approved by monotype forum mods
inspired by this and this
First of all I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to do this, I'm sure a lot of the community will be very interested to hear from the defending circuit champion. Would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?
Yeah sure! So, I'm Toadow, I'm french, I'm 22, turning 23 this year and I'm playing this game since 8 years now. I'm in college right now and outside of Pokemon, in terms of game, I'm a big fan of Mario Kart, Smash, Persona and recently the Ace Attorney series. And outside of games, I'm a huge fan of motor racing, especially formula 1. I used to race in go-karting in the past but unfortunately, I had to stop but it's still a thing that I like a lot.
You have a great taste in games lol. Formula 1 has always been interesting to me, but I've never been able to really get into it. How did you first get involved in Monotype?
Honestly, it's really been a while, I think it was in the end of 2016 but I'm not sure. But I tried to remember, I think I saw someone playing Raticate on a video, I would guess it was Fildrong but I'm not sure. And I found this set cool so I thought that I should try it and I don't know why, I decided that I would try this set in Monotype. I think I was already using Raticate in ORAS but I found a replay, it was in 2017 so I don't know if I started to play Monotype in 2017 or before but I just know that I used to ladd with Raticate at this time and seems like it wasn't really good: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-541174322. And next, I tried to build a team with Pikachu, the team was not that bad but at this time, yeah I was just having fun in the tier, I think I didn't know about Smogon until summer 2017 and it was only for OLT IV but when I started to really use this site, it was in Little Cup, precisely, spring seasonal 2018. At this time, I was still playing in Monotype, just not on Smogon. The first time that I played a Smogon tournament game in monotype was during MPL in 2019.
Thats pretty funny actually, it's amazing that you have the replay (and that it even works lol). What is your favorite Pokemon / favorite Pokemon to battle with?
Oh so my favorite Pokemon... back in the day, it was Infernape because my first game was Platinum and I was just a huge fan. Now, I still like Infernape but I don't think I would say it's my favorite Pokemon now. It's hard to choose but right now, I would say that Meloetta is my favorite Pokemon. I really like the design, the concept behind the Pokemon and also Relic Song is such a good OST... my favorite Pokemon to battle with, I'm gonna say in general... I think it's Darmanitan-Galar. I already had a lot of fun in the past with Darmanitan but now, the Galar one is just so strong for no reason and I don't see a situation where I'm not having fun playing Darmanitan-Galar or just thinking that this Pokemon is useless. But in this gen, I will give a huge point to Iron Moth, I played a lot in BSS at the start of the gen and I had a lot of fun with Iron Moth during series 2 and 3. (royal comment: Toadow asked to have his sprite be Jigglypuff because its his main in smash).
I can definitely relate to you on your first pokemon being one of your favorites, Swampert is still my favorite to this day. I quite like Meloetta too, the relic song is really good as you said and I really like using Meloetta in battle, but it's a shame it isnt the strongest. If you were the tier leader for one day, would you ban / unban anything?
"It was a fun year, we had fun playing gen9 with some Pokemon we never expect that could ever exist before. But it's about time to get serious and just kick out Chien Pao, Flutter Mane and Kingambit of this tier and we will see what we have to do next." -Toadow, tier leader for one day (probably). But seriously, I think it's hard for the tier leader/council to make some choices because there will always be some peoples that are not happy with the decision, they will never be able to satisfy the expectation of everyone. So the only thing I can do as a player is to watch how the tier changes and to respect the decisions they are making. Now, you wanna know what I would do as the tier leader for one day and I would just ban Chien Pao, Kingambit and Flutter Mane, they can always win a game for no reason, it's just absurd.
Haha, I could definitely get on board with banning those. I'd be very happy to see Chien-Pao go, and it would be interested to see what a metagame without Kingambit looks like. Flutter Mane I'm not so quick to ban but I can definitely understand. It is tough for the tier leaders and council to approach tiering decision, much like how Gouging Fire was #1 on the survey and stayed via suspect, while Baxcalibur was #2 and went via suspect. Do you have a favorite playstyle in Monotype? Is there a certain team that you think embodies your style of play best?
Well, honestly, I can play pretty much anything except hard stall because it's just not compatible with my playstyle. In general, I will watch the MU, try to think of what I wanna do, which Pokemon is my wincon, what could be annoying during the game and how I can avoid that. When the game starts, I will just try to pressure my opponent enough that he will make one mistake and instant punish this mistake. Once he made this mistake, I will keep the pressure on, trying to think of "ok now he's feeling unsafe, how he's gonna try to comeback from this situation". Of course, at this point, I need to think about the habits of my opponent, if he's the type of people who loves to do switch/double switch, if they will only switch if they really need to but will try to predict what I'm gonna do or just if they don't wanna take risk and are doing the "safe move" every turn. And my aim is to force the opp to do more and more mistakes until that I think I can put my wincon on the field and just win the game. So I think the best style for me would be Bulky Offense.
https://pokepast.es/0fcea3453ca647e9 probably this type of team, I had a lot of fun with this team in dlc 1. Just one thing, it's not my build, this is probably Cielau who built this team, shout out to Cielau! Also, it's not really a playstyle but I love using Dragon, I don't know why but it's the case since gen7. But since dlc 2, even if I love this type, it's just too strong that I'm not really having fun when I win with this type.
That's an incredibly smart way to approach the game. I've fought this team (presumably you) on ladder several times and I can say firsthand that each turn against you is extremely critical. The games are winnable but you definitely make me work for it, the pressure you apply is very impressive and its no wonder how you were able to win the circuit. Speaking of, do you have a favorite moment playing Monotype?
My favorite moment playing Monotype... in terms of period, I would say during the last year of gen8. At this time, I started to play way less in LC because I was not really having fun anymore with the gen and with that, I started to play way more in Monotype, the only tier where I was having fun. But there is a reason of why I was having fun... Dragon, again. I just had way too much fun with Dragon at the time. And I think it was during the last seasonal, at this time I was watching Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's and the lore is really focused around dragons in general. So when I had to play and I wanted to use dragon, before that the game starts, I went on Youtube, chose an OST from YGO 5D's and each time, it felt like a power-up, sometimes I was playing and just everything was going my way, I thought I was the protagonist! It feels so epic to me that I was just having way too much fun. But as a competitor, I would say it was beating trichotomy twice and with that, winning my first Monotype Tournament. To be honest, at the start of 2023, I didn't think I would try to qualify for the circuit, I thought I would just play when I wanna have fun because I knew how good I am and I thought I did everything I wanna do in this game. At least, it's what I thought until MPL. During MPL, in semi, I faced tricho and of course, no one thought I would be able to beat him but I knew that I could. And the game happened. And I lost. But it's not just a lose, it feels like I could do everything I wanted, it was just impossible for me to win. And I didn't really accept this lose so at this moment, I decided that I will do my best to play against him and that I will never lose an other set to him in 2023. At this time, it was more than have a win against tricho in 2023. It was to prove to myself that I can beat the guy who everyone consider to be the current best player in the tier. This is the only reason of why I tried so hard to do well during the Fall Seasonal. Sometimes, I didn't really wanna play but I kept in mind that I would not lose until I faced and beat tricho And this is how I made it to Winner Final in Fall Seasonal. Against trichotomy. The only reason of why I did my best and that I'm still in this tour. We played the set and I won. Then he will comeback from the loser side and I won again. And like that, I won my first solo tournament in Monotype. But for me, I was not satisfied... and it's not that I wanna sound arrogant but I felt like he didn't try his best. The first set, he played fighting 3 times in a row and he started the second set with Fighting again. I didn't ask him because I will not see the guy I beat to win a tourney just after we played and ask if he was serious or not. So I was happy but still not satisfied. The only solution I had was to play him again during the circuit. If I win at this moment, it means that it was not just a one time moment, that I have what it takes to do it. And so this is what I did, I had to beat Crashy and Chait before but it was what I have to do if I wanna face tricho. This time, I asked mushamu if he can help me to build for this set, shout out to mushamu, he's the goat. And like that, I did take the win against trichotomy in semi final of the Circuit. And for this story, even if I didn't really have fun like in 2022 with Dragon in gen8monotype, as a competitor, it was really cool to aim for the top and see that I can do it, I can beat the best players of the tier, players that I respect a lot. And this is the great part, it's not a toxic environment, when we are playing against each other, we are opponent but after that, it's friendly, everyone respects each other and this is what I like as a competitor, a good rivalry.
I'll be honest, I was fully expecting to see Trichotomy go back to back on circuit championships after seeing how he approaches the game in MPL. Once I saw that you and he were matched up in the semis of circuit, I knew it would be a great set and definitely not one to mark as an auto win for him. I knew if anyone could beat him, it could be you, based on your wins against him in the seasonal. Do you have any advice you'd give to newer, less experienced players who want to some day have a Monotype ribbon of their own?
So, of course it will be hard, it's really not easy and you will need to dedicate a good amount of time if you wanna aim to the top. And even at the top, it doesn't mean you will success. You need to learn the game and for that, you need to see what is the best for you : if it's better for you to theorize the game or just you have to play the game a lot. You need to do both anyway but prioritize the one that is the best for you. You need to watch some games, prioritize your games, we don't really care if you win or lose, it's even better if it's a lose. Try to see why a play worked, why you won this game or why you lost. But you also have to see why your opponent won/lost the game, what he did wrong against this team. The best thing would be that you can talk about the game with your opponent, asked him some advices of what you could have done better, why did he choose this team against you. And at the end of the day, you will be able to recognize a lot of situations you played in the past and it will help you to have a better idea of the risk/reward you will face during your games. And also, you need to study a lot the meta, see what is good, what is not good. It's really easy to lose a game because you didn't know a Pokemon could be used in a certain way so just take as much data as you can in a way that you will not be able to say that you lost because you didn't know this Pokemon was a thing. And if you have a really good knowledge of the tier, you can start to build in it. You can start before but it can be harder if you don't really have a good idea of the meta. So start with a sample team of a top tier type and when you feel ready, you can start to build on your own. It's a good thing to know how to build because it's easier to understand how it is supposed to work (because you made it). And with that, you are good to go. But that doesn't mean you will quickly see the result, everyone is different, some people will learn faster than the others and it's okay. If you wanna win some tourneys, you need to aim for the top, it's okay if you don't perform directly or after 1 or 2 years, you are not the only one aiming for the win. But if it's really what you want, don't give up, learn from your loses and comeback stronger. And don't try to find an excuse when you lost, it's not a good mentality. Pokemon is a game luck-based and you can lose on that for sure but maybe you could avoid that, it's possible that you miss a easier path. But most importantly, don't force yourself, in the end, it's still a game so if you are not having fun playing anymore, just take a break, you will not progress if you don't have fun and you will really hate losing, it will just be counterproductive for you.
That's really great advice. I think something super important that you said that is competing is a marathon, not a sprint. It's important to keep going even if you don't see results at first. That's all the questions I've got for you. I want to thank you for your time (sorry it took so long and I've probably kept you up quite late) and your extremely dilligent answers, it's been an honor getting to know you and I'm sure that the readers will feel the same! Do you have any closing thoughts, anyone you'd like to give a shoutout to?
Thank you for the interview, it's been a great one and it's good to talk about this last year, this is something I wanted to do after the final of the circuit but I thought I would just be fast and not talk about me at this moment. It's been a journey, it's at least what I can tell, since 6 years I'm playing competitive Pokemon and I didn't think I would end up here, not that I thought I didn't have the level but I didn't think I would have the endurance to close it out, generally after a certain point, I just want to be out of a tournament because it takes too much time. The more the years passed, the more it was the case. And when I lost in final of LC Circuit 2021 against Acehunter, I think I would never try to win a Circuit again, it's just too much time and work. But here I am. So now, I will try to take a break, not a real break but I will just play where I wanna play and trying to enjoy it but I'm not really focusing on competing in Pokemon for now. I will try to focus more on getting good at Smash or getting back on some timetrial in Mario Kart, it's been a while I didn't make that and I really wanna grind again. And yeah I wanna give a shoutout to Gelbel and Hurtadoo, two great friends who also helped me during this journey and shoutout to everyone who support me during the playoff!
~~~
inspired by this and this
First of all I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to do this, I'm sure a lot of the community will be very interested to hear from the defending circuit champion. Would you mind telling us a bit about yourself? Yeah sure! So, I'm Toadow, I'm french, I'm 22, turning 23 this year and I'm playing this game since 8 years now. I'm in college right now and outside of Pokemon, in terms of game, I'm a big fan of Mario Kart, Smash, Persona and recently the Ace Attorney series. And outside of games, I'm a huge fan of motor racing, especially formula 1. I used to race in go-karting in the past but unfortunately, I had to stop but it's still a thing that I like a lot. You have a great taste in games lol. Formula 1 has always been interesting to me, but I've never been able to really get into it. How did you first get involved in Monotype? Honestly, it's really been a while, I think it was in the end of 2016 but I'm not sure. But I tried to remember, I think I saw someone playing Raticate on a video, I would guess it was Fildrong but I'm not sure. And I found this set cool so I thought that I should try it and I don't know why, I decided that I would try this set in Monotype. I think I was already using Raticate in ORAS but I found a replay, it was in 2017 so I don't know if I started to play Monotype in 2017 or before but I just know that I used to ladd with Raticate at this time and seems like it wasn't really good: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7monotype-541174322. And next, I tried to build a team with Pikachu, the team was not that bad but at this time, yeah I was just having fun in the tier, I think I didn't know about Smogon until summer 2017 and it was only for OLT IV but when I started to really use this site, it was in Little Cup, precisely, spring seasonal 2018. At this time, I was still playing in Monotype, just not on Smogon. The first time that I played a Smogon tournament game in monotype was during MPL in 2019. Thats pretty funny actually, it's amazing that you have the replay (and that it even works lol). What is your favorite Pokemon / favorite Pokemon to battle with? Oh so my favorite Pokemon... back in the day, it was Infernape because my first game was Platinum and I was just a huge fan. Now, I still like Infernape but I don't think I would say it's my favorite Pokemon now. It's hard to choose but right now, I would say that Meloetta is my favorite Pokemon. I really like the design, the concept behind the Pokemon and also Relic Song is such a good OST... my favorite Pokemon to battle with, I'm gonna say in general... I think it's Darmanitan-Galar. I already had a lot of fun in the past with Darmanitan but now, the Galar one is just so strong for no reason and I don't see a situation where I'm not having fun playing Darmanitan-Galar or just thinking that this Pokemon is useless. But in this gen, I will give a huge point to Iron Moth, I played a lot in BSS at the start of the gen and I had a lot of fun with Iron Moth during series 2 and 3. (royal comment: Toadow asked to have his sprite be Jigglypuff because its his main in smash). I can definitely relate to you on your first pokemon being one of your favorites, Swampert is still my favorite to this day. I quite like Meloetta too, the relic song is really good as you said and I really like using Meloetta in battle, but it's a shame it isnt the strongest. If you were the tier leader for one day, would you ban / unban anything? "It was a fun year, we had fun playing gen9 with some Pokemon we never expect that could ever exist before. But it's about time to get serious and just kick out Chien Pao, Flutter Mane and Kingambit of this tier and we will see what we have to do next." -Toadow, tier leader for one day (probably). But seriously, I think it's hard for the tier leader/council to make some choices because there will always be some peoples that are not happy with the decision, they will never be able to satisfy the expectation of everyone. So the only thing I can do as a player is to watch how the tier changes and to respect the decisions they are making. Now, you wanna know what I would do as the tier leader for one day and I would just ban Chien Pao, Kingambit and Flutter Mane, they can always win a game for no reason, it's just absurd. Haha, I could definitely get on board with banning those. I'd be very happy to see Chien-Pao go, and it would be interested to see what a metagame without Kingambit looks like. Flutter Mane I'm not so quick to ban but I can definitely understand. It is tough for the tier leaders and council to approach tiering decision, much like how Gouging Fire was #1 on the survey and stayed via suspect, while Baxcalibur was #2 and went via suspect. Do you have a favorite playstyle in Monotype? Is there a certain team that you think embodies your style of play best? Well, honestly, I can play pretty much anything except hard stall because it's just not compatible with my playstyle. In general, I will watch the MU, try to think of what I wanna do, which Pokemon is my wincon, what could be annoying during the game and how I can avoid that. When the game starts, I will just try to pressure my opponent enough that he will make one mistake and instant punish this mistake. Once he made this mistake, I will keep the pressure on, trying to think of "ok now he's feeling unsafe, how he's gonna try to comeback from this situation". Of course, at this point, I need to think about the habits of my opponent, if he's the type of people who loves to do switch/double switch, if they will only switch if they really need to but will try to predict what I'm gonna do or just if they don't wanna take risk and are doing the "safe move" every turn. And my aim is to force the opp to do more and more mistakes until that I think I can put my wincon on the field and just win the game. So I think the best style for me would be Bulky Offense.https://pokepast.es/0fcea3453ca647e9 probably this type of team, I had a lot of fun with this team in dlc 1. Just one thing, it's not my build, this is probably Cielau who built this team, shout out to Cielau! Also, it's not really a playstyle but I love using Dragon, I don't know why but it's the case since gen7. But since dlc 2, even if I love this type, it's just too strong that I'm not really having fun when I win with this type.
That's an incredibly smart way to approach the game. I've fought this team (presumably you) on ladder several times and I can say firsthand that each turn against you is extremely critical. The games are winnable but you definitely make me work for it, the pressure you apply is very impressive and its no wonder how you were able to win the circuit. Speaking of, do you have a favorite moment playing Monotype? My favorite moment playing Monotype... in terms of period, I would say during the last year of gen8. At this time, I started to play way less in LC because I was not really having fun anymore with the gen and with that, I started to play way more in Monotype, the only tier where I was having fun. But there is a reason of why I was having fun... Dragon, again. I just had way too much fun with Dragon at the time. And I think it was during the last seasonal, at this time I was watching Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's and the lore is really focused around dragons in general. So when I had to play and I wanted to use dragon, before that the game starts, I went on Youtube, chose an OST from YGO 5D's and each time, it felt like a power-up, sometimes I was playing and just everything was going my way, I thought I was the protagonist! It feels so epic to me that I was just having way too much fun. But as a competitor, I would say it was beating trichotomy twice and with that, winning my first Monotype Tournament. To be honest, at the start of 2023, I didn't think I would try to qualify for the circuit, I thought I would just play when I wanna have fun because I knew how good I am and I thought I did everything I wanna do in this game. At least, it's what I thought until MPL. During MPL, in semi, I faced tricho and of course, no one thought I would be able to beat him but I knew that I could. And the game happened. And I lost. But it's not just a lose, it feels like I could do everything I wanted, it was just impossible for me to win. And I didn't really accept this lose so at this moment, I decided that I will do my best to play against him and that I will never lose an other set to him in 2023. At this time, it was more than have a win against tricho in 2023. It was to prove to myself that I can beat the guy who everyone consider to be the current best player in the tier. This is the only reason of why I tried so hard to do well during the Fall Seasonal. Sometimes, I didn't really wanna play but I kept in mind that I would not lose until I faced and beat tricho And this is how I made it to Winner Final in Fall Seasonal. Against trichotomy. The only reason of why I did my best and that I'm still in this tour. We played the set and I won. Then he will comeback from the loser side and I won again. And like that, I won my first solo tournament in Monotype. But for me, I was not satisfied... and it's not that I wanna sound arrogant but I felt like he didn't try his best. The first set, he played fighting 3 times in a row and he started the second set with Fighting again. I didn't ask him because I will not see the guy I beat to win a tourney just after we played and ask if he was serious or not. So I was happy but still not satisfied. The only solution I had was to play him again during the circuit. If I win at this moment, it means that it was not just a one time moment, that I have what it takes to do it. And so this is what I did, I had to beat Crashy and Chait before but it was what I have to do if I wanna face tricho. This time, I asked mushamu if he can help me to build for this set, shout out to mushamu, he's the goat. And like that, I did take the win against trichotomy in semi final of the Circuit. And for this story, even if I didn't really have fun like in 2022 with Dragon in gen8monotype, as a competitor, it was really cool to aim for the top and see that I can do it, I can beat the best players of the tier, players that I respect a lot. And this is the great part, it's not a toxic environment, when we are playing against each other, we are opponent but after that, it's friendly, everyone respects each other and this is what I like as a competitor, a good rivalry. I'll be honest, I was fully expecting to see Trichotomy go back to back on circuit championships after seeing how he approaches the game in MPL. Once I saw that you and he were matched up in the semis of circuit, I knew it would be a great set and definitely not one to mark as an auto win for him. I knew if anyone could beat him, it could be you, based on your wins against him in the seasonal. Do you have any advice you'd give to newer, less experienced players who want to some day have a Monotype ribbon of their own? So, of course it will be hard, it's really not easy and you will need to dedicate a good amount of time if you wanna aim to the top. And even at the top, it doesn't mean you will success. You need to learn the game and for that, you need to see what is the best for you : if it's better for you to theorize the game or just you have to play the game a lot. You need to do both anyway but prioritize the one that is the best for you. You need to watch some games, prioritize your games, we don't really care if you win or lose, it's even better if it's a lose. Try to see why a play worked, why you won this game or why you lost. But you also have to see why your opponent won/lost the game, what he did wrong against this team. The best thing would be that you can talk about the game with your opponent, asked him some advices of what you could have done better, why did he choose this team against you. And at the end of the day, you will be able to recognize a lot of situations you played in the past and it will help you to have a better idea of the risk/reward you will face during your games. And also, you need to study a lot the meta, see what is good, what is not good. It's really easy to lose a game because you didn't know a Pokemon could be used in a certain way so just take as much data as you can in a way that you will not be able to say that you lost because you didn't know this Pokemon was a thing. And if you have a really good knowledge of the tier, you can start to build in it. You can start before but it can be harder if you don't really have a good idea of the meta. So start with a sample team of a top tier type and when you feel ready, you can start to build on your own. It's a good thing to know how to build because it's easier to understand how it is supposed to work (because you made it). And with that, you are good to go. But that doesn't mean you will quickly see the result, everyone is different, some people will learn faster than the others and it's okay. If you wanna win some tourneys, you need to aim for the top, it's okay if you don't perform directly or after 1 or 2 years, you are not the only one aiming for the win. But if it's really what you want, don't give up, learn from your loses and comeback stronger. And don't try to find an excuse when you lost, it's not a good mentality. Pokemon is a game luck-based and you can lose on that for sure but maybe you could avoid that, it's possible that you miss a easier path. But most importantly, don't force yourself, in the end, it's still a game so if you are not having fun playing anymore, just take a break, you will not progress if you don't have fun and you will really hate losing, it will just be counterproductive for you. That's really great advice. I think something super important that you said that is competing is a marathon, not a sprint. It's important to keep going even if you don't see results at first. That's all the questions I've got for you. I want to thank you for your time (sorry it took so long and I've probably kept you up quite late) and your extremely dilligent answers, it's been an honor getting to know you and I'm sure that the readers will feel the same! Do you have any closing thoughts, anyone you'd like to give a shoutout to? Thank you for the interview, it's been a great one and it's good to talk about this last year, this is something I wanted to do after the final of the circuit but I thought I would just be fast and not talk about me at this moment. It's been a journey, it's at least what I can tell, since 6 years I'm playing competitive Pokemon and I didn't think I would end up here, not that I thought I didn't have the level but I didn't think I would have the endurance to close it out, generally after a certain point, I just want to be out of a tournament because it takes too much time. The more the years passed, the more it was the case. And when I lost in final of LC Circuit 2021 against Acehunter, I think I would never try to win a Circuit again, it's just too much time and work. But here I am. So now, I will try to take a break, not a real break but I will just play where I wanna play and trying to enjoy it but I'm not really focusing on competing in Pokemon for now. I will try to focus more on getting good at Smash or getting back on some timetrial in Mario Kart, it's been a while I didn't make that and I really wanna grind again. And yeah I wanna give a shoutout to Gelbel and Hurtadoo, two great friends who also helped me during this journey and shoutout to everyone who support me during the playoff!~~~
This thread will remain open in case anyone would like to ask Toadow any further questions. If you have an idea for who you would like to be interviewed next, please don't hesitate to let me know!
Last edited:
