Current Rules:
View Experimental Format Rules v3 - November 2016
Old Rules:
View Experimental Format Rules v2 - September 2016
Hi everyone! Recently among the WBO Committee we have been discussing a large list of potential changes to the way we run our events in Organized Play. This past weekend in Toronto we hosted an experimental Burst Format event–THE BEY-GINNING OF AN ERA–with all of these changes in effect.
Bey Brad posted an outline of these changes in the Organizers’ Circle recently. Here’s an excerpt from his post outlining the changes:
For the test event, we ended up with nine participants. With that in mind, I will go through each of the new rule changes and will talk about how the event went, what worked, what didn’t, and how I think we should proceed forward. I also invite anyone reading this–especially participants in the event–to post their thoughts as well!
Swiss Format
I like Swiss Format, but my biggest question going in to this event was what an appropriate number of rounds would be. We had been looking at how many rounds are used for Magic: The Gathering tournaments based on the number of participants, but seeing that for 5-8 player events only three rounds are played and that for 9-16 player events, only four rounds are played, it seemed like the tournaments on the lower end of the spectrum would suffer from being far too short (especially when you consider the additional change of making Burst Finishes and KOs worth two points). BeyBattles can be finished in a much shorter amount of time than a match in Magic: The Gathering or any other card game too.
In Japan, some tournaments are painfully short because they are single elimination and most participants only get to play one or two BeyBttles. To date, most of our events are perhaps too long given that they run with round robin or block round robin where users get to play between something like four and twelve guaranteed BeyBattles. Tournaments at large conventions like Anime North with 30+ participants are generally the only exceptions as of late where we use formats like Swiss (although seeing these become a reality outside of special occasions like this is likely on the horizon given that Burst is launching internationally).
For this event, we played four rounds of Swiss. This does seem like a fair number, but it does strike me as perhaps too harsh still given the nature of luck as it relates to Beyblade. In our second event of the day that was ranked and used our regular format for example, I started 0-2 which would have probably killed me in a Swiss Format event, but because we played Round Robin, I still had a chance to make a comeback and ended the RR with a 6-3 record.
At this point in time, I don’t know if I’m sold on Swiss being the singular format we should switch to for all events given that so many of ours are played with such a relatively low amount of participants. BeyBattles happen so quickly in relation to matches in things like competitive card games that can take upwards of 20, 30, or even 40 minutes. For large events, Swiss is the best because it is the best way to give all participants a decent number of matches without being too harsh and without making the tournament run too long, but for smaller events I feel as if we can afford to continue using Round Robin and Block Round Robin as it makes for a better, more fair, and fun experience for players given the nature of Beyblade’s battle length and role of luck in the selection process.
However, if we decide against using Swiss for everything, what we will need to determine is where to draw the line in terms of number of participants needed for using Round Robin/Block Round Robin and using Swiss Format.
This website is also a good tool for running tests on the size of Swiss Format events and how many rounds are played. For whatever Swiss events we do end up allowing for WBO Organized Play in the future, we will need to try and find the sweet spot where we end up with four or eight clear finalists each time. Resorting to tiebreakers is inevitable sometimes, but is not the ideal.
Single Elimination w/Deck Rotation Final Stage
I really like this. For larger finals it results in less battles which is a positive for us in terms of lowering the amount of time it takes to complete an event, but it doesn’t sacrifice any of the room for error afforded by doing a round robin final where you can maybe make mistakes and still have a chance at placing.
Deck Rotation requires greater skill and knowledge to play well, so it seems well suited for the finals of our events. It also allows some margin for error by allowing Bladers to switch Beyblades after a loss, which is essential. Given this fact, battles between high level players also take on a dimension greater than simply being able to make the best single Beyblade choice and then being able to execute to the best of your ability with the match-up you’re thrown in to.
For those that have played it to date, Deck Rotation has been almost universally praised, with the only criticism being that sometimes entire events with them take too long. We feel like this is a good compromise and a great way to fit in the format into our existing Organized Play events.
We only had four people for the final for our experimental event which resulted in the same amount of BeyBattles as a regular final round robin would have been, but for larger events where eight finalists would be needed, using Single Elimination Deck Rotation would surely be much quicker than doing a round robin (which is essentially an entire tournament on it’s own). That said, if we choose to not move forward with Swiss Format for smaller events, we would need to evaluate how to apply this to Block Round Robin in cases where you have for example, three blocks and want four/eight finalists. I’m sure there would be a way, but I don't know right now if it would be too complicated.
Seeding Based Strictly on BeyRank
I don’t have too much to add on this point beyond what I’ve stated above here. It really is not difficult to check the BeyRank of a participant during an event, and to set up the participant list in order the day or morning before the event.
This is something I think we should absolutely mandate.
2 Point Burst Finishes/KOs
I said in one of my posts in the Organizers’ Circle thread that 2 point Bursts was definitely debatable, but in reality, it turns out that for our regular format where 3 points are needed for victory, it is 2 point KOs (with contact) that really suck.
The hope behind this rule is that is encourages the use of Attack types, but in our event so many times the KOs that scored two points were completely pathetic and demoralizing for players because they would happen immediately at the start of a round by accident after grazing the opposing Beyblade or a Stamina type would get the KO. Some of these are arguably the fault of the person launching, but it still left many players like myself feeling bitter to lose two points for something like that. In Deck Rotation it is more acceptable because there is a greater margin for error with five points needed for victory and the ability to switch Beyblades, but in our regular format this proposed rule gets a hard “No” from me for KOs at the very least.
Tiebreakers
I’d really like to implement this rule personally if only because additional BeyBattles played in tiebreakers are somewhat unfair to other participants because it means they don’t get to play in as many ranked battles as the people in the tiebreak (which can continue indefinitely). This ultimately gives players an advantage in the rankings to some degree because for the most part, tiebreaks are played between highly ranked players.
Using the tiebreak procedures proposed would allow for much quicker identification of finalists and provide no additional BeyBattles for players. The winners of such tiebreakers would have already got to play in at least one more battle in the finals anyways.
There is an argument to be made for keeping them that we ran into during our second event of the day which was ranked. At the end of the event, the standings were as follows:
JesseObre: 7-2
Kei: 6-3
1234beyblade: 6-3
Mitsu: 6-3
We played using round robin and needed three finalists, as is currently required in our rules. If we had applied the tiebreak procedures proposed here, I would have advanced because I defeated both 1234beyblade and Mitsu in the round robin play. 1234beyblade would have joined me because he beat Mitsu.
We ended up using the method we have used in the past where we just do tiebreak BeyBattles for everything. I ended up losing in the tiebreak and found myself on the outside looking in.
The argument for doing things this way is that because of the luck factor involved in Beyblade (especially in formats that are not Deck Rotation), the fact that I beat Mitsu and 1234beyblade in the round robin, that 1234beyblade beat Mitsu in the round robin, and that JesseObre was 7-2 while we were 6-3 doesn’t hold that much weight. The difference between winning and losing is so small that the results can only be more accurate the more BeyBattles you play. There is some weight to this position because it is rare for any player to go through an event undefeated and the difference between winning/losing is indeed small. For me however, we have to ultimately draw the line somewhere. Technik and Lani in the same event were 5-4, only one win away from being tied with 1234beyblade, Mitsu, and I at 6-3, yet they are completely excluded from discussion about the finals because the line has to be drawn somewhere despite it being such a fine one. Not every tournament is going to result in the “best” player winning, which is something I think everyone has to accept no matter how disappointed they might be about losing on any particular day.
So in my eyes, while there is no perfect world, the tiebreaker procedures proposed are logical, fair, and I think we should proceed with them.
Challonge
Big yes to this one! Toronto is probably the community that was lagging behind the most in this respect because I know many communities have already been using Challonge for a long time. Much smaller margin for error when running an event this way, and it’s also quicker to complete the event, so I don’t see a reason why we should mandate its usage for all hosts (except in special cases where it might not be accessible).
No Banned Parts (Odin Unbanned)
I’ve just posted the winning combinations for this event here, but I’ll post them again here:
Note: Please keep in mind that we also had the 2 point Burst Finish and KO rule in effect for this event, which surely affected Beyblade selection for some players. This list also includes all Beyblades each finalist used for the Deck Rotation finals.
As you can see, Odin does appear on the winning combos lists for pyrus10000 and JesseObre. From what I understand, pyrus10000 leaned on Odin quite heavily throughout the event. But it should surprise no one that Odin is still a good Layer, I’m sure.
However, what was surprising was how unimpressive Odin really seemed to be in terms of burst resistance and stamina in comparison to the picture we all have kind of held of it since it was banned. In our informal testing before the event Attack types were able to make short work of it, and during the event it lost to Deathscyther several times, including my Odin Knuckle Revolve combo. I can’t speak for everyone else, but before this event I didn’t have a chance to test Odin and construct well-balanced combos–which is worth keeping in mind–but during the event it did seem to fit in well to the metagame from my perspective. If we decide to unban it, it will definitely be used, but I can’t see it becoming overwhelming like it was before.
If anything, we should be taking a look at Deathscyther and Dark Deathscyther and thinking about what the metagame might look like with them out of the picture. But I know that’s a huge question and something that frankly, probably won’t happen given our track record with banning parts in main formats.
View Experimental Format Rules v3 - November 2016
Old Rules:
View Experimental Format Rules v2 - September 2016
Hi everyone! Recently among the WBO Committee we have been discussing a large list of potential changes to the way we run our events in Organized Play. This past weekend in Toronto we hosted an experimental Burst Format event–THE BEY-GINNING OF AN ERA–with all of these changes in effect.
Bey Brad posted an outline of these changes in the Organizers’ Circle recently. Here’s an excerpt from his post outlining the changes:
(Aug. 31, 2016 2:14 AM)Bey Brad Wrote: The way the WBO runs tournaments has changed very little in the eight years we’ve existed. Since we’re currently in the process of updating pretty much everything, we decided it was time to take a hard look at our tournament formats and systems.
After some discussion, we’re rolling this out as an experimental format to see if it’s suitable for the WBO going forward. The changes are as follows:
- Swiss-format first stage
- Single Elimination final stage for top 4/8, depending on tournament size (tiebreaker battle for 3rd)
- Deck rotation to be used in final stage
- 2 point Burst Finishes/KOs — still 3 points to win in first stage, 5 points to win in second stage
- Seeding based strictly on BeyRank.
- Tiebreakers: Ties when advancing to the final stage are broken by 1) outcome of previous matches in the tournament between two tied players [winner moves on], 2) Median-Buchholz score in Challonge
- Challonge usage is mandatory (only for this trial — pen + paper templates will be provided later)
- No banned parts (Odin unbanned)
These rule changes are not final and may change throughout the duration of the test, including after the first trial event. A more detailed rule sheet will be provided before more tournaments roll out.
These rule changes will bring us in line with how other competitive hobbies (like Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering) run their respective tournaments, and will make our tournaments fairer, faster, more action-packed and, in the case of deck rotation in the finals, immensely more strategic.
For the test event, we ended up with nine participants. With that in mind, I will go through each of the new rule changes and will talk about how the event went, what worked, what didn’t, and how I think we should proceed forward. I also invite anyone reading this–especially participants in the event–to post their thoughts as well!
Swiss Format
I like Swiss Format, but my biggest question going in to this event was what an appropriate number of rounds would be. We had been looking at how many rounds are used for Magic: The Gathering tournaments based on the number of participants, but seeing that for 5-8 player events only three rounds are played and that for 9-16 player events, only four rounds are played, it seemed like the tournaments on the lower end of the spectrum would suffer from being far too short (especially when you consider the additional change of making Burst Finishes and KOs worth two points). BeyBattles can be finished in a much shorter amount of time than a match in Magic: The Gathering or any other card game too.
In Japan, some tournaments are painfully short because they are single elimination and most participants only get to play one or two BeyBttles. To date, most of our events are perhaps too long given that they run with round robin or block round robin where users get to play between something like four and twelve guaranteed BeyBattles. Tournaments at large conventions like Anime North with 30+ participants are generally the only exceptions as of late where we use formats like Swiss (although seeing these become a reality outside of special occasions like this is likely on the horizon given that Burst is launching internationally).
For this event, we played four rounds of Swiss. This does seem like a fair number, but it does strike me as perhaps too harsh still given the nature of luck as it relates to Beyblade. In our second event of the day that was ranked and used our regular format for example, I started 0-2 which would have probably killed me in a Swiss Format event, but because we played Round Robin, I still had a chance to make a comeback and ended the RR with a 6-3 record.
At this point in time, I don’t know if I’m sold on Swiss being the singular format we should switch to for all events given that so many of ours are played with such a relatively low amount of participants. BeyBattles happen so quickly in relation to matches in things like competitive card games that can take upwards of 20, 30, or even 40 minutes. For large events, Swiss is the best because it is the best way to give all participants a decent number of matches without being too harsh and without making the tournament run too long, but for smaller events I feel as if we can afford to continue using Round Robin and Block Round Robin as it makes for a better, more fair, and fun experience for players given the nature of Beyblade’s battle length and role of luck in the selection process.
However, if we decide against using Swiss for everything, what we will need to determine is where to draw the line in terms of number of participants needed for using Round Robin/Block Round Robin and using Swiss Format.
This website is also a good tool for running tests on the size of Swiss Format events and how many rounds are played. For whatever Swiss events we do end up allowing for WBO Organized Play in the future, we will need to try and find the sweet spot where we end up with four or eight clear finalists each time. Resorting to tiebreakers is inevitable sometimes, but is not the ideal.
Single Elimination w/Deck Rotation Final Stage
I really like this. For larger finals it results in less battles which is a positive for us in terms of lowering the amount of time it takes to complete an event, but it doesn’t sacrifice any of the room for error afforded by doing a round robin final where you can maybe make mistakes and still have a chance at placing.
Deck Rotation requires greater skill and knowledge to play well, so it seems well suited for the finals of our events. It also allows some margin for error by allowing Bladers to switch Beyblades after a loss, which is essential. Given this fact, battles between high level players also take on a dimension greater than simply being able to make the best single Beyblade choice and then being able to execute to the best of your ability with the match-up you’re thrown in to.
For those that have played it to date, Deck Rotation has been almost universally praised, with the only criticism being that sometimes entire events with them take too long. We feel like this is a good compromise and a great way to fit in the format into our existing Organized Play events.
We only had four people for the final for our experimental event which resulted in the same amount of BeyBattles as a regular final round robin would have been, but for larger events where eight finalists would be needed, using Single Elimination Deck Rotation would surely be much quicker than doing a round robin (which is essentially an entire tournament on it’s own). That said, if we choose to not move forward with Swiss Format for smaller events, we would need to evaluate how to apply this to Block Round Robin in cases where you have for example, three blocks and want four/eight finalists. I’m sure there would be a way, but I don't know right now if it would be too complicated.
Seeding Based Strictly on BeyRank
(Aug. 31, 2016 3:47 AM)Kei Wrote: Seeding based on BeyRank is one thing in addition we are asking from hosts if we follow through with it, but I also think it is a valuable addition because it lends another layer of meaning to the rankings that actually manifests itself in our competitive environment. Rather than being just a number on your profile, striving to ascend the rankings becomes something you do not only for satisfaction but to give you slightly more favourable match-ups when Swiss Format pairings are decided.
I don’t have too much to add on this point beyond what I’ve stated above here. It really is not difficult to check the BeyRank of a participant during an event, and to set up the participant list in order the day or morning before the event.
This is something I think we should absolutely mandate.
2 Point Burst Finishes/KOs
I said in one of my posts in the Organizers’ Circle thread that 2 point Bursts was definitely debatable, but in reality, it turns out that for our regular format where 3 points are needed for victory, it is 2 point KOs (with contact) that really suck.
The hope behind this rule is that is encourages the use of Attack types, but in our event so many times the KOs that scored two points were completely pathetic and demoralizing for players because they would happen immediately at the start of a round by accident after grazing the opposing Beyblade or a Stamina type would get the KO. Some of these are arguably the fault of the person launching, but it still left many players like myself feeling bitter to lose two points for something like that. In Deck Rotation it is more acceptable because there is a greater margin for error with five points needed for victory and the ability to switch Beyblades, but in our regular format this proposed rule gets a hard “No” from me for KOs at the very least.
Tiebreakers
I’d really like to implement this rule personally if only because additional BeyBattles played in tiebreakers are somewhat unfair to other participants because it means they don’t get to play in as many ranked battles as the people in the tiebreak (which can continue indefinitely). This ultimately gives players an advantage in the rankings to some degree because for the most part, tiebreaks are played between highly ranked players.
Using the tiebreak procedures proposed would allow for much quicker identification of finalists and provide no additional BeyBattles for players. The winners of such tiebreakers would have already got to play in at least one more battle in the finals anyways.
There is an argument to be made for keeping them that we ran into during our second event of the day which was ranked. At the end of the event, the standings were as follows:
JesseObre: 7-2
Kei: 6-3
1234beyblade: 6-3
Mitsu: 6-3
We played using round robin and needed three finalists, as is currently required in our rules. If we had applied the tiebreak procedures proposed here, I would have advanced because I defeated both 1234beyblade and Mitsu in the round robin play. 1234beyblade would have joined me because he beat Mitsu.
We ended up using the method we have used in the past where we just do tiebreak BeyBattles for everything. I ended up losing in the tiebreak and found myself on the outside looking in.
The argument for doing things this way is that because of the luck factor involved in Beyblade (especially in formats that are not Deck Rotation), the fact that I beat Mitsu and 1234beyblade in the round robin, that 1234beyblade beat Mitsu in the round robin, and that JesseObre was 7-2 while we were 6-3 doesn’t hold that much weight. The difference between winning and losing is so small that the results can only be more accurate the more BeyBattles you play. There is some weight to this position because it is rare for any player to go through an event undefeated and the difference between winning/losing is indeed small. For me however, we have to ultimately draw the line somewhere. Technik and Lani in the same event were 5-4, only one win away from being tied with 1234beyblade, Mitsu, and I at 6-3, yet they are completely excluded from discussion about the finals because the line has to be drawn somewhere despite it being such a fine one. Not every tournament is going to result in the “best” player winning, which is something I think everyone has to accept no matter how disappointed they might be about losing on any particular day.
So in my eyes, while there is no perfect world, the tiebreaker procedures proposed are logical, fair, and I think we should proceed with them.
Challonge
Big yes to this one! Toronto is probably the community that was lagging behind the most in this respect because I know many communities have already been using Challonge for a long time. Much smaller margin for error when running an event this way, and it’s also quicker to complete the event, so I don’t see a reason why we should mandate its usage for all hosts (except in special cases where it might not be accessible).
No Banned Parts (Odin Unbanned)
I’ve just posted the winning combinations for this event here, but I’ll post them again here:
Kei Wrote:THE BEY-GINNING OF AN ERA - 9/4/16
Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Experimental Burst Format
1st: 1234beyblade
Victory Valkyrie Knuckle Xtreme
Wyvern Heavy Revolve
Deathscyther Gravity Defense
Dark Deathscyther Spread Orbit
2nd: pyrus10000
Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
Odin Heavy Revolve
Dark Deathscyther Gravity Orbit
Deathscyther Spread Orbit
3rd: JesseObre
Dark Deathscyther Gravity Defense
Deathscyther Heavy Defense
Valkyrie Triple Trans
Odin Heavy Revolve
Deathscyther Spread Orbit
Note: Please keep in mind that we also had the 2 point Burst Finish and KO rule in effect for this event, which surely affected Beyblade selection for some players. This list also includes all Beyblades each finalist used for the Deck Rotation finals.
As you can see, Odin does appear on the winning combos lists for pyrus10000 and JesseObre. From what I understand, pyrus10000 leaned on Odin quite heavily throughout the event. But it should surprise no one that Odin is still a good Layer, I’m sure.
However, what was surprising was how unimpressive Odin really seemed to be in terms of burst resistance and stamina in comparison to the picture we all have kind of held of it since it was banned. In our informal testing before the event Attack types were able to make short work of it, and during the event it lost to Deathscyther several times, including my Odin Knuckle Revolve combo. I can’t speak for everyone else, but before this event I didn’t have a chance to test Odin and construct well-balanced combos–which is worth keeping in mind–but during the event it did seem to fit in well to the metagame from my perspective. If we decide to unban it, it will definitely be used, but I can’t see it becoming overwhelming like it was before.
If anything, we should be taking a look at Deathscyther and Dark Deathscyther and thinking about what the metagame might look like with them out of the picture. But I know that’s a huge question and something that frankly, probably won’t happen given our track record with banning parts in main formats.
![[Image: beybase-signature-is-beyblade-a-sport-Article.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/VLksgt2k/beybase-signature-is-beyblade-a-sport-Article.jpg)
Next up: an official WBO guide for Challonge!
![[Image: XloAViQ.png]](https://i.imgur.com/XloAViQ.png)
![[Image: 9ff5d708-ada9-4d9e-a353-d60f3c2fc6a2_zpsf8dc7f76.jpg]](http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Bakubey13/media/9ff5d708-ada9-4d9e-a353-d60f3c2fc6a2_zpsf8dc7f76.jpg.html)
![[Image: jFAMV2B.png]](https://i.imgur.com/jFAMV2B.png)
