Project ZU Player of the Week: Week 5 - LPY

[Oathkeeper]

LPY
Favorite ZU Pokemon: Shedinja
Most used: Bouffalant
Most known for: Driver, ZUPL: Sovereign Swannas captain
​

Oathkeepre: Hi LPY, how are you today?
LPY: Doing pretty well. Finishing up a nice week off from work before getting back to the grind. Hopefully the extra prep time helps me out.

Oathkeepre: Could you tell us about yourself?
LPY: Sure. I'm 24 years old born and raised in the midwest United States. Finished up my degree about 9 months ago now and working on finding work outside of the country. Besides mons I spend a lot of time playing mahjong as well as playing ultimate frisbee whenever I get the chance.

Oathkeepre: What are the origins of your name?
LPY: So LPY stands for LightPinkYoshi. Way back in the day I got my start on Pokemon Online and had a friend in the mafia room that went by some variant of black mage. One day he decided to change his name to LightBlueYoshi so I just sorta followed him and it's stuck for probably 10 years now. I own 5 yoshis now 3 of which are the correct shade of pink.

Oathkeepre: So, the end of the meta is coming up here pretty quick. Would you like to see anything get retested or have come back?
LPY: I'm not in favor of any retests for the ZUBL mons becauase they're all kind of disgusting, but I would be pretty happy to see Lurantis or Liepard return. Both were very fun to use pokemon that featured heavily in my teams when I first joined the tier. Whether or not Lurantis being back would be healthy is another matter but it'd be fun for a little bit at least.

Oathkeepre: Everyone's got favorite pizza toppings. What are yours?
LPY: Ham, Bacon, really anything meat. Keep vegetables off my pizza. Low key anchovies are pretty good too but that's only for being home alone.

Oathkeepre: You did mention that you got your degree about 9 months ago. What was it in and what kind of job outside the US do you want to get?
LPY: I got an English degree. Not the most practical to be honest but it's what I'm good at. I want to go teach it as a second language. For the most part I'm looking at Asian countries but I'm open to going just about anywhere.

Oathkeepre: Gen 8 has a lot of new Pokemon. Do you have a favorite so far?
LPY: To be honest I've been keeping myself mostly in the dark about the pokemon. I'm excited about the features of the game and even though I understand the general disappointment with the shortcuts being taken with the roster I'm generally happy with what I've seen. I'll be choosing Sobble as my starter but other than that I couldn't tell you.

Oathkeepre: Who are some up and coming players you have your eyes on right now?
LPY: I've been out of touch for a little bit regarding the regular room users, but Catalystic has taken a real shine to this tier and has played very well when put in a situation to succeed. I also need to shout out Quagsgone as a great player who should enter more things. Lastly would be yovan33321 who's been around for a bit, but man that player is fire.

Oathkeepre: What is the most fond memory you have in your lifetime so far?
LPY: Wow we getting deep. I'm gonna toss two out there because recency bias is probably skewing my view. I tend to stay generally detached so "life events" don't really make me as happy as they do other people so my happiest moments are centered around my accomplishments. The further back one was when I won my school spelling bee for the first time in 5th grade. Spelling for whatever reason was something I was really good at (when I cared don't call out any typos I happen to have in here). I remember being really amped up because it was the only thing I'd actually worked hard for at that point in my life. More recently, I reached my personal goal for rating on the global mahjong site and I was cheering for myself hours later. It's such a good feeling to put work into something and be validated that yes I am in fact good at what I enjoy.

Oathkeepre: Who are some of your favorite people within the ZU community?
LPY: I get along very well with the rest of the staff, but I'd have to specifically mention DurzaOffTopic, Funbot28, Xayah, 5gen and Tack :]. I may not talk to some of them as much as I'd like but I enjoy our interactions when we do have them. Outside of the staff Graceclaw, quagsgone and RawMelon have been my testing/talking shit buddies for about as long as I've been here and 85% has been awesome as well. I've recently gotten to talk about anime stuff with uhuhuhu7 which has been fun, and I'd be remiss if I didn't get to mention that you're pretty cool too. I apologize to anyone I may have forgotten, but I've got a big post coming up sometime next week.

Oathkeepre: Who do you think is the cutest user here in ZU?
LPY: LOL ok. Well I'll pick a #2 because it's hard to compete with me, but I'ma go with Graceclaw. Bundle of happiness and I really appreciate him spending so much time losing to me.

Oathkeepre: Lastly, can I ask that share a meaningful team to you and explain what it does?
LPY:

Importable

Raichu @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Volt Switch
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Hidden Power [Ice]

Natu @ Eviolite
Ability: Magic Bounce
EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Psyshock
- Calm Mind
- Roost
- Hidden Power [Fighting]

Prinplup @ Eviolite
Ability: Torrent
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Defog
- Stealth Rock
- Toxic
- Scald

Shedinja @ Focus Sash
Ability: Wonder Guard
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- X-Scissor
- Sucker Punch
- Shadow Sneak
- Swords Dance

Bouffalant @ Leftovers
Ability: Sap Sipper
Happiness: 0
EVs: 248 HP / 136 Atk / 124 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Frustration
- Swords Dance
- Substitute
- Earthquake

Fraxure @ Choice Band
Ability: Mold Breaker
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Outrage
- Stomping Tantrum
- Poison Jab
- Low Kick

This team should be pretty familiar to a lot of people but it's still by far my favorite team ever. Esteemed user Dundies built this for me like 4-5 years ago back when we were hanging out in PU before PU was official and all the mons just happen to be in ZU now. It essentially just pivots around things until you can break with Fraxure or Bouff or until you can sweep with Shedinja because your opponent is out of moves. This is probably my favorite replay of it of all time because I said fuck it and brought it game 3 of round 4 of winter seasonal and it just kinda worked out.

https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen7zu-827048170

Oathkeepre: Alright. That will conclude this very nice interview. You, LPY, are an amazing individual. Those answers are very thoughtful and I thank you so much for your time for it!
LPY: Thank you very much I'm glad to have been a part of this.​

 

[Tsareentje]

Hey there!

Are there any Pokemon in the current meta you wanna highlight?
What is your fav playstyle/ How do you create your teams? (they are pretty cool)
Favorite ZU Titan?
How is managing going, do you like it?

 

[Greybaum]

Thanks for the shoutout!
Good shout on the pizza question; anchovies are great and it's brave of you to admit it. Are you into seafood in general or is it just pizza?
In what order would you rank the viable Swanna sets?
What ability do you tend to lean towards when using Bouff?
Any mons you think are being slept on rn? Why?
Know any spicy secrets about any of the other ZUPL captains?
Favourite ZUPL captain other than yourself?
Lastly, top 5 anime openings, only one from each series, go. 10 if it's easier for you.

 

[LPY]

Hey there!

Are there any Pokemon in the current meta you wanna highlight?

I think leafeon is in a much better place right now than people realize. I'd advocate for Z move at the moment because it turns it into an offensive shiftry check which is rare in the tier.

What is your fav playstyle/ How do you create your teams? (they are pretty cool)

My favorite style by far is hazard stack pivot offense and you'll see a lot of my builds revert back to the same idea of spikes + purugly. For my ZU teams I generally just peruse the VR until I find something that I think would be cool and roll with it. Most of what I find cool is breakers so I fill the rest of my team with offensive pressure or pivoting mons that let me make aggressive switches to net kills with said cool breaker. I'll then just fill out my teams with the best 2 defensive mons for the job which is a lot of crustle/golem/bulky-vally because I don't let being locked into HO styles. Recent examples of cool stuff I wanted to play with are Specs Ori-Baille, Specs Noctowl, and things like that (seriously our special breakers are nuts and we dont have good answers for them).

Favorite ZU Titan?

Probably stoutland. Our big doggo led me to my best ladder record back in the day when I topped ladder and GXE on NishiMaki with some insane record like 62-7. It also just fit really well into my preferred way of playing (it was broken it shouldn't come back but it was fun).

How is managing going, do you like it?

I'm having a really good time managing. I'm really proud of how my team bounced back from starting down 0-2 with a lot of unfortunate things going against us and I'm hoping that we can snipe a playoff spot today.

Thanks for the questions I'm having a great time with this project.

 

[LPY]

Thanks for the shoutout!
Np <3

Good shout on the pizza question; anchovies are great and it's brave of you to admit it. Are you into seafood in general or is it just pizza?

Shellfish makes up 2 of my top 3 favorite meals and I enjoy fish in general but I'd say I love shellfish and like most of the rest of the ocean.

In what order would you rank the viable Swanna sets?

This is my opinion and really just comes down to what I find fun to use because it's pretty easy to succeed with whatever set you want but
Z-Rain Dance
Specs
Z-MM
LO/Fly-Z special
Choice Band
Wingull
Choice Scarf (i really dislike scarf swanna)

What ability do you tend to lean towards when using Bouff?

I still lean sap sipper. Soundproof is irrelevant at this point and I only throw reckless onto CB. Sap sipper is too good though its definitely more successful on ladder than in tournament.

Any mons you think are being slept on rn? Why?

Answered this above but leafeon is pretty dope right now. People have been sleeping on all 3 simis for a while but Simisear specifically is really good.

Know any spicy secrets about any of the other ZUPL captains?

Not really but theres a picture that exists of me in a maid outfit and cat ears if that's juicy enough for you.

Favourite ZUPL captain other than yourself?

Cop out answer but I like all our managers. They're pretty dope. They can all probably beat Durza at AMQ too.

Lastly, top 5 anime openings, only one from each series, go. 10 if it's easier for you.

ATSUKUNARE MY FRIENDS - Grand Blue OP 1

Extra Magic Hour - Amagi Brilliant Park

Bokura wa Ima no Naka de - OG Love Live OP 1

Shiny Days - Yuru Camp

Aoi Shiori - Anohana

only my railgun - Toaru Kagaku no Railgun

Uso no Hibana - Kuzu no Honkai

Ambiguous - Kill la Kill OP 2

The other side of the wall - Princess Principal

Saikousoku fall in love - Monster Musume

 

[czim]

Which pancham set is the most influential rn? Evio or scarf?

Any other up and coming players you wanna highlight such as a certain melon slayer?

Rank silv forms or do a top 5 if youre lazy?

Which mon is more problematic? Swan or Shift?

What kind of food u into?

Anything u watch besides anime?