Breloom Boy has recently won Lancaster Regionals in the Senior Division. He also has been on a roll at the NY/NJ PCs as well!
= Cypher 
= Breloom BoyIntroduce yourself!
My name is Mark Garas and I'm 13 years old. I got second at the Boston Open and won Lancaster Regionals, both in the seniors division.
Who is the worse senior?
Cheesecake44vgc, he brags too much.
You were swiftly able to take top spots at the NY/NJ PCs, as well as take the crown as the Senior champion at Lancaster. How do you feel about your current success right now?
I consider it a pretty big jump from last year, where I did nothing significant. It feels really nice to finally do well at a game that I found enjoyable (outside of Thundurus).
How do you practice for these types of events?
I play a lot of practice games on showdown and Battle Spot. My good friend Joshua Lorcy also plays a lot of best of 3 games with me.
But, school gets in the way, and, since the beginning of high school, I usually only find time for Pokemon on Friday nights, and the weekends.
How would you compare the Seniors metagame to the Masters metagame, and to what you see on Battle Spot and Pokemon Showdown?
Seniors tend to use things that are either very, very standard, or things that make no sense, and won't work at all. What I think differentiates Masters from Seniors is that Masters are able to implement original and cool ideas into their standard teams. For Battle Spot, it is mainly composed of players who use standard things, or Japanese players that use cool teams. Pokemon Showdown is more similar to the seniors division in regard to using standard things or using things that don't work at all.
How did you get into Pokemon?
I have played Pokemon since I was 8 years old with the release of Pokemon Platinum. I got into competitive Pokemon when I went to a grassroots competition with an in game team. I went 2-4, but people there taught me about IVs, EVs, and natures.
How did your parents feel about you first getting into VGC.
My dad was very supportive, taking me to every competition. Also, because I did pretty good in school, he never really told me to stop. My mom wanted me to focus more on studies, and felt that playing a game competitively was a waste of time. But, when she sees that I'm happy, she encourages me.
How do they feel about your successes right now?
My dad is very, very happy because all of my hard work, money, time, and effort paid off. Sometimes, I feel he gets happier than me when I win. My mom is pretty indifferent, however she still commends me on my success.
How do you balance school and Pokemon?
The high school I go to is called Townsend Harris High School, and the work load is pretty tough, about 2-3 hours of work per day. However, when I focus on the work and avoid playing Pokemon while I do my homework, I usually find a good amount of time leftover to play Pokemon. I honestly feel that If I didn't have Pokemon, school and life in general would be really boring. So, avoiding procrastination and distractions helps me balance everything out.
What kind of hobbies are you into?
I enjoy playing chess, swimming, and watching Anime.
What are your plans in the future?
My plans for the future would be to get a job in the field of Pharmacy. However, working in the stock market would be pretty cool too. Wall Street has been a place I wanted to work in for a while.
Pharmacy, how interesting! How come that kind of field?
I was born in Egypt and they have a similar mindset to most Asian parents (not being stereotypical), where they want their child to go to medical school. But for me, I personally find biology pretty interesting.
Awesome. Thanks for the interview! Any shoutouts?
It was a great experience, and yeah. I would like to shout out my good friend Joshua Lorcy for helping me out for this entire start of VGC 2016.
Sorry for getting this interview late! I was busy, I swear! I was interested in interviewing Mark since he has been impressive recently, claiming tournaments left and right. Furthermore, I thought it would be cool to interview a Senior as well. I'm happy that he accepted my offer to be interviewed. Thank you very much! If you liked this, please remember to tweet/retweet/favorite it so others can enjoy it as well!
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