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The first tournament in the multi-part event was Double Elimination Team Plastics, where I teamed up with Tech and OnTheDL to form Team SuperBladers. Since OnTheDL and I had also been on Team Yeti at AN, I thought it would be easier to use that team again and just add Tech as a member, but that didn’t end up happening for whatever reason. Our first match was against team Rising From the Ashes, featuring beymaster15963, Dr. Im, and dirt2. Beymaster was using a Stamina type with Wing Survivor, and while dirt2 had a pretty large Plastics collection, the only really threatening combos he and Dr. Im could put together were:

• AR: Tiger Defenser
  
• WD: 10 Balance
  
• SG: Neo Right SG (Double Bearing Core)
  
• SG Shaft: Burning Kerberous
  
• SG Casings: Burning Kerberous
  
• SP: Defense Ring
  
• BB: Customize Bearing Base
  

and

• AR: Triple Wing
  
• WD: 10 Wide
  
• SG: Neo Right SG (Magnecore)
  
• BB: SG Metal Flat 2
  

Since Dr. Im wasn’t as confident using Attack as dirt2 I predicted she would go for the Stamina type and used

• AR: Cross Griffon
  
• WD: Wide Defense
  
• SG: Neo Right SG (Magnecore)
  
• SP: Reverse Attack
  
• BB: Customize Grip Base
  

, winning the battle 3-1. All of the Stadiums used for Plastics and HMS were either Tornado Attack or Tornado Balance (whichever one the green one is), and something I noticed was that it seemed harder to KO in these stadiums than in a BB-10 (which was the Stadium I played in for practice and during NC’s Return of the Plastics). Two of my wins were due to just beating up Tiger Defenser so much I won via OS.

While I was busy trying to assemble my Zombie Combo, which was

• AR: War Lion
  
• S-AR: Dragon Saucer
  
• WD: Wide Defense
  
• SG: Neo Left SG (Double Bearing Core)
  
• SG Casings: Burning Kerberous
  
• SG Shaft: Wolborg 2
  
• SP: Cross Surviver
  
• BB: Customize Grip Base
  

Tech ended up playing the next match against dirt2, who as I expected was using the Triple Wing combo. I can’t recall Tech’s exact combo but it was using Panther Claw and some Semi Flat (it may have even been stock Flash Leopard). Tech ended up winning 3-1 also, due to dirt2 Self-KOing and recoil KOing while Tech got wall saves. By this point I was done assembling the Zombie and gave it to OnTheDL to use against beymaster. Thankfully his combo ended up being Right Spin so OnTheDL took the battle 3-1, and our team won 9-3.

Next up were the GoDs, who in my opinion seemed like the most intimidating team (being composed of geetster, Stars, and Sniper). Geetster didn’t seem to be taking either the tournament or me too seriously however, seeing as he used a stock Dragoon G. I switched my Zombie to Right Spin and was able to win 3-1. Second for GoDs was Sniper, who is pretty lethal with

• AR: Triple Tiger
  
• WD: Wide Defense
  
• SG: something that spins right
  
• BB: Defense Grip Base Inverted
  

and just Attack types in general. Since this was his only combo used at the AN 2014 Plastics tournament and he also made heavy use of Attack types in Limited, I switched the Zombie back to Left Spin and gave it to Tech, knowing it would be our best option. Unsurprisingly, he was able to KO it once, but Tech still came out on top 3-1 after numerous wall saves. I actually don’t recall what combo Stars used or exactly what I gave to OnTheDL, but I’m fairly certain she used Circle Survivor. Whatever the matchup was, she won 3-0, winning the Team Battle 9-2.

At the end of the winner’s bracket was Atlantic Coast Elites (ACE), which included Time, Angry Face, and *Ginga*. I played *Ginga* in the first match, and it ended up being a Zombie near-mirror match (I was using War Saucer, Wide Defense, Cross Surviver, and CGB, *Ginga* was using Tiger Defenser, Wide Survivor, Defense Ring, and CBB). I took a loss because my launcher skipped once, but ended up winning 3-1 due to having a stronger launch. I was unsure how invested Angry Face was into the older gens, but didn’t think he had the parts to make a good Zombie so I let Tech borrow my Cross Griffon combo. Angry ended up using Attack as well, except he was using a Hasbro Cross Griffon on SG Metal Flat 2. It was a close match, but Tech lost 2-3 due to Metal Flat’s superior Stamina to CGB. I didn’t know what Time would use either, so I let OnTheDL borrow Circle Survivor because I felt it had a solid chance of beating most things. He ended up using a Stock Driger V2 and winning 3-0, putting SuperBladers at a 5-7 loss.

Our final battle was against Rising From the Ashes, who lived up to their name, recovering from their first round loss to eventually defeat us and take 2nd Place in the tournament. In the first round OnTheDL faced Dr. Im, and I believe I let her borrow Cross Griffon again. IIRC Dr. Im was using an updated combo from her last battle with me, suggesting that she had borrowed parts from beymaster to make it more defensive. OnTheDL ended up losing 0-3. I went next against dirt2, using Circle Survivor against his Triple Wing combo. My launch strength worked against me in this match, as Circle Survivor began acting semi-aggressively, enough so that dirt2’s combo could hit me head on even when his Sliding Shoot was inaccurate and score a KO. I barely edged him out 3-2, but in retrospect the Zombie would have been a safer choice. For the last battle, I let Tech borrow Circle Survivor to face beymaster15963, who was using the same combo as before. This time being Right Spin worked against us, and beymaster took the match 3-2, winning the Team Battle 8-5. My team ended up getting 3rd once again, but I made some bad calls during the last Team Battle that definitely hurt us.

Moral of the story: use moar Zombie. The Zombie combo would have won literally all of the battles that SuperBladers as a team lost, looking back at it. I don’t recall seeing any other Circle Survivors, so I’m not sure what I was scared of it losing to either.

Ever since my first multi-part event, Raleigh – Revival, I have always had a lucky streak for one tournament and performed poorly in others. Before the Burst was no exception, but fortunately for me my lucky tournament was the one that counted for points, giving me a huge boost that put me above 1,500 BP. This Zero-G tournament was also played during the F230CF/GCF trial ban, and aside from Sniper’s F230BWD custom I don’t think the Track saw any use. Despite the lighthearted attitude during the Bakuten Shoot events, the players I faced here were all business, presumably because this tournament counted for points.

I arguably had the toughest path to the finals, having to face Sniper, Time, Arupaeo, and Stars in the normal Swiss rounds. Literally when Time announced my first battle as “Sniper vs. Wombat” I was like, “wait, already?” Luckily my MSF-H Killerken Dragooon SA165BWD was able to edge out his Wyvang Wyvang E230BSF 3-2, making me 1-0. My next opponent was Time, and I had a pretty good sense he would use MF-H Duo Hades B:D since he had used it to defeat Angry Face in the previous round. Knowing how easy B:D is to Zero-G KO, I decided to use MSF-H Balro Wyvang AD145GF. Funny story: in between this and my first battle with Sniper, the ice cream truck had stopped by and a few of us bought some ice cream. Right before my battle with Time, I told *Ginga* to “hold my ice cream” while he judged, and won the match 3-0 before it started to melt haha. I had no clue what Arupaeo would use, but I decided to go with Balro Wyvang again. I don’t think he took me seriously at first because he used Bahamdia Balro 145GCF, and I beat him 3-1. Stars must have seen my use of Zero-G Attack because he decided to use MF-L Duo Aquario 230MB, while I decided to change things up and went with MSF-L Genbull Genbull E230MB. Going into this matchup I was sure I would lose, especially after Stars put me down 0-2, but through a series of lucky underside hits when we both started to wobble I was able to make a comeback and narrowly win.

The five people that went to the finals were me (WWWW), Stars (WWWL), Arupaeo (WWLW), Sniper (LWWW) and Tech (LWWW). My first match was Sniper again, and knowing how competent he is with Attack I didn’t feel safe using Dragooon BWD again. He had also been using Genbull Dragooon F230BWD frequently and after the close call with Stars I didn’t think MSF-L Genbull Genbull E230MB would be a good choice either. So I used MSF-H Balro Wyvang AD145GF and he ended me 0-3 with Wyvang Wyvang E230BSF, probably even faster than my match with Time was. I had no clue what Tech would use, so I decided to stick with Attack, and she went with MF-H Phantom (Attack) Hades E230TB, which I wouldn’t have been able to predict anyways due me never having heard of it. I thought I would lose this match due to TB supposedly being good for Zero-G Defense but ended up winning 3-0 after discovering that it was surprisingly easy to KO. I thought Stars would do something similar to Sniper and use the same combo against me that he did in Swiss play, but instead he used a variation of Tech’s combo: MF-H Duo Leone E230TB. I used MSF-L Killerken Dragooon B:D, and won against him for real this time. Arupaeo had just defeated Sniper by literally shattering his Face Bolt, leaving Sniper 3-1 while he and I were tied 2-1. All I needed to do was beat Arupaeo and then Sniper in a tiebreaker to secure victory. Arupaeo had been using Duo B:D a fair bit as well, so predicting that I went with Wyvang again, only to find him using MSF-H Genbull Dragooon SA165GCF against me. Not sure if Left Spin Attack is specifically supposed to counter Right Spin Attack in Zero-G but that’s what ended up happening when he beat me 3-1.

At this point, Sniper and Arupaeo were tied for 1st at 3-1 and Tech and I were tied for 3rd 2-2, so we both held tiebreaker matches to determine the final placings. Not sure on the exact matchup, but Sniper managed to avenge his Face Bolt and win the tournament for his birthday, with Arupaeo taking 2nd. Thinking Tech would use either the Phantom combo or Sway Attack, I decided to use MSF-H Killerken Dragooon SA165BWD again, and to my dismay she pulled out Revizer Dragooon B:D. Revizer’s carpy balance ended up saving me in this fight: I won 3-0, but if Tech had used Killerken, Genbull, or Zirago it would have easily gone the other way. For winning 3rd Place, I got a Thunder Dragon (which I only recently discovered was in fact Thunder Dragon and not Spark Dragon).

HMS was never my strong suit, and that definitely showed in this tournament. I didn’t even bring mine with me because I assumed we would be playing Limited 2 on 2 instead. I ended up borrowing some of *Ginga* and Angry Face’s parts to cobble together some pretty measly combos (Metal Saucer/CWD Free Cross/Metal Ball Core and Seagon Attacker/Circle Wide/Flat Core).

I got put in the same Block as Sniper, Stars, Time, and beymaster15963, so it was a pretty tough Block and I ended up going 1-3. Not sure I would have traded them for geetster, *Ginga*, and Arupaeo though. For the most part it was a Phantom Fox fest, with many combos making use of the Bunshin Core. However the only person who used it on me was beymaster, who was actually also the only person I won against (3-0). The other three battles against Stars’ Samurai Upper/CWD Defense Ring/GFCUV, Sniper’s Metal Ape/Circle Heavy/Metal Semi-Flat Core, and Time’s Samurai Upper/CWD Free Survivor/Grip Flat Core were all basically futile attempts to apply my MFB logic against opponents who outgunned me by a huge margin. I tried every trick in the book: weak launching, aiming my shots away from my opponent, launching to avoid Attack types rather than meeting them head on, etc. I lost all of the battles but at least I went 2-3 in all of them as well.

I believe geetster ended up winning after a dispute with Stars over how tiebreakers work, and he used Jijariya Blade/Circle Heavy/Metal Change Core. Now that I have Dragoon and Jijariya I can hopefully fight for myself and actually do well in my next HMS event…