Wolfey BBL Interview Original

Markus: thanks for joining us today for this interview, I'm really looking forward to it!

Wolfe: I am as well! It is not often I am able to speak in my native German language!

Markus: as you might probably know, worlds is in just about two weeks of time, which means that you most likely already have a good team ready. Last year, you surprised everyone by using the unorthodox pokemon exeggutor to great success! Can we expect similar gimmicks of the reigning worlds runner-up this year again, or will we see a more standard-ish approach?

Wolfe: Ah a brilliant question and a tricky one to answer. I don't want to give anything too important away but I have been working hard all year to come up with an extremely unorthodox team, I think you will really enjoy it.

Markus: That's nice to hear! It has been really refreshing to see Eggy last year in the field of other teams. But on this issue, is it actually more satisfiying you to use pokemon that have a low usage? or do you really search for certain pokemon that like counter the metagame at a certain point?

Wolfe: I personally believe that there are a ridiculous amount of unexplored options in the VGC13 metagame: with over 600 Pokemon available to us it seems strange to me that players would repeatedly pick from the same pool of 40 Pokemon just because they are comfortable with them. To test my hypothesis, I have been looking into Pokemon with low usage all year and I have seen with my own eyes that there are an insane amount of creative Pokemon that can do the jobs standard Pokemon do, except better. I feel that by trying to explore the metagame fully and not take what other people said was good without looking myself, I have improved a lot as a player and as a team builder. I hope that I can do well at worlds so that other people can see that you do not need to use standard Pokemon to win

Markus: That sounds like a fun mentality! I hope you inspire more people to look beyond the 40-50 pokemon we see all the time But now something else... I just recently saw a picture on your facebook wall of pretty cool shoes. Can we expect you to wear them at worlds? or have you other fun stuff in mind? I remember zog who turned up to UK nats in a pikachu costume.

Wolfe: Haha now that is a tricky question indeed! I generally try my best to avoid dressing similarly to Zog, so I am very torn as to whether or not to wear my shoes. I have considered playing at worlds completely naked to try and unnerve my competition, but I have a feeling that would not be a good idea to do during a childrens video game. As for the shoes, I suppose you will just have to wait and see, I can't give away all my secrets just yet!

Markus: Damn, you are really a guy who keeps his secrets secret! On another note, I think it is clear that your final goal is to become the pokemon world champion, however, with the team you are using, would you also be satisfied by a Top8 or Top4 finish?

Wolfe: Although I am sure it sounds arrogant to say, I will be honest and say I will probably be disappointed if I finish in the Top 8 or the Top 4. I know that the odds of me making it to the finals again are not very good because of the extremely strong competition this year, and with more players in attendance, but I have been working very hard all year and I know myself well enough to assume I will be upset if I do not perform as well. I also desperately want to win to help show people that using teams you do not build yourself does not allow you to find cool creative stuff, and hopefully discourage what Pokecheck vs player has done to our game. It is important to me to show the world that it is best to use your own team and that it is possible to do well with new creative ideas, as well as that there is so much we still do not know about the game

Markus: You've been adressing the Pokecheck vs player and people copying teams from others. What exactly are your thoughts about these two factors, that are now pretty present in our current metagame?

Wolfe: I am very passionate about these issues actually. I have a very strong dislike of Pokecheck vs player because it essentially prevents many good players from testing their ideas online, but more importantly allows players to create perfect copies of teams they did not build. I find that a player who copies a good team, although they can do well at tournaments with them (Aaron Zheng won a regional with Sejuns team and Tyvyr qualified for worlds with Bioscis rain team), it prevents the individual players from actually improving and hurts the game a lot in my opinion. Nobody enjoys being bad and having their ideas fail, but struggling to learn to build teams is important to improving in general. I remember in the middle of 2012 all my ideas were awful: for example I thought Mr. mime was actually very good, and I lost almost every battle I played no matter what team I used. But it is because I was able to learn from my mistakes that I was able to improve and do well at worlds with Exeggutor, and then go on and find more Pokemon I liked for worlds 2013. I feel that when players take short cuts they cheat themselves out of experience which is very bad for our game. Especially if everybody stops building teams and there is nobody left to steal from

Markus: At least you are admiting that some pokemon >are< actually "bad" or unusable I also think that people should probably try and find they own Eggys or similar stuff! But I think people are also interested in what you do besides pokemon. For this issue, how many hours have you actually trained a day since you came up with your team? How did the team building process go, what do you actually do for training? And of course, what do you do besides pokemon, your hobbies and so on! Give us a little insight in the life of a pokemon master!

Wolfe: Haha, well this might take awhile I knew when I got second at worlds last year and secured my trip and invite I should take advantage of the fact that I would not need to play in Nationals or Regionals to qualify and that I should start building my team right away. I explored and started looking for something to start my team with, and found something I really liked and went from there. I did a ton of theorying with a few trusted players from around the globe, and just kept working. I would spend a few hours a day during the school year practicing, as well as some during the school day theorying with other people when I could, but with 3 Varsity sports as well as my schools musical and my participation in the top choir, I couldn't always devote as much time as I would have liked to my team, although I still put an enormous amount in. During the summer I spend pretty much all of the morning and afternoon working on Pokemon when I am not visiting family or seeing friends, and then in the evenings I normally spend time with my friends and girlfriend, with breaks during the day to go for runs or read or just enjoy the vacation. I also train my body physically for worlds, and alter my diet and sometimes my sleep schedule to prepare for the upcoming tournament. And of course, training under waterfalls always helps

Markus: Do you really have a diet? And a sleep schedule? Wow, I didn't know people are really that dedicated about pokemon! As for one last question, could you describe how pokemon influenced and changed your live? I know you wrote something about that in an essay How are people treating you know? Oh and before I forget it, on a scale from 1 to 10, how excited are you for worlds? !!

Wolfe: Haha yes I actually change my diet and gradually alter my sleep schedule to prepare for the time change, perhaps my training is too much? I used to be really embarrassed that I played Pokemon before I won my first National in 2011 and I never told even my closest friends. When I won however word got out and all my classmates heard, yet instead of being made fun of like I expected them to, they all were very impressed and praised me for it. That experience helped me become more confident in other aspects of my life, and to eventually become proud of my accomplishments in Pokemon. Pokemon has also given me the chance to travel to amazing places which I never could have done before, and meet some of the most amazing people I have ever encountered, who I would never have met before, some in exotic far away places such as Germany! And as for worlds, if I could explain how excited I was I think this interview would go on for another hour, so Ill just leave it as I AM VERY VERY X100 EXCITED FOR WORLDS!!!!1!11!1!!00
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Markus: Thanks a lot for spending your time to this! Good luck at worlds and I'm really looking forward to meeting you again!

Wolfe: Thank you for interviewing me! I look forward to seeing you, Toasdt, Sewadle, Anilcan, Michilele, Billa, and so on and to meet especially Massi and drug_duck for the first time in 11 days! And I really hope Vancouver’s bridges are ready for us.