Toronto Beyblade Burst Classic Tournament Report: IT'S TIME TO RIP IT! – 3/30/19

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TORONTO BEYBLADE BURST CLASSIC TOURNAMENT REPORT



March 30, 2019 at High Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
BURST CLASSIC FORMAT
OFFICIAL EVENT PAGE


Video features 1234beyblade vs. Mitsu (First Stage), Mitsu vs. henwooja1 (Final Stage for 3rd/4th), 1234beyblade vs. MDK Shady (Final Stage for 1st/2nd)

First Toronto Burst Classic Tournament


On March 30th, 2019 I hosted the first ever Burst Classic Format tournament in the Toronto community! There has been considerable discussion and excitement surrounding this format throughout the community, so it was great to finally join the list of other communities who have given this experimental format a shot.

The weather in Toronto took a turn for the worse once again right as we entered the weekend … but that didn’t deter 25 Bladers from showing up to compete! With such a “small” turn out, this was also our first Swiss Format event in quite some time.

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Our events lately have been posted months or several weeks in advance, but this time we only posted it two weeks ahead of time to try and control the size of the event. We also didn’t post it on Kijiji. It felt appropriate given that this was an experimental event and … the large events we’ve had lately have been a bit exhausting haha.

Communicating The Format Restrictions & Making It Easier To Compete


One thing that is important to Organizer’s to remember when considering hosting a Burst Classic Format is that it is inherently exclusionary to a certain degree.

Not every player in your community is going to have the parts necessary to compete. While we cannot provide the entire community with parts to play with, I do think that we have a responsibility to do what we can to make it easier for everyone to compete in a format like this.

To that end, we provided Burst Classic-legal Beyblades at each stadium for anyone to use if needed. This helped out a lot of players at our event.

We also posted this one-page rules overview sheet throughout our space to make it easier for players to reference at any time. I’m fairly confident that this ended up reducing the amount of questions directed towards us throughout the event.

The Removal of the God/Evolution Layers


Probably the most notable aspect of this event is that it was the first ever Burst Classic event after removal of God/Evolution Layers from the format just a few days prior.

This decision was hotly contested among the Committee and Organized Play Contributor team, but I do think that ultimately it was the right choice in terms of being able to communicate the format more easily to a general audience and in terms of making the name “Classic” more accurate.

However, with the decision coming just a few days before the event … it didn’t leave much time to prepare! I was scrambling the night before the event to organize all of my Beyblade Burst Gachi stuff that came in for sale and end up only having two hours or so to test and re-organize my tournament case for Classic.

Nevertheless, the results were quite interesting!



The Metagame


Part-Specific Observations
Perhaps the best way to talk about this is to single out the specific parts which I saw the most or which seemed to be the most successful. In general, these are the parts that I saw the most (not all were necessarily successful all the time):

Dragoon Fantom, Wolborg, Deathscyther, Odin, Acid Anubis, Gigant Gaia, Gaianon G2, Anubion A1, Valtryek V2, Victory Valkyrie, Heavy, Gravity, Spread, Yell, Xtreme’, Jolt’, Revolve, Eternal, Eternal-S.

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And here is some of my anecdotal observations on some of them:

Dragoon Fantom
This thing was seemingly everywhere. Probably because I sold like eight of them before the event started.

While I don’t think that Df is particularly strong by any stretch, it certainly has some specific applications and on Y.Et was probably a decent choice against random stuff during the first stage.

I actually wish that it was slightly stronger than it actually is as while the general lack of left-spin in the format is a positive thing, I do think that if it was slightly stronger against more opposite spin opponents you might see more diversity in terms of left-spin attack types being used to counter it.

Like, OldSchool™ tried to use Df.Y.Br in the finals and it just doesn’t work against Revolve … if it did, then maybe you’d see more of it which would then maybe encourage even more Attack in both spin directions.

Wolborg
I saw this being used by a few people throughout to some level of success, but it became clear that it cannot stand up to the heavy hitters like Deathscyther, Odin, and Acid Anubis in terms of stamina.

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Deathscyther
Deathscyther to me is very clearly the best Stamina Layer in Burst Classic. However, while I know some of you may be worried that this is a bad thing given that it is harder to obtain now … it became painfully evident to me just how relatively easy it is to burst.

I used it for some of my matches and won, but in Round 5 versus Toxic Cheeto he was able to burst me twice and knock me out once using G2.G.T lol. I lost 3-1. Couldn’t believe it! Can’t say I’ve ever tried to use G2 offensively in any capacity, but even in my testing when I got home I was able to replicate the result.

And the Deathscyther I was using was relatively new too. So while Deathscyther will have a place in Burst Classic, I feel that it can pretty easily be countered. Especially given that actual Attack types using things like V2 and X’ are so potent in Burst Classic.

That being said, it is a strange feeling because I feel like Deathscyther was so much more scary back in the day. However, obviously the nature of this format is a lot different than the original Burst Format days.

Odin
The primary user of Odin was Mitsu and he was able to lean heavily on OHR en route to his fourth place finish. But while its stamina is good, like Deathscyther it can pretty easily be countered by offensive combos.

Acid Anubis
I need to do some more testing to figure out exactly where A2 lies in comparison to other top Stamina Layers in this format, but it is certainly up there.

henwooja1 was able to go 4-0 using it in the first stage, earning himself a spot in the finals.

Valkyrie
In the second round I was matched up henwooja1 and his A2HR and decided to try out VHX’. It had been doing extremely well in my short testing session the night before against things like Odin, Deathscyther and various Hasbro Stamina types … things were just getting completely obliterated. But I didn’t really test it against Acid Anubis.

I ended up losing 3-1. I was admittedly a bit tentative in the first couple rounds as it was my first time launching it that day, but my overall impression was that Acid Anubis was a bit harder to burst on Revolve than things like Odin.

Valkyrie is my all-time favourite Attack Layer in Burst, and while I do think that it is competitive for Burst Classic, it became clear after this match and observing 1234beyblade’s use of Victory Valkyrie that it probably isn’t the top overall option.

I even busted out my sick mint WBBA Valkyrie Evil God Version which matches up so well aesthetically with Xtreme’ for the match … Oh well. Unhappy

Maybe it’s still better against some specific opponents, but I’ll have to test more.

Victory Valkyrie
Alongside Xtreme’, this was the MVP of the tournament.

1234beyblade piloted V2.H.X’ flawlessly to a first place finish except for the first round of his first match of the finals against what ended up being Phoenix_Ransom’s V2 on Revolve haha.

I don’t know the details of all of his matches, but I believe in the first stage his five victories included wins against Df.Y.Et, Gaianon G2 on Unite, and OGR.

It was quite impressive.

Gigant Gaia/Gaianon G2
Several people did use Gigant Gaia/Gaianon G2 throughout the event. I saw it on Wedge-S, Unite, Trans, and Yielding. I also tested it with Keep a bit versus 1234beyblade after the event.

Overall my impression though was that it really couldn’t stand up to the likes of V2.H.X’ …

That being said, it doesn’t burst that easily so it could be a decent choice against random semi-aggressive stuff or people who aren’t too skilled with mobile Attack types.

Yell
Yell was used a lot in tandem with Eternal-based combos. MDK Shady swore by it, as you can see is reflected in his winning combinations list.

Overall Impressions of Burst Classic
This tournament was a lot of fun! While partially due to the new nature of the format, it was still exciting to see so many different parts in play.

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It was especially cool to see 1234beyblade find so much success with a pure Attack type. And it wasn’t only him; as you can see in the winning combinations list below, both MDK Shady and henwooja1 used Attack types to help them secure their third and second place finishes.

However, while this is awesome to see, the potency of Attack does have me slightly worried. It reminds me of the issue we had with Metal Fight Limited at one point where Attack was just so overwhelmingly powerful. Luckily, we were able to introduce things like RS and Jade to help mitigate that slightly without killing Attack.

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In the case of Burst Classic, I don’t feel like we have that same luxury as we cannot (in my opinion) introduce God Layers like Kreis Satan when we also intend to introduce a God Layer-centric format down the road. It was OK for Metal Fight Limited to have some exceptions like Jade because it was the only “limited” format for that series, but I’d be opposed to do it for Burst Classic since we envision there being an additional restricted/limited format in the future.

I have some ideas I’d like to try at our next Burst Classic event, but beyond that, this does make me wonder whether it would be worth trialing an event with things like Dark Deathscyther, Jormuntor J2, or even Lost Longinus/Luinor L2 unbanned.

I also may try unbanning the Dash Drivers at our next BSC event, so it will be interesting to see what effect that has.

Overall, this format has great potential but I feel that more experimental events with differing rulesets are needed in order to make a more complete judgement of how well balanced it is or isn’t.



Acknowledgements


And of course, thank you as always to everyone to who helped to run this event!:

@[OldSchool™], @[Mitsu], @[1234beyblade], @[MDK Shady], and @[henwooja1].

And thank you as well to @[originalzankye] for his generous donation of prizes!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about this event, please feel free to post below!



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Winning Combinations


1st: @[1234beyblade]
Victory Valkyrie Heavy Xtreme’
Gigant Gaia Knuckle Yielding (Deck Format Finals Only)

2nd: @[MDK Shady]
Dragoon Fantom Yell Eternal
Diomedes D2 Yell Zephyr
Storm Spriggan Yell Jolt’
Victory Valkyrie Yell Jolt’ (Deck Format Finals Only)
Yegdrion Gravity Eternal-S (Deck Format Finals Only)
Gaianon G2 Polish Wedge-S (Deck Format Finals Only)

3rd: @[henwooja1]
Acid Anubis Heavy Revolve
Dragoon Fantom Yell Eternal (Deck Format Finals Only)
Xcalibur Gravity Xtreme’ (Deck Format Finals Only)



More Photos


Photo Gallery (Click to View)



More Beyblade Tournament Reports


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A great writeup, thanks for taking the time to do this! :)

Glad to see attack winning out here. That is the intended effect from how we've balanced this format honestly; with how Cho-Z era Burst has focused on stamina and defense so heavily, we did want Classic to give attack combos the edge instead (though obviously keeping it in check by limiting Dash drivers).

Interesting to see @[1234beyblade] win solely with V2HX'. Definitely a strong combo and what I would also lean towards using, but the inherent lack of K2 in your event is also what would have given it a hall pass to run rampant throughout the event. K2 Orbit for example acts as a blocker to V2 Xtreme' (I'd almost say V2 in general), which would've forced other combinations into contention.

And as you mention A2; A2 in general will struggle with V2 Xtreme around. Putting a check on V2 Xtreme as stated above will indirectly make A2 more viable, but still not the safest option. Glad to hear that the same trap was fallen into as other communities though; what was good 2-3 years ago isn't necessarily good now, like Deathscyther and Odin. They're still good, but they're not safe like they used to be. So many people have fallen into this trap, but I think it's a good learning curve for those people, and pushes them to explore all other options.

Glad you guys had fun though! Looking forward to seeing your next Classic event! :)
I suppose the reason why Deathscyther was so scary back then was because of the lack of Dash Drivers which are faster than their normal counterparts and the introduction of Dark Deathscyther which stone walled just about anything. Same reason we see Archer Hercules being used on Bearing, with no one using Attack Types in normal competitive play due to Hell Salamander, pure Stamina types with little Burst resistance become incredibly viable. However, without Dark Deathscyther and even stronger Dash Driver based Attack Combos, a pure Stamina Deathscyther combo would be taken out

As for Victory Valkyrie having better results than Valkyrie, perhaps the weight increase from two sets of reinforcements (especially the bars within the wings) have a greater benefit to Attack than previously thought. Especially with no Dark Deathscyther to stone wall everything

Also, why Yell? I know it has a lot of LAD from it's almost perfectly smooth edge, but it also has a Centralized Weight Distribution which should reduce Stamina potential and Attack potential
Tbh i really think that the weak god layers (shelter (tt) regulus, blast jinius(tt), kS/s3, cognite c3 and some weaker turbo stuff(which means after testing the turbo layers) should be unbanned because i feel like burst classic would be the only format where they would be viable, in the god layer centric format they wouldn't be viable
I mean...

(Mar. 28, 2019  12:40 AM)~Mana~ Wrote: Commitment to Limited - As mentioned by myself at various points within the thread, we are actively planning an actual Burst Limited format, planned to be balanced around the God Layers anyway. While we understand a God Layer format might not let the six Layers we've banned here be completely viable, we don't believe all Layers will ever be viable; there will be parts in every format that just aren't viable, be it Layers, Drivers or Disks. It is the unfortunate circle of life. However, we commit to making a God-centric Burst Limited available by the end of this year to provide a space for God/Evolution Layers, and perhaps even Hasbro's Turbo Layers to thrive within.

Not everything can, will or should be viable. Once you make something viable, you make something else nonviable. We'd hope that a Limited Format quells the want for God/Evolution to be included somewhere, but obviously not every God layer will be viable even in that; there are Single and Dual Layers that will also never be viable in Classic, and there are Cho-Z Layers that won't ever be viable in Standard either. It really is the unfortunate circle of life.
I've been testing at home dgf lately and found that to win against revolve when on eternal, you have to 0 spin it to do any sort of spin stealing! Like ligidimetly less than a proto launcher power! But I do think it's good for classic, you just can't put it up against Odin or deathsyther