Sakito: Hello everybody! today I'm interviewing Astamatitos, Winner of the last ADV Cup, SPL Champion and great player in general. Yo Asta how are you?

Astamatitos: Hey, great day so far, just got back home!

Sakito: Nice! to begin this interview, can you introduce yourself in a few lines?

Astamatitos: I'm a predominately ADV player as most of our readers know. I'm mostly known for coming back after a hiatus of 7 years to play for Team Greece in WCOP 2016 and staying around ever since. In the real world i'm doing a chemistry PhD. Currently i'm in the process of writing up my doctorate thesis.

Sakito: Very cool! tell us how you got into pokemon, especially smogon and competitive.

Astamatitos: I was always a pokemon enthusiast. Pokemon was released when i was in primary school still. I remember vividly some of the battles i'd had with friends on the gsc cartridges. Regardless, it wasn't until i was 13 that i'd discover competitive pokemon. At the time gen 4 was not released so there wasn't any wifi battle features etc, making competitive pokemon a very incognito concept. I eventually discovered Pokemon NetBattle after a google search trail led me to it. I was hooked ever since!

Sakito: That's interesting, so you're a real veteran! What do you like the most in ADV? if you could rank all the OU gens from the one you like the most to the one you like the least, how would it look?

Astamatitos: I love ADV because it strikes a great balance in terms of viable playstyles. You can pull off most playstyles and still expect the better player to win. While GSC is similar in that respect, ADV also has the team building aspect as the first gen to introduce EVs. In the team builder it's one of the more intricate gens as the lack of Choice Scarf creates a speed creep metagame not seen in any other gens, making optimal spreads more dynamic with respect to the state of the meta. It's important to be in touch with the metagame to get consistent results.

My rank would look something like: ADV > GSC > DPP > RBY > BW > SM > ORAS

Sakito: I see. You've competed for many big tournaments, SPL, WCOP, what are the most memorable battles you had? you can share replays if you have any.

Astamatitos: My most memorable game has to be the time I had to play Latin America's Mx for the WCOP 2016 qualifier game. The stakes were as high as they can get. The winner of that game would decide whether either of the two countries would be able to participate in the tournament, with everyone counting on me as the decider game. The game lasted for about 110 turns and was down to the wire on every turn. I'm glad i managed to win and allow Greece to qualify, especially considering how much more stringent the qualification criteria have become ever since!

Replay to the game: https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/smogtours-gen3ou-167421

Runner up games that I still have fond memories of would include my games vs Ojama and Tesung in the same tournament, my ADV Cup Finals games vs Ojama and my SPL tiebreak game against Undisputed.

Sakito: Awesome! You've been around for a long time, do you plan to continue to play in the future? do you have any competitive goals right now?

Astamatitos: I'm putting mons on the backburner for the time being. I opted out of playing SPL for this year mainly to focus on my write-up along with other real life responsibilities. I'll be back hopefully by the time Classic starts however. Regarding my goals, this year i've been quite fortunate in terms of tour success having won SPL, ADV Cup and PP's ADV Season. I'd however want to work more on my proficiency of the other old gens to give myself a chance at classic. Not qualifying for classic playoffs despite winning a Cup was rather embarassing! :D

Sakito: Best of luck for the next classic! let's talk a bit about you now, tell us the story behind your username.

Astamatitos: Oh there's no story behind it! It's an edgy nickname a typical 13 year old like myself at the time would come up with. It's a greek word which translates to 'Unstoppable' or 'Relentless'. It happened to be the nickname i was using on NetBattle when i was poached by Atq. Atq was the major clan in the NetBattle community so I stuck with that username ever since. I rose to eventually admin in the Atq community. There I also met Fear who is my best friend in this game.

Sakito: Oh ok! Do you listen music? if yes what do you listen to?

Astamatitos: When I'm in labs I usually listen to 90s rap/hip-hop. Yea, mostly that!

Sakito: ok :o Do you play other games in addition to Pokemon?

Astamatitos: These days not really, I used to play Warcraft III on battle.net before NetBattle but that's about it.

Sakito: Well, I don't have more questions to ask, do you want to add something?

Astamatitos: Nothing really! Thanks for having me here!

Sakito: Thanks for your answers, It's been a pleasure!