ORASPL V - Format Discussion

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With ORASPL V coming up we are opening up a discussion about the tournament's format.

Last year's format consisted of:
  • 2 Managers with 2 self buys allowed set at 15K each
  • 10 slots + 3 subs with 130K
With the 10 slots being,
  • ORAS Ubers
  • ORAS OU
  • ORAS OU
  • ORAS OU
  • ORAS DOU
  • ORAS UU
  • ORAS RU
  • ORAS NU
  • ORAS LC
  • ORAS Monotype
This year, we would like to primarily bring up the following discussion points:
  • Keep the same format OR
  • Expand to 12 slots w/ an addition of 2 of the following: ORAS OU (4th slot), ORAS PU, ORAS ZU, ORAS Random Battle.
    • This would come with 3 subs for a total of 15 players with 150K, 2 self buys allowed set at 20K
    • Note: 3rd OU slot, DOU, and Monotype which were debated last time will remain in the format unless there is strong community opinion against it.
  • Expand to 3 managers

We are very interested in the community's thoughts and concerns for this coming PL so please discuss away your comments on the next iteration. If you feel strongly about any of the above, now's your chance to give input. Please include an explanation for your responses.

This thread will stay open until July 27th.
 
Good morning

As someone who has involved themselves more with ORAS this year, I don't find it to make sense that ORAS PU is not currently in this tournament. Now it's not my favourite ORAS tier but at the same time, PU is a core metagame and it doesn't make sense that it's absent from this tour. The PU community would greatly appreciate this.

I'll also speak for the inclusion of ORAS ZU in this tour as well. I didn't find the tier that fun when playing for Classic (screens wasn't fun to face) but I believe with the bans of Huntail and Light Clay (thank god), this format would see its metagame being pushed at the highest level which promotes development. ZUPL does have its signups open currently which will include ORAS so I can imagine some people thinking it might not need to be included.

All in all, PU should be 100% included which does require the jump to 12 slots. The 12th slot can be ZU but even randbats could be interesting for more inclusivity of our communities on the site, I'll imagine the randbats players will boost signups by quite a bit.
 
Hey I don’t really like talk in format discussions for ROA tours too often but I do think including more lower tiers is always a good thing especially. I believe most of these were just recently included in the ongoing Oras lower tier team tour. Expanding the slots should be strictly given to lower tiers in my opinion if expansion is being considered. That’s all!
 
The inclusion of PU seems to be a no brainer, and based on the provided information, there are no current plans to add PU while maintaining the tournament at 10 slots. I am advocating for ORAS ZU be included as the 12th slot. While not a definitive reference, the ZU pool in the Underground tournament demonstrated a respectable level of participation, surpassing that of most other tiers. This observation is made from the perspective of someone who has competed in another tier within that tournament and participated in ORASPL last year also in another tier. Fwiw the inclusion of ZU in this year's SMPL has resulted in a respectable participant pool, much better than the average lower tier one I would say. I anticipate that a similar outcome would be observed if ZU were to be included in here. Imo 4 OU slots is too much and lowering the level, can't really speak for Random Battles but I don't think they fit well with the proposal of the tournament personally.
 
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3 Managers is something that I want this tour to have, extra support is really required and also the timezones
Me and ithi covered each other well with him being -5 or -6 and me being +5.5 so we covered each others mornings and nights but certain times we both were away , ideally this happens a lot but extra support might just help avoid this. Also SSPL has 3 managers , there is really no harm in exploring the same for ORAS.

ORAS OU 4th slot can be added but it should not be favoured over ORAS PU - Good players have signed up for the same in Underground and it should be added , same with ORAS ZU. ORAS PU>ZU>OU(4th slot).

Random battles is a meme, don't even think of adding it, I would rather see ORAS AG over rands

Also 12 slots > 10 slots - Underground really had a good player-base and it can be even better with ORASPL so lets make it happen.

Reduce self buy to first being 10k and the second manager to 15k instead of both 15k
This will also help in saving 5k and getting another player iif required but again that's optional ig
 
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If people really like 3 managers, then I feel like 12 slots should be an easy choice. No reason for a lack of support in the lower tiers if there's plenty of involvement. It seems like PU and ZU have players wanting to play the format and I personally would love for monotype to stay. Not tapped into doubles like that but still seems like a good inclusion if the love is there.
 
I think it would be a shame to not have ZU included among the tiers this year after its inclusion in Underground. I believe the same is the case with PU especially since it's already considered an official tier. With the addition of these, we would be remiss to not also expand to three managers to aid with the increased number of tiers to support while also keeping up with the trend that SSPL has set.
 
Not an ORAS PU mainer myself but it makes zero sense for a core metagame that was included in Grand Slam to not be included in ORASPL.

That's well beside the point that it's a highly competitive, popular, and established metagame with a healthy roster of high-level players and helpers that would be interested in participating.
 
showing support for ORAS PU and ZU to be included as the 11th & 12th slots - they always field competitive ( and non-overlapping ) player pools in PUPL and ZUPL, so there's reason to believe that it will be the same here as well.

I do want to make a salient point regarding having 3 managers though. MPL tried it this time, and I know first-hand how suffocating it felt to plan for the draft as a result of it. Simply put, I think its extremely difficult for side-pls if 8 "top" players are taken out of the pool, as a manager you're left with fewer options when planning for your carry slots in a draft. Officials dont face this problem (as much) because you have a bigger and much better player pool to pick from.
 
I agree with Dj's point over 3 managers. Its really cool on paper until we add the third time-zone into the mix, its already challenging enough having to manage around 16 other players, and bumping that number to 24 players sounds nightmarish. While technically only one player has to be present, this feels like it'll create less than ideal situations for each team, especially in the fast-paced environment of an auction.

Seeing how dedicated the pu community is firsthand and the major success grand slam was w/ pu makes me want to throw the idea of 12 slots in a try. ZU considering how new it is, may also be a great entry point for a bunch of players (zu mainers, or simply oras enjoyers) to come in and pour life into the tier. I think we should make that jump for the 12 slots therefore
 
I cast my vote for 12 slots with 2 managers and 140K (maybe 160K) to use and the following set of metas:

Ubers
3 x OU
DOU
UU
RU
NU
PU
ZU
LC
Monotype

This maximizes the OU slots while also including both (yes both) NU and PU since they've never both been included at the same time iirc as well as ZU's maiden voyage into ORAS PL. We sometimes forget that ZU (while not an official tier) has a big enough fanbase to include it.

I'm also open to the possibility of 3 managers like SSPL is doing. However, with one caveat. SSPL is only allowing 1 manager to play of the 3, which I find to be unfair for lack of a better word. 2 of the 3 managers should be allowed to play especially if this tour has allowed both managers to self-buy in the past. I'd also keep manager self-buys at 15K each.
 
why would 3 managers be a problem in the context of them being taken from the player pool if managers have the ability to self-buy? since were considering then top players anyway in this example the prices for self buying usually end up being a steal in a lot of cases
also have every lower tier in the tournament imo, expand slots to accomodate
would also like to propose an oras ou bo3 slot as well, maybe even 2. its been pretty good in roapl
 
I was talking about this in the ORAS discord with Oathkeeper, Ruffles and purbaj and the price point for the draft is obviously an issue.Screenshot 2025-07-15 201541.png
Last year's format required a minimum of 14 players for 10 slots — meaning 4 substitutes. Now, a 140k budget seems reasonable for 10 slots + 4 subs, since substitutes can be picked up for lower amounts. But if we're moving to 12 slots — which we should be doing — you're going to need stronger players across the board. I don't see how we can manage that with just a 10k increase from last PL's budget.


It just doesn't make sense — increasing the number of slots without significantly increasing the budget would be a major mistake.


Also, the idea of excluding 3 managers from playing because it would reduce the top player pool doesn’t hold up, especially since we’re giving them the option to self-buy. They're just taking on the additional responsibility of managing a team and can still play if they want to.


Suggesting 20k for manager self-buys is excessive — if two managers choose to self-buy, that's 40k gone right there. That’s a huge chunk of the budget. It would make more sense to cap it at 15k, or maybe 10k for co-managers and 15k for main managers. Or just go with 15k for both.

We should also not boot any of the format that were there in the previous pl - Monotype and everything else had backing from the whole community and it should be respected.

We don't need to follow what every other gen does. ORAS is an independent generation — we can set a better precedent and improve from here.
 
Alpha1013 said:
I don't see how we can manage that with just a 10k increase from last PL's budget.

ROAPL did it, SMPL did it, SSPL did it. how is 150k not enough to buy 12 players with a brain cuz imma tell you its enough

It just doesn't make sense — increasing the number of slots without significantly increasing the budget would be a major mistake.

no it wouldnt


Also, the idea of excluding 3 managers from playing because it would reduce the top player pool doesn’t hold up, especially since we’re giving them the option to self-buy. They're just taking on the additional responsibility of managing a team and can still play if they want to.

idk if you read his post but thats literally the point he was making mate if 8 top players self buy the other managers have 8 less players to choose from.


Suggesting 20k for manager self-buys is excessive — if two managers choose to self-buy, that's 40k gone right there.

yes lets get ruffles and c0mp to sign up and play on the same team for 10k each

We should also not boot any of the format that were there in the previous pl - Monotype and everything else had backing from the whole community and it should be respected.

fuck monotype
Click to expand...

i didnt mean to comment back to back but alphas posts triggered me
 
i agree with spitfire that 3 managers usually feels a little suffocating when it comes to actually drafting. even if managers are selfbuying its not necessarily about the quality of the player pool. if all the managers are good players and self buy then who is left to even buy in the pool atp. especially since not all managers are gonna be oras "goats" anyway, just people who know how to manage or like building the metas etc. so you're only really encouraged to sign up and manage if your co(s) are high level oras players.

Wesleyy said:
boot monotype out the tour give the tour an extra OU slot and add pu zu
Click to expand...
in every old gen pl thread (and mostly other threads where monotype is brought up) you come running to shoot the idea down. at least provide a reason so monotype mainers can disprove you regardless. not sure what monotype did to you but lowkey its rent free asf apparently. if you actually want monotype removed from these tournaments then at least try lol
 
Its 12 + 3 subs so 150k
Also u are confusing shit
We did 140k for 14 people, but those were for only 10 slots. So 4 subs aka enough ( since the subs go for lower price)

12 main slots followed by 3 subs
150k - and if you are suggesting 20k each like u just did for the c0mp and ruffles example
U are doing away with 40k budget of yours.
Hey u can draft a team with 110k and 13 players if you want but if you are saying it's ideal then you are hella wrong.

Also managers not getting a chance to pick top players is also not true - Player base is big - Good players are there, it's just a matter of looking and putting in efforts.
If you just want known names - then sorry you don't want to do the hard work of looking at replays and scouting.

And if your explanation for removing monotype from the pl is "fuck monotype" I must say you are not really contributing towards it.
 
Both SMPL and SSPL moved to 12 slots this year to accommodate all the lower tiers, so I don't see why ORAS can't do the same. ORAS PU is widely considered to be one of the best old gens PU has (most would say it's either the best or only second to SM, really), so it should be included after getting snubbed in previous years. Shouldn't be at the cost of removing any tiers, however, since expanding to 12 slots is an easy solution.
 
Support the lower tier inclusion for the vibes even if last years format was fine. Also supporting 3 managers or at least 2 and maybe sub-manager (some non-manager but can throw in a sub for games when needed)? Agree with the cons of the 3 manager but having some coverage for subs and admin stuff is nice I know last year some had personal issues going on out of their control that made it difficult to cover bases in last minute moments and substitutes. Maybe having sub-manager for lack of better terms so people aren't so worked up over budgets and self-buys of a 3 manager format or obligation to be their for draft, making sub-managers role more minimal and more in season. Mono is fire please don't remove.
 
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