Hey World Bladers! Outlined below are several important new ruling additions, updates, and clarifications to some WBO Organized Play rulebooks, the Organizers' Guide, and Judge's Guide.

View all WBO Organized Play Rules & Resources here, and a summary of the changes below:

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Updates Overview

• IMPORTANT All Rulebooks: Beyblade Selection Phase – Receiving Help Policy Updates
  
• All Rulebooks: Player Incident Reporting
  
• Organizer’s Guide: Tournament Types – 3on3 and P3C1 Types updated for Ranked
  
• Judge’s Guide: Beyblade Selection - Bladers Receiving Help and Time Extensions
  

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All Rulebooks Updates
IMPORTANT Beyblade Selection Phase – Receiving Help Policy Updates
During the Beyblade Selection phase, players were previously required to announce when they themselves were receiving help (in the form of both parts or advice) from someone else, no matter when that occurred. The way the rule was worded potentially allowed for a more experienced players to exploit some loopholes thus giving them an unfair advantage.

Starting today, this requirement no longer exists. Now, a blader may ask their opponent if they are receiving or have received help from others at the stadium itself during this phase. If asked, you are required to announce who has helped or is helping you during the Beyblade Selection Phase.

Once informed, your opponent may request a time extension to the Beyblade Selection Phase. All time extensions are at the discretion of the Judge.

A few other minor clarifications related to the implementation of multiple Beyblade formats (P3C1, 3on3) and the precise start point of a match were also included in this update.

Old Ruling:

Spoiler (Click to View)

Once across from each other at the BeyStadium, each blader is to turn their backs and select their Beyblade(s) in secret within 3 minutes. The amount of Beyblades to be selected depends on the Tournament Type in use.

If you are receiving help–in the form of advice or parts–from someone else, you must announce who is helping you to both the judge and your opponent. Parts borrowed at any point during the event for future use must be announced as well. The exact part(s) do not need to be announced, just the person they are being borrowed from. During the match, players are not allowed to receive coaching or gameplay advice of any kind from the bystanders.

Once a blader selects their Beyblade, they must announce that they are “set” and present their launcher and Beyblade to the judge for inspection.

Beyblades should preferably be unassembled for inspection, or the judge will do it themselves.

Once a blader is set, they may not change their Beyblade or launcher for the duration of the match.  Bladers must clearly announce the spin direction of each of their beyblades to their opponent and the judge.  Beyblades must be launched in the direction that is fully compatible with the launcher being used.  Once both bladers are set, the match begins.

During Beyblade selection, bladers are forbidden from:

• getting up and/or leaving the BeyStadium
  
• turning around before both bladers are set
  
• attempting to spy on or gain information about the opposing blader’s selection
  
• attempting to switch their equipment after announcing they are set
  

New Ruling:

Once across from each other at the BeyStadium, the match begins and each blader is to turn their backs and select their Beyblade(s) in secret within 3 minutes. The amount of Beyblades to be selected depends on the Tournament Type in use.

Bladers may receive help (coaching, gameplay advice, or equipment) during this phase. At any time, players may ask their opponent if they are receiving or have received help from others while at the stadium. If asked, the questioned player must identify to their opponent who helped or is helping them at the stadium. Once informed, the blader who initiated the inquiry may request a time extension to the Beyblade Selection phase.

Once a blader selects their Beyblade(s), they must announce that they are “set” and present their launcher and Beyblade to the judge for inspection. This ends the Beyblade Selection Phase and bladers are no longer allowed to receive help from anyone.

Beyblades should preferably be unassembled for inspection, or the judge will do it themselves.

Once a blader is set, they may not change their Beyblade(s) or launcher(s) for the duration of the match.  Bladers must clearly announce the spin direction of their Beyblade(s) to their opponent and the judge.  Beyblades must be launched in the direction that is fully compatible with the launcher being used.  Once both bladers are set, the match begins.

During Beyblade selection, bladers are forbidden from:

1. getting up and/or leaving the BeyStadium
   
2. turning around before both bladers are set
   
3. attempting to spy on or gain information about the opposing blader’s selection or any advice being given to them.
   
4. attempting to switch their equipment after announcing they are set
   

During Beyblade selection, people offering help to a player are forbidden from:

1. attempting to spy on or gain information about the opposing blader’s selection or any advice being given to them.
   

Click below to read the guidelines in the Burst Format rulebook. These guidelines have also been added into the Beyblade Selection of each rulebook.

Read Beyblade Selection Phase – Receiving Help Policy Updates

Player Incident Reporting 
The current process for disputing decisions/reporting incidents requires documenting the incident “to the best of your ability” and emailing the details to events@worldbeyblade.org. In an effort to provide greater clarity and more specific guidelines, we have decided to create a more formal incident reporting process. Going forward all reporting will be done via a google form which will contain clear guidelines, specific questions and other information regarding the process.

Click below to see the form. This form has been added to the Rules and Resources folder for player use and linked to in the sections of each format rulebook titled "If you disagree with a judge's decision..."

Tournament Incident Report Form

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Organizer’s Guide Updates

P3C1 and 3on3 Ranked
You spoke and we listened! Over the past several years, the WBO community has come to value new formats and play styles. Many of you have hosted unranked 3on3 and P3C1 formats and it’s thanks to your hard work that we can make the following announcement:

Beginning January 1st 2022, Pick 3 Choose 1 and 3-on-3 will officially become ranked formats. This means that approval for ranked tournaments in these formats will no longer need to be granted on a case-by-case basis. This is the first time that the WBO has ever offered multiple match formats and we’re excited for what this HUGE change means for our communities around the world. We look forward to hearing your feedback as we roll this update out in the new year. More information about these formats can be found below or in the Organizer's Guide.

Read P3C1 and 3on3 rules here.

Read Organizer’s Guide

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Judge's Guide Updates

Beyblade Selection - Bladers Receiving Help and Time Extensions
Under "Beyblade Selection" in the Judge's Guide we've updated the "Borrowing Parts or Receiving Help" policy. Players are no longer required to announce to the opponent whether they are receiving help or not unless specifically asked by their opponent in which case they must answer truthfully. Judges may now grant/deny time extensions during Beyblade Selection based on their own discretion.

Read the full policy here.

Read Judge's Guide

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Feedback?
If you have any feedback on these particular changes, or any questions or suggestions for further adjustments or additions, please post your thoughts below or in the WBO Organized Play Rules thread.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support of WBO Organized Play! We appreciate any and all feedback and are always looking to improve and clarify things where possible.

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aka The Competitive Gamer

I truly wish we had a "love" react for this. This is a tremendous improvement over what we had - it is a massive step for fairness of the game, and a great instance of the staff team listening to the community. As a Plastics player and host (a while ago but hopefully again soon), the rule was a tremendous issue for me personally too.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making the game fairer and culture healthier. ♥️

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th!nkBlargh|H-Code Product List

Your judge's guide link goes to the organizer's guide as of 1/1/22 12:45 EST. Also, time extensions are only granted upon request to a blader not receiving help if their opponent is receiving help, based on judge's discretion? That's... that's weird, what's the goal here?

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Hey, parents! Here are all the answers to any questions about WBO Tournaments you might have! Thread-Guide-Hey-Parents-Answers-to-your-WBO-Tournament-questions

Please consult this guide linked below on how to arrive at tournaments before they start! https://worldbeyblade.org/Thread-How-to-arrive-at-tournaments-and-other-events-on-time

I read new rule update and it's interesting for Japanese.
Because in Japan for avoid player get some advice from other player or parents they are isolated during tournament.

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During tournament parents can't enter to venue in Japan
From best 8 they can watch but can you give advice infront of aronund 500 to 1000 people watching?

Well I think it just depends on how the game of beyblade is viewed.  Can you shout advice at boxers with, let’s say, 50,000 people watching ?  Well, yeah of course you can.  On the other hand,  you are not really suppose to shout out advice to tennis players.  

Is Boxing doing it wrong and is tennis doing it right?  Is it the other way around?

Your judge's guide link goes to the organizer's guide as of 1/1/22 12:45 EST. Also, time extensions are only granted upon request to a blader not receiving help if their opponent is receiving help, based on judge's discretion? That's... that's weird, what's the goal here?

Thanks, fixed!

Time extensions are about tactics imo, some bladers know you better than others. In the case one of them is helping your opponent you may want to rethink your strategy. Judge's discretion is so that the phase doesn't drag on and interrupt event flow i.e. you ask your opponent if they're receiving help towards the end of initial 3 minutes and the judge grants an extension. Towards the end of the extension your opponent asks if you're receiving help expecting the judge to grant further extension.

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aka The Competitive Gamer

Well I think it just depends on how the game of beyblade is viewed.  Can you shout advice at boxers with, let’s say, 50,000 people watching ?  Well, yeah of course you can.  On the other hand,  you are not really suppose to shout out advice to tennis players.  

Is Boxing doing it wrong and is tennis doing it right?  Is it the other way around?

Yeah, this is something that we debated as we were working on this updated ruling. I think there is an argument to be made for both the approach that boxing takes and the one that tennis takes. It just depends what side of the fence you want to sit on philosophically. We had to make a decision how we wanted things to do be for our community.

It's also important to remember that the context of events changes based on their scale too. In Japan, massive G1 events are as marutti described. We don't have a rule for this, but at big WBO events I've typically seen that Organizers allow one parent to accompany their child into the play area. That's different than G1 events.

But G4 events certainly are not. In my experience, I haven't seen anyone received help from someone else before their match at a G4 event in Japan, but I also didn't get the sense that it would be against the rules for them. And in G4 events, obviously everyone is able to watch, similar to a small-scale WBO event.

Time extensions are about tactics imo, some bladers know you better than others. In the case one of them is helping your opponent you may want to rethink your strategy. Judge's discretion is so that the phase doesn't drag on and interrupt event flow i.e. you ask your opponent if they're receiving help towards the end of initial 3 minutes and the judge grants an extension. Towards the end of the extension your opponent asks if you're receiving help expecting the judge to grant further extension.

Just to add to this, the goal was also that if this clause did not exist, a player could purposely wait until the last second to ask for help and then argue there is no basis for extending the Beyblade Selection phase if their opponent asks. If that happened, their opponent would be left with no time to respond to it. The point of allowing players to ask if their opponent is receiving help is to allow them the opportunity to respond to that information by changing their own selection if they want to. As such, it became required that we explicitly mention judge's may grant time extensions so that crafty players couldn't exploit the rule and wait until the end of the phase to get help.

In any case, I've gone ahead and updated the description to list the act of receiving help as just one reason why a judge may grant a time extension. Obviously, a judge has always had the ability to do this based on extenuating circumstances (ex. if there is some unexpected interruption to your event during the Beyblade Selection phase of a match in progress). The addition to the Judge's Guide just formalizes it a bit more and lists the probable most common cause a player might request one.

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I don't know if it's just me, or I am reading it wrong, but I don't see the incident report form change in the rulebooks for each format - should that be there, or am I doing something wrong?

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th!nkBlargh|H-Code Product List