London Beyblade Burst Tournament Report: KING VS SAMURAI VS SHOP

London Beyblade Burst Tournament Report: KING VS SAMURAI VS SHOP 

KING VS SAMURAI VS SHOP was a Burst tournament held in London August 11th 2018. Having been away from the Burst scene for a while I wasn’t sure what the turnout would be like but we managed 18 players overall which is pretty decent for the London community. With Hell Salamander, Revive phoenix and Archer Hercules all released for a couple of weeks I was interested to see how the day would play out.


As usual I’ll run through my matches in the group stage followed by my matches in deck format finals.


Vs CurryBoi

aH.7.Et v bK.7.Hn

CurryBoi actually won this combo at Beyblade Prime so was pretty sure he would use it. The weight difference meant Kukulcan really couldn't hold a candle Archer Hercules. 3-0 by Outspin.


Vs Awkward Bagel 

cR.7B.Ds vs rP.7B.At

Went into this completely expecting Hell Salamander but AwkwardBagel ended up using Revive Phoenix. Crush Ragnaruk on Destroy handled hS pretty easily at the last tournament I attended, its round enough to compete in opposite spin matchups and the placement of metal on the layer actually gives it some half decent attack. Sadly against rP I could only hope to knock it out if AwkwardBagel stalled his rP and the match finished 3-2 in his favour.


Vs Doginabox

hS.7B.Br vs Spryzen Heavy Defense

Not much to say here, Spryzen is dwarfed by the size and weight of hS. 3-0 Outspin.


Vs SilverSylveon 

hS.7B.Br vs aH.7.Et

I honestly thought this would be closer matchup but hS won all 3 rounds by a few rotations. It may have been a different story if aH was on atomic or bearing and the disk choice may have played a part in this matchup also. I still think eternal is the best driver for aH but maybe atomic would have been more suitable for the opposite spin matchup. 3-0 Outspin.


Vs BalanceBlader 

hS.7B.Br vs Sr.0.Br

I was surprised to see so much Sr through the tournament given hS fills a very similar role. The frameless 0 definitely gave this combo some decent LAD but it couldn't compete with hS Stamina wise. This was a relatively uneventful 3-0 by Outspin and pretty much convinced me that God Series beyblades are pretty much outclassed outside of a few specific matchups.


First Stage Thoughts

Whilst many in the London Community had concerns over rP I didn't feel it was particularly dominant during the group stage. I had seen rP outpsun by aH and hS quite convincingly during the first stage but it wasnt terribly consistent and some of those wins can be attributed to the armour getting in the way. To me the most dominant layer was definitely hS, the vast majority of right spin combos can’t really hold a candle to hS and nobody had even attempted to use bL to try and counter it. This would only become more evident in finals.


Deck format finals

Vs SilverSylveon 

aH.10C.Et, hS.7B.Br, bL.0G.At vs aH.11.Et, rP.0B.At, wV.7M.X

I was actually shocked Sylveon didn't pick a left spinning beyblade for her deck as she was the player that told me about bL atomic outspinning hS. I was confident my hS bearing combo could take her whole deck and the match finished 6-0 after having only used hS the entire match. rP was quite easily outspun and wV could not get clear hits to KO me. Final score 6-0.

I think this highlights the distinct difference in the first stage and finals stage. When in the first stage surrounded by players of varying skills levels and varying part accessibility it's not uncommon to just take one combo and pilot it all the way to 4-5 wins in swiss. But when moving to the finals stage the skill level inevitably increases and your part choices mean substantially more. Choosing the wrong disk or driver in the first stage may not matter so much but knowledge of layer/driver interactions and specific matchups hold so much more weight in finals and is something which players can often overlook. 

Vs SprigganJoseph

aH.10C.Et, hS.7B.Br, bL.0G.At vs aC.2G.O, wV.7M.X, dF.4C.R

Again there wasn’t much left spin coverage so I led with hS and continued to outspin all 3 combos in his deck. hS has really high stamina for a balance layer because of the metals blades   and this coupled with the overall weight and left spin makes it immune to pretty much anything that doesn't spin left or rival it in stamina. Final score 5-0.


Vs AwkwardBagel

aH.10C.Et, hS.7B.Br, bL.0G.At vs Sr.0M.Br, hS.4F.O, rP.7B.At

AwkwardBagel definitely had the best coverage out of my opponents in finals. Hell Salamnder on Orbit was not something I had seen before and it actually performed well against its bearing counterpart. We went back and forth out spinning each other as I was weary of launching hS bearing too hard and bursting. I eventually broke ahead 3-2 after correcting my launch strength and Awkward bagel switched to rP but was outspun by hS and then switched to Sr but was out spun again. Final score 5-2


Final Thoughts

Overall I was pretty happy with my performance. hS pretty much carried me through the whole tournament (I use hS in finals exclusively and it won 14/16 rounds) but I’ve seen first hand its counters and don’t think it quite yet warrants a ban. There is a relationship between rP,hS and aH where the driver choice makes a big difference to the outcome of the match which makes it harder to consider bans. The overuse of those 3 layers has definitely discouraged the use of attack and that is disappointing as there was a brief moment in the meta where attack had its place (sX and tN spring to mind). Players have been talking about aH and its dangerous mix of stamina and defence but hS is just as bad. rP has been patchy in my experience and not quite as effective as the other 2 layers but definitely has its place in the meta and can beat aH and hS in the right matchups. I’m not really sure what players will gravitate to next but I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out between the big 3 going forward and if any of the new releases can make a difference.


Thanks for reading, If you have any questions about the tournament or my part choices please feel free to comment.


Winning Combos

Basedsamuraij

aH.7.Et
hS.7B.Br


AwkwardBagel

sR.OM.Br
hS.4F.O
rP.7B.At


SprigganJoseph

aC.2G.O
dF.4C.R (Deck format finals only)
dF.7G.O