The following are words I have to say about "DB: The Most Dangerous!", an ranked Burst Standard format tournament following the implementation of the 3round tie/10 round max rules and the deck format one driver per driver family rule.
- The weather was nice. The day before, it was torrential rain and storms. Today, although cloudy at times, we didn't see any rain and got mostly sun. Some people were chilly, but I wore a jacket the whole time. Folks, bring a jacket to October tournaments.
- We had a lot of withdrawals, only 13 of the original 24 people made it. Some withdrew ahead of time, some were worried about the weather, others couldn't get a ride, others had work shifts, and still others were just so thoroughly exhausted by how extra everything is right now. I think the outdoor season for Beyblades is starting to wind down in the Mid-Atlantic. We're running out of daylight and warmth.
- This venue was... something. Right near Dulles Airport, and right near a series of Soccer fields (that's Football to the rest of the world), and a lot of active sports leagues. Parking was Moderately Congested. Everyone found spots, but it was a bit of a walk. LJ-Blader and his folks had thankfully reserved the entire pavilion for our use, but there were a couple issues. Early on before people had really shown up, sports playing families were trying to take the picnic tables under the pavilion for their personal use. We addressed this problem the way we normally do at tournaments; spinning loud obnoxious Beyblades over and over until they take the hint and leave. There was also the issue that the bathroom entrances were on the far side of the pavilion, and a lot of the sports families just walked right through the middle of the tournament space to reach the bathrooms. I set up orange cones to deter them, and MOST people took the hint. Some people just didn't care and waltzed right through. But I mean, Virginia. It was a decent venue, more space than the last one, but... eh...
- We had a late start. By 12:15, we had a total of 3 bladers present. By 12:45 there wasn't really an 8 person quorum for a ranked tournament. We wound up with 13 eventually, and that involved waiting a lot and starting fairly late, around 1:30ish. I really wish people would read the guide written on that subject, but as I write this I can tell the exact word that is tripping them up with that.
- There were dogs. Two bladers brought dogs. LJ-Blader's family's dog Honey was at one of their previous tournaments, but that time I did not make an extra effort to pet the dog. Today, I made that extra effort. Honey is a Good Dog! Perhaps not amazingly trained but an enthusiastic and happy dog. A+++ Would Recommend This Dog Again.
- I was one of the judges at LJ-Blader's Standard tournament today. There were 3 beystadiums total, and we had we 4 judges so things went fairly quickly. Everyone had parts, no one needed to borrow. I had to point out one fake part to one blader, and I had to check the deck format finals carefully, one blader who hadn't made it there before had a duplicate disc and duplicate armor. This was Burst Standard, so the DB layers are still mostly overpowering everything.
- We had a 13 person group round robin with 6 and 7 person groups, followed by a 4 person single elimination finals. Originally it looked like we would only have 6, but then 3 more bladers suddenly showed up. Hooray!
- I went 3-3 in the first stage. Against CrisisCrusher07, I gambled that he'd be in left; he brought Dynamite. Against Astral Left on Atomic, well, that's bad for me! Sometimes you gamble and lose!
- I suspected MamaBey2122 was going to bring Roar Fafnir on Drift Metal, because I have basic pattern recognition. She's defeated me with it before, so I gambled that I'd see it again, and I did! Astral Left Atomic is a GREAT matchup against that, but I keep forgetting that Atomic really gets away from you sometimes and can go self-KO haywire. It was a very close match, 3-2, but she beat me. Valid! That's life! :D
- We had only a single match where the tiebreaker rules came into effect today, and I was involved. Actually, I was a participant, not the judge. I think I picked Dynamite Drift for that one. The first three launches spin tied, so we each selected new beys with parts we hadn't already used. At that point, we forgot that the tie-repick was a Sudden Death/first person to score a point wins situation. We didn't remember it until the score was 2-1, with me winning. And then I remembered. And I put an end to it. I said "Because You scored the first point after the repick, this is over, you have won." Because they'd scored that first point, and I'd scored the following two points. If the rules indicated that you would resume the match with the new beys using the existing score you had before, then I would've stood a good chance of winning. But that's not how the rules are structured, and we followed them as written.
- So my first three matches were losses, hahaha. Well, that's life. My remaining 3 matches were wins. I actually used Prominence Phoenix on Atomic successfully (opposite spin but my opponent was Guilty on attack), I know there was probably a drift win in there, and I beat a Perfect Phoenix with Prominence Phoenix on, I think... atomic?
- Atomic has FANTASTIC same spin, but the ring-out issues are Troubling. Looks like I forgot that Revolve, Bearing, and Xtend+ are totally valid (and now VERY SAFE) choices for same spin stamina. Ah well. Using Atomic really isn't work it considering that it can self-KO even easier than Drift can. But it's got some GREAT stamina when it works. A lot of people are going to be jumping on the High Xtend+' bandwagon when that releases; it will fix a LOT of the scrape problems Xtend+ has on DB layers.
- We had a rare situation for finals matchups, a 4 way tie of 4-2 records (I was 3-3 in that group) and a 3 way tie. For the 4 way tie group, two of the bladers had successfully beaten 2 of the other bladers in the tie; those two bladers went to the finals. For the other group, they each had a 3-2 record and each had beaten exactly 1 of the other 2 tied folks. We had to do a 3 person round robin to determine who got the second place spot for that bracket (MamaBey had the top spot with 4-1). Mike.Nightwing managed to win both his matches, so, he made it to the finals in deck format for the first time!
- Mike.Nightwing vs Allen Schaffer was a VERY close match. Mike was doing extremely well with Astral Right on... GYRO!?!??! Hey, if it works, it works! They were trading points back and forth all match. Most of Mike's points came from that Gyro combo. In the end he switched away from it to his Guilty combo, and that may have cost him the match. But he and Allen both did really well.
- JJ16 vs. MamaBey2122 was not one I judged, but it wasn't all that surprising. MamaBey has a decent handle on what beys to use when, although her knowledge of beys and strategy is still a work in progress. JJ16, well, is 5, and given that no one was permitted to offer him coaching or gameplay advice of any kind from the bystanders, his strategy didn't end up working out. He'll get better at it when he practices more.
- I missed Mike.Nightwing vs JJ16, but Mike won. 3rd place Mike, 4th JJ.
- I judged the final match, Allen vs MamaBey. This particular match was much less close than the previous ones, and aside from the final point, I didn't even have to check back on the recordings. MamaBey won her first tournament! Allen Shafer 2nd.
- Never underestimate your parents. They may surprise you, or even surpass you. Beware us olds, for we are wily and have seen much!
- [Names removed] During one of the first matches of the tournament, where I was the judge, we had one of the participants (who I will refer to as blader) voice Very strong disagreement with how I had been calling the match, with points for their opponent and not them. The first point was clear. The second one was very close, but before reviewing the footage I noted that it looked like their opponent had won that one. Upon reviewing the footage, it was clear to me the opponent had won. While reviewing the video, I pointed out to the blader the moment their bey stopped, and also pointed out how the opponent's bey kept going. Even if it hadn't really stopped there, the other bey clearly still went. "I don't see it that way." Okay, well, I called the point for opponent, and moved onto the next match. So the third launch, 0-2 in favor of opponent, is another very close one. I don't even bother calling it aloud when it's done (although it does look like opponent again), I review the footage, and sure enough, opponent's bey won again. At this point the disagreements from blader got more severe. And I said "Well, I'll just ask another judge to review both matches." The other judge asks the organizer who the head judge is, and apparently the answer is... me. Well, fine, but I'll still get a second opinion from the other judge. I showed him both videos, and both times he agreed with my assessment, opponent won 3-0. At this point, the sportsmanship rules start getting violated by blader. Among other examples of sportsmanship problems, I believe I heard "But I have better parts!" Subjective at best. "But I should win this one!" Not when your opponent gets three points and you have zero. The three judges and organizer have a bit of a huddle. Some of the judges are ready to throw the book at them. I'm thinking maybe a less direct approach, but I'm indeed concerned about this, and if anyone's going to handle it then it's not going to be done by me, the judge they're mad at. I don't know if anyone ended up talking to blader about it later on, I don't know if anyone threw the book at him. But later on they did end up apologizing to opponent about that match. We didn't have any similar incidents for the rest of the tournament.
- Folks, everyone has different views when judging who won a beyblade match. Literally, everyone has a different view of angle. The judge has one view, their recording phone has another, and each blader has their own viewpoint, as well as their own biases. In one match way later in the tournament, as a judge me and my phone didn't have a certain view of a tie, but a phone recording on the opposite side did (we were checking for a possible wall bounce that my camera missed). Please, leave it to the judge to determine who won. Don't get mad. Don't say things you might get in trouble for. If two judges agree that you did not win, then hey, you did not win. Please accept it stoically. Contact the WBO staff if you're still upset.
- "I should have won, I'm older than that blader!" "I should have won, I'm younger than that blader!" I heard both of these today at different times from two different bladers. Hey, folks? This is never okay. Your age doesn't factor into how good a blader you are, unless you are literally 5 and have trouble launching hard and have to sit on the table just to reach the beystadium and even then you might still go 4-2. So, Beyblade doesn't care how old you or your opponent are. No one is entitled to a win based on age. I've been beaten by a 4 year old before, and you know what? Good. They were a better Beyblader than I was.
- On that note, we had one blader who was a little young and had trouble launching on time. It wasn't that they were launching late, it's that their ripcord pulls were on the slow side and it took some time to get in there. In an opposite spin match, this really doesn't matter quite as much, especially if the KO chance on the drivers is Almost None. In the case of same spin, which we did encounter with this blader, I basically told the opponent to launch a little later, somehow that seemed like the easier way to deal with it. What can I say though? They won a lot of matches, and honestly, the timing of the launch didn't have a ton to do with it. I'd place their success more in the hands of the parts they were using. Prominence is kinda good sometimes.
- The new deck format rules were in place. These were the rules where only one driver of the same family of drivers (example Xtreme, Xtreme', Metal Xtreme, Hasbro Xtreme, etc.) could be used in a single deck. Everyone who made it to the finals today was alright with that ruling. No one seemed upset with it.
- I didn't make it to the finals this time. Ah well!
This was stressful at times, but I had a good time. I hope everyone else did as well. And to everyone who couldn't make it there who wanted to, hang in there. I know things are kinda wild right now.
- The weather was nice. The day before, it was torrential rain and storms. Today, although cloudy at times, we didn't see any rain and got mostly sun. Some people were chilly, but I wore a jacket the whole time. Folks, bring a jacket to October tournaments.
- We had a lot of withdrawals, only 13 of the original 24 people made it. Some withdrew ahead of time, some were worried about the weather, others couldn't get a ride, others had work shifts, and still others were just so thoroughly exhausted by how extra everything is right now. I think the outdoor season for Beyblades is starting to wind down in the Mid-Atlantic. We're running out of daylight and warmth.
- This venue was... something. Right near Dulles Airport, and right near a series of Soccer fields (that's Football to the rest of the world), and a lot of active sports leagues. Parking was Moderately Congested. Everyone found spots, but it was a bit of a walk. LJ-Blader and his folks had thankfully reserved the entire pavilion for our use, but there were a couple issues. Early on before people had really shown up, sports playing families were trying to take the picnic tables under the pavilion for their personal use. We addressed this problem the way we normally do at tournaments; spinning loud obnoxious Beyblades over and over until they take the hint and leave. There was also the issue that the bathroom entrances were on the far side of the pavilion, and a lot of the sports families just walked right through the middle of the tournament space to reach the bathrooms. I set up orange cones to deter them, and MOST people took the hint. Some people just didn't care and waltzed right through. But I mean, Virginia. It was a decent venue, more space than the last one, but... eh...
- We had a late start. By 12:15, we had a total of 3 bladers present. By 12:45 there wasn't really an 8 person quorum for a ranked tournament. We wound up with 13 eventually, and that involved waiting a lot and starting fairly late, around 1:30ish. I really wish people would read the guide written on that subject, but as I write this I can tell the exact word that is tripping them up with that.
- There were dogs. Two bladers brought dogs. LJ-Blader's family's dog Honey was at one of their previous tournaments, but that time I did not make an extra effort to pet the dog. Today, I made that extra effort. Honey is a Good Dog! Perhaps not amazingly trained but an enthusiastic and happy dog. A+++ Would Recommend This Dog Again.
- I was one of the judges at LJ-Blader's Standard tournament today. There were 3 beystadiums total, and we had we 4 judges so things went fairly quickly. Everyone had parts, no one needed to borrow. I had to point out one fake part to one blader, and I had to check the deck format finals carefully, one blader who hadn't made it there before had a duplicate disc and duplicate armor. This was Burst Standard, so the DB layers are still mostly overpowering everything.
- We had a 13 person group round robin with 6 and 7 person groups, followed by a 4 person single elimination finals. Originally it looked like we would only have 6, but then 3 more bladers suddenly showed up. Hooray!
- I went 3-3 in the first stage. Against CrisisCrusher07, I gambled that he'd be in left; he brought Dynamite. Against Astral Left on Atomic, well, that's bad for me! Sometimes you gamble and lose!
- I suspected MamaBey2122 was going to bring Roar Fafnir on Drift Metal, because I have basic pattern recognition. She's defeated me with it before, so I gambled that I'd see it again, and I did! Astral Left Atomic is a GREAT matchup against that, but I keep forgetting that Atomic really gets away from you sometimes and can go self-KO haywire. It was a very close match, 3-2, but she beat me. Valid! That's life! :D
- We had only a single match where the tiebreaker rules came into effect today, and I was involved. Actually, I was a participant, not the judge. I think I picked Dynamite Drift for that one. The first three launches spin tied, so we each selected new beys with parts we hadn't already used. At that point, we forgot that the tie-repick was a Sudden Death/first person to score a point wins situation. We didn't remember it until the score was 2-1, with me winning. And then I remembered. And I put an end to it. I said "Because You scored the first point after the repick, this is over, you have won." Because they'd scored that first point, and I'd scored the following two points. If the rules indicated that you would resume the match with the new beys using the existing score you had before, then I would've stood a good chance of winning. But that's not how the rules are structured, and we followed them as written.
- So my first three matches were losses, hahaha. Well, that's life. My remaining 3 matches were wins. I actually used Prominence Phoenix on Atomic successfully (opposite spin but my opponent was Guilty on attack), I know there was probably a drift win in there, and I beat a Perfect Phoenix with Prominence Phoenix on, I think... atomic?
- Atomic has FANTASTIC same spin, but the ring-out issues are Troubling. Looks like I forgot that Revolve, Bearing, and Xtend+ are totally valid (and now VERY SAFE) choices for same spin stamina. Ah well. Using Atomic really isn't work it considering that it can self-KO even easier than Drift can. But it's got some GREAT stamina when it works. A lot of people are going to be jumping on the High Xtend+' bandwagon when that releases; it will fix a LOT of the scrape problems Xtend+ has on DB layers.
- We had a rare situation for finals matchups, a 4 way tie of 4-2 records (I was 3-3 in that group) and a 3 way tie. For the 4 way tie group, two of the bladers had successfully beaten 2 of the other bladers in the tie; those two bladers went to the finals. For the other group, they each had a 3-2 record and each had beaten exactly 1 of the other 2 tied folks. We had to do a 3 person round robin to determine who got the second place spot for that bracket (MamaBey had the top spot with 4-1). Mike.Nightwing managed to win both his matches, so, he made it to the finals in deck format for the first time!
- Mike.Nightwing vs Allen Schaffer was a VERY close match. Mike was doing extremely well with Astral Right on... GYRO!?!??! Hey, if it works, it works! They were trading points back and forth all match. Most of Mike's points came from that Gyro combo. In the end he switched away from it to his Guilty combo, and that may have cost him the match. But he and Allen both did really well.
- JJ16 vs. MamaBey2122 was not one I judged, but it wasn't all that surprising. MamaBey has a decent handle on what beys to use when, although her knowledge of beys and strategy is still a work in progress. JJ16, well, is 5, and given that no one was permitted to offer him coaching or gameplay advice of any kind from the bystanders, his strategy didn't end up working out. He'll get better at it when he practices more.
- I missed Mike.Nightwing vs JJ16, but Mike won. 3rd place Mike, 4th JJ.
- I judged the final match, Allen vs MamaBey. This particular match was much less close than the previous ones, and aside from the final point, I didn't even have to check back on the recordings. MamaBey won her first tournament! Allen Shafer 2nd.
- Never underestimate your parents. They may surprise you, or even surpass you. Beware us olds, for we are wily and have seen much!
- [Names removed] During one of the first matches of the tournament, where I was the judge, we had one of the participants (who I will refer to as blader) voice Very strong disagreement with how I had been calling the match, with points for their opponent and not them. The first point was clear. The second one was very close, but before reviewing the footage I noted that it looked like their opponent had won that one. Upon reviewing the footage, it was clear to me the opponent had won. While reviewing the video, I pointed out to the blader the moment their bey stopped, and also pointed out how the opponent's bey kept going. Even if it hadn't really stopped there, the other bey clearly still went. "I don't see it that way." Okay, well, I called the point for opponent, and moved onto the next match. So the third launch, 0-2 in favor of opponent, is another very close one. I don't even bother calling it aloud when it's done (although it does look like opponent again), I review the footage, and sure enough, opponent's bey won again. At this point the disagreements from blader got more severe. And I said "Well, I'll just ask another judge to review both matches." The other judge asks the organizer who the head judge is, and apparently the answer is... me. Well, fine, but I'll still get a second opinion from the other judge. I showed him both videos, and both times he agreed with my assessment, opponent won 3-0. At this point, the sportsmanship rules start getting violated by blader. Among other examples of sportsmanship problems, I believe I heard "But I have better parts!" Subjective at best. "But I should win this one!" Not when your opponent gets three points and you have zero. The three judges and organizer have a bit of a huddle. Some of the judges are ready to throw the book at them. I'm thinking maybe a less direct approach, but I'm indeed concerned about this, and if anyone's going to handle it then it's not going to be done by me, the judge they're mad at. I don't know if anyone ended up talking to blader about it later on, I don't know if anyone threw the book at him. But later on they did end up apologizing to opponent about that match. We didn't have any similar incidents for the rest of the tournament.
- Folks, everyone has different views when judging who won a beyblade match. Literally, everyone has a different view of angle. The judge has one view, their recording phone has another, and each blader has their own viewpoint, as well as their own biases. In one match way later in the tournament, as a judge me and my phone didn't have a certain view of a tie, but a phone recording on the opposite side did (we were checking for a possible wall bounce that my camera missed). Please, leave it to the judge to determine who won. Don't get mad. Don't say things you might get in trouble for. If two judges agree that you did not win, then hey, you did not win. Please accept it stoically. Contact the WBO staff if you're still upset.
- "I should have won, I'm older than that blader!" "I should have won, I'm younger than that blader!" I heard both of these today at different times from two different bladers. Hey, folks? This is never okay. Your age doesn't factor into how good a blader you are, unless you are literally 5 and have trouble launching hard and have to sit on the table just to reach the beystadium and even then you might still go 4-2. So, Beyblade doesn't care how old you or your opponent are. No one is entitled to a win based on age. I've been beaten by a 4 year old before, and you know what? Good. They were a better Beyblader than I was.
- On that note, we had one blader who was a little young and had trouble launching on time. It wasn't that they were launching late, it's that their ripcord pulls were on the slow side and it took some time to get in there. In an opposite spin match, this really doesn't matter quite as much, especially if the KO chance on the drivers is Almost None. In the case of same spin, which we did encounter with this blader, I basically told the opponent to launch a little later, somehow that seemed like the easier way to deal with it. What can I say though? They won a lot of matches, and honestly, the timing of the launch didn't have a ton to do with it. I'd place their success more in the hands of the parts they were using. Prominence is kinda good sometimes.
- The new deck format rules were in place. These were the rules where only one driver of the same family of drivers (example Xtreme, Xtreme', Metal Xtreme, Hasbro Xtreme, etc.) could be used in a single deck. Everyone who made it to the finals today was alright with that ruling. No one seemed upset with it.
- I didn't make it to the finals this time. Ah well!
This was stressful at times, but I had a good time. I hope everyone else did as well. And to everyone who couldn't make it there who wanted to, hang in there. I know things are kinda wild right now.
