Pokemon College Paper Questionnaire

[arcaneCupid]

Hello Smogon Forums! I'm writing a college paper about competitive Pokemon, and would like to get some information and opinions from those who know it best, Smogon players! I have a few questions to ask, and if you could reply to this thread answering them, there's a chance I'll use your answer in my paper! Thank you in advance! Here's the questions:

1. How long have you been playing competitive Pokemon?
2. How did you get into playing competitive Pokemon?
3. What format do you play?
4. What was your learning curve like?
5. How long did it take you to get good at competitive Pokemon?
6. What are some things you wished you learned as a beginner?
7. What do you think is the biggest mistake beginners make?
8. How do you think we as a community could make Competitive Pokemon easier for beginners to learn and get into?
9. Any other advice or things you'd like to say about your experience?

If you have any questions about this feel free to message me here, or on discord (vegapunk.hazard) and I'd love to answer them for you!

 

[faint]

1. 16 years I guess but I do not play or follow new generations of competitive Pokemon.
2. Back in 2007 I learned there was a more in-depth aspect to Pokemon that I found really interesting
3. Old gens OU, old gens Ubers, but nowadays mostly randbats.
4. Until I joined smogon I ran stuff like Gyaravire so it was pretty grim.
5. I think I became good to great around 2009, so 1.5-2 years.
6. Better understanding of team composition, pivoting, double switching, and preserving Pokemon at low health.
7. They use teams they don't understand or play tiers they don't understand.
8. We do everything we can already. It's up to the player to use the resources available to them.
9. Electivire never was nor will ever be good.

 

[Ironmage]

Oh boy, another opportunity to be excluded from a sample for autism! Kidding (mostly).

1. Since early-mid gen 7.
2. I was already looking up some analyses for casual cartridge multiplayer and/or battle facilities in and around gen 6, started watching showdown content because I had already seen the creators dissect the leaked SM dex. I think it was a video on Mix and Mega that got my attention enough to start playing myself.
3. My usual answer is National Dex Monotype, but the truth is that I've fallen off a lot. Turns out I relied a lot on Unrated Randbats to feel in-practice with no stakes, but there's no Natdex equivalent and I have no interest in restricted dex games.
4. I didn't feel helpless starting out, potentially because I was looking at analyses for a while beforehand. I haven't really put a huge amount of effort into improving though, I've always been more of a Jhonny (plays to express creativity) than a Spike (plays to win).
5. Not sure I'd describe myself as ever being "good at competitive"
6. No comment
7. Defaulting to a prominent format. Even if you are looking for competitive success, finding something you're willing to put time into is the most important step
8. I'm acutely aware I think differently to most people, so I'm not convinced I have generally applicable input here.
9. Sometimes I feel like I don't belong here because there seems to be a general respect for GameFreak (an apparent value on direct cartridge accuracy, restricted dex metas being primary) that I don't feel they currently deserve.

 

[PigWarrior19]

1. 2 years of competitive mons but I’ve been playing Pokémon for around 14 years ever since I played my first game when I was 5 give or take a year
2. During the promotion of the Lc open 2 years ago I got act called R1 :sob
3. Rands, Lc and doubles
4. Not bad I played a bunch on ladder before I came to smogon so I had some foundation of how to play/build/gameplan
5. Not long thanks to some really great people in the lc community became versatile in about a year around early sv
6. No comment
7. Giving up quickly in when meeting some resistance in tours to get better you need to play more to be better nobody cares if you play bad in tours
8. We already do a lot wish more tiers would adopt the lcsl format (Little cup scrub league) it’s a great opportunity to get some tour experience in your chosen tier
9. Ladder is important like I said on 7. you need to play more to be better also definitely do team tours those are soooo useful when trying a to level up your play even if you’re on the bench it’ll be a useful experience

 

[DaRotomMachine]

1. How long have you been playing competitive Pokemon?
2. How did you get into playing competitive Pokemon?
3. What format do you play?
4. What was your learning curve like?
5. How long did it take you to get good at competitive Pokemon?
6. What are some things you wished you learned as a beginner?
7. What do you think is the biggest mistake beginners make?
8. How do you think we as a community could make Competitive Pokemon easier for beginners to learn and get into?
9. Any other advice or things you'd like to say about your experience?

1. If you count TCG, 6 years, VGC and PS, 3 years.
2. Temp6t
3. OU, Monotype and some RU
4. don't know what that means
5. I'm still learning but am pretty satisfied with my progress
6. EVs
7. Whats viable in the tier and whats not.
8. This is hard. I think most tiers do a lot already, having VRs(viability rankings) and and Sample Teams, as well as tutoring if you want it.
9. I have been laughed on by playing this game. What other people don't know that it is a very hard game, and if you can play it well than play well. Don't get affected by the outside.

 

[BP]

Gyaravire

based and DPP pilled

 

[Kin+ak (✧∇✧)]

1. 2 years, played casual pokemon for 4 years
2. I was not financially able to buy pokemon games so I went to search repeatedly "play pokemon Online and what looked like a confusing serie of buttons became what let me Give valuable tips to newcomers in competitive pokemon
3. Honest, All. I like to expérience the rules and changes of All, it stimulates my memory
4. Very Slow for the first two weeks, Then it escalated quickly, After a year I peaked #2 on a ladder
5. 2 weeks give or take
6. The issue is The player 70% of The time
7. Start building teams without already grinding ingame/not playing a real pokemon game beforehand
8.Give a precise explanation for All samples, How they work and why they work.
9. Just Because you watched videos on YouTube making it Look easy doesnt mean competitive pokemon is actually easy

 

[woodgoldtwo]

1. I created my showdown account more than 3 years ago now but I generally just play for fun
2. I think I was introduced to showdown through a video of Technoblade (o7) using it to battle someone else sometime in 2020 but I might be misremembering
3. Mainly Pokébilities and Broken Cup as well as FFA random battles with a bunch of custom rules with people in the showdown lobby
4. I went from being decent to somehow worse to better than when I started
5. 2 years until I randomly started playing better
6. To backup my teams, my first NatDex AG team featuring Bulk Up Primal Groudon and Marshadow that I destroyed low ladder with is forever lost to time :(
7. Not realizing how good non-damaging moves are
8. I don’t think I am good enough to answer this question
9. If you’re starting to get frustrated then stop playing and take a break

 

[doipy hooves]

Hello Smogon Forums! I'm writing a college paper about competitive Pokemon, and would like to get some information and opinions from those who know it best, Smogon players! I have a few questions to ask, and if you could reply to this thread answering them, there's a chance I'll use your answer in my paper! Thank you in advance! Here's the questions:

1. How long have you been playing competitive Pokemon?
2. How did you get into playing competitive Pokemon?
3. What format do you play?
4. What was your learning curve like?
5. How long did it take you to get good at competitive Pokemon?
6. What are some things you wished you learned as a beginner?
7. What do you think is the biggest mistake beginners make?
8. How do you think we as a community could make Competitive Pokemon easier for beginners to learn and get into?
9. Any other advice or things you'd like to say about your experience?

If you have any questions about this feel free to message me here, or on discord (vegapunk.hazard) and I'd love to answer them for you!

1. 10 years at least, though I didn't really do much competitively other than learn how to play people for fun.

2. I had played a lot of ingame and some wifi battles through some different casual Pokemon/gaming sites with my SoulSilver and Black team which had a lot of random traded stuff and a shiny Lucario from one of those DNS exploit videos (not from Pokecheck itself) that had Drain Punch and maxed Attack but I replaced it with Aura Sphere during the campaign. Technically I got introduced to Showdown itself by a guy named Laggylaptop on Transformice in 2012. He swept me with a Dugtrio that outsped even my Steel Wing Charizard and everything else on whatever team I had cobbled together. I remember finding out about Shell Smash Smeargle that day by looking for a better team and reading its Smogon page, but didn't really play again for a while. At some point I also found Pokemon Online and played some random sets like Sleep Talk Bulbasaur with 84x6 EVs which I led into a Spore Smeargle on the first game, Iron Tail Porygon2, and Surf/Fly/Grass Knot Raichu, which I didn't realize enough to press on a Kabutops and it swept me with Swords Dance. So overall it was a lot of exposure to things I didn't understand at first.

3. BW OU/various forms of random battles to Challenge Cup 1v1 to Metronome Battle. By the time of Gen 6 I was more using PS as a chatroom but still liked battling people on it in random formats.

4. I think my main epiphany was after getting stuck using Overheat Charizard against a Hydreigon and realized I should have some other moves to rely on like Brick Break. I ended up figuring out to replace Aura Sphere on Lucario, that Drain Punch was a transfer move I couldn't get back, and also going back to SoulSilver and giving my Lugia Roost and some other things that seemed to make more sense, and I ended up using that to stall out someone's Giratina out of Shadow Forces and he was left with Rock Smash and other random HMs and just quit. I even ended up trying the battle frontier with my new balanced sets and got through the Silver Hall with Typhlosion and got to Dahlia a few times in the Arcade with my 3-starter team but couldn't make it past her. I don't think I had actually known to EV properly by that point though, but I could see them in pokecheck, and Eruption was really effective for the most part.

5. I don't think I took it seriously enough to 'get good' but I think I know a lot more about the game in general thanks to Smogon.

6. How team synergy works? I feel like my old BW team was just 6 offensive mons put together for no particular reason (Espeon/Jolteon/Lucario/Breloom/Scizor/Salamence) but I still had a good time outraging at the end with Moxie Salamence.

7. I think most beginner mistakes stem from a lack of knowledge and experience, and/or preconceptions from playing casually that don't really prepare you for competitive. I think mostly it just comes down to learning by doing and also learning something new is easier when you feel like you have a need for it.

8. I want to say that more people are getting into competitive today though mostly because of the various types of YouTubers popularizing the experience though. I feel like there are a lot more resources both official and unofficial and even ingame to explain mechanics today than there were back then.

9. I just wanted to point out that the Azure Heights forum seems to have been taken down recently which is a lot of history from the Gen 1-3 era gone that could probably be worth mentioning in your paper depending on its scope.

 

[Tanny89k]

1. Created my PS account in February of 2021, making me just over 3 years into this.

2. Watching False Swipe Gaming is what I think sparked my initial interest in Pokemon as a competitive game. I would go on to spend countless hours building in game teams and playing Battle Spot, amassing ~700 hours on Ultra Sun, before I eventually had the bright idea of making a PS account.

3. Currently, my focus is on Ubers UU. Historically, I have been active in SV AAA, SV BH, and SS BH.

4. Started out just playing ladder for about a year, developing basic in-battle fundamentals. After a certain point, I began to pay more attention to resources and the general consensus on a given meta, whereas before I'd just go off of whatever I'd seen on ladder. In April of 2022, I joined my first tournament, the Other Metagames Farm League III, where I would get a taste of games with higher stakes, face stronger competition, and work with players who knew what they were doing. I'd say this is where I could first start to call myself competent. From there, I just kinda joined more tours, played more games, learned more metas, etc., bringing me to where I am today.

5. OMFL III was between April and June of 2022, so around a year and a half after making my PS account.

6. I wish I had acquired a better mentality earlier on. Back when I was just laddering, I would get pretty worked up about losing games and seeing elo go down, which would inevitably lead to further losses and drops. Laddering is both more fruitful and more enjoyable when one doesn't pay too much attention to these things.

7. Generally, the biggest mistake is undervaluing mentality. More than knowledge, prediction, etc., the most important skill in Pokemon and pretty much every competitive game is mentality. If one cannot find a way to consistently enjoy the game, things just aren't gonna work out.

8. Currently, the vast majority of resources are for teambuilding, so I suppose more in-battle resources would be nice.

9. Check out this competitive theory thread, it's full of fantastic resources on competitive play. Also, try to build your own teams over using a sample. Not only is it much easier to pilot a team when you understand the purpose of its design, it helps develop an understanding of a meta faster.

 

[awyp]

1. How long have you been playing competitive Pokemon? 2008-2012 2022-now so like 6 years?
2. How did you get into playing competitive Pokemon? marriland the utuber
3. What format do you play? fairy gens, old gens outside gen 4 kinda mid (shoutout to gen 5 for being decent)
4. What was your learning curve like? ez
5. How long did it take you to get good at competitive Pokemon? 1 year
6. What are some things you wished you learned as a beginner? practice is the best way to learn
7. What do you think is the biggest mistake beginners make? constantly stealing teams
8. How do you think we as a community could make Competitive Pokemon easier for beginners to learn and get into? not really back then it was difficult but i think we did everything nowadays to make it easy with faqs and sample teams and rmt and youtube
9. Any other advice or things you'd like to say about your experience? No.

 

[Geysers]

1. How long have you been playing competitive Pokemon? I regged my first PS account in November of 2016, so about 7.5 years
2. How did you get into playing competitive Pokemon? A middle school friend with whom I'd played the TCG suggested I try PS! out
3. What format do you play? Anything Goes! (mostly oldgens right now because tera is cancerous)
4. What was your learning curve like? I started like anybody else, loading teams of my favorite mons or mons that looked cool or whatever, but I figured out pretty quickly that that wasn't the way to go and started using real teams. I got stuck in a bit of a rut though where I spammed the same awful Tapu Koko balance for virtually all of Gen 7 and didn't branch out which meant that I also didn't improve.
5. How long did it take you to get good at competitive Pokemon? I finally figured it out early in Gen 8, whenever that was.
6. What are some things you wished you learned as a beginner? Tapu Koko is ass in AG. Don't use it.
7. What do you think is the biggest mistake beginners make? They get siloed into thinking that building is everything and all they need to do to get good at mons is to build a better team. It's not. Actually playing well is far more important than building, as shown by people managing to peak various AG ladders with wishkiller over the years.
8. How do you think we as a community could make Competitive Pokemon easier for beginners to learn and get into? A prominently displayed introduction to yomi layers and how they relate to mons would have helped my younger self immensely.
9. Any other advice or things you'd like to say about your experience? Why are there so many dipshits? Like there's absolutely no reason to dox or harass someone over mons. Please be nicer to each other.

 

[grape tylenol]

hey arcaneCupid,

this thread seems to have been made with good intentions but this has turned into a generic "introduce yourself" type thread, which doesn't encourage discussion and doesn't belong in smogoff (or really anywhere else on the website). it seems like you got a good amount of responses so best of luck with your college paper!