Hello there! I’m Ortheore and this is my blog.

I don’t really intend for it to be anything more than a place to share my thoughts, ideas and opinions. This will likely be predominantly musings on competitive Pokemon, or competitive gaming and gaming in general, but who knows where things will go.

General Gaming

Given that I’m expecting this to be about gaming, I might as well note that I’ve been playing games since I was a wee little gremlin, starting on the PS1 with games like Fifa and Sled Storm. I then only got more and more into it as the years progressed and I moved onto newer systems, with games like Final Fantasy X and Ratchet & Clank defining my childhood. I started playing Pokemon early on in this journey as well, with my first game being Crystal.

These days I mostly play games to relax, with competitive games such as Clash Royale and Gwent being my choices. I’m very interested in competitive gaming in general, but I’m also passionate about games as a storytelling medium and as an art form, particularly games that encourage their audience to truly delve into the themes they explore. Examples of that would be Deus Ex, The Stanley Parable and Journey.

Competitive Pokemon

During high school I was getting bored of the Pokemon games and looking for challenges, and I came to learn of competitive pokemon via Gamefaqs. My curiosity was piqued, and I eventually downloaded Pokemon Online (PO), which at the time was the premier pokemon simulator, sometime around 2010 or 2011. I spent some time experimenting with older formats, and jumped into RBY as soon as it was implemented on PO. I eventually joined tournaments on Pokemon Perfect, and surprised myself by performing well.

I grew more and more involved with Pokemon Perfect, winning multiple tournaments, most notably the 2014 World Championship, at the time the most prestigious individual RBY tournament. I then moved to hosting tournaments and running the RBY tiering project, as well as generally helping to lead the site during its peak. The tiering project may now be defunct, but it laid the foundation for Smogon’s current RBY lower tiers, and there are still interest in its formats (or derivatives thereof).

I eventually stepped down due to mental health issues, but the RBY community still holds a special place in my heart, and I continue to play today. Most recently I’ve been experimenting with some of the worst Pokemon in RBY and occasionally bringing them to tournaments.

IRL and Other Interests

In my daily life I trudge through work helping with data migration for a property management software company, having previously worked in real estate. I enjoy listening to metal, watching anime, and playing basketball and board games. I’m also a serial offender in terms of starting side projects (mostly programming) and not seeing them through to completion.