Approved by snake_rattler
The past generation of CAP processes have all led to some spectacular Pokémon. Our first CAP of this generation, has been a smashing success as well. But as of recently, a pattern has started to rear its ugly head, and with CAP 28 now arriving at the Concept Poll, now it is pertinent to address this pattern as what it is, a potential issue that could be detrimental to CAP in the long term if left unaddressed. Not a month after creation, Astrolotl has not only cemented itself as an S rank threat, but is currently undergoing a nerfing process. Equilibra, the CAP before, is also currently an S rank Pokémon, and has not only been nerfed last generation, but is currently next line for a second batch of nerfs! I believe this is a broader issue than these two alone, and that as of late, CAP creations have become too over tuned to operate in the metagame.
Less extreme examples include Jumbao, who while not banworthy, is firmly sitting in the S rank in the USM VR, and prior to that Pajantom was universally agreed upon by the community to be an S rank threat, and only fell short of achieving it because VR took too long to update, and by the time it was updated, the metagame spiralled around Pursuit abusers due to how potent Pajantom (and other noteworthy Pokémon) had become. Quite surprisingly, the only CAP created since the start of Generation 7 that has not been either nominated for or attained S ranking are the celebration starter type CAPs, which were held back by naturally occurring pitfalls that are in Starter Pokémon. Now, what problems does constantly creating S rank worthy Pokémon have for our community? Quite a few!
Optics
I have had discussions in the OU room months ago about CAP and the state of the metagame and also recently with a fellow colleague of mine, both of which involved people who are largely divorced from our metagame and our process, and these conversations all led to si.ilar conclusions - most of the CAPs seem unnecessarily power creeped, in some cases ridiculously so, and these creations serve as barriers of entry to both the metagame and processes, as they think these Pokemon are too powerful to play against and they don't want to participate in the creation of more super powerful S rank level Pokemon. I fear that these sentiments are not isolated, and that if they are carried by a large amount of users, this can be damaging to our brand and to the growth of both of these equally important sections of CAP.
Metagame
To expand upon my metagame issue, I don't think that introducing a metagame defining Pokemon every 2 or 3 months will lead to a healthy metagame in the long term, as this places a barrier of entry to new players, as I said, who to jump into CAP especially if they land into that awkward lull of the metagame that occurs two weeks or so before the debut of a brand new CAP, spending all that time to learn this new metagame, only to be faced with another Equilibra that turns previously established S ranked threats to B rank nobodies. This also puts a strain on our C&C, even more so than what Gamefreak has decided to throw upon us this generation. What's the point of dedicating a month of your time into forming the best analysis you could create, only for it to be at best in need of a rehaul or at worst be completely defunct. This coupled with the need to do nerf processes for brand new CAPs help detract man hours that we could be using for metagame development, or in Astrolotl's case, in both CAPPL and CAP 28 preparations.
Why CAPs are overtuned
We can definitely look towards our stats and movepools for our recent CAPs to get an idea of what may be causing the problems. It goes without saying that most CAPs BST wise are on another level in comparison to their OU contemporaries, as right now most OU Pokemon do not crack 535 BST, while all of the CAPs outside of the starters have all pushed at minimum 550 (Jumbao hit 576, and I do acknowledge my faults as I created this very spread). Equilibra is somehow the perfect Pokemon statwise, with an absurd amount of bulk coupled with immense attacking power, and a respectable speed stat for a Rapid Spinning tank, leaves it as a demanding presence in any match, being so difficult to account for both defensively and offensively. Even Pajantom in its peak seemed like an absolute menace, being able to comfortable switch in on weak special attacks thanks to excellent special bulk for an offensive break and trap a massive variety of stuff, or otherwise nuke teams with a Never Ending Nightmare with its sky high 133 base Attack Stat. Types for CAPs are all noticeably spectacular as well, but I feel this is more or less an unavoidable issue as we strive to create good competitive level Pokemon. Movepools are another big stinker here, as is the case for Astrolotl, our most recent CAP, has a multitude of powerful move options, and is largely one of the key factors in its eventual nerf. Equilibra too, received a movepool nerf last generation losing phazing and Toxic. A running joke both inside and outside of the CAP community is that "everything gets Rapid Spin", but in reality it comes across as a larger part of the issue, as if hazard removal is brought up, there is little one can do argue against said move's addition, as it is most likely "pro-concept". Its these little things that can pile up and lead towards CAPs having too much unnecessary tools that may or may not push it over the edge. Was Rapid Spin for example, really necessary to give to Equilibra in hindsight? It wasn't particularly pro concept, but we all agreed that hazard removal is good, and because of that, Equilibra should have access to removal. (Note I am not arguing for the removal of Rapid Spin from Equilibra's movepool, as at this point that would be an unnecessary removal and quite possibly do more harm than good.) All of these Pokémon are powerful, and I might say, too powerful for their own good.
Ways we can go about solving this
These are easier to implement than what you may initially think, as I am glad to say that moves are being made to already address aspects of this issue. But once we recognize what is exactly the problem we can go about doing so with more efficiency. For stat spreads we should be much more open to less hyper optimized stats, and be encouraged to flesh out stats on the lower end of the spectrum. For moves, we can pay key attention in how we distribute potent tools like Knock Off, Rapid Spin and Toxic, in regards to competitive move submissions, focus less on overcrowding the Pokémon with as much variety as possible, and more on fully developing sets around key moves that define our project / process. At the end of the day, I think we need to able to ask ourselves: "How do we make sure CAPs aren't hyper optimized", and be able to have a fruitful discussion about how we go about lessening the chances of that from happening in the future.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the hyper optimization of CAP creations is an issue that should be discussed sooner rather than later, as with CAP 28 starting its process, we have little time to think about how these issues may still be running underneath our process.
The past generation of CAP processes have all led to some spectacular Pokémon. Our first CAP of this generation, has been a smashing success as well. But as of recently, a pattern has started to rear its ugly head, and with CAP 28 now arriving at the Concept Poll, now it is pertinent to address this pattern as what it is, a potential issue that could be detrimental to CAP in the long term if left unaddressed. Not a month after creation, Astrolotl has not only cemented itself as an S rank threat, but is currently undergoing a nerfing process. Equilibra, the CAP before, is also currently an S rank Pokémon, and has not only been nerfed last generation, but is currently next line for a second batch of nerfs! I believe this is a broader issue than these two alone, and that as of late, CAP creations have become too over tuned to operate in the metagame.
Less extreme examples include Jumbao, who while not banworthy, is firmly sitting in the S rank in the USM VR, and prior to that Pajantom was universally agreed upon by the community to be an S rank threat, and only fell short of achieving it because VR took too long to update, and by the time it was updated, the metagame spiralled around Pursuit abusers due to how potent Pajantom (and other noteworthy Pokémon) had become. Quite surprisingly, the only CAP created since the start of Generation 7 that has not been either nominated for or attained S ranking are the celebration starter type CAPs, which were held back by naturally occurring pitfalls that are in Starter Pokémon. Now, what problems does constantly creating S rank worthy Pokémon have for our community? Quite a few!
Optics
I have had discussions in the OU room months ago about CAP and the state of the metagame and also recently with a fellow colleague of mine, both of which involved people who are largely divorced from our metagame and our process, and these conversations all led to si.ilar conclusions - most of the CAPs seem unnecessarily power creeped, in some cases ridiculously so, and these creations serve as barriers of entry to both the metagame and processes, as they think these Pokemon are too powerful to play against and they don't want to participate in the creation of more super powerful S rank level Pokemon. I fear that these sentiments are not isolated, and that if they are carried by a large amount of users, this can be damaging to our brand and to the growth of both of these equally important sections of CAP.
Metagame
To expand upon my metagame issue, I don't think that introducing a metagame defining Pokemon every 2 or 3 months will lead to a healthy metagame in the long term, as this places a barrier of entry to new players, as I said, who to jump into CAP especially if they land into that awkward lull of the metagame that occurs two weeks or so before the debut of a brand new CAP, spending all that time to learn this new metagame, only to be faced with another Equilibra that turns previously established S ranked threats to B rank nobodies. This also puts a strain on our C&C, even more so than what Gamefreak has decided to throw upon us this generation. What's the point of dedicating a month of your time into forming the best analysis you could create, only for it to be at best in need of a rehaul or at worst be completely defunct. This coupled with the need to do nerf processes for brand new CAPs help detract man hours that we could be using for metagame development, or in Astrolotl's case, in both CAPPL and CAP 28 preparations.
Why CAPs are overtuned
We can definitely look towards our stats and movepools for our recent CAPs to get an idea of what may be causing the problems. It goes without saying that most CAPs BST wise are on another level in comparison to their OU contemporaries, as right now most OU Pokemon do not crack 535 BST, while all of the CAPs outside of the starters have all pushed at minimum 550 (Jumbao hit 576, and I do acknowledge my faults as I created this very spread). Equilibra is somehow the perfect Pokemon statwise, with an absurd amount of bulk coupled with immense attacking power, and a respectable speed stat for a Rapid Spinning tank, leaves it as a demanding presence in any match, being so difficult to account for both defensively and offensively. Even Pajantom in its peak seemed like an absolute menace, being able to comfortable switch in on weak special attacks thanks to excellent special bulk for an offensive break and trap a massive variety of stuff, or otherwise nuke teams with a Never Ending Nightmare with its sky high 133 base Attack Stat. Types for CAPs are all noticeably spectacular as well, but I feel this is more or less an unavoidable issue as we strive to create good competitive level Pokemon. Movepools are another big stinker here, as is the case for Astrolotl, our most recent CAP, has a multitude of powerful move options, and is largely one of the key factors in its eventual nerf. Equilibra too, received a movepool nerf last generation losing phazing and Toxic. A running joke both inside and outside of the CAP community is that "everything gets Rapid Spin", but in reality it comes across as a larger part of the issue, as if hazard removal is brought up, there is little one can do argue against said move's addition, as it is most likely "pro-concept". Its these little things that can pile up and lead towards CAPs having too much unnecessary tools that may or may not push it over the edge. Was Rapid Spin for example, really necessary to give to Equilibra in hindsight? It wasn't particularly pro concept, but we all agreed that hazard removal is good, and because of that, Equilibra should have access to removal. (Note I am not arguing for the removal of Rapid Spin from Equilibra's movepool, as at this point that would be an unnecessary removal and quite possibly do more harm than good.) All of these Pokémon are powerful, and I might say, too powerful for their own good.
Ways we can go about solving this
These are easier to implement than what you may initially think, as I am glad to say that moves are being made to already address aspects of this issue. But once we recognize what is exactly the problem we can go about doing so with more efficiency. For stat spreads we should be much more open to less hyper optimized stats, and be encouraged to flesh out stats on the lower end of the spectrum. For moves, we can pay key attention in how we distribute potent tools like Knock Off, Rapid Spin and Toxic, in regards to competitive move submissions, focus less on overcrowding the Pokémon with as much variety as possible, and more on fully developing sets around key moves that define our project / process. At the end of the day, I think we need to able to ask ourselves: "How do we make sure CAPs aren't hyper optimized", and be able to have a fruitful discussion about how we go about lessening the chances of that from happening in the future.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the hyper optimization of CAP creations is an issue that should be discussed sooner rather than later, as with CAP 28 starting its process, we have little time to think about how these issues may still be running underneath our process.
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