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+--- Thread: Koma Taisen: the real world of Beyblade is insane! (/Thread-Koma-Taisen-the-real-world-of-Beyblade-is-insane)
Koma Taisen: the real world of Beyblade is insane! - Beylon - Jun. 28, 2017
This topic has been making the rounds on a few different sites recently but, in fact, the sport of Koma Taisen (Spinning Top Battles) has been around for many, many years. It is so old I cannot even figure out just how old exactly. Probably decades. Maybe older. But rest assured, it is absolutely insane! This post is a general overview of Koma Taisen, its rules, and how the culture of the sport should be a model for the future of Beyblade.
To begin, I am posting this news feature of what appears to be the Koma Taisen World (Asian?) Championships, which was held recently either in Thailand or Japan (but not both!), as recorded on someone's phone camera off their television. Thank you very much, technology. But I think this video is probably the best introduction and overview of the sport I have seen - and there are literally thousands of other videos on Youtube.
The Rules:
Pretty simple, the game is played in a standard arena (called a "ring" which you can buy here). Contestants build their own tops from scratch. Each top must be no more than 2cm diameter when measured at the beginning and end of the "battle" - so you'll see a lot of transforming tops which grow in battle and shrink when they fall down. Typically tops are powered by hand (like a traditional top, not beigoma) but the most recent champion was actually motorized (which you can see at the end of the video - and the ingeniously violent way its opponents dealt with it). To win a "battle" you have to beat your opponent twice in a row. And that's it. There's really no other rules (EDIT: there are a few, actually). However, every year, they apparently ban some crucial feature of the previous year's winning design - just to keep things fresh. The winner of the tournament takes home all the other tops in the tournament as prizes and gets a trophy to boot.
The Culture:
The point of Koma Taisen was originally (and still is, sort of) to celebrate Japan's metal manufacturing industry. All the metal product-makers, both big and small, create their tops and enter the competition as a kind of publicity stunt. For many of the smaller manufacturers, who otherwise only work on products for other clients, this is about the only publicity they get all year. So it is a big deal. Just look at the numbers in the crowd. It must be hundreds. And the entire thing is broadcast live across the country (region?) with the event taking at least 3 hours. You can find these recordings in full, on Youtube. And remember, this happens every year! The whole thing has an air of "fun" rather than "competitive" play. To that end, anyone can actually enter the tournament - even if they're not a metal manufacturer.
What it means for Beyblade:
So the reason this is in the Beyblade General forum is because I think it has some bearing on the way Beyblade (the sport) could be perceived in the wider community beyond the WBO and WBBA. The biggest difference between Koma Taisen and Beyblade stems from the reason they play the game at all. Beyblade is played just because people love the sport - so all its competitors are individuals, with no commercial affiliation at all, playing the game in their own time, with their own money. Koma Taisen, on the other hand, is essentially all for the advertising. It is about making money! Koma Taisen is a chance for metal-makers to show off their manufacturing skills to new clients and (as you have seen in the video) the results are some of the most insane spinning top designs you will ever witness.
Sometimes in the "Robot Fighting" world (where remote-control robots bash each other to pieces ala; Battlebots), an award is bestowed upon the "crowd favourite" robot in the tournament. Often this robot is an insanely complex or cool-looking design which, apart from its novelty value, has no hope of actually winning the tournament. But because the builder has dedicated so much effort to putting on a good show for the audience, that builder is given a kind of "thank you" prize. This idea is supposed to encourage robot builders to try new ideas and be creative, because that is supposed to be what makes the sport interesting to begin with - and it rarely happens. In Koma Taisen, having a "stand-out" design is essential for the marketing angle.
Unlike Robot Fighting or Koma Taisen, Beyblade is restricted to a set number of components (from the official product line) and there is no real incentive to try anything whacky, the way Koma Taisen makers do. The WBO was supposed to nurture the "competitive" aspect of the sport and I feel creativity often falls by the wayside to that end - despite a fairly regular trickle of "craziest beyblade" threads. It makes sense, considering we are here to play Beyblade and win Beyblade tournaments. If you want to play Koma Taisen, then play Koma Taisen! Right!?
But you cannot deny the size of that crowd. Or the demographic of that crowd. Or the televised broadcast of the sport. Or the celebratory nature of the sport's culture. Seems like a lot of cool things that are only a stone's throw from Beyblade, yes? There's got to be something we can tap into here.
RE: Koma Taisen: the real world of Beyblade is insane! - Morsoe - Jun. 28, 2017
this is beautiful I really love asia's love for spinning tops, this reminds me of the early ethos for beyblades when no ones really new the rules or really played by them, when alot of modded blades had screws for tips and ball bearings in weight and a whole lot of other mods to gain advantage which brought about a sense of individuality and identity in the blade. I definitely hope that someway takara can tap into this and the franchise can evolve from being more than just a child game haha, thanks for this enlightening info
RE: Koma Taisen: the real world of Beyblade is insane! - mechahate - Jun. 28, 2017
This was interesting to read, video was cool. That motorized top was ridiculous. Pretty sure everyone in the crowd thought so too.
(Jun. 28, 2017 12:57 AM)Morsoe Wrote: this is beautiful I really love asia's love for spinning tops, this reminds me of the early ethos for beyblades when no ones really new the rules or really played by them, when alot of modded blades had screws for tips and ball bearings in weight and a whole lot of other mods to gain advantage which brought about a sense of individuality and identity in the blade. I definitely hope that someway takara can tap into this and the franchise can evolve from being more than just a child game haha, thanks for this enlightening info
I don't think takara will ever do something like that, there is already a huge amount of customization with thousands of combinations. If people want to build and modify their own tops outside of what they release for beyblade, thats why they have things like this lol.
(Jun. 28, 2017 12:25 AM)Beylon Wrote: But you cannot deny the size of that crowd. Or the demographic of that crowd. Or the televised broadcast of the sport. Or the celebratory nature of the sport's culture. Seems like a lot of cool things that are only a stone's throw from Beyblade, yes? There's got to be something we can tap into here.
Have you watched some of the g1 tournaments, they are huge! Beyblade tournaments have made it to tv even in the U.S. it's not consistent but the product line typically goes on hiatus for a few years at a time. I don't think it's necessary to modify parts to be creative, there are plenty of combinations that people would never think to use, people are constantly coming up with new combos.
RE: Koma Taisen: the real world of Beyblade is insane! - Nuno - Jun. 28, 2017
This is pretty interesting as I had no idea of these tournaments. Some of those tops have some really nice engineering to them and others have some neat gimmicks as well. Good video and good read, thank you for sharing!
RE: Koma Taisen: the real world of Beyblade is insane! - Morsoe - Jun. 28, 2017
(Jun. 28, 2017 1:33 AM)mechahate Wrote: This was interesting to read, video was cool. That motorized top was ridiculous. Pretty sure everyone in the crowd thought so too.
(Jun. 28, 2017 12:57 AM)Morsoe Wrote: this is beautiful I really love asia's love for spinning tops, this reminds me of the early ethos for beyblades when no ones really new the rules or really played by them, when alot of modded blades had screws for tips and ball bearings in weight and a whole lot of other mods to gain advantage which brought about a sense of individuality and identity in the blade. I definitely hope that someway takara can tap into this and the franchise can evolve from being more than just a child game haha, thanks for this enlightening info
I don't think takara will ever do something like that, there is already a huge amount of customization with thousands of combinations. If people want to build and modify their own tops outside of what they release for beyblade, thats why they have things like this lol.
(Jun. 28, 2017 12:25 AM)Beylon Wrote: But you cannot deny the size of that crowd. Or the demographic of that crowd. Or the televised broadcast of the sport. Or the celebratory nature of the sport's culture. Seems like a lot of cool things that are only a stone's throw from Beyblade, yes? There's got to be something we can tap into here.
Have you watched some of the g1 tournaments, they are huge! Beyblade tournaments have made it to tv even in the U.S. it's not consistent but the product line typically goes on hiatus for a few years at a time. I don't think it's necessary to modify parts to be creative, there are plenty of combinations that people would never think to use, people are constantly coming up with new combos.
I know that already lol you read it wrong I was merely drawing a comparison to how it was when blades 1st came out, I wouldn't say thousands but hundreds certainly lol.
RE: Koma Taisen: the real world of Beyblade is insane! - Kai-V - Jun. 28, 2017
The customization of metal tops is definitely cool, but I cannot decrease from launching with a string and with almost the whole body, down to basically flipping with the fingers hah.
RE: Koma Taisen: the real world of Beyblade is insane! - Beylon - Jun. 29, 2017
Agreed. I think the full-body aspect has a lot to do with why beigoma has been so consistently successful throughout the centuries. Being more fully involved is fun in itself, I think. And the number of bad "launches" by the Koma Taisen guys makes the finger-spin method seem even less efficient.
Here's an interesting Beyblade vs Koma Taisen story, too: https://persol-tech-s.co.jp/i-engineer/interesting/beyblade-vs-koma
Spoiler (Click to View)
Also, the play-rules for the Thai championships are found here.