Getting to Know Some of the Coaches

Over the past few days I put out a few questions for the coaches to answer about themselves, without going too personal.  In a few weeks, I'll be asking questions to the coaches about their teams and playstyle.

The questions:

1. What's your name/what would you like us to call you in chat? 2. How old are you? 3. Who is your favorite Pokemon on your team? Why? 4. Who is your favorite Pokemon overall? Why? 5. When did you get into Pokemon? Is there story behind it? 6. What's your favorite game that isn't Pokemon based? Doesn't have to be video 7. What is your favorite Book/TV Show/Movie? 8. What is an interesting fact about you?





Niek, Coach of the Galesburg Gliscors:

1. My name in real life is Niek and i prefer to be called by my name 2. 14 years old 3. Exploud, i've always loved his design and him being a huge special threat makes it even better 4. Infernape, it was my first fully evolved pokemon, i love monkeys and i really like its design 5. Don't know when exactly, i was around 7/8 years old maybe? But i do remember i liked the design of dialga on the box which is why i got the game 6. I dont have a set favorite game aside from pokemon but right now im enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles 2 alot 7. 'One piece' is my favorite "book" (manga), 'Re: zero starting life from scratch' is my favorite series and 'A silent voice' is my favorite movie 8. Im dutch? I don't know if this really counts but im a normal guy in general (atleast i hope so)



OmegaEmerson, Coach of the East Sea Gastrodons:


1. What's your name/what would you like us to call you in chat? My name is Emerson, shocker. Omega or Emerson works fine. 2. How old are you? 18 3. Who is your favorite Pokemon on your team? Why? I’d actually say Krookodile. I’ve only ever used a couple mons on my team before, but Krook was new to me. It’s really versatile and can run some interesting sets. Last week’s taunt set made me put Marv as my favorite Mon so far. 4. Who is your favorite Pokemon overall? Why? There’s a lot. Grovyle (Treecko was my first Pokemon, and I always loved Grovyle), Gastrodon (I did a Locke in Platinum, and my entire team for almost the entire 6-7 gym was a Shellos I had as death fodder which turned into GLOBBY!!! the Gastrodon and saved me. We ended up winning), or Zigzagoon (Jimmy the Gravedigger was born in Red Rescue Team where my underleveled Jimmy went up to Zapdos, Sand Attacked, Tail Whipped, and Headbutted the boss, taking a W.) 5. When did you get into Pokemon? Is there story behind it? Right when Pokémon Ruby came out, I got the game. I ended up playing the games in the order: Gen 3, 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 6. What's your favorite game that isn't Pokemon based? Doesn't have to be video Fire Emblem (Echoes if I have to pick one) 7. What is your favorite Book/TV Show/Movie? TV: I loved Arrow until season 3, but seasons 3 onwards of Agents I’d SHIELD took the show from a really rocky start to a great show. Book: I read all the Bourne until 12, and I quit. Jack Reacher has better books, and I’ve read a bunch of those Movie: A Monster Calls, Bridge of Spies, or Coco are the best movies I’ve seen that I can recall. My favorite movie is some MCU movie or Edge of Tomorrow 8. What is an interesting fact about you? I’ve completed the national dex in every game since XY. I own every main series game since RBY, and I have the boxes for Red and Blue. I’m a freshman in college currently





Adamant1, Coach of the Akron Alakazams:


1 Adam is fine.
2 19.
3 either zygarde or volcanion because their designs are bad ass.
4 three way tie between absol, gardevoir, and sceptile because of nostalgia and the gen I first played.
5 when I was like 6 or 7 my dad first got my a gameboy, emerald, and fire red and since then I’ve been hooked.
6 has to be titan quest hands down.
7 Harry Potter series is favorite overall, with the inheritance series and middle earth being 2 and 3.
8 no huge reveals here, don’t have that much I consider more interesting than anything else




Istanbuldayim, Coach of the New York Klinks:


1. What's your name/what would you like us to call you in chat? My name is Sam, and yes, please call me Sam. Istanbuldayim is long. 2. How old are you? Twenty four, as of the 17th of this month! 3. Who is your favorite Pokemon on your team? Why? Right now, it's Bewear. I thought I'd made a mistake in drafting it, but I've rapidly grown to love it. 4. Who is your favorite Pokemon overall? Why? Oof. It's a tie between Metagross and Volcarona (I'm a sucker for pseudo-legendaries), with Starmie as a close runner-up. 5. When did you get into Pokemon? Is there story behind it? When I was six, my grandma bought all of her grandkids copies of the first generation of Pokemon games. I got Yellow version, and ended up beating the whole game with a maxed-out Pikachu (despite the Elite 4 giving me substantial trouble). I got into competitive Pokemon when I was sixteen, after stumbling onto the Serebii Pokemon of the Week sets. 6. What's your favorite game that isn't Pokemon based? I play a lot of Rocket League these days. Other than that, Halo, Advance Wars, and (recently) the Fire Emblem games are all very special to me. 7. What is your favorite Book/TV Show/Movie? Catch-22 and East of Eden are my favorite books. The Office is my go-to for favorite TV show. Both John Wick movies are favorites of mine—Keanu Reeves exacting revenge makes for fantastic plot. 8. What is an interesting fact about you? I'm a currently-on-strike Physics Graduate Student at the University of Illinois. My research is on teaching methods for improving physics instruction.





Storm137, Coach of the Chicago Tauros:

1. What's your name/what would you like us to call you in chat? My name is Storm (well it’s my middle name, I go by it as a nickname) and I like being called Storm or Stormy. 2. How old are you? I’m 22 years old. 3. Who is your favorite Pokemon on your team? Why? Mega-Latias, Latias is my favorite Dragon Type Pokemon and it’s a lot of fun to use. 4. Who is your favorite Pokemon overall? Why? My favorite Pokemon overall is Eevee. I’ve liked it best ever since I was a little kid and saw the episode The Battling Eevee Brothers for the first time. I loved Eevee and how cute it was and it just stuck out to me as my favorite. 5. When did you get into Pokemon? Is there story behind it? I was four years old when I got into Pokemon. I saw one of the commercials for the show on Kids WB and thought it looked so cool. I tuned in the next chance I could and it happened to be a rerun of episode one. I just fell in love from there and have been a fan of it ever since. I got into it the summer of ‘99 and so when November rolled around, I got to see Mewtwo Strikes back on the big screen. I’ve just always loved it ever since.

6. What's your favorite game that isn't Pokemon based? Doesn't have to be video Honestly, there’s a handful of games in general I love a lot. Some are as nostalgic to me as Pokemon. But I’m choosing a board game for this one. I really love the game of Go. A Chinese game, based around using white or black stones to claim territory along a grid Go board or “Goban”. It’s a bit like Chess but instead of knocking pieces off the board they’re captured - and you can’t get them back. The goal of the game is to fill up more with your color then the other person by making careful plays and covering the board. It was a lot of fun for me and I’d spend hours with a friend of mine when I was a teenager playing it. It’s still a favorite game of mine to this day.

7. What is your favorite Book/TV Show/Movie? My favorite book of all time is Unwind by Neal Shusterman, it’s a dystopian thriller about a world that had a war over things like abortion and the result was that from the age of 13-18 parents could choose to retroactively abort (Unwind) their teenagers and their parts would be used as donor parts. The three main characters are all slated to be Unwound and are trying to survive to eighteen when they can’t unwind them more. My favorite TV show has to go to the full week of Shark Week in the summer. I’ve been watching Shark Week every year on Discovery since I was 4 as well. My family basically plans the whole week around it. It’s a lot of fun. Favorite movie, that has to go to Guardians of the Galaxy.

8. What is an interesting fact about you? My dream is to become an author and right now I’m working on two novels of my own and plan to expand on that number. Elemental Archer and Heritage are the current two. Elemental Archer is a stand alone fantasy novel about a world of elves and our main character having to take on a responsibility she didn’t want to have. Heritage is about mermaids trying to live in human society and spans across two generations of merfolk. I’ve loved writing and creating stories since I was a kid. I still write fanfiction as a way of practice running idea’s and seeing how far I can twist something and plan to add it to original ideas and creations later on.

Clutchsometimes, Coach of the Kansas City Kingdras:


1. What's your name/what would you like us to call you in chat? My name is Nick, I'll respond to that pretty well I think 2. How old are you? 18, I'll be 19 on Friday though 3. Who is your favorite Pokemon on your team? Why? Mega Pidgeot, Great Design, And Kanto Nostalgia 4. Who is your favorite Pokemon overall? Why? Rotom-sp00k, one of my favorite games is diamond as it's the first game I clocked 100 hours on and I found it totally unknowning that it was a one time encounter and just love using it on DPP runs 5. When did you get into Pokemon? Is there story behind it? Originally picked up the game in elementary school because my parents took me to GameStop and told me to get something because they didn't want to hear me complain on a trip to Colorado, and the Charizard stuck out to me on the firered package. Played a lot of mons through around 6th grade when I put it down for quite some time until about my junior year of high school when I bought a 3ds and later Y version, ended up being up really late one night and started breeding something through many dittos and a LOT of time. And after 9 boxes of deino I finally got my modest 5iv hydreigon. Played casually until I really picked it up just over a year ago playing on showdown trying to build teams, that weren't good at all. I've definitely played a lot and learned quite a lot in a little over a years time 6. What's your favorite game that isn't Pokemon based? Doesn't have to be video Portal, Love the whole series but the original always stuck out 7. What is your favorite Book/TV Show/Movie? Fight Club, seen it countless countless times. Probably could quote the whole thing given the chance lol 8. What is an interesting fact about you? Over the summer I worked as a hiking guide in the New Mexican Rockies, backpacking over 200 miles in the course of 3 months






TheNatural91, Coach of the Ohio Ninetales:


1. What's your name/what would you like us to call you in chat? Birth name is Michael. Feel free to call me either Mike or Michael. 2. How old are you? 26 3. Who is your favorite Pokemon on your team? Why? Mega Blastoise because in the old days of playing Gen 1 games, Squirtle was always my go to starter. 4. Who is your favorite Pokemon overall? Why? Gengar. Fell in love with him after watching the original Anime episode. I just loved his silly nature, but at the same time being completely terrifying. 5. When did you get into Pokemon? Is there story behind it? I got Pokemon Blue for Christmas in 1998. I've always been a fan of it, even though I got out of playing Pokemon for a while after Gen 3. 6. What's your favorite game that isn't Pokemon based? Doesn't have to be video. As a kid, my favorite game was Super Mario World for the SNES. I spent too many hours trying to save Peach xD. Nowadays, my favorite game is probably Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. 7. What is your favorite Book/TV Show/Movie? My favorite movie is Gladiator, with Lord of the Rings as a very close second. 8. What is an interesting fact about you? I used to play baseball as it was interpreted of being played in the 1860s.




Nadmikha, Coach of the Kennesaw(State) Noctowls:


1.My name is Nadia but I also go by Nad or Nadmikha 2. I'm 27 3. Mega Gardevoir, it looks so graceful in it's ball gown and if give the right opportunity, it's really powerful 4. Vaporeon, it's so cute! Water is one of my favorite typings and I like how defensive it is. It's my favorite cleric! 5. It was a long time ago that I got into Pokemon I can't remember if I watched the show first or played the games first! I watched the show religiously when it first aired although I watched sporadically after Johto. My first Pokemon game was Yellow. It was funny because my parents got me a yellow Gameboy for my birthday but didn't realize you had to buy a game as well! So they got a game with the word yellow in it so it would be compatible with the system haha 6. That's a really tough choice! I'd have to go with the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy. Those were my first console games so they have a special place in my heart 7. Book: Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke Show: Cutthroat Kitchen Movie: R.E.D. 8. I use to practice taekwondo. I haven't trained in years but I use to be pretty good, I have a medal in a state wide competition





Pac, Coach of the Indianapolis Ponytas:


1. What's your name/what would you like us to call you in chat?

Dillon or Pac


2. How old are you?

25


3. Who is your favorite Pokemon on your team? Why?

It could be Charizard since it was my first pokemon way back when before I realized you could switch pokemon. Or Nidoking because of Speedrunning Gen1. It could be Electivire after leagues I've been in. But I think it has to be Espeon who was my favorite pokemon since Silver until Gen 5.



4. Who is your favorite Pokemon overall? Why?

Victini, hands down. Because of what it stands for and for the hope it brings

5. When did you get into Pokemon? Is there story behind it?

I got into pokemon when I received a crystal blue gameboy pocket and Pokemon red back in Christmas 1998. My sister got blue, and my neighbor got blue as well. Between myself and my sister, we had every game up until ruby and saphire. At that time we kinda fell out of pokemon until the release of XY when my sister purchased Black and White for us.


6. What's your favorite game that isn't Pokemon based? Doesn't have to be video

Warmachine/Hordes is a tabletop miniature war game. It's like a skirmish style version of 40k

7. What is your favorite Book/TV Show/Movie?

Book is Ham on Rye by Chuck Bukowski, it's a love/hate relationship with that book. TV show is probably either Arrested Development or Californication. Favorite movie is probably one of many heist movies like the Ocean's series, Inside Man, or How to Steal a Million

8. What is an interesting fact about you?

I work for a board game company from Massachusetts as their Convention Liaison, basically I get paid to go to conventions for a week. The main one I go to every year is 5 minutes from my house, Gen Con.







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If you would like to be added in, pm me on discord to let me know.