Ive always felt that Cyclops' personality, discipline, and leadership ability, when he is properly characterized, was more important than his powers, much in the same way that Reed Richards' stretching ability is secondary to his great intelligence.

Cyclops was one of my favorite characters of all of them back when I was a kid. Other favorites from that time included the Thing, Deadman, and the Doom Patrol. I could believe in "powers" that were as much a curse to the person possessing them as they were a blessing to the people saved by the hero. Much has been said in defense of Scott's character here that I agree with, and its really nice to read that he is well-regarded in spite of his long history of being poorly written.

Claremont demonstrated in #175 that he could write the character's strengths well, but also that he had very little interest in doing so afterwards.  #201 is the issue I stopped reading about the X-Men.  The "duel" between Scott and Ororo is so obviously biased and Scott comes off as a thick-headed, desperate loser, unable to commit to his marraige, his team, or even the fight he's in at the moment.  He fully integrates his character into Claremont's blanket assessment of men as self-doubting, unassertive thumbsuckers, forever in awe of Women As Individuals and all that they can accomplish... (Claremont's thumbsucking Reed Richards from the FF/X-Men mini-series makes for an excellent model for the current Civil War version, btw.)

I picked up the Cyclops action figure recently and read the #201 reprint enclosed (possibly the worst choice they could have made). I was surprised to find Claremont's verbal rhythyms and ham-handed cliches flow rather well once you get away from them for few years.  The scene with Kitty, Rachel, and the baby was really quite sweet. But the team was obviously headed in directions Cyclops wouldn't comfortably go, X-Factor was calling, and Claremont, with his ever-growing propensities for leather fetishes, psychic rapes, and no-apologies warrior codes, never quite got a handle on Stan Lee's brooding, afflicted teenager who found a place for himself in the world, yet remained at arm's length from it. Everything Scott brought to the team had been parcelled out to other members.  (Inability to connect due to powers: Rogue, Mutant curse: Kurt, Decisive leadership: Storm, Military strategy: Wolverine, Ability to hit things at a distance: Everyone...) Much as was the case with JB's Guardian, the leader of the team became its most expendable member, and by that point I was glad to see him go.  I was happy to leave with him, in fact.

(After posting, I noticed that this one came up as post 138, the issue number of the X-Men with the famous "Exit Cyclops" cover...)

Definitely the latter.

Where do I say he did?

Did something happen after I left? Storm became leader -- my suggestion -- in my last few issues, after Scott took a leave of absence.

I dropped out of regular comic reading/collecting about 25 years ago, so going over this thread and learning a bit about what became of Cyclops -- one of my very favorite Marvel characters -- has been rather sad.

Tangent: someone had mentioned that Cyclops remained true to the character in JB's XHY. I only recently read a few issues, but the Cyclops I met there again was indeed in every way that one I'd grown up with, from Lee/Kirby through Claremont/Byrne. Nice!