as like how they are?
00:14:10
Speaker
Yeah, so it used to be most of the players on the team were Twitch streamers. That's what Elite TMs actually meant. It's like... Yeah, Twitch meets Show6. Was that it?
00:14:22
Speaker
I don't even know what the S stands for anymore. Yeah, maybe it's show six, but yeah, we don't really look for Twitch streamers per se anymore. But like I said, we've been hanging around a lot of people for a while. So like people that we're somewhat familiar with, but we're also not opposed to adding people that we don't know as well either.
Success and Strategies in Tournaments
00:14:46
Speaker
And because of this as well, that's kind of how you did get into the show six format, the CIL format. You went from being in GBL to following these streamers and then really becoming someone well known yourself. I know you said in Indianapolis, you're like, yeah, I think I kind of have been flying under the radar, but it sounds like you've been around and pretty much making a name for yourself for quite a while.
00:15:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think I said that because I see comments everywhere. I hang out on Twitch streams a lot, but I don't always say anything. You're a lurker. I'm a little bit of a lurker. I like to hang out in some of the inadequacies streams where he does watch-alongs for regionals. I'm always curious to see what the EU chatters are saying about NA and vice versa.
00:15:34
Speaker
So I like to see that kind of stuff. I was hoping, like I saw you did a recap stream or I'll watch a long stream for indie of day one. Nobody was doing one on day two. Like I don't think that was true either. It's a little bummed out about that, but.
00:15:51
Speaker
I don't remember. I think I think for day two, I was very busy. I thought it's been like a little bit demotivated lately. I asked him like before, I can only do day one. You can have day two. But I don't think he responded or he said something like, I don't know what I'm going to do. And then the one did day two. Yeah. Well, I'm flattered you like seeing my reaction, I guess. Yeah. Unfortunately, you're like the only player I don't call out for playing ABA.
00:16:21
Speaker
Yeah, I am. I am not much of an ABA player. Rarely will I ever do that. If I ever do ABA, it's either because I slip up and have a mental error. Don't realize that I'm maybe a week or I think I'm in a really bad spot and I have to go ABA. So I don't typically do that. Right. I got about your affection one more time. Who's a roster currently? Yeah, I don't miss anybody. So maybe I'll look it up.
00:16:50
Speaker
Yeah, because I think I think you had like fair extra so tough and Yasuo before smashing as well But those are all not on there anymore if I'm correct, right? Right Yeah, so we had Yasuo actually played last season for us More of a bit more is like a fill-in. Did he win? Hmm. Did he win?
00:17:09
Speaker
He won, believe it or not, he won every week except for the last
Team Evolution and Loyalty
00:17:13
Speaker
week. This surprises me. Well, I don't know. We theory craft a lot. We come up with ideas like game plans of what we're going to do. So we always try to make sure that everybody's prepared before they play.
00:17:31
Speaker
So, but, uh, as far as the roster, um, I'll just go down the list. So like open gray league, we had, uh, I don't know if you know, Brigsy, he's a long time front of Mars. He's kind of a newer, not like newer, but like he wasn't there in the very beginning. Uh, I ended up playing ultra league. Pokemon, a hand was master league. Uh, we had signal and Elam and one of the fields.
00:17:58
Speaker
We had Brandon Y and mango and the other side of the fields and then we also had a few other people that kind of filled in for us but are no longer gonna be on the team next cycle, so I Thought mango was part of muddy water, but he changed he was so we ended up recruiting him I think after
00:18:19
Speaker
Diamond tier we played him in diamond. I think we added him right before our first cycle on emerald. Okay, and uh wants to deal with a shady equation because he joined you guys for one or two seasons and then he was like, well These are not my guys. So i'm gonna go back to uh the ox's defense Uh alba something albert albert albert. I don't remember deoxys alberta form. No, yes shady is a front runner. Yeah
00:18:49
Speaker
He's one of the players that we reached out to for a while. We wanted him to join the team for a hot minute, but he's got some really good friends on DAF that he kind of just wanted to stick around with them. I don't remember exactly why he joined us for that first cycle, but yeah, he played with us for one cycle in Emerald, and then we brought him back in Worlds because he had been on the team previously. And then we also, for Worlds, we also added Dylap as well.
00:19:19
Speaker
But yeah, I think just because of the relationships that they've made with the members on DAF that they wanted to go back. So I couldn't really hold that against them. So it's like the same thing with me and ETMs. Now saying that, is there any team, even though you're the captain, that you're like, hey, Legends United, if I got the call up, I would consider leaving? Or you're like, no, no, this, I'm an ETM or die.
00:19:41
Speaker
No, I'll meet him or die. I'm not one of the OG original players because I wasn't there in the very beginning, but I was pretty close to it a season after they played. I think just the relationships that I've made on this team, I can't join the other team. That's unfortunate because that was an actual question from Amanda if you want to join. Yeah, I'm their talent scout now. Sorry, SJ.
Worlds Preparation and Team Strategy
00:20:08
Speaker
We don't need you on the podcast. I was it was actually just feeling this out. This was an interview. Just just just kidding. Just messing. You also won, I believe it was you guys who won the last silver rules, right? Yeah. Yeah. How did you do that? Was it because of dial up and the shit equation?
00:20:30
Speaker
Well, I definitely hope that we had Dilap and Shady Equation for sure. I mean, they played really, really well. And I especially want to highlight Dilap because I don't know how close you were paying attention to the previous cycle. But that last cycle in Emerald, obviously, Dilap is a very good player. But his record didn't exactly show it. It was really bad, I believe, right? It was probably the worst. No, I remember. I was very surprised.
00:20:58
Speaker
Yeah, like we made a joke that dial-up only tries when there's money on the line or like big tournaments or whatever. But Shady had been on the team before and he had talked to me about it and he kind of assured me that that dial-up was going to put in the effort.
00:21:17
Speaker
He proved that very quickly. It didn't take much time for me to realize that dial up
Competitive Drive and Handling Pressure
00:21:22
Speaker
was all in. It got to a point where I personally don't even like scrims, but like it was worlds. Like, so we were going to put in like max effort, but I was almost getting annoyed because dial up was screwing with me too much. He was, he was playing a lot.
00:21:39
Speaker
like he was very dialed in. So yeah, he was one of our best players. And then we also added back that boy, Jay, he was like one of the original players on the team. I don't know how familiar you guys are with him, but he's one of the best out there. Yeah. Like he, um, I would consider him like an equal to me. Like as far as he's very good, he's probably not as well known because he doesn't play as much, but very skilled players. Is he not on the roster now anymore?
00:22:07
Speaker
No, so I mean, he's just busy with real life stuff. Uh, he decided that he wanted to come back for worlds like that one last final push. So yeah, that, that final roster that we had was, I don't know if it was the best trust we ever had. I think at that point it was just cause the sheer talent that we had on the, at that point, but I also think the current team that we have right now is pretty good as well.
00:22:28
Speaker
I know as, sorry, that boy Jay the most for when he said in the Indianapolis stream, when two ETMs player on the stream, these two players have more skill in their thumbs than the whole.
00:22:40
Speaker
That's what I remember before. I don't condone that. But he feels very strongly about some of his teammates. So I get that. I don't agree with that. I think there are some really good EU players out there. And I've watched a lot of the regionals as well. And I get the back and forth talk about it.
Tournament Experiences and Lessons
00:23:02
Speaker
I do think
00:23:03
Speaker
that across the board, the EU tournaments are probably, there's probably more talent, but I also like, for one thing, I just think that people travel better for you tournaments as well. I don't think a lot of the best NA players are even playing every time.
00:23:20
Speaker
And there's no guarantee that the best player even bakes it that far, Fred. Things might happen. There might be a boost here and there. You might get a really tough team comp. You just don't really see everything. Speaking of getting boosts and stuff, I cannot stop laughing about your expressions during the games. When you get a boost or something happens in your favor,
00:23:44
Speaker
You look so pained. You're always like, Oh, no, I can like see you mouthing apologies to the other player. And it just kind of cracks me up. Because normally, of course, he was like, Yeah, okay, this game is in the pocket now. And you're just like, not like this. Yeah, I just, I've never been a big fan.
00:24:03
Speaker
of debuff or like chance moves. A lot of people that are around me know that. I have voiced my complaints about those kind of moves. I just think it takes a little bit of skill out of the game and I just want things to happen organically. I just, I don't know, the boosts, sometimes it's nice. Sometimes you're in a bad spot. That's your only play. But I mean, I try to avoid that. I try to get in spots where I'm just completely relying on
00:24:29
Speaker
um the lack of a boost or something like that so if you had your way you would remove all because i mean i saw you playing a dugong james i walk okay okay but that's no rng right what's that that's no rng that's 100% chance yeah it's 100% chance yeah so it's like you know it's coming okay so those are okay like i can yeah i can play around it like the zapkin on a regi used to be didn't he used to be yes that's horrible
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So the really bulky Mons getting 100% debuff moves is tough, like Steelix. I think that wasn't oversight. I don't think Steelix should have got it because I think Breaking Swipe was fine because stuff like Haxorus and Rayquaza had it. And they're not that bulky, so they kind of need those debuff moves. But yeah, the tanky Mons that have chance moves. Yeah, it's just I don't like that stuff. Did you just call it Rayquaza or Rayquaza?
00:25:26
Speaker
Uh, Rayquaza. I don't know. The first person with the correct official pronunciation. Oh, is it? Yeah. Okay. Well, I played the main series of games. I hope I know a little bit. Yeah. You, you played, uh, did you play competitive VGC as well at some point or no? No, no, I was never like that. I just, I just played for
Mental Challenges and Adaptation
00:25:45
Speaker
fun. Really? I was about it. Yeah. Is that how it is now as well? Do you play for fun or are you full competitive?
00:25:52
Speaker
Well, I think it goes hand in hand. I love competition. I'm a very competitive person. To be frank, winning is fun to me. I just kind of get that high off winning games. But at the same time, you know that on any given day, anyone can beat anyone.
00:26:12
Speaker
So I've gotten better over the years, I think, with accepting the fact that I'm going to get outplayed or I'm going to make some mistakes. And I just kind of have to overcome that. And I think a lot of the regional run that I recently had was like a mental battle for me, because I'll get like pretty nervous in front of like high stakes games. I usually calm down after I get like a win or two, but I never really know how I'm going to be feeling when I have to play.
00:26:40
Speaker
I think for me usually the fear is just getting a bad record at first but if you like five wins in
00:26:46
Speaker
That's where I'm usually like, okay, at least if I lose now, I can lose with dignity, right? I guess for you, you don't know that. You only got to like first and second place and stuff. Actually crazy. I looked at your play Pokemon stats. You have played two tournaments. Peoria, second place, Indianapolis, first place. Can you explain why you don't lose almost?
00:27:14
Speaker
I don't know. Thank you back to Peoria. Well, and for one thing, I was kind of kicking myself for not competing in previous years. I remember like last year, Peoria, somebody told me that pure was happening like three days before I was like, Oh,
00:27:32
Speaker
I don't have enough time to get ready. And that was close to you, Peoria? Yeah. Peoria is probably the closest drive for me. It's about two hours. Oh. Yeah. So the two regions that I've been to were like closest to me distance wise. I wanted to be able to drive to them. Um, some of my friends are trying to get me to go out to like LA. That's where they live and stuff.
00:27:53
Speaker
I'm just focusing on why now. But yeah, as far as those tournaments, I don't know. Like I personally hate team building. So a lot of times I will just rack my brain for hours and come up with nothing. So for Peoria, like I just kind of slapped the team together the night before. It was the same thing as Indy. I'm making my teams the night before or I steal a team from somebody else. So I made my own team for Peoria.
00:28:22
Speaker
And it wasn't the best team. There were two Mons that I didn't really use that much. And I didn't really realize it, but I was very weak to one Mon that I ended up seeing in the finals in Water Gun Lantern. So I think a lot of it is, I did actually face one other Water Gun Lantern. It was the first round in Peoria and I barely beat it. But his team comp wasn't as tough for me as like King Al. So I think like a lot of it is you just have to avoid
00:28:51
Speaker
some corebreakers you might need a little luck along the way like versus bjpaw out of purity i barely scraped five because i caught a move and i definitely shouldn't have won that matchup so i don't know maybe it's just a little bit of luck in playing well yeah because also what are the odds of course of playing two water gun lanterns because that is not the common move set for a lantern either
00:29:13
Speaker
I know we have some people like, you know, you go to a lot of events
Team Building and Competitive Approach
00:29:16
Speaker
in Europe too. And, and you hear that two people running the exact same team with one, something that really core breaks it. And one of them doesn't face any of them in the, pretty much the whole tournament. And the other one faces three of them at the beginning. So, yeah, I think more time you ran into a couple of bastion dons when you were like pretty weak to it. It was not a problem for you.
00:29:34
Speaker
I played four Bastion in hard-fought, yes. I wasn't exactly weak to it though, because I had like, the trap was okay, the lantern was okay. It's only the... What do you mean? Only the... Only the Charizard... Oh, and Alolan Knights was weak, but I mean... I guess I happen to lose one of them, but I'll be the other one, so...
00:29:54
Speaker
I don't consider myself being defeated by basketball, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Lantern, like, Watergun Lantern, I think it was something more of last season. Mm-hmm. I'll see, like, uh, that you had a Swampert, Wishcage wasn't a thing yet, so. Yeah. Watergun Lantern was a little bit safer, right? Yeah. Um, yeah. No, I mean, first play, I think... Peoria, you only lost to King Alexander, right? Mm-hmm. Twice. Well, not only did I lose, I got absolutely...
00:30:24
Speaker
Bob.
00:30:37
Speaker
You know, I respect you a lot, but man, that was like the biggest instruction I've seen. Probably not something you wanted to hear. He knows it too, but, you know, because, but I'm so surprised because like he, I consider him as one of the best in the world. It really happens to anyone. You can just face, especially when you face a Corebreaker, right? He was very weak to Kress and then you face, so you get away with it against a couple of players that might not be as good, but then you face Paola and Mab here.
00:31:01
Speaker
And they just run over you, right? Yeah, well, my indie team I stole from Luke. And so, yeah, I was watching a little bit of his games, his match versus Paul. That was tough. Oh, maybe you can coach him, though. Clearly. I don't know if I could have done much better, Paul, in that team. That would have been tough for sure. Yeah, you say Lantern would want to go as a core baker. Magnezone is a help for this team.
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah, a hundred percent. And the Skeletors, honestly. Skeletors as well, yeah. Why do you think we don't see those Pokémon in NA?
00:31:39
Speaker
I think, well, I can tell you why I don't run. Not that I won't run them in the future. I tried Skeletor as one of your practice turnies, actually. And I didn't mind it, but I felt like I had to play. I felt like I had to play very well to get it to work. It's just the five turn and like the four turn volt switch. It's just that kind of stuff. Like you can easily get sniped. You can easily get caught in a bad spot. Timing is a little bit tougher.
00:32:05
Speaker
Not that they're bad, they're good Pokemon. I just like, I like flexibility, the ability to like try to catch a move. It's pretty difficult those long turns. So yeah. And honestly, I think wish, I don't know how big wish cash is in Europe, but it was, it's very big in NA. So I wouldn't, I personally would try a magazine. I know Valor Ash is.
00:32:28
Speaker
Yeah, you brought both Talon and Magda zone, he doesn't have to fear Wish Coach at all. Yeah. So walking back through Peoria, it was your very first, and you said that you regretted didn't play the season before. And I know that you only lost to one person. Is that like kind of what gave you the confidence to keep trying in it? Or were you bummed because like you said, you're competitive and you hate losing and then you got, you know, wiped pretty hard at the end?
00:32:51
Speaker
Yeah, I was super bummed after Pure, honestly. It took me a week to regain confidence. Which is, by the way, just crazy because it's like your first tournament ever. You basically beat everyone in the tournament except for one person. You get second place and you're like, oh, I'm so bummed out.
00:33:11
Speaker
Yeah. And it wasn't like going into the tournament that I was like, oh, it's first place or bust. Part of it was that there was no travel or there was no, like, I didn't get the automatic bid. So that was like another piece to it. But I honestly, I do not go through very often. I think I played a lot of weeks of faction. I think I got an 0-3 once.
00:33:33
Speaker
And it was a very tough matchup. I kind of pride myself on being able to get at least one winter And that just didn't happen and I think there were a couple games that I definitely could have won and I'm pretty sure there was one game I messed up versus King Al and I think it just kind of rattled me mentally
00:33:51
Speaker
So I think that was like a big component of it as well. Like a lot of times I know when I make a mistake, I know right away what I did wrong. So I don't even, I don't want to rewatch it. I don't want to relive that. I don't want to think about
Reflecting on Tournament Success
00:34:03
Speaker
it. Um, so I just, for the longest time, I just wanted to forget about that performance. So do you, but you do watch your wins back. I do. I do. And I watched some of the losses as well, as long as they're not terrible losses. And I know I played awful.
00:34:18
Speaker
I'm glad to hear this, I'm the same. I don't like watching my losses back. It's just like watching someone who, you know, you're like, dude, you should have done this. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the comment section in chats is interesting because like, even when I think I'm doing the right play, people are questioning what I'm doing.
00:34:37
Speaker
But I don't think they really think what I'm thinking in the moment. There's a lot of different things that can go through your head that they don't think about. Yeah. Well, I mean, also as chat and when you're casting, you obviously get to see both sides of the screen as well. You get to see how much energy there is. You get to see so many different things. I remember when Elam was playing against someone in Indianapolis. Oh, gosh. I can't remember. But he had two shields in the back, and he had to make a call if it was going to be like an Altaria in the back or if it was going to be a Lantern because he had a Skarmory.
00:35:06
Speaker
And he ended up coming in with the wrong Pokemon. And so then at the end, his lantern was matched up against the Skarmory, but it was just like, there was no way to know it, right? I mean, he had to make a call and he just made the wrong one. And I think that's, that's obviously easy to do. And if you're watching as a person in the chat, you're like, well, duh, he should have thrown this or oh, he should have baited or he should have, but I mean, it's so much different. I'm sure being in that spot.
00:35:30
Speaker
Yeah I think I watched that game actually because I think I was backstage getting ready for my own matchup and I'm glad you brought up Elon because Elon was one of the people that I had to play. He's obviously he's a teammate of mine so I know my matchup versus him.
00:35:46
Speaker
was definitely favorable towards me, at least. And I think I had pretty good alignment versus him. But I think that he honestly might have been the best player that I had to face when I was an indie, even though it was on day one. Yeah, he's pretty good. Yeah, but not good enough for Leji.
Facing Tough Opponents and Insights
00:36:02
Speaker
That's why you could have him Yeah Yeah, it's it's funny sometimes from chat side as well when you think Also when someone has won a game, right? We just discussed before you went live how I said When Gordon the flash caught a move on you that elite teams is in shambles. You still won the game Chad just likes to be interactive. I I guess and 100%
00:36:28
Speaker
Yeah. And it wasn't just you. There was like 40 people saying this game was over. Yeah. I didn't realize I had won. That was an interesting game because you rewatch that. I know it didn't look like it might not have looked like much to people, but I knew because I looked up how much body slam does to Gus Lord before that matchup. So I did those two wing attacks right before to put it in body slam range because if I would have combo played right after the dig, I lose because he lives that body slam.
00:36:55
Speaker
so I didn't think that I'd won after I killed the Guzzlord because I thought he might have been able to kill my Lickitung but When he threw that grassland to me, you could see it on my face. Like I knew I was gonna win that game Yeah, I saw you're tapping also and you kind of like your eyebrow raises a little like you can tell it's like oh he's having a thought Yeah, yeah, and I was I know I didn't really pop off at the end of Indy but I popped off after that game because I
00:37:21
Speaker
For one, I thought I had no chance of winning that game, but also I did not want to play another game versus Gordon. That team was tough for me. I ran back my game one lineup because I didn't know what to do against him. I'm really glad I didn't have to play him again. I think him, Pocket, and Magic Mason were the three toughest teams that I had to face in ND.
Future Tournament Participation
00:37:43
Speaker
Yeah, we were talking before we started recording and you said, you know, it's a good thing that this show six isn't like GBL because you would have just top left it at one point in that game, but you ended up winning it because of like, but he didn't throw, I think the, the Dragon Claw into the Gligar, which probably could have secured the win for him.
00:37:59
Speaker
So he said, Elon was the toughest opponent you place. That was your favorite game that you played. Uh, but yeah, you mentioned pocket as well, because I think he was actually the person who seemed to at least give you the most trouble that you played in the tournament. Cause he was the one who took the most games off of you. It came down to a decisive game five and they were all very, very close match-ups in the winter's finals. Yeah. I think back on it, if that was best of three, I lose to him because I lost to the first three.
00:38:26
Speaker
Um, so he was wanting and then I was wanting and then he was wanting and then I was wanting. It was very interesting matchup. I knew going into that matchup that the games were probably a little lead dependent. Um, just because he's got that bastard on the one mom that I brought every game against him was GLAGAR. Uh, even with the regular Gator, I still liked it as a safe swap potentially at any given moment.
00:38:54
Speaker
Because you didn't have like a Skarmory or like a dugong or something like that so I think I use that every game but I Think for the most part I was trying not to be double weak to Basti for the entire time So that was like in the back of my head the whole time Yeah, that matchup was tough just because like he brought some unique I wasn't used to playing for alligator. That was like the first time I've ever played against a writer for any one is used only you never see a thing like a regular for alligator and
00:39:24
Speaker
Yeah, and I don't think it's like bad per se, but obviously you got it to work how far he went. But yeah, it was just, it was new to me. I kind of had to feel out the damage for that. And then everything else was, I was pretty used to, but that matchup was, I don't even remember what I was thinking. I wasn't thinking about anything. Like I said before, like I get nervous and before big games, I was just trying to think about absolutely nothing.
00:39:50
Speaker
I was just trying to clear my mind and not think about like all the extra distractions. And I don't know, I felt pretty focused during that matchup. I will say that my timing was if I would have messed up timing at any point in that matchup, I probably lose because.
00:40:06
Speaker
I just remember my lick tongue being on his crycellia multiple times. And if I give up a fast move, I lose the game. So yeah, those were tough games for sure. Yeah. Um, you said you're not going to LA, right? Or are you? No, my friends are trying to get me to go, but you should be pretty qualified and that's all I really
World Championships Preparations
00:40:25
Speaker
wanted to do. So, uh, and also, yeah, I don't know.
00:40:31
Speaker
I'm a little busier right now. I want to save some money for Hawaii. Is it expensive for you to get there? Yeah, it's a little expensive. I don't know if I talked about it in the interviews in the stream, but the interview that they had me do after I went to Indianapolis, I think I might have brought it up.
00:40:51
Speaker
I was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii. So that was like a big factor in me wanting to play this season. I was like, I have to play now. So yeah, getting to go back, I was going to make it happen no matter what. For a while, I was a little worried about getting enough points because it suddenly came in with like 325 and you're like 500 in North America. So it was maybe if I didn't do so well in India, I would have gone to LA.
00:41:20
Speaker
Yeah. But if you didn't qualify, would you still have gone to Hawaii? No, probably not. Because I could just go on vacation to Hawaii at some point. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. So you're not going to go to LA. Can you announce if you're going to be at NAIC or are you just not going to do any more tournaments until Hawaii?
00:41:48
Speaker
No, I'm not, I'm not doing it anymore. And again, people were trying to get me to go. It's just.
00:41:58
Speaker
I don't know. I was a little burnt out after Indy. I barely played the game for two weeks. I just mentally, even physically, I was exhausted after that tournament because I get anxious the nights before. I don't sleep that much. So I was extremely tired when I was playing in Indy. I had to down some coffee, get some caffeine, and before playing.
00:42:21
Speaker
But yeah, those tournaments take a lot out of me because it's, it's, it's not that there's pressure, but I put pressure on myself to do well. So I just kind of want to take a little bit of a break and then I'll get back to, well, this time I'll probably start prepping for Hawaii a little bit more
Current Meta and Future Expectations
00:42:37
Speaker
in advance. Maybe I'll do some more inadequacy. It's really cool that you like admit that you get nervous and stuff too, because on the surface, you seem like a very level-headed person and I can see as like maybe a newer player or someone coming in saying like,
00:42:51
Speaker
this guy comes in, he's only played two tournaments, he gets second and he gets first. Like, what shot do I have of the end? You're just like, no, no, you've prepped a lot. You got obsessed with the game, you said, and you do. You still get nervous before you compete every time, so.
00:43:07
Speaker
Yeah, 100% I think back like well I think all the experiences that I've had in the game up to this point It's kind of like helped me for that moment because like playing on stage in a regional is in front of like however many people are watching It's much different from just tapping your phone at home. So It's it's a little bit different. I'm not exactly used to the camera so I was getting a little bit more used to that as well but like I just think back to like
00:43:35
Speaker
Factions World Championship like that was probably the most nervous I've ever been GBL a like the season 2 championship. I was extremely nervous for that But yeah, it's like once I kind of get like one game down I feel like I can kind of like calm down my nerves a little bit and then just play so
00:43:56
Speaker
Yeah, even the gods amongst us seems more close in terms. So speaking of LA, you probably have some friends competing there, right? Are you going to help them team build? Or what are you expecting for LA, like meta wise? Oh, I don't.
00:44:14
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know about the meta. Do you think Americans finally bring out the spice? The spice. Well, we have on elite teams, we have a couple of players that like to get a little spicy and I'm like, kind of talking a little bit. It's not, it's not Ilum, is it? Ilum is the
North American Meta Trends
00:44:30
Speaker
new spice. It's not really, I don't know what, Ilum is pretty secretive about his teams. I actually didn't really tell.
00:44:37
Speaker
Really? Yeah. Unless you scream with him. Oh, he does talk with us actually. Yeah. One player on my team that likes to use like off-meta mods is like,
00:44:51
Speaker
mango or pokey mango in game he goes by like yeah you you actually you are cool yes i don't know uh yeah you brought a traveler right yeah yeah yeah i was i was telling him um i was like dude if you just use metamans you probably do really well like he's very good he's just he doesn't like beer matchups and he just he wants to be using unique mods i think part of his thought process is like if you use unique mods then people may not like
00:45:21
Speaker
They may not know how to play against it is like his idea. But there's a reason like the meta is the meta. And like, believe it or not, I used to be more of a spicy player. I'm not exactly like you. Yeah, I used to be. I don't know how often I queued into you in GBO, but. Well, I've been tanking. I mean, been playing very bad on Drop Love Elo lately. So we probably have not played for a while. No, I'm not. Even though like.
00:45:47
Speaker
I used to be a GBL guy. Like I don't play GBL nearly
Player Styles and Game Approaches
00:45:51
Speaker
as much. I try to avoid high elo. It's just like the cue times. I got tired of it. Where's the time? Like number one. I think I hit number one twice. You did. I looked it up. The second time after that, I was like, I don't want to deal with these cue times anymore. I just I just want to play the game. So I get my thoughts on that. What's the spices you've used them? I can't remember. I know we played a couple of times.
00:46:17
Speaker
I just can't remember when it was probably like five seasons ago by now. It's probably a long time ago. Yeah, probably more than that. Well, it's even five seasons ago. I don't know how spicy I was, but it's like this is like way back. I think the first time that I hit number one on on the GBL like leaderboard. I was just trying to tank. So I accidentally won. Yeah, I did. I did. So I ran.
00:46:46
Speaker
Listen to this, I don't remember what season this is. Magmortar lead.
00:46:53
Speaker
shadow obama snow and venus whore and i hit number one of the boys i swear that's the secret sauce that's the team you want to check my sources on that i'm pretty sure i played wholesome with that team and beat him you should ask him about that he will remember losing to marmora yeah no shot he was it was this was like the charm a9 fairthorn uh meta and ultra league if you remember that oh that meta yeah oh yeah yeah that was the galarian slow roll meta yeah yeah
00:47:23
Speaker
Yeah, but like fire was actually pretty, it was a pretty good typing at the time. There was a lot of stuff weak to fire. So like, somehow I ended up winning it. Like that was the first time I hit number one on the board. The other time I'm pretty sure was also an ultra league as well, where I used shadow krobat. It was shadow krobat lead was an ABB line and I used to love ABB. So it was like shadow krobat. Obstagoon. Shadow Snorlax and Obstagoon. And I hit number one with that too.
Show 6 Format and Pokémon Choices
00:47:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think Crobat was like really good in one of those seasons. It was just so obnoxious to deal with. I think it was Ultra Premier. Yeah, it was Ultra Premier. Yeah. Yeah, it was not very Chandler friendly. So do you have a favorite Pokémon that you like to use for the Show 6 Pick 3, at least in these formats? Because I mean, I guess theoretically, if the format really changes before Worlds, we might see like a whole team shake up for the next. But is there something right now where you're like,
00:48:22
Speaker
Hey, if you LA people use this in the regional, I think it's going to do well. Uh, well, I mean, that's the thing I, and one of the reasons why I didn't necessarily think I was going to do that while I'm indie, I don't really think of myself as an open, great league player. I typically, I love the greatly limited metas. I love those. I honestly didn't even play open greatly that much. I try to avoid it. So.
00:48:51
Speaker
Uh, I don't, I don't know. There is, um, like, I liked the meta where shadow dragon hair was good and great. Like, I wish I had played at that time because I really liked dragon hair. That's like the one Pokemon that I like. I don't know if it's as good in the meta now. Um, it's pretty good. Just there's like all tears probably better. I think right now, I think that's not too long ago though. It's like one season ago, maybe. Yeah. And I didn't, I don't think I had one at that point or maybe I did.
00:49:21
Speaker
I remember what I did. But yeah, it's, I like Shadow Dragon a lot. I think that's probably my favorite mine, not necessarily in play Pokemon, but like, I've used that a lot in like factions and stuff, like regular Dragon Air, Shadow Dragon Air. I don't have any meta predictions, anything like that. I have no idea because it's like, are you thinking that people are gonna counter the team that I just used? Are they gonna be running like, Skeletor's, Magna Zone, that stuff? I have no idea. I'm not sure.
00:49:49
Speaker
I know what some of my friends are doing, but I don't know what other people's ideas are. Sure. Yeah.
Open vs Limited Meta Formats
00:49:55
Speaker
Yeah. Do you wish that show six was in limited metas? Like, do you wish it was more like silver? They're like, okay, you can only use Pokemon with these typings or have like a certain theme to it. Or do you think that open great league is the appropriate thing for this type of tournament?
00:50:12
Speaker
I mean, personally, I would love a limited format. I think I, well, I feel like I kind of thrive in those, those formats personally. Yeah. You're doing horrible in the open ones. So I hope for your sake that they change it up.
00:50:29
Speaker
doing more regionals i don't know if i can keep up first or second place i don't think that's realistic but uh i would like to see that i don't know if they'll ever do that just because like open just makes things very accessible for everyone like i get that at the same time like i don't know how accessible it is because there's stuff like cresselia i think trent talked about it he didn't use cresselia because he didn't have a good one i only recently got the one that i use in indy
00:50:55
Speaker
It doesn't look amazing CP wise. It's a little better than it looks though. Um, but yeah, there's like, there's break points and there's bulk points. There's a lot of Ivy dependent mashups. We're going back to that game versus Gordon. If he is a better Ivy guys, Lord, I probably don't win that game.
Potential Competitors at Worlds
00:51:10
Speaker
So it's some of the stuff is Ivy dependent and like the rerolls on legendaries is. It's tough. It can be a little annoying. There's some Pokemon where I feel like I've been trading for forever and I can't get a good one.
00:51:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, at some point even run out of locals. That's my problem. Controversial question time. Who's the best on your team? You have to pick a name. You cannot play neutral. Does this include myself or no? Yeah, you can name yourself.
00:51:37
Speaker
It would look very humble on you. To make it easier. I don't want to say that. I've been asked this before. Like, I don't want to say that I'm the best, but I think there's like tears. And I would put myself on that top tier. Yeah. Pranav is lowest, right? Pranav is lowest, right? Well, Pranav hasn't played, I think he played like three weeks for us this past cycle, but he's been... For a reason. He dropped like, I think he went like eight and one. So it was very good. Thanks.
00:52:08
Speaker
If you want to talk about top tier, Elon played seven or eight weeks. He lost one total game. That's it. He won every single one outside of that one. So he won every matchup and he went to one once. But has he won a regional? I think he's got second, right? Yeah. Maybe he's following in his captain's footsteps. And so then he'll now get the first as well.
00:52:34
Speaker
Yeah, he's just waiting for you. You know, one of a regional at some point, you just got to find the right team. Yeah, that's the big thing for him. Yeah. Yeah, we've we have a lot of really good players on that team. So I don't think I could just pick one one person.
00:52:52
Speaker
We get if we get off of that team, but we go to competitors of worlds cuz you talked about even you played him earlier He's already qualified for worlds as well Martine's qualified for worlds. I mean, there's a whole list of people Are there any one or any what that you're hoping to play or hoping to avoid while you're at worlds?
Competitive Community Insights
00:53:14
Speaker
Well, I tell you what there's I used to
00:53:18
Speaker
like for factions at least, I would kind of compare myself to Waddash. I wanted to see how he was doing every week. We were putting out very similar numbers, and they were playing like different metas, but he was always someone that, like if I'm on the top of my game, I want to know how he's doing. I don't think he's playing in Worlds this year, that he's got something going on. He told me in London that he's going to play.
00:53:42
Speaker
oh okay really well the thing is no actually he does have a travel art yeah i know i don't know that's what he told me in uh in london but maybe he had a few few drinks yes i would have said him but i mean who knows if he's playing um i haven't i don't think i've played its accent
00:54:01
Speaker
I mean, maybe I played him in GBL a couple of times, but I haven't played him in a competitive format. So I wouldn't mind playing against him. I don't really shy away from competition. I've played a lot of really good players over the years. So I don't think I'm like scared to play anyone. I guess it just comes down to like team comp and stuff like that. But what about King Alexander? Are you afraid of him? No. No. No, I'm not. I'm not afraid to play anyone.
00:54:28
Speaker
I actually, I wanted to play him in indie. I was hoping I could have played him. I wanted that redemption. But I think he lost to China Diaga, which is a local one, actually. Yeah, he shouted you out a couple of times when that dude has energy galore. It was like this slightly mischievous look on his face, too. I'm like, you are up to something. I think it's great. I love it. Yeah. Yeah, and it's funny because I played him
00:54:59
Speaker
I think we've had like seven local tournaments.
00:55:02
Speaker
And it's really just, it comes down to like me versus him every time. Like that's the kind of, it's like who's going to beat each other at this time, that kind
Top Contenders and Rising Stars
00:55:11
Speaker
of thing. So it was interesting. I didn't know, I wasn't really paying attention to the other side of the brackets just because I worry too much about my own match-ups that I'm not really looking to see how anyone else is doing. Like even on day two, I don't watch other people stream. I don't want to watch them play.
00:55:30
Speaker
I know that's kind of weird. It's just if I'm playing, I don't want to even watch them. I just want time to like decompress. But yeah, it was cool to see him do well. I was kind of curious if me and Shiny Dialga would have had to play because we're very familiar with each other at this point.
00:55:48
Speaker
I think it's smart not to watch others because you might think like, oh, they're going to play like this, but when they see your team, they might just play it entirely different. I think like in Utrecht that may have caused Pablo, because I played like soft ABA every single time and then he kept letting alone a sentence or leaky time. But because he has a different team from my previous opponent, I kept leading vigorals.
00:56:10
Speaker
Yeah, you know that that's something that might come like also the world's I think who was the game Elcha who I lost to he played against violent fish before I was like, okay, so he plays this and that I'm gonna gonna play something like not weak to look at or something and then avoid played like ABA to Venus or twice, which I was very upset about but let's not talk about that
00:56:31
Speaker
Yeah. Speaking of worlds, how about we go into our traditional concluding question, Amanda?
00:56:41
Speaker
Sounds like a plan. So yes, we have an ending question that we always ask all of our podcast guests and it's a two-part question. So I'll give you some time to think about it in between, but who in this community would you consider a crabrawler? And so this is a player who is not maybe super well known or hasn't had like their, hasn't had their breakout moment, but they're really good. And who in this community would you call them
Friendly Rivalries and Matchups
00:57:06
Speaker
a champion? And this is someone who you think, yeah, they have a good shot of winning worlds this year.
00:57:11
Speaker
Yeah. I don't... I mean, I talked about it before. I guess for the Cribrawler, I said that right. I would say that boy Jay, but I don't think he's competing anymore this season. Just because I've watched him play so much.
00:57:30
Speaker
He's just very technically sound, mechanically, whatever the phrase is. He's very on top of his matchups. He knows what to do at all times. He rarely makes mistakes. I would say that boy, Jay. I hope he competes again one more time, next season maybe, because I don't think he plans on it this season. For the champion, it would be hard for me not to say Doon Bug just because of how well he's done.
00:58:01
Speaker
Um, it's almost to the point now where it's like, I've, I've watched a decent amount of these. I haven't watched like a lot of it, but I'll watch them play every now and then. And I see people make uncharacteristic mistakes against him, but I think that's just because he's built such a reputation that people are kind of psyching themselves out a little bit.
00:58:23
Speaker
I do think that's not, I mean, not just against Doonbug. I definitely have that too. When I play against people who I know are really good, then you have this thing like, well, I know that they're really good. So if you make one mistake, then all of a sudden you're in shambles as well because you're like, well, I'm not going to win this. Now I made this mistake. Yeah. And then, I mean, that's just, that's not like to take away anything from Doonbug. If anything that adds like, he's just, he's so mentally composed that if you make a mistake against him, he will capitalize.
00:58:52
Speaker
So I think he's got to figure it out. I don't know what he's doing right now, but he's obviously he's doing very well. Um, and yeah, I think going back to that, I think the mental part of, of playing is, is, is huge because he's been on stage plenty. This is like going for a walk at this point. He's habitually he's got everything down. So yeah. But you wouldn't shy away from playing. And like you said, you want to play against anyone.
00:59:19
Speaker
I do. Yeah. So second controversial question. Who do you think would win between you and inadequate? Oh, me. We'll see about that punk. I think the last time I played inadequate was in like a little master league. Yeah, there wasn't a was it the unified one, right? I think the first time I played against signal who? No, I think I got one point against him or maybe he bought me. I like a terrible matchup. And then I think I played against you. Did I have a good matchup there?
00:59:49
Speaker
Oh, wait, you had the mellow it up. Yeah, no, I hated that thing. I think I was happy with one point. Yeah, it was like pick pick pick your worst matchup or your least worst. Yeah, my my mellow was really good there. It's always funny when I'm playing inadequate because I'm just thinking myself. I know this guy likes to beat.
01:00:09
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm always thinking about that in the back of my head. But yeah, I don't know. It'd be interesting, because I don't think we've played each other in great league formats before. Or at least like GBL we've probably played, but I don't think I've played you. No, it shows six now.
Farewell and Anticipation for Next Episode
01:00:24
Speaker
And you guys haven't played each other when there's been like, not that those things didn't have real stakes on the line, but I mean, obviously in this sort of, if you guys play each other at Worlds, it's a very different mindset with a lot more on the line.
01:00:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. 100%. That'd be interesting. I'll make sure to use a book when he doesn't know. He can't look up the counts when you're there. Are you are you competing in Hawaii? I haven't booked yet. I have a refundable hotel booked. But I haven't booked my flights yet. I just want to see how close I can get to travel awards and sites after that. But knowing me, that's probably just go up and I'll book after any I see. Okay.
01:01:05
Speaker
Yeah, but you still have Bologna and you have NAIC, so I mean, there's still a lot of points to be had. It comes down to really good performance there. Like Bologna is going to be about a stack that Stockholm, Stockholm had like the top 20 of Europe there, which is wild. Bologna will also have a couple of those, and NAIC will. Let's say I do bad at Bologna, I will need to hit top four at NAIC. Since SJ won't be there, I think that's pretty manageable.
01:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, I uh, it'll be interesting because I think we have a couple of lead tms players playing in an asc So i'll be rooting for them if that's proud of then it should be no problem He he is he's going he's going I talked to him. Yeah, i'm very excited. Yeah Should be a good time. Yeah
01:01:55
Speaker
Well, SJ, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the podcast, to have a little bit of a chat with us. We wish you the best of luck at Worlds, but apparently not too good of luck if you play against Inadequance. You know, sorry, my loyalties. You have your loyalties to ETM. I have loyalties to my podcast co-host. I'll see you in the grand finals. Yeah, I'd be down for that. I say that to everyone, but only one of you can make it.
01:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, thanks so much, SJ. Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it, guys. Yeah, yeah, that was it for this week. Catch us every Thursday. We will have a new episode and a new guest. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week. Bye.