Approved by UU Moderation / Amazing Art by Moutemoute
Hello and welcome to.. "Player Interview"! This project will allow you to discover or re-discover some well known players of the UU community. This time around we will be focusing mainly on important contributors to the forums such as Tier Leaders, Forum Moderators, Community Contributors, and Council Members. Let me first say that I am honored to be following in the footsteps of an esteemed and accomplished list of interviewers: Moutemoute, Feliburn, Kink, and Cynde. Thank you are very much for your work!
Hold on there just a second! You are reading the first ever author's note for these interviews. Huzzah! I have taken a break from the normal list of interviewees to interview a special person. I will be doing this periodically throughout this project. Note that these interviews will be conducted in a different format for more humorous purposes. As this is Chris Wanka, reader discretion is advised. Please do not be foolish... go grab some snacks for this one.
Who are you?
Hello! My name is Chris, but most people know me on smogon/PS as just Wanka. I am a 22 year old business student currently attending Millersville University. I used to go to a private college called Arcadia University closer to Philadelphia, but due to different motives and COVID I decided to chalk my private education and save some money while hoping to make school a bit easier on myself as well. Video games are generally my life and even though Pokemon has probably been my longest standing game that I've played, I do think my heart lies with first person shooters. I have not had a console in a few years, but as my life is starting to turn around and I get better at managing my time, I see myself getting heavily involved back into shooters and ultimately starting a streaming career once I make it through school completely and find a job. I also just genuinely love playing and talking about sports. Futbol/soccer is my favorite, but I'm pretty good with just about any sport you wanna talk about. I have also been converted into a weeb over the past year or so and have really enjoyed watching through shows like HunterxHunter, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, MHA, and I'm currently shitting my pants watching Castlevania.
You named yourself Wanka. I will allow people to use urban dictionary at their own discretion. What is the thought process behind that decision?
Originally, my first name on PS and smogon was OG_Wanka. If im keepin it a buck, there was no real motive tbh I think my 16 year old self was just really obssessed with British humor and "Original Wanka" was likely something that I thought sounded hard and comical. Eventually just embraced it and after a cringy "iWanka" stage, I settled for the simplicity of just wanka.
Do you think you are a hero or a villain?
Interesting question, but I think I can answer it without confusing too many people. I'd say in the eyes of the people that matter most on smogon.com, I'm more or less a villain due to my tendencies to lash out and speak my mind and call shit how I see it. I'd be a fool however if I said that everything I say is right though, and there have been many occasions where I've stepped out of line or misinterpreted shit that just is not true at all. I'm fine with this though, because there's have also been a lot of times where I've had the courage to speak my mind and have been applauded for doing so. The most recent example I have would quite literally be posting about Old gens tiering policy. My post as a whole was pretty animated, but I think I made a lot of valid points and hopefully played a role in helping push that policy out. In short, villain most of the time, hero when I need to be.
Who knew Wanka could be so poetic. I am in tears. What is the Chris Wanka origin story?
I wouldn't say there's really an origin to the name itself, I've known Pak for virtually my entire existence on smogon and as we became close friends and I shared a lot of my life with him and other close friends, he started to just call me Chris Wanka. You'd likely get a better response from him, but it does flow off the tongue quite nicely I will admit.
Top 3 Wanka plays?
Christ, hard to know over a 6 year span, but I'd say these were some that made the people watching nut the most.
1 See turn 2
2 See turn 1, and turn 8
3 See turn 8 (I was toxic about losing the week as a team leave me alone)
Top 3 Wanka moments?
1. Not knowing that GMT +10 is a real timezone
2. Thinking roro was a king UU alt instead of McMeghan
3. Utilizing vegetables and desert items as weaponry for sword fighting.
4. Dracoing florges ig even though I put it in top plays LOL, id say it qualifies as both even thought this is 4. Ramo (5-2 in UUPL) once told me he thought it was a fire play so I'm including it in plays.
LOL. Your UU Discord nickname is ass waxer. Explain?
Somewhat recently PS obviously added the new Free For All mode that you can play with your friends. (Best shit that's ever happened to PS btw.) I may or may not have gotten carried away on one of vivalosprides youtube videos and informed the entire UU community that I would wax their ass (TL included) in a game of free for all if they so choose. Unfortunately this statement has caused me to become a target in said game mode and I've taken several 4th place finishes since this video was released.
Well I'd say it is commendable to wear your L's on your sleeves. I take you for a power hungry and ambitious fellow. If you robbed Carson of his TL position, what is the first thing that you would do?
Can't say I don't understand why anyone would think that, but I'm ngl it's quite the opposite. A lot of the shit I say and do in relation to smogon is always against the grain at this point and is more or less a fuck you to anyone that has too much power in my eyes. However, In a world where I did want to become UUTL and was somehow able to usurp Tommy Dick Kicker, I would likely fucking ban your ass first drew. And then probably ban light clay.
Sorry for having the wrong impression. Also, rude! I agree with light clay though. For a time you were Monotype TL. Why?
Suck my nuts LOL. Valid question nonetheless, contrary to what some of the UU community who doesn't know me as well may think, I was actually even more of a shithead in this community than I am now. UU was the first community I stuck with, but I made a lot of mistakes when I was getting into PS and smogon for the first couple years. I felt like I didn't really have great standing even though I was staff, so when Arifeen introduced me to monotype and told me I was good at it, I fucking ran with that shit pretty fast. I was able to build myself up as one of the best ORAS players at the time and when a council spot opened up around the early parts of SM, I got called upon to help. After that, I knew if I really put a lot of effort into understanding tiering and became the most active council member, then I had a shot to lead. And I did everything I just mentioned except that when Eien (former mono TL) had asked me to Co Lead with him, I was about ready to quit pokemon because I was doing poorly in school. I wouldn't say I regret the decision to say yes because I love the monotype community and nothing has made me happier on smogon than seeing how much we've grown over the past few years, but it really did cause me a lot of irl issues. I lasted about 6 months and decided I just needed to step away from everything and fix myself. I think my situation is a prime example of hard work on smogon actually getting you places, but sometimes the reward or as the kids like to call it (clout) isn't as great as you thought it would be.
In response to the first sentence, no. There's a pretty profound lesson to be learned here which baffles me. Moving on, what’s the craziest thing you’ve done in real life?
Idk I grabbed a dudes dick once on purpose.
I--um... What is your technique as a swordsman?
Lettuce around the base, cone on the tip, lean back a bit and fucking Usain Bolt that bitch at your opponent.
Creative. Do you have any final remarks?
Not too much, I really was not expecting to get asked to do this because I'm not really as active in the community as I once was, but from the bottom of my heart I do appreciate this community a lot and the way everyone has treated me even if I don't know them as well. I don't think many communities have the same sense of humor this one does and everyone active in the discord is incredibly chill and makes for a nice environment. Even though I'm done trying to actually make a name for myself as a player anymore, I can literally play ORAS UU with my fucking eyes closed and probably still beat anybody you put me up against so to any future managers that don't want to spend 20k on pak or garay, I'll take a fat shit on the rest of the pool for half the price and likely do it in style. Thanks for having me Drew.
Thank you for being here!
