Interviews with CTC and Valentine

Interview by Typhlito and Flavor by Jellicent. Art by Bummer.

As I made my way up the stairs of the massive Official Smogon Tournament Stadium, I couldn't help but stare in awe of its grandiosity. Once inside, I noted the large portraits hanging along these esteemed halls of past OST champions, from cholena to gr8astard. One of the four battlers I was meeting with today would be joining those ranks shortly.

Stepping into the training lounge, I found CTC and Valentine preparing for their upcoming match. After greeting them both, I took CTC aside to begin my first interview.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to do this interview.

You're welcome.

I would also like to congratulate you for getting this far! It must be pretty exciting to make it to the semifinals.

Thanks. To be honest, the XY competition is pretty lackluster from the tour games I've seen while being banned. Even though I say this to everyone, everyone really sucks at XY.

He leaned back and thought for a moment.

On the other hand, this meta is dictated by match up more than anything else. More so than BW.

Oh really? Do you have any idea what could have caused it?

The lack of experience I guess is the cause of the general regression of "player skill level". It's a new meta after all, but I knew I'd make it far if I didn't get haxed too bad, because despite being (you can quote me on that) just an average player, I make nice teams.

That makes sense. The metagame between the two gens are very different and everyone probably hasn't gotten used to XY yet.

Indeed.

You know when some people still think Donphan is good we have a problem. =P

Thats an underrated threat right there. It could Head Smash Talon switch-ins and it can OHKO Greninja with Seed Bomb if its Sturdy isn't broken.

It does have its uses I suppose.

Realizing I was drifting off a bit, I straightened up and switched gears.

But before we go too far off topic, even though you are a good player, did you expect to get this far when you signed up?

Once again, I don't consider myself a good player. I never make big plays. I just click buttons and rely on team match-up. Believe it or not, I actually signed up for fun, and when I got banned I just gave my opponent and old friend davidpwns the win. But it turns out, McMeghan said I signed up before the ban so I could keep playing, so I was like fuck it. So did I expect I would get this far. Hmmm...

He seemed lost in thought for a few seconds before suddenly smirking.

I expected to win. They don't call me the lord for nothing.

Why do they call you the lord if you don't mind me asking?

It's because when I was born in a barn, three saints came to me; gr8astard, bloo, and McMeghan. They gave me some nice gear and told me that I am destined for greatness. Ever since then, people have been calling me lord.

Wow, that's pretty interesting.

It might also have something to do with my knack to innovate metagames.

That's a pretty rare skill!

Thank you.

Well anyway, what did you think about the other match-ups in the tournament?

As in this round or in general?

In general.

Um... Well the one that stood out was gr8astard; my boy vs stathakis. Nice fucking hax. Glad you choked on dicks vs atticus. GOTM.

CTC grinned widely for a moment before continuing.

As for the surprising series, they were Valentine vs Heist and Sogeking vs Vinc. Two vets got absolutely pummeled by "two trolly scrubs". But in the defense of my IDM brethren, heist and vinc did use some garbage teams.

Haha. Speaking of hax, were there any upsets?

I guess those were the two upsets in my opinion. They were relatively clean upsets at least.

I see.

As for this series in semis, I believe I'm going to wipe my ass with Valentine because I've been supplying him with teams until now and during testing, I could count the games he's won vs me on one dick... Actually less. As for soge vs atticus, they're both friends of mine and both have adapted to XY both team-building wise and playing wise quite aptly. I really don't know who would win in the other series, because once again match-up is 69% of the game.

So of all of them, who would you think would be the toughest to beat?

If I had to pick the toughest one I'd have to go with... myself. As long as I don't "beat myself" like vinc did vs sogeking and stathakis did vs atticus, nobody is too big of an obstacle. Also, I don't mind losing. It's part of the game. Don't let the cussing deceive you because deep down IDGAF.

You seem pretty confident of your chances. If you win, what will be the first thing you do?

I don't know what I do. I'll probably just hop in IDM Skype call and play isketch with my friends and post lil b gif victory posts in the thread then smoke a blunt.

What no speech? :P

My eloquence is inadequate. The lil b gif and hashtags will suffice. It would be nice to have a trophy, but I do this mainly for entertainment.

Sounds good. Ok I think it's time we start wrapping up. So anyway, would you like to give some final thoughts to your adoring fans?

To my fans, stay based. The lord is with you. Fuck kevin durant by the way. And to all my haters (I know there's a lot of you out there), I'm going to be sincere this time and turn off my internet persona to tell you guys as a regular dude who plays Pokemon...

He sat up, looked me calmly in the eyes, and said:

SUCK MY FUCKING LEFT :]

Hahaha.

Shoutout to PK. Last but not least, shout out all my IDM friends and Smogon friends. You guys have been the fuel for me to continue playing this tour and not missing deadlines via constant trash talk and hoping for my downfall. Thanks a lot.

Well, I would like to thank you for your time. Good luck in the rest of the tournament!

Thank you and have a nice day.

After shaking hands with CTC, I turned my attention Valentine, who was making his final adjustments before the battle.

Hey Valentine. Thanks for doing this interview with us. I would like to say congrats for making it to the semifinals! I bet it must be pretty exciting making it this far.

Thank you very much! It feels great to make it so far this year after losing in top 16 to Whitequeen in OST 9 :]

Hah. So you had to get through some tough battlers to get to where you are. Any thoughts?

I think that I had a lot of great opponents this year. In particular, FLCL was probably the scariest, since he's been putting a lot of work into the main tier this year. Hell, he just won in Tour last week, which is really impressive for a player who mains BW NU.

Oh yeah that was a pretty big win for you, but I do have to ask, what made you decide to bring BP to the tournament?

Well shout outs to a friend of mine who has been scouting and giving me team ideas throughout the tournament. He sat through blarajan's Tour 17 replays, and wrote down all of his sets. After he passed me the pastes he recreated, I noticed that blarajan never ran Taunt on his Thundurus, and that all of his teams were weak to Baton Pass. I knew bringing BP game 1 would be a free win. I haven't used BP since that game, since it's a pretty risky strategy in tournament situations.

I see. Do you think that will put any tension between you and blarajan?

I don't expect blarajan to ever forgive me, but it's not like i give a fuck. blarajan is best at LC, and he should stay there if he can't handle losing to or preparing for gay strategies.

So, did you expect to make it this far when you first signed up?

Any player with a half decent team has a chance to make it this far. In XY OU, match-up does have a lot to do with who wins, so you never really know how far you can make it. Every team has a weakness, and if your opponent brings stuff you're weak to, there's not much you can do. Any player has the potential to win any match, and because of this, I didn't really know how far I would make it. There are also veteran players such as gr8astard, CTC, dragonuser, McM and a few others that play extremely consistently. Taking games off players like this is not an easy task, so I didn't expect to be where I am, but I'm happy to be here.

Well said. So going on with what you just said, what do you think of the other semifinalists?

Ah, the semifinalists. Well briefly looking at the four users who qualified, I'm fairly certain Valentine has the largest cock. Not quite 30CM, #theboy, but large enough to pull through. After CTC gets penetrated, 1 fkn thrust is all that's needed.

I laughed as he leaned back confidently.

Honestly though, I think all of the finalists are very deserving users. Even though sogeking gets a lot of shit for being nothing but a troll, I think he's a solid enough player. He 6-0'd my ass in SPL4, but I think I've gotten a lot better since then. Soge makes very low-risk plays, which makes him predictable, but his teams are solid enough for him to be a threat. Atticus is a player I don't know much about. He's been in the circuit for quite some time, so I expect his plays to be on par. I would have preferred to get one of these two users before CTC as an opponent, since I believe they are less consistent, but it is what it is.

He straightened up a bit, looking more serious.

CTC has been a good friend of mine for a couple of years, thanks to IDM. Our Lord and Shepherd is nothing but an absolute threat. I haven't dropped a game this tour with any of his teams. He is a very good teambuilder, as well as battler, he is definitely my pick to win if he beats me this round in Semis. The one problem with CTC is that you can never get him to stop talking about licking hairy nuts, but that doesn't affect his play so..

Haha. Well then of the bunch, who do you think would be the toughest to beat?

CTC is easily the toughest player remaining. He honestly shouldn't have a problem with any of the remaining players if he makes it to Finals.

If you manage to win the whole thing, what would be the first thing you would do?

I'd make a long ass shout out post, making sure to let CTC know he's a little bitch, and letting Hugo know that the quality of his trophy dropped significantly, since I would have one also. Then I'd probably roll a large blunt and cyber with user Passion.

Nice! Now looking back at the other match-ups throughout the tournament, were there any that stood out to you?

Tons. The best game by far was game 3 of Sinclair vs King. Jason (King) locked himself into Hydro Pump with his Keldeo. Sinclair's only way to win was to go into his Landorus and Rock Polish on the Hydro miss. He got the miss, swept Jason's team, and Jason raged for days. Excellent game, great player alert. Anyways, the 'best' series this tour would probably have to be Dragonuser vs CTC. Very few match-ups were as tense and close as that one.

Were there any upsets?

The biggest upset would definitely have to be Stathakis vs gr8astard. Hugo is obviously a very consistent player in the main tier, having three trophies to back him up, including last year's OST trophy. No one ever saw the replays, but hax seems to be a large part of why Hugo lost that series. The next biggest upset, for me at least, was the round right after that, where Stathakis managed to beat out Marth. I don't have anything against Stathakis, I just think that Hugo and Marth are better players than him. Me beating Heist seemed like a pretty big upset also.

Well I guess now looks like a good time to start wrapping up. Do you have any final thoughts for your adoring fans?

Thanks for all the support in the Semifinals thread! Fuck Kevin Durant :] Shout outs to IDM and TAONU, and all u fellas poppin off can sleep on these pillows.

Haha, well it's been fun interviewing you. Thanks for your time and best of luck in the rest of the tournament!

Much thanks, have a good night.

I shook his hand and made my way back out into the hall. I couldn't help but feel excited to see these two square off as I walked across the stadium to where the other combatants were suiting up. I'll save the results of those interviews for a second article, however.