Beyblade Meta Madness Podcast

(Mar. 27, 2019  2:14 AM)KingSpin Wrote: @[Kei] you talked about the Japanese using single format for qualifiers and only switching to deck format for the finals. Can I clarify if that applies to both official WBBA tournaments, or only Waribey unofficial tournaments?

From what I hear, other countries that follow the WBBA format (SG, MY, TW, HK, etc) all use deck format from start to finish.

Also, you mentioned there being at least one attack type in most player’s deck. I think part of the reason that is so, is because of the need for a sacrifice bey like you mentioned in the podcast. They know they probably won’t get mileage for another stamina/defence combo if the parts aren’t optimal, so they might as well use an attack type as its a better wildcard.

Anyway, I concur with TSO on the point about scouting. It is so taxing and takes away so much fun from competing. Every tournament feels like a intel warfare. It’s even worse for the WBBA format my country uses - it’s three times the beys we have to remember.

Newer players seldom are able to recognize parts, let alone go around observing and memorizing the combos that their subsequent opponent will use. This probably cripples them more than anything.

As I mentioned on the podcast, my experience at tournaments in Japan (in both Osaka and Tokyo) is that the only consistency is inconsistency in terms of the formats used. You name it and I've probably experienced it in Japan. In terms of WBBA events: I've been in single elimination events with no Deck Format, SE events with Deck Format after the first round, SE tournaments with all Deck Format, SE tournaments where battles were only to 1pt, Swiss Format, Winning Streak Format ... Although, important to note that some of these were in late 2015/early 2016 before Deck Format was introduced for WBBA Burst events as far as I know.

You can read more in my collection of reports from Japan here:

2015: https://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-Part-2-...y-Part-1-2
2016: https://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-Part-2-...pid1323161
2017: https://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-My-Expe...-3-of-3-Up

I also went in September/October 2018 for six weeks and have been meaning to write my report on that ... I'll get to it eventually!

I'm not sure I'd phrase it as being a "sacrifice bey" personally. It carries actual utility. In a Deck battle (whether it be WBBA or WBO rules), having something which has a better chance of scoring you two points is pretty powerful. Otherwise, you're hedging your bets on the 1pt game all the way with little opportunity for a comeback if you fall behind. For example, being down 0-4 in WBO Deck Format is a pretty steep hill to climb if you have no attack type in your Deck, but if you have one, maybe not so much. All stamina Decks might be enough to get you the win–especially against less skilled opponents or opponents that might not have good parts–but against strong opponents you're betting on luck to a higher degree (with regards to whether you'll get the first round win, whether something like a random burst could happen to put you ahead if you go down in the match) in that case. With attack it is up to you to execute, so you're in the driver's seat especially in a meta filled with stamina users.

Although, I realize there may be different considerations to be made when playing the WBBA Deck Format because of the differing format and game rules in the WBBA. But nevertheless, I do think and have observed first hand that attack types have a place in the WBBA Deck Format.

"Intel warfare" hahaha. You have a good point. It's especially hard for people who are also trying to host or judge at an event ...

But it's also true that newer players might be crippled by such "intel warfare" more than anything, so in that sense I could also see the debate for implementing the Pick 3 Choose 1 idea. It's something we'll have to keep thinking about.

(Mar. 27, 2019  3:13 AM)Shindog Wrote: I think WBO deck format is the ideal and most fun way to play beyblade.  It is truly a gem.  My 7yo son who has been blading for less than a year prefers it much more than the single bey format.  He tells me “ I like see what they do and think about what I need to do to win”.  He is that random kid (he doesn’t find this offensive).  He has made it to the finals 4 times I think.  Whenever he doesn’t make it to the finals he is disappointed that he can’t get to the “good” part of the game.

My feeling has been that the best part of the game has been kept behind a “wall”.  I just feel the chose 3 pick 1 might be a good middle ground.  My son and I both would prefer deck format all the way, but having organized a couple of tournaments  I can see that is just not practical.

I think there is a lot to be said about making the game accessible.  But I think presenting the game to newcomers in a more strategic and interesting form can also help grow the game.

I'm really happy to read this feedback about WBO Deck Format and how your son enjoys it! I really think it is the best thing we ever did for Organized Play and it's nice to hear others feel similarly. So, I'd agree that it is the most fun way to play Beyblade. I wish the WBBA would try it.

It indeed has been kept behind a wall as even though the people who helped design it all loved it, we also realized that it wasn't practical for full events due to time concerns (especially with as many people as we have now for many of our events) and the complex and more demanding nature of the format.

While I wish every seven year old who entered our events was as well-equipped, competitive, and strategically minded as yours is, the reality is that many of the kids who join our events are not for one reason or another. I've observed a lot of kids like your son during my time in Japan, but elsewhere I feel like the amount of people (kids/parents) who view or understand Beyblade as a strategic game (or have taken the time to really practice and understand it on a deeper level after recognizing the strategic element) is far lower ... There's also a stronger culture of kids and parents playing Beyblade and competing together in Japan as you do with your son, which I think contributes to this discrepancy between how Beyblade is viewed in different countries. So this and the fact that many children might not even have three Beyblades creates a lot of concerns in my mind when I think about implementing a more complex/demanding format in the first stage of WBO events.

That being said, what I have started to realize as of late is that while the WBO strives to be as open and welcoming as possible ... there does have to be limits or some level of reasonable expectation to all aspects of what we do. This is why we're working on new guidelines for larger events, participant capping, and maybe it's also a reason why we should consider a middle ground solution as you've suggested like Choose 3 Pick 1 for the first stage (at least for small events, maybe) in order to better encourage more strategic play, even if it does raise the barrier to entry to a certain degree.
(Mar. 29, 2019  4:31 AM)Kei Wrote: As I mentioned on the podcast, my experience at tournaments in Japan (in both Osaka and Tokyo) is that the only consistency is inconsistency in terms of the formats used. You name it and I've probably experienced it in Japan. In terms of WBBA events: I've been in single elimination events with no Deck Format, SE events with Deck Format after the first round, SE tournaments with all Deck Format, SE tournaments where battles were only to 1pt, Swiss Format, Winning Streak Format ... Although, important to note that some of these were in late 2015/early 2016 before Deck Format was introduced for WBBA Burst events as far as I know.

You can read more in my collection of reports from Japan here:

2015: https://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-Part-2-...y-Part-1-2
2016: https://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-Part-2-...pid1323161
2017: https://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-My-Expe...-3-of-3-Up

I also went in September/October 2018 for six weeks and have been meaning to write my report on that ... I'll get to it eventually!

I see. I have actually read your Japan reports when I first got into the game, but didn't pay much attention to the formats of the tournaments as I wasn't that competitive then. It might be quite confusing for the players there to adjust to the constantly changing formats. But I guess since the game is so ingrained in their culture, they wouldn't have much trouble adjusting to different rulesets - it might even make it more fun for them to play.

The tournaments in my country are pretty standard with the occasional rule twists. Here's a brief breakdown:
G1 - The most prestigious and attended tournament with the biggest prize pool. Format is always 3on3 deck battle from start to finish. A few rounds of qualifiers are held before winners of each qualifiers play in the top 16 finals
G2 - A mini G1, with less qualifiers, but equally strict ruleset
G3 - Can be single or deck format. Usually has fun "twists" to the rules. Occasionally will be a team 3on3 battle.
G4 - Always single format. Sometimes has fun "twists" to the rules, but held every week.

Rule Twists
Team Format - 3on3, except each player uses one bey and battles are played as a team
Random Selection - Player will dip his hand into a bad to grab a gachapon ball, which dictates what part he/she is forced to use, and crafts his bey with that part within 1 minute

(Mar. 29, 2019  4:31 AM)Kei Wrote: I'm not sure I'd phrase it as being a "sacrifice bey" personally. It carries actual utility. In a Deck battle (whether it be WBBA or WBO rules), having something which has a better chance of scoring you two points is pretty powerful. Otherwise, you're hedging your bets on the 1pt game all the way with little opportunity for a comeback if you fall behind. For example, being down 0-4 in WBO Deck Format is a pretty steep hill to climb if you have no attack type in your Deck, but if you have one, maybe not so much. All stamina Decks might be enough to get you the win–especially against less skilled opponents or opponents that might not have good parts–but against strong opponents you're betting on luck to a higher degree (with regards to whether you'll get the first round win, whether something like a random burst could happen to put you ahead if you go down in the match) in that case. With attack it is up to you to execute, so you're in the driver's seat especially in a meta filled with stamina users.

Although, I realize there may be different considerations to be made when playing the WBBA Deck Format because of the differing format and game rules in the WBBA. But nevertheless, I do think and have observed first hand that attack types have a place in the WBBA Deck Format.

Actually, the term "sacrifice bey" is purely my concept/viewpoint, and I don't think other players here may see it that way. I might have miscommunicated with Wombat/TSO about this, giving them the impression that all the players in my country utilize this concept, when its just my theory.

The reality with deck format is that you're forced to "ration" your good parts. For example, disks like 0 and 7 are objectively better than the rest in every aspect (10 is not released yet), but you only have 2 great disks to split between 3 beys. This leaves the last bey without a great disk, gimping its chances against combos that have it.

In a deck battle, you can't really predict the sequence of beys your opponent uses. So it is a 33% chance of gunning the matchup you're aiming for. Hence, I choose to channel the best parts to two beys, thus leaving the last bey as the "sacrifice". Imagine each player has 100 points of resources - if you channel it like [40, 40 , 20], you'll have a mathematical advantage over players who do it like [33, 33, 34].

In essence, I build my decks to optimal probability. I haven't really discussed this concept with other players in my country, so I don't know if this actually applies to them.
(Mar. 26, 2019  4:31 AM)DeceasedCrab Wrote: "[Choose 3 beys, select one each round] format idea weeds out random kid phenomenon"

Adding hurdles for new players to jump through is not conducive to growing a thriving community.

The community doesn't need additional gatekeeping designed to keep newer players from doing well in tournaments, that would be received badly by those players. Unpredictability is a valid strategy, and a real factor in the game; newer players can be unpredictable because they're new. Other players can be unpredictable as a valid strategy, keeping the opponents guessing so that they pick a bey yours is strong again. It can be frustrating, sure. Poker's the same way, sometimes you can make good decisions, the best decisions, and still lose, because your opponent made a bad decision, but they won anyway. It is not correct to assume that years of experience automatically entitles you to beat newer players with less information about their combos; sometimes they're going to beat you anyway. That's just the nature of the game, there are no certainties once the beys leave the launchers, there is no longer any control.

I think the Japanese deck format is interesting and would be a lot of fun in club format, but I think the motivations for it discussed during episode 7 were perhaps a bit mean spirited.

How is “unpredictiality” strategy I pretty sure that’s the exact opposite of strategy
(Apr. 02, 2019  5:50 AM)instaburst13 Wrote:
(Mar. 26, 2019  4:31 AM)DeceasedCrab Wrote: "[Choose 3 beys, select one each round] format idea weeds out random kid phenomenon"

Adding hurdles for new players to jump through is not conducive to growing a thriving community.

The community doesn't need additional gatekeeping designed to keep newer players from doing well in tournaments, that would be received badly by those players. Unpredictability is a valid strategy, and a real factor in the game; newer players can be unpredictable because they're new. Other players can be unpredictable as a valid strategy, keeping the opponents guessing so that they pick a bey yours is strong again. It can be frustrating, sure. Poker's the same way, sometimes you can make good decisions, the best decisions, and still lose, because your opponent made a bad decision, but they won anyway. It is not correct to assume that years of experience automatically entitles you to beat newer players with less information about their combos; sometimes they're going to beat you anyway. That's just the nature of the game, there are no certainties once the beys leave the launchers, there is no longer any control.

I think the Japanese deck format is interesting and would be a lot of fun in club format, but I think the motivations for it discussed during episode 7 were perhaps a bit mean spirited.

How is “unpredictiality” strategy I pretty sure that’s the exact opposite of strategy
Why would it be the opposite if you have  nothing to lose and can gain an advantage ? ( ^.^)
@[The Supreme One] when next episode coming?
Episode 8 is live! This month's episode was inspired by a conversation I had with Angry Face last month. It covers a more serious topic - the challenges that the WBO faces looking forward - so it was great to be joined by two fellow former advanced members - @[Cake] and @[Angry Face]. Hope you guys enjoy the episode and I'll update the link to Spotify once our RSS feed pushes it onto the other platforms Smile
I worry about you organizers sometimes, you all sound so sad when you talk about the good old days. You've participated for so long, and given so much, but it clearly hurts to watch people come and go for so long.

One of the big takeaways I got from this month's podcast is that the committee is diminishing in size but the responsibilities and work may be remaining the same or increasing.
From an outsider's perspective, it is uncertain what the committee's roles and responsibilities are.
I suggest that you please give a generalized listing of those roles and responsibilities, as well as an eventual path towards becoming a committee member, and how to become a volunteer to ease the burden of the committee members, for people interested in pursuing that.

---

You did mention that WBO is having difficulty being the same draw that YouTube is. What if you used the WBO YouTube channel for less informational videos (that niche is already filled quite well) and more for conducting high energy Beyblade battles with high energy participants? In deck format, so that it appeals to the more strategic minded, and perhaps without always adhering to best meta. Interesting deck challenges against each other. Maybe someone comes up with a Duo/Left/Right deck as an example, and it has to face a deck of lesser used God/ChoZ/GT layers.

There are lots of channels doing stock combo battles, and to be quite honest I find them boring, the stock combos are usually terrible. But this is WBO; we specialize in coming up with interesting combos. Let's put that energy to work.
(May. 30, 2019  3:59 AM)DeceasedCrab Wrote: I worry about you organizers sometimes, you all sound so sad when you talk about the good old days. You've participated for so long, and given so much, but it clearly hurts to watch people come and go for so long.

It's the unfortunate circle of life, haha. But as is said in the podcast; a lot of what keeps people returning to tournaments are the people, more than the game itself. Like, I'm also a big Cardfight Vanguard player, and I hang out with some of the London Beyblade community and play that with them sometimes; I don't really care what we're doing, I just like seeing the people. When those people disappear, it hurts a lot more than Beyblade disappearing. And especially as an Organizer, when you've roped people in, see them all the time and they're totally fixed on competitive Beyblade, it's that much worse to watch them drop of the face of the Earth.

But, as I say, it's the circle of life. And as an Organizer, this unfortunately will always happen.

(May. 30, 2019  3:59 AM)DeceasedCrab Wrote: One of the big takeaways I got from this month's podcast is that the committee is diminishing in size but the responsibilities and work may be remaining the same or increasing.
From an outsider's perspective, it is uncertain what the committee's roles and responsibilities are.
I suggest that you please give a generalized listing of those roles and responsibilities, as well as an eventual path towards becoming a committee member, and how to become a volunteer to ease the burden of the committee members, for people interested in pursuing that.

It's a tricky topic unfortunately. While we are open about some of our responsibilities, we keep a lot of them on the down-low because of how boring or inappropriate they might be for the community to worry about. 

Being a Committee member isn't just like "oh boy, you're on top of the competitive Beyblade world and can make the rules"; you have a huge responsibility to maintain the balance of the metagames and keep things fun and welcoming. You have a community to manage, Organizers to evaluate, Contributors to manage etc. And then you've also got financial and legal stuff on top of that which, as we've mentioned publicly in regards to our PayPal and frozen funds, can be really killer to manage sometimes, and it's not for the fainthearted. On top of our financial freezing, we're also looking at legal registration as a "not-for-profit", so it's a tough time right now.

But this isn't stuff that we really like shoving in people's faces or making too public, as it's better to get on with our own thing sometimes. In regards to bringing people into the Committee; we prefer to bring people into the Contributor group nowadays as it is that much more specialised; members gets a focus area and don't need to worry about anything else really. And there are Contributors that we'd be very happy to bring onto the Committee as well, which we'd love to pursue sometime when we're a little more settled financially and legally, and permitting they'd actually like to join the team as well.


(May. 30, 2019  3:59 AM)DeceasedCrab Wrote: You did mention that WBO is having difficulty being the same draw that YouTube is. What if you used the WBO YouTube channel for less informational videos (that niche is already filled quite well) and more for conducting high energy Beyblade battles with high energy participants? In deck format, so that it appeals to the more strategic minded, and perhaps without always adhering to best meta. Interesting deck challenges against each other. Maybe someone comes up with a Duo/Left/Right deck as an example, and it has to face a deck of lesser used God/ChoZ/GT layers.

There are lots of channels doing stock combo battles, and to be quite honest I find them boring, the stock combos are usually terrible. But this is WBO; we specialize in coming up with interesting combos. Let's put that energy to work.

YouTube is a huge issue area. There's not really much more I can say on this right now or even commit to, and it's definitely a much larger discussion to be had. The podcast does do a fantastic job of starting that discussion for us though, and providing some great suggestions for how to move forward on these extra areas. Yours is also a good one, but there's the obvious question of "who". As is also addressed in the podcast, why create a video for BeyChannel when you could technically just make it for your own channel and profit? That's the obvious hoop that we have to jump through there before we can really tackle what content we make.



@[The Supreme One], @[Wombat]; I don't know how much you want to further the discussion of "the state of the WBO" in the future (it'll become a very long topic if it continues!), but I'm down for making another podcast appearance to discuss some of these topics from an internal perspective, and perhaps commit to making some changes there and then, if you're up for that at any point ?
I think if TT (or the manga writer and producer) had decided in 2015 to just continue with metal series and also made better than older ones (talk about powercreep......but I'm only concerned about popularity here), then beyblade would have been more popular now. Popular in the sense that more new kids or adults will start beyblading. In India, there are a few absolutely carp reasons why the old metal saga fans decided not to play beyblade burst:
1) they burst. They are so weak......
2) they lose to metal beys......
3) beyblade has lost popularity (my bro told this.... I have arguments around 5 or more times a month trying to tell my bro that popularity doesn't matter.... the dude listens to songs only if they have a good no. of views or if they are popular.......)
4) I saw this one on youtube in one of the single layer beys unboxing video. Some dude said that they are made of plastic and therefore assumed that they are plastic generation and asked to youtuber, "why do you unbox old beys? They suck" (or some similar comment)
So, somehow these dudes decided to not notice the fact that they adored 0 G series as much as the previous metal series, when it (IMO) was the declining point of the franchise...I heard TT even decided not to manufacture some beys in the end because they were on a loss. They decide to talk about the strength of beys of different gens..
Maybe, the only way beyblade is coming back to it's former glory, is by manufacturing metal beys.... and make them perform like monsters when compared to even the late burst beys and metal saga beys.
When will be next episode come?
(Jul. 15, 2019  7:21 AM)ks123 Wrote: When will be next episode come?

The Supreme One
(Jul. 19, 2019  4:20 PM)ks123 Wrote:
(Jul. 15, 2019  7:21 AM)ks123 Wrote: When will be next episode come?

Stop bumping your own question. It takes a lot of time and effort from many people to make these. Please be patient. Not only do they need to cone up with a topic and people for a podcast episode, but they might have busy personal lives.
(Jul. 19, 2019  7:06 PM)DeceasedCrab Wrote:
(Jul. 19, 2019  4:20 PM)ks123 Wrote:

Stop bumping your own question. It takes a lot of time and effort from many people to make these. Please be patient. Not only do they need to cone up with a topic and people for a podcast episode, but they might have busy personal lives.

Sorry, but I think The Supreme One didn't seed that, so I mention she.
(Jul. 19, 2019  8:10 PM)ks123 Wrote:
(Jul. 19, 2019  7:06 PM)DeceasedCrab Wrote: Stop bumping your own question. It takes a lot of time and effort from many people to make these. Please be patient. Not only do they need to cone up with a topic and people for a podcast episode, but they might have busy personal lives.

Sorry, but I think The Supreme One didn't seed that, so I mention she.

It's not that she didn't see it, it's that she's either is to busy to respond or just doesn't want to. We've been planning our next episode for a while now, but it's been difficult finding a time when everyone is available to record it. As ~Mana~ has told you before, patience is a virtue, and seeing these kind of SPAM posts makes us want to make these podcasts even less, if they're for an impatient, ungrateful audience.

Please stop bumping your own questions, mini-modding, and pretending you know what you're talking about - I hate to be the one that has to tell you this, but you've been asked politely to stop on multiple occasions before, and have ignored these requests. Let the Committee and Contributors do their jobs, they have these roles for a reason. The next time you post like this, you will be warned.
EDIT: Asked and answered.
Kei, a Beyblade veteran for 15 years... Scrap. PropS Kei XD
We're back from our summer hiatus with a new episode featuring two of the most competitive beyblade parents in the game! Shindog and Firecracker were fantastic personalities to have on this month - we played some serious catch-up with the meta & new releases and got to take a look at the WBO from a parent's perspective. Episode 10 is already in the works, so stay tuned for even bigger and better things to come Smile
Thank you very much The Supreme One!

Very excited to listen about meta stuff but I am most looking forward to the perspective of blader parents. I feel like their insight will be very valuable in fostering communities.
Dang it. I don’t have Spotify. I’m sure it was great!
(Sep. 06, 2019  9:05 PM)CheetoBlader Wrote: Dang it. I don’t have Spotify. I’m sure it was great!

The episodes are on most major podcast platforms, including the Apple Podcast app & Podcasts.com, I just link to Spotify because it’s most convenient!
(Sep. 06, 2019  9:05 PM)CheetoBlader Wrote: Dang it. I don’t have Spotify. I’m sure it was great!

https://www.podcasts.com/beyblade-meta-m...acker-0ed5 here is episode 9 that is not on Spotify
(Sep. 06, 2019  9:15 PM)The Supreme One Wrote:
(Sep. 06, 2019  9:05 PM)CheetoBlader Wrote: Dang it. I don’t have Spotify. I’m sure it was great!

The episodes are on most major podcast platforms, including the Apple Podcast app & Podcasts.com, I just link to Spotify because it’s most convenient!

(Sep. 06, 2019  9:17 PM)RED NINJA 0829 Wrote:
(Sep. 06, 2019  9:05 PM)CheetoBlader Wrote: Dang it. I don’t have Spotify. I’m sure it was great!

https://www.podcasts.com/beyblade-meta-m...acker-0ed5 here is episode 9 that is not on Spotify
Thanks :).
Amazing new episode Wink (I listened only ~15 mins, just not more time today)
I worry about the parents sometimes. Most of them aren't engaged in the community like Shindog, or supportive like Firecracker. I see them at tournaments sitting around, bored. I wish they'd bring a book or something!

As far at the meta discussions go rattle seems real. I've noticed serious rattle with some of the layer weights. I've seen Flare base do reasonably well in non-WBO events, and that thing has rattle for days. I do tend to like Diabolos more because the rattle is way down, and also the aesthetic, and the teeth. Gen, Diabolos, and Lord might be top tier solely for eliminating or vastly reducing rattle.

We never had this issue with Level Chips or God Chips, did we?
Have really enjoyed the last few episodes! I always look forward to new ones, so thanks for continuing to make the effort to keep this going Wombat and The Supreme One. They're always incredibly insightful.

(Sep. 07, 2019  6:06 PM)DeceasedCrab Wrote: We never had this issue with Level Chips or God Chips, did we?

There was definitely issues with these too. Level Chips didn't always fit completely perfectly and God Chips had different molds where some were tighter than others. I think this is going to be inherent to any sort of separate piece like these which is meant to attach to another piece ... rattle can be minimized, but there will always be some opportunity for it to happen if only because of mold variations.