OM Circuit
I planned to respond to this but then forgot, it's 8 months late but I think this is still relevant so here I am. While it's true that changing metas around carelessly can cause dissatisfaction, ultimately, it's the OM leaders' call on whether it's good to change the metas around or not, whether it's for circuit or team tours. "establish a relatively consistent circuit with a relatively consistent set of metagames in it" is a nice goal, but only when you can make sure all of the metas stay on top in terms of quality. There are a lot of factors that can affect a meta's enjoyment, which is especially true for every passing gen. For example, we don't know what the next gen gimmick/configuration might be, and it might hinder a meta's premise indirectly (For example, there might be a mechanic that allows the user to gain a STAB move of their choice which lowers STAB's playerbase or defensive options get cut even more making Inheritance a heavy offense heaven with extreme matchup fish) or directly (Like they start cutting abilities/cut abilities don't work until there's a mon with it and the pre-Home meta is very limited in abilities or Hackmons mechanics change again). Case in point, GG's enjoyment was the lowest at the start of gen 9 when Game Freak decided to cut the number of true legends from 3 to 2 before Home, and if it somehow becomes 1 next gen (2 is still bad), nobody will enjoy using the same god over and over again. And I say this as the biggest GG fan, I will be fine with having GG get set aside for a year if that GG meta stays for the duration.
There's also the council factor. Unlike official metas with enough players willing to step up, OM total playerbase is already smaller, and this number gets fragmented even more when you take all the OM into account. If a council becomes inactive or busy, an OM can easily turn into a mess with the lack of actions directly interfering with the circuit integrity. Your point about metas changing negatively affecting players' ambition, while valid, is not really a big problem because at the end of the day, it's still mons and the best will still rise on top. Lily had no problem adapting and creating her own teams delving into Inheritance. While there are some metas that require you to put in some extra time, like BH, PiC and SP, as a player, I don't feel like it's a big step up that a player can't get used to (especially considering that even if you fail at Opens, there are half a year until Seasonal, and it's not like you just change out 3-6/6 metas at once). Either way, it's better to have a system in place to deal with emergencies like these, you don't have to use them to swap metas around if you don't want to, but with the lever in place, you give yourself the option to do so when you are forced your hands, you just need to make it clear from the start and make sure it's transparent with community support when it happens.
Meta clarity
Context: When I did the suspect test for GG, I also watched some GG replays and realized something I couldn't have seen playing on PS for too long. I saw 2 GG replays. In the first one, a player asked on a ladder game what the GG meta was about. In the second replay (a game in Tournament room), a player accused the other for hacking because their Pokemon was nuked by a Special Attack-inherited Araquanid's resisted attack. It dawned on me: It makes sense, a casual player can't immediately realize what an OM is about, especially if it's not obvious from the name alone. As veterans and active people in chat/Smogon, we are used to the /tier command to immediately figure out what it is even if we go on a hiatus or supporting commands like /mnm, and even if we don't, we can always just go on Smogon, the main thread likely will give all of the info, or just ask in the room/Discord. But the fact of the matter is most players don't know about any of these, they don't even go on Smogon or join PS rooms (You do see players ask about those metas from time to time in OM and Help, but they are still the minority). So naturally, when they see a meta with unknown elements, they try to guess what it is and can get quickly discouraged if it confuses them when they play a game. Almost Any Ability, STABmons, Balanced Hackmons, a casual player can have an educated guess on what they might be about just looking at the names, but you can't exactly say the same for Inheritance, Godly Gift or hell, even Mix and Mega (Also why you can see a lot of native Mega there).
Changing meta names to make them more comprehensible is most likely not viable due to their established history and/or it's unfeasible to find a way to make names that can hint at the premise, but I think some simple changes are possible.
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In the teambuilder, we already have the resources listed, I think the best option is to add a line between the Add Pokemon button and the resources (I think somewhere near the "you have no pokemon lol" line works even better but that might not be feasible policy wise) with a bigger font that states the meta premise, that will be the biggest help to entice new builders.
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For actual games, we can also add a box that states the premise like this one in SSB (also where the suspect test notices go). Viewers or sample users will still be able to understand the meta and potentially become invested. I originally wanted to propose this in PS suggestions thread but figured OM leaders must approve this first before this can be implemented. I hope this proposal is seriously considered as I believe it will benefit all OM with just minor changes.
Sidetour ideas
It's great that we have been seeing new projects to highlight different Pokemon and extra team tours, first AAAPL and now Hackmons PL. I think it'd be great to see some fun side singles tours/ more projects to develop metas as well (hopefully people are interested), so here I just throw some ideas around that I suddenly thought of, but mostly took from somewhere else:
- All-rounders: A BO5 tour in STAB, AAA, GG, MnM and PiC. Change: Every round, you must use THE SAME 6 Pokemon for all metas played. You can choose an illegal Pokemon in one or more metas, but then it will only be usable where it's legal (Hence why BH was excluded since its pool of mons is vastly different)
- AAA Happy Change tour: We did this for gen 8 and I think it would be great to see again, especially if we want to see how the metas will shake up to consider changes. 2AC, NAC, FurScales, only Ice Scales, unbans/bans, native abilities, Tera legal, etc I think are all good since they all might benefit the meta in one way or another.
- GG Madness: GG, but both players get a team and must switch the positions of all Pokemon.
- Hit it and Quit it: A tour where once you have used a Pokemon, you can't use it again for later games/rounds. This should work best for AAA, as AAA currently has the lowest diversity between the 7 OM in team tour according to the unique Pokemon used. Exploring more options that can turn out to be viable might improve the enjoyability.
- Iron Chef: Project - [TEAM BUILDING] Iron Chef Camomons Deluxe, Season 1 Kinda not a tour in the traditional sense, but I really enjoyed doing this for Camo back when Euphonos did this. While it can be adjusted a little, I think choosing the theme carefully might open new options similar to Hit it and Quit it.
- Same Six/Five: 5/6 randomly selected Pokemon were predetermined. Also something that's quite fun, but doesn't really develop the metas. Same Five can be pretty great for GG so you can choose a god to accompany the mons.
- STAB vs AAA: STAB teams vs AAA teams. STAB teams will definitely need some unbans to keep up.
- USA vs The World: This is probably a possible replacement for OMWC if participation gets too low, or just some extra silly tour. (I don't want OMWC scrapped though)
- ___ vs The World: A series where one player faces multiple opponents at once, such as Fakes vs The World or MichaelderBeste2 vs The World. Idk who wants to do this, but Ivar is probably the best if we want to go the multi-meta route.
- Break This Team: A project where highlight teams are chosen (successful teams from tours or ladder) and participants nominate Pokemon that can break it. Useful for outside the box thinking of unconventional options.