WBO Organized Play Ruling Updates - February 2017

As a result of recent discussions over the past couple months, we have now implemented some important new ruling additions, updates, and clarifications to all WBO Organized Play rulebooks and the Organizers' Guide. View all WBO Organized Play Rules & Resources here, and a summary of the changes below:


  • Round Result Clarifications: Bladers must now refrain from touching their Beyblades until the judge has announced the winner of the round. In Burst Format specifically, judges must inspect the winning Beyblade to ensure that it is not in a position where it has skipped all of its teeth and should have bursted. If this is the case the result of the round is reversed and the “losing” Beyblade is then considered the winner of that round.

    If it is found that a Layer has skipped all of its teeth and did not burst after the conclusion of a round, the player using that Layer must then replace it with another version of the same Layer. If the player cannot do this, they are given a match loss.

    This rule is being introduced primarily to combat the known issues with some Dark Deathscyther Layers (like B-61 blue/yellow D2s and the BG-05 red D2) and the new Mad Minoboros Layer, however the rulebooks do not explicitly mention these Layers because this rule is meant to be applied universally for the sake of consistency.

    Bladers and spectators must also refrain from announcing their own opinion after each round until the judge has rendered their decision.

  • Participant Capping Clarification: We have clarified in the Organizers' Guide that capping the number of participants on your event is not permitted for the sake of inclusiveness to all WBO members. This means that you may not intentionally host Club Format events currently. We will explore the possibility of allowing for Club Format events to be hosted intentionally in a limited number, so please stay tuned.

  • Tiebreak Battles and Credits Clarification: We clarified that the battles won and lost for tiebreak battles do not count towards the final overall record used when determining if a blader will receive the majority win Credit or not.

    This clarification is included in a rather extensive section we added to the Organizers’ Guide outlining the rules for Credits for Blader Rewards in WBO Organized Play events.

  • Club Format Victor Clarification: We added in clarification stating that the victor of a Club Format event in Unranked Round Robin Deck Format is determined by the final overall records at the end of the round robin. There is no finals technically speaking, unless there is a tie for the top spot at the end of the round robin (this also applies to the Winning Streak Format). See the descriptions below or the Organizers' Guide for more details.

  • Repeating Faces and Zero-G/Shogun Steel Chrome/Warrior Wheels in all Metal Fight Deck Formats: We clarified that using the same Regular Face or Stone Face multiple times within your Deck for all MFB Deck Formats (MFB, Limited, Zero-G) is OK. Metal Faces and Metal Stone Faces of all kinds may not be repeated. Zero-G/Shogun Steel Chrome/Warrior Wheels may be repeated, but within the same combo.



You can find the exact wording included in the rulebooks below:

All Rulebooks - Round Results Wrote:After each round, bladers must refrain from touching their Beyblade until the judge has announced the winner.

Both bladers and all spectators must also refrain from influencing the judge’s decision by announcing their own opinion before the judge has rendered theirs.

Burst Format Rulebook - Round Results Wrote:After each round, bladers must refrain from touching their Beyblade until the judge has announced the winner.

Judges must inspect the winning Beyblade to ensure that it is not in a position where it has skipped all of its teeth and should have bursted. If this is the case the result of the round is reversed and the “losing” Beyblade is then considered the winner for the round. If it is found that a Layer has skipped all of its teeth and did not burst after the conclusion of a round, the player using that Layer must then replace it with another version of the same Layer. If the player cannot do this, they are given a match loss instead of a round loss.

Both bladers and all spectators must also refrain from influencing the judges decision by announcing their own opinion before the judge has rendered theirs.

Organizers Guide - Participants Wrote:Most WBO formats require a minimum of eight participants. Before you schedule a tournament, you should have confirmed interest from at least eight people. However, if at least eight participants confirm, and then less than that show up, you can still host Club Format with between 4-7 participants. See the "Special Formats" section below for more details.

It is not permitted to place a cap on the number of participants in any event.

Organizers Guide - Club Format Wrote:In the event that less than eight players show up for an event, this format allows for groups of 4-7 Bladers to play in free-to-enter, unranked tournaments. Prize reimbursement is not provided for these events, but the winners of each event have an opportunity to earn a Credit and a series of special Club Format Bits.

Organizers Guide - Club Format Wrote:Unranked Winning Streak Format: Players line up and compete is single round BeyBattles (one at a time) for 20 minutes. After the first round (match up is determined by BeyRank as described below or randomly), the winner stays at the stadium, loser goes to the back of the line and the winner plays the next person in line. 30 seconds maximum for both players to choose combinations before each round. At the end of the 20 minutes, the player with the most round wins is the victor. If there is a tie, a final playoff tiebreak match (best 3 of 5 using standard WBO tournament match rules) will be played to determine the victor.

Unranked Round Robin Deck Format: Each player in the event plays each other once using the regular Deck Format rules specified here in the Organizers’ Guide. At the end of the round robin, the player with the best overall record is the victor. If there is a tie, a final playoff tiebreak match (using standard Deck Format rules) will be played to determine the victor.

Organizers Guide - Credits Wrote:Credits are our way of rewarding Bladers for participating in or hosting WBO sanctioned events in their communities. Bladers can trade their credits in for various rewards, like Bit Boosters and physical Beyblade prizes!

Earning Credits
There are currently six ways to earn credits from an event:

[SEE CHART IN ORGANIZERS’ GUIDE]

Weekly Credit Limit
Bladers can only earn a maximum of eight credits per week. Any credits earned above that will not be counted. This restriction may be lifted during special events, such as BeyDays.

Tiebreak Battles & Credits
Battles won or lost during tiebreak battles do not count towards the final record used to determine eligibility for the Majority Win Credit.

Credits are added manually by the WBO Committee when a tournament is processed, so if a blader is missing a few earned credits from an unprocessed event, don’t worry, they’ll be awarded soon!

Please check the BeyPoint Queue if you are unsure whether or not a tournament has been processed.

Awarding Credits in the Spreadsheet
As an organizer, you are expected to list each participant’s earned credits in your Tournament Results Submission Sheet. Please ensure that you are listing each individual condition met within the sheet, and totalling the number of credits next to that list.

An example of a completed entry can be seen below:

[SEE EXAMPLE IN ORGANIZERS’ GUIDE]

Redeeming Credits for Bits & Prizes
Credits can be redeemed for both physical prizes and Bit Boosters. Bladers can redeem their credits by contacting a WBO Committee member with their choice of prize from the Blader Rewards list, alongside their name, address, and phone number. If requesting a Bit Booster, just send your Bit Booster choice.

Please ensure you have enough credits for the prize you are requesting by checking the number in your profile.

Metal Fight & Zero-G Format Rulebooks - Deck Format Wrote:During deck building, you build up to 3 Beyblades with no repeated parts that will make up your deck. Zero-G/Shogun Steel Chrome/Warrior Wheels are exempt from this rule and may be repeated within the same combo. Regular Faces and Stone Faces are also exempt from this rule in general.

View all WBO Organized Play Rules & Resources here

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.

Feedback?
If you have any feedback on these particular changes, or any questions or suggestions for further adjustments or additions, please post your thoughts in the WBO Organized Play Rules thread.
@[ashton pinto], @[ronitnath], @[Achi-baba], @[ThaKingTai], @[Brisk AquarioHD], @[loyd87], @[*Ginga*], @[Manicben], @[FIREFIRE CPB], @[Stormscorpio1], @[Ultra], @[Sniper], @[JesseObre], @[Alta], @[Thunder Dome], @[Dark_Mousy], @[Wombat], @[nik1392], @[1234beyblade]

Hello everyone, just tagging some of our most recently active Organizer group members to ensure that you are all aware of these updates. If any of you have judges that typically help out at your events, please notify them as well of these changes. Thank you!
I am aware of these updates. Thank you for tagging me. My next event will be posted in the next 24 hours along with my results being submitted.
Whoo, that is a lot of clarifications and updates, but it's very helpful and thoughtout! Plus, as for the unranked Round Robin format, etc, those formats are options to choose from?

Thank you so much for informing me!
great update thx to all of you! it's easy to understand!
@[Kei] Is the Club Format Victor ruling effective from now, or effective from the start of Club Format?
We have had 2 Club Format events and I still can make the call to void the finals if needed to make them comply with the new rules.

And sorry about the cap. In the end I didn't enforce a cap on both events, but the first was very last minute. Hopefully Club Format events can be made a regular thing, since I feel it is a great way for people to meet up and simply play (especially now that London has a new venue until 2018).
We do have people come from outside London to events, both ranked and unranked, so I feel that I should make their time and money spent getting to events worth it.
(Feb. 21, 2017  11:33 AM)Brisk AquarioHD Wrote: Plus, as for the unranked Round Robin format, etc, those formats are options to choose from?

Those are for Club Format, as the quote they're contained within states. I just pasted the entire descriptions because new details about how to determine finalists was added to the end of the paragraphs. You can find these in the Organizers' Guide.

(Feb. 21, 2017  5:42 PM)Manicben Wrote: @[Kei] Is the Club Format Victor ruling effective from now, or effective from the start of Club Format?
We have had 2 Club Format events and I still can make the call to void the finals if needed to make them comply with the new rules.

And sorry about the cap. In the end I didn't enforce a cap on both events, but the first was very last minute. Hopefully Club Format events can be made a regular thing, since I feel it is a great way for people to meet up and simply play (especially now that London has a new venue until 2018).
We do have people come from outside London to events, both ranked and unranked, so I feel that I should make their time and money spent getting to events worth it.

We'll have to take a look at what you did for those events, but I would say effective now.

It's important to remember that you are permitted to host unranked regular tournaments:

Organizers Guide - Rank Status Wrote:In ranked tournaments, a blader’s wins and losses are recorded in their profile, and their performance affects their BeyRank. Unranked battles aren’t recorded and aren’t eligible for prize reimbursement outside of special events.

Most WBO tournaments are ranked, but unranked events are a great way to play Beyblade in a more relaxed and experimental environment

So, you can absolutely still do more casual events without risking any form of segregation or splintering forming inside of a community. The last thing we want the WBO to be is exclusive. That being said, we also understand the desire for allowing Club Format to be available to groups of friends who just want to hang out with each other, especially in large communities where it might usually be impossible to get less than eight people show up ...  I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with that and we do want everyone to have the opportunity to earn things like the special Club Format Bits; it's just we have to be careful about how to implement it if we do allow it because we have to consider the ramifications for an entire community as well as that small group of friends.

But with Club Format being limited to 4-7 people as a last resort for when not enough participants come for a regular event (whether ranked or unranked), this all but eliminates scenarios where people will travel and end up not having anything to do in a structured way, especially in an established community like London!
(Feb. 24, 2017  8:31 AM)Kei Wrote: But with Club Format being limited to 4-7 people as a last resort for when not enough participants come for a regular event (whether ranked or unranked), this all but eliminates scenarios where people will travel and end up not having anything to do in a structured way, especially in an established community like London!

I completely agree with everything you've said, my only worry is that when people travel to unranked non-Club events (8+), they may expect some kind of reward. I'm not talking physical, but something similar to Club Format, in the form of minimal number of Credits and Bits.

Of course the easy solution is to explicitly state that such unranked tournaments will have no prizes of any shape or form. Obviously for us in London, such a change is fine, but for newcomers that expect a little bit more from us... That's my sole worry. Luckily our recent newcomers are just there for the atmosphere and fun of battling, but when Burst launches here in the UK, I feel kids only come when there is some incentive. We know this is true, as we had a big turnout at BBOTS: London when free beys were distributed. The newcomers to that never showed their faces afterwards.

London is currently a close community of dedicated and committed bladers. That's the only reason why London is still active. I'm trying to think and plan for when we eventually start getting a surge in interest after the Burst UK release. And I fear that we may not be able to keep bladers coming back to events. We will require some kind of strategy to keep the London community (not the current one, the post-release one) engaged and I'd like to hear what other Organisers do to keep their communities engaged. I may open a new thread in the Organiser's Forum to discuss this and keep spam out of this thread.
(Feb. 24, 2017  6:00 PM)Manicben Wrote: I completely agree with everything you've said, my only worry is that when people travel to unranked non-Club events (8+), they may expect some kind of reward. I'm not talking physical, but something similar to Club Format, in the form of minimal number of Credits and Bits.

Of course the easy solution is to explicitly state that such unranked tournaments will have no prizes of any shape or form. Obviously for us in London, such a change is fine, but for newcomers that expect a little bit more from us... That's my sole worry. Luckily our recent newcomers are just there for the atmosphere and fun of battling, but when Burst launches here in the UK, I feel kids only come when there is some incentive. We know this is true, as we had a big turnout at BBOTS: London when free beys were distributed. The newcomers to that never showed their faces afterwards.

London is currently a close community of dedicated and committed bladers. That's the only reason why London is still active. I'm trying to think and plan for when we eventually start getting a surge in interest after the Burst UK release. And I fear that we may not be able to keep bladers coming back to events. We will require some kind of strategy to keep the London community (not the current one, the post-release one) engaged and I'd like to hear what other Organisers do to keep their communities engaged. I may open a new thread in the Organiser's Forum to discuss this and keep spam out of this thread.

Bits and Credits are available for regular unranked tournaments, though? The only difference from regular tournaments other than the fact that they are unranked is that they are not eligible for prize reimbursement.

Offering free stuff will always attract more people who might not normally be interested. That's just the unfortunate reality. I'd like to think that special events like our Beyblade Bursts Onto the Scene campaign can serve to create an opportunity for even just a couple new members to stick around; it would be unrealistic to think more than that would attend future events beyond that. What I've learned over the past near decade is that the reality of our hobby is that many people come and go; the number of people who end up sticking around to become a core part of the community are few and far between. It's hard to find people who are both dedicated and passionate about Beyblade over a long period of time and have the time to dedicate to it.

Knowing that, you might think that it makes more sense for us to cater to the close communities like the one in London that you describe. There is definitely an argument to be had for this, and it is why we want to find a way to integrate the ability to intentionally host Club Format events to some degree. However, even knowing that the chances of newcomers sticking around for a long time is low, we can't allow that to enable us to be less welcoming and accessible to new people (which is what I fear unlimited Club Format usage would allow). Finding new committed members may be difficult, but each and every person in every WBO community around the world was only able to join in the first place because we are so welcoming to new players.

It's also important to remember that there really is no other organization like the WBO in the world, especially outside of Asia. As a result, the community, organized play, rankings, and prizes (for ranked tournaments) we provide set us apart from literally anything else a Beyblade fan could aspire to join or do. If anything, I think if we are talking about trying to determine how to keep more players around, we should be thinking about the best ways to communicate what makes Beyblade so much fun competitively. A lot of kids (and people of all ages, really) might join because they find Beyblade fun as a toy, but they either might not truly recognize its competitive value (maybe because in some cases it could be their first time playing a competitive game). The level of content available online that isn't dense with terminology and covers aspects of Beyblade competitively is low. It's part of the reason why I've put so much effort into creating our tournament videos for Beyblade Channel over the years; I feel they are some of the best tools to communicate not only how much fun our events are, but the level competition and strategy in the game too. But even those don't directly communicate the competitive aspects of Beyblade in a direct, but easy-to-understand way. It's why I wish more Beyblade Youtubers would put an effort into producing simple content that is relevant competitively (ex. battle videos with competitively relevant match-ups, but there isn't many people who even do those or produce them well), but videos that include discussion and explanation of strategic concepts too. One of the best examples of the type of content I wish there was more of was this Valtryek testing video by @[1234beyblade].

Outside of the content that could be produced in the community to help better promote these aspects of Beyblade, I also think it's possible for experienced players at our events to take it upon themselves to educate new players more. It can take some time for a new player to become competitive, but I find that if they have the support from the community they've joined and aren't treated as just "another new player", they are more likely to stick around and become a great player. I've seen it happen a lot in Toronto over the years. As soon as someone new is treated like they are already part of the group and people give them pointers when appropriate, they're more likely to feel like they belong and as a result, will stick around longer to begin understanding what makes Beyblade fun competitively.

So ultimately, finding a way to make sure that value gets communicated to players through their participation in our events is really important. Once they begin to understand this, things like being offered the possibility of winning a prize for placing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd will begin to hold less value because the fun will become from not only making new friends, but from playing the game competitively with others.

Yeah, if you'd like to open a thread in the Organizers' Circle about this kind of topic, that would be great.
so in your deck you can use MF-H, MF-M, and MF-L correct?
(Feb. 28, 2017  5:35 PM)Jimmyjazz39 Wrote: so in your deck you can use MF-H, MF-M, and MF-L correct?

That's correct. You are permitted to repeat Regular Faces and Stone Faces, but not Metal Faces or Stone Metal Faces using the same configuration.
Kei Wrote:Round Result Clarifications: Bladers must now refrain from touching their Beyblades until the judge has announced the winner of the round. In Burst Format specifically, judges must inspect the winning Beyblade to ensure that it is not in a position where it has skipped all of its teeth and should have bursted. If this is the case the result of the round is reversed and the “losing” Beyblade is then considered the winner of that round.

If it is found that a Layer has skipped all of its teeth and did not burst after the conclusion of a round, the player using that Layer must then replace it with another version of the same Layer. If the player cannot do this, they are given a match loss.

Thanks a 350HMSBeysYJALot for taking my idea seriously WBO!

I'm perfectly fine with all rule changes and I think now all rules just feels much more smoother then it was at begaining of this year

Thanks WBO for all your hard work
Thank you for the updates on the Tie Breakers and everything. You cleared up a question or two I had.
ArticeBlader
I am looking for a worthy burst bey challenger but I'm having a hard time trying to find someone strong enough to vs me bey {or bey's}. I am happy to except but there's a twist you have to be near my town or in it and that is why I am having a hard time finding worthy opponents cause all the strong burst beybladers are all somewhere else and it's so hard to find people in my town that are strong enough bladers. Pinching_eyes
(Mar. 10, 2017  5:08 AM)ArticeBeyblader Wrote: ArticeBlader
I am looking for a worthy burst bey challenger but I'm having a hard time trying to find someone strong enough to vs me bey {or bey's}. I am happy to except but there's a twist you have to be near my town or in it and that is why I am having a hard time finding worthy opponents cause all the strong burst beybladers are all somewhere else and it's so hard to find people in my town that are strong enough bladers. >_<

You have definitely come to the right site to meet the strongest Bladers in the world. However, this topic is clearly about some rule updates for our tournaments, so it is not really appropriate to post a global challenge here...
Can the organizer battle in the tournament as well?
(Mar. 23, 2017  4:45 AM)KitsuneDraco Wrote: Can the organizer battle in the tournament as well?
Yes, organizers have the choice to whether battle or not.
(Mar. 23, 2017  4:56 AM)Brisk AquarioHD Wrote: Yes, organizers have the choice to whether battle or not.
thnx