All Gens 2025 Ruins of Alph Circuits - Feedback and Suggestions

[Tizio Potente Ao]

Hi everyone and sorry for making another post in this thread,

I’d like to raise the idea of bringing back live tours for classic generations. In the past, formats like the Smogon Tour or the ROA Tour provided consistent live competition for the classic tiers, but today there are no live tour opportunities for old gens at all. I believe this is a major gap in the tournament scene.

1. Live Tours Create a Unique Competitive Environment​

A live tour is an experience nothing else on Smogon can replicate.
Playing multiple games in rapid succession demands focus, adaptation, and consistency that weekly tournaments simply cannot mirror. This format:

• Showcases raw skill under pressure
• Gives visibility to rising players
• Encourages deeper engagement with the metagame

For old gens especially, where innovation is slower and player recognition is harder, live tours offer a platform for newer or lesser-known players to make a name for themselves.

2. Lower Commitment, Higher Accessibility​

One of the biggest strengths of live tours is that they resolve in a single session.
Unlike multimonth tournaments, which require long-term commitment and scheduling, live tours let players compete on a single day, without signing up for something that drags on for weeks.

This opens the door for:

• Players with limited time or inconsistent schedules
• Users who avoid long tournaments but would gladly join occasional live sessions
• More casual old-gen fans who enjoy playing but don’t want to commit to a full circuit tour

The lack of low-commitment opportunities is one reason old-gen participation has shrunk; live tours would help reverse that.

3. We Already Have a Proven Model (and Plenty of Time in the Calendar)​

The Smogon Tour runs from late March/early April to early June.
That leaves most of the year without an official live tour structure, which means the community could easily reintroduce something like:

• A second Smogon Tour dedicated to old gens
• A revived ROA Tour
• A fresh old-gen live tour series following the same, familiar format

The infrastructure, format, and expectations already exist—the only thing missing is the will to launch it again.

A Focused, Practical Version of the Idea​

If time or resource constraints are a concern, the tour could adopt a streamlined format centered only on:

• ADV (Gen 3)
• DPP (Gen 4)
• BW (Gen 5)

These are the most active old gens, and the ones most likely to draw consistent participation. A shorter, 3-tier live tour would still bring tremendous value without overextending staff or players.

Why the Current Situation Feels Wrong​

Frankly, the absence of old-gen live tours is disappointing.
Old gens are a foundational part of Smogon’s competitive history, yet they currently lack the single best tournament environment for showcasing skill, developing new talent, and keeping metagames alive.

Live tours are exciting, accessible, community-building, and perfect for these generations. Not having them is a missed opportunity for both the playerbase and the health of old-gen competitive play.

 

[Slowpoke Fan]

2. Lower Commitment, Higher Accessibility​

One of the biggest strengths of live tours is that they resolve in a single session.
Unlike multimonth tournaments, which require long-term commitment and scheduling, live tours let players compete on a single day, without signing up for something that drags on for weeks.

This opens the door for:

• Players with limited time or inconsistent schedules
• Users who avoid long tournaments but would gladly join occasional live sessions
• More casual old-gen fans who enjoy playing but don’t want to commit to a full circuit tour

The lack of low-commitment opportunities is one reason old-gen participation has shrunk; live tours would help reverse that.

Will it open the door for players who do not live in Europe or the Americas though? A DPP livetour that does not accommodate the timezone of our most recent DPPWC champions would feel slightly awkward to say the least