The following are words I have to say about my experiance at the "Beyblade World Cup 2023"
I recommend the following music for reading the report. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMuGmldMoSU I haven't been on this earth as long as DeceasedCrab so this is a bit newer than these normally are but if I had to put one song from my childhood of playing games that felt made a moment feel as big as this one this is it.
- Be warned this is a long one so be prepared.
- Weather was a bit unpredictable during the weekend. It felt like a rolling the dice on it either being very nice, hot and humid, or a rainstorm but from my understanding this is just Florida, any natives feel free to correct me here. Thankfully the events for the weekend were all indoors so this was never too much of a factor throughout the weekend
- The weekend started with the opening ceremonies. This consisted of an introduction for the event as a whole and more importantly each blader that would be participating in Dark Horseman tournament happening later in the day. Each blader in the venue formed a tunnel to the stage for each of the dark horsemen to walk through. This was a great way for everyone to know just who they should be looking out for during the weekend and what the competiton would be like if you wanted to win the King Of The Hill event later in the weekend.
- After their introductions each one of the Dark Horsemen took a seat on the stage and everyone was allowed to walk up and talk with them. This was a great moment for all of the younger bladers who were at the event. Seeing the big smiles as they asked for tips, pictures, and autographs is what all players especially older ones should be trying to accomplish in their communities.
- Now it was time for the big event for friday. 12 out of the 16 regional qualifiers were present for the event. This tournament was more than your normal tournament. Each round had different rules that tested the abilities of each of the regional qualifiers to show just how good they actually are at the game but if you lost a single round you were eliminnated. The first of the bottom 8 seeds played a format that was new to the wbo called Total Domination. Each player had to build a deck of 5 beys with no repreading parts and no repeating driver variations (I.E. Xtreme' and Xtreme metal could not be in the same deck). Both players then each blader inspects their opponents deck and chooses one of them to be banned from the match. After this the players choose from their remaining 4 beys in secret for the first battle. After a bey scores a point it is removed from the deck and the winner picks from the remaining options first with the opponent picking from theirs after, first to 3 points wins. Me and CrisisCrusher07 practiced this format a lot the night before but turns out he's good at the game and got the bye for this one. I love conquest style formats and I hope to see something like this maybe be implemented into a wbo battle format one day with some tweaks
- The following rounds of the event were WBBA 5g in the standard stadium, WBO deck, and finally SIngle bey.
- After making their way through the bracket we were left with two great bladers CrisisCrusher07 and Armor. Everyone in the room surrounded the stage as these two faced off picking there best beyblade to face off in a single one on one match with the title on the line. Both players made similar choices with Crisis being on Wind Bdr and Armor picking Dynamite Bdr. This match up would be very common for the rest of the weekend. After the long exciting battle Armor came out on top winning the Dark Horseman tournament capping off an amazing first day of the world cup
- Saturday is where the most important tournament began. The King of the Hill tournament was a 74 player double elimination tournament with wbo Pick 3 choose 1 as the battle format. With the scale of the world cup we had many in attendance that had came from all over the world including Papabey! (If you dont already know who this is you have to check out his channel its the best competitive content out there). With many of these players having no WBO tournament history but many seeming to be way more skilled than the average unranked player the decision was made to use random seeding in order to start the bracket. This lead to some strong bladers being matched up as early as rounds 1 and 2 which is not normal in seeded brackets. This caused people such as Papabey, henwooja1, and CrisisCrusher07 to be knocked out by the 4th round, way sooner than anticipated.
- My deck for the King Of The Hill was as follows Wind Lucifer illegal Bearing Drift-0, Guilty Longinus fortress Xtreme' -4, and World Diabolos tapered drift 1s(left spin) or what has been dubbed by some in the community as the "Maryland deck". The game plan was simple, I was going to rely on picking my wind lucifer as I was confident that I could win any matchup thrown at me with because of how versitale it is.
- My first battle of the day took place in round 2 of the winners bracket against the winner of the Dark Horseman tournament Armor. After deck inspection I stuck to my plan and picked my wind while he selected Dynamite F on Bdr. When watching the finals match from the day prior I noticed that he was able to push Crisis' wind combo out of the center and make it catch onto the ridge and lose its spin faster. I made the adjustment to keep myself aimed as close to the center as possible to try and prevent this from happening since it seemed his bdr was a bit more aggressive than mine. His increase in aggression allowed him to get 2 outspins on me from the same thing that let him win the match against Crisis but my adjustment let me get 2 points from him self koing. Going into the last point we had a same spin tie occur following with a match where my combo stayed into the center with his circling the outside a bit before coming into the middle, after grinding into eachother for a bit my wind kept the center and finished the match barely ahead of his dynamite keeping me in the winners bracket
- My next match was against Papabey all the way from the Philippines. This was a match I was hoping to have but not this early into my run for the title. Going into this match I was thinking I had the advantage with my knowledge of the p3c1 but with that also meant that his combos could have been thing that were against the norm that the rest of the WBO had been using for this match type. Going into deck inspection I see his deck is 2 drifts for each direction and a Bdr in right spin. I chose my wind and Papabey went with Vanish on Metal Drift. Both of us switch our combos into high mode in preparation for the opposite spin match ahead. The first point was won easily by his vanish no camera needed. This really made me think I had picked wrong and I was about to take my first loss. The second point was won by my Wind, this helped clear my metal and relize I still had a shot in the match. I continued on winning 2 more close LAD finishes and kept myself alive in the winners bracket.
- My opponent for the 4th round was Khoa Ly, a strong blader from Texas. We both had very similar decks with the only main difference being him using Dynamite F xcalibur instead of Wind Lucifer. After inspection we both went with our right spin Bdr combos, seeing the common theme here? This match was very close with each spin finish coming down to the wire but after a hard fought match my Wind Lucifer was deafeted 2-3 and I was sent to the losers bracket.
- With my loss I had to get myself back on track and be ready to face my next opponent who was TroyMod the winner of the Texas regional. Having to face 2 players from the texas community back to back made things tough. They knew exactly what my combos and my potential strategies would be. When we revealed out combos I saw the exact bey that I just lost against in the previous round. With this knowledge I almost went against my initial game plan for the weekend and chose to goto one of my other combos. After some deliberation I decided to stick to my guns and keep with my Wind combo seeing as the match before was super close and I still had a chance to win if I faced the combo again. This proved to be my best pick in the situation as Troy chose Guilty in anticipation for me to try and counter his dynamite with World drift. Within seconds I was down 0-2 with 2 great launches from Troy, I had a feeling that my time in the tournament was going to be up but I kept my calm and did everything in my power to swing the odds back onto my favor. A few defensive launches that helped keep me in and a self KO allowed me to complete the reverse sweep scoring 3 points keeping my tournament hopes alive.
- My next opponent was JayAshindra. We had a previous match at Fourgaming's Dark Continent tournament a year prior with me coming out on top but a lot of improvement can happen in that amount of time so I didn't let that get to my head. We both had Wind on Bdr in our decks and that was the choice we went to. My launch seemed to be a bit better allowing me to get ahead in the match 2-0. Jay called for a mode change after the second point was scored so we both turned around. After we both say we are ready we turn back around I chose not to mode change while Jay changed the mode of his wind layer. The change wasn't enough to make the difference and I was able to make the score 3-0 and advance. Just one more win and I was in top 8!
- The last opponent I faced off against was raybuster. Another good blader from Texas who was able to knock many strong maryland bladers into the losers bracket so I knew this was going to be a tough one. We both chose to pick Right spin Bdr combos with the only difference being me on Wind and Ray being on Dynamite F. Even in such a high pressure situation I was able to keep my cool and get out to a 2-0 lead. In match 3 my wind was pushed to the ridge where it caught and lost too much stamina before getting back into the center making the score move to 2-1. With match point still in reach we both launch as hard we can with my wind staying in the center and keeping it for the duration of the match securing the victory and my place into the Top 8 of the King Of The Hill.
- With the King Of The Hill first stage being over the next events to be held were the Meta Masters tournaments. These consisted of Top Rubber and Same Spin Ruler.
- Top rubber had a short list of aggressive rubber drivers that were the only one that could be used. The tournament was a 1v1 first to 3 points. My initial choice was Wind Lucifer Illegal Xceed' to try and counter the players using more aggressive layers. This got me through 2 rounds but as the tournament progessed on more people were taking to this strategy. My way in trying to counter this was to use Burst Longinus Illegal Xplosion' to either ko or beat the other anti attack combos in LAD. For whatever reason Broyeeto and BeybladeBlast11 came up with the idea to name our combos for the rest of the tournament seeing that me and blast would be playing in the next round. I chose my burst longinus who was named on the spot as Timothy. Timothy was cheered for loudly by me most likely at the displeasure of the rest of the venue. Timothy was able to beat Blast and my opponent after before I decided to sub back in Carl (Wind Xceed'). Carl fought valiantly but was ultimately defeated ending my run in Top Rubber.
- Same spin ruler had each blader bring a combo for each spin direction with no repeating parts. A coin was flipped and that was what determined the direction both players used.
- Since I did not own a Metal Bearing Drift the next best option I thought of was to use 2 attackers. This allowed me to always have an optimal match up in same spin for my attack types i just had to hope my launches were good and I had a little luck.
- My first round right spin was picked and my Xiphoid was put against Dynamite F Bdr. I managed to score a burst and a KO ending the mach quickly with the score being 3-0. My next round would be this fast as well.....but the other way around. My opponent was Camick, The direction for this battle was right spin again so my Xiphoid was back up again. This time instead of Dynamtie F on Bdr Camick decided to build a tank and used Over Quattro'. During the first battle our beys collided my Xiphoid intantly bursted even with the Belial 3 chip while his didn't come close to bursting or leaving the exit. Next battle Xiphoid was able to not burst but couldn't move the opponent at all leaving me down 0-3 knocking me out of the Same Spin Ruler tournament and capping off an exciting day of beyblade.
- Now for sunday the king of the hill finals happend before the Iron blader but to keep some suspense I'll leave the finals for after I go over that.
- Iron Blader was a 4 round swiss tournament with different formats and rules for different rounds and the winner was determined by the amount of points scored. The first 2 rounds were wbba 5g the thrid was Tag me that worked sort of like deck format where each blader had 2 beys but one had to be an attack type but with any drift type driver was banned. The final round was 3v3v3, each player had a 3v3 deck but each combo was made for a different stadium and the biggest change dash drivers were banned for this round.
- I won my first round of the iron blader vs ---. This match felt alot closer than the 3-1 score suggests we made it to the last combo in our decks where I won a close Vanish Br' mirror match. Next round didnt go so well vs @LJ-blader. LJ caught me in alot of bad matchups and swiftly beat me 0-3. This effectively knocked me out of getting a top 3 place in the Iron blader because I didn't score any point for my total at the end.
- For the tag me round I had Wind Br' and Guilty Xtreme for my picks. My wind managed to actually score a Ko vs an attacker and then get another outspin allowing me to get my 3-0 victory easily here.
-For the 3v3v3 round I planned on getting a ko in the standard stadium round since that was first since I didnt think many people expecting many to think many real attack drivers would exist without dash drivers then get my last point in the Db stadium and totally avoid the Dash stadium since I don't have too much experience with it. Luckily my guilty on the orginal Xtreme from Xcalibur did it s job and got me 2 points and my wind on bearing was able to get an outspin in db to get me a quick 3-0 victory.
- Now to get to the most important part of the entire weekend, finding out who would take the title of world champion.
- The final 8 were Khoa Ly, Fire blader07, Broyeeto, SpikeStorm, Dragreus111, JasmineDragon, Armor, and myself. Everyone played hard to get into the finals and beat out a ton of skilled bladers who also entered.
-The top 8 round was done with the WBBA 5g format in the DB stadium. This was very jarring after playing p3c1 all day prior and having the rest of the finals afterwards be WBO deck in the standard stadium but I didn't make the rules and if i wanted to win I'd have to win in this unfamiliar format.
- Unfortunalty I was put up against Broyeeto for the first round of the finals. We both had agreed ahead of the match not to borrow a Mbd from anyone prior to the match since we both had access to one but it makes deck building a lot less engaging for the format. Our match started with his World Drift vs my Dynamite F Bdr. I tried my best going to high mode to beat this match up but it wasnt enough and i was down 0-1. Next battle was the same match up but this time the bey were reversed but instead of my world getting a win over his Dynamite it ended in a draw and we moved onto our next combos. When we revealed our third combos my heart sank. My Wind Xcalibur Spread' HXT+ was matched up agaisnt Burst Bahamut MDr. I did everything i could to swing this match up into something maybe winnable by going to high mode and switching HXT+ to defense mode but the odds dont look good on paper. We both launch and by the grace of the Bey gods my Xcalibur managed to outspin opposite spin drift by a mile. This is basically the equivalant of winning the lottery in beyblade terms. With this the score was tied up and it was anyones game. The fourth match was another reversal where we basically swapped combos. This time Broyeeto was not as lucky as I was and my Burst Bahamut was able to outspin his Wind. This brought us to the final combo in each deck. We both had Vanish on Br' the differences being mine having Over and his being on Tapered. This proved to be what made the difference as I ended up pulling ahead and winning the match 3-1. This win was bittersweet as I had to knock out a good friend but it had to be one of us.
- The top 4 became a regional battle, MD vs Carolinas with Dragreus vs Fireblader and Me vs Spikestorm.
- Going into my match with SpikeStorm I didn't know what to expect. I haven't played a deck format vs a player from the carolinas for a long time and don't know how their playstyles have changed since them. I went in with the trusty "Maryland deck" and Spikestorm came in with World drift (left spin), Wind on MBd and Dynamite F BDr. With the first pick I kept up with my trust in my Wind Lucifer while Spike picked his Dynamite F BDr. I won the close same spin match up and chose to stay with my wind. Spike chose to switch onto his own Wind combo to challenge me to another same spin match. My wind managed to best theirs making the score 2-0. I stayed on my Wind assuming that they would try the world combo and he did. After a close match my wind managed to pull out a win. Seeing that my wind was able to beat all of Spikestorm's combos I was at ease but I couldn't get complacent. I continued to stay with wind and Spike chose to go back to his wind. After one round where my wind got hit and stalled out I won this same match up 2 more times making the score 5-1 sending me into the Grand final!
- My opponent for the final match was someone I knew quite well, my good friend Dragreus111. Knowing that no matter what the title would be coming to Maryland made me so happy. Seeing the work we all put in pay off on the biggest stage possible just shows how far all of us have come.
- The atmosphere in the room was electric. All the excited bladers surrounded the stadium in anticipation to see who would be crowned champion. With the fomallities out of the way it was time for one last deck inspection. As expected we practically were on the same combos except my Bdr was on wind and his was on Dynamite F. I stuck with the one bey that had carried me all the way to the finals and chose wind for my first pick. Dragreus chose his guilty for his first pick. My defensive launch got me the first point and put me ahead. I chose to stay on my wind and he chose to go for the same spin stamina match up with his Dynamite F BDr. Both our combos went agressive but mine caught him at the right spot getting me a KO and another point. The third battle was the same match over again but this time no KOs, My wind was able to outspin his dynamite and that put the score to 3-0. I decided to stay on Wind because why switch when it had been working and he went for the hail mary play and went back to guilty. He got a KO on me putting the score at 3-1. He chose to stay on his guilty and I stayed on Wind. My Wind caught a break with a few wall saves keeping me in the game putting it to 4-1. With victory within reach I choose to stay with Wind. He also stays with his guilty and we get ready to launch. The beys come off the launchers, another great launch from Guilty but my WInd is able to withstand the attacks and stay in the stadium. Even though by now the match was already practically over it was nerve-racking waiting for his bey to finally stop and once it dropped the confetti flew and the biggest match of beyblade I have ever played was over.
- I'd like to take a moment to shout out everyone that helped me in this climb to champion specifically CrisisCrusher07, Allen Schaffer, Garishi, Kirito1696, Dragreus111, BeybladeBlast11, StayCool, Sniper, RYANTHEDRAGON98 You guys are all great competitors and even better friends, I wouldnt be where I was today without you guys!
- I'd like to also thank Conce7 for putting on a great event! I know there was somee hiccups along the way but putting on something like this is never easy but I have never been to a tournament like this and I have no idea if I ever will again. It was an incredible beyblade experience that I don't think I'll forget!
I recommend the following music for reading the report. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMuGmldMoSU I haven't been on this earth as long as DeceasedCrab so this is a bit newer than these normally are but if I had to put one song from my childhood of playing games that felt made a moment feel as big as this one this is it.
- Be warned this is a long one so be prepared.
- Weather was a bit unpredictable during the weekend. It felt like a rolling the dice on it either being very nice, hot and humid, or a rainstorm but from my understanding this is just Florida, any natives feel free to correct me here. Thankfully the events for the weekend were all indoors so this was never too much of a factor throughout the weekend
- The weekend started with the opening ceremonies. This consisted of an introduction for the event as a whole and more importantly each blader that would be participating in Dark Horseman tournament happening later in the day. Each blader in the venue formed a tunnel to the stage for each of the dark horsemen to walk through. This was a great way for everyone to know just who they should be looking out for during the weekend and what the competiton would be like if you wanted to win the King Of The Hill event later in the weekend.
- After their introductions each one of the Dark Horsemen took a seat on the stage and everyone was allowed to walk up and talk with them. This was a great moment for all of the younger bladers who were at the event. Seeing the big smiles as they asked for tips, pictures, and autographs is what all players especially older ones should be trying to accomplish in their communities.
- Now it was time for the big event for friday. 12 out of the 16 regional qualifiers were present for the event. This tournament was more than your normal tournament. Each round had different rules that tested the abilities of each of the regional qualifiers to show just how good they actually are at the game but if you lost a single round you were eliminnated. The first of the bottom 8 seeds played a format that was new to the wbo called Total Domination. Each player had to build a deck of 5 beys with no repreading parts and no repeating driver variations (I.E. Xtreme' and Xtreme metal could not be in the same deck). Both players then each blader inspects their opponents deck and chooses one of them to be banned from the match. After this the players choose from their remaining 4 beys in secret for the first battle. After a bey scores a point it is removed from the deck and the winner picks from the remaining options first with the opponent picking from theirs after, first to 3 points wins. Me and CrisisCrusher07 practiced this format a lot the night before but turns out he's good at the game and got the bye for this one. I love conquest style formats and I hope to see something like this maybe be implemented into a wbo battle format one day with some tweaks
- The following rounds of the event were WBBA 5g in the standard stadium, WBO deck, and finally SIngle bey.
- After making their way through the bracket we were left with two great bladers CrisisCrusher07 and Armor. Everyone in the room surrounded the stage as these two faced off picking there best beyblade to face off in a single one on one match with the title on the line. Both players made similar choices with Crisis being on Wind Bdr and Armor picking Dynamite Bdr. This match up would be very common for the rest of the weekend. After the long exciting battle Armor came out on top winning the Dark Horseman tournament capping off an amazing first day of the world cup
- Saturday is where the most important tournament began. The King of the Hill tournament was a 74 player double elimination tournament with wbo Pick 3 choose 1 as the battle format. With the scale of the world cup we had many in attendance that had came from all over the world including Papabey! (If you dont already know who this is you have to check out his channel its the best competitive content out there). With many of these players having no WBO tournament history but many seeming to be way more skilled than the average unranked player the decision was made to use random seeding in order to start the bracket. This lead to some strong bladers being matched up as early as rounds 1 and 2 which is not normal in seeded brackets. This caused people such as Papabey, henwooja1, and CrisisCrusher07 to be knocked out by the 4th round, way sooner than anticipated.
- My deck for the King Of The Hill was as follows Wind Lucifer illegal Bearing Drift-0, Guilty Longinus fortress Xtreme' -4, and World Diabolos tapered drift 1s(left spin) or what has been dubbed by some in the community as the "Maryland deck". The game plan was simple, I was going to rely on picking my wind lucifer as I was confident that I could win any matchup thrown at me with because of how versitale it is.
- My first battle of the day took place in round 2 of the winners bracket against the winner of the Dark Horseman tournament Armor. After deck inspection I stuck to my plan and picked my wind while he selected Dynamite F on Bdr. When watching the finals match from the day prior I noticed that he was able to push Crisis' wind combo out of the center and make it catch onto the ridge and lose its spin faster. I made the adjustment to keep myself aimed as close to the center as possible to try and prevent this from happening since it seemed his bdr was a bit more aggressive than mine. His increase in aggression allowed him to get 2 outspins on me from the same thing that let him win the match against Crisis but my adjustment let me get 2 points from him self koing. Going into the last point we had a same spin tie occur following with a match where my combo stayed into the center with his circling the outside a bit before coming into the middle, after grinding into eachother for a bit my wind kept the center and finished the match barely ahead of his dynamite keeping me in the winners bracket
- My next match was against Papabey all the way from the Philippines. This was a match I was hoping to have but not this early into my run for the title. Going into this match I was thinking I had the advantage with my knowledge of the p3c1 but with that also meant that his combos could have been thing that were against the norm that the rest of the WBO had been using for this match type. Going into deck inspection I see his deck is 2 drifts for each direction and a Bdr in right spin. I chose my wind and Papabey went with Vanish on Metal Drift. Both of us switch our combos into high mode in preparation for the opposite spin match ahead. The first point was won easily by his vanish no camera needed. This really made me think I had picked wrong and I was about to take my first loss. The second point was won by my Wind, this helped clear my metal and relize I still had a shot in the match. I continued on winning 2 more close LAD finishes and kept myself alive in the winners bracket.
- My opponent for the 4th round was Khoa Ly, a strong blader from Texas. We both had very similar decks with the only main difference being him using Dynamite F xcalibur instead of Wind Lucifer. After inspection we both went with our right spin Bdr combos, seeing the common theme here? This match was very close with each spin finish coming down to the wire but after a hard fought match my Wind Lucifer was deafeted 2-3 and I was sent to the losers bracket.
- With my loss I had to get myself back on track and be ready to face my next opponent who was TroyMod the winner of the Texas regional. Having to face 2 players from the texas community back to back made things tough. They knew exactly what my combos and my potential strategies would be. When we revealed out combos I saw the exact bey that I just lost against in the previous round. With this knowledge I almost went against my initial game plan for the weekend and chose to goto one of my other combos. After some deliberation I decided to stick to my guns and keep with my Wind combo seeing as the match before was super close and I still had a chance to win if I faced the combo again. This proved to be my best pick in the situation as Troy chose Guilty in anticipation for me to try and counter his dynamite with World drift. Within seconds I was down 0-2 with 2 great launches from Troy, I had a feeling that my time in the tournament was going to be up but I kept my calm and did everything in my power to swing the odds back onto my favor. A few defensive launches that helped keep me in and a self KO allowed me to complete the reverse sweep scoring 3 points keeping my tournament hopes alive.
- My next opponent was JayAshindra. We had a previous match at Fourgaming's Dark Continent tournament a year prior with me coming out on top but a lot of improvement can happen in that amount of time so I didn't let that get to my head. We both had Wind on Bdr in our decks and that was the choice we went to. My launch seemed to be a bit better allowing me to get ahead in the match 2-0. Jay called for a mode change after the second point was scored so we both turned around. After we both say we are ready we turn back around I chose not to mode change while Jay changed the mode of his wind layer. The change wasn't enough to make the difference and I was able to make the score 3-0 and advance. Just one more win and I was in top 8!
- The last opponent I faced off against was raybuster. Another good blader from Texas who was able to knock many strong maryland bladers into the losers bracket so I knew this was going to be a tough one. We both chose to pick Right spin Bdr combos with the only difference being me on Wind and Ray being on Dynamite F. Even in such a high pressure situation I was able to keep my cool and get out to a 2-0 lead. In match 3 my wind was pushed to the ridge where it caught and lost too much stamina before getting back into the center making the score move to 2-1. With match point still in reach we both launch as hard we can with my wind staying in the center and keeping it for the duration of the match securing the victory and my place into the Top 8 of the King Of The Hill.
- With the King Of The Hill first stage being over the next events to be held were the Meta Masters tournaments. These consisted of Top Rubber and Same Spin Ruler.
- Top rubber had a short list of aggressive rubber drivers that were the only one that could be used. The tournament was a 1v1 first to 3 points. My initial choice was Wind Lucifer Illegal Xceed' to try and counter the players using more aggressive layers. This got me through 2 rounds but as the tournament progessed on more people were taking to this strategy. My way in trying to counter this was to use Burst Longinus Illegal Xplosion' to either ko or beat the other anti attack combos in LAD. For whatever reason Broyeeto and BeybladeBlast11 came up with the idea to name our combos for the rest of the tournament seeing that me and blast would be playing in the next round. I chose my burst longinus who was named on the spot as Timothy. Timothy was cheered for loudly by me most likely at the displeasure of the rest of the venue. Timothy was able to beat Blast and my opponent after before I decided to sub back in Carl (Wind Xceed'). Carl fought valiantly but was ultimately defeated ending my run in Top Rubber.
- Same spin ruler had each blader bring a combo for each spin direction with no repeating parts. A coin was flipped and that was what determined the direction both players used.
- Since I did not own a Metal Bearing Drift the next best option I thought of was to use 2 attackers. This allowed me to always have an optimal match up in same spin for my attack types i just had to hope my launches were good and I had a little luck.
- My first round right spin was picked and my Xiphoid was put against Dynamite F Bdr. I managed to score a burst and a KO ending the mach quickly with the score being 3-0. My next round would be this fast as well.....but the other way around. My opponent was Camick, The direction for this battle was right spin again so my Xiphoid was back up again. This time instead of Dynamtie F on Bdr Camick decided to build a tank and used Over Quattro'. During the first battle our beys collided my Xiphoid intantly bursted even with the Belial 3 chip while his didn't come close to bursting or leaving the exit. Next battle Xiphoid was able to not burst but couldn't move the opponent at all leaving me down 0-3 knocking me out of the Same Spin Ruler tournament and capping off an exciting day of beyblade.
- Now for sunday the king of the hill finals happend before the Iron blader but to keep some suspense I'll leave the finals for after I go over that.
- Iron Blader was a 4 round swiss tournament with different formats and rules for different rounds and the winner was determined by the amount of points scored. The first 2 rounds were wbba 5g the thrid was Tag me that worked sort of like deck format where each blader had 2 beys but one had to be an attack type but with any drift type driver was banned. The final round was 3v3v3, each player had a 3v3 deck but each combo was made for a different stadium and the biggest change dash drivers were banned for this round.
- I won my first round of the iron blader vs ---. This match felt alot closer than the 3-1 score suggests we made it to the last combo in our decks where I won a close Vanish Br' mirror match. Next round didnt go so well vs @LJ-blader. LJ caught me in alot of bad matchups and swiftly beat me 0-3. This effectively knocked me out of getting a top 3 place in the Iron blader because I didn't score any point for my total at the end.
- For the tag me round I had Wind Br' and Guilty Xtreme for my picks. My wind managed to actually score a Ko vs an attacker and then get another outspin allowing me to get my 3-0 victory easily here.
-For the 3v3v3 round I planned on getting a ko in the standard stadium round since that was first since I didnt think many people expecting many to think many real attack drivers would exist without dash drivers then get my last point in the Db stadium and totally avoid the Dash stadium since I don't have too much experience with it. Luckily my guilty on the orginal Xtreme from Xcalibur did it s job and got me 2 points and my wind on bearing was able to get an outspin in db to get me a quick 3-0 victory.
- Now to get to the most important part of the entire weekend, finding out who would take the title of world champion.
- The final 8 were Khoa Ly, Fire blader07, Broyeeto, SpikeStorm, Dragreus111, JasmineDragon, Armor, and myself. Everyone played hard to get into the finals and beat out a ton of skilled bladers who also entered.
-The top 8 round was done with the WBBA 5g format in the DB stadium. This was very jarring after playing p3c1 all day prior and having the rest of the finals afterwards be WBO deck in the standard stadium but I didn't make the rules and if i wanted to win I'd have to win in this unfamiliar format.
- Unfortunalty I was put up against Broyeeto for the first round of the finals. We both had agreed ahead of the match not to borrow a Mbd from anyone prior to the match since we both had access to one but it makes deck building a lot less engaging for the format. Our match started with his World Drift vs my Dynamite F Bdr. I tried my best going to high mode to beat this match up but it wasnt enough and i was down 0-1. Next battle was the same match up but this time the bey were reversed but instead of my world getting a win over his Dynamite it ended in a draw and we moved onto our next combos. When we revealed our third combos my heart sank. My Wind Xcalibur Spread' HXT+ was matched up agaisnt Burst Bahamut MDr. I did everything i could to swing this match up into something maybe winnable by going to high mode and switching HXT+ to defense mode but the odds dont look good on paper. We both launch and by the grace of the Bey gods my Xcalibur managed to outspin opposite spin drift by a mile. This is basically the equivalant of winning the lottery in beyblade terms. With this the score was tied up and it was anyones game. The fourth match was another reversal where we basically swapped combos. This time Broyeeto was not as lucky as I was and my Burst Bahamut was able to outspin his Wind. This brought us to the final combo in each deck. We both had Vanish on Br' the differences being mine having Over and his being on Tapered. This proved to be what made the difference as I ended up pulling ahead and winning the match 3-1. This win was bittersweet as I had to knock out a good friend but it had to be one of us.
- The top 4 became a regional battle, MD vs Carolinas with Dragreus vs Fireblader and Me vs Spikestorm.
- Going into my match with SpikeStorm I didn't know what to expect. I haven't played a deck format vs a player from the carolinas for a long time and don't know how their playstyles have changed since them. I went in with the trusty "Maryland deck" and Spikestorm came in with World drift (left spin), Wind on MBd and Dynamite F BDr. With the first pick I kept up with my trust in my Wind Lucifer while Spike picked his Dynamite F BDr. I won the close same spin match up and chose to stay with my wind. Spike chose to switch onto his own Wind combo to challenge me to another same spin match. My wind managed to best theirs making the score 2-0. I stayed on my Wind assuming that they would try the world combo and he did. After a close match my wind managed to pull out a win. Seeing that my wind was able to beat all of Spikestorm's combos I was at ease but I couldn't get complacent. I continued to stay with wind and Spike chose to go back to his wind. After one round where my wind got hit and stalled out I won this same match up 2 more times making the score 5-1 sending me into the Grand final!
- My opponent for the final match was someone I knew quite well, my good friend Dragreus111. Knowing that no matter what the title would be coming to Maryland made me so happy. Seeing the work we all put in pay off on the biggest stage possible just shows how far all of us have come.
- The atmosphere in the room was electric. All the excited bladers surrounded the stadium in anticipation to see who would be crowned champion. With the fomallities out of the way it was time for one last deck inspection. As expected we practically were on the same combos except my Bdr was on wind and his was on Dynamite F. I stuck with the one bey that had carried me all the way to the finals and chose wind for my first pick. Dragreus chose his guilty for his first pick. My defensive launch got me the first point and put me ahead. I chose to stay on my wind and he chose to go for the same spin stamina match up with his Dynamite F BDr. Both our combos went agressive but mine caught him at the right spot getting me a KO and another point. The third battle was the same match over again but this time no KOs, My wind was able to outspin his dynamite and that put the score to 3-0. I decided to stay on Wind because why switch when it had been working and he went for the hail mary play and went back to guilty. He got a KO on me putting the score at 3-1. He chose to stay on his guilty and I stayed on Wind. My Wind caught a break with a few wall saves keeping me in the game putting it to 4-1. With victory within reach I choose to stay with Wind. He also stays with his guilty and we get ready to launch. The beys come off the launchers, another great launch from Guilty but my WInd is able to withstand the attacks and stay in the stadium. Even though by now the match was already practically over it was nerve-racking waiting for his bey to finally stop and once it dropped the confetti flew and the biggest match of beyblade I have ever played was over.
- I'd like to take a moment to shout out everyone that helped me in this climb to champion specifically CrisisCrusher07, Allen Schaffer, Garishi, Kirito1696, Dragreus111, BeybladeBlast11, StayCool, Sniper, RYANTHEDRAGON98 You guys are all great competitors and even better friends, I wouldnt be where I was today without you guys!
- I'd like to also thank Conce7 for putting on a great event! I know there was somee hiccups along the way but putting on something like this is never easy but I have never been to a tournament like this and I have no idea if I ever will again. It was an incredible beyblade experience that I don't think I'll forget!
