Why is Master Roshi in the tournament of power?

Master Roshi is as powerful as the plot demands. The creator has stated this is in-universe canon:

It was stated by Akira Toriyama in Dragon Ball Volume F in relation to Roshi defeating numerous Frieza Soldiers that Master Roshi is “only that strong if he feels like it”.

Roshi can and does power up considerably when he needs to, as in the first tournament vs little Goku, Broly, and Frieza's troops as you saw.

But the character tends to stay back because, well, he thinks the new generation of fighters should be handling things. The typical "I'm too old for this shit" mentality that most teachers have.

So Roshi is there because he is strong enough to be there, even if he hides it most of the time.

If you haven't seen the latest episodes of super, it is not individual fights. It is a battle royale where all fighters from all universes will be fighting at once simultaneously. Weaker members of "Team universe 7" such as Master Roshi and Krillin are there because of the tournament rules. The only way to defeat your opponent is to knock them off the platform in the void in which they will battle. Therefore, they invited multiple fighters with a set of skills. i.e, Krillen invented a new technique called the solar flare x100. Which follows the same principal of the original concept of the first solar flare, however, this technique was much more powerful and when in use, Gohan who has the power of at least SSJ3+ could not block this attack and was easily knocked out of the platform in a mock battle.

The point is, you do not need sheer power to KNOCK an opponent off a platform and Master Roshi has a vast knowledge of techniques he could utilise while under the support of many other universe 7 team members such as Goku.

However, I was quite surprised at the roster. When I originally heard about the tournament of power, I genuinely believed that they would use the Dragon Balls to resurrect strong fighters from universe 7 such as Broly, Frieza, Janemba etc or even Pikon. I understand that there is the risk that they will betray the team or cause havoc on universe 7 if they were to survive. But the winning universe can use the Dragon Balls and I believe that they could easily wish away the evil fighters after the tournament of power as Super Dragon balls have multi resurrections per wish as I believe that they will also have wishes that are able to wish away multiple enemies per wish.

I really doubt that he has been into this tournament because he is stronger. We have clearly seen how strong goten and trunks are. They can transform into SSJ 3 as well. And also they gave a tough time to buu, who transformed everyone into chocolate. And clearly it was seen that master roshi didn't stand a chance against them. Its probably because of that void thing. Goku might not want to take risk with his little kid. And same goes for Trunks. Also their might be a possibility that goten and trunks stayed back to protect planet earth in absence of allmighty warriors.

Edit 1 Master Roshi, may not be strong. Maybe he has been taken into the tournament of power because of his strategic planning and other skills.

Its probably to make the lineup less sayian heavy and a bit more interesting, which honestly I'm in favour of. They'll use Chichi as the plot device to stop Goten and Trunks entering though (I hate that woman)

Master Roshi is a savage. Why WOULDN'T they include him? He has more knowledge than any of them, and most likely has more techniques that we don't even know about. POWERFUL techniques. Master Roshi taught Goku the Kamehameha, which is probably Goku's most powerful Ki-based attack excluding the Spirit Bomb.

In case anyone missed it, it has been stated that fusion is not allowed and that's all trunks and goten like to do. They are not that strong alone and not being able to fuse will put them at a severe disadvantage. For master roshi he could use evil containment wave and send enemies off the stage if he got the chance for the stronger opponents.

According to Toriyama's logic, Roshi just decided to not defeat King Piccolo back in Dragonball. I'm a fan of the DB franchise.

Roshi hasn't done any of the intense, modern training that the Z fighters do, and this VERY SUDDEN boost of his power by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, is completely out of nowhere.

He can't just suddenly be able to fight at 10,000 power level, and then just a while later (tournament arc) exceed that by hundreds of thousands (seeing as he fought Tien pretty well). Toriyama made a mistake.

It doesn't mean it's a bad series, but this is a mistake. Gohan losing so much power is also a mistake, since even after the Cell games, teen Gohan could still go SSJ2 even though he didn't train for 7 years, but here, Gohan suddenly had trouble going Super saiyan when Super began.

After watching and examining him fight there is a reason to include him - experience.

Goten and trunks aren't gonna take it serious enough and they always mess up by themselves.

The tournament takes maturity and power, something Tien and Roshi has after the latest episodes Roshi is skilled and smart enough to deftest opponents stronger then him with technique rather then power which is what Krillin was brought in as well.

Roshi is as strong as they make him but he has a vast knowledge of tricks,techniques and mind games he does in battle now

Roshi is at least as strong as base form Freiza before Freiza trained for 4 months, plus he has more tournament experience than Goten or Trunks.

As you can see from Krillin's battle with Gohan; in a tournament, experience beats sheer strength.

I think master Roshi is in team because he has more experience and techniques like he used against goku in the tournament (in dragon ball) and also in episode 90 or something while they were at tien's dojo while master ROSHI was under the spell Goku said" WOW MASTER ROSHI THIS IS UR STRENGTH U WERE HIDING IT"

TLDR Toriyama doesn't give a fuck. It's a money grab.

I appreciate Dragon Ball for nostalgia reasons but let's set aside biases and completely ignore all the inconsistencies throughout the entire series, as it's quite obvious that the story has devolved considerably with DBS. It's not just the story that has taken a back seat, but also the art and choreography of each fight scene as well. Even character design has taken a considerable drop in quality, for example the child like Saiyans of Universe 6. Compare Cabba to Teen Gohan. Compare Caulifla to early established female Saiyans. Find anything a tad ridiculous yet?