[Toronto, ON - 1/14/17] BEYBLADE SHOGATSU 2017
Burst Format [BST]
1st: @[JesseObre]
Deathscyther Heavy Defense
Minoboros Knuckle Zephyr
Odin Heavy Revolve
Wyvern Heavy Revolve
Deathscyther Gravity Revolve (Deck Format Finals Only)
Wyvern Heavy Defense (Deck Format Finals Only)
2nd: @[✱]
Odin Heavy Revolve
Victory Valkyrie Knuckle Accel (Deck Format Finals Only)
Deathscyther Spread Orbit (Deck Format Finals Only)
3rd: Kei
Deathscyther Infinity Revolve
Odin Gravity Revolve
Dark Deathscyther Spread Defense
Wyvern Heavy Revolve
Deathscyther Heavy Revolve (Deck Format Finals Only)
Odin Gravity Defense (Deck Format Finals Only)
Valkyrie Knuckle Trans (Deck Format Finals Only)
Posting for 1234beyblade because I couldn't wait any longer to talk about this event with the context provided by the above list haha. Here are my impressions from the tournament:
Tournaments are always interesting when you have groups of new players participating. This event was hosted at a convention, so we had a handful of new players and the uncertainty that brings can really throw some people off; in some ways, playing against new opponents is even more difficult than those that you know are skilled for sure. They weren't necessarily consistent, but it was fun to see some of the new players find some success with less common Layers like Storm Spryzen and Inferno Ifrit against things like D2. It was a good reminder to be wary of situations like that. There might be one combo that's "safe" against the more commonly used competitive Layers like D2 is against many things, but sometimes there's weaknesses we might not even recognize because of the unpopularity of a particular part for whatever reason. And of course, it is often new players who don't necessarily have that bias towards the most "competitive" parts that are able to bring this to our attention. We'll probably see more of this moving forward now that Burst has launched internationally.
This is the second tournament in Toronto where Odin has been unbanned, and as you can see from the winning combos list, Odin is beginning to play an even bigger role now than it did during WELCOME TO A&C GAMES last month. ✱ went 5-2 in the Group Stage using only Odin Heavy Revolve. But there's a really interesting balance happening right now between Deathscyther, Wyvern, Dark Deathscyther, and Odin in our metagame. Each offers its own set of strengths and weaknesses in comparison to the others.
I ended up going 6-1 in the Group Stage, with my only loss being to pyrus10000 3-2 (MKZ vs DIR). JesseObre went 6-1 in my group as well, and 1234beyblade–who ended in 4th Place–went 7-0 in the other group. ✱ and I were paired against each other in the first round of the Deck Format Finals and I ended up astonishingly getting crushed by his OHR even though I had DIR in my Deck ... I believe in terms of the OHR vs. DIR match-up it was 1 OS for DIR, maybe 2 OS for OHR (some of these were debatable), and 1 BF for OHR. In any case, as frustrating as that was, I should have known better and picked an Attack type for my deck that would counter OHR better, like Victory Valkyrie ... especially considering I sold him the Odin earlier that day LOL.
You might be wondering about Infinity: I've actually been using this for a couple tournaments now and have found a lot of success with it. I’ve just found myself just outside of the top three each time, unfortunately. My record since Hey, Bursts Guys on November 26th, 2016 with it in the first/group stage of events:
vs. DHY (Mitsu): Win 3-2
vs. D2?O (Naru Blader): Win 3-0
vs. MKZ (pyrus10000): Win 3-2
vs. DSD (JesseObre): Win 3-2
vs. WHR (LMAO): Win 3-0
vs. MKZ (pyrus10000): Lose 3-2
Record: 5-1
I really like its ability to rotate after having fallen over; I feel like it's even better than Spread at this perhaps due to the fine, sharp edges around its perimeter. However, maybe it ultimately isn't as good as Heavy or Gravity because JesseObre was able to pull out the victory with DGR against ✱’s OHR throughout the final battle. Still, in both cases Jesse and I were using the Speed BeyLauncher while ✱ was not, so both his OHR and launch were impressive.
Also worth noting is that in none of the above listed battles did I play against Deathscyther on Revolve or Odin on Revolve, which are arguably the best Beyblades in terms of Stamina in the game. I also used DIR once against Jesse’s DSR in the finals of WELCOME TO A&C GAMES last month and was bursted … so perhaps it’s more prone to bursting too. Small sample size of course, but that’s my experience with it so far. I’ll have to do more testing to decide whether I want to continue using it, but my goal from the onset was to try and do something that would differentiate me from my competition, and hopefully generate an advantage while still remaining within the realm of competitively proven customizations. I felt that Infinity had been overlooked a bit since release, so it was a good candidate to experiment and surprise people with. Would be great if more people would give it a shot!
After losing to ✱ which was frankly quite frustrating after having lost both of my Deck Format Final battles the previous month (our new finals format really is simultaneously forgiving due to Deck Format while also being unforgiving due to the Single Elimination format; I love how this contrast has played out) at the and putting so much thought into how to properly approach Deck Format, I was paired with 1234beyblade for the 3rd Place battle, who is always incredibly tough to play against. I opened aggressive with VKT and thankfully was able to KO his WHR for an early 2-0 lead and then didn’t look back from there, eventually narrowly winning the battle by a score of 5-3 after some close calls at the end with my OHD against his Victory Valkyrie, which I had not expected to see. In any case, I was relieved haha.
Can't wait for
WELCOME TO A&C GAMES II this weekend!