Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hey guys, my name is Yifeng (pronounced yee-fing in case you were wondering) and I turned 24 just not too long ago. I identify as a Kiwi, not the flightless bird or the fruit, but a humble New Zealander. I have a bachelors degree in Mechatronics Engineering from the University of Auckland. Right now I’m working as a Production Estimator at a sheet metal processing facility, I basically draw stuff up on CAD and get them laser cut and do some customer support stuff.
I spend most of my free time drawing these days, recently got given a tablet to draw on, which is a nice change of pace from pen and paper. I also do a lot cycling (trials to be specific) and traditional carpentry. I own a small collection of knives and maintaining them is fun. And I just like doing all kinds of DIY projects around the house.
As some of you may be aware, I’m a Japanese animation connoisseur, I’ve seen almost 500 titles, and that number is growing fast. So if you ever want something good to watch, just hit me up.
My rise to fame in UU came when Calloflochie rolled a dice on who to promote and I got lucky. Random facts about me: I own 5 bikes and I have an irrational fear of cockroaches.
What made you choose your name?
So back in highschool, when I would introduce myself to other kids, a lot of them struggled to pronounce/remember my name. I got kinda tired of that, so when people ask me what my name was I would jokingly tell them it’s Bob (basically the most generic English name I could think of). Me and my mates back in highschool just referred to each other as “Bruh”, and I guess the rest is history.
What inspires you to compete on the ladder and/or in the room?
I initially started off playing OU in late gen 4 or early gen 5, don’t exactly remember which, but I felt like the tier was too oversaturated with broken shit and found it very difficult to learn the tier. Which was why I moved down to UU and I just stuck with it.
From here, I remember watching a lot of replays trying to get a sense of what’s good and what’s not. I went through a lot of Pif, Dingbat, you (King) and xMarth’s games. Lol I still vividly remember playing against and losing to Pif’s mono-dragon team when I first started UU. I guess what compels me the most to play nowadays is the thrill of predicting and outsmarting my opponents. It’s also fun to compete in ladder wars with other good players and friends. The rivalry back in the days between me, you (King) and xMarth and continuously trying to one up each other on the ladder was some of the fondest memories I have of PS.
What brought you to Pokemon Showdown and competitive Pokemon in general?
Honestly, I’ve just loved Pokemon for as long as I could remember. But I’ve always been pretty poor when I was younger, so I’ve never owned any “current gen” consoles when they first came out. I think I bought a Gameboy colour in 2004 and played gen 1 and gen 2 games on it, but by then everyone’s either on the GBA or the DS. I’ve always wanted to play Pokemon with other people, but never got the chance to.
I was like 13(?) when I found out you can play Pokemon on the internet and I somehow found PokemonCrater and started playing that. For those of you old enough to remember PokemonCrater, I’m sure you’d all agree it’s a piece of shit. Then I moved to playing Pokemon Online, coincidentally I started watching competitive players (TheFlamingSpade and Shofu) around this time as well. I think PO got shut down not long after, and I wanted to continue playing competitively, since it was the easiest way to play with a lot of other people. So I did some googling and found PS. So here I am, 6 years later, still playing.
What are your strengths as a UU battler? What are some areas in which you can improve?
I think I’m adaptable as a player, I can use any playstyle well. As many of you may know, I used to play stall, then balanced, and finally now, I play predominantly HO. I can adapt the way I play to suit different teams and different opponents. I scout out the type of player my opponent is before I start predicting when playing a slower paced game and when I play HO, I tend to play super aggressively.
I’m also decent when it comes to building teams, my usual approach is just to build around uncommon/underused mons/sets and playing lots of games to make changes via trial and error. This approach usually means I end up with some pretty strong teams by the end of a few ladder sessions. I think my unpredictability when it comes to both team building and playing is what gives me the edge when facing against more orthodox players and playstyles.
I’m a persistent person, so I don’t forfeit games if there’s even the slightest chance of winning, with the aid hax or bad plays or whatever. Pulling wins out of absolutely nowhere is an amazing feeling.
Playing aggressively is definitely a double edged sword and I can get pretty reckless from time to time, even when there’s no need to be. This has definitely cost me a lot of games in the past. I’m quite stubborn when it comes to teambuilding, there are a few mons/sets out there that I just absolutely refuse to use (Amoonguss, Klefki, any form of bulky Scizor and just annoying things in general), not because they don’t fit with my playstyle, but because I hate facing them. I’m definitely feeling the adverse effect of my stubbornness more now after Breloom and Azumarill dropped.
Now that you've become a UU ladder expert, what's next for you?
I don’t consider myself as an expert at all. Above average at best, when I’m using a good team. I honestly don’t have any specific goals I want to achieve when it comes to Pokemon. I come on PS just to chat and ladder for fun. I’ll keep playing on the ladder and testing new teams until I get bored, which probably won’t be any time soon.
We have UU Ladder Tour and UU Premier League coming up shortly, are you looking to participate?
To put it frankly, the Smogon side of things interest me very little and tournaments even less. I have a few too many hobbies keeping me occupied so I didn’t really plan on signing up.
What would you say to any Managers out there who are looking to pick up players for UU Premier League?
Refer to previous question. I don’t really know what the Premier League is about, or what managers are, so short answer is that I don’t know.
Can you provide a team that you think reflects your current playstyle with a brief explanation of how it works?
Azumarill @ Choice Band
Ability: Huge Power
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Play Rough
- Liquidation
- Knock Off
- Aqua Jet
Aerodactyl-Mega @ Aerodactylite
Ability: Tough Claws
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Stone Edge
- Fire Fang
- Ice Fang
- Pursuit
doge (Stoutland) @ Choice Band
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Return
- Facade
- Superpower
- Crunch
sand (Hippowdon) @ Smooth Rock
Ability: Sand Stream
EVs: 236 HP / 16 Def / 252 SpD / 4 Spe
Impish Nature
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock
- Whirlwind
- Slack Off
Celebi @ Groundium Z
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Nasty Plot
- Psychic
- Giga Drain
- Earth Power
Lucario @ Life Orb
Ability: Steadfast
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Aura Sphere
- Flash Cannon
- Vacuum Wave
- Nasty Plot
Here’s an offense team I built a few months back when I wanted to use Stoutland in sand. I think it sums up my playstyle and teambuilding quite well. Balls out offense with a pivot/sand setter, featuring a few uncommon and unusual Pokemons that few ever take into account when building. This team did really well back when I was using it, getting me reqs for Breloom/Buzzswole as well as battling with Pif over rank 1 for a few days. But with Breloom now in the tier, it’s not quite as good, but still a strong and versatile team nonetheless.
Stoutland is extremely underrated mon at the moment, CB return is no joke, it 2HKOs offensive Scizor after rocks! Mega-Aero is to help get rid of them pesky ghost types with Pursuit. In sand, it can pretty much guarantee a kill on the likes of Gengar and Chandelure. NP Celebi + NP Lucario are both incredibly anti-meta, destroying most common stall cores out there and can put huge dents in more offensive orientated teams. Aero helps a ton since it beats Latias pretty reliably in sand as well. And Azumarill is just good lol, good typing and precious water priority.
As someone who's already achieved a steady pace on the ladder, is there any advice you would give to newer players in terms of playing and building for the ladder or suspect tests, or even competing in room tournaments as a casual player, etc?
I see way too many newer players outright forfeiting just because they’re a bit behind in a game. Call me old fashioned but giving up is just not the right way to improve, and this applies to just about everything in life as well. Challenge yourself to turn the game around despite the odds. If you lose then take that as an opportunity to reflect on your mistakes, whether it’s because you played sub-optimally or if you need to improve your team.
Stop playing victim and blaming losses on hax. There must have been something that could have been done differently to avoid arriving at the scenario where hax would determine the outcome of a game. Hax is an integral part of the game and it’s also part of the fun, so just embrace it.
As the kind of person that never reads instructions when assembling furnitures and enjoy the stumbling around, I would recommend new players to experiment building their own teams rather than using existing teams. Trial and error is probably the most fun and effective way of getting better at something.
Finally, who are some of your favourite people in the UU Room?
I’m quite close with a lot of the regulars in the UU room, but a few people do stand out. I think my most absolute favouritest person is Watfor. I’ve known him for almost as long as I’ve been playing (6 years!!). Great lad, sarcastic and dark sense of humour, so there’s plenty of banters in the PMs. Really trustworthy so I talk about IRL stuff with him quite a bit. I also really enjoy Pif’s company, he’s not afraid to make fun of himself so I really like that about him. Simply put, in my native Kiwi tongue, they’re both good cunts. Other people I also really like are some of my older friends like Meowiekins, Luna Bae, Rowdog, GrilledClawitzer, Lixx, Kreme and Cyndequil. No offense to anyone I’ve missed out, there’s just way too many of you for me to name.