= Cypher 
= Chuppa Introduce yourself.
"Yo! My name is Chuppa Neely Cross IV, and I'm a college freshman who plays VGC!"
As of right now, what is your favorite meme? Why?
"Going to go with 'ayy lmao'. The use of the phrase as
both a reaction to something that has gone well, and as a response to the
presence of aliens gives it a lot of depth. It's even developed to the point
that people refer to aliens as ayy lmaos. The meme has definitely been around
for a while, but it has a staying power that some more contemporary and invisible
memes might not."
So far, you have won 2 and got top 4 at premier challenges
in one of the more populated and difficult areas in the US - the NY/NJ area.
How do you feel about your great start to the season?
"Really great! I haven't enjoyed consistency like this
in a long time; my VGC 2015 had back to back PC finals at one point but aside
from that it was just scattered top cuts. The last season also begin with me
not managing to make any of the cuts for 2015 CP that took place in 2014, so my
success so far is a drastic change from that. The most important thing moving
forward will be keeping up with the pace I've set for myself."
You said you were unable to cut PCs in early 2015, but now
you made it to Day 2 of US nationals, to almost qualifying for worlds, and to
cutting PCs. How do you feel about this change? Why do you think this happened?
"A lot of it came from becoming more confident in
myself as a player. After (another) 6-3 at VGC 2015 Virginia, I was in a skype
call with the #imoutos, and my middling regionals performance came up. Angel
talked about how he thought I was a much better player than that, and that I
needed to break out of the mindset of being an average/verge of cutting player.
Me pulling 6-3's at events had become a joke among me and some friends at that
point, that I couldn't keep engaging in if I wanted to do better. I also
started looking at the way I built and used teams differently. A lot of my
average performances came as a result of picking up a friend's team that I
wasn't too familiar with the night before an event. After Virginia, I started
using a team very similar to the KangClef team that Angel got T4 Virginia and
Mancuso got finals in Florida with. I made slight adjustments to it over the
months, and used the evolving team at every PC I attended for the rest of the
season, with only 2 missed cuts!"
Now since we're on the topic of teams, what influenced your decision to use your current team? I
find it interesting due to its lack of Steel-types and the use of the uncommon
Arcanine.
"My current team started as the team that Viera won
Worlds this year with. With the first NY PC creeping up, I needed to decide on
a team to use. I figured I would try a team that I thought would have a lot of
neutral matchups so that I could feel out what the NY meta was like. I couldn't
find a pastebin or report of Viera's spreads, and had some preferences for the
way I used those standard Pokemon (ex. Power-up Punch > Low Kick on Kang),
so I just made some new sets. In the little bit of testing I did, I remembered
that I wasn't a personal fan of Heatran, whose steel typing comes at the cost
of greater Ground and Fighting vulnerabilities than other Fire types have to
deal with. However, an Arcanine that Jeudy used against me kept my Cresselia at
bay with Snarl, and threatened crippling burns against my Kangaskhan; I
realized that Arc played well against the standard teams that i assumed would
be common, and replaced Heatran with it. The lack of Steels that you mentioned
worried me before I brought the team to the event. In the end, I felt my team
had good enough switching ability without any Steel; Dragon is one of the more
unique resists that Steel has, but it's not like Pokemon that rely on Dragon
coverage are very common any more. I haven't missed Heatran!"
Also on the topic of teams, you're currently 3-2 in NPA. What is your opinion of your
record and NPA so far, and how is it being a "Brave Bird"? How does
it compare to being a "Star" last season?
"I'm satisfied with my record, but not amazed with it.
I've definitely had to work for my 3 wins, and hope I can keep adding to that
number. NPA so far has gone really well, we've avoided the grimerstorms that
always happened by the halfway point in previous years. The Birds have been a
great to play for; once I saw our lineup I could tell that we would feel like
an actual team(i.e active chat, supportive teammates/captain), and that's
certainly been the case. While I was happy being a Star last year, there wasn't
quite the same bond. I've enjoyed being around the Birds, and feel more
confident in us than I did in my team last year."
How do you practice for all of this anyways?
"Since the team I've used has been fairly consistent
between actual events, I haven't needed much practice besides the events
themselves to be good with it. I'm not a big fan of putting loads of time into
laddering, and it's not even possible on Battle Spot any more, so the
occasional PS! game on some alt or against a friend has been good enough."
Now, how do you compare 2012 "Drifloom" to the present
Chuupa "Ayy lmao" Croos?
"oh man I really hope you're spelling it like that
ironically. I wasn't even Drifloon until I moved onto Nuggetbridge!
Well, I really had my head up my ass when I was younger. The
consistency I had between 2012 Regionals in Seniors made me think of myself as
a better player than I actually was, and I definitely flouted that at times.
Smogon back then was also my first experience on a public forum, so I wasn't
used to the culture and policies of it right away. After months and months of
my shitposting (someone only makes ~400 posts in their first half a year on a
forum when they don't know what they're doing), Kenan sent me a message about
what he thought I was doing wrong and how I could change it. I hadn't realized
that I'd been making an ass of myself prior to this, so I took the comments to
heart and tried to become a better forum user. I'm not really sure if that
happened until I stopped using forums for anything other than your normal
like-farming, but first year on Nuggetbridge ended with me making a lot of the
tongue in cheek comments that I'm known for at this point. Spending time with
people like the #seniors and Buncha Bulls at events made me a much better
rounded person socially, and helped me start to really enjoy events. Making
friends within the community is why I started going to more events, and also
because these people helped me develop as a player. I'm glad people put up with
me being a meme-spouting piece of shit, and have added to that by misspelling
my name :^ )"
You have been playing Pokemon for a quite long time. How has
it affect you throughout the years?
"I've really enjoyed being a part of a competitive
community since I first attended Regionals in 2010. I don't do much
recreationally aside from Pokemon, and never did, but when I started attending
events I started putting otherwise dead time into things like teambuilding and
practice. You could argue that that's still pretty dead time, but an e-sport is
still a sport! Even when it isn't a real e-sport! Like I mentioned earlier, the
friends I made as part of the game are now people that I hang out with in
person somewhat often aside from events, so that's been pretty cool too."
You recently graduated from high school, moved to college,
and started your first year. How has college affect your life so far?
"My college is a comfortable distance from my home in
NY. I go home about every other weekend, and have only missed one local PC so
far, but I spend the weeks on campus. I have more downtime than I was used to
in HS, and really need to get better
about using it to fulfill my studies and my self. I've enjoyed hanging out with
entirely new people, but I still don't know that many of them; my roommate
never even showed up! I hope I can start enjoying college more in the
future."
How has the college experience been so far compared to your
four years of high school?
"Right now, it feels just like the beginning of high
school for me. I don't know many people yet and the classes are only starting.
Really would like to get to know more people, and get involved in my classes
like I had by the end of high school. That involves being less lazy, which
isn't the easiest after the summer and the start of college."
Have you gotten involved with any organization of any sorts
so far?
"I checked out my school's cooking and gaming clubs so
far, and couldn't see myself getting very involved with either aside from
occasionally showing up to meetings."
Do you already know what you want to pursuit in college?
"Not at all lmao. I'm a math major right now but I
chose that because I felt it was nice and general. I've always enjoyed math and
probably want a career involving it, but I'm not sure how a Math degree itself
would tie into that. I wanted to do Engineering in the past, but recently
Business and Economics have been the most attractive things for me. Working
with money is always fun, and in the past year I've done enough small scale
buying and selling of things like Amiibos that I could see myself working on
larger scales."
Alright cool! Anything you want to say to the readers before the
interview ends?
"I'M FINALLY A CONTENT CREATOR! Shoutout to [Cypher] and 2015 birds past and present!"
Wooo! I hope you guys enjoyed this interview! I really thank Chuppa for this since he agreed to it pretty fast and allowed for an interview to come really quick! If you liked this interview, please tweet / retweet / favorite so other can enjoy it!
Wooo! I hope you guys enjoyed this interview! I really thank Chuppa for this since he agreed to it pretty fast and allowed for an interview to come really quick! If you liked this interview, please tweet / retweet / favorite so other can enjoy it!
