Today was... very intriguing to say the absolute least. Here's how it went down, from both a player and an organizer's point of view:
As a player, the event was extremely difficult. Several good players were there, and the competition was real. 11 people showed up, so we played Round Robin... 10 matches each. This was hard to do given that we were playing P3C1, but despite the time restraints I had, I decided it would be best to tackle nearly 60 matches with P3C1 rather than change the format. More on this later. Anyways, to put the competition into perspective, I had 7 wins and 3 losses and barely made it to the finals.
My first match was against Wingeagle99, which I lost 3-2. Opposite spin matchup if I recall correctly, don't remember exact combinations: LAD matches are a pain and are pretty luck based. Anyways, my record after this was 0-1.
My second match was against SpikeStorm, which I lost 3-0. This one was a same spin matchup, with SpikeStorm running Over High Xtend+' on his Dynamite while I was running Giga Metal Drift. Don't get me wrong, my Metal Drift is insane in same spin (Ask anyone who attended the tournament), but if you fail the launch, that's it. And I did... three times. Haha, fun times. Can't win 'em all!
Going into the third match, I had 0 wins and 2 losses. I knew I couldn't afford more than one more loss if I wanted a guaranteed a spot in the finals. After careful deliberation, I decided to use my Vanish Longinus Over High Xtend+'-2. My opponent, Mrs.wingeagle, ran Astral Spriggan Tapered Bearing. Pretty straight forward same spin matchup, and I ended up winning 3-0. With this round out of the way, I had my first win.
The fourth match was interesting, as my opponent (Bell-O-L) was running three right spin combinations, one of which being Ultimate Valkyrie on Destroy'. She went with Ultmate Valkyrie, and I went with the same Vanish combination I had used last match. However, instead of running stamina mode, I decided to try attack mode, which did not disappoint! I ended up winning 3-0, but if Bell-O-L perfects her attack launches, she will be a force to reckon with. Speaking of new players getting better, DO NOT underestimate someone, especially solely because of their BR-you will likely regret it!
After my fourth match, I was beginning to feel confident again with 2 wins and 2 losses. I ended up playing against Achilles18 for my fifth match, and although I was tempted to run attack, he only had QD and HS stuff... I would feel bad doing that to a young child. So, once again, I chose one of my stamina combinations and took the win 3-0.
In round six, I was against Camick, and I have to admit, I was worried. Camick is an insanely good blader and I lost to him in the finals of my last event. I went in with Vanish Longinus Over High Xtend+', and he chose Greatest Raphael Hybrid. Although I won this match 3-0, had his Hybrid driver been awakened, I would've been in trouble.
For my seventh match, I had to play against BeyCaddie, who was, at the time, undefeated. Saying I was worried about this match would be an understatement. I played safe and chose my Vanish combo again, and he chose Dynamite on Bearing' if I remember correctly. We traded wins and had a few ties in-between said wins, and with the score tied 2-2, we tied twice in a row. For the re-pick, I chose Dynamite Metal Drift, and BeyCaddie chose Roar on Drift. Knowing this match would be extremely close, I swapped to high mode, which was the game-winning choice.
With Round eight came a lot of interesting matches, including me VS robert_loller. Prior to the start of this event, I had told him that Maryland was "Overrated" because he and one of the other guys were discussing the meta there. Obviously, this was a joke (I have massive respect for the MD community) but I realized I had made a mistake after he told me he himself was from MD. Yeah, I do some stupid things sometimes, and this was one of them 😅. Anyways, words cannot begin to describe how close this match actually was. I chose Dynamite Metal Drift, and he chose Dynamite Tapered Bearing'. We exchanged wins, and in the end, my Metal Drift prevailed with the final score being 3-2. I said my Metal Drift was insanely good, and this should prove it.
For my ninth match, I played against RayneAvalon. Despite this being P3C1, he only brought one combination to the stadium: Divine Belial II Over Xtreme'. From what I had heard, Divine had an insanely niche use against same spin opponents, so I felt safe choosing Vanish on Metal Drift. Three words: I was wrong. Divine, without any gears and on Xtreme', hits hard. So hard, in fact, that I lost 3-2. Funny story about the last battle of that match: After I had been KOd, Divine swung back around to burst my Vanish while it was still in the pocket. Yikes.
My tenth and final first stage match was against Breaker Bahamut, who, like Rayne, only brought one Beyblade to the stadium: Guilty Longinus Nexus+S Metal Xtreme (Or X', I don't remember exactly). Prior to my knowledge of this, knowing Breaker and his attack combinations, I didn't want to risk a Guilty mirror match. With this said, I opted to change my Dynamite combination to Dynamite Perseus Over Zone'+Z-0 (F-Gear), something I wouldn't run unless I heavily suspected that my opponent was going to use attack. My bet paid off, and I managed to win 3-0. Breaker Bahamut is another insanely good up-and-coming blader, wouldn't be surprised to see him take the gold in a future event. His attack launches are insane, and there are things we could all learn from him (If time would've allowed, I literally would've asked him to help me get better with attack).
With the first stage completed, the following players made the finals:
SpikeStorm (8 wins, 2 losses)
BeyCaddie (8 wins, 2 losses)
Wingeagle99 (8 wins, 2 losses)
#Fafnir (7 wins, 3 losses)
The finals matches went by seemingly quickly, and unfortunately I don't remember much other than the fact that I lost both finals matches. This placed me at a total of 7 wins and 5 losses. Can't win them all, and the other Top four placers are all insanely good bladers. I'm far from disappointed with how today went as a player.
Now, as an organizer, this event was rough. I say this because a lot of matches seemed to involve technical ruling. Despite not running an attacker in the first stage (I tried running attack in the finals and utterly failed, which I did not expect after Guilty performed well at home), I hate LAD. I really do. So much, in fact, that I intend to get better with attack and use it for the majority of matches I play in the future. RayneAvalon had to judge LAD matches ALL DAY. All day. He told me afterwards "Love the community, but I refuse to judge after this". I don't blame him! It's miserable. Even the tie rule didn't help much. Speaking of the tie rule, it came up a lot today. And I mean a LOT. Most participants seemed to hate the tie rule (Myself included), as most matches WILL result in two ties nowadays. Double blind re-pick with the first point winning is the sole reason I will never run 1on1 again (Aside from MFL when I run it), and 3On3 isn't too much better, with players having no control whatsoever over the next matchup they're forced into. With P3C1, at least there's some strategy there. I don't know what else could be done to reduce the LAD stress, but even with the tie rules, I and my judges were pretty stressed with LAD matches. I'm interested in hearing other organizer's (And even player's) opinions on the tie rule.
Anyways, despite some of the negative things about this tournament, I had fun, and I hope everyone else had fun as well. I apologize for this terrible tournament report that is nowhere near the quality DC puts out. Thanks for taking the time to read the tournament report, it took awhile for me to write up so I genuinely hope you enjoyed it. I should probably get started on the results portion of the spreadsheet, I'll post that when I have the winning combinations. Again, thanks for reading!
Edit: Almost forgot, but we had three no-shows. If you don't think you can make it to a tournament, don't sign up. I understand that life happens and you'll sometimes be late/not be able to show up, but at the moment, I have zero messages from those who no-showed. I'll wait several days, but I do intend to list names if valid reasons for no-showing are not given. We could've started 30 minutes earlier had I known that the three wouldn't be coming, which affected the final stage. We had several players drive multiple hours to be there and they definitely would've benefited from starting earlier. Adding to this, we finished late, which was an issue because someone had reserved the shelter for the four hour time slot after ours. Had it not been for their kindness as well as the presence of a smaller, unoccupied shelter, I'm not sure what I would've done. Long story short, yes, no-showing can affect tournaments.
As a player, the event was extremely difficult. Several good players were there, and the competition was real. 11 people showed up, so we played Round Robin... 10 matches each. This was hard to do given that we were playing P3C1, but despite the time restraints I had, I decided it would be best to tackle nearly 60 matches with P3C1 rather than change the format. More on this later. Anyways, to put the competition into perspective, I had 7 wins and 3 losses and barely made it to the finals.
My first match was against Wingeagle99, which I lost 3-2. Opposite spin matchup if I recall correctly, don't remember exact combinations: LAD matches are a pain and are pretty luck based. Anyways, my record after this was 0-1.
My second match was against SpikeStorm, which I lost 3-0. This one was a same spin matchup, with SpikeStorm running Over High Xtend+' on his Dynamite while I was running Giga Metal Drift. Don't get me wrong, my Metal Drift is insane in same spin (Ask anyone who attended the tournament), but if you fail the launch, that's it. And I did... three times. Haha, fun times. Can't win 'em all!
Going into the third match, I had 0 wins and 2 losses. I knew I couldn't afford more than one more loss if I wanted a guaranteed a spot in the finals. After careful deliberation, I decided to use my Vanish Longinus Over High Xtend+'-2. My opponent, Mrs.wingeagle, ran Astral Spriggan Tapered Bearing. Pretty straight forward same spin matchup, and I ended up winning 3-0. With this round out of the way, I had my first win.
The fourth match was interesting, as my opponent (Bell-O-L) was running three right spin combinations, one of which being Ultimate Valkyrie on Destroy'. She went with Ultmate Valkyrie, and I went with the same Vanish combination I had used last match. However, instead of running stamina mode, I decided to try attack mode, which did not disappoint! I ended up winning 3-0, but if Bell-O-L perfects her attack launches, she will be a force to reckon with. Speaking of new players getting better, DO NOT underestimate someone, especially solely because of their BR-you will likely regret it!
After my fourth match, I was beginning to feel confident again with 2 wins and 2 losses. I ended up playing against Achilles18 for my fifth match, and although I was tempted to run attack, he only had QD and HS stuff... I would feel bad doing that to a young child. So, once again, I chose one of my stamina combinations and took the win 3-0.
In round six, I was against Camick, and I have to admit, I was worried. Camick is an insanely good blader and I lost to him in the finals of my last event. I went in with Vanish Longinus Over High Xtend+', and he chose Greatest Raphael Hybrid. Although I won this match 3-0, had his Hybrid driver been awakened, I would've been in trouble.
For my seventh match, I had to play against BeyCaddie, who was, at the time, undefeated. Saying I was worried about this match would be an understatement. I played safe and chose my Vanish combo again, and he chose Dynamite on Bearing' if I remember correctly. We traded wins and had a few ties in-between said wins, and with the score tied 2-2, we tied twice in a row. For the re-pick, I chose Dynamite Metal Drift, and BeyCaddie chose Roar on Drift. Knowing this match would be extremely close, I swapped to high mode, which was the game-winning choice.
With Round eight came a lot of interesting matches, including me VS robert_loller. Prior to the start of this event, I had told him that Maryland was "Overrated" because he and one of the other guys were discussing the meta there. Obviously, this was a joke (I have massive respect for the MD community) but I realized I had made a mistake after he told me he himself was from MD. Yeah, I do some stupid things sometimes, and this was one of them 😅. Anyways, words cannot begin to describe how close this match actually was. I chose Dynamite Metal Drift, and he chose Dynamite Tapered Bearing'. We exchanged wins, and in the end, my Metal Drift prevailed with the final score being 3-2. I said my Metal Drift was insanely good, and this should prove it.
For my ninth match, I played against RayneAvalon. Despite this being P3C1, he only brought one combination to the stadium: Divine Belial II Over Xtreme'. From what I had heard, Divine had an insanely niche use against same spin opponents, so I felt safe choosing Vanish on Metal Drift. Three words: I was wrong. Divine, without any gears and on Xtreme', hits hard. So hard, in fact, that I lost 3-2. Funny story about the last battle of that match: After I had been KOd, Divine swung back around to burst my Vanish while it was still in the pocket. Yikes.
My tenth and final first stage match was against Breaker Bahamut, who, like Rayne, only brought one Beyblade to the stadium: Guilty Longinus Nexus+S Metal Xtreme (Or X', I don't remember exactly). Prior to my knowledge of this, knowing Breaker and his attack combinations, I didn't want to risk a Guilty mirror match. With this said, I opted to change my Dynamite combination to Dynamite Perseus Over Zone'+Z-0 (F-Gear), something I wouldn't run unless I heavily suspected that my opponent was going to use attack. My bet paid off, and I managed to win 3-0. Breaker Bahamut is another insanely good up-and-coming blader, wouldn't be surprised to see him take the gold in a future event. His attack launches are insane, and there are things we could all learn from him (If time would've allowed, I literally would've asked him to help me get better with attack).
With the first stage completed, the following players made the finals:
SpikeStorm (8 wins, 2 losses)
BeyCaddie (8 wins, 2 losses)
Wingeagle99 (8 wins, 2 losses)
#Fafnir (7 wins, 3 losses)
The finals matches went by seemingly quickly, and unfortunately I don't remember much other than the fact that I lost both finals matches. This placed me at a total of 7 wins and 5 losses. Can't win them all, and the other Top four placers are all insanely good bladers. I'm far from disappointed with how today went as a player.
Now, as an organizer, this event was rough. I say this because a lot of matches seemed to involve technical ruling. Despite not running an attacker in the first stage (I tried running attack in the finals and utterly failed, which I did not expect after Guilty performed well at home), I hate LAD. I really do. So much, in fact, that I intend to get better with attack and use it for the majority of matches I play in the future. RayneAvalon had to judge LAD matches ALL DAY. All day. He told me afterwards "Love the community, but I refuse to judge after this". I don't blame him! It's miserable. Even the tie rule didn't help much. Speaking of the tie rule, it came up a lot today. And I mean a LOT. Most participants seemed to hate the tie rule (Myself included), as most matches WILL result in two ties nowadays. Double blind re-pick with the first point winning is the sole reason I will never run 1on1 again (Aside from MFL when I run it), and 3On3 isn't too much better, with players having no control whatsoever over the next matchup they're forced into. With P3C1, at least there's some strategy there. I don't know what else could be done to reduce the LAD stress, but even with the tie rules, I and my judges were pretty stressed with LAD matches. I'm interested in hearing other organizer's (And even player's) opinions on the tie rule.
Anyways, despite some of the negative things about this tournament, I had fun, and I hope everyone else had fun as well. I apologize for this terrible tournament report that is nowhere near the quality DC puts out. Thanks for taking the time to read the tournament report, it took awhile for me to write up so I genuinely hope you enjoyed it. I should probably get started on the results portion of the spreadsheet, I'll post that when I have the winning combinations. Again, thanks for reading!
Edit: Almost forgot, but we had three no-shows. If you don't think you can make it to a tournament, don't sign up. I understand that life happens and you'll sometimes be late/not be able to show up, but at the moment, I have zero messages from those who no-showed. I'll wait several days, but I do intend to list names if valid reasons for no-showing are not given. We could've started 30 minutes earlier had I known that the three wouldn't be coming, which affected the final stage. We had several players drive multiple hours to be there and they definitely would've benefited from starting earlier. Adding to this, we finished late, which was an issue because someone had reserved the shelter for the four hour time slot after ours. Had it not been for their kindness as well as the presence of a smaller, unoccupied shelter, I'm not sure what I would've done. Long story short, yes, no-showing can affect tournaments.
![[Image: Screen-Shot-2023-09-27-at-6-46-58-PM.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/1XQssy2p/Screen-Shot-2023-09-27-at-6-46-58-PM.png)
![[Image: UwZsp7A.png]](https://i.imgur.com/UwZsp7A.png)