Welcome to the Random Battles Community Interview! The goal of this project is to interview well-known members of the Randbats community every month and learn more about them. These members may include players who’ve been successful in tournaments, high-ladderers, format/forum contributors, and more!
Without further ado, let’s get right into the interview!
Tarrembeau
Alright, first of all thanks for giving me a bit of your time for this interview
Michielleus
No problemo, I'm actually quite flattered
Tarrembeau
Let's break the ice with an unexpected question: what kind of music do you enjoy in your daily life?
Michielleus
I really like generic catchy pop/r&b music, the kind of songs that get stuck in your head on repeat. There's a Dutch band called Goldband that does it really great and I find myself listening to a lot of their songs
Tarrembeau
Unlike most games, PS! doesn't really come with its own music. Do you listen to this kind of catchy music while you're playing on Showdown? (also I'll check out Goldband :0)
Michielleus
Yeah usually I'll have youtube autoplay on, which is great, since they also throw in some new songs every now and then. But when I'm playing tour games or a tough ladder game I find myself pausing the music to gather some thoughts
Tarrembeau
Maybe I should start doing that as well, it would maybe prevent me from continually throwing my series You're mentioning tour games and ladder; when did you shift from casually playing Pokemon games (if you ever did!) to playing competitively on the internet, and why?
Michielleus
I think I started out with the DS games and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon as my first Pokemon experience. At some point way back I discovered nuzlocking, modding, and shortly after that competitive Pokemon. I used Pokemon Online in like 2010 and that was my first competitive experience I think (I'm actually a complete boomer lmao). Shortly after that PS was released and I've been playing ever since
Tarrembeau
I spent so many hours playing mystery dungeon damn, those were great times! So you're one of the OG Showdown players. When did you start picking up Random Battles and getting involved with its community?
Michielleus
I think I've always enjoyed Random Battles because as a child I would grind away endlessly in the battle factory using only the Pokemon you were given, which I really enjoyed. Burned hours doing that. So when Randbats were released on PS that gave me a similar feeling. I laddered a lot but I think the first time I really got involved in the community was in Wigglytuff's Classic Tour and then I signed up for RBTT 2. Then I realised I enjoyed these kinds of tours and wanted to keep myself involved
Tarrembeau
Yo I was doing the exact same in Emerald, I couldn't stop playing that stuff, I was spamming the doubles one for some reason aha. I think having a wide variety of possible match ups is the most interesting part of Random Battles. It's also very easy to spam! How often do you play Random Battles, and what’s your favorite format? Why?
Michielleus
Agree with you 100%, although I did play the gen 4 frontier more than the 3 one for some reason. I do like to play at least some games every day, otherwise the decay you get would bother me. I think that gen 8 and 9 are very well-crafted formats which do reward the more skillful player, so I really enjoy playing those the most, with currently gen 9 being my most spammed tier because of current gen bias. I also really enjoy playing blitz games (very spammable!) because it takes away some of the complexities of the games and really just lets you play on instinct
Tarrembeau
Blitz is ruthless but I really think it makes players with great experience thrive, between head calcs, pattern recognition, etc, the things you acquire by playing a huge number of games. Also people who are able to think fast, obviously! Between current gen ladders and the spotlight ladders you’ve had some success on, how do you manage to maintain a high Elo or GXE?
Michielleus
I think it mainly comes down to trying to improve by learning from your mistakes and keeping your knowledge of the meta high. Sometimes to improve my play, I like to skim the replay of a good player and see if I would've made the same plays or not. But if you take the gen 9 ladder for example, I think you can improve to about an Elo of 2000 by beating your opponent in knowledge (being able to see which mons can switch into what, knowing the sets of the mons) and at higher Elo you also need to be able to make skilled plays (when to tera, make inferences about your opponent's team based on how they are playing, etc.) But the short answer is: keep playing, and you will almost always get good Elo/GXE at some point
Tarrembeau
This is a very thorough answer, thank you. Outside the ladder, you’ve also met success playing in various Random Battles tours; do you have a favorite among all of them?
Michielleus
I particularly enjoy team tour games because they can gather a crowd and a win feels even better when you're sharing it with a whole team. I'll have to give a slight edge to WCoR over RBTT because being with your fellow countrymen does make it feel a bit more special. However, I'm also looking forward to the Rands Slam that just started because of the sheer variety in tiers you're playing and the real test of versatility, which is what Randbats is all about at its core.
Tarrembeau
And god knows Benelux was a strong WCoR team, it must have been something to be part of! The variety and versatility that come from randomness; is this the specific reason why you enjoy Random Battles? Is there any other reason?
Michielleus
Yes, that is pretty much it I think. I also notice that when I play other games in general, I'm typically drawn to roguelikes because they keep the variety high and make every run you do feel different, just like a Randbats game. Another big plus is that you don't have to build a team, which is something I think I'm quite bad at. Whenever I play regular tiers like OU I find myself borrowing teams from other people or searching for replays from good players so I can steal their teams. Luckily in Randbats this isn't an issue
Tarrembeau
That also may be the only thing Random Battles and chess have in common, the feeling of every single game being different ahah! Random battles has nine different gens and several other side formats; are there any Pokemon or sets that you like or that are memorable to you?
Michielleus
Very true about the similarity between Randbats and chess. Luckily when you lose a mons game you can still blame a Fire Blast miss, whereas with chess, it's all your own fault haha. Some sets that stuck with me are Geoxern which made me click X a lot, and I think gen 5 Sigilyph with Flame Orb and Cosmic Power/Psycho Shift/Roost/Stored Power gave me a lot of headaches as well. I really enjoy getting mons with hazards and hazard control, especially in earlier gens, just because they can really help out a lot with progressing the game
Tarrembeau
Dealing with rng, and with terrible matchups that can happen on a daily basis, can take a toll on one's mindset. Are you prone to tilting? How do you recover from bad streaks when they occur?
Michielleus
Yeah, definitely, especially in blitz games where you can just lose a lot of games in quick succession. Nowadays I just like to take a break or call it a day if I lose 3 times in a row. This way, I can always be assured my tilt can't be THAT bad. It's actually surprisingly zen. Then when I get back I'll have a fresh mind.
Tarrembeau
It's a good technique. I go even further and usually stop after two losses in a row, and if I'm really in the mood for playing I just switch to another ladder or to an alt I don't care about. How about having a bad start in a series? This can be a particular challenge for a competitive player. Do you have any special ways of dealing with bad starts or even, for longer tours, with defeat?
Michielleus
I guess what I try to do is forget the lost game as quickly as I can and try to begin the new game with as little worry as possible. Sometimes I make a mental note of whether my opponent is prone to playing really aggressively or very safely, because it can help in future games. Then at a later point I'll analyze my replays a bit and see where and why the game went south. When it comes to defeat, if my opponent(s) was/were very good or if I didn’t make any egregious errors, dealing with it doesn't bother me as much. If I did lose because I played bad, it's an incentive to try even harder next time and to try to improve my game.
Tarrembeau
True competitive mindset. This interview is coming to an end, but before we part ways, do you have any other advice you would like to share to newcomers or players seeking to improve?
Michielleus
Sure, I think the best way to improve is to find that 'Battle!' button and try to get as much practice as possible. Also, getting involved in the Randbats room/community can give you a lot of useful info (use of the tooltip/calc/set generation). I think it would be a lot of fun if in the future maybe we could have Randbats in Smogon's Battling 101 tutor system - maybe some people that want to get better could enjoy something like that. If anyone wants to do a game vs me, I accept most challenges on PS!, so feel free to hit me up!
Tarrembeau
I will sure remember that ahah! Thanks a lot for the great insights and for your time!
Michielleus
No problem! Thanks to you and all the mods/devs/council members that make such a fun format possible. And skymins forever of course
Thanks to Michielleus for the wonderful interview! Feel free to ask any further questions for them in this thread, and make sure to keep an eye out for future interviews!
