Project NU Player of the Month - banks (July)

Yoshi

IT'S FINK DUMBASS

banks
Favorite Pokémon:
Gothitelle or Meganium
Most used Pokémon: Steelix
Most known for: contributing to nu, i guess i was in snake l0l
Yoshi: Hi Banks, how are you doing today?
banks: I'm pretty good yeah, it's been really humid recently which I'm not used to so it's nice to go out and not be windy. How about you?
Yoshi: I'm doing great, thanks for asking!

Yoshi: A lot of people know you mainly as your Smogon persona, and you oftentimes tend to keep to yourself about your real life interests and routines (besides your music taste). What have you been up to in the real world?
banks: I turned 16 about a week ago and i live rather up north in Scotland, so I guess I'm not up too to much. My hobbies outside of my love for music would roughly include swimming training (open water too), arthouse film (just saw 'in fabric', would recommend), runway shows and photography. I've actually been travelling a lot recently which isn't exactly a commonality for our family, I was in Turkey with my mum late June and was in London with my dad a day after my birthday.

Yoshi: NU very recently banned Vileplume, which was considered to be a fantastic move by most, making NU the best lower tier. Do you agree with the claim that NU is the best lower tier? What changes, if any, would you make to the current meta?
banks: It's all very subjective, It's fair to say each tier has their flaws naturally by circumstance, such as UU being affected by the most active ladder on sim and PU not having as much to work with. However, RU is probably my favourite tier as of now. NU definitely needs some work or changes with the whole Passimian / Poison / fat Water cycle. As for proper changes, I don't know. I don't think anything is inherently broken currently, I guess we just wait for the next batch of shifts and hope something decent happens, because the tier can get pretty boring after a certain amount of games.

Yoshi: NUPL recently ended, and this was your first year managing. How was that experience? Do you feel that you were an effective manager?
banks: Ah, NUPL lol - Going into it I for sure had a decent amount of confidence, with my RUPL team being number one seed at the team. Fortunately, I can't say truthfully I regret any of my buys, as even though some may have underperformed in comparison to their skill level, I had roster which I liked and it was a very efficient environment we had until 2 of my players got banned and we gradually stopped caring.

Yoshi: Currently, there is a lot of discussion on past gen lower tiers, specifically with lower tiers that were created after the generation ended (such as BW PU). What is your favorite old gen NU meta and why?
banks: ORAS. I only really started playing at the very end of oras / start of sm when ou ladder was on its first days and all the gen 6 lower tier ladders still existed, so SM was really my first NU experience, and ironically I played pretty much everything (literally) except PU until settling for a while in NU. There's a lot of room for viable creativity, which unlike some other oldgens, keeps stuff new pretty much every year. On a more illogical side, I also just really like the mons in the tier.

Yoshi: who do u fuckin hate in smogon. whos the shittiest player uve played.
banks: Despite what people may perceive of me, I don't actually hate anyone bar the odd 3-4 users, and for much more serious reasons rather than I find them distasteful. Idk everyone can get good at this game, but there is some people I'm just really confused when I watch them play. Will not be naming names as this is a toxicity free tier.

Yoshi: Finally, could you share one of your favorite NU teams (from any generation) and provide a brief description?
banks:
Sure! I made this relatively soon after Vileplume got banned, and I started noticing an influx in usage of Pangoro, which was annoying cause it kept killing my mons. So I decided to try and make a team with it after a failed attempt beforehand - went with Iron Fist chople as being able to bypass Passimian seemed desirable and it has payed off pretty well. Went with Sceptile as a partner for a few reasons; lo eq being able to surprise unsuspecting Garbodors was attractive for a partner. Goro being able to Knock stuff like Bat was also nice. Rhydon as rocker to patch up Fire and Flying weakness. It was actually eternally who showed me this sigi set before, and I never really saw the appeal cause at the time lo and specs sigi were everywhere, but with the loss of Slowbro and Vileplume and the increased usage of Slowking and suit Aeros, this set actually looked really cool, and it has allowed me to just 6-0 so many teams with this set, it's great. Originally I had something like Bat but the first 3 mons were pretty fast paced and I wanted tspikes later on. Garb for tspikes and additional Fighting counterplay. Toise as last because the team can get overwhelmed by Roar, as well as for hazard removal and just generally lacking a water as it was. The team can crumble to threats early game, and it's okay to lose mons, but more often than not It's quite easy to come back with stuff like Sigi and Goro late game.

Thanks for the interview banks! If you guys have any extra questions for banks, feel free to drop them in this thread! Also, if there is anyone you would like in particular to be interviewed for next month, feel free to shoot me a PM. Thanks guys :toast:!
 

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