The following are words I have to say about "Turbo-Charged Tops!", a Burst Classic tournament, and "MD Brings the Thunder to the Dome", a Zero-G tournament.
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Common to both tournaments:
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- The weather was not great. It rained from about 10:30 to shortly after noon. And the wind, oh gods, the wind. The wind was NOT GOOD. Wind is basically the enemy of any Zero-G tournament. It made things difficult. Stadiums and mats and other materials got blown around all day.
- Time was not a factor for this two-tournament day. The first tournament was scheduled to start at noon and the second at 3:00. But the first tournament had 12 participants, and the second had 9. These were fast round robin tournaments, and they only took an hour and a half each. Sunset at that location was estimated at 5 PM. We would've started the Zero-G tournament way earlier, closer to 2, but we had two registrants who weren't there. We didn't expect that they would actually show up, could've started without them, and added them later on if we had to. Round Robin is good for that. I believe one of them DID actually show up between the two tournaments, but did not understand the format correctly, ended up doing some Burst freeplay with Mike.Nightwing, an all around nice person.
- The Supreme One was considering running the tournament on the basketball court instead of under the pavilion. The rain put a stop to that. Also it wasn't significantly warmer outside the pavilion that day.
- I keep telling myself that I need to stop going to these tournaments in November. I should be resting, at home, in a warm house, while the world melts down around me. Sadly... I have a Beyblade addiction. Never mind the fact that people somewhat count on my for judging and bringing infrastructure and being a rules knower, the sad fact remains that between February 2020 and mid-June 2021, I went to one tournament. And I NEEDED those tournaments. So even though the mid-Atlantic has had a steady tempo of around 4 or more tournaments A MONTH for a few months now, and I am TIRED, I NEED THIS. I need these Beyblade tournaments. I don't know why. Probably because I enjoy them. That said, if everyone else would like to stop running them for the year in my region, I'd be cool with that. Unfortunately there's at least 3 more, and I'm probably going. I have a problem. But... I need to get as much Beyblade in as I can before reality decides to hit us with another pandemic.
- I leant out a few parts. In the first tournament, one newer blader had a few legal layers, a bunch of legal tips, and no legal discs. Leant some. Another blader was low on legal tips. Leant one. In the second, I leant some decently viable parts to someone to encourage them to try the Zero-G format.
- I enjoy how Round Robin really takes the guesswork out of who goes to the finals. It's two from each group, and you rarely get any sort of significant tie, and they always have match history.
- Nobody left either tournament early without telling judges. Cool.
- We played Crokinole between the two tournaments. I'm really bad at it, honestly. I think bladekid streamed the 2v2 games on YouTube.
![[Image: crokinole.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/nfn7JCr/crokinole.jpg)
- I was tired. Ahead of time, I let TSO know I didn't really want to judge. I ended up backup judging a bit. What can I say, when there's an infrastructural need, I feel compelled to solve it.
- Also I was made deceased by RYANTHEDRAGON98 and his giant wall of beycases.
![[Image: death-by-ryan-cases.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/mXc9KGb/death-by-ryan-cases.jpg)
- Folks, please bring food with you. I always have Clif Bars with me, but often forget to eat them. I tend to carbo-load with a big breakfast every tournament morning, so when TSO asked if she could have one of my Clif bars, my last one, I said yes anyway. In retrospect this may have been a bad call, I was very hungry by the end of the tournaments. My wife was Pissed when I told em I hadn't eaten during the tournaments, this is a recurring problem. I stocked up on extra Clif bars for next tournament. Folks, bring extra food with you! Also yes, I'm married, reality is So Much Weirder than you think it is.
- EDIT: Forgot to add this earlier. Today I got told I look and sound like Bernie Sanders. Not wrong, but... oh that hurts. That hurts so much. I have tears.
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"Turbo-Charged Tops!"
======
- We had a 12 person 2 group round robin tournament. We had 3 beystadiums and often ran all 3. We were completely done in an hour and a half.
- I have some difficulties with Burst Classic, I tend to do iffy in tournaments. But I think the format is fine. There's no decisive system of "Here are the stamina layers that always win, here are the attack layers, and here are the only tips you use". There's a LOT of tips that work. There's a LOT of layers that work. And there's not too many legal and good discs. You tend to see and get a lot of variety. I saw a Dullahan win a match. I saw plenty of bursts. I saw plenty of KOs. And stamina too, plenty of that. Classic might be one of the better formats available, given how broken every other Burst format is.
- I helped backup judge. We had about half the people there with judge experience, so, this went quickly.
- I went 2-3 in the first round. I mean, the heck am I supposed to do? I got beat by beymaster15963 but that is only reasonable, he's good. LJ-Blader beat me, he's quite good. And so did Mike.Nightwing for once. Some of these were very close matches. I was trying to use Revolve more today, and it didn't work out well. I never encountered Left Spin the entire time, but Revolve's like Same Spin Bearing: You take a major risk. One time I had a Revolve against Revolve match, and theirs was better. Later on I switched to using Dark Deathscyther Knuckle Orbit, that did better.
- I didn't make it to the finals! That's okay. Broyeeto faced LJ-Blader, TSO faced Mike.Nightwing. I think I judged one of these? I don't remember, I was hungry.
- We had an issue where a Beystadium broke! I noticed it halfway through one of my matches. It was not broken in a way that would seriously impact that matchup. But there was a large chip taken out of the outer ring on a B-09, apparently happened during a burst in a previous match. I don't think there's any way to repair that one. We figured out whose Beystadium it was, and it was real unfortunate. The stresses of tournament play will often destroy beystadiums or render them unusable for future tournament play. That's a downer!
Can't make it to finals all the time, but I wish I had better luck in Classic some days.
======
"MD Brings the Thunder to the Dome"
======
- We had a 9 person 1 group round robin tournament. We had 2 Attack Zero-G beystadiums (3 pockets).
- I love Zero-G. It's just a lot of fun. You can sway the stadium, you can try to outspin, and you can even attack. You've got so many options no matter what bey you have. At one point I tried to intentionally hit one of the walls really hard to try and sway the stadium, and instead hit my opponent's bey and caused a KO. Not my intention to snipe! I was seriously aiming for the wall! It's a fun format.
- Zero-G is completely susceptible to wind and wind was A PROBLEM at this tournament. During two matches running at the same time, one of the beystadiums with two active beys in it FLIPPED OVER and hit the OTHER BEYSTADIUM. Uh, we had to redo those launches. Freaking wind! And leaves. LEAVES AND WOODCHIPS GETTIN IN THE BEYSTADIUMS! NOOO! NO NATURE! STAY OUT THE BEYSTADIUMS, NATURE!
- I helped backup judge. We had about half the people there with judge experience, so, this went quickly.
- I went 6-2 in the first round. I actually have some really good parts for MFB formats, and do well in Standard and Zero-G, less so in Limited. Why am I not as good at limited? Don't know! I ended up using a mix of Leviathan Dragoon B:D, Duo Horologium SA165MB, Phantom Cancer E230TB For the first round. I tried to vary it a little because people were definitely expecting me to use Phantom more. Blasted scouters!
- In the finals I had all my leant parts back, and I decided to switch my Phantom to Kraken Leviathan E230TB, since I'd lost to something similar in round 1 on an elevator mirror match. I also brought Genbu 2 TH170MB with me, figuring that might had any sort of use. No.
- Friedpasta swept me. He had a very similar Dragoon on B:D combo, but his was heavier. None of my elevator or B:D or Genbu combos could beat it. Well, that happens!
- My match against TSO was much closer. TSO had better setups to most of my combos, and quite honestly had a very solid left spin B:D combo that I was losing against a little. I did have some wins against it with my elevator, no wins at all with my Genbu 2 MB. It went back and forth a bit, but I ended up having a surprise return victory. I dunno, MFBs are weird and so is Zero-G. Sometimes combos work and sometimes they don't. You can try to predict, but there's always a little bit of chaos. I got third place.
Zero-G is always fun but we're never doing it again outdoors during Spring or Winter or Fall. Summer Only! NO WIND!
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I am very much looking forward to tomorrow, when [Hyperlink Blocked].
======
Common to both tournaments:
======
- The weather was not great. It rained from about 10:30 to shortly after noon. And the wind, oh gods, the wind. The wind was NOT GOOD. Wind is basically the enemy of any Zero-G tournament. It made things difficult. Stadiums and mats and other materials got blown around all day.
- Time was not a factor for this two-tournament day. The first tournament was scheduled to start at noon and the second at 3:00. But the first tournament had 12 participants, and the second had 9. These were fast round robin tournaments, and they only took an hour and a half each. Sunset at that location was estimated at 5 PM. We would've started the Zero-G tournament way earlier, closer to 2, but we had two registrants who weren't there. We didn't expect that they would actually show up, could've started without them, and added them later on if we had to. Round Robin is good for that. I believe one of them DID actually show up between the two tournaments, but did not understand the format correctly, ended up doing some Burst freeplay with Mike.Nightwing, an all around nice person.
- The Supreme One was considering running the tournament on the basketball court instead of under the pavilion. The rain put a stop to that. Also it wasn't significantly warmer outside the pavilion that day.
- I keep telling myself that I need to stop going to these tournaments in November. I should be resting, at home, in a warm house, while the world melts down around me. Sadly... I have a Beyblade addiction. Never mind the fact that people somewhat count on my for judging and bringing infrastructure and being a rules knower, the sad fact remains that between February 2020 and mid-June 2021, I went to one tournament. And I NEEDED those tournaments. So even though the mid-Atlantic has had a steady tempo of around 4 or more tournaments A MONTH for a few months now, and I am TIRED, I NEED THIS. I need these Beyblade tournaments. I don't know why. Probably because I enjoy them. That said, if everyone else would like to stop running them for the year in my region, I'd be cool with that. Unfortunately there's at least 3 more, and I'm probably going. I have a problem. But... I need to get as much Beyblade in as I can before reality decides to hit us with another pandemic.
- I leant out a few parts. In the first tournament, one newer blader had a few legal layers, a bunch of legal tips, and no legal discs. Leant some. Another blader was low on legal tips. Leant one. In the second, I leant some decently viable parts to someone to encourage them to try the Zero-G format.
- I enjoy how Round Robin really takes the guesswork out of who goes to the finals. It's two from each group, and you rarely get any sort of significant tie, and they always have match history.
- Nobody left either tournament early without telling judges. Cool.
- We played Crokinole between the two tournaments. I'm really bad at it, honestly. I think bladekid streamed the 2v2 games on YouTube.
- I was tired. Ahead of time, I let TSO know I didn't really want to judge. I ended up backup judging a bit. What can I say, when there's an infrastructural need, I feel compelled to solve it.
- Also I was made deceased by RYANTHEDRAGON98 and his giant wall of beycases.
- Folks, please bring food with you. I always have Clif Bars with me, but often forget to eat them. I tend to carbo-load with a big breakfast every tournament morning, so when TSO asked if she could have one of my Clif bars, my last one, I said yes anyway. In retrospect this may have been a bad call, I was very hungry by the end of the tournaments. My wife was Pissed when I told em I hadn't eaten during the tournaments, this is a recurring problem. I stocked up on extra Clif bars for next tournament. Folks, bring extra food with you! Also yes, I'm married, reality is So Much Weirder than you think it is.
- EDIT: Forgot to add this earlier. Today I got told I look and sound like Bernie Sanders. Not wrong, but... oh that hurts. That hurts so much. I have tears.
======
"Turbo-Charged Tops!"
======
- We had a 12 person 2 group round robin tournament. We had 3 beystadiums and often ran all 3. We were completely done in an hour and a half.
- I have some difficulties with Burst Classic, I tend to do iffy in tournaments. But I think the format is fine. There's no decisive system of "Here are the stamina layers that always win, here are the attack layers, and here are the only tips you use". There's a LOT of tips that work. There's a LOT of layers that work. And there's not too many legal and good discs. You tend to see and get a lot of variety. I saw a Dullahan win a match. I saw plenty of bursts. I saw plenty of KOs. And stamina too, plenty of that. Classic might be one of the better formats available, given how broken every other Burst format is.
- I helped backup judge. We had about half the people there with judge experience, so, this went quickly.
- I went 2-3 in the first round. I mean, the heck am I supposed to do? I got beat by beymaster15963 but that is only reasonable, he's good. LJ-Blader beat me, he's quite good. And so did Mike.Nightwing for once. Some of these were very close matches. I was trying to use Revolve more today, and it didn't work out well. I never encountered Left Spin the entire time, but Revolve's like Same Spin Bearing: You take a major risk. One time I had a Revolve against Revolve match, and theirs was better. Later on I switched to using Dark Deathscyther Knuckle Orbit, that did better.
- I didn't make it to the finals! That's okay. Broyeeto faced LJ-Blader, TSO faced Mike.Nightwing. I think I judged one of these? I don't remember, I was hungry.
- We had an issue where a Beystadium broke! I noticed it halfway through one of my matches. It was not broken in a way that would seriously impact that matchup. But there was a large chip taken out of the outer ring on a B-09, apparently happened during a burst in a previous match. I don't think there's any way to repair that one. We figured out whose Beystadium it was, and it was real unfortunate. The stresses of tournament play will often destroy beystadiums or render them unusable for future tournament play. That's a downer!
Can't make it to finals all the time, but I wish I had better luck in Classic some days.
======
"MD Brings the Thunder to the Dome"
======
- We had a 9 person 1 group round robin tournament. We had 2 Attack Zero-G beystadiums (3 pockets).
- I love Zero-G. It's just a lot of fun. You can sway the stadium, you can try to outspin, and you can even attack. You've got so many options no matter what bey you have. At one point I tried to intentionally hit one of the walls really hard to try and sway the stadium, and instead hit my opponent's bey and caused a KO. Not my intention to snipe! I was seriously aiming for the wall! It's a fun format.
- Zero-G is completely susceptible to wind and wind was A PROBLEM at this tournament. During two matches running at the same time, one of the beystadiums with two active beys in it FLIPPED OVER and hit the OTHER BEYSTADIUM. Uh, we had to redo those launches. Freaking wind! And leaves. LEAVES AND WOODCHIPS GETTIN IN THE BEYSTADIUMS! NOOO! NO NATURE! STAY OUT THE BEYSTADIUMS, NATURE!
- I helped backup judge. We had about half the people there with judge experience, so, this went quickly.
- I went 6-2 in the first round. I actually have some really good parts for MFB formats, and do well in Standard and Zero-G, less so in Limited. Why am I not as good at limited? Don't know! I ended up using a mix of Leviathan Dragoon B:D, Duo Horologium SA165MB, Phantom Cancer E230TB For the first round. I tried to vary it a little because people were definitely expecting me to use Phantom more. Blasted scouters!
- In the finals I had all my leant parts back, and I decided to switch my Phantom to Kraken Leviathan E230TB, since I'd lost to something similar in round 1 on an elevator mirror match. I also brought Genbu 2 TH170MB with me, figuring that might had any sort of use. No.
- Friedpasta swept me. He had a very similar Dragoon on B:D combo, but his was heavier. None of my elevator or B:D or Genbu combos could beat it. Well, that happens!
- My match against TSO was much closer. TSO had better setups to most of my combos, and quite honestly had a very solid left spin B:D combo that I was losing against a little. I did have some wins against it with my elevator, no wins at all with my Genbu 2 MB. It went back and forth a bit, but I ended up having a surprise return victory. I dunno, MFBs are weird and so is Zero-G. Sometimes combos work and sometimes they don't. You can try to predict, but there's always a little bit of chaos. I got third place.
Zero-G is always fun but we're never doing it again outdoors during Spring or Winter or Fall. Summer Only! NO WIND!
======
I am very much looking forward to tomorrow, when [Hyperlink Blocked].
![[Image: UwZsp7A.png]](https://i.imgur.com/UwZsp7A.png)
& had my Dragooon on AD145 CF for sway. Unfortunately this didn't work quite as well as I had hoped, and ended up going 4-5, but this is just a sign that DC is getting really good at MFB & has put the time into acquiring competitive parts.![[Image: jFAMV2B.png]](https://i.imgur.com/jFAMV2B.png)
