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TORONTO BEYBLADE BURST TOURNAMENT REPORT
January 29, 2017 at A&C Games in Toronto, Ontario Canada | BURST FORMAT
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TORONTO BEYBLADE BURST TOURNAMENT REPORT
January 29, 2017 at A&C Games in Toronto, Ontario Canada | BURST FORMAT
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What a great event! WELCOME TO A&C GAMES II tournament was our second ever hosted at A&C Games in Downtown Toronto, and it was even more successful than the first with 21 total participants.
On the morning of the tournament I met up with JesseObre and we made our way downtown to first pick up the poster for the event. However, when we got there we realize they didn’t open until 12 (which is when registration was supposed to start) … lol. Jesse was nice enough to offer to wait there until they open and then head over so that I wouldn’t be late. Unfortunately, when I finally got to A&C Games I noticed that I forgot to bring the stand for our banner that the poster was to be placed on.
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So, things weren’t off to a great start … which means things could only go up from there, and they did! Although quite a few of the people who confirmed did not show up we had a plethora of new and old members join for the event, including Rwbbyish who had not played in a WBO event in many years but recently decided to get back into the game, and Gum#1 who–to my astonishment–came all the way from New York for this event and was packing an awesome collection including Dragoon S and Lost Longinus!
First Stage: 5 Swiss Rounds
With 21 players registered, we played five rounds of swiss pairings. I had prepared the Challonge bracket before the tournament and explained all of the basic rules of WBO Organized Play events for the benefit of all of the new players who were joining us.
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Throughout the swiss rounds we had three or four stadiums running simultaneously, which helped considerably to speed up the tournament and make it easy to organize.
One highlight (or lowlight if you’re my teammate JesseObre) of the Swiss was JesseObre’s match-up versus cadney in the fourth round. These pictures speak for themselves:
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cadney was able to defeat the #1 ranked JesseObre's OHR with her VHR in a extremely close battle ending with a score of 3-2!
After all five rounds of swiss were complete, we proceeded to the final stage: Top 8 Deck Format Single Elimination. I was really looking forward to this. In Round Robin and Block Round Robin tournaments under our new rules, there is understandably only four finalists (BRR is capped at 16 players). However, with Swiss we get to have a wider range of players in the finals, which means that more people who wouldn’t normally get to play Deck Format had the opportunity to do so at this tournament. The eight finalists were:
1. Kei (5-0, Bucholz: 8.0)
2. 1234beyblade (4-1, Bucholz, 8.0)
3. cadney (4-1, Bucholz: 8.0)
4. Beyonomics (4-1, Bucholz: 5.0)
5. Prozak (3-2, Bucholz: 10.0)
6. Lani (3-2, Bucholz: 8.0)
7. EX139 (3-2, Bucholz: 8.0)
8. JesseObre (3-2, Bucholz: 7.0)
However, JesseObre ended up in a tie with ✱ and OldSchool™ for the eighth spot. Both players even had the same Bucholz score (which is the first tiebreaker), so we had to do an unranked round robin tiebreak to determine who advanced. JesseObre was able to come away victorious after going 2-0; including an impressive win against ✱’s Odin with Victory Valkyrie on Accel in the last battle of the tiebreak.
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With the finalists determined, the match-ups for the finals were set after creating the additional Single Elimination tournament in Challonge:
- Kei vs. JesseObre
- Beyonomics vs. Prozak
- 1234beyblade vs. EX139
- cadney vs Lani
A&C Games had a lot of MFB and even some Plastic Beyblades for sale!
Finals Round 1: Top 8
Kei vs. JesseObre
Kei’s Deck: Lost Longinus Spread Weight, Wyvern Gravity Defense, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
JesseObre’s Deck: Victory Valkyrie Gravity Accel, Valkyrie Knuckle Defense, Deathscyther Spread Revolve
How cruel this was … haha. Since finalists are seeded based on their ranking in the tournament when advancing to the finals and not their BeyRank-based seed, JesseObre and I ended up having to play each other in the first round despite being seeded #1 and #3 overall coming into the tournament.
In the week leading up to WELCOME TO A&C GAMES II I finally received my Lost Longinus and RBV5s. Naturally, I spent a lot of time testing L2. I'll elaborate more on my thoughts of L2 in Kai-V's testing thread later, but one combo I had immediately identified upon receiving L2 was Lost Longinus Heavy Weight for it’s defensive ability and offensive upside.
Going into this battle I was honestly quite indecisive, as you might be able to see by the lack of a real attack type. I had predicted Jesse would use Minoboros, and both L2 on W and Wyvern counter that. However surprisingly, he had chosen to go with V2 ... That put me in a tough spot because of Wyvern's weakness to V2. L2 also would have countered Odin, but he didn't pick that either. It did present a surprise factor though, as very few people in the tournament had L2 (only 1234beyblade, Gum#1, and myself).
However, thankfully for me Jesse ended up staying aggressive, opting to not go for his DHR which would have been his best chance against L2SW (which he wouldn't have known since L2 was making its first appearance in Toronto at this event). We traded blows from beginning to end through several rounds with my L2SW versus his V2KA and VGD, but ultimately I was able to come away with the victory 5-4 (or maybe 5-3?). Not an ideal victory, but a win nevertheless! In retrospect, Heavy or Gravity is likely a better choice for L2 and W; Spread seemed to make it a bit too easy to KO.
Beyonomics vs. Prozak
Beyonomic’s Deck: Valkyrie Knuckle Zephyr, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve, Wyvern Armed Claw
Prozak’s Deck: Valkyrie Force Accel, Wyvern Gravity Defense, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
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This was an interesting match-up! Beyonomics made his first trip to the finals in quite some time (or maybe ever?) and Prozak was playing in his very first Beyblade tournament. Also interesting is their hugely different Bucholz scores: 5.0 for Beyonomics and a whopping 10.0 for Prozak, which tied him with Tempest546 for the highest Bucholz in the tournament.
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Beyonomics got the ideal first round match-up with his VKZ versus Prozak’s DHR, but wasn’t able to cash-in on it in the first round, and then again in the replay … putting him down 2-0. He then switched over to DHR and Prozak stayed, eventually bursting Beyonomics DHR to go up 4-0. Beyonomics then switched back to VKZ and bursted Prozak’s DHR finally, but wasn’t able to complete the comeback.
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That meant that Prozak would advance to the final four in his first tournament!
1234beyblade vs. EX139
1234beyblade’s Deck: Valkyrie Knuckle Trans, Wyvern Heavy Revolve, Dark Deathscyther Gravity Defense
EX139’s Deck: Minoboros Knuckle Zephyr, Odin Heavy Revolve, Evil-eye ? Survive(?)
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Despite EX139 receiving some help from OldSchool, this battle wasn’t too close. 1234beyblade’s infamous Wyvern Heavy Revolve and strong launch countered literally everything in EX139’s deck, and he was able to walk away with a 5-0 victory.
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cadney vs Lani
cadney’s Deck: Valkyrie Knuckle Accel, Deathscyther Gravity Revolve, Wyvern Heavy Defense
Lani’s Deck: Valkyrie Force Accel, Wyvern Gravity Defense, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
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Another amazingly cruel match-up … this time between best friends haha. As you can see, their decks were almost identical! Even aesthetically (just like their sadness shirts that day lol).
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This battle was a tightly contested, classic back-and-forth between Deathscyther and Valkyrie. Lani ended up going down in the battle, but managed to tie it up at 4-4. As the winner of that round, she then faced the crucial choice of what to choose for the next round for cadney to respond to: if she chose Wyvern, cadney would go DHR and win. If she chose Valkyrie, cadney could go WHD and have a good chance of winning. Lani chose DHR and ended up losing to an exciting Burst Finish by cadney!
I think in this situation, Valkyrie would have been the best option for Lani as it would have given her a better chance of winning against anything in cadney’s deck than anything else. Tough situation, though.
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Finals Round 2: Top 4
Things were now getting down to the wire and we were left with quite a mixture of finalists:
- Kei
- 1234beyblade
- cadney
- Prozak
Kei vs. Prozak
Kei’s Deck: Valkyrie Knuckle Trans, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve, Dark Deathscyther Spread Defense
Prozak’s Deck: Valkyrie Force Accel, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve, Dark Deathscyther Spread Defense
Going into this I expected Prozak to include V2 once again in his deck, hence my choice of D2. I opened the match with D2SD and surprisingly ended up being KOed by his VFA. The score was now 2-0. I declined the replay, Prozak switched to I believe DHR, and I switched to DHR to try and at least get one point to get back into the match; I also had a Speed BeyLauncher vs. his Long Winder/Light Launcher, so I felt this would give me an edge coupled with the fact that Lani’s Deathscyther he was borrowing has been visibly unbalanced recently. It ended up not being as badly unbalanced as I expected, but I was able to win the round.
After this, I switched to D2SD to avoid his VFA. He stayed with DHR and I was clearly going to lose the outspin battle, but ended up bursting him not just once, but again in the next round after he requested a replay to take the battle 5-4. Knowing that Lani was helping Prozak, I also knew that it was likely she would give him her Deathscyther which she had been using for a while now, leaving it more vulnerable to bursting against D2 than it normally would be. Thankfully I was able to take advantage of this and advance to the finals!
1234beyblade vs. cadney
1234beyblade’s Deck: Lost Longinus Spread Weight, Dark Deathscyther Gravity Defense, Wyvern Heavy Revolve
cadney’s Deck: Victory Valkyrie Knuckle Accel, Valkyrie Gravity Defense, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
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Knowing that he likely had a stronger launch than cadney, 1234beyblade opted for a normally risky Deathscyther-less deck. Following in my footsteps, he opened up with L2SW, but ended up losing to cadney. He then switched to WHR, but after scoring a couple points, wasn’t able to pull it back together after a pair of KOs by V2KA by cadney to secure her first ever trip to the Top 2 finals of a tournament!
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I feel that in Deck Format, your selection of attack type matters almost as much as the construction of your entire deck does. For instance, if cadney had chosen to use MKZ, she would have likely lost the battle because of MKZ’s ineffectiveness against Wyvern.
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It was also interesting to notice that both decks were not necessarily ‘balanced’ in terms of them having a real representative of each type: Attack, Defense, and Stamina. I was going to try and explore this topic a bit here, but it’s hurting my head thinking about it … it’s just so complex to think about all of the possibilities in Deck Format. I’d like to think that balanced decks are the better choice objectively, but there’s been a big trend lately in Toronto towards things like cadney’s deck where you have an Attack type that specializes against one or two Beyblades (like V2 vs. Odin and Wyvern), stationary Valkyrie to deal with Deathscyther, and then Deathscyther on Revolve.
Finals Round 3: Final Battle & Runner-Up Battle
Runner-Up Battle: 1234beyblade vs. Prozak
1234beyblade’s Deck: Valkyrie Knuckle Trans, Dark Deathscyther Gravity Defense, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
Prozak’s Deck: Victory Valkyrie Knuckle Accel, Valkyrie Gravity Defense, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
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In this battle 1234beyblade used a more balanced deck structure and luckily got the good defensive match-up (D2 vs. V2). This match-up ultimately piloted him to victory by a score of 5-1.
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But so impressive nevertheless was Prozak’s 4th Place finish in his first ever tournament!
Final Battle: Kei vs. cadney
Kei’s Deck: Deathscyther Heavy Revolve, Minoboros Knuckle Zephyr, Valkyrie Gravity Defense
cadney’s Deck: Deathscyther Heavy Revolve, Valkyrie Knuckle Accel, Dark Deathscyther Gravity Defense
Going into this battle I had a feeling that cadney would choose Dark Deathscyther over Wyvern, and the general lack of Minoboros–which is strong against D2–in the finals made me confident that it would be a good choice. Minoboros also does well against Valkyrie, which she had been using often. However, for some reason what I was not so comfortable with was MKZ’s ability to deal with Deathscyther, so I chose VGD to provide some insurance that I would have a reliable counter to her Deathscyther. In this case, I felt that a defense type was perhaps not necessary because of Minoboros’ versatility.
My memory of the beginning of this match is sketchy because it’s the end that was so memorable. I believe I opened with DHR and was able to win at least one round before switching over to MKZ to face cadney’s DHR. What then ensued was five consecutive rounds of MKZ versus DHR: first a burst for me, then three consecutive Double Burst Finishes, and then finally, a KO to win the tournament!
On the day, I ended up going 8-0 which is I believe my third (or maybe fourth) ever undefeated record. It was also my first Burst Format first place finish since July of last year … so I’m quite happy! I was going through quite a long streak of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishes.
Winning Combinations
1st: Kei
Wyvern Heavy Revolve
Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
Lost Longinus Spread Weight (Deck Format Finals Only)
Dark Deathscyther Spread Defense (Deck Format Finals Only)
Minoboros Knuckle Zephyr (Deck Format Finals Only)
2nd: cadney
Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
Valkyrie Heavy Revolve
Victory Valkyrie Knuckle Accel (Deck Format Finals Only)
Deathscyther Gravity Revolve (Deck Format Finals Only)
Valkyrie Knuckle Accel (Deck Format Finals Only)
3rd: 1234beyblade
Wyvern Heavy Revolve
Deathscyther Heavy Revolve
Valkyrie Knuckle Trans (Deck Format Finals Only)
Final Thoughts
I think upon the integration of the introduction of the new formats and rules on our 8th Anniversary last year I understood conceptually how strong our new format was, but especially after playing in this Swiss-style event, it’s become clear to be how great of an improvement it is. The fairness of Swiss pairings, the number of finalists, the do-or-die pressure of a Single Elimination final combined with the strategy and variety of Deck Format make for an extremely fun and strategic way to play Beyblade that I think balances perfectly with the do-or-die picking pressure applied in the traditional first stage of our events.
It was great to see for our second consecutive event a handful of brand new players joining to play with us, surely as a result of the release of Beyblade Burst worldwide. Thank you again to everyone who came and whoever read this!
Can’t wait for our next event. The future of the Toronto community and of WBO communities around the world is bright!
More Photos (Click to View)
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about this event, please feel free to post below!
More Toronto Beyblade Tournament Reports
If you enjoyed this report, then you may also enjoy some of my other Toronto Beyblade Burst tournament reports:
- Rowdy in the Dish 2 & PLASTIC’S NOT DEAD! 4 - July 29, 2017 [BST/PLA]
- HIGH PARK THROWDOWN 9 - July 16, 2017 [MFB]
- Rowdy in the Dish - July 9, 2017 [BST]
- U Wot m8?! LMAO’s Burstday Beynanza! - June 24, 2017 [BST]
- MORE GRIP! MORE RIP! - June 18, 2017 [Hasbro BST]
- BEYBLADE NORTH 2017 - May 26–28, 2017 [TMB/BST/MFL]
- RATHER LOST LONGINUS - May 13, 2017 [BST]
- Hasbro Bursts RARELY Onto the Scene - April 23, 2017 [Hasbro BST]
- LIVE ACTION REBOOT - April 15, 2017 [BST]
- JORMUNGAND JAILBREAK - March 25, 2017 [BST]
- WELCOME TO A&C GAMES IV - March 12, 2017 [BST]
- WELCOME TO A&C GAMES III - February 18, 2017 [BST]
- MFB/Team/HMS BeyBattle Revolution @ Anime North 2015 - May 22–24, 2015 [MFB/TMM/HMS]
- BEY OR DIE - September 27, 2014 [TMM]