The following are words I have to say about "FGC IV: Heavens Arena", an unranked Four-Gaming format 3v3 DB beystadium tournament following the repeal of the 3v3 and deck format one driver per driver family rule.
- I had fun at the tournament. But here is a picture of me immediately following the tournament. This is how I looked and felt:
![[Image: PXL-20211107-221626825.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/tCGnHDy/PXL-20211107-221626825.jpg)
- The weather was windy and cold. It's November, I don't know what I was expecting. In the morning the wind was actually very brisk. It warmed up bit during the tournament, but I ended up wearing a wool cap and jacket and handwarmers most of the day. Later on I got sort of dry so I removed the hat, but I had the worst case of hat hair without realizing it. Once I did, I put on a baseball cap. Sorry for everyone who had to look at my hat hair.
- This venue we've used many times in tournaments before, but it does have some downsides. The lighting's not great, so when sunset happened at 5, we were really racing against the daylight. The bathrooms have... noticeably deteriorated. They have not been well cared for. And the pavilion, while great at keeping off rain, is bad at keeping off wind.
- StayCool was allowing both Bearing and Bearing' in a single deck, as well as Drift and Metal Drift. Just about everyone who made it to the finals today took advantage of that during first round, and many of them continued to use Double Drift or Double Bearing into the finals.
- An interesting thing I should probably mention about the FG format: One spin direction change was permitted for a single dual spin layer for a participant during a match, in both 3v3 first stage and deck finals. Infinite high/low mode changes were permitted. It led to some delays, and also some matches that dragged on a bit in the finals.
- This tournament took us FIVE HOURS to complete. We began shortly after noon, and it went until 5:12 PM. By the time the Top 3 photo was taken, it was almost dark.
- I was one of the judges at the tournament today. There were 4 beystadiums total, and we had a lot of judges around, so normally you would think things would go fairly quickly. We also were playing under a 3v3 ruleset where a single tie meant "Move on to the next bey", so you'd think it would go quickly. You would be wrong. I didn't encounter any fake parts today. This format was adapted from current Beyblade Burst releases, so the DB layers are still mostly overpowering everything.
- We had a 30 person 5 round swiss, followed by a 8 person single elimination finals.
- I went 3-2 in the first stage. This event was a little unusual, the seeding was random. Granted, almost nobody up here in the Central Atlantic had an extisting rank with FourGaming events, and we mostly had existing WBO ranks, but that's a whole different ballgame. So, randomized seeds. Because of this, the first round pairings were perhaps Unusual, and the finals tallying could not utilize buchholz at all, and ended up using the Challonge Tiebreaker value, which is a little strange sometimes. But hey, not my tournament, not my call. I don't have any strong opinions for or against it, but I've noted before that Swiss is kind of a fragile format, and relies on really accurate seeding.
- So round 1 I got paired up against Friedpasta. An inauspicious start! He's quite good. I managed to win that one, but subsequent matches against Geetster99 and Shadowbey404 did not go well. What can I say? I can say "Astral on Low Mode Bearing Tapered is a bad idea in a DB beystadium". It is. Astral is a bit wider than World, and the shape is less round and more aggressive. On a DB Beystadium, with Bearing, it will tilt to an unwholesome degree! You will lose, probably! If you're going to use Astral in a DB beystadium in low mode, use other drivers instead (your secret's safe with me, Crisis). If you're going to use it in High Mode, well, Bearing's probably fine. Anyhow, my remaining two matches were against Alex C, which I won, and Beymaster. The Beymaster match was kind of close, but I barely defeated him.
- Because of direction changing, a lot of people, myself included, were using Astral in a deck. I only direction changed in two matches, I think I ended up winning those. But what was more surprising is lots of people were using World. World on 1S core. So it was effectively high mode, but it worked really well. Also didn't scrape nearly as much as Astral. A lot of people used World in both the first stage and the finals.
- At one point, before I learned that other drivers stay more upright in the DB Beystadium and are a way safer bet than Bearing on wider layers, I switched to using Karma and Never on a right spin layer. It didn't pan out, but it wasn't a terrible idea. I'd soured on the idea of Tapered for a bit, and it turns out other than Karma there's Not Much Else out there when you've already used Giga and Over. Nexus? Meh.
- I didn't make it to the finals, that's okay. Challonge TB column's sort of weird, I don't fully understand its logic. I halfway think it picks somewhat randomly. Ah well.
- I took a break from judging a bit during the first half of the finals. I just needed a rest. I think all the other judges and organizers saw that except me. The finals took forever because Ties and Near Ties. I did judge one of the semifinals matches and the 3rd place match. FG format has bladers create a 4th bey (non-repeating parts) when you get 3 consecutive ties in deck format, and that happened in at least two matches.
- A few of the judges were planning on playing Crokinole (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crokinole) after the tournament. We were not counting on it taking quite so long and running out of daylight. I did play a bit once the finals happened.
- There were KOs, even in the DB beystadium. More common than I expected, only slightly less common than in B-09 Beystadiums. I think keeping KOs at one point was a good idea.
- There were even bursts! People were using World, because of direction switching and avoiding scraping. And Worlds did a bit of bursting.
- I really worry about RYANTHEDRAGON98 sometimes. The amount of beyblade cases he is bringing to tournaments is now taller than he is. He rolls them in on a wheeled dolly, and every time I worry that it's going to fall over and hurt him or another blader. A truly horrifying fate. I have jokingly asked him in the past to stop bring a giant leaning wall of beycases, but he hasn't taken it seriously and he just brings more and more. It's going to fall on me one day and kill me, I just know it. There are better ways to stop me from having to judge opposite spin LAD matches. Bladers, please consider bringing only the beyparts you plan on using in a single container.
- It was loud. I don't know why, but it seemed like this tournament had a higher ambient noise level than other tournaments. There were times when I had to ask spectators to stop supplying hummed theme music, and times where I had to ask participants of matches I was judging to stop counting down numbers predicting when the match would end.
- Remember bladers, that for pre-tournament or during tournament free play in other beystadiums, no one is obligated to battle against you, and they don't even need a reason to refuse. Maybe they just don't want to give one because they have valid reasons, but telling you to your face would perhaps be unkind. Responding to a refused challenge with "Why, are you afraid?" is considered poor sportsmanship and a rules violation. Mind your manners, please, or they will be minded for you.
- There was some uncertainty as to when a part or mode change is permissible during Deck Format Finals. In this Four-Gaming tournament, much like in WBO Deck Format Finals, the blader who last won a point chooses their next bey first, and then their opponent chooses their bey. But FG rules are more permissive here, and WBO rules are vague on this. We had situations where a blader won a point, they would choose their next deck bey, their opponent would choose their counter, and then the first blader was allowed to make mode changes, to include High/Low mode switching. In my mind, all height/mode switching should be done at time of selection. Instead of the following scenario (A chooses Bey, B chooses Bey, A takes their bey into high mode, launch) I would recommend that both the FG and WBO rules codify that disassembly-level mode changes (spin direction (only FG), Low/High) only be conducted at bey selection (A chooses Bey and takes it into High Mode, B chooses Bey and maybe takes it into a different mode, launch).
- I think in at least 4 out of the 5 swiss rounds, I would encounter duplicate parts in at least one participants decks in the matches I judged. I would find a duplicate disc, usually Giga, or a duplicate armor. This did not noticeably improve as the tournament went on, because people would switch out parts between rounds, and then not recheck their decks. So, that was kind of a downer. This affected newer bladers, and this also affected more experienced bladers. That made matches take longer.
- I bet you're wondering why the tournament took five hours. Well, the first stage took over 4 hours. And this is because there were Ties or Near Ties multiple times in almost every match. Sure, they weren't as bad, because Tie or not, as long as it wasn't a contactless self-KO, the next bey in the lineup would be used or a reshuffle would happen. But when almost every single match is a close tie, you have to spend time reviewing footage, deciding if it was a real tie or if one of the beys actually won. And in Swiss, you can't start a new round until the previous round is completely done. So there was waiting.
- Why were there so many ties, you ask? Why, in a 3v3 format with single-tie-means-switch-to-next bey, and in normal deck format? It's Double Drift and Double Bearing of course. Not everyone was using two drifts and two bearings in every single match. Everyone competitive was using two drifts and a bearing or two bearings and a drift in almost every single match. I was too, what choice did I have? Every serious opponent was. So Opposite Spin Bearing/Drift matches were The Normal. Instead of the occasional opposite spin match on these drivers, almost everyone was guaranteed to have one OR MORE of these matchups during every single match in every single swiss round. I had at least two first round matches I judged where we had so many raw ties that they had to do TWO RESHUFFLES just for one person to get to 3 points. Actually I might've had 3 or more of those matches. We had... more Ties/Near Ties in this 3v3 1TieSwitch tournament than in a Single Bey Format tournament.
- Back when I ran a 3v3 tournament in, what, August? Yeah, August. We didn't have this problem back then. Bearing' did not exist, Metal Drift did not exist. Even IF a blader brought Drift and Bearing into a single match, the ties were way less common, because all three beys weren't drift and bearing. And now? Now it is entirely different, the odds of having an opposite spin LAD match is basically 1 in 1. This made me miss Single Bey Format. Oh my God, I missed Single Bey Format. That's... oof, that's not a good sign.
- When people were advocating for the repeal of the Only One Part Per Driver Family rule, there were those who mentioned that a severe case of Double Bearing and Double Drift being spammed in 3v3 and Deck format was going to be a consequence of the repeal. And that is exactly what happened. And it doesn't inconvenience most of the people who wanted the repeal, because most of them are not judges. They're attendees, or organizers/staff busy calling out matches, or just random Beyblade fans who have no WBO tournaments at all in their areas and won't or can't put in the effort to make them happen but have a lot of strong opinions about WBO tournament rules anyway. They're not on the front lines of every match, making the matches happen, having to judge these matches. You know who did have to judge these matches? Me and the other judges. And these Tie and Near Tie matches are more than just an inconvenience and/or terribly boring and/or un-fun for the judges and participants involved, it's a logistical nightmare; a 30 person five round swiss shouldn't take 5 hours, not when you have 4 active beystadiums and a lot of judges around. We literally ran out of daylight by the end. It is the Judges who are paying the price for the repeal of that rule. We're the ones who have to judge all these danged opposite spin bearing/drift matches. We're the ones who wind up referring to the slow motion recordings over and over and over again, for hours on end, all because a vocal few, most of whom don't judge and wouldn't be good candidates for it, want everyone to be able spam drift and bearing three times, on three beys, during a swiss round match and deck format. Or want to use both Xtreme' and Metal Xtreme, which is an objectively risky and low-chance of success deck strategy, even on a B-09. I think perhaps some of you are not factoring tournament infrastructure and judging difficulty decisions into your opinions, which seem to be mostly based on Want.
- The idea that anyone who is not actively judging WBO matches should have a significant say in the Only One Part Per Driver Family rulings is deeply flawed. Democracy is not appropriate here. If you aren't judging matches, you should consider being quiet and listening to those who are. The role of Judges in the WBO is sort of taken for granted. They and Organizers have some of the harder tasks in WBO; making tournaments happen, memorizing the rules, spotting fakes, detecting violations in the rules, explaining the rules, answering questions, justifying decisions based on rules. More than most others involved in WBO (participants, non-participant commenters), they have run actual WBO matches and can back up their points with actual facts based on events that have actually happened; their views should be seriously considered, with less credence given to non-judging entities who substitute facts with volume or edge-case theories.
I had a fun time. I think Four-Gaming format events are actually fun and cool. It sounds like StayCool is probably going to mandate a limit of Only One Part Per Driver Family whether or not the WBO decides to reinstate it, which is encouraging. I know I sound stressed out, and I am. I enjoyed the tournament. I enjoy 3v3 format, and I enjoy DB beystadiums. But there were issues with the formatting that were entirely avoidable, and were being tested to be in line with WBO rules. And sometimes when you do a science bad things can happen to people who just want to do a good tournament so everyone has a fun.
- I had fun at the tournament. But here is a picture of me immediately following the tournament. This is how I looked and felt:
- The weather was windy and cold. It's November, I don't know what I was expecting. In the morning the wind was actually very brisk. It warmed up bit during the tournament, but I ended up wearing a wool cap and jacket and handwarmers most of the day. Later on I got sort of dry so I removed the hat, but I had the worst case of hat hair without realizing it. Once I did, I put on a baseball cap. Sorry for everyone who had to look at my hat hair.
- This venue we've used many times in tournaments before, but it does have some downsides. The lighting's not great, so when sunset happened at 5, we were really racing against the daylight. The bathrooms have... noticeably deteriorated. They have not been well cared for. And the pavilion, while great at keeping off rain, is bad at keeping off wind.
- StayCool was allowing both Bearing and Bearing' in a single deck, as well as Drift and Metal Drift. Just about everyone who made it to the finals today took advantage of that during first round, and many of them continued to use Double Drift or Double Bearing into the finals.
- An interesting thing I should probably mention about the FG format: One spin direction change was permitted for a single dual spin layer for a participant during a match, in both 3v3 first stage and deck finals. Infinite high/low mode changes were permitted. It led to some delays, and also some matches that dragged on a bit in the finals.
- This tournament took us FIVE HOURS to complete. We began shortly after noon, and it went until 5:12 PM. By the time the Top 3 photo was taken, it was almost dark.
- I was one of the judges at the tournament today. There were 4 beystadiums total, and we had a lot of judges around, so normally you would think things would go fairly quickly. We also were playing under a 3v3 ruleset where a single tie meant "Move on to the next bey", so you'd think it would go quickly. You would be wrong. I didn't encounter any fake parts today. This format was adapted from current Beyblade Burst releases, so the DB layers are still mostly overpowering everything.
- We had a 30 person 5 round swiss, followed by a 8 person single elimination finals.
- I went 3-2 in the first stage. This event was a little unusual, the seeding was random. Granted, almost nobody up here in the Central Atlantic had an extisting rank with FourGaming events, and we mostly had existing WBO ranks, but that's a whole different ballgame. So, randomized seeds. Because of this, the first round pairings were perhaps Unusual, and the finals tallying could not utilize buchholz at all, and ended up using the Challonge Tiebreaker value, which is a little strange sometimes. But hey, not my tournament, not my call. I don't have any strong opinions for or against it, but I've noted before that Swiss is kind of a fragile format, and relies on really accurate seeding.
- So round 1 I got paired up against Friedpasta. An inauspicious start! He's quite good. I managed to win that one, but subsequent matches against Geetster99 and Shadowbey404 did not go well. What can I say? I can say "Astral on Low Mode Bearing Tapered is a bad idea in a DB beystadium". It is. Astral is a bit wider than World, and the shape is less round and more aggressive. On a DB Beystadium, with Bearing, it will tilt to an unwholesome degree! You will lose, probably! If you're going to use Astral in a DB beystadium in low mode, use other drivers instead (your secret's safe with me, Crisis). If you're going to use it in High Mode, well, Bearing's probably fine. Anyhow, my remaining two matches were against Alex C, which I won, and Beymaster. The Beymaster match was kind of close, but I barely defeated him.
- Because of direction changing, a lot of people, myself included, were using Astral in a deck. I only direction changed in two matches, I think I ended up winning those. But what was more surprising is lots of people were using World. World on 1S core. So it was effectively high mode, but it worked really well. Also didn't scrape nearly as much as Astral. A lot of people used World in both the first stage and the finals.
- At one point, before I learned that other drivers stay more upright in the DB Beystadium and are a way safer bet than Bearing on wider layers, I switched to using Karma and Never on a right spin layer. It didn't pan out, but it wasn't a terrible idea. I'd soured on the idea of Tapered for a bit, and it turns out other than Karma there's Not Much Else out there when you've already used Giga and Over. Nexus? Meh.
- I didn't make it to the finals, that's okay. Challonge TB column's sort of weird, I don't fully understand its logic. I halfway think it picks somewhat randomly. Ah well.
- I took a break from judging a bit during the first half of the finals. I just needed a rest. I think all the other judges and organizers saw that except me. The finals took forever because Ties and Near Ties. I did judge one of the semifinals matches and the 3rd place match. FG format has bladers create a 4th bey (non-repeating parts) when you get 3 consecutive ties in deck format, and that happened in at least two matches.
- A few of the judges were planning on playing Crokinole (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crokinole) after the tournament. We were not counting on it taking quite so long and running out of daylight. I did play a bit once the finals happened.
- There were KOs, even in the DB beystadium. More common than I expected, only slightly less common than in B-09 Beystadiums. I think keeping KOs at one point was a good idea.
- There were even bursts! People were using World, because of direction switching and avoiding scraping. And Worlds did a bit of bursting.
- I really worry about RYANTHEDRAGON98 sometimes. The amount of beyblade cases he is bringing to tournaments is now taller than he is. He rolls them in on a wheeled dolly, and every time I worry that it's going to fall over and hurt him or another blader. A truly horrifying fate. I have jokingly asked him in the past to stop bring a giant leaning wall of beycases, but he hasn't taken it seriously and he just brings more and more. It's going to fall on me one day and kill me, I just know it. There are better ways to stop me from having to judge opposite spin LAD matches. Bladers, please consider bringing only the beyparts you plan on using in a single container.
- It was loud. I don't know why, but it seemed like this tournament had a higher ambient noise level than other tournaments. There were times when I had to ask spectators to stop supplying hummed theme music, and times where I had to ask participants of matches I was judging to stop counting down numbers predicting when the match would end.
- Remember bladers, that for pre-tournament or during tournament free play in other beystadiums, no one is obligated to battle against you, and they don't even need a reason to refuse. Maybe they just don't want to give one because they have valid reasons, but telling you to your face would perhaps be unkind. Responding to a refused challenge with "Why, are you afraid?" is considered poor sportsmanship and a rules violation. Mind your manners, please, or they will be minded for you.
- There was some uncertainty as to when a part or mode change is permissible during Deck Format Finals. In this Four-Gaming tournament, much like in WBO Deck Format Finals, the blader who last won a point chooses their next bey first, and then their opponent chooses their bey. But FG rules are more permissive here, and WBO rules are vague on this. We had situations where a blader won a point, they would choose their next deck bey, their opponent would choose their counter, and then the first blader was allowed to make mode changes, to include High/Low mode switching. In my mind, all height/mode switching should be done at time of selection. Instead of the following scenario (A chooses Bey, B chooses Bey, A takes their bey into high mode, launch) I would recommend that both the FG and WBO rules codify that disassembly-level mode changes (spin direction (only FG), Low/High) only be conducted at bey selection (A chooses Bey and takes it into High Mode, B chooses Bey and maybe takes it into a different mode, launch).
- I think in at least 4 out of the 5 swiss rounds, I would encounter duplicate parts in at least one participants decks in the matches I judged. I would find a duplicate disc, usually Giga, or a duplicate armor. This did not noticeably improve as the tournament went on, because people would switch out parts between rounds, and then not recheck their decks. So, that was kind of a downer. This affected newer bladers, and this also affected more experienced bladers. That made matches take longer.
- I bet you're wondering why the tournament took five hours. Well, the first stage took over 4 hours. And this is because there were Ties or Near Ties multiple times in almost every match. Sure, they weren't as bad, because Tie or not, as long as it wasn't a contactless self-KO, the next bey in the lineup would be used or a reshuffle would happen. But when almost every single match is a close tie, you have to spend time reviewing footage, deciding if it was a real tie or if one of the beys actually won. And in Swiss, you can't start a new round until the previous round is completely done. So there was waiting.
- Why were there so many ties, you ask? Why, in a 3v3 format with single-tie-means-switch-to-next bey, and in normal deck format? It's Double Drift and Double Bearing of course. Not everyone was using two drifts and two bearings in every single match. Everyone competitive was using two drifts and a bearing or two bearings and a drift in almost every single match. I was too, what choice did I have? Every serious opponent was. So Opposite Spin Bearing/Drift matches were The Normal. Instead of the occasional opposite spin match on these drivers, almost everyone was guaranteed to have one OR MORE of these matchups during every single match in every single swiss round. I had at least two first round matches I judged where we had so many raw ties that they had to do TWO RESHUFFLES just for one person to get to 3 points. Actually I might've had 3 or more of those matches. We had... more Ties/Near Ties in this 3v3 1TieSwitch tournament than in a Single Bey Format tournament.
- Back when I ran a 3v3 tournament in, what, August? Yeah, August. We didn't have this problem back then. Bearing' did not exist, Metal Drift did not exist. Even IF a blader brought Drift and Bearing into a single match, the ties were way less common, because all three beys weren't drift and bearing. And now? Now it is entirely different, the odds of having an opposite spin LAD match is basically 1 in 1. This made me miss Single Bey Format. Oh my God, I missed Single Bey Format. That's... oof, that's not a good sign.
- When people were advocating for the repeal of the Only One Part Per Driver Family rule, there were those who mentioned that a severe case of Double Bearing and Double Drift being spammed in 3v3 and Deck format was going to be a consequence of the repeal. And that is exactly what happened. And it doesn't inconvenience most of the people who wanted the repeal, because most of them are not judges. They're attendees, or organizers/staff busy calling out matches, or just random Beyblade fans who have no WBO tournaments at all in their areas and won't or can't put in the effort to make them happen but have a lot of strong opinions about WBO tournament rules anyway. They're not on the front lines of every match, making the matches happen, having to judge these matches. You know who did have to judge these matches? Me and the other judges. And these Tie and Near Tie matches are more than just an inconvenience and/or terribly boring and/or un-fun for the judges and participants involved, it's a logistical nightmare; a 30 person five round swiss shouldn't take 5 hours, not when you have 4 active beystadiums and a lot of judges around. We literally ran out of daylight by the end. It is the Judges who are paying the price for the repeal of that rule. We're the ones who have to judge all these danged opposite spin bearing/drift matches. We're the ones who wind up referring to the slow motion recordings over and over and over again, for hours on end, all because a vocal few, most of whom don't judge and wouldn't be good candidates for it, want everyone to be able spam drift and bearing three times, on three beys, during a swiss round match and deck format. Or want to use both Xtreme' and Metal Xtreme, which is an objectively risky and low-chance of success deck strategy, even on a B-09. I think perhaps some of you are not factoring tournament infrastructure and judging difficulty decisions into your opinions, which seem to be mostly based on Want.
- The idea that anyone who is not actively judging WBO matches should have a significant say in the Only One Part Per Driver Family rulings is deeply flawed. Democracy is not appropriate here. If you aren't judging matches, you should consider being quiet and listening to those who are. The role of Judges in the WBO is sort of taken for granted. They and Organizers have some of the harder tasks in WBO; making tournaments happen, memorizing the rules, spotting fakes, detecting violations in the rules, explaining the rules, answering questions, justifying decisions based on rules. More than most others involved in WBO (participants, non-participant commenters), they have run actual WBO matches and can back up their points with actual facts based on events that have actually happened; their views should be seriously considered, with less credence given to non-judging entities who substitute facts with volume or edge-case theories.
I had a fun time. I think Four-Gaming format events are actually fun and cool. It sounds like StayCool is probably going to mandate a limit of Only One Part Per Driver Family whether or not the WBO decides to reinstate it, which is encouraging. I know I sound stressed out, and I am. I enjoyed the tournament. I enjoy 3v3 format, and I enjoy DB beystadiums. But there were issues with the formatting that were entirely avoidable, and were being tested to be in line with WBO rules. And sometimes when you do a science bad things can happen to people who just want to do a good tournament so everyone has a fun.
![[Image: UwZsp7A.png]](https://i.imgur.com/UwZsp7A.png)
![[Image: KPIw8k9.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/KPIw8k9.jpg)
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![[Image: 84-CB9286-C306-4-D2-D-B3-E2-CD380-EA5-E132.jpg]](https://i.postimg.cc/sgfQnGSM/84-CB9286-C306-4-D2-D-B3-E2-CD380-EA5-E132.jpg)
