Approved by 5gen & S1nn0hC0nfirm3d | Amazing Art by Albatr0ss and butchered by me | Thread formatting stolen from Jett
(Interview Date: 05th of December, 2021)
Hey friends and welcome to ZU
TheFranklin!!
Favorite Pokémon:
(Seasonal and No Johns runner up, ZUPL Player for the Morpeek-a-boos)
Ditto used Transform!
Ditto transformed into Noctowl!
*Kacawww*
Hey Franklin, how are you today?
Hey czim, Im fine thank you. How are you?
I'm fine too, taking a couple weeks off from work so it's super chill! Thanks for asking! Welcome to ZU Player of the week! As usual, do you wanna tell us a bit about yourself outside of Pokemon?
Yes. My real name is Frank as you might have guessed. I'm 23 years old and I'm from the Netherlands. I'm currently doing my masters and I like to play football (soccer for the Americans)
To be honest I thought it was just because you liked that cartoon lol. I remember it from when I was a kid! Well, there's just one type of football, no need to explain to the handegg lovers what football is. So do you play football competitively or just for fun? Any teams you support?
Haha I agree completely about your football statement. I play football just for fun mostly. Currently playing in a team with old friends from high school, which is super fun. I'm a real fanatic Ajax supporter, pretty much go to all the home games.
Ah, that's cool! I am mostly a casual too! Ajax is a cool team, very traditional and sporadically has some good UCL appearances. What's the most memorable Ajax game you watched?
Pfoe that's a difficult question. I have honestly seen so many great games already over the past few years, but I think it has to be Real Madrid - Ajax 1-4 from the 18/19 UCL
That's a cool one. Were you in the stadium? Or just watching on TV?
I was watching that one on TV in a bar with friends
Thats nice, I am just curious because I want to watch an UCL game live eventually! Now onto your masters. What did you graduate in? What are you taking your masters on?
Would definitely recommend that. The atmosphere is amazing in the stadium. I graduated in physics and my current masters is on Climate Physics
Oh, we have a smart one here! What is Climate Physics? Is it like the most technical side of metereology? Ive got no clue lol
Yea that's a pretty good description you just gave. Although is also focusses a bit on climate change and its impacts
Ah, the more enviromental aspect aswell, that's cool! What made you choose your major and masters?
I've always been into physics tbh, so it made sense. For my masters I wanted something a bit less theoretical and more applied
I've always been a bit into physics myself and it is very theoretical indeed! What are your gaming interests outside of Pokemon?
Nothing too serious. Im playing World of Tanks when I feel like it. And I'm also into chess
I've heard of that one, is it like a FPS? Also we have a lot of ZU players who are into chess, could def have a ZU Chess tour at one point lol.
I wouldn't really call it a FPS game. And if it is then it is a really slow one for its genre. I would definitely be down for a ZU chess tour lol. Sounds fun
I'll take a look into that game after. I think its free on PS4. What kind of music do you like? Any favorite artists?
Idk whether it is free on PS4. I play on pc myself, and eventhough the games are alike they are not really compatible. My favorite artist is probably Imagine Dragons
Hm, I like Radioactive but i got annoyed of them really quickly lol. What kind of media do you usually watch? Any favorite movies/tv shows/youtube channels?
I used to watch a lot of tv, but ever since Im living on my own I don't really do that anymore. Though I do still watch a lot on netflix, currently watching Kastanjemanden, which is a pretty cool show. Also follow a lot of youtube channels. Basically about all my interests in pokemon/world of tanks and chess
I was watching that show as well but didnt finish it yet. Now let's change the topic a bit. How did you first get into PS/Smogon? How did you end up in our esteemed Zeroused metagame?
Think I'm around on ps for almost 6 years now. I first started out just playing random battles on the ladder, since I had no clue about competitive pokemon. Only really played in game before that. After a while I started playing tours in the tournaments room. I kept doing that and participated in their annual events blt and tlt every year. It was my good performances there that got me into RU and I slowly started participating in ssnls/rupl and other low tiers pls/ teamtours. My first introduction to the ZU metagame was the money tour from this year. It was the prizemoney that sparked my interest at first, but I liked the metagame and people in the community so I never really stopped playing after
That's cool, I'm glad we ended up having the tour and brought more people into the community. Are there any other formats you currently play outside of RU and ZU? What's your favorite metagame overall?
I never really stopped playing randbats. I like how chill easy and accesible it is. I play nu and pu from time to time, but only when i enjoy the current meta. My favorite meta is SM RU
I am really into randbats as it is something very quick/chill to play in small breaks. Let's get a bit more into SS ZU then. What are your thoughts on the current metagame? How do you feel on the reintroduction of snow warning?
I think snow warning is not per se problematic for the tier. The fast sweepers it enable like alola sandslash are not that easy to sweep with. However I think there are two snow warning mons in particular that are too much for the tier. I'm talking about abomasnow and the icecream. The extra hail chip and 100% accurate blizzards together with their movepool is almost not checkable, Giving a 50/50 on what it clicks at best.
That's a cool opinion on aboma. I think its a very slept on mon rn but it does have a strong movepool. It is definitely slower and has more abusable weaknesses than ice cream though. Like being weak to U-turn for example. What would you ban if you were the ZU dictator?
I think I would start with banning ice cream, water pulse + blizzard from specs is impossible to switch into and it's speed tier good enough to outspeed all defensive mons
I kinda share the same opinion. The other 2 are not as powerful/fast/versatile and would be a good chance to see what the core issue is. Since you play a lot of tiers and seem to be consistent on them, what advice would you give to players to get good in several different metagames? Any similarities between the formats?
I think you should be focussing on the playing aspect if you want to do good in different tiers. It is pretty impossible to know all the current metas trends in multiple tiers. As long as you have a decent idea of what is good and what certain mons do you should be good.
Yeah, that's fair. If you could drop one mon from RU/NU/PU to ZU. Which one would it be and why would you pick it? Just don't pick a super broken one lol
I think sandslash would be a cool addition to zu. Ground type and spinner in 1 and it wouldnt be too broken idt
Ye, either Sandslash or Claydol would make for interesting role compression in the tier. Volt blocker+spin is nice. Since you said you like SM RU, are you into other old gens? Any ZU old gens? SM ZU is very fun i swear
Im not really experienced in any other old tier, only played the last part of the SM meta active/on a good level. And current gen has always appealed to me more than learning an old gen. Though I have to say that SM zu sounds fun
Cool to hear! Bit of a whack question lol, but I have to ask it for the memes. Since you're on the field, is global warming/climate change a hoax by the chinese?
Hahaha, I wish that was true, but unfortunately it is real
So are you telling me that the group on facebook lied to me??? That's unfortunate! Do you have a team you'd like to share with us? Add a description if u can
Here is a team I used for zu circuit r1. It has a lot of flaws, but it's a fun ho
Ah, that's really cool! I've been meaning to use Cursola for a while because its SpA is huge. We are starting to wrap this up so, is there anything you wanna say? Anyone you want to shout out?
Oh yes! Shoutout morpeko cord, really cool team
Think this wraps the interview then. Hope you had fun being on player of the week! Thanks for letting me interview you!
Yes was fun to do, looking forward to the article! And to our match next week of course
Feel free to ask TheFranklin any questions you want!
