Vs. QuantumCaza
dF.P.At v Valtryek Boost Accel 

I knew QuantumCaza was a new player and didn’t really know what to expect so just stuck to Fafnir. Was 3-0 not much to say here.


Vs. Shockwave
dF.P.At v Spryzen Knuckle unite

Again a new face so not much to say here. Stuck to dF. Score 3-0


Vs. Mana
dF.Y.R v gV.8V.Rb 

Really didn’t know what to expect from Mana and took a long time to come up with a combo. i was expecting some variant of L2 or dF.P.At . I’ve tested gV.8V.Rb a lot so I knew it couldn’t beat dF but Sam got an early KO and scared me. I brought it back to 3-1 in the end. 


Vs. Ultra
mg.7F.At v lS.S.Hn 

At this point I’d already told Mr LT about my favourite mG combo since he was the only other blader who owned one but I was feeling adventurous and considering Ultra exclusively chose stamina combos in our past matches I thought it would be a safe bet to chose mG. Was a bit alarmed that he chose lS as I had not tested that matchup in much depth but I think the Hunter driver held back his combo and made it less likely to burst mG than an xtreme variant of lS. Match ended 3-0.


Vs. Mr LT
mg.7F.At v mg.7F.At


After what me and Mr LT discussed he had managed to beat two other people with mG easily. It was obvious we were going into a mirror match and to be honest it really came down to which mG stayed upright the longest. Once one of our beys got underneath the other the match was decided and you would scrape up against the flow frame and lose stamina. Launching harder didn't seem to help me either. I lost 3-1. It was interesting to see what the mirror match was like (incredibly boring fyi) but important to note there weren’t any bursts so other drivers may be more useful than atomic when both players are using mG.


Vs. V2KX
mg.7F.At. V I2.4V.A 


This was a tense match for me as I2 bursted my mG combo for the first time in the tournament twice in a row ! I moderated my launch slightly and pulled it back to 3-2. I2 seems to have good burst attack but doesn’t work for everyone. In my testing following the tournament I couldn’t reproduce anywhere near similar results but it may be worth exploration for others. It was starting to become apparent at this point in the tournament that mG was top tier for stamina, easily handling dF and even attempts to win via burst with VKT were promising but ultimately not enough to best mG.


Vs. Jcb31012003
lS.7M.R V K.B.M


I wanted to experiment with Legend spriggan but what resulted my second loss of the day, I was in a hurry and accidentally put 7 on my combo instead of 4 which made it off balance paired with my revolve. Lost 3-0 Always check your  frame + disk combo before locking on.


Vs. Jcb31012003's brother 
lS.2G.At V R2.A.B

Decided to stick to lS and prove it could actually work, I don’t know why I used 2 here instead of 4 but got the win with outspins here. 


Vs. Meta LT
aC.4F.At V L2.4G.At 

Wasn’t sure what Better LT would go with here but after testing and seeing other results with aC I was confident in its defence and stamina to take a risk. This pretty much shut out L2 surprisingly and taught me a valuable match up considering L2 on orbit/atomic is popular in London. It seems aC is actually really strong defensively. 


Vs. Beybread
A2.7F.D V lS.P.At 

I let beybread borrow some of my parts and expected him to pick mG considering its dominance at the tournament but chose lS and was easily outspun by A2. I think Polish was the wrong disk choice considering the stamina of lS in my experience is sub par. 

That wrapped up the group stage of the tournament I finished 8-2 and was happy with my performance aside from my first match using Legend Spriggan. 


Me, Better LT, Mr LT and Mana progressed to finals.

Considering my record in the first stage I was silently confident going into Finals and my first match was against Mana, who didn’t have mG.


My deck: DF.4G.R L2.4G.O mG.7F.At


Mana’s Deck: L2SX dF.P.At A2.8G.R


The first round I opened with mG.7F.At and Mana went with L2SX. I had not tested this matchup but I didn’t think L2 would win. The first round L2 quickly bursted mG and shocked me since it was only the 3rd time my mG had bursted all day. I didn’t hesitate to deny the rematch and this was probably my biggest mistake all day. The concept of being 0-2 from a matchup I was almost certain I would win clouded my judgement slightly. I feared going 0-4 too much and so I switched to my L2 combo to try and outspin since Mana’s L2 was on xtreme. This resulted in another burst and left me 0-4. I brought it back slightly to 4-3 with L2 netting me 3 out spins but he eventually got a burst and sealed the match 6-3. You’ve got to be quite resilient in finals and if you think you’re combo really should have won push for the rematch, it keeps them locked out of other potentially more harmful combos.


The switch gave his L2 an even better chance of winning, but the thought of mG bursting again made me forget that. Had I stayed calm and thought about the matchup more I could’ve brought the score back level and I knew that his other combos couldn’t outspin mG. This was proven as Mana lost 5-0 to the same combo in his grand finals match, his L2 combo wasn’t able to burst mG.7F.At once in 5 matches and so had I rematched odds are I would've been able to bring the score level with outspins. This really reinforced how important your decisions are in finals. Always take the time to think about if you can win the rematch and don’t default to switching right away. Had I thought about his other combos it would’ve made sense to rematch and looking at the combos in hindsight I shouldn't have had a problem taking the match had I piloted my deck correctly. 


3rd place battle


My Deck: dF.Y.R L2.4G.O mG.7F.At


Mr LT’s deck: L2.8M.O mG.7F.At bR.S.R


Saddened after my loss to Mana I had a third place match against Mr LT. I had a pretty good idea of what he was going to run with considering we had been talking a lot throughout the tournament. We went back and forth with mG mirrors then I switched to L2 and got a late game burst on his mG to win the match 5-3. L2 was able to burst mG more than any other layer used in the tournament although I’m sure there are more consistent alternatives.