All Neon Interviews (Weeks 5-8)

Week 5 (San Diego Sandiles and Richmond Registeels) San Diego Sandiles is a new comer to PBO, but they have put on an impressive showing for their first season, currently being 4-1 +15, being undefeated at the half way mark. As always, I asked San Diego what their thought process was going into their week 5 game, if there was anything they were particularly scared to see, to which they had this to say: "Going into week 5 I was just trying to get kyurem a kill it's been doing so bad for me I'm heavily considering dropping it I was most scared of wellspring because I just didn't have good enough checks for it" Wellspring can be a nasty Mon to run into, even now if it doesn't have tera options. It is sad to see that the Kyurem got axed, but hopefully you can find some fun sets with your new team! Next up, I asked about his though process during the draft to which he told me this: "While drafting my thought process was to try and build off mega lopunny I focused around getting defensive pieces for it and reliable pivots to support it and I ended up not getting a super reliable special attacker which is biting me in the back now While drafting I focus on filling roles and speed tiers while also getting mons I want to try" I'd say its probably safe to say that you have built off that Mega Lop pretty well! Mega Lop and Aegislash is a very nasty combo (I actually mocked with your week 4 opponent and Aegislash felt like crack to use lol) and that is reflected pretty well with their kills, as both them have 8 kills so far! Finally, I asked him what his favorite mon is to use in draft, to which he had this to say "My favorite pokemon to use in draft is terapagos it's so useful and versatile i feel it just elevates any draft with how good it is" We all (yes we) love Terapagos. Thank you again San Diego Sandiles for being willing to allow me to interview you, and now sending it over to @Lyrickz (woah fancy new ping) for the Richmond Registeels interview! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello, new PBO Commish here, this Week I interviewed Mr. Registeel himself, @Richmond Registeels. A mainstay PBO Player all the way back from Season 7, so let's delve in and see what they gotta say. Firstly noticing they made a few changes I asked them about their feelings on the team: "I feel a lot better about it now, my original team was kinda thrown together on the fly so I’m happier with this just wish I would’ve made my changes sooner could’ve turned around my season a bit" While I believe in committing to the team you draft, it's always worth to know when to pull the trigger on some trades that can improve your feeling, or commencing in some Diplomatic Trade discussion. As a different choice, I spurred a question to Richmond and to everyone here if they wanna discuss it, did they miss Tera and Paldea or do they like Megas and all the Mons returning?: "Tera did make my goat registeel more viable but I love having Megas and more mons" Well, short and sweet answer, personally I am happy we are outta Tera Time, it got very stale for near 4 years of it. And finally, after drafting Registeel for 4 outta 5 seasons, I gotta ask this guy something. Registeel?: "He’s the goat I’ve had a love for registeel since I was a kid and my older cousin who was super big into dex completion back in the day sent me his on Pokémon platinum and little me beat the game with him sent him to my heart gold copy and beat that with him there then black and black 2 unfortunately he didn’t make it to X and Y but it’s one of my top 5 favorite mons best regi out and it’s not even close" Gotta love that attachment to a mon for that long, cherish those memories you create throughout your journeys. That's it this Week, see you next Week for the 7th whole recap with me and @Sydney :happywave: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Week 6 (Zarude Sandstorm and Carolina Cetitans) It's that interview segment again, presented by me, the new Commissioner and I am joined by......... This Week @Zarude Sandstorm and @Carolina Cetitans hit the hot seat and get asked questions, like their Social Security, and those wacky numbers on the back of their magic money cards. Without further ado, let's start with some Zarude Sandstorm, du du dudu Zarude has been playing in PBO for a couple seasons now if memory serves correctly, don't trust that, having a quite good showing, asking them about their current feelings so far and about their Playoffs run: "I feel great I was super nervous going into this because I’d never played natdex before. So I drafted a comfort team with a lot of my favorites like torn-t, treads, and even my boy pyroar (even if it’s not his usual self). I think I’ve got a team that can go the distance to win it all, my only worry is coming across something I’ve never seen before due to no natdex experience. Like the ultra beasts or smthn." Not everyday you get someone that hasn't played Natdex at least once. Let's pry deeper into that avenue of questioning, seeing how they started, what they wanted to use or scared of: "Yep. I’ve never even played a Pokemon game before either so I didn’t even know what there was out there to try. Got in to the world of Pokemon 2 years ago with paldex draft league. Everything from Megas, to Tapus, to ultra beasts is pretty much 100% new to me. For wanting to try it would be mega pyroar. He’s one of my top 3 favorites so I was happy to see him get a power boost. For scared to face, probably Aegislash. I’m not really worried about megas because they can’t run an item. All of their tricks are know. Aegislash has all of his tricks, a monster stat line, and can still run band, or lorb or scarf" Aegislash has been quite a Tricky Pokemon with all the sets it can run, very cool dude, classic Sword and Shield gameplay calls back to the classic days of Runescape. Speaking of, I thought I would ask about their favourite Video Game character: "While I do not play it much anymore I love the lore and characters of league of legends. Specifically the eiter Ornn, or Nasus. I really like tanky dude with a wisdom or craftsman personality" Ew, League..... I'm outta here. I'll pass it on to @Lyrickz who talked with Carolina ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you, hello it's me that totally interviewed Carolina, someone who has been playing since Season 6 7 who decided to speak about their thoughts going into Week 6 and if they were worried or hopeful for anything: "Going into week 6, I think my thought process was to survive the early game and let my cleanup mons do the work. Booster Iron Boulder has amazing coverage and Sweep-ability, and E-Speed Dragonite can finish anything off in range. So I just needed to get them to that range. However it wasn't going to be easy due to the two regenerator mons and a few mons who had the potential to sweep my team if I play too passively such as Bax or Ogerpon-H. I was also worried about my Mega Froslass and how I could help my opponent by setting up snow myself. Im just happy that most of my team was able to survive and put in solid work early on, mainly Heatran and Froslass. Heatran getting Ogerpon-H and burning Treads was critical, as an EQ puts me so far behind, and Froslass for getting Glowking and putting Baxcalibur within range to revenge kill. Overall it was a great game and I think a rematch could go either way. GGs again to Zarude Sandstorm." Oh hey I know that Zarude guy, I wonder where from? Oh well, you do need to strike a balance and know when you are being too passive or reckless, sometimes you just need to attack what is infront of you. Next, their opinions/feelings on the drafting process: "When drafting, I wanted to use a Mega that I hadn't used before in singles, and Froslass was the preferred choice since it's what I was using in Champions Doubles at the time. It was that or Mega Glimmora, although I wouldn't have taken Glimm in the first round. I feel lucky that I drafted it when I did, because I think it would have been gone after the swing. After Froslass, it was just drafting other strong mons that fit my style and offer good coverage. I almost never have a set plan and I just adapt on the fly. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. As for the rest of the team, I needed a mon to cover Froslass' typing and Heatran covers those pretty well. I've always felt unlucky with status moves, both using them and them being used against me, so ill bring Misty Surge Fini and not worry. Ogerpon-W and Dragonite offer a variety of roles depending on matchup, Iron Boulder offered immediate speed and a great movepool, Ursaluna hurts, Overqwil is a solid support, Slither Wing can cover the other types and offer some priority, and Alolan Sandslash has slush rush to pair with Froslass. It's definitely a team that gels with me this season." We do like to see some weather teams now and then. No Glowking clicking Chilly to pivot does not make you a weather team, stop falling for that propaganda nonsense. Now onto a calmer lighter note, music! We all have a favourite album or band, what might be yours? This is Carolinas: "My favorite Music Album is a toss up between Demon Days from Gorillaz, RTJ4 from Run the Jewels, or None Shall Pass from Aesop Rock." I have never heard of any of these guys bar Gorillaz. If you know my lore you probably know I am a big fan of Breaking Benjamin and totally not because of a certain game franchise.... ahem ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Week 8 (Dallas Dragapults, Mankey Marauders, and Caborca Gengars) Alrighty, so for week 7 (yes we got kinda lazy) I decided to interview the @Dallas Dragapults! A new comer to PBO running his mascot, dragapult, with a Urshifu Single Strikes and a Mega Garchomp, holy physical core batman. When i asked about his thoughts going into week 7 match up, and how he was feeling, he had this to say: "Technically still going into it this week, hoping to put up at least a decent fight, this whole season for me has just been a learning experience bc i don't play comp pokemon outside of picking up showdown randoms for shits and giggles here and there, the biggest thing I'm hoping for is for my predictions to be decently accurate as far as what mons I can try to counter (Namely regieleki and floette) but we'll see" Floette has been a demon this season, with people calling for it to be increased in points, so trying to find that counter to it can obviously be crucial for a games success. For this being your first competitive season, Id say you did a helluva good job, and I hope that you can return for season 12 so we can watch you improve, because remember kids, there is always room to improve and grow! When asked about his thought process during drafting, he had this to say "Like i said before this season was a learning process for me, I kinda learned what i needed to go for as I was going for it, I knew I wanted dragapult (my favorite mon) but what pokemon synergized with him was kinda weird for me to pick out. the team i ended up with I think at least somewhat made sense. I learned afterward way the you're not supposed to draft mega chomp before chomp but alas the team has served me decently, really versatile i think, i just need more knowledge and skill to make it work" Someone (The Scottish Sylveons) will say Pult Bad, but I say do whatever makes you happy. Mega chomp is a bit of a weird mon, but I think that it can work, but obviously not item sucks :( And finally, when asked about what his least favorite mon to play against in draft, he had this to say: "I htink my least favorite so far, solely because of how annoying it was to figure out how to get around in that game raging bolt I think? THere are plenty of mons i was never able to lab bc of work and got steamrolled by but that one was annoying" I wouldn't uh, know anything about Raging Bolt, I wouldn't abuse that mon Yeah that mon fucking sucks to play against, thank god tera is gone Anywho, thank you Dallas once again for letting me interview you, and now im passing it over to @Scottish Stoutlands🎗 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks fellow Sylveon, I interviewed PBO Newcomer @Mankey Marauders, who came in halfway through the Season to play it out. I asked them about the team they had taken over and how they enjoyed it and their season: "It was good, yes I enjoyed it. I don't have a bunch to add I thought it was fun, thought everyone was pretty friendly and easy to play with." We are full of fun and whimsy here in the PBO, except for those Top Divisions, soulless places.... Now, how did they enjoy PBO and would they like to return next season and try new mons?: "I definitely enjoyed PBO Not sure about mons I'm not very well versed in them I would like to return next season yes" Soaring loves to hear about people enjoying the PBO and wanting to come back, please remember to fill out the Feedback forms or he will mass ping us all again... Now who do they wanna see win Neon?: "Apparently the family always supports big will" Hear that @East Coast Krooks? Don't disappoint the family now, nothing good ever comes from disappointing The Family, capiche? Anyways onto our third interview I'm please to welcome back to the studio, its the @Sydney Sylveons ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alrighty, and last, but certainly not least, for our final Interview of PBO Season 11, we have the @Caborca Gengars! A PBO BOOMER, Caborca has been around since Season 3 starting off as the Sonoran Pikachus, seeing varying success throughout the seasons hes been here with us in PBO. When asked about his thought process going into week 8, and if there was anything he was worried about or hoping to see, he had this to say: "I didn't want to stress over the game because i treat mons as a whole as my stress relief now, even ladder, so i just went into it with a clear goal of trying to have fun and enjoy it, if i could get something positive out of it that would've been nice even though it wasn't possible in the end going against the now promoted first seed, i was both afraid and more than hoping i was expecting to see Ogerpon, once i saw it not come i knew i was in a bad position because if the first seed saw something he liked more as far as teambuilding goes things were going to get a lot harder" Not stressing over mons is the right way to treat this game, we are all here to have fun guys! But Ogerpon is interesting, if you want any further thoughts on it, asked @ doncolbus When I asked him about his thought process during drafting, he had this to say: "The process while drafting was interesting, i knew i was always going to take kartana first, it doesn't matter if im 6th or last in order so that was set in stone, the second pick i was torn between lele or gouging fire but i ended up going lele because i have been using those two together in ladder since they became available gen 8, if i regret something is feeling forced to take sneasler, no hate to the guy, but i don't particularly like using it as im more geared towards bulkyness as of late, the rest were all picks i either liked, felt were good value or mons my gf likes, that's why either hoopa lele or diancie keep showing up on my teams😅 happy gf happy life (?)" I now feel enlightened on why hoopa keeps showing up in your drafts (including mini hoopa) Hoopa Lele and Diancie are all baller picks Idk I just felt like having a third pick lmao And finally, when asked about mons or team archetypes he looking forward to using next season, he had this to say "I haven't defined a draft strategy yet, i disliked kart in this particular format because you can't do speed boosting or Z move so that kinda limits it a lot, so i am not sure i will build around it, i do want to switch it up a little, im yet to try stall but i don't hate myself that much yet, might go hyper offense for the hell of it, rain has also not been done by me iirc, i know i tried sun sand and hail, we have a few weeks before start of next season so we'll start testing new mons and come up with something in time for it im sure" I haven't played a lot of gen 7 but i do know that Z moves really do make or break some mons from that gen. As someone who enjoy hyper offense, might I suggest a Victini if you try it out, just choice band slam your balls into someones face with V-Create! (Im not bias i swear) And thats our last interview! Thank you to everyone in neon who took time out of their day to allow us to interview them, its been a lot of fun seeing your guys answers. Its been a great season in neon, you guys never disappoint, so thank you for being the best division in PBO! We've been the @Scottish Stoutlands🎗 and @Sydney Sylveons, until next time! Thank you Neon div <3 - Sydney Sylveons