Player Interview: Xdevo

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Hello and welcome to another edition of Player Interview! Today, @Xdevo is here to be interviewed. Xdevo is a Tiering Administrator, Tournament Director, and long-time member of Pokémon Online, and he has contributed a significant amount to PO in his time here. Without further ado, let's get started!

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How did you get introduced to Pokémon?
I first got Pokémon Yellow when I was 4 or 5. I've been playing the handheld games pretty much ever since. I came to competitive Pokémon via Shoddy Battle in very early DP while I was looking for a replacement to one of those Pokémon MMO things (Pokémon Battle Crater if anyone remembers it).

How did you get introduced to PO?
Within a few months of the launch, I was told on Project NU that there was a new Pokémon sim that actually had a decent teambuilder and a bunch of neat features. I came over and started playing on both here and Shoddy until all of the DPP NU moved over here because it was the superior simulator. I eventually got to lead the DPP NU suspects for Espeon and Entei on Project NU and here.

What is it like being the Tiering Admin?
I would imagine it would be a lot better if we had people that contributed! But, mostly it's just reminding the leaders to suspect things and trying to find new leaders for the new metagames.

What are your thoughts on the current SM Ubers, SM OU, and SM LC?
SM is turning out pretty decently for Ubers and LC afaik. The OU meta is a big bleh, partly because the metagame is absurdly centralized around those 2-4 top few threats.

What are your thoughts on the newly formed SM UU?
SM UU looks pretty interesting; I'd love if there were more posters so I could pick a leader and we could go through suspects a bit quicker, but I guess that's a luxury I'm not going to get.

As new tiers continue to form, how do you foresee Generation 7 progressing?
I expect LU and NU to be a complete mess.

What kinds of things does a Tournament Director do?
I basically run the various tours on PO. I host certain official tours, approve non-official tours, and make sure the team tours run somewhat smoothly.

Since SM tiers are still forming, will this have an effect on Official Tournaments?
It most definitely will, but this is far from the first time that Official Tournaments have had metagames with lots of changes from week to week.

What is your favorite and least favorite PO tournament?
Favorite is the LTT (Lower Tier Triathlon), though I do love the OGT (Old Generations Tournament) as well. Least favorite is POWC (Pokémon Online World Cup); the combination of nationalism and the general drama of team tours makes it a huge hassle to host and play in.

What is your favorite and least favorite Pokémon?
Favorite Pokemon is Eevee

Least favorite is Voltorb

What is your favorite and least favorite PO tier (including past generations)?
Favorite tier was DPP NU

Least favorite was XY Ubers

What is your preferred playstyle? Do you change between styles according to tier or just play your favored style?
I generally go between bulky offense and balanced teams, but I (somewhat famously apparently) also have had very successful stall teams. I generally try to keep my teams somewhat balanced, but that's never been a hard limit.

Who are some former PO users whom you wish were still active?
Django, Bad Romance (he's on Smogon, but it's not the same), Gl4ss, Kyrk, Avatar Roku, Raducan, The Real Elmo, VuvuzelaBzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Do you have anything else to say to our readers?
If you want something to happen, actually ask someone who can do it. If you don't know who can do it, ask one of the server or forum mods to direct you. Sitting and bitching about things to people that can't do anything about it isn't going to make things better.

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Thanks, Xdevo, for taking the time to be interviewed today. Like Xdevo said, we really could use more suspect posters, so next time you see a suspect mentioned in the notice, feel free to participate in the discussion if it is a tier that you have experience playing. This edition of Player Interview is coming to an end, but there will be more to come. To nominate players to be interviewed, post here or contact @E.T. on the PO forums.

Spoiler: Special Thanks

Xdevo - For Being Interviewed
E.T. - Writer, Grammar
Joyverse - Questions
Professor Oak - QC
JoyFrost - Artist

Do you want to contribute to Articles too? Here's How to Become an Articles Contributor.

 

OK pretty random questions coming up

1. Favorite SM Pokémon?
2. Least favorite SM Pokémon?
3. Favorite SM UU Pokémon competitively so far and why?
4. If you could turn your favorite Pokémon Eevee into an Eeveeevolution, what would it be and why?
5. What can you say about Z-Moves?
6. If you can bribe @NananaBatman to lead SM UU what would you give?
7. Worst Disney movie you ever seen
8. Top 5 SNES games

That's all!

 

Origin of your username?

 

1.) Minior
2.) Lycanroc-Midnight
3.) Azumarill
4.) My favorite eeveelution is Espeon
5.) They've really made the game less predictable, which is interesting for offensive teams, but they're a bit of a hassle for stall
6.) I would make Mush stop lusting after his bum
7.) Atlantis 2 probably, but most of those direct-to-dvd sequels are pretty bad
8.) Super Mario World, Disney's Aladdin, Donkey Kong Country 2, Sim City, Earthbound or Link to the Past

My real first name is Devon -> Devo + an X to make it edgy

gotta get your power back first

idk some random dude

Kill Oak, Marry Pnerd, Fuck moogle

I've kind of softened over the years over what is and isn't broken, but generally I think something that doesn't have more than a handful of checks that are common and/or good in a metagame is "broken". There are reasons other than being "broken" to ban something now-a-days, things like: absurd role-compression (to the extreme of "there is no point in not using this Pokemon"), providing support that is nigh-on unstoppable (Deo-S in OU, Deo-D in UU), being too fucking fat (Chansey in UU), or cancerous to the metagame as a whole (Aegislash, Sand in BW UU).

Complex bans (meaning X + Y factor, not non-Pokemon bans) I only see as useful in niche metagames (Monotype, Hackmons) and to preserve something "essential" to a metagame (this is something I don't like to apply, but I can see why people would want it).

sux