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Tarrembeau and Syrinix
Welcome to a special edition of the Random Battles Community Interview! Normally, 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. The goal of this special entry in our series, however, is to gain insight into the responsibilities that come with managing a world champion team! Check out past interviews here!
Without further ado, let’s get right into the interview!
Syrinix
After battling other nations for months, you've finally made it out on top and won the cup! How do you feel?
Wubben
I still feel ecstatic. We were so close to winning the title last year and to finally win it this time against the same opponent feels very poetic and satisfying. Not just for me but for the boys in the team especially, they all performed like champions and I’m very happy a lot of them got to win their first big official team tour.
Chains of Markov
I'm also very happy! Sometimes Randbats just feels like a silly internet game, but on the other hand it's a game with millions of games played each month and an active competitive scene. To be able to call yourself World Champion is a huge honor.
Tarrembeau
What was the process like for selecting your players? Did you struggle with any aspects during this phase? Would you have changed anything looking back?
Chains of Markov
Player selection was a team process with Wubben and me, but also with help from nemoauditur and Jordy004. That said, Wubben clearly took the lead in reaching out to people and playing a couple tryout matches. In hindsight, of course, this worked out great so I certainly wouldn't change anything. We also had the luxurious position of having not that many signups, so not a lot of people to disappoint, but still having excellent quality.
Wubben
There were some struggles if I recall correctly. There were like 10 players that were no-brainers to pick, 1 or 2 players that needed some convincing to join and a few that we needed to be convinced by. In the end everything fell into place though and we got a pretty amazing team when everyone was lined up. Players like Tomahawk and Tony who were starters last year didn’t come back for this World Cup so we needed some replacements. And I feel like all the new players performed outstandingly so no I wouldn’t change anything at all, everyone was a joy to work with and have as a player.
Syrinix
What was your team spirit like during the tournament? How much of an impact would you say it had?
Wubben
I feel like it was the deciding factor if you ask me. Our team was overall extremely motivated and there was zero toxicity all around. There was a ton of mutual respect on the team so when a player won a series there were a lot of celebrations in the discord, which was amazing to see. There also was like, no debates or big egos going around, when someone was subbed out they would usually understand and agree with the decision and the subs were always still supporting the team. The team truly felt like a single unit, especially during semis and finals.
Chains of Markov
Agreed completely with Wubben! Despite having some of the world's best players on the roster, egos were never a problem. The couple tours players who weren't used to playing Rands were also completely on board, which I know has been a problem with other teams in the past.
For some people it won't affect their play, but lots of people definitely play worse in a toxic environment, so I also believe the positive atmosphere is an important factor of the success of the team.
Tarrembeau
Your team had a really rough start, going 0-7 in the season, then 7-14 a bit after. How did you manage to keep your team up and make that important comeback?
Chains of Markov
Of course we try to stay positive, but indeed the team also did that on their own. We also had experience with comebacks from the last WCoR.
Wubben
Honestly they kind of did that themselves. It was just making sure that everyone kept calm so they wouldn't play their matches tilted/unfocussed. There were some people, myself included, that didn’t perform like their usual standards so a sub was necessary to turn that around. I feel like most of our sub choices during group stage were smartly chosen and a bit of luck in the end did help out a lot as well. We needed to win the last 7 games on the last day to make it happen, which miraculously happened. So I’d say, we just stayed calm at the end and we didn't let the pressure get to us.
Syrinix
You had to go through a tiebreaker round against Team USNE for quarterfinals. How did you handle that high-pressure fight? What was your thought process for selecting the formats?
Wubben
We actually discussed it with everyone on the team, so it wasn’t just a manager decision. Almost everyone wanted Gen 3 so that xGang could play, everyone had so much faith in him so that pick was a no brainer. And Chains was very convinced that NE would pick Gen 1 and we had a very strong TB pick in Livid washed on that who also was ready to play. The Gen 9 pick was a bit trickier because we had the choice between Michielleus and Fant’sy Beast. We went with Fant’sy in the end because Mich isn't fond of TB at all and Fant’sy was very dedicated to be put in that slot so that's how we went for our TB choices.
Chains of Markov
Apart from what Wubben said I want to specifically shout out livid washed there, who had to play the deciding match of the tiebreaker on an off-format (though of course he's an excellent Gen 1 player). Because of his incredible skill it's easy to forget that he's relatively inexperienced in tournaments, but he managed the pressure excellently.
Tarrembeau
The final was actually a rematch against Team China. Were you expecting to face them again? How did you prepare for it?
Chains of Markov
Team China is a very sympathetic team. Last year they came in with a largely unknown roster and took it all, and this year they showed their continued strong performance. They're very sportsmanlike and nice to schedule with, and an overall highly worthy opponent. I already told the captains that I hope we see them in finals again next year so that we can finish our WCoR best of three.
Wubben
I mean you always hope that would be the case, because a rematch gets the players very motivated. Most people last year desperately wanted that win back so it gives that last push of ‘’come on boys, lets get them this time.” In terms of, was I expecting it? It didn’t come as a surprise to me at least. China has a fantastic team as well and they were pretty dominant during the knockout stages. Regarding preparing for finals, we pretty much stayed to the game plan we had during semis, so we didn't really change much. In the end it stays Random Battles so you don’t need to prep teams and such, so we picked our strongest line up and went with it, which eventually paid off.
Syrinix
Wubben, how did it feel to manage again for your nation’s team? And Chains of Markov, this was your first experience managing a team for a major rands event; did you have any particular expectations? Are you satisfied with your first try?
Wubben
Its always an honor to do it. Most of the people who participate are also friends I made on the site so to do it as main coach this year felt very cool. I learned a lot from Elgino last year and I wanted to share my experiences with Chains of Markov so that he could possibly take the role of main coach in the future. But its always a blast to do and it is not that difficult to do when the team has so much talent and overall great people in it.
Chains of Markov
It was an honor for me as well, and I had a lot of fun. Frankly I have faith Wubben could do it on his own, but I'm happy to have been along for the ride. I tried to be as useful to the team as possible, keeping track of scheduling and trying to be online as much as possible to deal with any complications. The complications never came however, so it was really not a very difficult job. Mostly I just watched almost all of the games, taking on the role of cheerleader. :)
The worst part to me is having to decide whether you're playing yourself or not. Of course that's always in consultation with your co manager, but in the end it's partly your own decision and you have to stand by it. The great vibe in the team helps with this though, as the lineup never caused any actual strife.
Tarrembeau
Benelux is a team made of three different nations. Do you expect the team to split at one point in the future? Would a team Belgium and a team Netherlands fare well in your opinion?
Chains of Markov
With just 23 sign ups in total we could not even field two teams hahaha. I think this is a nice middle ground between the separate countries who would not be strong enough, and joining up with Eurafrica which would become unreasonably strong thus leaving many good players without a slot. The whole team is either Dutch or from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium (Flanders), so we could shrink the region to include only those, but that doesn't make as much sense as using the established political union of Benelux. We certainly feel united still, at least partially because we do use Dutch as the main language of the team.
Wubben
No, I don't see any reasoning for that. We would honestly handicap ourselves and quite frankly I don’t think we can fill up both teams by doing that, or we need to pm a lot of people which is a tedious task. (Also we just made a new sweet logo by blace and we can’t let that work go to waste in 1 year can we?)
Syrinix
Recollecting, do you have a particular moment that left a mark on you and that you’d like to share?
Wubben
Livid winning a 200 turn Gen 2 game without any Sleep Talk Pokemon on his team is a moment that truly blew me away when I saw it, that probably was my favorite match of the tour this year. And when Nemo was subbed in during group stage, after not playing last year and I felt very bad about it, to win the last two remaining Gen 6 games made me particularly very very happy.
Chains of Markov
I agree with both of Wubben's picks of course, but the most memorable moment to me was xGang's match against Ereshkigal in the group stage. It started at 11PM on a Monday night, and took almost three hours, including an epic 486-turn draw in game 2. I talked with Kipkluif during the whole match, and what started as analysis slowly deteriorated as we got more and more tired. In my opinion you can see the play from both players getting a little worse over time as well, as we got deeper and deeper into the night. Of course xGang brought it home from the team.
The games: https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/world-cup-of-randbats-2023-regular-season.3726611/post-9767731
Tarrembeau
People will have high expectations for you during the next edition, after you made two finals and won one. Do you feel confident about WCoR 2024?
Chains of Markov
Yes absolutely. I think we were lower in most people's power rankings this year than last, mostly because the level of the other teams got significantly higher, which makes sense, but after this win I think you have to consider us one of the favorites of next year. Of course, we will see what the rosters look like. I'm certainly looking forward to it!
Wubben
You always have to be confident in your team, so yes! I am very confident for next year. A lot of players already stated they are coming back next year so we can only grow from there to make our lineup even stronger. I am very much looking forward to it.
Syrinix
Do you have any advice for newer players hoping to play for their nation in next year's WCoR?
Chains of Markov
I think it's tough, because different managers will value different things. Some find ladder performance important, some want to see good tournament results and yet others simply do tryouts with all applicants. I certainly recommend joining next year’s Rands Slam if you want to be picked up, and also don't hesitate to contact the managers of your region to find out what they're looking for.
Of course, none of this will help if you're not a good fit for the team. For example, we left a very good Gen 3 player off the roster simply because we already have the best.
Wubben
Make a name for yourself. A lot of talented and experienced players are signing up to make it into their nation’s team and all managers are usually players who are active in the Random Battles room on PS. So participate in the Auth Challenges, Monthly Marathons, and sign up for the Opens, that way your name gets recognized and your chances of making the team will significantly grow because of it.
Thank you for the interview!
Thanks to Chains of Markov and Wubben for agreeing to take part in this interview! Congratulations again to Team Benelux for winning the World Cup of Randbats 2023 as well! We look forward to seeing you all in action again for WCoR ‘24. As always, if you have any questions for the Team Benelux managers, feel free to ask them in this thread!
