CAP 20 - PRC Applications

[Birkal]

READ THIS FIRST.

You do not need to apply to the CAP PRC in order to participate in CAP events. All polls and discussion threads in this forum are open for public use; the PRC serves an entirely different function that is separate from the current CAP process.

This thread is for people who want to apply to the Create-A-Pokemon Project Policy Review Committee. Remember, the PRC is in charge of discussing policy changes to the CAP Process in general, all of which take place in the CAP Policy Review Forum (which everyone can see but only CAP PRC are able to post in). Note that if you're a guest viewing the CAP forums, you cannot view the CAP PRC forum, so that is all the more reason for you to register and see what CAP is all about! It's a great place to read the opinions of some of the most seasoned CAP veterans.

Please stuff as much relevant information about yourself as you can in these applications; a short few lines will no longer suffice. In terms of guidance, it would be wise to describe a) your CAP experience, b) your Smogon experience, and c) your Pokemon experience. To apply, describe your involvement in the CAP Project in all areas, including but not limited to: past CAP polls, PR discussions, playtesting RMTs/discussions, CAP analyses workshops, #cap on IRC, CAP metagame involvement, submitted material, etc. It can really only help your case if you provide links to example posts for things like submissions or suggestions. I cannot stress this enough: please take time to fill out your application thoroughly. Also, recall that this is a rolling application, meaning that you can apply whenever it is convenient for you to do so.

As an aside, we're not looking for perfect members. There is not going to be a limit on the number of users the CAP moderators accept for the PRC, and we would prefer more to less. I doesn't overly matter how long you've contributed. We're mainly looking for the best users in CAP to step up and start leading, regardless of join date. If you feel like you have contributed positively to CAP in any way, please feel free to apply. Note that significant work within the Policy Review Committee could earn you a Community Contributor badge. Remember that we are especially looking for active CAP PRC members to be involved in our discussion. Furthermore, rejection now will not disqualify you permanently; signups will be open again after every CAP. Inactivity or serious misconduct is the only way to lose PRC status, so you have nothing to lose by applying and quite a bit to gain.


The CAP 20 Policy Review Committee

Animus Majulous
alexwolf
Birkal
bugmaniacbob
Bull Of Heaven
capefeather
Deck Knight
DetroitLolcat
DHR-107
DougJustDoug
ginganinja
HeaLnDeaL
Ignus
Imanalt
jas61292
Korski
NumberCruncher
nyttyn
paintseagull
Pwnemon
Qwilphish
Salt
srk1214
Tadasuke
Ununuhexium
viperfang4
wh0sy0urpapa

​

All of these members will be given posting privileges to the CAP Policy Review subforum. They will have the ability to create threads on important CAP issues as well. They've also been granted the ability to vote on these issues and shape the future of CAP as a whole. PRC members, don't forget that you can PM any of the CAP moderators if you have any questions or concerns. We hope we can all be as active and vocal as possible in order to get work done. We can't wait to work with all of you to make positive changes in this project!

I've heard numerous users expressing some interest in reflection of this past CAP. However, there is not much currently in the pipes to discuss for this cycle. Doug & I will be hosting a discussion on CAP Concepts with a potential overhaul to the process. I personally believe we can solve a lot of issues by revamping that stage alone. If any of the PRC applicants would like to host a PR thread discussing a specific topic, don't hesitate to contact a CAP moderator. We'll queue it up!

 

[Ununhexium]

I suppose I'll break the ice here

If you don't know me already (I'm sure you do, but anyways), I'm Ununhexium, a two time CAP participant and long time lurker of CAP. To describe my CAP experience, I've personally had a lot of fun working on the project and developing a better knowledge of Pokemon through it. My first CAP project was Volkraken and that itself basically sealed the deal on participating in every CAP I could because I loved the process from the concepts to the final product. My Smogon experience has been awesome because there are a lot of other people who enjoy playing Pokemon like I do. My experience with Pokemon started with Firered and I have since fell in love with it etc. In terms of what makes my qualified for this position, I have a working knowledge of the CAP process and spend much of my free time on the #cap IRC channel and the CAP Project room on PS, as well as having experience of two projects under my belt.

That said, good luck to all applicants :)

 

[NumberCruncher]

I guess I'll put my hat into the ring.

So my history with Pokemon, much like CAPs history, starts with Diamond and Pearl. A friend got it for me for my birthday, so I started playing it. I rather enjoyed Diamond and Pearl, so I decided to start playing against other players over their WiFi. This proved to be a mistake, as I got summarily trounced each time I tried. I decided to start researching the metagame to try to get better, and finally ended up deciding on a core and building from there (Lucario/Togekiss/Swampert in case you're curious). I happened to learn about Pokemon Showdown about the time B/W first hit the shelves, so I got pretty good at B/W OU and Ubers.

So my first experience with CAP came after the Volkraken playtest had just concluded and nobody was quite sure what was effect it was going to have on the CAP metagame. I had been slightly interested in CAP for a while, but I didn't know how to start. I figured that since nobody knew what they were doing, this was as good a time as any to start getting into it. I was looking on the forum to see how people were looking to answer or utilize this new threat, reading up on what balanced offense, stall, and other common team archetypes looked like in CAP (The fact that PRC 19 had made it part of their mission statement to make CAP more accessible to new players helped immensely). I noticed that most of the proposed teams I was seeing had either no answers to Flyspam, or else only used Stratagem or Cyclohm as an answer. I ended up getting into CAP with a Flyspam team built around Mega Pinsir and Colossoil as a core, with the logic that the two best pokemon to beat Pinsir with would both fold over to Colossoil. I ended going all the way to 5th on the CAP metagame ladder with that team, making small changes to the formula overtime, such as swapping Close Combat for EQ on Pinsir, adding my own Cyclohm to counter people who also used flyspam, using Staraptor to shake off other Colossoils, etc. That was how I first got started in CAP.

Since then, I've been a heavily active member in the creation of CAP 19, a regular poster to the replay thread, a heavy supporter of the original CAP Dark Horse Competition, the user who updates the three-month usage stats in the CAP metagame, the #1 position on the Plasmanta playtest ladder for the first couple of days, and a room voice for the CAP Project chatroom on Pokemon Showdown.

I'm very interested in weighing in on the matter of the CAP Concepts overhaul, as well as a few suggestions on how to make the CAP metagame more friendly to both beginners and veterans, speaking as somebody who could easily be lumped in either category.

 

[HeaLnDeaL]

Since the last PRC cycle, I think I’ve really increased my activity in CAP. I posted in almost every thread of CAP19, and made many submissions that went on to be slated. Ultimately, I came in second in the CAP19 sprites poll and won both the stats and movepool polls. I try to stay on top of all things CAP as much as I can, and have made almost 300 forum posts with 100% of my forum activity involving CAP or one of its branches. Of course, this is definitely not to say that I don’t have competitive Pokémon interests outside of CAP, as I started my competitive journey in DPP OU and UU (and was probably terrible...). My history with CAP is somewhat vague, since I’ve been a long time lurker of CAP since I discovered Smogon while learning to RNG in Diamond/Pearl. I’ve been involved in the competitive scene via Shoddy, Pokémon Online, and now of course Pokémon Showdown, and with each new generation I feel like I’ve become a better player. I’ve participated in playtests on a whim before, and by some fluke I discovered this fun little replay of a match I had during the Malaconda playtest almost a year and a half ago: http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/capmalacondaplaytest-17308977. However, despite my unknown amount of lurking time beforehand, I didn’t officially get involved in the CAP creation process until CAP18. I’m not a top tier battler, but I pay attention to OU and make sure to at the very least watch battles if I don’t have the time or energy to battle myself. In general, I love watching battles and trying to turn them into a learning opportunity.

I’m also now a moderator in the CAP PS room, and I’ve been a contributor to the newly created CAP meta subforum. Perhaps my biggest subforum endeavor was starting up and running the CAP Dark Horse Competition during September, which helped unite a player base in testing out some uncommon Pokémon in the metagame (http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/the-cap-dark-horse-competition-september-thread.3516104/). The September DHC ran pretty smoothly, though October had different leadership and became distracted by the playtest, which is fairly understandable. I’m also a CAP meta analysis contributor, and I hope to help get analyses running along after the playtest is over.

Outside of CAP, I’m the co-leader of Fuji Labs, which is an on-and-off project for creating fakemons that primarily runs when I have time in between CAP participation. With Fuji Labs, I have had the opportunity to dabble with different creation processes and policies. This experience has given me appreciation towards project leaders of all sorts, as it takes more than just a competitive player to lead fakemon projects; leadership and structure is important too.

Overall, I’m a big fan of competitive Pokémon. I’m not a fantastic OU player by any means, but I dabble in the tier, among a few others. Competitive Pokémon is definitely what drew me to become a member of the CAP community, and I really like the potential for fun and strategic discussion that this project has. Pokémon has always been an outlet for me in which creativity meets strategy. There is so much team customization in the game of Pokemon that really helps these creative and strategic forces to meld together, and I think in some ways CAP taps into this fundamental spirit of Pokémon in a way that few other projects can do. I look forward in participating in the next CAP projects to come and hope to both share my experience and learn new things along the way.

CAP Achievements:
Sprite Winner, Volkraken
Stat Winner, Plasmanta
Movepool Winner, Plasmanta
CAP PS Room Moderator
Smogon Pre-Contributor Badge

 

[Bughouse]

Hi, srk here. I'm a two time TLT member and a CAP Contributor and longtime PRC member who is increasingly dissatisfied with the project. I'm here to see what fixes can be made. I'm too busy right now to write a long post for this, but I think my interest in fixing the many problems currently plaguing the project should suffice.

 

[ginganinja]

Repost from last time because I'm lazy and nothing else happened besides me being ability leader last time.

O.k so I am a fairly active member on CAP, I have been active in the various discussion threads of past CAPs, I have offered my opinion as required in previous PRC threads, and am fairly active over IRC. In addition, I was recently the movepool leader of the CAP just gone, and am thus fairly involved in the processes of creating a CAP. Most of you already know that I am fairly involved in various areas of the site, giving me a unique perspective on things outside of the CAP forum, as well as my general personality and everything else.

Everyone knows I hate tl'dr posts so I'll keep it short and to the point.

 

[Salt]

Salt here. Pretty much everyone should know who I am at this point and even if you don't it's not really important. Most of my significant time on Smogon has been spent with CAP, outside of some OU and OM posting early in my Smogon tenure. I've been interested in the policy and leadership processes since CAP 18, and my badge for my contributions to CAP as well as my status as an official Smogon mentor for CAP should suffice for credentials. I have heard concerns over the CAP project as a whole lately, and would like to voice my opinion on those issues.

edit: I have a feeling this may not be sufficient, so I'll just point out my previous application, which went into much more detail about my history on Smogon and my contributions to CAP 18. I assume it was ignored only because it was too late. Not much has changed since then other than my status as a mentor.

 

[Imanalt]

Yeah I've been around since necturna, been on prc like twice before? Oftentimes I don't join prc because I don't view a lot of what gets discussed as all that relevant, but I definitely think this cycle will be important. Most of my contribution usually comes on irc (including being 4th most active user recently per chanstats), but I make a fair number of posts, especially early in most projects before I burn out. I also have done pretty decently in playtests, being back and forth with R_D for first on necturna playtest until the last day when I tilted pretty hard trying to grind to catch him (and finished like 5th iirc?), and on the cawmodore playtest where I finished second. I'm pretty sure everyone who ever goes on irc at least knows me, so I dunno, I don't wanna go through and write everything out over again.

 

[alexwolf]

Hi, i would like to apply for the CAP PRC. Here are my qualifications:

• Have participated in 4 whole CAPs, including this one
• Movepool leader for the current CAP
• Submitted two concepts that were really popular, even though they didn't get slated
• Multiple stat spread submissions, one of which won
• Good OU knowledge, i'm a mod in the OU metagame sub-forum, play on the ladder frequently, run the viability ranking thread, member of the OU QC team, write analyses, etc

 

[Crux]

Hi, I would like to apply for the CAP PRC. Here are my qualifications:

1. I have been involved in CAPs regularly, since Revenankh, both on the forums and on IRC
2. Good knowledge of policy and PR and one of the most active criticisers of CAP policy, it would be an affront to not include dissenting voices in the PRC.
3. Submitted many things over the course of lots of CAPs.
4. Excellent knowledge of OU and Pokèmon in general, with knowledge over several generations knowing what makes a metagame.

 

[Bull Of Heaven]

I'd like to rejoin. Bullet points:

• I've been around a long time; since Syclant.
• I've been on the PRC a few times before, but skipped the last round.
• I've submitted several movepools and Pokedex entries over the years. Best result was the movepool for Cawmodore, which finished second. I'll try to make some time to find all of the links, like I usually do.
• I finished near the top of a couple of relatively recent playtest ladders.
• I got my badge from CAP.

Might add to this post later. I'm sort of vaguely unhappy with CAP these days, but maybe unlike some people, I don't really know what's bothering me. I hope we can figure things out.

 

[Tadasuke]

Hi everyone, I'm Tadasuke

Ever since my joining Pokémon Showdown, I've been completely engrossed by the CAP community. I've been a constant presence in the CAP Project room on PS, and have been part of the room authority since the beginning of 2014, and a mod since mid-September. On the forums, I've been extremely active on the CAP Metagame subforum, taking charge of the Viability Ranking thread, contributing to the XY CAP Metagame Sample Teams, and leading the October Dark Horse Competition. I applied for PRC on the previous round, but applied too late. I was actively watching all the posts involving the CAP Metagame, and most importantly the State of the CAP Metagame. I hope to be able to add my input to all of the topics we cover, and help to further the project as a whole.

 

[DougJustDoug]

I am DougJustDoug, and although CAP mods are not required to apply for the PRC, every so often it is good for us to post our credentials to participate in Policy Review. If anything, just to let newcomers to the project know a bit about our background and why we feel qualified to be part of the policy-making process.

I am the Head Administrator for the Create-A-Pokemon project, I am currently an Administrator for Smogon, and I have been a senior staff member for many years. I have been involved in the CAP project since the very first pokemon we created in 2007 (Syclant). For most of CAP's history I have been in a senior leadership position with the project. That has given me a great deal of insight into how the project works, and opportunity to participate in almost every major undertaking we have ever done. Create-A-Pokemon is my favorite part of Smogon and I focus most of my time and energy here.

As an individual CAP participant, I like to be active in all discussion threads, particularly in the formative threads like Concept, Typing, etc. I have won 7 CAP polls outright, and have had dozens of (~25?) top finishes. Almost all of my poll submissions are in flavor steps (art, sprite, and name), but I have submitted and won competitive steps as well, including authoring the winning Concept submission for CAP 11. I do not actively battle in XY OU, and when participating in competitive CAP discussions, I typically confine my comments to general battle strategy or ask questions to provoke input from more knowledgeable OU battlers. Although I spend a lot of time and energy on CAP flavor steps, I personally get the most enjoyment from CAP projects when I am learning about competitive OU play from others here.

I am an obsessive student of the mechanics of Pokemon battling. I have implemented in progamming code the battle attributes of every pokemon in the game and the mechanics of every move, ability, status effect, and field condition in the entire game. In fact, I've done it three times in three different programming languages. Because of my work in programming battle simulators, damage calculators, pokedexes, and battle statistics programs, I think my knowledge of the technical details of complex battle mechanics and their technical impacts on gameplay puts me amongst the experts in the Smogon community and beyond. I don't know everything about the game (far from it!), but I enjoy studying the game and I look forward to learning more!

In the last Policy Review cycle, I authored a significant policy proposal regarding Project Pace and Timeboxing. I felt that CAP projects needed better time management and scheduling, and I did a TON of research to inform the policy review. I gathered detailed timing statistics for every process thread in the history of the CAP project, and presented statistical analysis to support the policy proposals. Ultimately, we did not institute any big sweeping changes to CAP policy. But I think it opened a lot of peoples' eyes about pacing in the CAP project, and we have a much better understanding of the issues going forward.

That policy proposal is a good example of how I like to approach policymaking. Utilize objective data as much as possible and use collective intelligent debate to assess policy. Even though my policy proposals were not implemented, I very much enjoyed the process of presenting all the evidence and discussing it with other active intelligent CAP participants. That PRC thread was a huge "success" in my eyes, even though my proposals technically "failed".

The CAP motto is, "It is about the journey, not the destination." and that certainly applies to the Policy Review process, as well as the CAP construction process. I look forward to a new journey with CAP 20!

 

[Stratos]

Applying because I guess I want to give CAP one last chance.

I'm Pwnemon, I hope my credentials can speak for themselves by now. CAP17 Abilities Leader, CAP19 Topic Leader, got a Ladybug from CAP. Participant since Tomohawk. Voice on IRC until I took #cap off my ajoin. Slated a handful of times for Concept, never for stats or movepool, never did too well in Concept polls. Currently Co-TLing a CAP in the Doubles forum. More posts than Birkal. Doubles co-Leader, top-tier Doubles player (currently in Doubles Major top 4, went undefeated :swag 1-0 record: last SPL), hax magnet, long-time OU player.

CAP has some seriously major cultural problems at the moment that are driving away anyone who actually has a clue about competitive battling and making a hostile environment for anyone with some experience in other parts of Smogon. Not only has CAP's reputation been racing down the shitter over the last few projects but so has any enjoyment I and other experienced Smogoners once found in participating. Any attempt to change just policy and procedure in the face of these problems is fiddling on the Titanic, but Imanalt promises me that there's going to be a thread which may actually get to the heart of the matter; I'm applying in case such a thread is actually posted.

 

[nyttyn]

Hi I'm nyttyn, the palindrome applicant.

Five time CAP participant here, winner of Mollux's movepool, constant high-placer in movepool polls. Been playing pokemon since I was five, pokemon yellow, not a genwunner. Not the best of competive players (My skill has somewhat gone downhill with the gen 6 meta shifts and a general disinterest in the unhealthy culture that's evolved around OU), but I'm still aware of how the metagame works and how matchups are and shit. I hang out in #cap a lot, and try to provide a voice of reason during the CAP threads themselves.

Definitely signing up with an echoed feeling of Pwnemon and srk1214's sentiments. This review cycle is going to be incredibly important, and could very well make or break CAP. I'm hoping my added voice can lead us towards the former.

 

[viperfang4]

Hello all, I am viperfang4.

I have been part of CAP for about 18 months, have been staff in our pokemon showdown room for a year, and mod for 7 months. I have been #1 on the ladder in CAP in the past year for a total of about 3 weeks and know the metagame extremely well (since I pioneered a lot of common aspects of it). I always try to be a help in the room directing people to the forums, discussing the metagame and current project. The discussion on showdown actually can get quite intense and revealing on what makes the metagame tick. I have been a part of several CAP's with some of my ideas being used in the past. I usually can break apart topics thoroughly, well organized, and extremely accurately, which is a need in this committee. I can add a lot information to the committee also from a vast amount of pokemon experience.

I would love to be a part of the committee and would be a great part in it.

 

[Birkal]

I've updated the original post of this thread with the CAP moderators' decision on who will be on the CAP 20 Policy Review Committee. Congrats to those who will be joining us! For those of you who didn't make the cut, we encourage you to participate in CAP's processes a bit more. Once you've participated by voting and submitting for at least one CAP, you've got a good shot at making the PRC in the future.

Finally, remember that this thread is for rolling applications. If you'd like to join the PRC at any time before CAP 20, you're welcome to post your application in this thread. Again, if you want to compose a policy thread for this cycle, don't hesitate to contact a CAP moderator; we'll queue you in. See you all in policy!


I don't think I accidentally deleted anyone from the forums this time... Solid.

 

[bugmaniacbob]

Hm.

I wasn't planning on applying this time, largely because I didn't participate much in Plasmanta owing to being away from the internet during the most crucial competitive stages and being unable to understand the point of the exercise once I got back, but apparently this is an important review cycle so I'd like the opportunity to give my views if possible. Admittedly I have no idea where this apparent discontent is coming from, but I'm sure it will become abundantly clear in the near future. Oh, and I also want to try to push the HistDocs stuff forward, so if the mod(s) that I sent the Kitsunoh draft to a while back have had the chance to read it, that would be something I'd like to see addressed during this cycle.

Oh and I'll update the BSR calc once ORAS is released, if anyone's interested.

tl;dr credentials - haven't done all that much of note since CAP18 barring PRC discussions and some early input on the direction of Volkraken and Plasmanta

 

[Qwilphish]

I'm back and not going to miss out on PRC like I did last time :(.
Anyways, I'm Qwilphish and I've been contributing to CAP since.... I think Malaconda. During the process I try to throw a submission or a post or two in each thread although lately that hasn't been happening very well. My most notable contributions have been my Lucario + Lucario core for Volkraken and my second place submission for stats last CAP. I'm getting back into IRC after my recent departure. I am always trying to improve in OU, constantly laddering and teambuilding. I hope to be on this PRC team because I love CAP and am always welcome to offer my opinions to better this project!!

 

[Birkal]

We've updated the access list and original post based on our newest applicants. Keep 'em coming!

 

[Kris]

Hello, I'm Langur. I've always really wanted to help with some PRC's, but I just simply didn't understand it, or was just too busy to help. I was hoping that I could change that this time around, mostly because I don't have anything planned for a while, and I fully understand it at this point. I really hope to be really interactive this time, rather than not participating at all.

Even though this would be my first time participating, I believe that I would be able to help with not just suggestions and/or problems, but with everything that there is to help with. I started playing Pokemon in Gen 3, Pokemon Ruby to be specific. I haven't really contributed to CAP that much, but I want to change that. Whenever I'm not laddering in CAP, I'm always either coding something, making sprites, playing OU, Ubers, UU, or LC. If I'm bot doing any of those, I'm swimming for my state swim team. I haven't really been with CAP for that long, maybe about 5-6 months. I am not a consistent player in the Showdown room, but I sill visit from time to time. I hope to be a part of this PRC, mostly because I love CAP with a passion, I love the people that are using it, and I just like to help. c:

My credentials:

• Runner-up for CAP 19 MOVE POOL

 

[MangleyMan]

Well, here goes nothing.
Hi! I'm MangleyMan and even though I have not had a smogon account for a while, I have been highly interested in CAP since I was 7 years old. I have recently played with Plasmanta and the team that made it did a superb job as always. Now that I am 13, I have gotten sufficient privilages to a computer. I have always wanted to be involved in the CAP project and I hope that is a possibillity for me to help with CAP 20. Now I have mediocore skills in design and High skills in what movesets, types, and base stats should look like. I know that you have had to have worked on previous CAP projects in order to make it in, but I know that the Smogon councel has their rules. So its basically.....
Im in the project or "GO HOME AND COME BACK IN 3 YEARS!"
I hope to have made an impresion on the council and hope to be a big help in CAP 20!

 

[JT_Kip]

Hey
I am fairly new to competetive battling (1 year+) and started trying CAP a few weeks ago, mainly to try and boost my team building knowledge. My OU teams are ok, and I have trouble when I get to around the 1300 mark on the ladder. I'm hoping that through this program I can learn a lot about what competetive battling-specifically team building and strategy-is all about. I am also somewhat creative and could have some fun design concepts or other ideas.
As for actually pokemon gameplay, I played Sapphire origininally and now have one of each of the newer gens (Excluding B/W2).
Thanks

 

[Animus Majulous]

Alo, I'm Animus

I've been a driving force of the cap meta subforum, and am a mod in the CAP Project Room on Pokemon Showdown. I QC for the CAP meta subforum, so I know a lot not just in the creation process, but after: how do the pokemon created really impact the meta. While it was controversial, I won the Volkraken playtest, and I have tried to be more active in the forums since then. I am very knowledgable about the OU meta: before ORAS I reached 1930 on the ladder and stayed around there for a couple weeks before I stopped to pay more attention to the CAP meta. While I really have only voted in previous Projects, I feel that I have valuable insight that will be helpful for PRC. Coming from Showdown vs. IRC brings different perspective, and hopefully valued perspective. Soon I will lead the ORAS CAP DHC, to help finish our viability ranking for Post Oras, and I know that on PRC, I will echo some voices in the showdown room that deserve to be heard.

 

[thetreehugger]

Hello, I am thetreehugger.

I have never participated in the making of a CAP, and only have ~150-200 battles under my belt, but I would love to join. Making different Pokemon has always been a passion for me, and I have quite a few ideas. I have done decently on the CAP ladder, peaking at ~15th overall and ~1350 elo. I am also fairly active, and I try to get on as much as possible. I am especially good with general Pokemon knowledge, such as moves, which I could tell you the stats for most moves off the top of my head, and I have played every generation of Pokemon games except Red/Blue. However, my favorite games were Fire Red/Leaf Green, and I could easily tell you the entire plot up until the Elite Four. I also hope to learn more about competitive battling, as I mainly played RU and Randbats until falling in love with CAP recently. Whether I am in it or not, hopefully CAP 20 is a great one!