The following are words I have to say about "Silver Spring's Burst Revolution!", a ranked Burst Standard 3v3 tournament following the release of Atomic'.
- We knew going into this one that it was going to be frightfully cold. Around 32 degrees. The wind wasn't terrible but it was present. I lost my hat and had to wear a scarf around my ears like a babushka. Also to keep it from falling off I had to tie it around my neck, like a tourniquet. Not a great idea! It's February, it's just too cold for this. I gave serious thought to bailing on the tournament, but in the end I decided to have a nice day of Beyblade instead of continuing to confront the grief in my life. Huzzah!
- We had a 30 person 5 round swiss, followed by a 8 person single elimination finals. 3v3 format. We didn't get started until about 12:30 and didn't finish until 5:30. It was slow going because of ties, and very cold.
- I was one of the judges at the tournament today. There were 3 beystadiums total, and we had a lot of judges around. It could have gone faster if we'd done 4 beystadiums. But we didn't. Honestly, it's hard to do 4 beystadiums there.
- I didn't see a heck of a lot of Atomic' being used during the tournament. I only saw one person actually use it; me. I realized quite late that Atomic' might work very well on Greatest Raphael, countering its non-DB weakness with a proper dash driver. I really must try that next time. I had other plans.
- I went 3-2 in the first stage. My deck was actually the same in all 5 matches: Roar Bahamut Tapered Metal Drift-10, Dynamite Perseus Giga Bearing'-0, and Vanish Fafnir Over Atomic'-9. I meant to put the 9 on Dynamite, and I didn't, because I goofed. Here was my logic: Roar and Vanish are still 2 of the most likely combos you see in competitive first stage use, and in 3v3 the likelihood of seeing one or both of them in a single deck is almost 100%. The chances of being matched against a same spin left spin combo are high. So, I put Atomic' on Vanish. As long as I don't self-KO (which I historically do with Atomic A LOT but today I didn't do AT ALL) I would be in great shape. Honestly, it worked well. The other two combos need no explanation.
- For the first three rounds, it did really well. Stable wins. The last two? Well, my opponents were RED NINJA 0829 and CrisisCrusher07. They were hard fought matches, I think they both went 2-3 although I can't quite remember, I suspect Crisis 1-3'd me. They got me fair and square. What can I say? I'm good, but they are also good. Can't win em all.
- My buchholz was 1 short of putting me in the tiebreaker for 7th and 8th place. I was really counting on RED NINJA 0829 winning his last match for that reason. Ah well.
- Today, I encountered too many ties. There were a lot in the first stage, there were boatloads during the finals, same problem as always. I didn't see Guilty vs. Guilty until the finals, but I saw a fair amount of Guilty vs. everything else. Honestly, it goes about half and half. Ties are still a huge nuisance, the last couple of releases have made almost no signficant impact.
- I didn't make it to the finals, and that's totally understandable. We had a ton of good bladers here today, I would say out of 30 of them, 19 are seasoned experts who pose a worthy challenge
- We had a 3 way tie for two of the last spots in the finals. Mini round robin, maxrod beat both his opponents and bladekid beat one. Simplified who wound up in the finals.
- We had a people drop out of the tournament early, at least two, maybe more. I think they told us this time around. It was too cold and they couldn't take it anymore. It was too cold.
- The finals were the way they always are; opposite spin ties. I saw almost no Prominence in first stage, and I saw it in most decks at finals.
- There were a bunch of 4-5 matches during finals, it was very close. Mostly because of all the danh ties. and even some 5-0 sweeps. Lot of Guilty too. I saw some Ultimate, but I did not see Ultimate succeed. Savior and Ultimate are just disappointments compared to the legacy of Judgement.
- The finalists were no surprise. geetster99 made it to 4th, CrisisCrusher07 3rd, Allen Schaffer 2nd, and (not a surprise to me at all) maxrod made it to 1st. All quite good. In 5-8th were other good bladers bladekid, JCMakeEmBurst (glad to see him make it to finals at last), @SPN_Z3RO, and RED NINJA 0829.
- Judging ties is still completely miserable. It's an unsolved problem. I'm starting to think we should switch to WBBA's "Whatever moves last wins".
EDIT: Added 2/21
- In 3v3 and deck format, repeat parts are not allowed between beys. This includes Armor Discs on DB layers! This is what most people miss. Early on I found some repeating armor discs on a few of the newer bladers combos. In round 4 I found repeating armor discs on one of the more experienced bladers combos. Folks, check your armor discs! Judges, check their armor discs! If you think it doesn't matter, then fine, get staff to change that rule. But for now? No repeating armor discs!
- We set up a tarp between the two built-in picnic tables and set up the third stadium on there. I had to break out my orange cones to help people with the idea of "DO NOT WALK OVER THIS OR THROUGH THIS" but you would be amazed at how terrible people are at adhering to basic traffic conditioning. Had a lot of people just walk on there in the middle of matches. I did not appreciate that!
- I am scraping
There is opposite spin
You are coming down with me
Hand in unlovable hand
And I hope I burst
I hope we both burst
- February is way too early for an outdoor tournament in the central Atlantic region. Bladers lost feeling in their hands. It was grim.
I had a fun time. I hope anyone else who attended did too. I would like the cold to go away now.
- We knew going into this one that it was going to be frightfully cold. Around 32 degrees. The wind wasn't terrible but it was present. I lost my hat and had to wear a scarf around my ears like a babushka. Also to keep it from falling off I had to tie it around my neck, like a tourniquet. Not a great idea! It's February, it's just too cold for this. I gave serious thought to bailing on the tournament, but in the end I decided to have a nice day of Beyblade instead of continuing to confront the grief in my life. Huzzah!
- We had a 30 person 5 round swiss, followed by a 8 person single elimination finals. 3v3 format. We didn't get started until about 12:30 and didn't finish until 5:30. It was slow going because of ties, and very cold.
- I was one of the judges at the tournament today. There were 3 beystadiums total, and we had a lot of judges around. It could have gone faster if we'd done 4 beystadiums. But we didn't. Honestly, it's hard to do 4 beystadiums there.
- I didn't see a heck of a lot of Atomic' being used during the tournament. I only saw one person actually use it; me. I realized quite late that Atomic' might work very well on Greatest Raphael, countering its non-DB weakness with a proper dash driver. I really must try that next time. I had other plans.
- I went 3-2 in the first stage. My deck was actually the same in all 5 matches: Roar Bahamut Tapered Metal Drift-10, Dynamite Perseus Giga Bearing'-0, and Vanish Fafnir Over Atomic'-9. I meant to put the 9 on Dynamite, and I didn't, because I goofed. Here was my logic: Roar and Vanish are still 2 of the most likely combos you see in competitive first stage use, and in 3v3 the likelihood of seeing one or both of them in a single deck is almost 100%. The chances of being matched against a same spin left spin combo are high. So, I put Atomic' on Vanish. As long as I don't self-KO (which I historically do with Atomic A LOT but today I didn't do AT ALL) I would be in great shape. Honestly, it worked well. The other two combos need no explanation.
- For the first three rounds, it did really well. Stable wins. The last two? Well, my opponents were RED NINJA 0829 and CrisisCrusher07. They were hard fought matches, I think they both went 2-3 although I can't quite remember, I suspect Crisis 1-3'd me. They got me fair and square. What can I say? I'm good, but they are also good. Can't win em all.
- My buchholz was 1 short of putting me in the tiebreaker for 7th and 8th place. I was really counting on RED NINJA 0829 winning his last match for that reason. Ah well.
- Today, I encountered too many ties. There were a lot in the first stage, there were boatloads during the finals, same problem as always. I didn't see Guilty vs. Guilty until the finals, but I saw a fair amount of Guilty vs. everything else. Honestly, it goes about half and half. Ties are still a huge nuisance, the last couple of releases have made almost no signficant impact.
- I didn't make it to the finals, and that's totally understandable. We had a ton of good bladers here today, I would say out of 30 of them, 19 are seasoned experts who pose a worthy challenge
- We had a 3 way tie for two of the last spots in the finals. Mini round robin, maxrod beat both his opponents and bladekid beat one. Simplified who wound up in the finals.
- We had a people drop out of the tournament early, at least two, maybe more. I think they told us this time around. It was too cold and they couldn't take it anymore. It was too cold.
- The finals were the way they always are; opposite spin ties. I saw almost no Prominence in first stage, and I saw it in most decks at finals.
- There were a bunch of 4-5 matches during finals, it was very close. Mostly because of all the danh ties. and even some 5-0 sweeps. Lot of Guilty too. I saw some Ultimate, but I did not see Ultimate succeed. Savior and Ultimate are just disappointments compared to the legacy of Judgement.
- The finalists were no surprise. geetster99 made it to 4th, CrisisCrusher07 3rd, Allen Schaffer 2nd, and (not a surprise to me at all) maxrod made it to 1st. All quite good. In 5-8th were other good bladers bladekid, JCMakeEmBurst (glad to see him make it to finals at last), @SPN_Z3RO, and RED NINJA 0829.
- Judging ties is still completely miserable. It's an unsolved problem. I'm starting to think we should switch to WBBA's "Whatever moves last wins".
EDIT: Added 2/21
- In 3v3 and deck format, repeat parts are not allowed between beys. This includes Armor Discs on DB layers! This is what most people miss. Early on I found some repeating armor discs on a few of the newer bladers combos. In round 4 I found repeating armor discs on one of the more experienced bladers combos. Folks, check your armor discs! Judges, check their armor discs! If you think it doesn't matter, then fine, get staff to change that rule. But for now? No repeating armor discs!
- We set up a tarp between the two built-in picnic tables and set up the third stadium on there. I had to break out my orange cones to help people with the idea of "DO NOT WALK OVER THIS OR THROUGH THIS" but you would be amazed at how terrible people are at adhering to basic traffic conditioning. Had a lot of people just walk on there in the middle of matches. I did not appreciate that!
- I am scraping
There is opposite spin
You are coming down with me
Hand in unlovable hand
And I hope I burst
I hope we both burst
- February is way too early for an outdoor tournament in the central Atlantic region. Bladers lost feeling in their hands. It was grim.
I had a fun time. I hope anyone else who attended did too. I would like the cold to go away now.