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Hi everyone, now that circuit championships have begun, the RoA Tournaments moderation team is looking to collect feedback as well as suggestions for the 2026 circuits. Feedback can include anything, although we're particularly interested in hearing your thoughts about:
New team tour mimicking RoAPL and featuring Masters generations (format, timing for the tour, etc.)
The return of Summer Seasonals for all generations
Ladder tournaments
Last Chance deadlines
Subforum World Cups
Please keep in mind that while our team is organizing and coordinating circuits, the decisions regarding a specific circuit are in the hands of the moderation team of the corresponding generation as well as RoA leadership. Moreover, the design of our circuits hinges upon the official circuit, so drastic changes to time periods might be a non-starter depending on what official tournaments are slated to run at that time.
Please change these to a one week deadline, or atleast allow extensions.
Many of us have work or school which means people with different timezones get matched up and just can't find a time during the week. This should not be a potential barrier to competing in the circuit and we should value getting as many of the matches done as possible instead of coinflips or act calls.
Hi! Thanks for this thread, Hiro. I have a few thoughts I wanted to share.
~I would definitely like to see the return of the GSC Summer SSNL this upcoming year. I felt that there were too few tournaments in GSC over this year. Overall, the return of Summer SSNL tours across all Gens sounds great.
~As for the ladder tournaments, I would greatly prefer a change in the playoffs format. It takes a long time to qualify for these tournaments, and having single-elimination playoffs can be frustrating. A round-robin-style system akin to OLT would be preferable.
Masters Generation tour can be feasible. But it would probably require reworking roapl slots and slotting ORAS over to this new tour. From what I am aware of, "slot inflation" as a conversation is gonna be inevitable with roapl being gens 1-6. Reworking roapl to be focused on gens 1-5 should be feasible as if that tour is still doing 2 slots per tier, i think 10 slots is ideal for RoAPL.
I am working under the assumption that the tour is separating the classic gens from masters gens identity wise. If you do masters gen (6-8). You can prob still do 2 slots per tier. It would be something like:
2x SS OU
2x SM OU
2x ORAS OU
2x Masters Bo3?
As for the timing of the tour; You can have the timing be around that spring period after SPL ends and before wcop main event starts in terms of start time. As it is right now we have no shortage of tours for Masters in the late summer to fall period whether its the actual Masters tour itself or OUPL etc. Also yes I'm aware it would be around the same time as STour but that tour as it is right now is suppose to be spontaneous anyways so I don't think its that big of a deal.
An aside but if this hypothetical masters tour were to actually occur, whether it should be double bo3 for each gen or 1 bo3 and 1 bo1 can be at each gen's respective communities discretion.
Summer Seasonals are fine.
Ladder Tours are fine but number of cycles and all that should probably be dependent on ladder activity. A tier that lacks in sufficient ladder activity probably should not be running a ladder tour. I'm sure there is probably some kinda benchmark u can look at. Personally am indifferent to the playoff format.
Last Chance as it is right now format wise is a meme. Either A.) Start the tour much earlier so that u don't need a 3-4 days deadline and have it be a 1 week deadline. B.) Nuke it altogether.
Subforum world cups is prob fine for classic gens but again should be at discretion of each old gens respective mod team and dependent on signup numbers.
I think everyone can agree that more tournaments = the better. There is no downside to having summer seasonals for every generation and would just be overall well received by many
Strictly speaking on the GSC Ladder tournament, I like the idea since it encourages more ladder activity and of course more .. “quality” games. Overall step in the right direction
They should just remove the “No Johns” flat out from Last Chance. A week deadline won’t kill anyone’s time for the holidays (surely ) and for a “Last chance” tournament having 3-4 days to play your game is, in my opinion, way too little all things considered. Either change the deadline to a week or allow extensions to be had, not having either of them makes no sense for this kind of tournament
Going to speak on a variety of topics so please bear with me a bit.
1. I would like to add SSLT to the circuit next year - it will be held in the early spring months (say February or March) and the SS subforum moderators can host it like how it was held last year if need be. The more important thing is that I would like it to have a wider points distribution at the bottom due to a couple of reasons:
It would be a bit unfair to circuit participants (especially those who are employed) who aren't able to set aside the time required to ladder if the tournament gives a lot of points to the champion.
A 'normal' Type C/Type B distribution would probably be too little of a reward for those who qualify for the playoffs but get knocked out early as qualifying for the top 32 bracket is usually more difficult than say making the top 32 of a random circuit tournament (e.g. you can't get act calls in SSLT and will have to play against a bunch of people vying with you for ELO numerous times).
top 32: 310 points
top 16: 600 points
top 8: 900 points
top 4: 1200 points
runner-up: 1500 points
winner: 2000 points
Adds up to what a normal Type B tournament would give in terms of points, but more evenly distributed to all playoff participants for the reasons outlined above.
Note: SS Trios will essentially swap start dates with SSLT if this proposal goes through. Also thinking of implementing a mini group stage (groups of 4, top 2 in each group advance to the next round) for the round of 32 - as Iguana said, qualifying for LTs take a lot of time and it would be nice to give players who qualify for the playoffs more opportunities to play high-level sets.
2. Our third CA will probably go to a team tournament from next year onwards - dex and I floated the idea of SSCL with the following formats in the SS Discord server and it received pretty positive feedback:
SS OU x2
SS UU
SS Ubers
SS RU
SS NU
SS PU
SS ZU
SS LC
SS Monotype
SS CAP
BDSP OU
I think having BDSP OU in the tournament would be a nice way of being inclusive to the BDSP community that resides in our subforum. While I am aware that they have their own subsection, circuit and subcommunity, I think this would be an interesting first step in integrating them with us without rocking the boat too wildly for the time being.
Note: SS Invitational will include a cash prize to compensate for it losing the CA prize if this proposal goes through, please contact me if you're willing to contribute to next year's prize pool .
3. The community has also expressed interest in setting up a SSWC team tournament in the future, but it will likely need to take a backseat if it's competing with SSCL for the third CA prize from the subforum. I would appreciate it if users in the SS community can take the time to inform me whether they would still be interested in a SSWC without a real prize .
4. As for the Masters equivalent of RoAPL, I don't think there should be any reason to not hold one - an easy solution to the questions TyCarter brought up would be to axe ORAS from RoAPL (let's not act like there wasn't any pushback against in inclusion of ORAS in RoAPL anyways) and have the new Masters generations team tournament follow the format of Masters League this year: 3 slots for every generation and a Bo3 slot.
i would heavily support making a masters team tournament follow the format of masters league, cut oras from roapl and either run 10 slot roapl or add classic bo5/whatever.
ladder tours aren't particularly unfair to people who are busy - having to schedule 11 rounds of an individual sucks equally hard just in different ways. please keep ladder tour single elim though, if you make it swiss or whatever then it truly does become a big time/investment sink.
keep rbylt for certain, advlt dpplt bwlt all fire, maybe cut gsc due to issues w the gsc ladder.
bdsp in sscl sounds good
Thoughts on GSC circuit in particular:
- I think the main thing to balance is how to attract higher level players (to give the circuit quality) vs having enough games for new and up and coming players - which is especially important in GSC where most people do not ladder & you have to know about matchmaking to get games outside of tours. With that in mind I would assume that higher level players would prefer shorter tours (as you have to consider the max length of the tour more) / getting to higher level opponents faster, while lower level players would prefer getting more games. For circuit points idk how much people are motivated by them, if the circuit this year is similar to last, I would assume they would incentivize midlevel (top 50 or so on the circuit sheet) a bit more. Leaving this as a question mark.
- summer seasonal vs ladder tour - I personally enjoyed the ladder tour and found it a alot of fun, but a couple things that worry me here:
a) ladder activity stayed around constant YoY - part of this is due to early labour day I think, but its not a huge increase with the extra 4-5 days factored in. I think while the quality of games improved, it really drove away the lower / midlevel people and guys from other tiers from the ladder for a bit (thinking of a few people who gave up early after playing 50 games vs bpass and do nothing stall)
b) top 16 was all established-ish players pretty much, so most lower level players might give up early as limited chance to qualify
I generally like the format, but the main appeal from a tier health perspective is to boost ladder activity and give new players decent games on demand, and its questionable whether it does either of those. It was pretty fun though imo and the gsclt room was cool.
Could conceivably do top 32 with shorter qual periods and still have the short timeline, but makes it a bit easier to qual while still incentivizing activity
- Summer seasonals - with the gsc schedule you need a tour mid summer when most ppl are out of gsc cup, and then another tour in fall when most people are out of the summer tour. Last chance makes sense for the fall tour given the short deadline, so the summer tour cannot take that long either. As a result I dont think the double elim summer seasonal makes sense for GSC, as it takes too long, and you really want the fall tour for more tour opportunities.
- last chance deadlines - a lot of people seemed to miss the no johns aspect so could change it to a week, but Im wary of doubling the real time length, especially when its already a tight deadline. One thing that might make it easier is give one weekend day in each segment, but would also see a lot more flips / actlosses as a result
- Gsc wc - we could prob field 8 teams (us 2x, canada, latam, europe, africa + asia, oce, brazil / germany / france?). Might be fun, cool experience for newer players, but would have to be single elim + whatever team brings 6 ringers would sweep pretty easy.
- other feedback - please keep gc + winter seasonal. not sure how flexible the timing is but could factor in invitational timing as well for the gc start (starting r4-r5 or so).
Suggestion: SS OU Builders Invitational for the 2026 RoA Circuit
I would like to propose a new event for the 2026 RoA Circuit: the SS OU Builders Invitational, a tournament focused entirely on showcasing high–level building skills within the Sword & Shield metagame.
One of the recurring challenges for old generation circuits is keeping the metagame active and giving players meaningful opportunities to explore new ideas. SS OU has consistently shown a strong playerbase with an active creative scene, and I believe a builders–focused tournament would bring additional competitive depth to the RoA circuit.
Core Concept
This tournament would invite the most successful builders from the SS OU circuit (based on seasonal results, ladder performance, or a council-selected group) to compete in a format where the emphasis is placed on teambuilding quality. Players would submit teams each round, and replays would highlight how well the structures hold up in practice.
Why This Fits the 2026 Circuit Goals
• It aligns with the proposed idea of new team-based or creativity-focused events.
• It creates an opportunity for players to showcase building skills, a key part of old gens play that often goes underrepresented.
• It encourages ongoing metagame development, which benefits both tournament and ladder players.
• It gives SS OU a unique identity within the RoA ecosystem, similar to how ORAS, BW, and DPP have signature events or formats.
Possible Format Ideas
• Invitational format for 8–16 qualified builders.
• Weekly best-of-3 rounds, with team submissions required beforehand.
• Public team dumps after each round to promote community learning.
• Optional judges panel that scores team quality (similar to past “teambuilding workshops” formats).
I believe this type of event would bring a lot of value to the SS OU scene and would fit naturally into the new “team-inspired” or “creative” events the RoA staff is looking for.
3. The community has also expressed interest in setting up a SSWC team tournament in the future, but it will likely need to take a backseat if it's competing with SSCL for the third CA prize from the subforum. I would appreciate it if users in the SS community can take the time to inform me whether they would still be interested in a SSWC without a real prize .
Last year uuwc was really fun for me and didnt have a prize, but either way it would be a really fun tournament to see and I think SS is one of those generations where you can fill a team with new players or just elite on every regular team (E.G Portugal, Venezuela, US, Africa, Etc etc)
Invitational-esque tours being apart of any circuit sounds really prone to bias and exclusion. This is ok if the concept is just meant to be for fun community building, but that is all it should ever be if the point is to keep the circuit competitive.
Invitational-esque tours being apart of any circuit sounds really prone to bias and exclusion. This is ok if the concept is just meant to be for fun community building, but that is all it should ever be if the point is to keep the circuit competitive.
So, this would just be an example, but they could open a vote on which SS OU players could participate, or just do it the standard way, if they register, the tournament organizers should choose who should play, based on activity and achievements perhap
So, this would just be an example, but they could open a vote on which SS OU players could participate, or just do it the standard way, if they register, the tournament organizers should choose who should play, based on activity and achievements perhap
You're absolutely right, but anyway, shouldn't it be like this? It's just a question, like, shouldn't it be like this? It's practically a team-building tour; ideally, you'd choose players who already have some experience with this, RTMs, samples, and the like, but in any case, it can be open to everyone, even new players
1. I’m very much in favor of introducing a team tour that mimics RoAPL but with the Fairy generations. That way we could also remove ORAS from RoAPL and tweak the format by adding something like a BO5 classic slot or a picked tier or whatever works best. This would give us one team tour dedicated ONLY to the classic gens (1–5) and another covering the Fairy gens (6 to the current gen - 1), which feels like the most sensible split. Maybe even a name rebrand? ClassicPL and MastersPL? Not sure, but something along those lines.
2. I think the Summer Seasonal is fine. It can also be replaced with another format as long as it makes sense. I don’t see big issues with keeping it or removing it, it’s something that should be evaluated individually for each tier based on what the playerbase want.
3. Personally, I hate ladder tours. They can be a good way to get noticed since the games are public, but overall I find it DISGUSTING that you need to play 50 games just to qualify for a single-elimination BO3 tournament. Leaving time constraints aside (which I don’t think are a real excuse because you should sign up only if you know you have the time to play), it still feels way more reasonable to reward players who win multiple BO3 sets rather than those who just spam a huge number of games every week. And some ladder tours even let you keep the same alt for 4 weeks, which is wild.
4. I’m a fan of no johns tournaments, and honestly I’d like to see even more of them. I wouldn’t worry too much about people complaining about the short deadlines but i'd just make it very clear in the thread (in big text, multiple reminders) that the deadline is 3–4 days per round. As I said earlier, if you sign up for a tour you should guarantee a certain level of availability; if you can’t match with your opponent that’s another issue, but finding 30 minutes to play a BO3 within 3 days is more than doable even if you work or go to school (you can also split the series in different days lol). I’m also fine with granting extensions as long as they don’t delay the whole tournament (like a 1-day extension maximum, no consecutive extensions, or even seeding based on time zones to make scheduling easier). And I want to emphasize that these tournaments are called LAST CHANCE / No Johns Format for a reason, so it makes sense that the timing is tight.
5. Subforum world cups were great additions overall, and they seem to have been successful. I’d suggest using a standard format for all of them, similar to the official World Cup: 3 weeks for the 3 group-stage games, plus 1 week per playoff round. I’d rather avoid 1-week rounds like DPP World Cup, but that’s a pretty minor issue.
RoAPL = 2x each of Gens 1-5
OUPL = 5 SV, 2x each of Gens 6-8, 1 STour Bo3 slot
I believe Lutra had coordinated things with the OU forum mods back in the day so RoAPL could focus on Classic tiers and OUPL could focus on the rest. As someone who has managed both tournaments, I think we should go back to this for sure. I suggested modifying OUPL to add an extra ORAS slot and an extra SV slot to compensate for the lack of ORAS in RoAPL.
Maybe when Gen 10 comes out, make OUPL only CG OU and add a new PL for Gens 6-9. With the general release schedule this shouldn’t apply next year, so it isn’t something to think about now.
I know this thread is primarily about RoA, but I think OUPL is worth mentioning since this could minimize tournament bloat. Just a suggestion.
) and for a “Last chance” tournament having 3-4 days to play your game is, in my opinion, way too little all things considered. Either change the deadline to a week or allow extensions to be had, not having either of them makes no sense for this kind of tournament
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