World Beyblade Organization by Fighting Spirits Inc. World Beyblade Organization Beyblade Tournaments Tournament Reports

[7/10/22] Metal Fight Beyblade 4D Format: Experimental Rules Tournament Report

Jul. 10, 2022  11:51 PM
 
In the interest of advancing the dialogue around an alternative 4D format banlist, I will ACTUALLY write a tournament report for once - enjoy! and happy to answer any questions about the event, but I'd like to remind folks that the purpose of the report is purely informational, and actual banlist discussion should take place in the official 4D Format Proposal Thread.


Let me first start off by saying that playing Pick 3 Choose 1 feels SO GOOD. I forgot how much I prefer this match type over blind or 3on3, and I feel I can officially say that it’s my favorite and the favorite of most competitive players I’ve spoken to after a weekend where we played all 3. Another highlight that could have been a con was our turnout. With 6 players, we were able to play round robin with just one stadium and a choice between the BB-10 and Super Control. I hadn’t run a tournament with just one stadium since before the Burst era (okay so there was a 4 person club event once, but that doesn’t count), and I think we all enjoyed having the time to spectate every match and cheer other players on. Interestingly enough, all top 4 players went to finals with a 3-2 score (unfortunately this means fewer winning combinations, but it certainly made determining the top cut easier)

What I enjoyed most about this variation of the 4D MFB format was the type balance in deck format. Unlike Limited, which becomes an all-out mixed attacker slugfest in finals or Standard, which ends up being opposite spin stamina hell, I felt pushed to include a mostly attack, a mostly defense, and a mobile stamina combo in my deck to cover my bases during counter picking. With Flash removed, and the legal attackers being more specialized, I felt more challenged to think through specific matchups—did I need VariAres to protect myself from Gravity Perseus or Meteo F230 GCF/CF (Yes, both of those did make an appearance. And yes, my Basalt 230 CS lost to DC’s Meteo L-Drago F230 CF) or did I want to include Omega for reliable attack against low-mid height? If I included both, do I save my third spot for a strong LAD combo like Basalt B: D or do I include low track Wing or Scythe MF for mobile defense?

This thought experiment was a big part of what made the finals matches so exciting to me, especially since counterpicking in deck has always felt less powerful in MFB than it is in Burst. Ultimately, FriedPasta was able to handily sweep me in the match for first place, after I failed to sufficiently cover for his all low-track deck with my VariAres H145 LRF and Wing S130 MF (just a tad too high to effectively OS Wing 85 CS.

While the turnout was small, everyone who played felt positively about the format. Nothing appeared to be missing, and it was fun to see some Limited disks taking the win in a meaningful way. Once the videos have been uploaded, I will update the OP with a handful of matches that I intend to (eventually) post on Youtube for anyone curious, and encourage those who attended to share their feedback on this experimental banlist as well!


Bans: All Chrome Wheel Synchroms, Duo, Phantom, Diablo, Flash, Death, BD145, and E230.

First Place: FriedPasta
Hell Bull 230CS
MF-H Variares CH120RF
MF-L Wing Cancer 85CS

Second Place: The Supreme One
MF Omega Byxis LW105 RF
MF- M Scythe Horuseus (Attack Mode) 105 MF
MF-H Variares H145 L2F
Basalt Lyra B: D (Deck Format Only)
MF Fusion Hades SP230 RF (Deck Format Only)

Third Place: MikeNightwing
Scythe Leone DF145 EWD
Scythe Leone DF145 CS
MF Gravity Perseus AD145 EWD
Scythe AD145 EDS (Deck Finals Only)
Gravity Perseus TR145 WD (Deck Finals Only)
Burn Leone T125 EDS (Deck Finals Only)
Jul. 11, 2022  12:44 AM
 
I might actually like this format more than the standard 4D banlist (what I'll call 4D1). It definitely is very attack oriented, but still has plenty of defense and honestly the stamina options are a bit lacking. The best stamina wheel is easily Basalt, which requires balance tuning to really be effective. Other options were low Wing CS as a defense/stamina hybrid, Hell 230, and a variety of equalizers and defensive equalizers using Meteo, LDG, LDD, and Gravity. All of these have their risks and it really helps to promote attack. Attack has a lot of diversity here, with Variares being the best imo (Blitz good too, it's just not my cup of tea), due to its high recoil and dual spin making it the only good left attack wheel in the format. The high recoil does make it a double-edged sword, so more consistent and less self-destructive options (such as Beat, Fang, Big Bang, and even Omega) are still very good and viable, compared to Flash just outshining everything in 4D1. I still feel like Phantom would be ok to be allowed, but it's still quite good in standard, so I guess it has to go when we're banning the other wheels viable in standard (Duo, Flash, Death, and Diablo). Now about defense, Wing and Scythe are even better now, since Death is banned, and low track MF wasn't nearly as good as with Bakushin in MFL, most likely because the shapes aren't quite as good as just a dome that attackers get deflected off of and the fact that they're significantly wider than Bakushin. LTDC seems like the best play for defense, since there isn't any BD145 to cover LTAC when you're mid height. Do take this with a grain of salt though, since it's a brand new meta and we had a very small sample size.
Jul. 11, 2022  12:55 AM
 
The following are words I have to say about the doubleheader tournament "Let's Ruin Another Birthday Party", an unranked MFB 4G tournament with P3C1.

I recommend the following music for reading the report. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM1eJxZXRP8 . Look, I play a lot of good videogames, don't judge me.

- The weather was nice. Not too hot, we had a lot of rain yesterday. We got a lot of good breezes in the morning and early afternoon. By the end of the second tournament it was getting hot again. The weather could've been so much worse.

- We had kind of a low turnout for both tournaments. They had only been announced a few days in advance, and a lot of people couldn't go to tournaments two days in a row. Heck, I shouldn't have gone to tournaments two days in a row. I was tired at the start and I'm tired now. TSO thankfully let me hold off on judging most of the time, other people judged. I only had to judge a few matches.

- We had a total of 6 entrants for this one, an MFB 4D format tournament with Pick 3 Choose 1. Single group round robin. There were so few of us that we only ran one beystadium at a time, although we had an option between using a BB10 and a Super Control Beystadium with the wheels removed. https://beyblade.fandom.com/wiki/Beystadium_Rush_Type People opted to use each about half the time.

- I had about 5 beys total that I was running. Basalt on 230CS, Gravity on BGrin, Meteo L-Drago on F230GCF, Hell on 90MF, and Wing SH145RDF. A lot of what I was going for was trying to prove that a lot of the stuff that works in Burst Limited continues to work in 4D. I also had some success with Basalt and Hell. Other people used a lot of attack combos, which was surprising at times. A lot of Omega. And a lot of REALLY effective Scythe. I don't have either of those.

- I went 3-2. I was able to defeat some folks due to surprising picks and the nature of the format, and others managed to deal with my chicanery.

- We had a bunch of breaks today. MFB parts, the plastic wears out over time. Launchers broke a bit. In one match I saw a blader's plastic flat tip break violently. And in a following match, my precious orange Cancer face bolt tore in two halfway into the bolt, my bey exploded. I found that very distressing. I decided the Super Control beystadium was possessed of the Dark Hado and I would not battle in it again.

- Although I went 3-2, so did 3 other people. BearsFTW25 was running a lot of attack and others worked around his strategies, 1-4. His associate DragonflyNoir, who I'm not sure has an account yet, went 2-3, beating me and Friedpasta. I tell you, the format combined with P3C1 had some interesting results. The rest of us went 3-2, with various wins and losses. The format actually works kind of well with the banlist it had.

- 4 of the 6 made it to finals. Not many surprises here. It was me, The Supreme One, Mike.Nightwing, and Friedpasta. Although I beat TSO in the round robin, she is much better at deck format strategy and building than I am, and was able to counter me effectively. Same thing with Friedpasta, I wasn't able to counter his Scythe at all. I made it to the finals in MFB, as I tend to do, and wind up in 4th place, as I usually do.

- There's a lot of midfakes out there. Sure, they all came in official seeming packaging, but the midfake label remains. Even TSO found a ton of midfakes in her collection. And although I got many of mine direct from other people, I also probably have a lot of them. We try not to stress over it since they're near indistinguishable from the originals.

- We did not get to ruin a birthday party at THIS tournament. However...

Twas fun. When I do this again I need to pick up a couple of pieces, I'll probably talk to Yami about picking those up.
Jul. 11, 2022  1:01 AM
 
(Jul. 11, 2022  12:55 AM)DeceasedCrab Wrote: The following are words I have to say about the doubleheader tournament "Let's Ruin Another Birthday Party", an unranked MFB 4G tournament with P3C1.

I recommend the following music for reading the report. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM1eJxZXRP8 . Look, I play a lot of good videogames, don't judge me.

- The weather was nice. Not too hot, we had a lot of rain yesterday. We got a lot of good breezes in the morning and early afternoon. By the end of the second tournament it was getting hot again. The weather could've been so much worse.

- We had kind of a low turnout for both tournaments. They had only been announced a few days in advance, and a lot of people couldn't go to tournaments two days in a row. Heck, I shouldn't have gone to tournaments two days in a row. I was tired at the start and I'm tired now. TSO thankfully let me hold off on judging most of the time, other people judged. I only had to judge a few matches.

- We had a total of 6 entrants for this one, an MFB 4D format tournament with Pick 3 Choose 1. Single group round robin. There were so few of us that we only ran one beystadium at a time, although we had an option between using a BB10 and a Super Control Beystadium with the wheels removed. https://beyblade.fandom.com/wiki/Beystadium_Rush_Type People opted to use each about half the time.

- I had about 5 beys total that I was running. Basalt on 230CS, Gravity on BGrin, Meteo L-Drago on F230GCF, Hell on 90MF, and Wing SH145RDF. A lot of what I was going for was trying to prove that a lot of the stuff that works in Burst Limited continues to work in 4D. I also had some success with Basalt and Hell. Other people used a lot of attack combos, which was surprising at times. A lot of Omega. And a lot of REALLY effective Scythe. I don't have either of those.

- I went 3-2. I was able to defeat some folks due to surprising picks and the nature of the format, and others managed to deal with my chicanery.

- We had a bunch of breaks today. MFB parts, the plastic wears out over time. Launchers broke a bit. In one match I saw a blader's plastic flat tip break violently. And in a following match, my precious orange Cancer face bolt tore in two halfway into the bolt, my bey exploded. I found that very distressing. I decided the Super Control beystadium was possessed of the Dark Hado and I would not battle in it again.

- Although I went 3-2, so did 3 other people. BearsFTW25 was running a lot of attack and others worked around his strategies, 1-4. His associate DragonflyNoir, who I'm not sure has an account yet, went 2-3, beating me and Friedpasta. I tell you, the format combined with P3C1 had some interesting results. The rest of us went 3-2, with various wins and losses. The format actually works kind of well with the banlist it had.

- 4 of the 6 made it to finals. Not many surprises here. It was me, The Supreme One, Mike.Nightwing, and Friedpasta. Although I beat TSO in the round robin, she is much better at deck format strategy and building than I am, and was able to counter me effectively. Same thing with Friedpasta, I wasn't able to counter his Scythe at all. I made it to the finals in MFB, as I tend to do, and wind up in 4th place, as I usually do.

- There's a lot of midfakes out there. Sure, they all came in official seeming packaging, but the midfake label remains. Even TSO found a ton of midfakes in her collection. And although I got many of mine direct from other people, I also probably have a lot of them. We try not to stress over it since they're near indistinguishable from the originals.

- We did not get to ruin a birthday party at THIS tournament. However...

Twas fun. When I do this again I need to pick up a couple of pieces, I'll probably talk to Yami about picking those up.

🤓