Personal reflection on the Burst System

As 2022 comes to an end, Beyblade Burst has reached its destination as Gen IV Beyblade will soon be revealed in March 2023.  Beyblade Burst has introduced many things such as burst finishes, wall bounces, and other factors that have impacted gameplay for better and worse.  Burst coming to an end has brought the opportunity for many dedicated members of the community to express their overall grievances and frustrations that have negatively affected their love for Beyblade Burst specifically.


One of the most significant issues with Burst is sustainability regarding part wear.  Due to the Burst mechanic which can make extensive testing and optimization of combo building detrimental for parts.  This was very prevalent during the early days of Dual Layers and God in which some people may have to bring multiple copies of one layer to use a specific combo in a tournament.  This has also made testing culture die out a bit in the community due to not only the issue of part wear but also mold variation that can create a lot of variations in results.  This along with multiple legacy formats having been built out for competitive Burst has made having any meaningful discussion difficult due to players’ own hesitation/reluctance of engaging in testing to provide knowledge in a fruitful way to keep competitive play engaging and consistent in Burst.


Another contentious problem brought by Burst is the inclusion of wall bounces where if the opposing Beyblade gets knocked out of the play area through contact by the other Beyblade and bounces off the pocket wall back into the stadium, it’s still considered knocked out.  The growing pains of dealing with wall bounces are not only due to the design of the B-09 stadium used in all formats of Burst but also due to the continuous design changes to innovate from the previous Burst system established every year since 2015 has resulted in inconsistencies of how beys may knock each other out of the play area in the stadium.  This was especially prevalent during Cho-Z and Superking where the unmatched power creeps brought about by the inclusion of powerful LAD drivers, stamina/defense layers, and lack of consistent attack options have made Burst very frustrating and stagnant to be engaged in.  The inconsistencies brought about by the Burst system have created a small divide in my opinion where players have drastically different perspectives of how Burst gameplay works and what can be done to optimize it to be consistent/engaging.


As a person who has gotten into competitive Beyblade through the Burst system, I will admit a lot of these issues are very prevalent and require consistent/further engagement from the community to ensure that being in competitive Burst can still be a consistent, somewhat enjoyable experience.  The inclusion of LAD drivers whose power creep has significantly affected the overall viability and complexity of gameplay in legacy formats along with making deciding match results in LAD V LAD matches a very tedious/frustrating task can turn off anyone from competitive Beyblade or even collecting.


Overall, the Burst system for Beyblade has made significant changes that over the years have made it not very appealing anymore for long-time members due to various changes/factors that may be out of their control or affected by the randomness factor of Beyblade.  The purpose of writing this is not to gather people to simply pile on their frustrations regarding the Burst system but to give a message to everyone else in the community.  For the people that still find some enjoyment from playing competitive Burst and want to advocate for changes in legacy format to ensure fruitful/consistent gameplay, please focus your energy and resources on doing more conducive things such as testing threads on the WBO, creating online resources such as PlasticsDB, and even making buy guides/tournament footage that can give players better access on how to expand their own knowledge of the game.


The purpose of me writing everything down is to make the point that the people that have enjoyed Beyblade through Burst should consider how they can possibly make contributions to the community and still make the gameplay experience somewhat consistent/enjoyable.  While I may not be the most knowledgeable person in the community with my own individual flaws, my overall experience in the community has allowed me to find a place where I wish to devote my energy to hopefully bring meaningful changes such as building up the NJ competitive community or creating testing threads to address possible issues in the Burst legacy formats.  I only hope that as 2022 ends, people in the community can hopefully find it in themselves to find the strength to keep going and make Beyblade in any format fun for everyone.


Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.