Tournaments 2026 RBY Tournaments Discussion Thread

[Amaranth]

hello guys its definitely-not-RBY-moderator Amaranth back with another definitely-unofficial thread to gauge community feedback about the circuit

I think things are broadly going very well and there's no need to rock the boat much, but I would like to a heat check on:

* Ladder Tour - do we still like it, yes or no
* Adding a Last Chance Qualifier - "no johns" deadlines (mon-thu then fri-sun) single elimination to spruce up the end of year circuit race
* Any interest in a swiss maybe?
* World Cup - do we love the big round robin R1 or do we want to try out some weeks-based format like DPPWC or LCWC?

That's all I can think of that needs discussing, but if you guys have any other ideas for the circuit this is also the thread for it. Thanks in advance for the feedback

 

[Vileman]

Ladder tour - definitely yes
Last chance - sure why not. Although it seems for other circuits the points those give end up being pretty meaningless. It's still fun to play a no johns so yeah lgi
Swiss - absolutely not it almost always ends up being ass
Rbywc - no interest personally so idc

Other tours are good so no more comments rly

 

[Melbelle]

no
meh
is this feasible without forcing you to play useless games or drop out when you can't win anymore given the player count is uncertain
like it as is but dont care a lot

 

[GirlsSeeGhosts]

For the most part I like the way the circuit is run now, I never felt this year like too long went without a tournament (though maybe that's because I regged for every RoA tour with RBY lol)

Ladder tour is the funniest tour by far please keep it

Last chance is fine, idk not much to say but more rby is good

Swiss could be interesting, I'm assuming it's a Smogon Masters style of tournament? So far that and GC have been my favorite formats on Smogon, so I do think fitting it in (possibly as one of the two seasonals?) would be fun

For RBYWC I like the current format, would not want to change it for a weekly tour thing. The freedom to know all your pool opps at once and schedule them as you see fit makes it unique compared to other team tours and I do like it

 

[King Billu]

Ladder Tour - Yes keep the ladder tour for sure, everyone who qualifies enjoys it, and everyone who loves to ladder
Adding a Last Chance Qualifier - Irrelevant add in my opinion, no pros or cons to this
Any interest in a swiss maybe - maybe and it's better than a last chance qualifier
World Cup - the 3 weeks to finish 3 games is perfect, this is RBY's most "prestigious" tournament after SPL (obviously). The way this tournament, RBYPL, Cup, and SNLS are setup, are perfect. Circuit should be kept the same as this year

 

[PHB11677]

I'm not gonna comment on the feasibility of anything since I'm not knowledgeable on that, but unlike most mons players I actually enjoy playing the game, so I'd be down for the first 3 things mentioned (ladder tour, last chance, and swiss) since it's more opportunities to play. As for the world cup my ass is probably not making a team unless something crazy happens, so I won't comment on that.

 

[violet river]

ladder tour good
Swiss bad
last chance idc
world cup - format good
i may elaborate on these at a later date i just wanted to show general support for lt mainly

 

[Teh]

no last chance or swiss. seems a bit redundant since we already have plenty of individuals + those formats suck. if we're going to have another ou tournament i'd like it to be something more than just Another Tournament
ladder tour and rbywc pools rule. yes keep them

 

[Sabelette]

i would be perfectly happy with just a repeat of 2025, this year was perfect formatwise to me

 

[Teh]

also going to say this here bc this sentiment was shared in the discord and i don't want it to get lost, but rising stars should really be replaced with something else next year. it just doesn't fulfill the purpose it was meant to fulfill. a swiss round was a step in the right direction but i really think it ought to be replaced with something more interesting (ou only team tournament?)

 

[King Billu]

Instead of rising stars, we can have a fun 3 team tour where you signup with 2 others and play against other teams of 3.
Format would be
OU BO3
OU BO3
OU BO5
Or 3 BO5 games

 

[BeeOrSomething]

also going to say this here bc this sentiment was shared in the discord and i don't want it to get lost, but rising stars should really be replaced with something else next year. it just doesn't fulfill the purpose it was meant to fulfill. a swiss round was a step in the right direction but i really think it ought to be replaced with something more interesting (ou only team tournament?)

rbywc is already an ou only team tournament. I think swiss is a fine replacement for rising stars, agree with the sentiment

last chance support

Don’t like ladder tour personally but it’s well liked so wtv just leave it

I think I’d prefer weeks format for WC, pools is always such a slog. 3 weeks is an eternity for only 4 sets

 

[phoopes]

-Keep ladder tour
-LCQ seems fun but I don’t like the no johns format personally
-Swiss seems like it never works so idk if that’s a great idea, but could be worth a try
-I like World Cup as is
-Rising Stars is fun but I wouldn’t be heartbroken if it was dropped because yeah idk if SPL managers really value it?

 

[NotVeryCake]

How about an RBY Live Tour competition instead of Rising Stars? Hold 1 Live Tournament a day for 8 / 16 days (Would easily be enough days to accommodate every timezone) and then move onto a playoff stage (Either single or double Elim). Where the winner from each live tournament face off against each other.

Edit: To make clear against the worry of alts or people re entering. Make participants sign up in a special sign up thread with an explicit, registered account and disqualify those who have already won / unregistered accounts, before that live tournament starts, so the tour would not be affected

 

[Soda_Eesti]

Me thinks do ladder tour. People like it and its fun to participate in even if you dont do well stage 1
Idc abt last chance but im down for swiss 100%

Id like to throw in that id like a trios tour but i get thats kinda not smth people wanna see.

 

[Amaranth]

Some people in Discord have shared interest in a Third Teamtour with Full RBY OU and A Fresh Format, to which I have proposed the following:

* Between end of RBYWC (May) and start of RBYPL (September) - nice summer stretch to fit another teamtour without rocking the boat with the others

* Fresh Format:
8 teams of 5 players + 2 subs each. Team formation could be auctioned or snake drafted or some such, TBD.
Teams are placed directly into a double elimination bracket.
Each match up is a full 5v5 (each of the 5 players plays all 5 on the opposing team). Two weeks deadline for each match up - so each player has to play 5 Bo3s in two weeks. More on this later.
With the full 5x5, there are 25 match ups played in total. First team to 13 wins advances in the bracket.

That is my proposal. These are the reasons I think it would be good:

* As much as we joke about "pokemon players when asked to play a bo3:" type stuff, clearly with all the Bo35ing going around lately there is a decent subset of players that thirsts for hot RBY OU action.

* The format of two sets of 5 going all out against each other is fucking fire. We used to do these in local Italian clan wars a decade ago and it was sick. The energy when you 5-0 the entire enemy team is crazy. I promise you this format leads to immense hype moments and aura, for players and spectators alike.

* Playing five sets in two weeks might sound like a scheduling nightmare, but what often happens is you can just go "hey let's all show up at like sunday 8pm +1 for a few hours and knock out all games between everyone present" and most of the set comfortably gets played that way. Also, refer to the general point about the Bo35ers - scheduling is rarely an issue when people actually want to play.

* If we want a Third Team Tour you will have to walk over my dead body if you intend to make it another turbo uninspired Blind Draft or Snake or any such thing. Let's make it actually fulfill a need of the playerbase (ie. passionate OUers starving for more) as opposed to some filler slop to kill time.

* If this tournament succeeds at making the OUers happy and sated, perhaps this opens the door to 4-6 OU/LT splits in RBYPL or even 3-7 in the long run, allowing further development of all your ZUs and shit.

* I think 8x5 RBY OUers is doable - RBYPL is doing it and that's without all the guys who are off on lowtier duty, plus this could probably be advertised to the Classic Fossils etc. to get a more sizable playerbase. If we think the numbers ain't there it could be changed to be a 6-team RR mayhaps (with no playoffs, just playing out the full RR for the love of the game, and maybe at that point you could even have all the match ups simultaneously to further stimulate ease of scheduling)


Me personally I'm not actually too fussed about whether this happens or not, but I floated the idea in the Discord and it had some decent support seemingly, so here it is again for more visibility and debate - pinging Vileman Teh emma violet river THE_CHUNGLER who expressed support in discord if they want to elaborate at all etc

 

[violet river]

Some people in Discord have shared interest in a Third Teamtour with Full RBY OU and A Fresh Format, to which I have proposed the following:

* Between end of RBYWC (May) and start of RBYPL (September) - nice summer stretch to fit another teamtour without rocking the boat with the others

* Fresh Format:
8 teams of 5 players + 2 subs each. Team formation could be auctioned or snake drafted or some such, TBD.
Teams are placed directly into a double elimination bracket.
Each match up is a full 5v5 (each of the 5 players plays all 5 on the opposing team). Two weeks deadline for each match up - so each player has to play 5 Bo3s in two weeks. More on this later.
With the full 5x5, there are 25 match ups played in total. First team to 13 wins advances in the bracket.

That is my proposal. These are the reasons I think it would be good:

* As much as we joke about "pokemon players when asked to play a bo3:" type stuff, clearly with all the Bo35ing going around lately there is a decent subset of players that thirsts for hot RBY OU action.

* The format of two sets of 5 going all out against each other is fucking fire. We used to do these in local Italian clan wars a decade ago and it was sick. The energy when you 5-0 the entire enemy team is crazy. I promise you this format leads to immense hype moments and aura, for players and spectators alike.

* Playing five sets in two weeks might sound like a scheduling nightmare, but what often happens is you can just go "hey let's all show up at like sunday 8pm +1 for a few hours and knock out all games between everyone present" and most of the set comfortably gets played that way. Also, refer to the general point about the Bo35ers - scheduling is rarely an issue when people actually want to play.

* If we want a Third Team Tour you will have to walk over my dead body if you intend to make it another turbo uninspired Blind Draft or Snake or any such thing. Let's make it actually fulfill a need of the playerbase (ie. passionate OUers starving for more) as opposed to some filler slop to kill time.

* If this tournament succeeds at making the OUers happy and sated, perhaps this opens the door to 4-6 OU/LT splits in RBYPL or even 3-7 in the long run, allowing further development of all your ZUs and shit.

* I think 8x5 RBY OUers is doable - RBYPL is doing it and that's without all the guys who are off on lowtier duty, plus this could probably be advertised to the Classic Fossils etc. to get a more sizable playerbase. If we think the numbers ain't there it could be changed to be a 6-team RR mayhaps (with no playoffs, just playing out the full RR for the love of the game, and maybe at that point you could even have all the match ups simultaneously to further stimulate ease of scheduling)


Me personally I'm not actually too fussed about whether this happens or not, but I floated the idea in the Discord and it had some decent support seemingly, so here it is again for more visibility and debate - pinging Vileman Teh emma violet river THE_CHUNGLER who expressed support in discord if they want to elaborate at all etc

i would greatly support this and like to play in it
i think a third teamtour featuring OU would be grand
the scheduling is exceedingly reasonable - realistically youre just gonna have some very active Saturday Middays and Sunday Evenings
people would totally play - the playerbase fiends for more RBY OU.
8x5 rby ou is extremely doable based on rbypl + lowtier duty + pl managers + uncs who didnt sign up but clearly like rbywc and this has some of that same appeal
i just wholly agree with the justification for running this tournament.

I have some more measured thoughts about how to run the auction - I think having it be a Snake Draft with a budget and assigned player prices would lead to balanced teams and allow for people to generally get together the squad they want without either stacking tournament players or like the old clan war style of just signing up with all your strongest buddies. realistically, I don't care all that much i guess. tour wld be good though.