By now it is no surprise that the Tournament Of Power is the biggest highlight of the Dragon Ball Super anime, especially the reasons and stakes behind the entire tournament. For its great battles, as well as the pay-off of each Universe's greatest warriors facing each other to ensure their survival from erasure. However, there seems to be a misconception that the Tournament Of Power is the result of a careless decision on Goku's part, which extends not only to the other universes negative perception of Goku but also to the audience. Many fans have made arguments to say that Goku is the sole individual responsible for the universes imminent destruction during the Tournament of Power, but at best this is misguided and at worst this is factually and contextually incorrect. There is a deeper reason behind the Tournament Of Power, as well as the true cause of it all as well.
Dragon Ball Super's interpretation of Goku may have had some blunders in terms of long-term planning, however many originally turned on him as soon as the Grand Priest and Zeno announced the Tournament Of Power's conditions and the stakes involved. However, Son Goku as a character wouldn't really condone or even encourage such a tournament where the existence of universes could be erased if they lost, which shows that the blame falling on Goku's actions is at worst unjustified but mostly a misunderstanding of the situation as a whole. In fact, the true cause of the Tournament Of Power lies not in any one mortal but also the one who misunderstood the meaning of Goku's words from the every beginning. As to where this all started, we need to go to one of the first original arcs of the Dragon Ball Super anime.
The Seeds Of An Idea
As many are familiar, Goku as a character has a long history of enjoying Tournaments for martial artists and the like. The Tenkaichi Budokai gave Goku a huge impression of how interesting and exciting a tournament can be when under the right conditions. Eventually, when the Universe 7 Vs. Universe 6 Tournament came around; Goku's excitement for fighting new opponents was shown in clear view during his fight against Hit. Eventually, much to everybody's surprise and fear, the omni-king Zeno made an arrival to check on what this tournament is about.
After a brief encounter between Goku and Zeno, which ended up being positive albeit stressful for Beerus and Champa, Goku had stated that he would love to have a tournament for Zeno in the near future. Hearing this, Zeno keeps it in mind with a child-like wonder and excitement to it, which set up the Tournament Of Power far in advance before it became a fully conceptualized idea. Eventually, after the Goku Black Arc as well as certain filler episodes, the two Omni-King's (due to the events of the previous arc there is a separate Omni-King in the main timeline now) began to bore themselves, until the Grand Priest reminded them of the idea of a Tournament between Universes. All of this happened while Goku was busy recovering and minding his own business at the time. It wasn't until the Grand Priest made an announcement for the Tournament Of Power and the conditions of erasure for the losers that every god in every universe became panicked and looking for a scape goat to blame the incident on. Goku ended up taking the blame in the end, however a close inspection as well as clever eye will see the truth that the creation of the Tournament Of Power lies solely on the Zeno's.
The Omni-King's Decision
Another detail to remember is that Zeno asa character is known for impulsive decision-making, majorly due to their childish personality and whims. While Goku certainly sounded excited about the Tournament at first, believing that the stakes of losing were confusing, at the end of the day he had no control over whether the Tournament Of Power would ever be created despite being the one to unintentionally plant the seed of an exciting tournament to Zeno. In fact, many fans can see that the Tournament of Power isn't the result of Goku actively reminding Zeno of a tournament, let alone adding in the rule that every universe that loses should be erased from existence. As to why the show portrayed this and even attempted to focus on Goku being the scapegoat as well as the target by the Universes in peril, that also applies to being a misunderstanding as well as a fact. Goku is the only one who managed to leave a proper impression on Zeno just by being himself with no pretense of politeness, and gain Zeno's interest and friendship in an odd way.
Of course, there is the chance that many fans are not willing to change their opinion of who truly caused the Tournament Of Power. After all, Goku and Zeno nevertheless are both key roles in the Tournament Of Power, which resulted in its finale and the threat of erasure to begin with. One could say Goku is responsible for planting the idea in Zeno and that he should be held accountable, but others could say that Zeno is the one truly at fault due to the Omni-King's childlike cruelty and stubborn outlook on their own whims. Nevertheless, Dragon Ball Super provided the audience and many fans a brilliant memorable arc in so many ways. Perhaps wherever the blame lies, most of it could be accounted for the Omni-King Zeno.