thank you to new tier 2 Patron Spencer become a patron for early access to my interview with super epic Aeros one of the most prolific gen 30 players in history brave enough to bring such Pokémon as Lunatone Shedinja and Electrode to high level tournament games that interview will be up on patreon early next week pink across is one of competitive Pokémon's greatest team Builders and Ladder players pink across has achieved number one in the world in gen 9u using some seriously creative teams and has an incredible success with Pokémon choices like huian Goodra and mous hole Tinker cross notably saw potential in Alam mola an overlooked Pokémon at the time achieving a rank one position with it Alam mola is now a common staple of the format partially thanks to Pinker cross on his YouTube channel pink across has some of the best educational competitive content out there for new players with in-depth analysis of his own games critiques of viewer teams and breakdowns of fundamental concepts like risk reward and iterative team building he even does one-on-one coaching sessions which you can watch on YouTube too thank you for taking the time to chat with me Pinker cross and how are you well thank you so much for the kind intro um I'm doing great and uh yeah it's it's uh it's a morning for you but night for me so just you know brushed my teeth had dinner I'm I'm uh I'm feeling good I'm nice and relaxed and ready to go that's fantastic I got to say I'm a fan of your channel and I'm glad that you decided to make a channel someone on Twitter told me that uh part of the reason you made a channel was because I covered your tame on my channel is that true yes so actually the the existence of my YouTube Chanel or at least maybe not the the level of activity I have is pretty much entirely because of that allam mola video you did um because at the time I think I had maybe 200 subscribers and I had maybe five videos and I basically thought oh I it would be fun to make a channel but I didn't really think it would be something that would ever take off or be big but then when I saw you make that uh that video about the Ala team I did and it got 100,000 views I thought to myself holy crap I could probably make a video right now and get a lot of get a lot of attention get a lot of new people coming in uh and I did so I I think I remember I was um at University at the time so it was there was a lot of homework and other stuff to do but I stayed up and just you know like went late into the late hours of the night and work to get a a video out as soon as possible sort of strike while the iron's hot and made that live footage of me just playing with the allam molet team and posting it which although it was not a particularly edited or um objectively impressive video at the time I was a lot worse at all the editing and video making um and it got a lot of views I think not compared to what I'm doing now but it was something like 2,000 it was the most views I'd ever gotten on a video and it brought in a ton of subscribers and I think very quickly the channel got up to 1K and that's that's when I really started doing regular uploads so and but yeah it was it was all kicked off by that all mola video you did that's wonderful to hear I I love it when uh experienced players and great team Builders decide to make YouTube channels like bkc did and it's it's pretty rare a lot of the smog on greats and these really knowledgeable players don't really share their knowledge with a lot of people or they maybe don't know how to but I think that's something that's great about you is that you're not only a great player and team Builder but I think you're a good teacher too like you're good at explaining all of your choic is uh sort of for a beginner who might not you can explain it in simple terms that are easy to understand even though some of them teams are quite Advanced and they took a lot of iteration to achieve like a good six what do you think about the skill of teaching yeah well that's that's a really good question I mean I think teaching has always been a big part of my life uh there generally when it comes to academic stuff I've always been fortunate gifted with that so for pretty much all my life I've been tutoring younger siblings and classmates and getting better explaining and my mom too is uh she works in a communication kind of field where basically her job every day is trying to communicate things to people clearly and helping them move past uh you know difficult changes and struggles at work so I remember every time when I was when I was young it was always like whenever I I'd come home upset with something like oh some kid said this and she'd be like well let's let's think about how you can communicate and solve this and at the at the time it really bothered me because I was like can't you just say the kid's a jerk and you know but but I definitely I've had a lot of forces in my life that have helped me get better with teaching and explaining and making things clear uh and I feel very lucky that that uh things have worked out like this so definitely teaching is something I feel comfortable with and I'm really glad that it's translated into a way that's allowed me to do what I love and play Pokemon and um make you know make it profitable and make it something I can actually um do uh with my time so that it's been really nice and yeah definitely teaching is is a big part of that and it will continue to be a big part of my channel and my life that makes a lot of sense that you have that background and upbringing with teaching it it comes across for sure it's interesting cuz my last guest electric wind girlfriend who does the PowerPoint videos also is studying teaching which also makes sense cuz you know PowerPoint common teaching tool that's yeah that's really cool he's got some cool videos definitely the um I've seen some of the Powerpoints they're really funny nice short uh good watch some of your videos have a bit of a like a school lecture sort of style to them as well yes yeah I in fact even my for my some of my subscribe bits I've started saying like giving you an extra five points on the exam if you subscribe uh type of thing so yeah I definitely have noticed that they they take a bit of a lecture style format but I feel like it's it's in a weird way engaging even though lectures are typically considered boring I think if the lectures on competitive Pokemon that's pretty cool yeah exactly I'd attend that class for sure I wanted to ask about the origin of your name Pink across it's obviously a reference to shiny Heracross who is pink uh but why that name you a fan of Heracross in particular or it's shiny maybe that's the shiny got in the game one of your first shinies mhm great question so funny I've actually never gotten a shiny Heracross in any game I don't think but um but what I do remember is I really do like so it's actually kind of on a whim that that my name became um this so my my original name was beige Lord which is why my email is still the email I use for all my business is still uh beig Lord pkmn which is for Pokemon at gmail but the I I actually created this pink across account as an as an ALT um and I just thought okay well you know I need a new account to Ladder Up on so let me just you know put something in I I don't really know how I thought of it I just thought pink across because you it's like shiny Heracross is pink and Heracross was taken obviously so I put this in and what surprised me though was that the color on Pokemon Showdown was the exact color of shiny Heracross so then I just kind of stuck with it and I was lading and then I sort of just forgot to switch alts and then I stayed on it for so long uh that it just sort of became what people knew me by so I wanted to stick with that and stick with the brand uh but it is it is definitely I will also say my favorite Pokemon I would say is Mega Heracross although if some people say that's not you can't have a mega as a favorite because it's you know I guess not always in that form so I'd say my favorite non or base form Pokemon would be S Cavalier actually oh interesting so there was no particular attachment or too much meaning behind it sounds like just an ALT no yeah really just an ALT um yeah things work in mysterious ways sometimes though now that's how you're known yeah for sure um other than a fondness for Heracross though yeah you're right pretty much not a lot of meaning behind it you played much gen 3u Heracross is really good there fun Pokemon yeah I I have seen so I haven't played I don't think I've actually ever played a game of gen 3ou I've really been enjoying watching it in the gy vitation and the ADV Revival saw a lot of both those tournaments and yeah so it was um it's a really fun tier to watch and I love and I I love how you can pretty much use anything it kind of feels like generation eight in that way I'd say Generation 8 and three are the two generations where it feels like you can take almost any Pokemon and use it and it works well so it's really cool to see what kind of ideas people come up with and all the cool teams that people bring are you are you fond of J are you I've seen some of your like sample teams for it seems like you were quite active during gen 8 yes gen 8 I definitely had more time I guess in my life than gen 9 so I was able to build a lot more and hit rank one a lot more often I'd say it's maybe my favorite generation I know a lot of people call gen8 boring and they complain about the all the reloom bulky balance teams that are kind of taking over the tier but I really really liked just how it was a team Builder's Paradise really you could make anything work in generation 8 um and it really rewarded Innovation and creative thinking and I think it still is today so um I I don't really understand why gen8 gets the bad rap it does I think if more people were Builders it would be one of the most loved Generations yeah I have to admit I recently have said that a genate is my least favorite meta game just from my experience when it was active I didn't enjoy it for most of it and I kind of gave up on it Midway I've heard that it's like reached a more balanced position in the end when they sort of ironed everything out but I still whenever you look at the SP replays for gen8 it's a lot of like teleport a lot of boots I hate tox upex I don't really like Mel metal either and like a lot of the better Pokémon just sort of not too compelling to me but that sounds cool that you can that's fair build around a lot I say on a matter of teleport though I think teleport was actually one of the big things that led to so much diversity I'm actually a huge fan of teleport spam like I would use slow bro so much and and it's the same way I use um gar and slow King now um the ability to have a bulky regenerator pivot that can teleport enables so many frail Pokemon that wouldn't be able to work in OU without that kind of tool on their side or that at least they wouldn't be able to work nearly as much because there are so many awful or would be awful Pokemon that would not be good because they can't get in they can never enter the field and having something that can safely bring in almost anything like a Teleport slow bro in gen 8 or a chil reception glow King in gen 9 I think is actually really great for the tier that's interesting perspective I really thought of that yeah it does enable a lot more U suppose I just don't enjoy the the gameplay it creates especially when both of you have the same bulky pivot and the Very stal situation sometimes MH no I I totally get that and as far as the playing goes I really I couldn't honestly tell you how I feel J playing wise because I've never focused on playing which which sounds odd given I make battling guides now but my focus has always been on building like I'd make one team and then really work on it make a Pokemon better try to elevate it and then I'd move on so I was always focused on the team and Generation 8 was when I saw more teams work than ever so I think that's really why I love it and I've never um never been much one to focus on the battling experience cuz I was always just excited like oh my gosh pory gonzi is working Umbreon is working Lantern is working and that would be the thrill for me uh but I as far as not liking the gameplay of gen 8 that's totally fair and a lot of people share that opinion so even though I I personally the what however the battles felt was outshone by how much I liked building in gen 8 I definitely think there's probably some validity to that take of it not being the most fun battling generation as an interesting perspective that you so team building really is like the the main thing for you definitely I'd say that's what I'm best at that's what I love I in fact so often I have to remind myself to be patient when battling because I don't the way I learned battling was as testing teams not even like really necessarily trying to win but more so seeing how well the team could do so um often times when I'm playing I'll just make really obvious plays and just be like going fullon autopilot clicking moves in like 5 seconds and I've got to remind myself now hold on the viewers want battles they want real battles they want to see you you make good plays take a step back you're not just testing you got to think too um but yeah for for a lot of times it's it's really just about the team and that's definitely my my main joy in the game does come from building just goes to sure there's a lot of ways to enjoy this game absolutely reminds me a bit of VAP auno in gen 3 who was known like as a a team Builder primarily and who was he's a bit like you he would uh build around sort of these Pokemon no one even looked at like swellow or lenon and gavo that team he's got a few iconic teams that no one else could have built them except him and he doesn't really play in tournaments a lot but he gets really high ladder positions I think also purely just cuz he wants to test his new teams and he's just jamming games to like iterate on the team as much as he can and get data for the team that some people play like that that does sound that does sound like me I definitely stay out of the tournament scene as well uh I've never been much of a fan of it just the I what bothers me about tournaments is that it feels like there's so much that's out of your control and for some people like that's okay I guess as a tournament player you kind of just get used to being like okay you might get out in round one or you might make it all the way or you might get out somewhere in the middle um and you just kind of have fun and judge yourself based on how you played and I I have friends that do that and they have a good time in tournaments but it I guess what I really like about team building is you work hard and you keep trying you don't lose until you give up in a tournament you get a bad matchup into a poorly placed critical hit and you're out and I don't know I I guess that would just feel like demoralizing I think for me to play in all those tournaments and go through all that scheduling and then it's just like well you didn't really do anything wrong but there you go that's very true yeah lad is the the bad luck will even out over a long time a long a big sample size in a tournament every there hinges on this singular set where variance could impact the outcome you can of course minimize risk and like there's players like soulwind AB who have in incredibly consistent Tournament results oh yeah for sure and those are people who yeah and they're like the opposite of you where they build their own teams too but it's all about the decision making and the optimization of decision making for them that is the joy of the game I would probably assume so yeah I think you're probably right and I want to clarify as well that that the the reason I don't like tus is definitely not a dig on tournament versus latter players at all the um the successful tournament Players you mentioned people like ab and soland to have a consistent Tournament results you need to really be an incredible player and even you know even an incredible player you're still going to you know things will happen most of the time just with how big tournaments are and how many things can go like even a guy like AB is I don't know his win percentage but I'd be shocked if it was higher than say maybe 30% of the tourus he entered because there's just so much that can happen but even like a rate like say 30% I'm kind of just pulling that number out of nowhere it is incredible and the the mentality and the effort that goes into tournaments um like yes you do need some things to go right or rather you need some things to not go wrong but you don't win a tournament without being an incredibly talented and dedicated player definitely and it's it's a different experience especially in something like gen 3u you'll have players that have known each other for years and have this deep understanding of each other and every time they play It's like a joy it's like this incredibly high level thing happening or something like recently like ban Man ify versus soulwind is kind of a rival route that's evolving in gen 3 where they played last year in citational ban man if you got a bit of an upset they rematched in in the gy vitational and was another amazing set that like these opposite players where soulwind is very fol plays a lot of balancy defensive teams B man ify plays these insanely aggressive like ridiculous looking teams that on the surface make no sense but it's also a different um style of team building in tournaments where you are sometimes building a team that will work once against one particular opponent and it's like this Chain Reaction going off where you you study their games and you have like lines mapped out for them specifically or you're trying to counter team them yeah it where on a on the ladder you're trying to make a team that is overall consistent against like all of these matchups which is a little bit of a different thing for sure yeah no that's that's a very good point about the building and that's actually another thing that now that you mentioned I realize that I'm not a fan of of the tournament scene just not not that i' say it's bad in general but just not for me personally is how many teams you have to build um because you know for me it's about getting a team that's consistent and just polished and really can handle a lot of lot of different matchups and as really consistent performance and I have very very high standards for when I consider a team good and I'll put it away and say okay I'm ready to make an rmt or send this out to viewers and for me like in a tournament you especially with replays being public you can't just be using the same team all the time you have to build a ton of teams and I wouldn't be able to build to the standard I normally do I would feel like like a chef with too many customers having to put out poorly cooked meals you know um yeah right and it's and it's and some people find that the fact that you have to constantly be building new teams and adapt to your opponent invigorating and it's definitely a skill but it would I think it would hurt my soul to put out teams that I knew would have really crushing matchups and would not have that consistency I I strive for on ladder I spoke with Frieza about something similar where he actually doesn't really enjoy the team building part he mostly enjoys the decision making and the the game to game moment to moment battle experience which is why he really enoys random battles cuz you don't build at all you're sort of making a game plan on the fly but he said he likes VGC because it sort of s side steps that problem smoke on Ton's have well you have to have all these teams in the back pocket in a vgc2 you are making one team that uh is trying to be consistent in as many matchups as possible and you can the fact that you bring four Pokemon out of your six in each game means you can kind of have like two Tech slots or just try to cover as many matchups as you can and the decision of what to bring in each game matters more MH so that's interesting too where it sort of sounds like what you saying where you make one team that you bring against everybody yeah definitely the the VGC aspect especially I think they have open Team sheets where it's like you can see everything yeah so yeah I I definitely really like that about VGC that you can just like really really polish and work on and hone one team and then go with that until the next regulation comes along I I'd say definitely if I Branch out to another tier Beyond just OU I it will be VG I think you could be you could be a good VGC player yeah different skill set there like singles is totally different oh yeah it'll be an adjustment it'll be a major adjustment it's like if I if I have time maybe I get like a vacation or I don't know some maybe maybe Co part two comes around hopefully not but something like that happens and I I find myself and I'll with a lot of unexpected time on my hands I'll probably go and try to learn it can look forward to that folks we got a question from Ted Brower since pink across has built thousands of teams what is his favorite Pokémon to use in any tier and favorite set to run on it that's a great question and actually I think this is an easy one for me it's Reggie lucky generation8 regil Ley heavy duty boots um rapid spin volt switch electro ball ancient power that's my favorite um such a cool Pokemon to run the amount of pressure it exerts on your opponent is immense a lot of people hate on gen8 regil Ley because they say it gets walled by ground types and it does but that's not really the point it's it's the removal is one thing the speed control is another thing and then the fact that it forces your opponent to protect their grounds so much is a really great tool in the game like if you're in a landeras versus landeras situation your opponent has to switch out or they'll get poisoned you can toxic them and then they're they're in a really tough spot so it's such a cool Pokemon to use super fun and I'd say probably in in competitive reiy is my favorite Pokemon in practice to use so I it was really sad to see it uh have to go in gen n but it was definitely too much with Tera blast ice and Tera blast water but maybe if Tera gets a limitation or ban or something like that one day I'll I'll get my boy back that's I never played with regi lucky and jate but sounds interesting i i s I do like Pokémon that are you know very op in one area but also extremely limited where Reg has like no coverage but inly fast best speed control you can have interesting and mhm I also like Fast offensive Spinners like stamy and gen 5ou is fun to use where it'll sort of it's frail but it's really fast and it will get like one key spin off per game at least and then with that one spin you can you know create a safe moment for your vono Dragonite to get one turn to set up or something it where like it's like an offensive resource Pokémon kind of yeah no I know what you mean I I haven't played much Gen 5 but from the replays of it I've seen uh star me can be pretty cool and definitely the offensive spinner role uh is is a lot of fun and especially with the the thing that's so cool about the electro ball set is after you spin with Reggie lucky you're basically getting 150 base power electro ball on a lot of stuff or no sorry no 120 120 it doesn't go up to 150 uh but you get a really strong electro ball which is is super cool yeah and then you have the game plan of eliminate the ground types and then you just go to the Moon with electric spam that's always a powerful concept oh yeah yeah it's a lot of fun when when you and especially when you run a Reggie lucky team and you run into a uh a team with no ground you just start rubbing your hands together and cackling it's like the most fun game ever definitely um tapu Coco felt like that in gen 7 sometimes even though it did have coverage uh when you do eliminate the ground type it just goes crazy especially if it's spec oh yeah no specs volt switch and Thunderbolt with tapoo Coco and gen 7 it's it's a lot of fun teams just have one ground type so you just get that it's just a Lando or like a Garchomp you get rid of it smooth sailing folks oh yeah yeah very fun very fun Pokemon to run in gen 7 we got a question from Rosco 16,000 what are the best and worst generational gimmicks in your opinion that is a good question so I guess the first generational gimmick I I guess that sort of started in gen five with gems didn't it people say that I feel like that is a I feel like it's a retroactive like because megas exist in the concept of generational gimmicks exist people going back and attributing that idea to gems I think they were just like an item they made I don't know if they they didn't like put it on the box and say like this is the like gems are the big thing in this generation like they did with megas and teror I don't know say that fa I guess yeah the I guess I didn't I don't recall seeing any ads going on about how gems would be broken so yeah let's let's then say gen six I think that's probably a more fair place to start so it's gen six with megas gen seven with megas again really and then uh Dynamax and gen 8 and Tera in and Z moves as well in gen s yeah oh right what am I I completely forgot it's been so long you're right yeah Z moves okay yeah you're correct okay so we're looking at megas yeah megas zoves Dynamax and teral I think honestly this is not too hard of a question best is megas I mean as I said earlier my favorite um my favorite Pokemon is Mega Heracross I love the design I love how so many mega Pokemon Mega Altaria Mega gal Mega Banette Mega Heracross um Pidgeot like there are so many really cool megas that I just I love running um it's it's and the the designs were fantastic too so hands down it's Mega Evolution and the worst mechanic is going to have to be Dynamax it wasn't as unique as any of the others I mean zoves had a lot of very cool creative applications uh that led to a lot of really fun situations uh and remember like there's so many so much awesome stuff you can do with zoves in in gen 7 it's really exciting with the how how just how extensive they are and how creative you can be with the implementation Dynamax though it's like the Pokemon gets big there are no cool designs the gigantamax I guess had some ones but I don't think they really held a candle to the Mega Evolutions uh so yeah it was just overall a very non-balanced in singles although it was better in VGC but just not a super fun mechanic not a really creative one and um not a ton of cool designs so I would say yeah best Megas worst Dynamax that is the obvious answer but it's it's just the truth yeah I did a ranking of all the gimmicks where I had the same worst and best Dynamax has some fans it always surprises me there are some Dynam Dynamax Nation out there love it Pikachu becoming ginormous is just that's P game design right there that's it yeah I think the much harder question is the middle um what did you put did you put Z moves above terasol or the other way around I actually I thought about it so my ranking was uh at the bottom Dynamax and then zoves then Terra and then Mega I actually think Terra I'd prefer over zoves zoves are there are some interesting applications I sort of enjoyed how it affected team building where you could you know use the charge moves like I don't know freeze shock cure and black or something with the Z move yeah or even the occasional utility Z moves were interesting like Z hypnosis was sometimes used on who's that dude zurry zurry yeah that was so fun loved especially on gravity you got the 100% accurate that was uh really cool to run too that's yeah those are I feel like an outlier for most of the time it's just you know what if a sweeper could do a big nuke and Destroy its check that's true that's fair I don't really love that but I feel like Terror Terra is a bit of that too you know like Terra dark King Gambit or something is basically like a a z move kind of a little bit weaker but you keep it but also you can be dynamic with it and I think like a smart Terror use can actually win you a game which I enjoy where like there's an element of skill and decision- making in there where like the better player actually has this tool in the back pocket if they use Terror in a smart way they can squeeze out a victory where they might have been at a disadvantage for a bit you use Terra like one defensive turn to get a key KO it's like a trade you're trading your one per game Terror for this particular Pokemon in this moment and that wins you the game cuz you like can see ahead or you're using it you know on a gargle to become Terra water or a corvite to become Terra dragon cuz that defensively will be really good this game there more there's more Dynamic ways to use terrod than Z moves where it's just pretty onedimensional I feel like yeah I I can agree with pretty much everything you said I think that's it's a fair take overall um and for me really I would have to put zoves as better than terara not really because of the mechanic like in a in a vacuum and definitely probably in application of playing Tera is a cooler idea than like strong move go Burr Z move concept like Tera is it's a creative idea and I actually loved it when I first heard it I thought this is like sounds like really fun but just I think Z moves were a lot healthier for building than terara I think terara has made team building put so much pressure on building and killed so many Niche Pokemon like just the typing was really essential to a lot of what Niche Pokemon would do and when you get add that ability to change it it's like if those Niche Pokemon can't even consistently do that one thing is it really worth running them and that's usually isn't I mean we see so many just six OU Pokemon teams these days compared to previous generations I don't think I think gen n rewards creativity less than ever um and I I have to blame terara there are other factors I'd say but I I think terara is a big part of that whereas gen whereas Z moves they definitely weren't the most competitive in team building and yeah it probably you know it puts pressure on the Builder too to have to consider like a SD dragonium Z Garchomp but I think it was less so just more healthy for for in the Builder as a whole maybe the Tet can be more Dynamic it kind of flips the game on its head where typing could just be S side stepped which has broken things a little bit with some that vona is now an Uber level guy because it can Sid step it's big sweetness that kind of messes with the type matchups which is this fundamental thing aded to it it's a different experience but it's also it's like a you've kind of fundamentally altered this core part of the game as well which is sort of interesting and maybe not super fun for a lot of people who have played for years yeah definitely a lot of experienced players hate Tera uh for just that that it's different which I can understand I don't really hate what it does to the game play although I mean nobody likes it when the king Gambit happens to have the right terot type that ends your soul that's not fun but uh generally it's does increase the skill cap of the game play I would say and adds an extra Dynamic that that can make the game a lot more interesting and the other thing is it used to be you could tell when a game was over pretty early on in all old Generations unless someone really messes up a game is you can usually tell it's over and you don't have that anymore it's really as long as terara is on the field the game is never truly over and some people like that I think I do like that compared to the other recent gens like if I had to choose between gen 7 eight and N I think my favorite is nine cuz terror is at least kind of interesting I like that they do a bit fa interesting question from ten ten CFO can someone truly be called one of the best players if they don't build their own teams that is a good question I guess I haven't really experienced what it's like to be a player that doesn't build teams so I couldn't say I couldn't really get in their head and tell for sure but I would guess no I think you probably could be a very good player and know little to nothing about team building I I would not I would say it helps to know understand building when you're uh playing especially because it can help you figure out your opponent's sets but it's not a huge factor and even deducing your opponent's sets with team building can betray you because oftentimes your opponent you'll say oh well this you know this golden go needs to be defensive because otherwise or needs to be a covert cloak because otherwise he totally loses to gargan akle and then it's just choice scarf and kills you um you know sometimes people just build non-optimal teams so deducing can can backfire and um yeah no I I don't think you really need to build your own teams to be a great player you can practice with teams and really understand how to Pilot teams and how to utilize them and that I think will translate into at least being an okay Builder but if you have someone else pass you all your teams but you uh but you practice battling a lot I'd say you can still be one of the best that's definitely true but it's it's an interesting philosophical question it's something bkc is very opinionated about I've talked to him about it where there are some smoke on players that just have like a team of people kind of that just build for them and they do all the preparation they'll look at the enemy they'll like Scout the enemy and build a team for each Tournament game for them and at that point it's almost like why you even playing I don't know I feel like that is too much with you're having everything done for you I mean you know playing is a skill as well and you don't always enjoy team building but it just makes I remember playing in a tournament once and I was looking at my opponent's replays and talking in the team Discord and I was like oh I noticed that he has been using a lot of Flygon recently maybe I'll try to punish that and then someone someone in my in the Discord said like oh no he he doesn't build his own teams so all that data is useless you have you have no possible way to know what he's going to use or like don't think that any of those Tendencies matter and I was like oh damn but then I build all my own team so he can just look at my scou pull it up and notice my Tendencies and he's got like a what is he got a team of minions to figure me out and I'm just here by myself I don't want to get hire you know a team to play Pokemon I just want I want to build and it's like more optimal to get staff to build the teams for you or something it's a bit lame I feel like I don't maybe maybe I I think yeah the the idea of what you're saying although it makes sense like the idea that because someone else is building the teams for them you can't you can't find Tendencies I don't think it's an advantage I think the player that builds their own teams has the edge over a player that has a team do it for them because when you build your own team you fundamentally have a deeper understanding of how that team operates that's true yeah and especially when it comes to tournaments right when you create a team on your own you can shape it to be the sort of play style that fits with you if you have a team of people creating a team for you you have to kind of learn and figure out that team which maybe for the long run isn't a problem but tournaments are not the long run it is here as a team you have your games in two hours go on an alt and play it a little bit and then go for it so I I would say the player who builds their own team is going to be the most successful but I don't know I'd have to look at I guess I I'm not sure if we have data on that these are all my guesses I don't know if you yeah it's different there are great players who don't build there are great players who do build and there is an element of you know someone like ban manife in gen 3 builds her own teams and they're all like like every line is hyper optimized like you can't just use one of her teams and do well with it like only like there's certain players where only they know how to use their own tapes they have like a very unique way to view the game and yeah that's definitely true and it's not always quite as simple as I just made it out to be but yeah yeah the other thing I will say is I don't think I have ever in my life seen a great player who wasn't at least an okay team Builder now like I've seen a lot of mediocre teams in tournaments especially gen 8 there was this I I call it do nothing balance that a lot of tournament Players make um and this is something I go over on my on my channel a lot which is I say when you're building balance teams and there'll be a video coming out soon on on a guide to build balance but when you're building balance teams you think offensively first you develop a breaking core then you cover your team defensively and I can look at some of these teams tour players will make and they're just they immediately you can tell they thought defensively right off the bat and then ended up putting trying to add in some offense and a breaking cord later and it it it shows because their teams can't break and so I'll just watch these two ineffective balance teams in gen 8 where the the strongest thing is like a Zora just hitting each other down and it's like come on guys we can do better than this but even though teams are at least mediocre I I absolutely have never seen a really great player that just cannot build um worth a can of beans that's true and yeah I think of you know the smog on great like linear curve in gen 3 was one of the best was the best player at a time and he built everything himself he might have there's an element of you know cooperation with building sometimes too you probably build everything yourself I don't know if you build with it friends or test with them and get their input or what but mhm yeah sometimes I I do so I built a lot of teams with storm Zone back in the day we don't talk as much anymore but we still do sometimes team build we're working on Deoxys defense at the moment so that's a fun project um I I build with srn a lot he's he's a great Builder I tend to be very optimistic with building and srn is is a hater so so he can uh tell me when my ideas are a little too ridiculous and too out there and explain why it won't work and I'm like yeah probably right so I think building with others is definitely something I do a lot generally I do build on my own um but as for using other people's teams I just can't do it I have to use my own teams I it bothers me when I use a team made by anybody else because if it's if it's not good I feel like oh well you know I could do better than this and then I want to build it and if it is really good I'm like jealous I didn't think of it first so I want to go build something you ever take someone's team and sort of Mor put to your own style are you not interested in that sometimes yeah I I've I've done that in the past like when I see an idea I really like but I feel like it wasn't executed optimally I'll say okay I'm going to take this and try to work with it and usually I I'll even sometimes contact the original builder of the team and be like hey I love this idea I think we can do better do you want to work together um so I will do that sometimes but sometimes I'll just see a team that feels really solid and optimized and I'll say good on you you did it I wish I'd done it but good job it was it's a great team yeah I mean I sometimes do use other people's teams but it whenever you're using someone else's teame there's always like little things that are confusing that uh you don't get it's very different to when you're using something you've built yourself in every every Pokemon slot and a move slot is like there's a reason for it that you understand for sure yeah yeah there's always a disconnect definitely I know exactly what you mean question from the pigeon are there any Ubers mons that we like to see on band in gen n so up until very recently no but actually I was streaming a few few days ago and none other than Joey Pokey aim was in the chat and he was advocating for unbanning Palin and at first I think no we already we need bans we don't need unbans right like I I want to see some things go I want to see I want to see like Wellspring I you know there there is some so but then he made a good case for it um he said you know the metag game has changed in a way that he expects would be unkind to palan and when I think about it I I have to agree and I so I think giving Palin another chance could be interesting although I would like to see bans first but yeah Palin that's the one I did see him say that I wonder trying to think of like what is good against Palin and current like raging bolt I suppose resist water threatens it boom is back yeah raging bolt is a big one relab boom is back ogron Wellspring a huge one yeah um wisp dragapults is everywhere that's become really common Tera water gargan akle very popular like Palin if you think about it it was banned in very early metagame um like to the point where people really hadn't figured out a lot of stuff yet and Jet punch was just sweeping hyper offense which was all anyone knew how to do and we're now at a point where there it is a much tougher climate to be a solid water type and I it might be too much but it would be cool to to see it have that shot suppose itd be down yeah it's a ridiculous mon though look at its stats I mean it's like a legend oh yeah no it stats are it's uh it's definitely got some pretty incredible stats very well might be too much like it's got the tools to S side step its its checks pretty well they would probably find a way to be broken and be annoying to cud yeah I would say if it does need to be ban it's the bulk up drain punch set that's going to do it yeah bulk up drain punch taunt jet punch really not a lot to deal with that that was the problematic one that would even be all right ver uh like Aus was a big check but that would just win against amus One V one yeah I guess with yeah with Tera steel it would do that and it can run Terra fire to get past dragapult uh zamazenta I will say that zenta would limit it as well that is one thing oh yeah I think even with taunt I think it would boost step fast enough um but I guess I'd have to check double check the Cals but I I think zamazenta would probably shut it down how do you feel about zenta being you you some people really hate it and want it bned I actually quite like it yeah yeah I think it's fine honestly um I I mean I'm not going to say that that's my final opinion I haven't really looked into Zama zenta in depth but it's definitely nowhere near the top of my band list it's it's overall not a super broken Pokemon I think there are a fair number of ways to limit it and and if it worst case it gets out of hand and you just tear a ghost a defensive Pokemon which pretty much shuts it down and the only way it becomes really difficult to answer is if it uses Terra because in its base form it's weak to a lot of like fighting is not mono fighting is not a great defensive typing uh it needs to usually terar a steel or ter a fire to really be a threat and then you can just respond defensively with a teror ghost and it's crunch does like 20 to corvite and like 22 to Ala mola so it's just not I don't think it's a huge issue I'm open to hearing arguments as for why it's problematic uh but at the moment I I think it's fine and it's it's overall a pretty healthy Pokemon from what I've seen yeah I like it actually I like how it improves a lot against King Gambit and the defense the one po game defense boost you get it's just really nice to check something that is would otherwise get out of hand and just steamroll you like I don't know a roaring Moon you come in maybe you terot reactively something like that roaring Moon gouging fire um it's it's also yeah it's a great tool against hyper offense too which I honestly think needs limitation hyper offense has never been better uh and it's kind of like a gimmick in a lot of previous generations uh especially like in gen seven and eight hyper offense is probably the worst play style uh but then in gen n it's a really strong viable option and Zama zenta helps tone it down a bit I I I don't want to play a meta game where hyper offense is the best you recently did a video ranking like every archetype didn't you I believe at the top was some sort of variant of balance which is usually the case yes yeah bulky balance Hazard stack I believe is the best right now um but yeah hyper offense pretty good as well definitely one of the top play Styles but not quite the top what has been your favorite archetype to use in gen 9 so far it's a great question uh I have enjoyed hyper offense a lot so that's been fun probably my favorite to use has been Hazard stack though just because it's the it's the place it's the archetype where I feel like I have the most control because I kind of missed gen 8 in a way that it was so stable and generation 9 feels so chaotic but when I'm sitting there with my ghost type and my spikes and Stealth Rock up and I'm clicking knock off I feel like it's a very orderly logical structured game plan you have to know when to to stack when to knock off when to put on pressure when you don't click spikes but instead click earthquake with the gcore Brave Bird with the Skarmory when to be offensive when to sit back and it's it's very procedural and I feel like it just fits my my style uh so I'd say probably yeah bulky Hazard stack teams just connect with me and it it sort of feels like old times again I feel like I have more control over the game whereas when I'm playing more off ensive play Styles uh just with I feel like a lot can go wrong the G the game can go downhill pretty fast and with bulkier teams I I just don't think they're that great I think this is probably stalls worst generation and uh it's very easy for bulky teams to be overwhelmed by all the powerful Pokemon out there makes a lot of sense yeah a lot of people find that kind of gameplay boring you're sort of just chipping away at them of time with the hazards and the knockoffs safe pivots that's a bit like I can totally and finding that boring but it's uh and yeah what I will say is though when I use a hazard stack team I'm not talking about Hazard stack semi stall like I have something that's meant to get in and do some serious damage and you know break some skulls things like boots knockoff and then three attacks like iron Valiant things like that so uh I definitely like Hazard stack teams that get the job done fast not like a really really really passive Hazard stack true that's probably the better way to go with it as well yeah I would say so generation n just you can't afford to have a really slow paced team it's just too much can happen to you question from gold gamer which gen n are you team are you the most proud of that is a that's a very interesting question haven't really thought about that much I would say probably the allam mola team would be my favorite for one because I got to use Choice specs Terri BL flying Thundurus which is so awesome really really fun Pokemon to use um I love spamming strong special or strong contact non- contct moves with no immunities it's very freeing and uh it's it's really great for that and also I'm proud of the impact as you mentioned at the very beginning that the allola kind of popularizing that has probably been my largest metag game success this generation as far as influencing things so I would say that's my my most proud build this gen that's a fair answer it's how does it feel to like discover a Pokemon that ends up being an OU staple I don't know if if it was only you I feel like no one was really looking at Alan mola that much before that team though to be honest yeah I mean definitely people were using it it's a it's a wish passer with a bunch of HP it's always been a thing in OU I I definitely would say I went a long way in popularizing it but yeah I I think probably it would have become a metag game staple eventually is my guess but I don't know kind of like in a similar thing happened in generation 8 I made a hail team that really started the arc dis craze but Arc dis being what it is I think it would have found its way into ouu eventually just like I think all mola would have just uh maybe SP sped it up a few months we got a question from blip exists when did you start playing competitive Pokemon how long did it take to get good wow when did I start I think it was about eight years ago I think I started my first um maybe eight or nine years ago was when I found out about Eevees which was kind of sad for me at first cuz I was like Oh you mean my favorite Pokémon from my game aren't optimal you know kind of sad um but then I think I really actually started seriously playing competitive maybe maybe six years ago six or seven but all throughout generation 7even I wasn't great I I was kind of The Apprentice of a of a guy called ban dis and that and me and he was like a really well-known creative Builder and um so we would we would collaborate and build and we kind of just get some really funky ideas to like top 10 and stuff it it would never hit rank one but we get some ideas really high and it would it would be a lot of gimmicky cheesy Stuff like we made a team with that was like centered around block uh block and setup which was fun but I was never great in gen 7 the first generation that I actually considered myself I mean good good is difficult term to Define um but when I consider myself to be a top level player that happened probably through the first time around middle Generation 8 and that's when I really felt like I understood things and gained a lot of confidence in myself and in my teams in my playing uh and my place in the community makes sense you have such a fness for Gen 8 then yeah it's a good point maybe maybe I'm biased didn't think about that I am too I mean everyone hates gen 5ou but that was the generation I started in so I have a fondness for it even though it has objective flaws of course but it's fixing it though they're they're working on it the ban of gems and now they're going after Reuniclus they're doing seems like they're taking some steps yeah there always seems to be something new though in that generation the the gem ban was a while ago and before that they banned like a Baton Pass and then they they brought back Excadrill that wasn't too long before every time they say this is the one that's going to fix it and then something else something else happens we thought cler was solved without gems CL would be fine no cloer is still ridiculous you know we got to entirely ban cloer what was it running after gems like life orb or never melt ice or I think it was life orb never melt ice sometimes a berry sometimes like wow I think some people using white herb I don't know how popular that was sometimes sash I was doing Sash on like hyper offense rain because you clear sand so you can not die to the the the sand when you're on one that was pretty successful for a bit mhm but yeah uh yeah do you think like the coming up in gen 8 affected like what you appreciate in a meta game where you thrived with this this plethora of team building options and uh that metag game where you could just build around something and make it work it's a unique metag game in that way definitely yeah I I I'd say it C affected my values with what I what I consider to be a good metagame in Pokemon and I I think though even if I hadn't started in gen 8 I would have loved it anyway just with how the approach I take to building in games um with and and I love gen 7 as well because you can also make a lot of stuff work in gen 7 that's a generation where you um you can if there's a will there's a way really with almost any lower tier Pokemon uh despite the high power level of gen 7 and those are those are my two favorites so I I think yes it has affected my perception in the sense that I often times do want metag games to be more like Generation 8 building wise um but I wouldn't say it was because that was my first generation I think just my my love building yeah yeah I think I have a bit of a different view on my makes a good metag game where I think that a bit of centralization is actually a good thing like in gen 3 or you you said earlier that it's a generation where you can make anything work that's true to an extent where this Niche Pokémon can really shine because uh like having a niche feels more valuable you're not going to get steamrolled by high base power moves so something like I don't know Lunatone can function as a salomon's check because it it happens to resist flying and be immune to earthquake that's something you can build around but like it's not exact you can't like just pick something and brute force it into viability suppose that's not true any format but there's always got to be there's often going to be like one funny guy and then the rest of the team has to be solid to support it or benefit from it at some way where you're going to have a Tyran swampit scy like these these fundamentally solid guys as the the main core and maybe one one or two maximum of these Fringe picks mhm oh yeah I think you're you're absolutely right and that's honestly that sounds a lot like how it is in generation 8 as well you definitely can't afford to run a a whole team of nonsense I think it is in many ways it's the teleport slow Bros and the F athorn and the landeras that make stuff like Porygon uh and Lantern work wait can you just Lantern A J oh yeah I got I got I think rank one it was like over 2100 ELO with with Lantern it was it was probably my favorite team of the generation what did that do that's interesting yeah so it did it was a heel Bell talk volt switch scald set I believe and yeah it was the really really great so the main thing of the team I so I ran it with tapu bulu which helped give it healing from grassy terrain uh along with the leftovers but also what I really liked was that I ran a boou um SD boou a bulky SD boou plus a choice band Cartana and one of the big disadvantages of both these Pokemon they can break almost anything given enough time um but and it was a toxic boou as well so it could poison those flying types but you had these the issue of contact moves you get chipped down by Rocky helmet and you you take static from Zapdos and you get flame bodied and you get scal burned by tox effects but you had Lantern there to heal Bell which was amazing and on top of that the core of boulu Cartana being weak on the special side and weak to Flying and fire moves Lantern gave really good support to that too so it turned out to actually be a really fantastic core and um was probably the most stall proof team I've ever made a Swords Dance toxic boou plus a choice band Cartana with heel Bell support like you are you are never getting past that with a bulky team that's brilliant has lanon help out defensively against stuff like Zera Aura maybe draal cu the Vol is always good yeah I mean yeah so it would it would be good against more so arazel cuz draal would often have earthquake sadly but with grassy terrain actually I guess it walled okay funny enough um but yeah it was it was great against I think the main thing was Zapdos it would hard wall that um could tank a hit from pretty much anything could take on like a switch into Spec's dragapult Shadow Ball it's actually a very specially bulky Pokemon so it could switch in and get off the toxic mhm yeah so it it didn't really it did well Zora and Zapdos specifically I can't recall if there's anything else oh tapu Coco that was the other thing it really shut down but uh for the most part it was one of those Pokemon that doesn't seem that good in the Builder and I looked at it and I thought I don't think this is going to be great and then you play it and it's actually good like it it it's one of those very rare cases where it was a lot better in practice than it appeared in the Builder that's so awesome yeah that happens in in gen 3 sometimes too like that happened with Banette for me a Banette I was like this is kind of a hairbrained idea I don't know if this is going to work and then wait a minute this is actually going crazy because it it's so good to like scarm CL all Bliss teams really that's what does it do to blissy oh you're just like willowwisp taunt and you have physical HP fighting as well you got the ghost fighting coverage and banetta is like the only sounds actually really good the bana is like the only Ghost type with a physical attack stat has 115 base attack which really good so what's cool about it is that it threatens Pursuit tanit who's the main ghost counter cuz you have stab not stab um times 4 HP fighting yeah that's that's awesome I think I will definitely try betet out and if I uh give gen 3 a go that's I mean I love the mega banet in particular think it's got an amazing design but I'm I'm a fan of regular betet too of course in every generation I've ever played it's been absolutely garbage but I'm glad to hear it's uh finding its way in gen 3 much better than you would expect yeah it's actually quite a good hyper offense m maybe I should look into gen 8 and make some videos about that Lantern in gen8 video could go crazy I never knew about that yeah definitely I um if you ever want to try out some cool stuff in gen 8 I'd be happy to pass you some teams um and if you want to try something new I I could probably you know go back it's it's been a while since I've built anything in gen8 so I'd have to shake off the dust a little bit but I could probably uh probably still cook up some cool stuff it's it's such a stable balance and some would say boring metag game but you can really bring a lot um as long as as you said similarly with Gen 3 you can't just bring anything but you get pretty much one or two bring anything and then you run your landras dragapult for athorn slow bro weile Mel metal all that maybe I should give it more of a shot my least favorite meta game let's give it some respect give it a try could be a fun idea it's always interesting hearing about stuff happening in like a meta game you know too familiar with like learning that Kofa grigus has risen to like a like B rank in gen 6ou like w that's really cool actually yeah I was I was shocked when I heard about that but it kind of makes sense I guess with with toxic spikes being so good and it hard countering meal lopy but yeah it's it's pretty funny and there's actually like no other good bulky Ghost type since they banned Mega Sab so it makes sense in that regard as well it's actually like quite solid Spinx gill who was everywhere there mhm yeah those those bulky cofagrigus Hazard stack teams are they look so funky but I guess it's they're becoming standard which it feels absurd but good on Gen 6 I guess for having all that all that cool stuff going on I've heard great things about Gen 6 that it's people think it's the best they call them fairy Jens you know ever since they the fairy type the fairy Jens but I don't know what do you think would you say it's it's one of the best I mean I haven't played it much so I I'm not sure I not played it much either either but on a surface level there's there's two things I like about it and it's that Gengar still has levitate and there's no tox speex like they're big things you are you're not a fan of toxapex at all I really dislike toxapex that's I see I see well actually and know I'm not to plug genate too much here but I will say I think gen 8 I think toxapex is terrible and that's good news you know it's a bit of a hot take but toxapex saw a lot of uses in in gen8 but it's really falling off and it was falling off even before the generation was over because people realized it's just slow bro food and I I've been saying since since well not day one but since very early on in gen8 slow bro is the new bulky water and slow bro and slow King get toex out of here and I stand by it I think it's just it's not that good um so yeah if if you hate tox Apex and you like unique Pokemon go to gen8 run a slow bro you just you abuse tox effect effects you walk all over it you switch in you get poison doesn't matter you have regenerator set up a future site get out of there it's it's really funny now PEX is pretty pretty awful I would say I guess slow bro is kind of a similar Pokemon the like a bulky pivoting regen scold guy in a way but I I think the pivoting as I as I said ear I think the pivoting makes it a lot more healthy because it it becomes a tool to enable other Pokemon rather than just a wall like slow bro is not meant to sit there in fact they don't in in a lot of cases they don't even run slack off like like whereas toxapex if toxapex got flip turn I'd love it cuz it would become a pivot it would become something that enables offensive Pokemon but as it stands toex just sits there and does nothing yeah toxx just frustrates me because it is so difficult to actually nail down and eliminate yeah there's too many tools at least in gen 7 I felt that oh yeah gen 7 tox effect X is its best Generation by far it is an absolute monster in gen 7 I I think many many argue it's the best Pokemon in the tier and I'd say it's it's pretty close I'm a big believer that you know if you give a Pokemon a broken ability like a reg genen you got to seriously limit them in other areas like amongus is a Pokemon I like design wise where it has regen it's got Spore and like that's it everywhere else it kind of stinks yeah it's got you know it's using like sludge bomb and HP fire as its Flex slots cuz there's nothing else but that can that Pokemon can do well but tox upex they kind of gave it everything which annoys me yeah yeah they they Juiced it up a little bit they're like let's let's give it a ton of defense and toxic spikes and toxic and let's give it a signature signature move banful bunker and Haze and recover and scald and knockoff yeah I can uh I can definitely understand the hate I think if I played more gen 7even I'd probably hate it too yeah but um in Gen 6 I think what's what seems cool about it as well is the the mega mechanic you know in Gen 6 when you Mega Evolve you don't immediately gain the speed stat of the mega form you have the base speed stat for the first turn that you Mega Evolve so for that reason Mega Metagross is not broken it got banned in gen 7 because they changed that but in Gen 6 uh when you mega evolve to Mega metag you start with like the the base for metag Speed so you really slow at first so you got to find a turn to Mega Evolve and then you become this it's got really high speed through 50 I think mhm I think that's interesting yeah you're correct that is a cool mechanic and definitely kind of a good limitation to meas I guess um it's yeah that is interesting in in gen 7 I got to say some gen 7 bands though surprise me like Deoxys defense is banned in gen 7 that feels weird to me I feel like it wouldn't be that I mean I if you look at how it's doing in gen 9 like it's terrible um so it sort of surprises me that it's not allowed uh and I I kind of wonder if maybe Metagross would be okay in gen 7 too I mean maybe I'm maybe there going to be a bunch of gen 7 players screaming at me in the comments I don't know gen 7 metag game very well but I look at all the incredibly powerful Pokemon I'd say it's probably even higher power level than gen n really it's a very high power level metag game and I think like maybe we can let a few more people join the fight gen 7 was Weir with the with the T decisions I feel like mhm where yeah what do you mean by that like what I feel like there's some stuff in gen 7 that is just insane like m is banned in every other generation I don't know why in gen 7 it's acceptable or I suppose you know it's sort of limited by no but it's got Ice Beam for Lander T doesn't meana just have everything on the planet yeah no it does uh there's there is no way to beat mgina consistently except for Shedinja uh there is it's like it you can pretty much count on not having fire covered well I guess yeah okay some some assault vest sets but I'll say the setup MCA there is a setup Mna for every single Pokemon other than Jinja and I maybe you could make a case for saying like quiver dance Volcarona can come in and beat it but yeah no for like it can run like calind one of my favorite sets was Cal mind pain split Flur cannon with uh the fumz and some coverage move for last because that would just decimate stall teams like there'd be nothing they could do I think you'd run Thunderbolt last um for for tox Apex and yeah there was really just nothing you could do about that set if you had a bulky team and then more offensive teams like you switch in your F athorn and then you get hit by a fight Z or um some of them just run like shift gear combine bolt Beam with the electrium to just bust past random things like Scizor and Heatran and all that it's it probably should be banned honestly but that's MCA for you I I think it was a broken checks broken situation where they needed MCA to handle Ash Greninja Ash Greninja was busted I'm kind of like I don't know I'm not a gen s expert but why don't you ban both of them I mean I'm not sure if that was I feel like ash Greninja was more way more limited by toxapex and for athor than MCA cuz I mean MCA is not liking a hydro pump at all and it has no recovery so even like hazards plus Dark Pulse isn't the most fun um maybe was like M but I guess rain Hydra Yeah well yeah AV I guess I feel like the main defensive purpose of a it does limit ashr for sure but also Alakazam is a big one I know that's a terrifying yeah lelay and Mega Alakazam so maybe they kind of kept me gearing around for SI spam but yeah I guess you could ban it which would probably initiate a chain of bands which might be okay that might be fine I don't know what the state of gen 7 is right now if there's even like maybe they've adopted everything it's healthy I'm not sure maybe when I was I'm not really sure either I guess we're just two guys that don't play gen 7 talking about gen 7 but it's fun I I will I've got some friends that play tournament games and it's one of my favorite gens to watch it's a really cool really cool metag game super high power level but and yet just somehow despite the like peak of power creep probably in gen 7 um you can use a lot of stuff so really cool generation maybe I'll figure out what's actually going on in gen 7 right now what the metagame issues actually are if there are any I guess I'm talking about my experience when I played it I did lad a lot back in the day with Gen 7 and I just remember these things frustrating me but that's outdated info at this point probably but yeah you just remember all these broken Pokémon like ash Greninja is kind of a absurd with M the strongest priority water move ever dark fulse spam like those rain teams which is ridiculous and Mna and even Katana was crazy lelay yeah no just the power yeah and the Z moves too the fact that Cartana can click a z move is is pretty sdz move Cartana I must admit is a little bit questionable but I I love it I do like Cartana I use that set a lot cuz they assume scaf and they go zaptos you just hit him with z gig impact one hit him mhm did you ever use the speed boosting set with Z Giga impacts don't you have to go like minus attack nja because it do so much attack you do you do sounds B it hurts people's soul to to run like the 19 IVs and the minus attack nature but if you think about it in terms of speed it's got 109 speed right and you're running Jolly so imagine if it just had 109 attack and you were running an adamant nature and a jolly nature at once that's kind of how I think of it in my mind um the attack go away yeah you get the swords dancece off you click Z normal then you got a speed boost and attack boost it's definitely not a great Pokemon it's a very Niche set but I think it's fun and I think it deserves some respect I'll say in gen 8 as well I think speed boost and Cartana has a place uh but a small one definitely a funny concept to lower your best stat but yeah I actually think it sounds pretty good mhm yeah and it definitely though I will say when you're when you're facing one and they SD to like they get like a double SD on you and you were planning on sacking a Pokemon then Revenge killing it with something faster you get this sinking feeling in your gut as it sets up more it's not fun being on the receiving end of that I can imagine since you're like a Pokemon coach and a good teacher what do you think are some mistakes that a beginners make when trying to learn and improve themselves in competitive Pokemon well uh let's I'll give one big tip for the battling side and one for the building side on the battling side I'd say a big mistake people make well I'll I'll give two one is not making mid-ground plays uh they they make a lot of hard reads and that's how they play like every turn it's like what's my opponent going to do how do I predict them and how top players play is they look at what are my opponent's likely options how do I cover all or most of them and now sometimes top players do have to go for hard reads but that's like when they know they have a bad match up or when things are looking dire like you you have to go for the hard call outs sometimes but uh for most of the game you're not trying to predict your opponent every turn that's just not a good way to play so that's one that's the main thing and then the other one I would say don't play so much hyper offense the new players love hyper offense because it's the best play style for them which makes sense like you will you will if you're a new player you will probably get 200 ELO higher with Hyper offense than anything else because it's a very forgiving play style right like it's a poke a hyper offense team could probably work almost just as well with five Pokemon if you accidentally throw something away and play poorly you might just win with another sweeper uh it's it's just very very forgiving that way so you'll learn a lot better and you'll be able to identify your mistakes a lot better if you play a more balanced team and similarly I would stay away from stall hyper offense and stall stall is not good for learning because you kind of just learn what walls what which is not terrible but you don't really get any practice with applying offensive pressure so stay away from hyper offense andall if you're learning it's okay to play them sometimes like I love playing hyper offense it's it's a good time but just when you're really trying to improve don't be spamming hyper offense and stall on ladder uh and on the building side I would say the the number one mistake I see is just that you pe they'll immediately think about defensively they'll they'll choose a Pokemon to build around they'll say oh I want to build around like a hoopa they'll say okay well it's weak to bug and it's weak to fairy so let me out on a corvite because that covers that no don't do that immediately you want to think about developing a breaking core what doesn't hoop a break what partner can I add that does break those things and threatens them or what can I add that struggles against similar things to Hoopa but can wear them down so that they can help each other break down those same same answers um it's really easy when building to just immediately say oh what type is this weak to and then just put on a bunch of Pokemon that fix your type weaknesses but that's not going to end up with a good team that'll end up with mediocre teams that's great advice I second this I got to say some of your videos have actually helped reinforce these ideas for me too it's stuff that I've know you know I've played for a long time the idea of midg grounds and risk reward and all these things but I think you you explain it very articulately espe your video I in midr plays is probably my favorite from you because this is such an important concept for people to understand it's true that new players love the flashy reads it's like the appeal of the game it's like probably what got them into it was they saw some sick play or yeah the concept of like Focus punching something on the switch in Gen 3 is appealing but often that Focus brch if it's by a high level player is actually like a midr that it's hard to notice because you know maybe you're it's like a Charizard against a Metagross and the the player with the Charizard knows that the Metagross is unlikely stay there and they could go to this or this and the worst case scenario is like not that bad for them they've done a risk reward assessment of like thinking of every line that could happen and they've decided Focus punch is the best move and it might look flashy at Ko a tanit but that's just like a good outcome of many outcomes or something no that yeah that's that's a great example it's definitely a good way to put it and yeah I I I also really agree with what you said about that people being brought into the scene sometimes by those flashy plays um especially with like big content creators that's that's what gets a lot of views like if you look at the um like the agency with aim and blunder a lot of their ladder videos and I mean these guys are fantastic players but a lot of their ladder gameplay is like oh bro bro like do it do it click the move and then it doesn't work like you know half the time but those times it does it looks really cool and it's super fun content like I like watching it too but um when you see these same players like blunder and aim in tournaments they're not playing like that like they're they're making mid-ground plays they're locked in and making you know smart risk reward analysis that's true yeah and it's fun to play like that it's if you just want to play for fun sure oh yeah be flashy it's super fun click ridiculous option but yeah definitely no hate to either of them fantastic players and it's really fun content but um yeah it's not for for like the more educational content definitely their their tour replay play would be what i' check out I feel like as as Pokémon creators we're incentivized to show off flashy stuff and novel stuff I've given people this idea that Gen 3 is this paradise where you can make a team of you know camer up benette Mantine and you'll just defeat legendaries but I don't know and I do always clarify in my videos like this is a niche pick that worked for this specific reason probably I always tell people just like you do to use more balanced teams when when they're learning you learn fundamentals it's not good to use you know speed pass where the game plan is really simple and you're not really making the very deep decisions or managing your resources whatsoever it's just go for the winon win or lose in this binary way it's matchup dependent but I don't know M for sure the reality is a lot of people are not interested in becoming great competitive Pokéball players it is just a fun game so that's fine as well yeah no for sure a lot yeah definitely I mean if you're not if you're not into reaching a certain ELO or you don't want to be a big tour player and you just want to run hyper offense and use your favorite Pokemon like that is that is totally good everybody has a different way of enjoy the game very few people are make a career out of Pokemon um so just you know do what's fun for you I guess for you and I for you and I more more so you uh it is a career and you you definitely your skill is an important part of that but yeah for I guess for probably pretty much everyone watching this like it's not a big deal if you're a good player or a bad player and you know the those terms are pretty arbitrary and subjective anyway as long as you're having fun you're winning I think for me like for most of my life Pokemon was just a fun hobby there was no money in it there was no um it wasn't a career at all to for to be a career was a ridiculous idea but I think it's very fun to have like a rewarding hobby where you put effort into learning something and then you reap the benefits of your your effort with like I hit when I hit gen um rank one in gen 3 or you that was a big moment like a milestone when I've had gotten certain tournament wins against good players it's a deep feeling of like I have actually like gotten better at this thing that I'm putting effort into that's what you get out of competitive Pokemon yeah that that's a great Point yeah definitely um yeah money is not the only important thing or even if it's not a career like the as you said the reward that you feel when you do have a hobby like this that's stimulating and thoughtful and difficult and you you improve and get better that's that's really awesome and um even if you know you you never plan on streaming or being a YouTuber making a career out of it it still it can be improving at Pokemon can be a really rewarding Hobby and um I I I know Gamers gaming in general sometimes gets some hate as being like an idle useless activity but you know this is a it's a difficult thing competitive Pokemon is really hard and really complicated um you know like we you've got competitive chess players and uh you know all sorts of intellectual games that are kind of respected more than than gaming but that's really um kind of an arbitrary and outdated perspective it's it's a really really difficult thing to be good at and if you put the time in and you like it and you enjoy it uh be proud of that be proud that you're good and I would say it's it's also a good mind training tool I I think you will expand your brain and learning about Game Theory and understanding your opponents is is a thing that will help you beyond just competitive Pokemon AG actually bkc talks about this a lot where competitive Pokemon has taught him a lot of important life skills of the concept of risk reward assessment is something I learned from Pokémon where I will not gamble in real life or like do anything stupid but I know like the odds are just terrible it's like going for a freeze chance or something is I have this analog of like if something is a 10% chance I sort of know what that means I have like experience or like oh there's a 70% chance of success but I know that that 30% chance happens more than you realize like a focus blastus you know you get this idea anybody anybody who's ever used Focus blast will not find themselves losing all their money in Vegas that's that's for sure yeah and even um lading you need to have a strong uh mentality and kind of be be Zen about it and not raage which is a good skill to learn like remain calm and like you get destroyed in this outlier game having the having the awareness to realize this is an outlier this is unlucky and not tilt that can help you like I don't know driving on the road or something oh for sure not getting angry like that's something that was good for me too I I tend I tend to be a very competitive and and get angry but I Pokemon has really helped me mellow out over the years and um yeah that that thing you mentioned about too with the um kind of how like on ladder you need to not you know recognize when you're tilting too like that's that's something that's helped me even at work aess at the moment yeah because I'm doing I'm doing right now like a like a software development project and I can tell like I can get tilted with software development just like I do on ladder you know like when it's been several hours and I haven't debugged an error like I know I need to take a break I need to I need to sit down drink some water take a little walk around the office you know um because I you recognize that feeling of getting tilted how good is that competitive Pokemon is it has real world value yes somehow for sure for sure exercise too though you know take care of yourself as I said let's let's let's not let's not be Discord mods let's all be you know healthy strong Gamers um but yeah it definitely has a lot of applications and more than I ever anticipated outside of Pokemon do you have any other Hobbies or games you enjoy interests yeah well on the on the game side I enjoy Smash Bros ultimate and I I meain Ice Climbers I love the combos so that's really fun uh but that's pretty much it for games I I really am not a guy that plays a lot of games I find a game I like and then I just play that so I I pretty much am only good at two games like when whenever someone wants to play like an FPS game or pretty much anything I'm I'm awful at it because I have no experience outside of Pokemon and Smash Bros but those two that I have played I've been playing since I was like a kid so I'm pretty good at both on the uh on the side of non-gaming um I I do gymnastics which has been really fun oh cool uh and like just um especially cuz I'm I'm in University at the moment doing an electrical engineering degree which is very not fun at times a lot of math and difficult difficult problems that you you finish it and it doesn't even quite sometimes feel rewarding you're just exhausted but something like gymnastics it's like there's no real pressure cuz it's just a club I mean it's there's no pressure If you don't succeed but you can kind of take your time you can learn but you just it feels super rewarding when you pick up a new skill uh and that's so that's been really fun what's gymnastics like is that's um oh sorry go for it oh um yeah gymnastics like well I mean it was really scary at first um but I I kind of got lucky in which like I had the build for it I'd been exercising for a long time but I'd never really done anything with it Beyond like lifting heavier weights which is kind of why I got into it I was like here I am just lifting heavier weights which is great and all but wouldn't it be cool if I could like play a sport or do something um and finally my my short stature and stubby arms were good for or something because gymnastics it's actually a good thing there so I'm I've been learning like I learned to do a backflip pretty quickly and I've been trying to learn how to do pommel horse I don't know if you know what that is but it's like you kind of have your um arms on these two handles and you're swinging your legs around and uh it's a lot harder than I thought it would be so I've been working on that for a few years or two two years now but hopefully before I graduate I'll I'll be able to have a decent pomel horse routine I believe maago can that technique Mt cargo yeah he's a big guy pommel horse territory just a stupid joke uh oh I see I see is H yeah um that's awesome yeah and then I I guess the other main hobby would be reading love reading fiction novels Brandon Sanderson best author out there my brother really likes him keeps telling me to read what was it oh you got yeah yes that's that's the best recommendation for new readers if you like fiction books read mbor you will not be disappointed I've I've literally never heard of anybody who read it and did not love it I'll get to that eventually I'm chipping my way through uh Song of Ice and Fire finally like after years of being a fan of the show and watching like law videos I never actually read the books of finally doing that oh yeah I I finished Game of Thrones I think about a year ago they were pretty good I I enjoyed them the funny thing is though just how far back the books are like the show is already done and the books are like not even halfway to where the show got which is pretty funny yeah but I mean the show dipped in quality significantly after it uh surpassed The Source material many agree yeah I suppose I suppose that makes sense I've never seen the show but I I can confirm all of the books are definitely very engaging uh and complex it's kind of like a Lord of the Rings sort of style if you're into that so far it is really enjoying like all the extra detail and depth going on in the book versus the show Even though early on it was a great adaptation like season one of Game of Thrones was really good but like there's just so much more in the book of like the internal monologues of the characters and little moments they had to cut even the scale of it where there's like giant castles they couldn't adapt certain things cuz they're just too uh like Grand and insane like the wall is way bigger than the book and the Eerie the castle the Eerie takes like a day to get up there and stuff but they sure they just walk up like a road yeah know the the the wall in particular in the book really this the scale of it is is awesome um yeah it's it's it's really cool and song in ice and fire that that's the first one right oh that's the name of the whole series the first book was called Game of Thrones and then they named the show Game of Thrones after the book the first book okay I see yeah I don't that's the thing I I read a ton of books I I could tell you like I remember all almost all the scenes never remember the name of the book there you go I don't couldn't quite tell you why I guess I I read on Kindle that's probably why so I don't actually see the cover when I'm reading it ever suppose that doesn't stick yeah but you remember what matters the content I do I definitely remember what matters yeah enjoy lot of cool moments like sci-fi books I do yeah I've read um the foundation series by Isaac Asimov that was great um I read Dune as well I know that's that the movies have been big recently so a lot more people are aware of Dune now I honestly Dune book one I thought was great Dune book two I thought was terrible Dune book 3 was like a Acid trip I couldn't even tell what the author was talking about and then I stopped reading the series but uh I also got really into to do I read up to book four uh what what made you stop well I don't really care about the events Beyond book four is book four is where it gets crazy with um out spoilers you've probably heard of what happens perhaps I hear there's the guy called Duncan Idaho that they revive like 900 times yes but yeah I heard it gets weird if you read book three you know that like later the second fuses with a sand worm and he's got this grand plan to live for like thousands of years and Rural Humanity CU that's the only way Humanity Will Survive or something so like that's pretty sick I want to get up to that book and see what the hell's going on there that sounds awesome and it was actually that's probably my favorite book in the series was it's called God emperor of dun but you're you're damn right that um Frank Herbert he's a very interesting like kind of a crazy writer but yeah a lot of the the books get bugged down with just a bunch of nonsense that doesn't make any sense like there's this whole part in children are doe where they're training saber-tooth tigers to like assassinate people with lasers and then there's this side plot of like dunking ey to her doing some like learning how to get psychic powers and that goes nowhere like it's not even relevant mm yeah no it's it just I don't know the first book felt like such an epic well-designed wellth thought out plot and then it just book two felt like I was reading like a log from a congress Court room like it felt so slow in comparison and so boring just too political I guess and then book three I it just I couldn't tell I at one point I just didn't know what he was going on about maybe I gave up on it too fast but I don't know I feel like there are just books out there that I'd rather spend my time on now that I'm reading the song of Ison it's like night and day the song of well Game of Thrones is the book it it's so engage like every everything is really engaging and he describes the World building well his great exposition right like Dune is just infodumping you and like it's sort of hard to follow what is going on and what characters are doing at any point it's no for sure Game of Thrones is like deep the detailed exclamations like the food they're having and like the scenery and you can picture it in your head and you sort of know what's this character is doing this it's a beautiful story honestly but Dune yeah it feels very I guess that's Frank Herbert's attitude he's very cold he had this sort of nistic view of like this Blake future where the there's this false Messiah manipulating this group of people and like the the world regresses back to feudalism and all this stuff it's like pretty bleak yeah that comes across in the writing style I guess the yeah that that you also mentioned info dumping and that's something I noticed as well that was the one thing I didn't like about the first book um like you know how sometimes those books they'll throw you kind of into this start where you don't quite know what's going on but then they explain it like that that sort of style yeah yeah um yeah he he tried to I don't know if he tried to do that or just kind of didn't care but he was using so many words that were made up during the first few chapters of the book there's a glossery in the back of the book that you got to check to see what what they all mean yeah that's that's thing I I don't know if I that was in the print or maybe I I I guess I probably just didn't know about that I was reading it like what am I looking at I was listening to the audio book and I often would just pause and look up the wiki like what does that mean which is a bit that's the right move it is yeah it is a bit ridiculous but that's the right move if you're going to read Dune for the first time and you looking at the first chapter and you see all these words you don't explain that that you don't know don't think like oh it'll be explained soon it's just a funky little intro it's not you need to know those words look them up it's it's kind of funny like I almost respect the the huus of that like I'm just not going to explain what any this means yeah it's a Vibe it's a Vibe for sure it's kind of sick actually M did you like the movies did you watch the movies I did yeah I saw them pretty recently actually I I watched them not back to back pretty close like within a few days of each other and it was well implemented in particular I like what they did with the character of Chie CU in the book she was kind of just the love interest she didn't really have much of a character and yeah she didn't do anything and in the movie She's like Yeah more of an adversary yeah and she goes and does her own thing at the end like I don't know what they're going to with her character and I think it's a great move that the director or I don't know producer writer I don't know what who who decides but they've moved away from the books a little bit and deciding to change some things which I think is totally The Right Move uh the books I think are probably too Bleak to uh translate into a successful movie franchise but yeah like that that scene at the end you know where okay spoilers for Dune by the way only the first book here so you probably should know by now but spoilers warning uh at the end of the the movie when when Paul kind of goes for goes for the Empire and demands the uh hand of the uh Emperor's daughter to kind of you know make himself the emperor in the book If I recall correctly chny was sort of just like yeah that's fine you know because Paul whatever yeah it's a political move you know we'll still be good but then in the movie they kind of made that the problem it was I feel like um it she just sort of went went with everything and just sort of existed in the book and yeah she's got a character she she sees through Paul she sees that he's the false Messiah and uh that's going to be really cool to see in the next film so I'll definitely see it and I might even I might even give it another shot I didn't like Dune book Tob last time but before I watch the movie I may reread it and try to keep my mind open I think like the concept of the plot and what happens in Dune Messiah is really brilliant not to spoil it but I think it's like a really good sort of deconstruction and Dems ification of what happened in the first book it just gets bogged down by a lot of unnecessary stuff as well and yeah but I think that it could make a really good movie if you trim the fat a bit focus on those those really key plot points that hit really hard and yeah I think it could be a great movie and I have faith that they'll do it well cuz they they clearly have this respect for the source material the director yeah Denny villanu is a big fan of the books and it comes across a lot and he's done a good job I'm surprised that it's so like doing it the books are really out there and insane but he's maintained it like a faithful adaptation while also making it pretty easy to follow for a large audience which is really impressive yeah no it was it was very well done and I you you made a great point there I think about the book well you said it was a deconstruction kind of of what happened in the first book and I think that might have been my mistake reading it the first time cuz I was like eight so I think I was just kind of reading it like where where are the sword fight you know like where the where's I was kind of reading it like a like a an Epic Novel and maybe I kind of all the the the philosophical stuff kind of flew over my head so maybe I should now that I'm a little older kind of you know reread that again and maybe I'll have a deeper appreciation more patience for the for the details as you as you said yeah you could give it a go and there's a movie coming out about it so good excuse good time I think it it actually like a lot of people dislike it but I think if you can get over some plot points that are a bit bizarre conceptually it's really interesting and capellic in many ways mhm definitely want to reevis so have you ever read anything from Asimov Isaac Asimov no I was going to check out found Foundation eventually I've heard of foundation it's it's really good um i' would say okay well there there are five books in the foundation series I would strongly recommend you just read the first three it goes cuz the first three was like the original novels he wrote three and then like 30 years later 20 or 30 years later um he wrote some continuations that were honestly um bordering on offending the original novels I don't really know what he was doing uh but the first three are really fantastic interesting thought-provoking uh and very exciting novels that really don't waste time uh and it's it's like unraveling a mystery as you read them you you really you really they they surprised me at every turn you can't know what's really going on aome sounds but in the same sense yeah it's it's not like not like you don't know what's going on in a confusing way like you have a very clear idea of what is physically happening but the Mind Games behind the scene you can only guess uh and it's fun to make theories and try to try to piece it together as you read yeah for the viewers at home I think like Foundation from what I understand was a really influential sci-fi series that kind of invented the idea of like the Galactic Empire like that is in everything like do Star Wars you know all these sci-fi products that have a Galactic Empire and that rules a bunch of planets that kind of originated from Foundation I believe yeah I I don't know my sci-fi history too well but I it definitely did have that to it and it was it was quite early on so you're you're probably right about that and uh yeah just the whole plot point was was super cool like it's this this mathematician comes up with a way to predict the future using large quanties of data like he can predict economic movements and things that will happen and when Wars will happen and he tries to and he uses this formula this mathematic formula to determine that the the world is basically going downhill and he sees that the universe will collapse and Humanity will enter a period of great suffering unless he can establish this planet that with the right direction can steer things can steer Humanity to success and he calls this planet like the foundation so so that's sort of the the premise and I thought that sounded really exciting that's that's quite similar to Dune isn't it it's very similar in a way yeah kind of Leto as you said like his plan for Humanity it is it is a similar premise um but I would say it was executed better I mean as as I've said I'm not a huge fan of the Dune books Beyond Dune one but the foundation ones were really great other than the last two I'll give that a look yeah what are some of your other favorite books you read like the classics 1984 and all them I actually have never read 1984 I I haven't read much of the classics even I I say to Kill a Mocking Bird I read that really enjoyed that um but that's probably the only classic I really read I read Animal Farm that's another one that was good U but yeah no for the most part just just fiction novels I like I like how the books take me away from bit of escapism World building yeah the Brandon Sanders the fantasy did you like Lord of of the Rings I've not read them yet I I tried to but it kind of I saw the movies first which I think kind of ruined it for me cuz I was the movies were so well done and so fast-paced I read the book and it was sort of like I sort of knew already what was going to happen except it was much slower which I feel like just made it difficult for me to get engaged I might try rereading them again at some point because I was quite Young when I tried but I think it was just I was too I was too impatient uh after knowing what happened yeah I mean it's one of the best adaptations of all time so I could understand that yeah I guess dangerous though maybe read the books first if you haven't uh watched the movies yet people do talk very highly of the lord of the rigs books I'm sure the yeah there's a lot of value to the books over the movies there's a lot more detail in them and it's pretty amazing what tolken did kind of like inventing fantasy as we know it yeah no they're they're objectively incredible books I with just how acclaimed they are and how many people have loved them uh it can't be any other way they they must be fantastic you watch many movies or TV series is it mostly books for you sort of mostly books mostly books for sure I I do have one friend who's um really into film and all that so he he shows me some movies and we've been working our way through the X-Men films oh yeah and that's been a lot of fun but no generally no I'm I'm not a well uh well educated guy when it comes to movies and most of Pop Culture really other than the world of fantasy novels I'm not a very uh culturally aware or um really invested person like I feel like all the all the latest words and slang and artists have all sort of left me behind I I I really I I struggle to keep up with it all I feel the same at times perhaps we're getting old maybe so maybe so you don't keep up with like the big movies in theaters or anything um sometimes I mean while there is like the uh I tried keeping up with the Marvel movies and then they kind of got terrible uh too many cooks in the kitchen I think with all the uh all the interest groups and all the um people I think I I forgot my my film friend explained to me the problem I think he said they they don't go with the director's Vision anymore they have Executives that say well we want this guy in the movie so we can sell toys of that and then we need this in the movie we want that and you end up just with this amalgamation of so many push desires it's not even a work anymore it's just like this product yeah exactly it's yeah it's exact a product perfect way to put it it's not a work of art at all um but sometimes you know like the Dune ones I'll come I'll see it when that comes out I'll probably see the uh Wolverine and Deadpool that's coming out soon so I'll probably see that uh since that reaching the end of the X-Men film so it'll be timed well there but no not not not a big movie Watcher how about yourself I'm a movie enjoyer yeah favorite genre I like horror movies Al lot and I mean my favorite movie is a historical epic Barry lynon so I guess I like historical epics too but those are really long and hard it's hard to find time to watch them they're like three or four hours long some of wow yeah I've never heard of that Barry Lindon you said yeah it's a Stanley kubric movie it's about like h Renaissance Era uh Ireland in England the story this guy who sort of roams around and fumbles his way to the top of society but he feels empty inside it's like a I thought it was a really interesting not only a like a really realistic depiction of the time period with think fantastic sets and really good shots that look you know like paintings beautiful but also uh like a meditational life where like everything this guy does he's almost like a hero in a western who drams everywhere and like reaches the top but then it's all you know what's it all for you get that kind of feeling that sounds interesting and I'm getting more into books recently books are like a recent a recent thing it's interesting different mediums are better and better and worse in certain ways in movies you can do a lot with they say show don't tell like Barry lyen is a great movie I think because there are moments where they'll just let this moment breathe and you're seeing actors with subtle body uh body language that you can't communicate that kind of thing in a book but in a book there's this the internal mon like the scene in in Game of Thrones where Ned is in the dungeon and he's reflecting on his whole life all these memories flooding back to him he doesn't know what day it is that was way better done in the book because you can explain everything and everything happening in his head but how do you convey that in a movie you can't really a movies a better at some things books are better at others it's interesting for sure the one other thing I think is that the presence of movies has made books better because back in the day you know without the internet books you know kind of all you had if you weren't playing with friends and whatever seeing people uh and that's why a lot of these Classics I read it and I'm like people really like liked this like this is so much this is not entertaining but then you've got all these fantasy novels today that are just so well written it's like yeah they're competing with movies so uh I'm kind of happy I think they they've worked on each other they definitely do things uh better uh each of them can um they have their strengths and weaknesses uh and I think the they've strengthened each other as well interesting point yeah it's amazing the books have you think of them as like the oldest medium of all time it's words on a page but they still have their unique value over movies and they have to evolve with them they've changed a lot and people yeah yeah definitely well I think I've got to go make videos and stuff we've been talking for a while here but thank you very much for coming on sounds good hope I didn't take too much of your time I I uh I'm not sure how these things how long these things normally go is about the length yeah okay sounds good yeah I'm all set thank you very much it was it was a lot of fun chatting um we'll end things with one last question there this is an interesting question a mysterious question Biff the banana asks when will he run a low kicks Team Pink across will know what I mean what does that mean oh yeah so yeah Biff the banana he's been asking for a low kicks uh Team Building stream for a long time and I finally did it this Saturday so this past Saturday it finally happened did the low kicks I did it and it was great it was by far the best featured Pokemon I I think I've had uh even though it wasn't like the team with the best win rate the low kicks itself shocked me it was so good it was like MVP almost every game you think that has potential as a breaker sounds pretty all right you know it's fra but it hits everything yeah not so much as a breaker more so as an anti- hyper offense and offense tool like the fact that terug chice band at first impression and kill most things on those teams is just insane um it its matchup against bulkier teams is okay but kind of um inconsistent because they could have a Moltres and then you're you're cooked so but um definitely I I think it has potential I'm going to work on it and develop it and I think if uh I expect it's a viable Pokemon and I think I I hope within maybe a few months low kicks will be you'll see it around U I think it deserves some respect I didn't believe so before I used it but now that I've used it I'm a Believer well there you go folks check out pink cross on YouTube for some upcoming low kicks content that sounds wonderful and thank you for the chat today if you're a new competitive player you want to learn about the fundamentals building decision making pink cross is the channel for you even I've learned from him everyone can learn from pck cross a great teacher and it was a pleasure to chat with you today thank you very much was a pleasure chatting with you as well thanks so much for having me