What kind of leader are you?
Umbreon Dan: I am a pretty open-minded guy when I'm in charge - I will always listen to everybody individually. In the cap forum, I read every single post, always, but I also set my foot down when people are spewing nonsense.
Deck: I think I'm a leader with vision. I try and develop in my own mind a picture of what I want every CAP, and work tirelessly toward that goal. I look to arguments that can help facilitate that vision and improve upon it where possible. When I think my vision is incomplete, flawed, or needs work I look to others. Prime example is Cyclohm stats, where I consulted with tennisace on the stat spread.
Reference:
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38366
Beej: Aside from all the "I'm firm but fair blah blah blah" stuff that's obviously true for me, I think that one of my biggest assets is that I can stay focused on a vision and not let it get watered down as a CAP progresses. I think we've all seen how a CAP can end up being diluted in terms of results, do to the implementation of a whole bunch of varying opinions that don't mesh together. While looking through the concepts, I will probably come up with my own vision for the individual concepts based on the questions-to-be-answered sections, and from there I will try to make it come to fruition with the help of the public. Obviously I am not submitting anything, so the CAP would still largely depend on what other people submit.
Reference:
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=2239102&postcount=82
If CAP loses the direction you're trying to head into, what will you do to fix it?
Umbreon Dan: I suspect my instinct would be to be to post stating my position on the matter and the direction in which I'd like it to go, but really it depends on the circumstances. If you mean people are rallying around a dumb poll idea - i would just omit it from the poll, obviously. If the people are misunderstanding the concept, like with Colossoil's concept, then i would just tell them my interpretation of the concept, and that my interpretation is the one we're going to use. I think it's important to determine exactly what the concept means as early as possible.
Deck: Ideally I'd scout all the potential options beforehand, especially in the discussion topic. There are a lot more stages now and you can head off bad ideas before they make it into the poll. It does depend on the concept, but if you allow only for coherent concepts and try to specify their end as much as possible, you only have to make minor adjustments. Worst case scenario is you have to find a new direction with an equally inspired vision. You have to change your original plan and guide it towards an optimal end, keeping in mind the end-goal: fulfilling the concept as it applies to addressing concerns in standard OU. The ultimate goal is to add something that will adress theoretical flaws in standard OU, making it coherent midstream is a constant process.
Beej: Well to be perfectly honest, I think that if a CAP project is going in a completely different direction from what the TL intended, it is entirely the fault of the TL, considering that one would theoretically have plenty of options to prevent that from happening. If the CAP project loses focus, it's because the TL lost focus. I think that not losing focus is probably the most important skill a TL should have, so I would like to think that I and the other people who are running shouldn't really be capable of screwing up like that. I think I would be strict enough to not allow that to happen, but if I end up allowing a vague concept into the polls and it wins, I would probably try to find a way to re-interpret the concept in a way that would be more relevant to what we're trying to create, which is a metagame experiment. Obviously not going too far away from what was originally intended.
What's the problem with most CAP projects in your opinion?
Umbreon Dan: To me, it seems like the majority of concepts that are submitted are not interesting experiments for cap, like "great wall". Yeah okay, I can make a wall. I'm hoping cap10 can put an end to these sorts of concepts. I'm going to have the strictest rule over the concepts that I allow in, and I will expect serious discussion from the posters as to which concepts are actually interesting, and which ones just aren't.
Deck: To begin, we've made a lot of good changes to the actual process of selecting concepts and focusing on what we want to get out of them. The problem with most CAPs has, however, been in the concept stage. Specifically, the concepts have names that are flashy but don't tell you much. It's the direction afterward that is the most critical. Take Cyclohm. We started with "Neglected Ability," which meant damn near anything you want. So basically when I was considering how to make it a strong CAP, I decided I would pick an ability idea I would shoot for and mazimize its potential. Same with Kitsunoh and "Ultimate Scout" What does this need to be coherent? How can it optimize its function? And this was back in the days where we were just shooting from left field.
Beej: The CAP process has always had many individual problems, and over its history, plenty of problems have gained prominence over others. I've payed relatively close attention to pretty much every CAP's process that I've been around for, and so I've had a chance to witness individual problems that I would try to foresee and remedy before they begin in CAP10. An example of a problem that plagued Pyroak is that bad theorymon and arguments that weren't well thought-out were basically allowed to thrive, which resulted in a distorted view of Pyroak's potential effects on the metagame as a whole. It would be important for a TL to curtail that kind of theorymon and provide input immediately in the case that it was allowed to continue for any given period of time. The worst historical problem has probably been the lack of focus in CAPs, and the fact that the results often end up muddled because varying directions and view points end up getting implemented in the end. The best example of this is Cyclohm, which basically looks like a jumbled mess because there was no direction at all.
Why do you want to become TL?
Umbreon Dan: I have a specific vision in mind, and I'm not averse to telling people about it. As most of the PRC will know, I've been preaching Multitype for a while now. I also think I have some new ideas for cap in a more general sense, like if the concept is obviously perfect for multitype, I wouldn't be against moving the ability poll up to the front of the list.
Deck: I've always loved doing big things, ambitious things. I love contributing from the sidelines as much as anyone, striving towards convincing people of my end goal. I do have a vision for this CAP that is specific, but I want to see what people come up with. See how I can persuade people. I don't like being laid back, and just because I can't submit doesn't mean I won't go all in for discussions. I can see CAP adapting to anything "Legendary" stats, new abilities, new ways to tweak the metagame. I want to test that impulse.
Beej: I've witnessed plenty of CAPs, and although we go about the process with the idea that we're to be learning our ultimate lesson from battling with the Pokemon we create, I like to think that we usually learn even more from actually going along with the CAP creation. I've basically spent this whole time seeing all of these problems and solutions we've come up with along the way, and I have a million ideas for how to remedy these problems and to lead. I also want to help my community subsequently, so I'm extremely eager to try running a CAP for myself, as that is probably the best way to see if what I've learned about our process is really correct. I want to try running a CAP that is extremely refined in terms of our focus, and that brings together all that we have hopefully learned from doing this nine times before. I want to create a final product that we can brag about. Brag about because of how relevant it is to the metagame, and how it didn't end up getting muddled along the way. I think we can do it, and I would like to be the one to make it happen if possible. In fact, I'd be honored.
