The GGFan Experience
Part THREE - LIVING UP TO EXPECTATIONS AND EXCEEDING THEM BEYOND IMAGINATION
GGFan: So 2016 ends and you accomplished quite a bit throughout the year. You had a great run in the RBY Cup, won a Master Tournament, went positive in WCOP, and so on. Now it's 2017 and you were not only picked up by a team in SPL, but you were the #1 ranked player. Do you feel this rank was justified? How did it make you feel when you read about it, and did you agree with your description that you were "widely considered the finest talent of 2016?" It's amazing how, just six months prior, you were a prospect trying to break through the glass ceiling. Now you were the alpha male in at least some peoples' eyes.
Peasounay: The player rankings of RBY for SPL8 were ridiculous, it showed how little smogon knew about RBY. I definitely think I was in the top of the pack but how on earth do you not rank alexander #1 at the time ? He was ranked 4th, and the justification was that he went 0-3 in rby in spl the previous year, which is ridiculous and shows that smogon only cared about itself even though it was a crap site regarding RBY. Also, had they done their research properly, they would've saw that alex lost in top 16 of RBY cup in 2016 to... marco. Had he not faced him he probably would've went deep and then you can assume that they would've ranked him better. It's crazy to me that after like 15 years of experience smogon still wasn't understanding the essence of how the game works and were clueless when it came to how to judge a player. PP was growing as hell, as brought up a lot of new talents, and these talents were about to crush the old crusts of that edition.
Anyway, I was never sure why I was #1 on that list but I did not care about it given how bad the rankings were. "Finest talent" in 2016, maybe ? Difficult to know how the clueless who wrote the PR came up to that conclusion. I was definitely one of the strongest newcomers, and the smogon players had not played in the previous year at all so the PP players were definitely stronger, with more experience, and a new take on the game.
GGFan: If it were up you, what would your player rankings look like? The RBY pool consisted of you, Lusch, Crystal, Metalgross, The Chaser, Tobes, Nails, Golden Gyarados, Bedschibaer, and Alexander.
Peasounay: My rankings in the context of the time would've been (regardless of the results):
1. Alexander (like hello)
2. Lusch (had better results than me and was better but didn't have those results on smogon so he was ranked lower. At the time he was really stronger than people think though)
3. Beds (experienced, good results, defintely above most players)
4. Myself (i still lacked some experience and still had the struggle vs the best players, which changed through SPL but at the start this probably would've been the most sutable ranking)
5/6. Metalgross/nails (both not as good as the 4 above, were clearly not as good as they are now, but they were still quite annoying to face)
7. Golden gyarados (his downfall had started, he got caught up by the golden PP gen and had struggles vs unorthodox players like metalgross and nails but was clearly above the average)
8. Crystal (played 0 games in the year, but had some experience going for him)
9. The_Chaser (M dragon loves him and M dragon is dumb. Chaser wasn't good imo but he was playing such wild teams that you could easily be out of what you know)
10. Tobes (never understood why people though he was good, he was the equivalent of a low ranked player on PP, the only thing that made him known was that he was on east)
GGFan: How well did you get along with the Cryonicles? Was the environment supportive? Were you active in the team's chat, or were you your usual stoic self? Was there a particular team you wanted to play for, or were you only eager for an opportunity to play on this stage?
Peasounay: That SPL went terrible for us, but it's one of my best memories in pokemon. We had a lot of biiiig personnalities (valentine, soulwind, zamrock, njnp, marshall law) so there was literally one clash a day but at the same time we had a lot of funny personnalities (poek, fireburn, ict, new breed, fakes and atticus but it's not on purpose). So even though we were doing complete shit and argued on a daily baisis, we had a lot of fun. It's also where I met soulwind, who became of my best friends in the community. we had a lot of drama going on : - Valentine was bullying everybody and seriously had mental issues, so we ended up executing him 1789 style (you can find a hilarious pastebin in my post in the final week thread) - Psychicmewtwo losing to reiku after bringing the worst oras team ever and calling njnp a nigga before leaving the chat after his loss - Fakes completely drunk revealing he had ghost the whole planet and zamrock sweating deleting all of his messages before teal6 came back - KyleCole quitting after losing week 5 bringing qwilfish, making njnp our doubles player - colchonero not winning a game and clicking thunders with raikou vs marowaks - Marshall law In the end we only needed to beat the tigers in week 9 to qualify, but as you know they cheated with mazary and the worst part us was that they literally stole 4 games in the last few turns, so on top of cheating they needed to get lucky to actually win. Worst team ever. As for myself I was actually quite invested, I talked a lot in the chat, mainly making jokes because I couldnt help in any tier. I did not want a particular team, I knew no managers at all and when I got into the team I knew no players either.
As for the RBY part, it's always particular to be the RBYer in SPL because you're the only one who understands your tier, so basically every week zamrock would scout for me, i'd ask what i wanted (team visuals with snorlax moves, egg moves, chansey moves...) and i'd prepare my stuff on the side. nobody really understood rby so they weren't really helping. I got poek and soulwind quite interested in RBY during this SPL though, and they ended up appreciating the tier and becoming quite good at it (soulwind won rby cup this year after all), so I was active for basically everything that wasn't about pokemon.
GGFan: SoulWind actually used to play RBY a lot on PP in 2014. I've even played him in a MT, and he made the finals of one where he had one of the best sets I've ever seen against marco. And, prior to that, SoulWind used to talk to me back in RBY2K10 in maybe 2010 or so, back when he was just starting out. It was disappointing to see him become a bit of a jerk towards me with that quip he made during the GC this year. However, perhaps he was trying to compliment me because the person in question had been performing very well.
It was a rough start for you. You lost the first game to Nails and had to go the full three, then lost to Lusch in two, and then had another grueling three-game encounter against Crystal. Things didn't get any easier when you had to go three games against Bedschibaer, but ended up winning that as well. You then proceeded to sweep Tobes, The Chaser, and Metalgross to solidify what was already one of the all-time dominant performances in SPL history. If you weren't in playoff contention, would you have considered leaving at 6-1, or were you determined to finish the tour no matter what? I ask this because I know that a lot of players obsess over their records as well as the records of their peers.
Peasounay: The series against Nails was very close, and because he's such an unorthodox player, the games were very special and I ended up in a lot of very specific situations. I managed to win but it was very intense and he played way better than I thought he would given what I had seen of him at that time (he was the no egg, fire blast tauros, twave dragonite guy after all). My loss against Lusch was the most difficult loss I ever had. I remember that before that, I had never ever used a rock in a tournament ever because I hated the fact that they lost to Tauros one on one. So I knew that he would most likely bring an electric, which he did by using Jolteon. I remember being very happy with my Starmie + Tanklax + Golem team (I even used golem, how bad was I lol), got exactly the match-up I wanted and... got outplayed to shit. I also got completely outplayed game 2, getting surprised like a beginner by his counter snorlax (something I did not expect because he was never using counter before that). So I got completely obliterated that set and it's probably the only time in my career where I felt like shit after losing. Even though i was very invested in that game (if you've read everything so far you'll understand how much of a tryhard i was) I always considered it... a game.
So losing in it never broke me down emotionally or anything, because as soon as you shut down the computer, nothing in your life has changed. But that loss against Lusch did affect me a lot, because I had prepared a lot and got owned in 15minutes in front of my teammates who were counting on me. It was a feeling I hated, and i promised myself "I will never again let any player deliver this feeling to me", and from that day, I was a completely different player. It was a "declic" as we say in french, when you just absurdly step up in a super short amount of time. That loss was the biggest turn point of my career, by far. After it, I was just a new player. The series against beds was very tense, game 3 ended up on a tauros ditto that I won, but to be fair I got my chansey frozen that game. I remember my hands were shaking after the game because I just wanted to win so bad, and from that point, I just had all the momentum in the world. These two weeks, were the starting point of 2017 Peasounay, definitely. And no, there was never a point where I cared about my record, for real, it was nice to have that 8-1 once the tournament was over, but during the tournament the only thing that mattered to me was winning that single series each week to bring the point to my team. Also, I was playing really well and prepared a lot for all these games and everything was just working out in my favor, so it gave me more confidence and momentum. It was one of the tournaments I played in where I had the most fun, and the goal in this game really is to have fun, results are completely secondary since there is nothing to win, and once you stop the only thing you'll keep is the fun you had playing it, not the trophies or whatever. My fun was playing, and seeing my tryharding work.
Part FOUR - WORLD CHAMPION IN THE MAINSTREAM; RETURN TO GLORY IN THE MOUNTAINS
GGFan: Of course, you ended up playing and defeating both Alexander and Zebraiken to end 8-1, which is one of the greatest runs ever. Given how long the tour lasted, was there a part of you that wanted to take a break after SPL? As we all know, SPL was the only beginning for you, as you ended up winning the RBY Global Championship. As a former champion of that tournament myself, I know how it feels to win a tour of such mass, even if the playerbase may not be up to par. Unfortunately, controversy struck in the finals, when you demanded the activity win over Leru, but ended up playing regardless. I imagine it would have been incredibly frustrating to lose that set given the circumstances. Do any games from that tour stand out to you, and which victory meant more to you: the best record in SPL, or being the RBY Global Champion?
Peasounay: Even if the ending for my team was terribly frustrating, there was never a point where I thought of quitting, because the game became even more fun for me. On top of enjoying playing it : I had results and was winning, which definitely helps have more fun. RBY GC is, up to this day, the win i'm the most proud of, nothing tops it out. It lasted for like 4 months, I played more than 20 series, a lot of them were hard and finished by a tense game 3, it was such a marathon, and the feeling I had winning it after this run in SPL, with the support of all the friends I made in SPL made it even better (i think at that time most people on smogon liked me so even people who had just followed me in SPL were just rooting for me). The playerbase was starting to get better than in 2016, compared to like RBY Cup. Some series I remember are the ones against Poek (my friend who I had taught RBY to), Nails, Teddeh, and then of course there was that finals against Leru, the little shit. Lutra had not set a deadline for the finals and the dude kept.johning.me, telling me "let's play that day at that time" and not showing up, making me wait for nothing, I swear he did that like 3 or 4 times and Lutra didn't care, so i got fed up and asked for activity because I don't like being taken for an idiot. Miraculously, he pm'd me 3 minutes after posting that wall and I told him to fuck off because I wanted him to get infracted for his behaviour which did not happen, sadly. Anyway we finally played and I was so enraged against him i promised myself not to give him the pleasure to beat me and troll me. I lost the first game, a 150 turns grindfest, in which I had the advantage. I had my snorlax against his paralyzed alakazam, clicked body slam, and he got a crit psychic max roll which ended my lax, and I couldnt get back in it. I slammed my desk with my fists so hard. Diegolh (one of my best friend on this site) pm'd me "are you okay ?" and i answered "I'm gonna win, i know i'm gonna win", and... I won. I had scouted him for days as well and he wasn't using much teams so I had prepared consequently. I swept his entire team with slowbro game 2 (he had a golem last) and had my trusty zapdos against his starmie game 3. I won those two games convincingly, and was so happy. He pm'd me "sorry about all the johning" and I told him to fuck off. During the time where he johned me, I learned things about him like the fact that he did catfishing, had nazi alts, created fake logs to get people banned... definitely a retard. Anyway, RBY GC has always been my biggest accomplishement given how long, difficult, and intense it was. It's the biggest tournament i've ever won (196 man) and nothing comes even close to toping it out.
GGFan: At the same time you were giving it your all in SPL and the RBY GC, you were still battling in the mountains; however, you went through a bit of a slump for the first three months or so. You were eliminated in the first round of the Vermilion Cup and faced a bit of struggles in the Master Tournament scene. Do you attribute the slow start to how invested you were on Smogon?
Peasounay: Not really, I was still as much invested in the game as the start of the year. Vermilion was a tough tournament with the best players on the website so one of the best players had to lose. If i'm honest, it was mostly bad luck, and it was also the case in MTs where I lost twice to Linek, a not very good, but incredibly lucky player. I've played a lot of poker so I know how variance works : in the long run, we all get the same luck, but this guy made me question the sole existence of variance. I've rarely seen such a lucky player, and he was a dick too, trolling you after lucking you. Anyway, i didn't do as good because of bad luck, but obviously I had a share of it during spl + gc, so sometimes you get, sometimes you don't. Nothing to complain about.
GGFan: Speaking of the Vermilion Cup, this was where we played for the second time in our (in my opinion) legendary rivalry. I was determined to win because I knew how highly you were perceived, and knew I was capable of beating you like I did before in the International League. This time you were the victor in three games, but I played some solid Pokemon the whole time. Any recollections of this set? I was on a mission this year to prove I was still among the best, whereas last year I was more of a veteran stepping stone as you alluded to.
Peasounay: I remember most of our sets, but this one is not one of them... sorry.
i stand with i said for the mts since it's when i faced linek twice but what i said about vermilion was the following one where i had bad luck, this one was just a hard tournament where I wasn't better than the players I faced, so my 6-6 record was logical.
GGFan: You started to heat things up in March, starting with winning the Cerulean Cup, which is one of the most arduous tournaments in the RBY tournament scene. You not only had to perform well on the ladder (which was at its peak in 2017), but then had to win sets against established players multiple times. How gratifying was it to win this cup?
Peasounay: I spent so much time playing this tour. I remember I was doing an internship. I was tired once i got back home but got on the ladder and... laddered to qualify. This was a ladder tournament where you could qualifiy multiple alts so i wanted to qualify all 4 to give myself the best chances to win the whole tournament. Qualifying alts wasn't too difficult because I had a ton of ladder experience and was plain better than the other players given the level I was at. What was exhausting was the fact that 4 alts meant I had to play a toooon of games once in playoffs. I remember Golden Gyarados and Ch01Won5H1n had multiple alts qualified as well, and how can i say it... CHO1 is on par with linek for the luckiest player i've ever faced. He was really not good at all, the only thing he did was fishing for freeze and i swear that dude had a 25% freeze rate or something. Whenever facing him I had the feeling of playing against RNG, and not the player, to the point where i became paranoid while playing, so I was making non optimal plays just because I was scared of getting lucked which makes no sense at all. Anyway even though the competition in the tournament wasn't too bad, I invested so much time and mental energy into it that winning it really felt good because it was the result of hard work.
GGFan: Along with winning the Cerulean Cup, you also won your second Master Tournament. Meanwhile, you reached the semi finals of the RBY Cup for the second year in a row, this time losing to Alexander. Do you have any recollections of the Master Tour or RBY Cup? We're only four months or so into the year and you've already won around 100 games, which is incredible. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I imagine you weren't all that upset over losing to Alexander given how consistent you had been performing overall, and what you had already managed to win prior to this defeat.
Peasounay: I think this MT (was it 33 ?) was the one I won while losing only game to get into the finals, otherwise it was 3-0 every round. In the finals I played against one of my best friend Diegolh in a very hard series since we knew each other so much. Games were very intense, I won 3-1 but the last game was quite lucky on my side. It's a funny dynamic to play your friend in the finals because if you win, you're obviously happy, but if you lose, you're happy for him, so it's definitely not the same as playing someone who is "whatever" to you. Otherwise I was happy to win another MT. I don't know what the "value" of a MT is now honestly, but at that time it was very satisfying because they were really hard tournaments with a bunch of top players + another bunch of more than decent players.As for RBY Cup, it's one of the only individual tournaments i haven't won, and it's the one with the most players and a brutal format. I've always wanted to win it and this is one of the instances where even though it was disappoiting to lose in the semi finals twice in a row, it was a very good accomplishment to reach semis twice in a row because it's hard to be consistent in such a brutal format. You're right, I was not that upset about losing for that exact reason, that and the fact that alex played that series better, so it was deserved on this part. If you get beat, you get beat, say gg and move on, sad for him he didnt win.
GGFan: After another grueling and high-stakes encounter in the RBY Cup, you picked yourself up and rode back into the mountains, where you won yet another Master Tournament, which was also the first time you were able to win two in a row. We squared off in the finals of MT34, which I rank very highly among my best sets in my tenure in PP. Prior to this encounter, I defeated you in the 2U World Championship, so now I was ahead of you in the rivalry. I gave it my all here, but was bested in a tremendous five-game set that lasted two hours. I remember you led Zapdos in all five games, which was an unorthodox albeit successful tactic. I also remember the Psychic crit that your Alakazam landed on my Snorlax, which prevented my Lapras from being useful and essentially making the game come down to a Tauros ditto--that would have been such a climactic and dramatic end. What are your memories of this Master Tournament and our set? The rivalry was intensifying now.
Peasounay: I was definitely having a great rush/run. This MT was in may and I had won RBY GC, 1 Cup, 1 MT, 8-1 in SPL, and a RBY top 4. I had incredible momentum and I was also simply very good on the field, definitely a top 3 accross website. I was building very good instincts because I was playing every possible tournament so I was earning a lot of experience very quickly against all kinds of players : so most of all I was great at adapting to be one thinking level above my opponents. This MT was another one where I felt "in control", I could've lost in top 4, I could've lost to you in the finals, it didn't matter, the thing i give the most importance to is content, and my content was good. It was great to win another tournament : it's hard to win one, and it doesn't happen that often, so when you do you should take the time to appreciate it. Once again, I think MTs had a huge value in 2016-2017 (i didnt play them the following years).
As for our set, it was one of our collection of intense sets, but it's not among my favorite. Maybe you have a better memory than me but even though i recall using zapdos a lot was in the actual 5 games ? Doesn't matter but it was one of our closest ones i think. In the ones that will follow I think I was better and deserved most of them by a bit, but this one was very equal and could have gone either way. I think it's where we started to respect more each other as players since we had arguments about other stuff in the past so there was a bit of personnal warfare.
GGFan: Well, you didn't win the RBY Cup, but you had to do some heavy lifting regardless, as you took home both the Cerulean and Indigo Cups. The Indigo Cup was the second of PP's "tournament of champions" alongside the Vermilion and Fuchsia Cups. You won your bracket and proceeded to beat Lusch in the semi finals and sweep Marco in the finals. We also played once again in the first round, and, I have to be honest here, I felt I should have won the first game. I was, unfortunately, fully paralyzed several turns and ended up losing, which cost me the series. Still, as you said, it's the content that matters the most. Even if I received the loss, I was nonetheless proving I could keep up with you, but it was more than that. We had a lot of chemistry for certain reasons.
Peasounay: Indigo Cup was a great tournament to play in until the finals. I got first place in my group. I don't remember our entire series, just the first game, a grindfest of 150+ turns that I think i ended up winning ? It was probably on the same level as our MT encounter : close games that could've gone either way. After that I played a series against Lusch that I won 3-2 but weirdly I remember nothing about it, and then I faced marco in the finals and... it was disappointing. It had been a while since I faced him in a playoff round and I was so much better than all the times he beat me in 2016 i wanted to be the student who crushed the master : it's what happened game 1, i completely outplayed him turn after turn and was felling super confident. Then in game 2 I got outplayed and completely robbed the game with my Tauros being on steroids. In game 3 he didnt move and couldnt do anything, so we did not get to play a real series, which was disappointing, so because of that I wasn't very proud of this tournament win, which is stupid because it was still a great display on my part, but the finals were not magic enough. I was prouder of Cerulean Cup even though it was 50 times easier because of the time investment, which is not rational, go figure...
*with my tauros being on steroids. I get luck that everyone else but honestly robbing games like i did rob this one is something that rarely happens to me since i do my best to not end up in situations where i end up needing a robery to win. Happened there, didnt like. Honestly i was never happy with lucky wins, i feel more unsatisfied with them than my deserved wins that end up being losses because of hax, go figure... maybe because if i win after getting outplay it means i was bad, whereas if i lose after "deserving" to win it means i played good maybe. Always focus on the content.
Part FIVE - THE TWO MISSING FEATHERS IN THE INCREDIBLY OSTENATIOUS CAP
GGFan: The only things left to do on PP were to win a season and the World Championship. You were in position to win season 12, which ended up coming down to you, myself, and Troller in what was the most competitive season since season 9, which we discussed earlier. You were the first one to be knocked out of the race, and it would be me taking home the medal. Considering the rivalry we had developed, were you happy for me, or were you rooting for Trolller? Also, winning a season was the one thing you were unable to accomplish--does it bother you, or are you OK with it given your overall consistency and myriad of other accolades?
Peasounay: Winning a season was a thing I really wanted to win on PP, especially because I still had a mind the time where my younger self thought it would be impossible for him to ever manage that since he couldnt get past round 2. I was frustrated losing that race because I think it happened twice in a row ? Especially given the circumstances of some of my losses that prevented it from happening. After I got out of the race to be honest i really didn't care who won. it did bother me slightly not to win one but i forced myself to be objective : sure some instances i got unlucky which prevented me from winning one, but we were still in 2017, and i definitely had my share of luck, so i didnt give myself the right to complain. Acknowledge and enjoy when you get it, accept when you don't and remember the times you got it. Nowadays when I look back on it, winning a season and winning RBY cup are the two things I did not accomplish. It will never happen again since i'm out of the game and i'm fine with it. I could probably win a season if I really came back into it (RBY Cup is unlikely because the smogon level is now quite high, it's a super high variance tour and there's only one occurence of it per year) but what i wanted was to win a season where i played the members of my generation: marco, lusch, alex, beds, you...
if i win a season in 2020, it will never have the feeling i want it to have, and if i ever play again it'll just be for fun, i wouldn't care about winning, so it will not be the same : i did not manage to win a RBY PP season in the time i wanted to win one, that's it.
GGFan: I know you didn't get very far in the Fuchsia Cup, but do you have any memories of it? This was, by far, the most prestigious of the three "tournaments of champions," and the main reason I bring this one up is because you squared off against Lusch once again, who bested you. Was that a set you really wanted to win because of what happened in SPL, or did you already get the redemption you wanted in the Indigo Cup? I actually took a little break during the summer.
Peasounay: I was still playing a lot of tournaments because I had goals to achieve but I remember i started to stop studying the game as much, I was less emotionally invested. I played like complete shit in fuchsia cup, i wasn't interested that much in it (not an excuse to sound like i would've won if i was, ofc) but simply played bad, nothing interesting to see. I think i played some crap pokemon like venusaur or kingler vs lusch ? I don't remember.
GGFan: Best SPL record, winner of the GC, RBY Cup semi finalist, consecutive Master Tournament victories, Indigo Cup winner. There wasn't much more room left on your shelf, but I'm sure it was fun to figure out how to fit the World Championship in. You won the 2017 World Championship on Pokemon Perfect, in which we had maybe the greatest set in the history of the game (I'm not trying to exaggerate, honest). It went over two hours, I was playing at my very best throughout the entire tour (I dropped just one game prior to our set in the semi finals), and it was full of emotional moments. In the end, the fifth game came down to whether or not Slowbro would stay asleep. It woke up on the third turn, but somehow I got another shot at it. This time I needed to Sing to hit through paralysis, but sadly it did not, and I lost 1-0. When it's all said and done, do you consider this your magnum opus; that is, the best set you've ever had? Also, where would you rank winning the World Championship in your list of accomplishments?
Peasounay: It's funny because PP WC started out around the same time as my master's degree, which took a lot of my time so I had less time to play and work on the game. I entered WC without any expectations of doing well. I remember losing to stunner047 in the first round after playing like shit and getting fed up already. I kept winning my games after that and never went to stage 3 in round 2 and 3. I remember playing good sets vs troller, sceptross, and golden gyarados, but playing them quite carelessely even though i played them well. So here I am in top 4, and I faced you. I remember at the time thinking "okay you're fortunate enough to reach top 4 of another big tournament by mashing buttons, now get your act together and do your best to win that event, opportunities like this are rare so take your chances". I will say this : I picked my teams completely randomly against you. I remember using a victreebel team, which I never use ever.
GGFan: Yes, I remember the Victreebel team. You used that in game 4, and I was able to actually PP waste Wrap to win it somehow.
Peasounay: I was still motivated to play against you and obviously wanted to beat you. The first game I won, playing it quite carelessely as well, and then in game 2 i probably made the most ridiculous choke I ever did in a series like this in the level I had, and I got maximal punishement for it, as I should have been, and it woke me up. I thought "okay dude you're ridiculous, you're better than him and can beat him, it would absolutely be ridiculous to throw away a series like, just get it together", and I woke up and played the next games with my heart out, even though I just picked teams at random. The end of the series was intense as shit, I still have no idea why i picked that vic team. I don't think it was that good but i guess i just wanted to catch you off guard, which did not work at all. I probably thought "if i lose, i have another shot at winning the series so i can affort to take that risk". Game 5 i picked a slowbro team i really liked and it was a complete rollercoaster : every 2 turns so, who had the advantage turned around, "i'm winning this" "huh i think i lose" "yeah no i actually win" every two turns. Was a very intense game and man, that ending, slowbro vs lapras, i absolutely remember it. Tense until the end, I started playing that series without being motivated and ended up playing with my heart out, I had a huge rush adrenaline like I had not had since my game vs Zebraiken in SPL. It was great series and probably one of my favorite series ever, and I ended up on top of our rivalry. We did not mention our set in the PP wcop which is probably my second favorite even though I lost it but because I had a TON of fun and was super happy with how I played. Anyway, I won that series and thought that it was a close and probably lucky win but not especially for RNG, because i won after choking game 2 and bringing a not very good team game 4. Game 5 was so close, it's why i said on the thread that i wasn't sure i was the most deserving.
Anyway, on the other side of the bracket, stunner047, a not so special player, a lucky italian clicker (but who could more than defend himself) beat troller. It motivated me because in the finals I knew i was a lot better than him so i had an opportunity to win another big tournament that i probably won't have many opporunities to win again anymore. So i scouted him a lot and prepared teams I loved. It ended up being 3-2 because he got quite a lot of favorable RNG. During the finals I played my heart out and had a lot of adrenaline just like during my GC final against Leru. I remember two games I won : one with a jolteon + slowbro team i liked a lot when he clearly had favorable RNG, and another one where i played a gengar + jynx team anti-jynx lead team (boom with gengar vs jynx, send jynx, get 5-4), which worked out, unlike against beds in my second PP mt in 2015 ! Now i was more than good enough to play these type of strategies and win. Beating stunner who had favorable luck was kind of a redeeming in our previous series where I got probably fortunate enough to win. So yes, this win felt good because of the intensity of the end of the journey, whereas GC was great from start to finish because of how hard i wanted to win the tournament. here i only woke up at the end to have two great series. I think that WC is my second favorite win after GC. It also felt so good to win after the frustrating 5th place of the year before. Idk if the replays i talked about are on the thread but if they are it would probably be cool to add them because they are probably among the fav games i ever played.
also, i did not play wcop in 2017 because they had cut off rby from it, which was a huge disappointement for me since i had so much momentum and wanted to put my services towards team france i liked a lot. It was frustrating but i wanted to be part of the adventure so i ended up being assistant manager or whatever the title is. ok also i was wrong vs stunner : i played jolteon + slowbro and he was the one with the gengar jynx team, but it's still one of my fav games given the stake and how the series was going. its funny the games you remember arent the greatest in terms of content, they're usually the ones that a specific context going around them.
GGFan: The World Championship was yet another feather in your cap. The only one missing now was to finally win a season. After an unfortunate loss to Idiot Ninja in the second round of MT37, you rebounded with solid performances in the next two, reaching the finals of MT38 against Troller and the semi finals of MT39 against Kaz respectively. Do you have any recollections of these sets? Did you put a lot of pressure yourself because you knew that winning season 13 came down to performing well in these crucial sets? Ultimately, you finished in second place once again, missing out on winning the season by two points for the second time in a row. Do you see this your biggest disappointment, or were you OK with it considering (again) how consistent you were overall and how you were able to win the highly competitive World Championship?
Peasounay: MT37 : this set against tin was probably the worst i ever played in terms of getting lucked. I got literally robbed in like 2 games, got haxed in the 3 others but still went 2-3. And he wasn't as good as he got after so clearly at that time I got annoyed (which rarely happens) but as usual, i accepted it. There has to a "the worst set" anyway. It wasn't the loss in itself as it was a round 2 loss, since at that time winning a season was my prime target it was a bad start. Had this happened in semis it would've been whatever.
MT38 : IIRC i got 3-0'd by Troller ? It wasn't a well played set on my part, I gambled a lot on team choices without necessarily a good reasoning and he countered my zapdos twice with rhydon teams because i spammed it too much. I remember at the end of the set he said something like "hopefully cleaner next time" and although he got luckier there wasn't anything to be shocked about. He got me in the teams, played better, and i think at that time the only finals i was in I had ever lost was against beds for idr which mt ? So like i had my luck in finals before, cant win them all. 100% deserved by him.
also, i already had 3 mts at the time so winning more was a bonus, i wanted the season and reaching finals gave me some good points. The only bad part was that i didnt take a single point in the finals but that's on me.
MT39 : i remember this set very well and it's not a good memory. It was my first big encounter vs kaz after he had improved a lot, and honestly, it was ridiculous. I know that in recent times (mid 2018 and now 2019) kaz was hyped up by the rby community (i'll take their word on that, i was not paying attention) but I have never been impressed with kaz. In this set he made literally 0 plays, switched out between checks and healed up until I got paralyzed (which i got every time), i made doubles and predictions that were only rewarded by misses. I threw like 25 ice beams in the whole set and didnt get a single freeze, it was ridiculous. In terms of RNG it wasn't as bad as against TIN but at least tin made plays, whereas Kaz was just super passive and didn't do anything bar wait to get luck (he had no idea what he was doing) so it was really annoying. Later i teamed with him on PP wcop 2018 iirc ? He was incapable of speaking strategy or theory, played bad teams (i remember a zam + counter chansey + no eq lax + zapdos like rhydon had 30% usage what are you doing), he played garbage techs and every time me or diegolh told him "you play vs X, use Y" he didnt and we were right everytime. so yea never was a kaz fan here That season even though I was the best player registered at that time, felt like i did not have the right to win it. It was annoying, but once again, you can't win them all. Had my share before.
GGFan: Kaz was seen in some peoples' eyes as the "second coming of Peasounay." Did you know him well prior to your semi-final bout in MT39? What was your opinion of him as a player? Did it surprise you that he would go on to make a name for himself?
Peasounay: answered in the previous one, was never impressed because of that set + our interactions during pp wcop 2018, no opinion on him nowadays since i've never seen him play since that pp wcop.
Part SIX - THE RIVALRY REACHES A GLOBAL SCALE
GGFan: In addition to giving it your all to win that season, you had been doing everything you could to help team France win the first World Cup of Pokemon Perfect (WCOPP), which I feel is one of the greatest team tournaments in the history of the game (for both positive and dubious reasons). Before the event, you gave your opinion on the Power Rankings, where you put me in rank S alongside yourself and Lusch, which I thought was a huge compliment at the time. Although I wasn't winning tournaments left and right like you were, you nonetheless saw me as just as good as you and Lusch, which meant a lot to me considering that I wanted 2017 to be my year back on top.
Peasounay: as I said before. It was one my favorite tours i've ever played in pokemon, and yes you were good around these months (better than at the start of 2017 or late 2016, by far imo). I think i had put troller in A because he hadn't became the monster he became later, but looking back at it he was definitly s material as well.
GGFan: I feel that I lived up to that reputation overall, as I beat three of the four best players in that tour (you, Troller, and Metalgross), and barely lost to Lusch in games that came down to a coinflip (paralyzed Exeggutor needed to hit Sleep Powder to win me the game) and Hyper Beam missing. More needs to be said about week 3, however, which was when we had one of our finest sets. The king of controversy, Skeptics, exploited a rule which allowed him to have our team's subs start instead of me and Golden Gyarados (our team's other RBY player) and then immediately replace them with us, effectively allowing him to see which slot he would insert both you and Diegolh into. I was not privy to what Skeptics did, but had no choice but to play the heel as he was my manager and I was his loyal soldier. I also wanted to protect my teammates from scrutiny, as I didn't mind taking the fall for it along with Skeptics. Anyways, you were not happy with this; it certainly raised the stakes in our set, which become somewhat personal. I remember taunting you and Diegolh by saying you were Chretien de Troyes and he was your Maria de Champagne, which inspired the name you used in our set. Game 1 was filled with great plays and memorable RNG on both sides. In particular I recall the game going well over 100 turns and was won by your Slowbro's late-game heroics. In the second game, I remember you brought out Cloyster, but I had Zapdos and managed to pull out the victory in what was a close game. What were your memories of the drama and controversy that ensued before the game, and did it affect your opinion of me at the time?
Peasounay: well it was one more argument between the both of us, we had several in the past for sure and our always intense sets never helped to stop the rivalry. since our rivalry had becomen personnal at that point i honestly feel like both of us were more driven by the will of not losing vs the other than to actuall win. At least it was my state of mind.
i did not want to lose to you and give you the opportunity to brag or troll, so our sets had always a special feel to them, there was a feeling that clearly was not present in games vs other opponents. And that set well, what to say about it... it's my second favorite set against you after the world champ one, for sure, and probably in my top 5 favorite sets i've played. I started them putting some pressure on myself "i don't want to lose against him", and i went out not caring about the result in the slightest : the games were so intense and good i didnt care about the loss, I just had a blast of fun and it was all that mattered. I think you clearly got better rng esp in game 3 but it was all good, it had been me in the past, has to take turns. So yea very nice memories about that set. I also remember that after it, skeptics tried to start trolling me (which i didnt care about since he's nothing) but even with the drama you simply said on the thread "won ggs as always". even though we clearly did not appreciate each other (in my eyes you were the veteran who thought he was so much better than everyone else, in your eyes i was probably the young arrogant reckless player who didnt respect his elders enough or smth), it showed we had much respect as players for one another.
GGFan: Team France ended up reaching the finals of the three-month long tour, where you awaited the winner of the heated tiebreaker between team North America and team Italy. Was there a particular team you wanted to face, or did you not care? It would have been interesting if we won, as our rematch could have been one for the ages and it would have generated a lot of hype due to how hated our team was. Instead, you faced team Italy and were defeated. How did you feel about the finals, and how disappointed was this loss for you? In terms of your performance, you compiled an incredible 9-2 record, essentially replicating the success you had in SPL. However, knowing you I assume that winning the cup meant a lot more than your individual record.
Peasounay: Was it actually 3 months ? I remember that this tournament was the longest i've ever played in, and i thought it was simply way too long, but that's also what gave it a special feel in my heart. I think it was more like 5 months because it started around august and ended during spl auctions in december In the finals I don't think I cared who i would've faced since NA and italy, with france, were clearly the top 3 teams in that tour. Italy was maybe a bit better but in the end, if you want to win a tour, you just have to beat everyone. If you start worrying too much about who you're playing, you've already lost. The finals were quite disappointing to lose especially since he had lead 3-0 and lost 5-3, but team italy played it better. Some of our slots were way too weak (gsc zokuru who was awful as shit, and adv zephir who wasn't good either) and our good players failed in that finals. iirc kenan (adv), raspberry (dpp) and me (rby) won our sets (was a great set vs tin btw) but diegolh threw awfully, cicada didnt play a great game and... we had two free slots. It was still an awesome adventure and one of my best memories in the game. I did my job by going 9-2 (+ one act win), the rest honestly i can't do much about.
Having a good record was good bc it showed i was still winning very consistently but mostly, i was happy to win for my team to advance. I've always been more of an individual tour player than a team tour player, never got too sad with team tours losses (in general, bc otherwise i hate to lose my games in a team tour) because in a team tour there's so much you don't control, if the other dudes do bad well you can help them prep or practice as much as you want but if they click the wrong buttons during the official game it's over. In the finals i did my job, the rest was out of my hands and our opponents were better, when that happens just shake hands and say grats.
GGFan: Did you enjoy WCOPP as much as you enjoyed WCOP, or was one event more special than the other?
Peasounay: As i said my two fav teams tours are 2017 spl and 2017 wcopp. I never enjoyed wcop that much really, for a bunch of reasons.
Part SEVEN - THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME?
GGFan: If you visit my website, you may notice that I started a series called "Number Wars," where I analyze and compare the statistics of players' best years. In 2017, you won 230 out of 351 games across Pokemon Perfect, Smogon, and SmogonJr. Does it surprise you to see such a massive number, even though you knew you were either winning tournaments or going deep most of the time? When it's all said and done, it may very well be the most dominant year of the decade.
Peasounay: It's quite a huge number indeed, especially in a big sample like this, and mostly, during a year where a lot of players were good and the competition was hard. Thanks for calculating it for me lol. It's probably up there within the best but it's hard to say if it's the best bc in any game imo you can't compare different times, and in the years 2010 rby has evolved a lot. There's no answer to that, the best 2018 and 2019 players were probably better than 2017 me in terms of playing but maybe since the game was older it was "easier to get better", you have to talk in relative terms and it's really not possible to say "relatively to the theoritical best rby player in 2017, peasounay is better than 2018 troller or roudolf relatively to how good one could theoritically be at rby in 2018."
GGFan: Some people consider you one of the greatest ever because of how dominant you were in 2017. Do you think this praise is justified, or do you feel you would have had to play longer to be mentioned in the conversation for greatest of all time?
Peasounay: I don't want to grow false modesty but i don't think I've ever heard anyone say I was the greatest of all time (if that's the case i'd like to know who in the rby community said it and thinks it). Anyway imo i'm definitely in the top 5 of all time, maybe top 3 depending on who you ask and which criterias you use, but regarding the ranking, i am not the #1. There is only one best player of all times, and that is marcoasd. In my eyes, to be the goat, you have to have an influence on the game, and without marco, rby would never be the game it is nowadays. He was the first one to actually approach optimal strategy (if you watch any pre 2012 games now it looks horrendous even though the game was old as fuck) and he was the first one to create a huuuge edge with the field. It's simple, every good player that came after him was influenced by him, 100%. To me, he's the individual that had the most impact on the game and that's why he's in my eyes the undisputed #1. I was a great player, but i don't think i had a lot of influence on other, might be wrong but it's how i feel. Since i suppose it's a question you wanted to ask anyway, here's my top 5:
1 : marco
and then, unordered:
Myself : huge 2017, and generally very consistent at a high level. Mostly good at having an edge against the general field (my biggest quality imo is how i manage to adapt to every type of player. In any game with incomplete information you need to be one thinking level above your opponent. It's called yomi, and I honestly think i'm great at that, my big ladder experience probably helped. If i had to guess i'd say I have one of the best winrates against "the general field". It's hard to rate your own strenghts actually.
Lusch : probably the highest rby ceiling ever. Unlike me he struggles more against the general field but has been a pain to every great player. I think we can all attest on that. A great creative mind as well who managed to maintain very good results vs the top players with weird teams. Great mindgame. Honestly, at no point in my career did I consider myself better than lusch.
Troller : The most consistent player of all time ? Great vs everybody, can be impatient/tilting at times but wether he plays vs charizard23 or lusch he's great. Would have to count, but i wouldn't be surprised if he had put the most consistent numbers over the biggest time period ? (2017 to 2019), definitely a monster
Roudolf : one of the highest ceiling, the guy who got the closest to GTO playing, one of the finest gameplanners and mingames. Unlike lusch he doesn't outplay you, he just plays RBY better than you. Definitely the player who played the most games with his A game (which is high). Maintained an overall edge vs the top field for the most games (if that makes sense, i have to rephrase it) Has a mental break as soon as he loses to hax vs a player not in the top 5 but definitely much respect to him.
honorable mentions : you for your longevity, alex because he combines all the traits that I mentionned for other players but had none of them higher than the other top players, and didn't play for very long. Every other player in history imo, is one level lower than all of these in terms of how great his career his.
Part EIGHT - ANOTHER SPL; THE JOURNEY COMES TO AN END
GGFan: Now it's time to say farewell to 2017 and look at 2018, where you signed up for SPL once again and were ranked #1 once again. Of course that wasn't shocking, but my ridiculous lifetime ban from Smogon being lifted mere hours before the signup period certainly was. You played a considerable role in making this happen, and for that I want to say thank you. Because I was unbanned, SPL IX was practically a "who's who" of the decade. How excited were you to see the RBY pool? It was me, you, marco, Lusch, Alexander, Metalgross, Idiot Ninja, Diegolh, roudolf18, and badabing/Earthworm.
Peasounay: It was a great pool, absolutely, which is why i wanted you unbanned, i'm not interesting in playing badabing or whatever (no offense), i wanted to play the best and once i saw how the pool was starting to look i wanted you in (+ would not have thought about it if you werent trolling on the thread so for once it was actually useful). No troller was dumb too, the managers who bought him + lusch shouldve been shot in the balls. I think it was also a pity that beds was not an rby starter, because even if he wasn't as good as he had been in late 2016 until mid 2017 he was still part of this top 10 pool, but eh. was super excited about this pool and wanted to play the best games. We had all the members to put on show for our tier.
GGFan: How did you feel about the player rankings this time? And, if it were up to you, what would they look like?
Peasounay: they clearly werent as shocking as the ones of spl 2017, but this time it's hard to order because the pack was very homogenous
1. Me : i wasn't necessarily a better player in terms of skill than say the first half but i had the biggest accomplishments in 2017 by far (spl, GC, semis of RBY cup + all the PP stuff) + hot streak
2-4. Lusch/alex/marco rank them however you want, me + them was the first pack where anyone could beat anyone and we were clearly better than the rest, only difference between me and them were the better results in terms of tournaments but there you had the first half
5. GGFan : one of the best 2017 year, very solid
6. Roudolf : the proof the voters were actually dumb as fuck like hello he was already super good, only thing he didnt have compared to the dudes above was tournament wins
7. Diegolh : i'm probably biaised on that one bc he's one of my best friends in the community but at that time he was very underrated and he had results and good showings
8-9 : Tin and Metal : tin was up and rising but he lacked results yet and his play wasn't super sharp, he got better with that spl + some tours later. Metal idk i never really managed to know if he was good or not, and he probably has no idea himself. He's not bad and he's always super annoying to face because he can make the most risky plays in an already winning position for no reason. He's hard to read because he's a button masher, and i think at that time he wasn't super sharp (he also got a lot better in 2018). Like don't get me wrong he's not a general "8 or 9 worthy player", it's just that this pool was super stacked.
10. well, badabing, i'd grab a beer with the guy but he had no business playing rby (i can still hear troller's baby screams) Those would've been my rankings, and the results did not match them at all.
GGFan: What was your mindset going into SPL this time? Last year, you had one of the most dominant performances in the history of the tour. Was there a lot of pressure to replicate the success you had last year, or was it more about having fun (as you alluded to in the past)? Did you accept the fact that it was likely you wouldn't have a winning record (I don't say this out of disrespect--even I felt the same way about myself), given how competitive the pool was?
Peasounay: Around september - october 2017 i started to get very busy IRL, notably because i started my master's degree so my playing time was significantly lower. It was also at that time that I stopped working and studying the game. Also, i had some personal issues in december 2017 that made me quite inactive during the tournament. So my mindset was clearly not pokemon-focused like it was during the previous SPL. I was less focused, cared less, prepped less, and the opposition was 10 times better than the previous year, I knew that it was impossible bar stupid luck that i went 8-1 again, but i felt confident i could go positive, which ended up not being the case.
GGFan: Just as we squared off in week 3 of WCOPP, we put on another classic in week 3 of SPL. There was tension once again: this time it was some of your teammates and that other idiot, ABR, who was a TD at the time, heckling me. I was disconnected in game 1, which put me in a hole as usual. However, I was able to complete what I believe to be one of the greatest comeback victories in SPL history when I factor in the harassment I dealt with, that you were the #1 ranked player coming off what was likely the most dominant year of the decade, and how well you knew me. I remember using Snorlax that had Harden and Ice Beam, scored the lucky freeze on your Snorlax, slowed down your Starmie with Harden, and then nailed an even luckier Body Slam crit. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding thanks to what transpired between your teammates and ABR I insulted you after the game, which I regret to this day. In fact, I had a look at the replay about a week ago; when I saw what I wrote to you, I immediately closed the window.
Peasounay: When you disconnected in game 1, you had the advantage, it wasn't over at all but i'd say you would've won this endgame around 70% of the time ? Obviously your stupid manager m dragon was like "it's 100% winning" because he's a fucktard who never understood rby for a single second but the game wasn't over. Anyway it was lucky for me although i don't really like wins outside of battle. Game 2 was super intense as usual, I remember it very well, and well game 3 i just couldn't do anything, which i suppose makes up for game 1. It was another well played intense series on our part but i think the context and the "drama" during the game made it less enjoyable. As for the rest, no worries, you did apologize at the time and it was fine. ABR is one of the biggest idiots in this community.
GGFan: In addition to rekindling our rivalry, you also faced off against Lusch. Was this a special set when you consider how much you trained with him in 2016? Lusch told me that you two often had bo5s against each other to help you prepare for the Master Tournaments. Now, here the both of you were in 2018, seen in the eyes of most as two of the game's most terrifying titans. I imagine the sentimental value for this set was high regardless whether you won or lost.
Peasounay: I forgot to mention that actually, but yes, Lusch and I became good friends mostly when we practiced for MTs because we couldn't get past round 2. Also it's funny because I myself would've thought that I wanted a super intense revenge because of our SPL set of the previous year but it wasn't the case. I was way less invested emotionally because i had a lot of stuff going on irl, so I just played it 100% like when you play your friends on a high stage, there's always that special feel to it. You don't care about the stake, it's just the opportunity to play great games against someone you have a special relationship with. It ended up 2-1, in great intense games that was decided during the last few turns. I could've lost that series, it would not have mattered. Had a blast, that's what mattered.