TORONTO BEYBLADE BURST TOURNAMENT REPORT
April 28, 2018 at High Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada • BURST FORMAT
OFFICIAL EVENT PAGE
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After being delayed a couple weeks due to freezing rain on our originally scheduled event date, the Toronto Beyblade community came together for their first tournament in nearly a month at High Park on April 28th, 2018.
After our experience dealing with the huge crowd of 47 players at SUPER Z, SUPER FUN, OldSchool™ and I knew going into this one that we had to step up our game and be better organized. These are the steps we took:
Organizational Improvements Implemented
- Increased Registration Time: The first step we took was increasing registration time to one hour instead of thirty minutes. Although, an hour and a half would have been even better. We also realized that it would be beneficial to just register people who show up early than to tell them to wait for the scheduled start of registration for next time.
- Pylons & Barriers: We purchased a set of pylons and barriers in order to create a more well-defined and clean playing area for the tournament matches. A big problem at our last two events was people crowding around the tournament stadiums, which makes it difficult for both players and judges to communicate and move around. Honestly, this was probably the best decision we made because it worked out exactly as we had hoped. Kids and parents were kept at bay watching from outside the play area and we had the play area open only for players involved in matches currently and judges. I’d highly recommend getting pylons and barriers if you are an Organizer and expect a big turnout.
The calm before the storm …
The storm.
I’m not sure why we never did this before, but I’ve wanted to do this since witnessing how well organized an event I attended in Japan last year was.
- Megaphone: Made it easier to announce rules, matches, and so forth.
- Tag Team Registration: We’ve been doing this for a couple tournaments now, but what I mean by this is that instead of having one person handle registration, have two do it. One handles Challonge and confirms each person is added to the bracket, and another creates a list that shows what each player pays or if they have a Passport.
- More Free Play Stadiums: We usually have a few free play stadiums, but we made an effort to have even more on hand this time. I brought my Beyblade Burst Wide Type, Dual Cyclone, two Super Vortex stadiums, and we had an extra Burst BeyStadium Standard Type. We probably could have used even more for free play, but this was sufficient. Given how long people have to wait between matches, I feel like this aspect is key to ensuring players have a good experience at your event. The reality is that many players will be knocked out of the event early on, so allowing them to continue having fun in free play is key. I find watching tournament matches fun myself, but maybe not all of the kids … haha.
- More Tournament Match Stadiums: The more stadiums you can have running during the tournament for official matches, the better. We’ve only had three or four at recent large tournaments in Toronto, but we bumped that up to five this time, similar to how we’ve run things at Anime North in the past. We wanted to do even more but didn’t have enough judges.
It’s a good thing we implemented these improvements because we ended up pulling in a staggering 57 players! This was our largest tournament in Toronto since BEYBLADE CRUSADE at Anime North back in 2011 if I remember correctly (where we had over 60), and our second largest High Park event ever (the largest being Beys of Glory with 58 back in August 2010.
Organizational Improvement Ideas
- Match Slip System: OldSchool™ had an interesting idea that was going to involve writing down each match on a slip of paper. Judges could come and simply pull a match slip from a box and go do the match. Then, they would bring the slip back to the Organizer who would then input it into Challonge. This is beneficial because it means there is a paper trail for everything. However, this didn’t work out because OldSchool™ simply didn’t have time to write down all of the matches. I believe a notebook system would have worked just as well and involved less work for the Organizer. But then we had an even better idea, as seen below.
- Messenger Match Result Reporting Chat: 1234beyblade had this idea; create a chat on Messenger for all judges so that they can simply report match results via tha chat and the Organizer can view them there before inputting into Challonge. This accomplishes basically the same thing as the Match Slip system. We’re going to try this at our next event.
- No Selling During Registration: One problem which slowed down registration was the fact that OldSchool™ had his selling table set up. So while we were trying to complete registration, people kept trying to ask him about buying things. We eventually stopped it (for the most part) by telling people to wait, but next time we’re going to remove all items for sale from view (if there are any) until after registration so that we and the participants can stay focused.
The Tournament
The tournament can effectively be summed up in two phrases: “Spriggan Requiem” and “Garuda G3”.
There’s been talk lately about whether things like G3 should be banned. Nobody in Toronto had it until this event, so it was hard to fully grasp how powerful it was. Bladekid–who traveled from the US–had it at our last event and made it to the finals, but this time after searching what seemed like dozens of stores OldSchool™ was able to pick up around nine of them and sold them all before the tournament started (including one to me). Many players then proceeded to make their way through the first few rounds unscathed using the stock G3 they had just purchased. One new player–Justin TC–even made it to the finals using it.
Spriggan Requiem–on Bearing in particular–also continued its dominance. I won two matches with it, and lost a close one by a score of 3-2 to Toxic Cheeto using Sr.4G.Yd who was able to burst my Sr; it was my first ever loss using the combo since February. And funnily enough, OldSchool™ ended up playing the exact same matchup later on and won with his Sr Bearing (which seemed better balanced and therefore less burst prone than mine) 3-1.
The matchup with Toxic Cheeto is an interesting one though, as it ties in with how 1234beyblade and I were approaching this event. We had met earlier in the week to do some testing and discovered a couple things:
1. Nightmare Longinus becomes unusable against Spriggan Requiem after extensive use. Teeth wear is still a problem, albeit obviously far less than it was at the beginning of the series. His nL constantly self-bursted against Sr Bearing, while mine was able to defeat it pretty consistently.
2. Despite the consistency of my nL, we surmised that perhaps same-spin Spriggan Requiem on tighter Drivers like Revolve, Atomic, Destroy, or even Xtreme might be a better way to defeat Sr on Bearing because they would serve a dual purpose; bursting Sr Bearing and OSing many other popular combos. nL can beat left-spin Beyblades, and it does have a chance against other Attack types due to the nature of those types of battles, but it does in fact have worse stamina than things like Sieg Xcalibur, so in some respects its at a disadvantage. Using Sr in this way to counter Sr seemed like the best approach overall, so this was the mindset we carried into this event.
However, this to me is an indication of a serious problem with the game when the best option to counter something is another copy of the same part on a different setup. It means the game has become too centralized. As I described recently:
(Apr. 30, 2018 2:35 PM)Kei Wrote: There's been talk lately about potential bans on Spriggan Requiem and Garuda G3. I got my Garuda G3 this weekend, had a tournament on Saturday, and did some testing for a few hours last night so I figured now I can finally give a more informed opinion about how we should proceed.
Spriggan Requiem
Spriggan Requiem was abused to no end by the top players here in Toronto this weekend. It seemed even worse than it was before because instead of trying to counter Sr Bearing with Nightmare Longinus (although this still happened a few times unsuccessfully), many of us realized we could counter Sr Bearing with Sr on tighter drivers like Atomic, Destroy, or Revolve and still have the ability to OS many other things. Obviously, going from using an Attack type to using the same Layer to counter the same Layer is a bad look in terms of metagame diversity. It's obvious that Sr has become too centralizing.
Even so, because Bloody Longinus is already out, I feel it would be responsible to get some testing on that done quickly before making a decision. Normally I wouldn't advise waiting, but since bL is out and we've heard that it might be even better than nL, it's worth taking an extra week or two to decide. Our main priority at this point is to ensure the game is as balanced as possible for BeyDays at the end of next month, so we have time.
Garuda G3
Garuda G3 should be banned from Burst Format and Hasbro Only Burst Format, flat out. Here's a few reasons why based on my testing last night:
- I had heard that G3 had worse stamina than mG, but in my testing with a mirror match between the two, the loser was always whoever was launched first. Maybe there's a difference between the two, but it didn't seem very noticeable.
- G3 on Atomic is roughly as tight as mG on Orbit (for me anyways), but despite that, no matter what I through at it, G3 Atomic lost practically 0% of its slope at the end of each round. Can't be KOed. Can't be bursted. mG on Atomic is well-balanced because it gets bursted so easily, but I think we can't allow for G3 to remain in the game if G3 Atomic is tighter than mG on Atomic. There's a reason TT designed it that way, but Hasbro seems to have ignored it. We simply can't allow something with both high stamina and ridiculous defense to exist in the game.
Maximum Garuda
In thinking about a potential ban for Sr and G3, it also occurred to me that it might be worth re-evaluating Maximum Garuda as well. One of the reasons why unbanning mG was made possible was because of Spriggan Requiem. If Sr is banned, then mG becomes more threatening despite its more well-balanced design in comparison to G3.
That being said, despite it being more well-balanced, I found that in my testing last night mG on Orbit felt a lot more difficult to burst than I remembered it being (it did lose roughly 80% of its slide each time, but rarely bursted. That's much more than G3 on Atomic did, mind you) ... I tested it before and stationary sX was able to burst it pretty consistently. This time I was using my tightest Orbit Driver on mG, so I'm not sure if that's what was causing the issue. I'm curious to hear what you guys think about mG on Orbit and how to best counter it.
Regardless, I'm starting to feel again that the game would be objectively better if mG was also banned. mG's design is just too much of a radical departure from everything else in the series. It's never seemed fair to most Attack types because it just absorbs hits so well and has basically zero recoil.
As we proceeded into the finals, the usual suspects did so largely using either Spriggan Requiem or Garuda G3.
First, I judged SUGOI-KONICHEWA versus Cam77. Cam77 was coming off his first tournament win at SUPER Z, SUPER FUN in March. This match-up was actually pretty interesting; Cam77 had chosen to use Bearing on Emperor Forneus instead of Spriggan Requiem, didn’t have Deep Chaos in his deck, and used Yard instead of something like Atomic on his Sr. This meant that he was extremely vulnerable to SUGOI-KONICHEWA’s stock G3 combo. The battle somehow went back and forth, and Cam77 was ultimately able to squeeze out the victory by OSing the stock G3.8F.Fl with his nL.B.Ds.
Afterwards, I was matched up against Toxic Cheeto again. This time however, I was able to defeat him 5-0 using Garuda G3 7 Star Atomic; like Cam77, he had chosen to use Bearing on Emperor Forneus, didn’t have Deep Chaos, and used Sr on Yard again, so he had no counter for G3.
In the second round, I was matched up against 1234beyblade. Our matches are always fun because we try to counter each other so hard. We both know the ‘best’ combos obviously and try our best to evolve beyond them. His deck consisted of sX on Orbit, dC on Revolve, and Sr on Destroy. I had anticipated something like this, but didn’t believe he would use sX on Orbit because it was obviously not going to work against the seemingly unburstable G3 Atomic.
In constructing my deck, I was extremely concerned about his Deep Chaos because of how strong his launch is. I wasn’t convinced I could beat him in a same spin match-up, so I wanted something left-spin which would beat it 100%. I had decided to use Sr on Xtreme as a counter to the Xtreme-based Attacker (whether it be nL or sX) I had anticipated, so my only other option was dF. I ended up using dF.P.Ds and was able to beat his dC several times (including one burst which put me up 4-2), but my choice of using Polish instead of perhaps 7 Bump crippled me slightly as I was scared of using it against his sX or Sr for fear of being KOed. I also had G3.7S.Atomic in my Deck, but despite some very close finishes, it was unable to defeat his Deep Chaos.
Eventually, he clawed his way back into the match tying it up at 4-4, but I still had he last pick advantage. He chose to go for his Sr on Destroy, so I picked my G3.7S.At thinking it would be a pretty sure bet … but I was wrong and lost the match 5-4. We tested the round again afterwards and it went 1-1 … seems like it’s pretty 50/50 to me, but that’s how it goes sometimes. If I had spent more time testing, I would have known that and went for my Sr Xtreme combo which would have had a better chance. Upon reflection, I realized that sometimes overthinking things is your worst enemy; it’s one thing to try and be creative to evolve beyond what everyone expects you to use, but there’s also a reason why the best combos dominate. It can be tricky to find that balance sometimes.
In any case, I was happy to see 1234beyblade advance to the Top 2 for the first time in a while! And it was cool to see that our match contained no Bearing at all.
For the third place match, I faced off against Cam77. I was able to pilot eF.P.Br to a 5-3 victory with a couple lucky wins against his nL.Ds (although he did score one KO on me), a burst of his dC.7B.Br (I was surprised he had picked this instead of Sr), and finally, OS his Sr.4S.At with my Sr.7B.At in the final round.
I’ve mentioned it a few times throughout this report, but Emperor Forneus on Bearing did see a decent amount of usage today as a counter to Spriggan Requiem. It may not have the best stamina for same spin matchups, but it has the potential to beat Sr and also has some pretty good burst resistance even when used on Bearing.
I felt a little bad for Cam77 in the previous round where he straight up lost to OldSchool™’s Sr.0B.Br despite having both Nightmare Longinus and Sr on Atomic in his deck … but overall he’s done quite well lately!
In the final match, 1234beyblade fell victim to OldSchool™’s ridiculous Sr.0B.Br which had been stonewalling pretty much everything that day, either due to player error, or some sort of higher burst resistance magic he applied to it.
If the winning combos list below isn’t emblematic of the predicament TAKARA-TOMY has currently placed us in, I don’t know what is:
Winning Combinations
1st: OldSchool™
Spriggan Requiem 0 Bump Bearing
2nd: 1234beyblade
Spriggan Requiem 7 Bearing
Deep Chaos 7 Revolve
Emperor Forneus 5 Bearing
Spriggan Requiem 7 Bump Destroy (Deck Format Finals Only)
Deep Chaos 5 Revolve (Deck Format Finals Only)
Spriggan Requiem 7 Bump Bearing (Deck Format Finals Only)
3rd: Kei
Spriggan Requiem 7 Bump Bearing
Spriggan Requiem 7 Revolve
Spriggan Requiem 7 Bump Atomic (Deck Format Finals Only)
Emperor Forneus Polish Bearing (Deck Format Finals Only)
Photos
Deck Format Finals
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about this event, please feel free to post below!
More Beyblade Tournament Reports
If you enjoyed this report, then you may also enjoy some of my other Beyblade Burst tournament reports:
- SUPER Z, SUPER FUN – March 31, 2018 [BST]
- TO BURST OR NOT TO BURST 2 – March 17, 2018 [BST]
- Kei vs. The World: The Wakanda Trials – February 17, 2018 [BST]
- BEYBALDE TOURNAMENT – August 27, 2017 [BST]
- WELCOME TO A&C GAMES VI – December 17, 2017 [BST]
- WELCOME TO A&C GAMES V – November 25, 2017 [BST]
- Kei vs. The World: NYC – October 8, 2017 [BST]
- Wait, what? This isn't High Park... – August 13, 2017 [BST]
- Rowdy in the Dish - 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]
- WELCOME TO A&C GAMES II - January 29, 2017 [BST]
- MFB/Team/HMS BeyBattle Revolution @ Anime North 2015 - May 22–24, 2015 [MFB/TMM/HMS]
- BEY OR DIE - September 27, 2014 [TMM]