I think Plus deserves a round of applause for all of his hard work. We really have a interesting new Pokemon to playtest and I am very happy to have been a part of Colosoil's creation. Although we have yet to playtest him and, therefore, I might be saying this a little early, but I think that CAP 9 has been a sucessful endeavor.
And, now, my fellow CAP participants, I present to you the props and the slops of CAP 9.
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PROPS
Plus' Leadership: As the project leader for the first CAP project that I have partaken in, Plus has set my standards for what I want to see when someone is taking the reins and directing a CAP project. He wasn't afraid to make unpopular decisions and, more importantly, stand by them when he had to. He had a grasp on the CAP community and, should things get out of hand, he was quick to use his authority to reestablish order.
But, what I respect most in a person is that he didn't take crap from anyone.
You're the man, Plus, you're the man.
A Groundbreaking Concept: The standard OU metagame relies heavily upon the usuage of secondary moves such as Stealth Rock and Toxic. Anyone with any knowledge of OU whatsoever ought to realize this. With this in mind, moi came up with a way to revolutionize the CAP metagame by changing it into one that would make battlers think twice before using such moves. Colosoil was built around such a concept, "stop the secondary."
The changes that Colosoil will force people to make, which includes a decreased use of secondary moves, will make the CAP battling scene drastically different from before. With these drastic changes, it shouldn't be too hard to analyze what Colosoil brings to the table.
The Participation in the Art-Related Threads: It was in this area that I participated in the most... which is fine, since I plan on being a video game conceptual artist when I grow up anyway.
Truthfully, there WERE some designs that I would have been unhappy with if they had won. Nevertheless, I was overall pleased with the fact that so many people (including myself, although I never made a final submission) wanted to try to create an interesting design that would accompany our CAP project. Ultimately, after all was said and done, CyzirVisheen's design won, making CAP 9 his consecutive product design victory: a whale, God damn!
The sprite poll where where I put forth a lot of constructive criticism (and I hope I wasn't mean and demotivating in the process). It was Cyclohm's sprite that drew me into the CAP process in the first place, so I felt that I should make sure that when playtesting for Colosoil is announced, people who are viewing the front page of Smogon should have something pretty to see too. Coincidentally, the same spriter, aragornbird, who had created the awe-inspiring sprite for CAP 8 also emerged victorius (for a third time) in CAP 9 with a lovely sprite.
A Kick-Ass Final Product: Although I did not actively contribute to the discussion of the competitive aspects of Colosoil's creations, I did read through what was said during these discussions and considered what everyone said carefully before going in and voting at the polls. I voted for what I felt was best for Colosoil and I gave my reasons for it in some (if not most) cases.
Overall, though, I think that we have a created a monster. And I don't mean that in a bad way. We have created a monster that will "stop the secondary" and even be able to do so much more. Needless to say, I am looking forward to playing with this guy.
SLOPS
Dishonesty in the Art Polls: Apparently, this isn't the first CAP project where at least one person had the balls (or, more likely, lack of brains) to cheat during the top three art poll. The design of the final product really is not critical to the viablity of the Pokemon in OU although it does influence the choice of moveset that comes later in the process. It is never worth being a jackass and cheating on the polls.
Here's what really pissed me off about this; the ARTIST that I SUPPORTED also decided to risk getting banned and went so low as to cheat in the top three.
The Shitstorm That Was the Name Thread: I don't think anyone could have put what happened into any better terms than the wise words of tennisace: I do believe that it was something along the lines of "people just threw shit at a proverbial wall to see what would stick."
I am equally as guilty of contributing to the problem as just about everyone else (and I am apparently the only one who was willing to come forth and publicly admit to it). To make matters worse, we didn't even realize what we were doing until Plus told us that we had submitted 185 or so names already. We don't need to choose from so many. As far as I am concerned, twenty DIFFERENT names (four of the six names that Plus ended up selecting for the primary poll ended up being various versions of "Narwhale" anyway) is more than plenty.
Hopefully, this incident will be discussed during the policy review and measures will be put into place to prevent another shitshorm come CAP 10 (or any other future CAP project for that matter).
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Overall, I was very pleased to be a part of Colosoil's creation. I hope that I can contribute more to the competitive discussions in future CAP projects, but I do believe that Colosoil has been benefitted by my votes.
I am looking forward to playtesting with Colosoil (provided Shoddy actually works for once). Even though I said this once, it would be wrong for me not to say it again: you're the man, Plus, you're the man.