Bey Brad Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I was thirteen at the time, and someone at my school asked me if I had seen it on YTV. Describing it as “like Yu-Gi-Oh!, but with spinning tops,” I was immediately baffled and intrigued.

I would soon discover that Beyblade was quickly becoming a sleeper phenomenon in my part of Canada, with counterfeit Beyblades being available at basically every corner store. I ended up spending quite a bit of money on them, and joining a nameless Beyblade forum run on a now-defunct free forum provider where I talked to other people that had no clue what they were talking about. The strategic understanding at the time was basically zero; most people went by star stats. I did learn the difference between real and fake Beyblades, though.

Once I found out that there would be an official Beyblade tournament run by YTV at Anime North 2003, I trashed all of my fake Beyblade stuff, bought an official Wolborg and a Vortex stadium (ew), and got to practicing my launch. I bought a Dranzer F at a small official Beyblade shop next to the tournament, came in 2nd place, and I was hooked.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
Most competitive non-digital games are either extremely complex card and tabletop games, or battling toys that offer some flash but not much depth. Beyblade is accessible and instantly gratifying while also having a surprising amount of depth, enough to keep players competing for years and constantly evolving their strategies.

What led you to the creation of the WBO?
You can get a more detailed answer here: http://beybrad.tumblr.com/post/127184610682/the-world-beyblade-organization-and-my-history

The TL;DR: the WBO is the third in a line of Beyblade sites that I’d created after being involved in the community over about six years. I had always wanted to fulfill the Beyblade tournament-fantasy that the anime sold (and Takara-Tomy successfully fulfills in a way Hasbro clearly has no interest in). With the announcement that Beyblade would be returning in the form of Metal Fight Beyblade, I felt now was the perfect time to try to make it happen. And well, the rest is history!

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
Perhaps an underwhelming answer, but I can’t remember much other than redesigning buttons a ton. The WBO was sort of a rebrand of my existing Beywiki Forums, with some rudimentary plugins to make the ranking system work. The WBO grew into this bigger thing gradually, over time, and largely in my absence. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to come back and do some of the things I always wanted to do … like redesign those buttons some more.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
To list them all is an impossible task, so I hope you’ll forgive me for focusing on just one.

After hosting Beyblade War Room at Anime North 2009, I remember playing Beyblade in a secluded area of the hotel lobby where sections of Anime North was hosted. This was just following the launch of the WBO, and back then I had the naive idea to allow people to self-submit individual battle results for ranking. Obviously we nixed that once cheaters inevitably surfaced, leading to the approach of using a network of volunteer-run tournaments that the WBO still uses today.

But it was also my first opportunity to get in some ranked matches of my own, having played solely the host role at Beyblade War Room earlier that day. I’d played Beyblade for years by that time, and battled many of these same players before. But as soon as I launched my Beyblade in my first ranked match, I felt it: This is different. This is for real.

Having seen the excitement on people’s faces at my own event, and then felt it for myself when battling some of the world’s best bladers, I finally felt that the WBO could become exactly what I hoped for.

Looking back on it today, it’s easy to say that it has. In retrospect, not every decision I made at the WBO was the right one — and I’m sure some more veteran members are reading this and nodding their heads — but I’m glad that we always earnestly worked in service of creating the coolest experience for bladers possible, and the community around Beyblade has proven to be resilient in a way that few niche games of its kind are. I think the WBO has been integral to that.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
It’s impossible to pick one as my complete favourite, but I’ll talk about one of my favourite attack types from the plastics era, Triple Wing / Wide Defense / Heavy Metal Core / SG Metal Flat Base.

The idea here is pure smash attack, using a combination of movement speed, weight and plenty of spiky and blunt appendages to KO the opponent. This combo has decent stamina so you get a few opportunities to KO the opponent. If I want to sacrifice some stamina for intense movement speed, I would swap out SG Metal Flat for Grip (a combo I discovered is still documented today on Beyblade Wiki: https://beyblade.fandom.com/wiki/Blade_Base_-_Grip).

There are a ton of other parts in plastics gen you could use to accomplish the same goals, many of them equally viable. The same goes for the infamous zombie spin-stealing combos; while their presence in the metagame was ubiquitous, they came in so many forms with quite a bit of parts variety. One of the things that the plastic gen accomplished that I think following systems — including the incredible HMS — have failed to is the opportunity for bladers to express their personality in the unique way they build their combos. The pool of viable parts that play their “roles” effectively is narrower than it previously used to be. If there’s one thing I could improve about the way Beyblade is managed right now, it would be that.

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
Where do I even start? It’s the reason for pretty much everything I know in my life today. Without it, I wouldn’t have met many of my best friends; I wouldn’t have gotten a job at Mega Brands, moving to Québec and building my life here; I might still have a successful career working in marketing, but it would’ve been off to a much slower start. It gave me the opportunity to learn so much about building communities and building on the web. When I see cool open spaces in public, I always think it seems like a nice place for a Beyblade battle, even though I haven’t played Beyblade in a long time now. I’m not sure what that means.

What are you up to these days?
I recently started a new job at a friend’s startup, where I’ll be writing and working on cool web stuff, which is everything I’ve ever wanted. I’ve also been playing a ton of Splatoon. If you want to play together, hit me up!

G Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I first got into Beyblade when I was visiting my cousin in California back in 2002 or 2003. We were slightly interested in it after seeing some commercials on TV, and then decided to pop into a Toys“R”Us. I bought a Driger F while he bought a Galzzly, and all we did was launch them in the air trying to hit empty cans on a concrete driveway... Never have I abused a Beyblade like that since.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
My favorite aspect of Beyblade would have been the customization aspect both in efficiency and cosmetically. I don't know how many Draciel S and Draciel F I've bought trying to find ball bearings that would weigh .1 or .2 grams heavier than the standard weight just to try to get a slight weight advantage. Also transitioning from my previous hobby of Gunpla, I've had my fair share of painting Beyblades and Grips.

What led you to the creation of the WBO?
I migrated to the WBO from OtC ?

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
BEHOLDER-SAN! Just kidding! After I left CA, I googled which Beyblade I should try to buy and ended up at OtC. I was a lurker of the site and forums for the longest time since I enjoyed the Pojo like format of parts review. I eventually picked up a Kid Dragoon, and that sealed the deal on a hobby which I'd dedicate the next 8 years of my life to.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
I'll never forget the day a bunch of us in the community called Hasbro's hotline to blow up their phone lines in an attempt to petition against their refusal to produce circular stadiums... ahhh the good old days haha

My personal cherished memory would have to be finally meeting Bey Brad and a few others irl back in 2009 or 2010. We were forum buddies for 6-7 years then, and I happened to be in Canada at my girlfriend's cabin around the time there was a Beyblade tournament about 125 miles away. I asked my girlfriend's parents if it'd be cool if I met up with some internet buddies I've never met before while we were in another country so we can play with some spinning tops, and they dropped me off to hop on a ferry a few days later. I was really nervous meeting them since I was an awkward turtle, but we hit it off really quickly! I flopped in that tournament, but had a blast meeting people that were actually into Beyblades for the first time ever!

Even though we don't talk regularly, I still think about a lot of them and the other forum members from back in the day. As cheesy as it sounds, they still hold a special place in my heart. And don't worry Brad, when I get settled down more, I'll hit you up again on another Canada visit!  

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
It might be cookie cutter, but Zombies were so meta back then! I just loved any combo using Customize Grip Base since it was great and tons of fun. It was the most versatile part back then with how many different Spin Gear/Tips you could switch in and out of it along with the usage of Support Parts.

What are you up to these days?
I have recently moved from Minnesota to North Carolina, and I'll be back to working the corporate life soon again. Adulting sucks, but I still walk past the toy aisle to glance at the Beyblade section every now and then to cheer myself up. I'll admit that it's still tempting to want to pick up a few a Beys...

However, I primarily put my hobby time and money into Cosplay! I'm on a social media break right now, but feel free to check out: https://www.instagram.com/georgedugong

I still hope to pop up at Anime North or some other Beyblade event at a con dressed up as Rei Kon one day.

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
The WBO/OtC has always been a safe haven or even a home for me. I grew up as an introverted child, lost all of my friends going to a different high school, and was even dealing with a passing of a parent. Even when I felt alone and didn't have people to hang out with, I knew there was always a community, or place where I could stay connected to the other dorks and be myself in. It definitely helped me keep my chin up in life.

Even though I haven't been on the WBO forums for 7 years, I still smiled whenever  I received random e-mail notification from a new user PMing me "hey how much for this beyblade?"

Kei Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I’m sure my story is similar to a lot of people; back in 2003 I was outside for recess at school and saw a group of kids playing with Beyblades in … if I remember correctly, a lunch box?! One of the Beyblades was Bakushin-Oh.

Like most other kids during that time, I thought Beyblade was incredibly cool and eventually asked my Mom if she could buy some for me. At the time it was extremely difficult to find them in stores, but a few months later after we had moved to another town, she was able to find some at the old Toys “R” Us in downtown Toronto: Metal Draciel and Galzzly.

I can’t remember exactly what happened, but somehow I thought something was wrong with the Galzzly she got me, so she ended up bringing that one back and I just kept Metal Draciel. The AR cracked years later, but I still have it!

Around the same time I also got into the Beyblade anime on YTV. Through that, I learned about their Weird on Wheels tournaments coming up in the summer of 2003. I really wanted to play in one, and luckily was able to do so in August of 2003 at their Canadian National Exhibition stop.

I ended up placing third in the tournament, taking home a Phantom Force Seaborg (which I also still have!). I still remember being so excited to play in that awful giant stadium with the spinning centre for the finals.

Looking back, that experience was a pivotal one in my life. I was never able to attend another Hasbro tournament during that era (the following summer they had moved on to B-Daman), so my appetite for competition and growing love for the game had no real avenue to express itself.

As a result, eventually I started looking online for more people who liked Beyblade and found Bey Brad’s old website–the predecessor to Beywiki/WBO–Off the Chain. Unfortunately, this was in June 2005 shortly before the site closed, so I wasn’t able to play in any OtC tournaments.

Several Beyblade websites later (Damashii, Beyblade Spirit, Lightning Revolver, Beyblade Forums, and others I’ve forgotten) between 2005-2007, Beywiki appeared on the scene and the rest is history … (which I will describe in part below)!

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
The brilliance of Beyblade to me is its duality. Despite how simple the game is on a surface level–you build a top and launch it into a stadium–there exists a deeper, more complex level that challenges players who want to invest the time to learn it.

To play competitively you need to not only understand what the good combinations are, you need to understand how they work against any number of other potential opponents. And this is something that is constantly changing depending on the ruleset, location you are playing, what parts are currently available in any given series, how well prepared you and your opponents combos are (is it balanced? Are the parts new? Are they worn? In some cases, are they worn to the proper level?), what stadium you’re playing in, and what launch technique you use.

It’s not good enough to just walk into a tournament with what you think is the ‘best’ combo; you need to be able to react to anything. You need to understand what the trends are in the metagame a any given time, the tendencies of specific players, how you can be countered, how you can counter their counter, and so on. It might seem easy to walk into a tournament with the strongest stamina combination and pilot it to a tournament victory, but inevitably–whether it’s that tournament or the next one–you’ll run into someone who can beat you because they were more prepared to adapt their strategy.

As such, there is a vast amount of knowledge, preparation, and versatility required to be able to play at a high level consistently over time.

But at the same time, it’s easy enough for new players to come in and do well over a single or a few tournaments if they are able to arm themselves with enough knowledge in that moment. For veterans, the game is humbling in that sense; you might win most of the time, but you can never win them all!

Considering all of this, I guess in a broad sense what I love the most about Beyblade might be the preparation. All of the work you put in (or don’t put in) is represented the moment you launch your Beyblade. At that point, it’s out of your hands. That’s inherent to the design of the game. It’s what you do in the moments leading up to and including “3 .. 2 .. 1 .. Go Shoot!” that is the most interesting to me.

How did you find the WBO?
The WBO was preceded by Beywiki, which launched in October of 2007. At the same time Beywiki was being developed by Bey Brad, the website beybladeforums.com also existed. Brad had left the community for some time after closing Off the Chain but had come back and was made an admin on beybladeforums.com.

To make a long story short, Beyblade Forums also had a wiki component called ZP Wiki (part of ZeroPositive), but it wasn’t being managed effectively before Brad arrived and he eventually decided to make his own website again: Beywiki.com.

I was a moderator on Beyblade Forums and had become friends with Brad around this time. I heard about Beywiki from him as he was thinking about the idea of making his own website again. Given the state of Beyblade Forums at that time and Brad’s history, I decided it would be a good idea to support him (looks like I made the right choice!). This is why I’m the fifth member to ever join this website haha.

From there, the unexpected happened: it was announced by TAKARA-TOMY that they would be reviving Beyblade! Maybe Brad will talk about this in his interview, but it was at this point that it probably started becoming clear to him that a new organization to help promote competitive play outside of Asia would be valuable.

Thus, in the summer of 2008 Brad revived the International Beyblade Association (IBA) project, which was a sort of stepping stone to what eventually became the WBO in December of 2008. For those who haven’t seen it, it may also be interesting to check out this page describing the IBA.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
I addressed this in my previous answer to a certain degree, but in terms of my oldest WBO-specific memory that first comes to mind:

I remember back before the WBO launched I was talking to Brad about it and he mentioned just barely missing out on being able to get the domain “beyblade.org” (which is now some other weird site)!

Another big one for me is Beyblade War Room at Anime North 2009. I had attended BEYBLADE’S NOT DEAD! at Anime North 2008 and that was a special experience in its own right, but BWR was the first WBO event in Canada if I remember correctly. I remember I bought a Shining God MS and a Bloody Devil MS from Roan at that event for about $20 each! Maybe the best deal ever in retrospect (sorry Roan hahaha).

After BWR I organized HIGH PARK throwdown with Khel and Blue, the very first Toronto tournament outside of Anime North for the WBO. This set the stage for so much that has happened with our community since then.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
This is a big one. I’ve been around so long it’s impossible to pick one memory, so maybe the best way to do this is to pick a few things from each year:

2008:
The launch of the WBO! It was so exciting seeing this come together, and with MFB having just launched, there was a strong sense of optimism about what the future could hold for us. It felt like we were on the right path finally after years of uncertainty in the Beyblade community.

2009:
I wrote a lot of Beywiki articles during 2009 and was the “Director of Beywiki” at the time. I eventually drifted away from this and started focusing on Organized Play, but I had a great time writing articles back then. Especially for many of the HMS Beyblades.

One general feeling that also stands out to me looking back on this era is how close the community felt. You have to understand that at this time we probably only had around 1000 members (compared to over 100,000 now), so in some senses the community was a bit more close knit and everyone knew everyone to a certain degree. It was also a time when message boards were probably a little bit more popular than they are now, so I remember spending a lot more time in the off-topic forums back then. Even though I love what we have become, there’s a nostalgic part of me that misses this.

2010:
This was the year when the Toronto community as we know it now really started. We had seven tournaments this year, starting with BEYBLADE REVIVAL CUP at Anime North 2010.

After Bey Brad’s first departure from the Committee in 2009, someone needed to take over as organizer for our annual Anime North events. I took up that job alongside Khel. I remember feeling a huge sense of responsibility. It was only the second event I had ever hosted, but I felt strongly that I wanted to create something that would live up to what Brad had done in previous years.

Blading in the Doubletree (now International Plaza) lobby before Anime North. A longstanding tradition. :)


With Khel in the hotel lobby.


Right after we opened the doors for BRC!

I’ve never said this anywhere, but the music I used in the BEYBLADE REVIVAL CUP video is an instrumental version of “Wasurenai kara” by GACKT. The title translates to “Because I Won’t Forget”. This feeling has stayed with me all these years, and it’s part of the reason why I’ve put so much effort into preparing for this tenth anniversary as well. I’m an overly sentimental person, but I do think that it’s important for us all to remember or learn where we came from. And to honour that past by taking what challenges we have in front of us seriously so that the memories created today are just as great as the ones which preceded them.

The registration lineup at Bey Fray in August 2010

And this is random, but I remember at Bey Fray in August that year we were doing registration and as I was walking down the line this kid whispered to his friend “Whoa, is that Kei from Youtube?”. I knew I had made it at that point.

2011:
Looking back on this now, the craziest thing to me is that by August 2011 we exploded all the way up to 50,000 members. In April 2009 we had 1000. Think about that.

Again this year however, the fondest memory I have is hosting our Anime North event: BEYBLADE CRUSADE. After losing in the finals against Minion the previous year, I went undefeated at 8-0 to win the tournament. I’ll never forget that final battle with Valentin. My Basalt Aquario BD145CS versus his Basalt Aquario TH170RS! 3-2 was the final score.

After the tournament we all hung out for some time talking and watching Bey Brad and Spinster play with MFB for the first time in a while. Daegor42, Cye Kinomiya, ikmv, Bae Master, Beyonomics, lord Wolfblade, Pyro, To, Crimson, Blue, and more were all there. Competing in tournaments is fun, but you really can’t replace moments like that either.

2011 was also a big year for the Toronto community in general; we went from 7 tournaments in 2010 up to 20.

2012:
There is one thing in particular which sticks out to me about 2012, but it’s related to something you’ll see in the last part of the WBO Design Archives series. Stay tuned!

2013:
The obvious choice here is BEYBLADE REVOLUTION: WBO North American Championship. This was a dream for a long time and seeing it come to to life with qualifiers across North America was special (and a lot of work). I expressed some of my thoughts on this after the championship ended here.

Group photo after BEYBLADE REVOLUTION.

2014:
Maybe it didn’t catch on as much as we would have liked, but the introduction of Team Format at our pilot event for it BEY OR DIE was a special moment for me in 2014.

2015:
The return of Bey Brad. The WBO rebrand project. Winning Team BeyBattle Revolution at Anime North with JesseObre and Bae Master!

The Beyblade Bursts Onto the Scene: Toronto event is also an extremely special one in my memory. It’s something I always knew, but thinking back on that day still makes me so happy to be part of this community. I posted some thoughts after the event here, as did other members.

It really was the beginning of a new era on multiple levels.

Also, seeing everyone’s reactions to Brad showing up out of the blue (only I knew he was coming) was priceless.

Starting from that event and moving forward for the next year or so I’ll always remember there being such a distinctly positive atmosphere and closeness between the core members of the community in Toronto. That’s not to say some of us aren’t close now–because we certainly are!–but there was something special happening back then that I miss. I’ll always remember how happy reading this post cadney made after the ZANKYE 100K event made me. It reinforced for me one of the biggest reasons we do everything that we do with the WBO: to make connections with others, to feel welcomed, and to have fun.

2016:
This was one of the toughest periods for the WBO given the insane amount of work involved, but it’s also one of my fondest memories: our 8th anniversary and everything that was involved with that. An absolutely monumental moment in our history. We accomplished so much together. Even if there was some bumps in the road, I’ll always be proud of the team for what we were able to do.

The event I co-hosted with WARI-BEY in Japan was a huge moment for me and for the organization as well. We might not have maintained a foothold in Japan yet, but being able to make that connection was meaningful.

2017:
Traveling to New York for Kei vs. The World: NYC is one of my fondest memories of last year for sure.

Group photo after Kei vs. The World: NYC.

Winning all three events at BEYBLADE NORTH 2017 is also still unbelievable to me.

2018:
Traveling to Los Angeles for Kei vs. The World: The Wakanda Trials was a great experience as well. I remember being so impressed by not only how huge their community was, but by how well-run the event was. Huge props to King Loofa, Jojo, Alta, and ThaKingTai. It really made me feel how far reaching the WBO really is. It was inspiring to see.

BEYBLADE NORTH 2018 was great as always, but one moment which stands out to me is running into @[FlameDragon25] for the first time in maybe six or seven years. He was a prominent member in the early days of the Toronto community.

JesseObre, FlameDragon25, and myself at BEYBLADE NORTH 2018

Back in June traveling to New York again for the Beytuber Brawl was many things. It was a huge lesson for me and everyone involved with the organization of such a big event, but at the same time it was also so much fun. The event itself was of historic proportions for the WBO, and I had such a great time traveling by car with OldSchool™, Newtype, and 1234beyblade. Being able to meet so many different Beytubers was special, as was hanging out with Cye Kinomiya the night before at the Brooklyn Zoo when we had it all to ourselves!





What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
My favourite combination is whatever one will give me the best chance to win. ;)

This is an impossible question, though (and I have myself to blame because I wrote it!). There’s so many combos that are great across each series for different reasons … and I love every aspect of Beyblade (yes, even stamina combos). But if I have to pick one:

AR: Metal Ape (Magical Ape MS)
RC: Rubber Weight Core (Round Shell MS)

I was going to pick a combo similar to what Cye Kinomiya listed because I’ve always loved compact attackers, but decided to go another way since it was already going to be represented in this thread. This HMS combo was always used as a niche counter to Bearing Core, and I feel like it is a pretty unique instance where an immensely gimmicky part (Rubber Weight Core) had a competitive use. You can read a bit more about it here.

I’ll never forget winning the final battle of HMS Beybattle Revolution with it against Cye Kinomiya’s Bearing Core combo. Picking the proper spin direction with it is key and I kept going back to the same one when we both picked in secret before each round; he couldn’t believe it.

Cye Kinomiya and I at GRAND BATTLE TOURNAMENT 2 at Anime North 2014

What are you up to these days?
Beyblade!

But you probably knew that already. I work as a web designer for a company in Toronto focusing on the hospitality and tourism industry as well as small businesses like lawyers and contractors.

I also shoot film as a hobby and have self-published a few photobooks over the past several years: unending dream in 2017 and wavering light in 2014.

I’ve been traveling to Japan once a year for a past few years, including for six weeks this past September and October. Five of those weeks were spent at a Japanese language school. And I’ve attended a lot of Beyblade events each time, so check out report from 2017 if you haven’t already. I hope to go back again sometime within the next few years for a longer period of time to study the language on a student or working holiday visa.

I’m also playing Splatoon 2 a lot lately!

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
I’ve been avoiding answering this question for a few days now. Not because I didn’t want to answer, but because it isn’t an exaggeration to say: the impact the WBO has had on my life is almost beyond description.

The more I think about it, the more obvious it becomes to me that so much of what I cherish, value, and have accomplished today can be linked back in some way to my time with the Beyblade community and the WBO. Whether that be my friends, my design work, and even some of my other interests outside of Beyblade.

Tokyo, Japan - November 2017 at Bunbuku Toys with 1234beyblade, as well as Jumbo and Hayate from Japanese Beyblade Team WARI-BEY

My passion for the game and this community has taken me literally across the globe and played an enormous role in helping me to become a more confident and driven person.

Growing up, some of the central questions I’ve always asked myself are things like “What does it mean to communicate with someone?”, “How can I connect with people?”, “What is human?”, and “How is meaning produced?”. It’s part of the reason why I pursued graphic design in high school and college; I saw it as a study in how to communicate with people visually more than anything else.

Toronto, Ontario - August 24, 2014 at “End of the Era” Tournament

My involvement with Beyblade initially came from the pure childlike desire to have fun and compete–and a big part of it still comes from that–but by becoming involved with the community, it quickly also became about playing a role in creating an environment where other people can connect. It’s more fun to play with others, after all.

Toronto, Ontario - May 28, 2011 at “BEYBLADE CRUSADE” Tournament

If you’re reading this and are thinking about starting up your own local community, I would encourage you to stick with it. It isn’t easy, but the pay off is certainly worth it in the end! On so many levels.

My time with the WBO has also taught me so much about being able to enjoy the moment. People inevitably change and move on. Having been here now for longer and more consistently than any other member, it’s become increasingly evident over the years that our time together is limited. But I believe it shouldn’t stop us from enjoying what we have when we have it.

Toronto, Ontario - May 29, 2016 after “BEYBLADE NORTH 2016” Tournament with Bey Brad, JesseObre, and 1234beyblade

I still get sad when I think about the people who aren’t around anymore, but more than that, I treasure being able to cross paths with them at all in the first place. And I know that if I hold that feeling closely and look forward with hope and passion, there will be more connections like that awaiting me.

Organizing this interview series and seeing how positive the responses have been have reassured me that this feeling is shared among many of us, even if they aren’t in the community actively anymore.

Toronto, Ontario - August 13, 2018 at “Wait, what? This isn’t High Park ...” Tournament with kerpao, Newtype, and 1234beyblade

I think being able to carry such sadness, gratitude, and hope for the future simultaneously is the cornerstone of what it means to have connected with people.

Toronto, Ontario - May 25, 2012 at “BEYBLADE CRUSADE 2” Tournament with Bae Master

It’s overwhelming to think about all of the connections that must have been made between people over the past ten years, what sort of impact we all have collectively had on each other’s lives, where we will go from here, and what new connections will be made.

Toronto, Ontario - July 14, 2018 at “HIGH PARK THROWDOWN 10” Tournament with JesseObre, Mitsu, OldSchool™, jamie, 1234beyblade, and Zyon

But what I do know more clearly than anything is:

I am happy to be here in this moment, with you.

Cye Kinomiya Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I originally got into it when it first came to the U.S., but I didn’t stick with it. Eventually I started playing Yugioh when that became popular. One day I realized that I didn’t really like Yugioh, but rather I was just playing because all my friends were, so I decided to find something else to get into. I eventually found a beyblade website from back in the day called Off the Chains and I was hooked instantly.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
My favorite aspect of Beyblade is the concept of having different launch techniques. Once you attach your beyblade to the launcher you have to use it for that round, so that part of things is no longer in your control. However, launching is the part of the game you can always control. You can use different launch techniques to make your beyblade hit a certain part of the stadium or move with a specific pattern to gain the most advantage possible and sometimes even overcome an unfavorable matchup.

How did you find the WBO?
Like I said earlier, my first experience with the online Beyblade community was on Off the Chains. After that closed down the community was kind of scattered between different online Beyblade forums, but that wasn’t working out too well. One day I got an invite from Brad to join Beywiki which later became the WBO.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
Oh my! I remember there weren’t even 20 members when I first made my account, but the community grew so quickly. I was just happy to see so many of the users from back in my OtC days all back in one place. Another memory that really stands out to me was when MFB got announced. Before that, Beyblade had been on hiatus for a while, and I had figured that we’d just have to keep it alive on our own. I was really shocked that Beyblade was coming back.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
Beyblade’s Not Dead! was hands down one of the best weekends of my life. I had been a part of this community for a few years at this point. Those years were a very formative time in my life, and I finally got to meet these friends I’d been interacting with online all that time. I’ll never forget the feelings I had when I first met up with everyone in that hotel lobby.

After I stopped playing Beyblade as much, I was working at a children’s library. One day I’m shelving some books and a small child comes up to me and says, “Aren’t you Cye Kinomiya from the WBO?” Obviously, I couldn’t believe this was happening. I asked him how he knew that and he said he saw me at a tournament once and that he followed me online. It made me feel good because I was sure no one who still played Beyblade knew who I was, haha.

Winning that last HMS tournament at Beyblade North a few years ago was kind of special for me as well. For whatever reason, that year I had decided that I’d win it no matter what so it felt really good when I did. There are so many memories that come to mind so I’ll just say that my favorite part about the WBO is meeting up at the events. Whether it be competing or just hanging out with your friends that you don’t get to see often, there is this kind of camaraderie that is different than anything I’ve experienced.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
AR: Jiraiya Blade
WD: Circle Wide
RC: Grip Flat Core/Grip Flat Core Ultimate Mode

I feel like attack types are the most fun to use because they require the most skill, and I’d argue that this combo is the most effective attack type in all of Beyblade’s history.

What are you up to these days?
I’m a parkour instructor in NYC. I spend most of time time either teaching or training. If you’re ever in NYC and want to jump around hit me up! I usually save my money from teaching to travel.

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
Like I said before, I got into Beyblade at a really formative time in my life. Being a part of the community in some ways taught me how to carry myself, how to consider another person’s perspective, and even gave me some people to look up to. Going to WBO events was one of the first ways I found to help me combat social awkwardness. Actually, I’m sure that’s true for many others as well.

I met some of my friends in this community when we were just kids and now I know them as adults. It’s cool that as an adult now I’ve gotten to see kids who were my age or even younger forming friendships because of Beyblade, just like I did when I was their age. It’s even cooler that some of those same kids I watched grow up into adults are the ones creating the environment for that to happen.

I find myself wanting to write a whole bunch more but I’d probably go on forever so I’ll end it with this: I want to say thank you to Brad, Kei, Kai-V, and anyone else who has helped keep this community going all this time. I already knew it, but this interview helped me to reiterate in my mind how important my time with the Beyblade community really is to me.

Roan Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I originally got into Beyblade thanks to my younger cousin. He was a member of the WBO too, but I can’t actually remember his username now, LOL. Anyway, he’d heard of the game online from one of the communities that pre-dated the WBO and quickly got me into it. Before I knew it, we were spending entire afternoons testing out combos, talking strategy with each other, and posting on online communities. It really did take over my life for a couple of years. We both literally lived and breathed Beyblade.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
I actually have two favorite aspects of Beyblade. The first is the deceptively simple mechanics of the game. Anyone can pick up a Beyblade and learn the basics, but the possibilities for competitive play are truly endless and amazingly deep. The second is the way the game brings people together in a very physical sense. Although most of my time in the Beyblade competitive world was spent online, I loved that the game required having a friend or friends to play because I was (unsurprisingly) a bit of a hermit, so it got me out of the house quite a bit when I was younger. These days, I think it’s critically important that more kids — and adults too! — have games like Beyblade that bring them off the screen and into each other’s company.

How did you find the WBO?
I was involved in many of the earlier online Beyblade communities. I even ran one myself at one point called Spinning Spirits. My own site and my other connections introduced me to Brad. Eventually, I think I became a moderator on the predecessor site to the WBO (I think — not 100% sure on that, but I’m fairly sure, LOL). When the WBO was founded, Brad asked me to come along and contribute articles to the Bey Wiki and of course I was thrilled about the opportunity. From there, it just sort of took on its own life.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
Wow, what a great question! I’ve been out of the WBO loop for so long now that it’s a stretch for me to remember much of anything specific about my time there. I guess the first thing I can really remember is the excitement we had going into creating the Bey Wiki, which was pretty extraordinary for its time. No one had done anything like it before and we were all convinced it was going to be a big deal. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that sense of belonging and purpose. For a long time in my life, the WBO, its staff, and its members were really like a family to me, so it was truly special to be trusted enough to play such a large role in building it. Honestly, I think it was a hugely formative time in my life that led me to where I’m at now.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
Oh man, I have way too many, but a few stick out in particular. I still remember writing my first article for the Bey Wiki, which if I remember correctly was for Driger MS. At the time, publishing that was one of my proudest moments as a person and a member of the WBO. That probably sounds cheesy as all get out, but it’s true! I loved writing and I loved Beyblade, so being able to combine them was really special to me. The other memory that stands out is the first time I met the staff and several members when I traveled to Toronto in 2006 (I think? Maybe 2007? I can’t remember) for a tournament hosted at Animé North. That whole weekend was such a blast, and I made new connections with a ton of people while deepening existing ones with those I was already friends with online.

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
I think I sort of answered this question already, but I’ll clarify a bit further. I always knew the Internet was going to play a huge role in my life and future career, even from a super young age, and being involved with the WBO on both the backend as a writer/content creator and its public-facing forum as a moderator really solidified that for me. I guess my work there sort of proved to me that it was not only possible to do what I loved, but that it was also well within my reach and skillset. On a more personal level, my childhood home life was highly unstable and chaotic, so my time at WBO gave me a network of friends that I really loved who I felt like loved me just as much. They were much more of a family for me than my own was. I think, more than anything else, that was what I needed, and the WBO was all that and more for me.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
To be 100% honest, I can’t even remember the terms for most of the parts! LOL Beyblade MS was all the rage around the time I stopped playing, and I pretty distinctly remember being in love with aggressive Attack types, so if I had to venture a guess, I’d say it was probably some combination of Dragoon MSUV’s parts. That was (and still is) my favorite Beyblade ever made — the widened rubber attack tip changed the game! — though Driger MS was a darn close second. :)

What are you up to these days?
These days, I’m married and run my own small publishing business. About two years ago, I self-published my first novel and it really blew up on Amazon. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to support myself as a full-time author. At the start of this year, I officially incorporated my business as an LLC and just today I finished my 17th novel. It’s been a really wild ride, but I have to say that I think my time spent writing for, managing, and helping market the WBO definitely played a huge role in preparing me for what I do now. If you’d asked me ten years ago if I thought I’d be making a living writing fiction, I probably would’ve laughed at you and called you crazy, but here I am. It just goes to show that if you’re truly passionate about something, nothing you do in pursuit of that passion is “a waste of time.” Believe me, I heard that from my parents about my Beyblade obsession more times than I could count, but I can’t imagine I’d be doing what I do now if I hadn’t learned so much from my time with the WBO. Never let anyone take your dreams or passions away from you!

Kai-V Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
It all started from an assignment for English immersion. We were tasked with writing a summary of a show in English, and the one I landed on on YTV was Beyblade. The forty-fifth episode of Bakuten Shoot Beyblade, to be precise. The story interested me from that very moment, and my interest remained mostly toward the anime, until Metal Fight Beyblade was revealed and I could finally learn from the beginning and follow along.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
It would be difficult to answer anything but how it brings the world together.

How did you find the WBO?
Ah I was part of the community and had registered on the main message boards since 2003 or 2002.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
BeybladeForums.com had just undergone some sort of scandal, or a revelation of the owners' lack of interest/impartiality/dedication. Then I woke up the next day and Brad had made this new site that of course everybody would join. I believe I was the... 28th to create an account? Seeing as most of the members were the same as on BBF, I started contributing right away without making an introduction topic.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
I cannot answer anything but that one tournament that BLADER SEXY [Note from Kei: This is one of Bae Master’s many incredible usernames from back when we allowed changes.] hosted in his family's basement with tons of exclusive BeyStadiums and equipment, which started a series of awesome events mainly in his company, if we are to talk strictly about Beyblade. Overall, it was definitely the great people met, seeing everybody evolve throughout the years and the power we have to take matters into our hands when the official companies fail our needs.



Also, spending all those hours responding to guesses on the Scavenger Hunt each year, and coming up with challenges that would interest everybody, was actually a good memory despite how much work was involved in it. In general, being challenged to keep people excited.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
The elusive weak-launched Longinus-Hold combination that was stolen from me was quite something.

What are you up to these days?
I progressed in my career and have little time for anything. I prefer dedicating the free time I have to cosplays, especially from Kamen Rider. The tokusatsu cosplay community is great, because there is so much work involved in each costume, therefore everyone's effort is acknowledgeable.

In terms of online contributions though, I have started focusing on my main passion, Dir en grey/sukekiyo.

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
As previously mentioned, I met my best friend through the World Beyblade Organization, in Montréal, and this is what I wish to everyone. You might not be able to meet them all in person, but the World Beyblade Organization facilitates discoveries and acquaintances like nothing else, not even in other hobbies even.

It should have a great impact considering all those years I spent on it... But the last year or couple of years of my full-time on the World Beyblade Organization would have needed to be different. I do not get the impression that I had any impact on this community, or that any of it remains, for that matter, and vice versa. So, selfishly, I suppose that I can say that my time in this organization has taught me a lot about managing conflicts and emergencies, it developed my innovative streak and it helped me grow a mind that thinks about the best scenarios and the greater good of the whole versus the few. The World Beyblade Organization was born on very pure values and I worked hard to uphold them throughout all those years. I wished to leave the organisation in a great state, but circumstances were not aligned at all.

Nic Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I think I had a classmate back then introduce it to me just before it started trending here, and I got into it hard. Said classmate lost interest after the trend (think that was around G series) but I kept at it

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
It's about finding unexpected synergies and being the first in the community to realise something unusual could work. It's similar to why I play MMOs these days and enjoy puzzle solving.

How did you find the WBO?
I'm not sure if you literally mean how I got to know about it, or what I thought about it. Regarding the former, I guess it's natural if you were part of the old forum communities. Stuff gets around by word of mouth. For the latter, I thought it was a really cool idea and to be honest now I'm really surprised how big it's grown over the past decade!

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
I remember there being a need to fill up the wiki with articles. Everyone was starting from scratch so there was a lot of work to be done.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
I think it was really about research and figuring things out for me. I lived on the other side of the world, so there really wasn't much I could do for events.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
I think my favorite was from the old first gen plastic series, a combination of Gabriel attack ring, wide survivor and Zeus core and base. It wasn't the best but it had style points and rare parts. I generally really loved bearing cores even after they fell out of meta with the heavy metal series, underhanded tactics always appealed to me more than straight up attack or defence, so I had permanent combos for every useful bearing core. Didn't really like the HMS stuff because they couldn't exploit this as much.

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
I usually tell people I grew up on the internet. This community is basically where I spent my formative years socialising. It's definitely influenced how I interact with others.

What are you up to these days?
Mainly teaching and making music. I did that back a decade ago too, so I guess not much has changed!

Naijalak Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
Honestly, I think the first time I was aware of Beyblade was around the time it started showing on Channel 5 in the Uk. We had a series here called ‘RAD’, which was a skateboarding reel of young international talent, it aired early - and the following show was usually a cartoon. At some point, Beyblade filled that slot, and I guess from that point, the infatuation was there.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
Honestly, it was this aspect of the unknown. When we were first messing around with part combinations, and the dimensions of the tornado balance stadium - so much of working out the core combinations was trial and error. And people had such a passion for trying to understand the physics and force of those parts, the real science of Beyblade, it was infectious.

How did you find the WBO?
This is going back a long time now, but before the WBO - there was a forum called Off the Chain. OTC (I think) was still dealing with the game up until the Metal Fight? And then there was a pretty considerable lull, Beyblade fell out of trend, or fashion. A couple of years later though, I started hearing rumours about a reboot (and I assumed Brad would have at least some kind of stakes in that) - so I sought it out, and found the WBO.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
it’s either the ‘free face design thread’, or Mcm Comic-Con? When I first joined, I started a thread (basically) saying “Give me a theme, and I’ll design something for you to stick on a Beyblade”. It was creative problem solving, it was illustration, and above all else - it was fun! MCM though, I think that might have been the first UK WBO sanctioned tournament?

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
I met a lot of amazing people through the WBO, some of which (even though I’m not as close to now) I still hold exceptionally dear today... It wasn’t just a hobby, it was a community, and a family above all else.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
AR: Advance Survivor (Advance Eterner)
WD: CWD God Ring (Shining God MS)
RC: Bearing Core (Wolborg MS). I still remember my Dad helping me spin grease out of Wolborg bearings with a power drill (bless his heart).

What are you up to these days?
I’m now an artworker/designer, primarily dealing with artwork origination for film and online streaming platforms. In basic terms, if you see a film poster, or a graphic advertising a film/tv show - there’s a chance I had something to do with the concept/production of that. The basics of what I do now, aren’t worlds apart from the work I did with the WBO.

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
That’s a pretty hefty question for me. From a career perspective - it definitely pushed me on a certain trajectory, and I taught myself a lot through something I was passionate about. Personally, I met truly amazing people through a shared interest - and wherever we are now, that definitely had an massive impact on who am as a person. I wouldn’t change a minute of it for the world.

Khel Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I recall seeing the first episode of the original series back in 2002. YTV made a big deal about airing a new show so I thought I would check it out. I got hooked and next thing I knew I was pestering my parents to get me a couple of them

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
My favourite part has to be the tactile nature of it. Unlike trading cards you had something more substantial. Something that you could take apart, customize and make your own. Honestly I just thought they looked really cool

How did you find the WBO?
In 2008 I was going through a bit of a nostalgia trip and was reminiscing about my time on off the chain. I wondered what Brad was up to and lo and behold he had a new site. It wasn’t called the WBO back then. I remember when he first unveiled the new site

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
See above. I remember when it launched haha

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
Going to anime North, and getting caught up I. The MFB launch. It was great to see the toy line revived, when I could actually afford them. Going to Anime North 2009 had to take the cake though. That or when I got made a committee member

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
Favourite Beyblade  had to be Death Gargoyle MS stock. Favourite combo (that I owned) had to be Samurai Upper/heavy/grip flat core

What are you up to these days?
I work in Marketing at a bank. Work is rewarding and life is good and I get to spend my free time with loving family and friends.

Blitz Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I originally got into Beyblade when the plastic generation was first released in the UK (around 2001 I think?) I got into it from watching the anime. (Fell in love with the bit beast and designs)

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
My favourite aspect of Beyblade has to be the amount of customisation you’re able to achieve with the all the parts available. And the the accomplishment you feel when you come up with a really good customisation, that does well in a tournament.

How did you find the WBO?
I came across the WBO when I found all my old beyblades in the loft and was trying to remember the name of one of my favourites (Kid Dragoon) so Google’d Beyblade and the WBO was one of the top searches so clicked on it and the rest was history haha!

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
The oldest thing I can remember, Hmmm probably my first post I remember asking what combos I could make out of the plastic Beyblades I owned which were mostly terrible as I was a big noob haha!

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
My fondest memories would have to be going to all the tournaments and meeting all the people that have the same love for Beyblade as myself and making so many new friends through it. Obviously travelling to Canada for the (can’t remember the name of the tournament off the top of my head ?) big tournament in May 2012 was absolutely incredible, travelling to a different country to play my favourite hobby and feeling so welcome even though I’d never met anyone before was one of the most memorable moments I’ll ever have, truly a great experience even if I did rubbish hah. The UK community was also great managing to host tournaments at the MCM Expo was insane and being able to help host was a truly rewarding experience. Even when the numbers died down we had the die hard players keep coming which made us became good friends and each tournament would always be great fun (even in winter with the freezing conditions ?). And to top it off the community on the WBO was always so knowledgeable and helpful so you’d learn so much it was a very nice community to be a part of.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
My favourite combo has to be MSF-H Dragooon Dragooon/Wyvang BD145 RDF it won/help me place at a lot of tournaments and was fun to use as it was quite the balance type as it had the potential to KO, outspin and even be defensive if needed, I got some insane knockouts with it which always made for interesting beybattles. Plus I had all the parts to make it look awesome! Still have it made up today ?!

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
The WBO had a huge impact on my life it made me a much more confident and sociable person wanting to go to tournaments meant I’d have to be and it really help me grow as a person. It also taught me skills I didn’t realise I had like being able to host and organise tournaments, travel to different countries on my own as well as being able to help with admin and moderating a forum which I’d never done before. Truly a great part of my life which I’ll always remember and cherish! (I’ll definitely won’t forget it as I have my Wolborg and Dranzer tattoos on my leg haha!)

What are you up to these days?
I’m currently working full time as a manager for a retail store called Screwfix (DIY store) and my hobby has shifted to playing a lot of Pokémon Go at the moment haha!

Serotonin Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I was probably about 9 or 10 when I first became interested in Beyblade, around 2001. I’d seen the first episode on Toonami one evening; it wasn’t labelled correctly on the TV guide so I had no idea what this new show was about or why it was on, but I enjoyed the competitive, yet simple to understand, premise of the show. I was familiar with similar anime shows such as Pokemon and Digimon, but I enjoyed the semi-realism of competitive spinning tops (at least, in the first episode anyway!).

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
To be perfectly honest, I have always enjoyed the collectible nature of Beyblade most. I liked collecting different colours and variations of Beys most, although this didn’t really become possible until I had more of a disposable income and the advent of online shopping. There weren’t many kids at my school who were that interested in Beyblade when I was a kid, so I always saw them as things to collect and study, rather than to compete with.

How did you find the WBO?
I was a member of Off the Chain, an online Beyblade community led by Brad which was kind of a predecessor of the WBO, during the plastics/HMS era. I somehow came across news that Beyblade was being revived through Metal Fight Beyblade and I’d wanted to buy a few for nostalgic reasons; I wanted to find more information on them, and came across the WBO as well as a few familiar faces!

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
My first memory is asking on one of the Marketplace threads (perhaps eBay or Purchase Consultation) whether the prices for the Defense and Stamina Reshuffle set (featuring the pre-HWS Libra and Virgo Wheels!) were too good to be true. I don’t know whether that was my first post or not, haha.

My second memory which might have happened shortly after was buying some HMS parts from Brad. These were parts which I’d never managed to collect as a kid so it was an exciting moment for sure!

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
I enjoyed the community aspect of the WBO. There are always a wide variety of people on the WBO; male, female, some young, some old, and people from a variety of different cultures. I enjoyed hearing about how this small spinning top toyline, which I’d spend my weekly allowance on as a child, was also capturing the imaginations of people all over the world and that they were able to share their experiences and knowledge on a network created and sustained by other like-minded fans. Above all, I made many good friends from this website, some of whom I am now incredibly disappointed to have lost contact with. A lot of this post will seem overtly sentimental to both the hobby and community, but it’s amazing to think how long the WBO has been around, and how many friendships must have been formed. Looking back, this is amazingly positive, and certainly had a huge impact on me growing up.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
I think I always liked spin-stealers and stamina type Beyblades. I was first amazed by spin-stealing with the HMS customisation:

AR: Advance Survivor
WD: Circle Wide
RC: Bearing Core

(I was happy that I managed to remember the parts names and the setting out after all these years! I liked this customisation so much I took it on a family holiday once when I was young.)

I personally think that the HMS line, from its packaging to the designs of the Beys and Launchers themselves, represented a high point in Beyblade’s design history and also succinctly captured an early 00s feel of hi-tech, which was really exciting to me. I enjoyed the combination of plastic and metal in the Attack Rings.

What are you up to these days?
I’m training to become a fully qualified architect these days. I haven’t logged on to the WBO or been to any events for a long time, but do visit from time to time to keep up to date with the community and the latest releases.

I continue to be interested in it from an aesthetic, design point of view. Beyblade as a toy line has always captivated me as a mixture of compelling, beautiful stand-alone designs, and a competitive game based on physics and dynamics, but also a lot about luck, too. You can build beautiful customisations, powerful customisations, or even ones which are both!

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
As I said, I made some very good friends during my time at the WBO. I also learnt a lot from these friends, but also learnt a lot from the community. You learn so much when you participate in a community like this, from how to behave in certain situations or how you can be kind or welcoming to people who are interested in the same things you are, but aren’t necessarily as knowledgeable as you yet. As one of the reasons why I joined the WBO (essentially to ask a question and find out more), I hope this community continues to connect people who are interested in the hobby (through the online forum, or at events) and provide a resource for people who want to learn more. I think this was always, and continues to be, the WBO’s greatest strength.

Bae Master Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I discovered Beyblade on YTV. I still remember the first scene I watched, it was Driger absolutely decimating his opponent while destroying the arena on its path. I thought it was the most badass thing. My parents used to buy me bootleg Beyblades in Chinatown, they had those extra long ripcords and those sun metal rings!

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
There are many aspects of Beyblade which made it so appealing to me, for instance the competitive aspect of it (staying on top of the meta-game, analyzing your opponent’s combos of preference, etc.) and the collection aspect of it. But at its essence, I believe my favorite aspect of Beyblade is simply how it looks and feels in your hands. Oh, and the satisfying sound of 2 Beyblades hitting each other.

How did you find the WBO?
I found the WBO in my last year of high school. I was going through the toys aisle at a local Wal-Mart and I started wondering what the hell happened to Beyblade. I searched Ebay and I found those early MFB beys. I thought they were chinese knock-offs, no way those were a real thing! I searched for more info and that’s how I quickly found the WBO.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
Spamming Bey Brad’s inbox with stupid questions like: WHERE CAN I BUY METAL FACES and WHAT IS BEYBLADE WAR ROOM

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
(Fooling around at) Anime North are my favorite WBO memories. But I also made some great online friends during those years.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
Hell Kerbecs (scott can you find the combo I used at AN 2011?) [Note from Kei: I believe it was Hell Kerbecs BD145CS!]. I arrived at AN 2011 and I had been freaking out of the loop. I had no idea about the meta-game, so I asked Scott what I should buy. 30$ later, and I had a combo that carried me to the finals of Anime North 2011, where we had the biggest room ever. It was epic.

What are you up to these days?
I’m a barber in Montreal. My best friend is still Kai-V. We see each other almost every week and we cook and build Gunpla!

Daegor42 Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
Pretty much like everyone else, I suppose. I watched the original anime series on TV.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
I enjoy the customization options available. A lot of the fun for me was experimenting with parts and combinations to see what would or wouldn't work.

How did you find the WBO?
When I was coming back around the Metal Fight era, I was googling product reviews to see which purchases would be best, and I'm pretty sure that's when I stumbled onto the BeyWiki articles.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
I remember spending several hours meticulously testing some combination or other and posting the results on the forum. I think I remember pioneering a whole format of posting test results too, but that might just be arrogance clouding my memory hahaha.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
I remember at the last Anime North event I attended when I was just about completely set on leaving the scene, there was a young kid who was attending and they were sad that they didn't have a launcher grip like pretty much everyone else. I just gave them my grip for keepsies since I 1) had multiple anyway and 2) probably wasn't going to need it in the future. I still remember their face lighting up; it was great.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
Ey yo, you know it's my aibou aka good ol' MF Sagittario 90RF with its explosive one hit knock out potential. Win fast, win hard, or lose!

What are you up to these days?
Absolutely nothing of note; just working.

Angry Face Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
Like many, I got into Beyblade after watching the dubbed anime on ABC Family and Jetix back in the early 2000s, but only somewhat; I had a few Beyblades and a stadium, but I didn't really play with them all that much because it was just me and my Duotron launcher back then.

However, I really got into Beyblade in 2010, after I rediscovered my Beyblades under my bed, introduced them to my little sister, then, maybe a week later, discovered Beyblade: Metal Fusion in stores. We bought the two pack with Storm Pegasus and Rock Aquario that day, and I remember precisely saying to my parents, "We'll just get this one..." LOL

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
I think the whole battling aspect of the game is what attracted me initially, just as it did for Medabots and other fighting robot games of the time, but I think the depth of customization possible with each new series of every generation is what's kept me around, if at arm's length these days. Customization is so fundamental to the game, and new ways to do that is what keeps me coming back for more.

How did you find the WBO?
I discovered the WBO after doing a Google search for "beyblade replacement stickers" for my black Hasbro Aries Energy Ring from that two pack with Dark Wolf. I made an account just to make a request that someone make me Aries stickers in the Your Creations forum, ahahaha. I didn't know anything about the WBO or forum culture back then.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
Honestly, it's just joining to make that silly request for stickers, lol.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
I've had a lot of really great times here online and in person at tournaments. Photoshopping memes and doing other nonsensical things with sarabscientist and co. on the forums (and inadvertently annoying Hazel) are some of my warmest memories of forum-life.

On the flipside, I got to meet some awesome people at the tournaments I attended in MD and NC hosted by Arupaeo and Dark_Mousy respectively over the years. Their tournaments were what set the standards for my own events down the line.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
MF-H Gravity Perseus (Stamina Ver.) BD145RDF

I used this combo for MFB exclusively for soooo long and even placed a couple times with it. I got the Gravity Perseus Stamina Ver. from othellog in a trade (an old MD/VA legend and someone I considered a mentor), and the BD145 came from the red Hell Kerbecs. Though not the best build for MFB, it's certainly my most sentimental Beyblade combo.

What are you up to these days?
Living the dream! These days, I'm working and saving up to pay for my education at Virginia Commonwealth University. I'll transfer into their psychology program this spring after having completed my Associate of Social Sciences at community college this past spring. I'm also considering their school of public affairs and administration, but we'll see how things go when I get there.

Arupaeo Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
My nephew and my son (BurnRockVirgo) started to play Beyblade at school, and we started to play together at home.  We also started to watch the anime, and it was pretty cool too!

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
Definitely the competitive strategy.  As I learned more about the interchangeable parts and the importance of testing, I became much more aware of the shifts in the meta game as new beys were being released. In addition to that, I also focused on the tendencies and preferences of each opponent over time to get a feel for what beys I might be facing in tournaments. But above all else, I had to work on my launch techniques so that my skill as a blader could try to overcome unfavorable match-ups. It’s a lot to keep track of, but that’s the part of the game I love the most!

How did you find the WBO?
We heard from some other kids that there were real Beyblade tournaments in Maryland, and BRV was really excited to find them. After some google searches I came across the WBO website, found organized play, and we went to our first tournament.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
My first memory of the WBO is the first tournament I went to.  There were about 20 kids and parents and Beyblade stadiums everywhere.  Everyone was really nice, and the free play before the tournament was really fun. When it came time for the actual tournament though? Boy was I bad! I lost every match I think, but I was hooked - it was an awesome experience!

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
One of my favorite memories of the WBO was when I travelled to a tournament in New York City Central Park on a Saturday, and then took an overnight bus up to Toronto to play in a tournament on Sunday! It was so great to hang out with the bladers I had been talking to online on the WBO boards - including you Kei!

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
My favorite Beyblade combo from metal fight was Basalt Kerbecs BD145 CS. It was a very versatile bey in its day, and looked like a birthday cake! :)

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
My time with the WBO was very special to me. I really enjoyed organizing tournaments and learning more about how to build a local community of bladers. It helped me to see that when you have a positive spirit and determination, you can help other people become successful and lift everyone up together!

What are you up to these days?
I have been studying karate for the past 4 years, and my competitive spirit has helped me to win a few karate tournaments.  I also play Clash Royale and I’m playing lots of Pokémon Go!

Thank you so much Kei and Kai-V for keeping the community alive and vibrant over all of these years. And of course thanks to Bey Brad for providing the initial spirit to the WBO!

Uwik Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
Well, I was with my daughter picking a toy for herself. She chose this beyblade (Lightning LDrago), and she immediately opened and assembled it in the store and played against others. Back then, MFB was booming like crazy. Everybody played in the free arena provided by the toy shops. Anyway, my daughter lost to a stock Earth Aquila. Later that night, I googled beyblades and realized there were lots of possible combinations. One thing led to another, I ended up as a member in WBO, and the rest is history.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
I think more than anything, it's the community. I got to know and met people from around the world, some of which I still keep in touch with until now.

How did you find the WBO?
Good 'ol Mr. and Mrs. Google.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
It's hard to recall my 'first' memory, since it's been a while, but one of the earliest ones would be discovering the Ranking system for Organized Events. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
The organized events by far! Meeting other bladers and actually battling them in real life are experiences worth remembering.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
Duo 230 MB. Because it was something that I came up with, and was quite relevant in the meta back then.

What are you up to these days?
General adulting, really. Nothing too exciting. I still live and work in Indonesia.

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
I guess I learned to be more patient, hah! Well, in all honesty, WBO actually played a big role in many aspects during that period of time in my life.

PS: Shout out to Kei for reaching out to me. I was pleasantly surprised. It was definitely a nice blast from the past.

~Mana~ Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
Good ol' classic Beyblade! It was a pretty prominent part of my life when I was younger; the show was a really big deal within the UK at the time and was pretty popular, especially with other kids at school (keep in mind that I was 5-6 years old around then!). I found myself pretty engrossed in everything, would beg my parents for all the new Beys, and even going beyond that. Remember the original Beyblade annual? And the original VHS/DVD volumes? I still have all of those that I was given over a few Christmas and birthdays!

I grew distant from Beyblade after G-Revolution ended, and stumbled back upon it towards the beginning of Metal Fight's second season in Japan, pretty amazed that it had been rebooted and I immediately got stuck in once again, joining the team over at Beyblade Wiki. And I haven't abandoned the game since!

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
As cheesy as it sounds, my favourite part about Beyblade is absolutely the people who play it. As much as I love fiercely competing with other Bladers in tournaments, or the endless potential for testing and customisation of Beyblade combinations, the Beyblade community itself has always been something I've admired the most about the game. Especially within the WBO, there's a sense of acceptance; everyone also loves this game you love, everyone is always friendly, some people can even be far more fired up and passionate than you are, and I've even had the opportunity to travel around the world to meet some of these Bladers, with it feeling just like visiting a family away from home!

How did you find the WBO?
In 2011, I joined the Beyblade Wiki administration team, and learned about the WBO around the same time due to some tension between the two sites. After hopping on and joining the site myself then, I got stuck in with discussions, and particularly loved lurking around within the anime/manga forum.

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
As mentioned above, I learned about the WBO shortly after I joined the admin team at Beyblade Wiki and, while what I said above about loving discussions onsite was true, my first real memory of the WBO isn't necessarily a great one. The WBO and Beyblade Wiki were at each other's throats for the longest time, and that unfortunately rubbed off on me when making my first impression. Neither side could really co-operate due to our completely contrasting ideals for Beyblade and how to handle information, even if we did respect the work that each other did on our respective sites.

This continued for years, effectively creating one big bad memory overall unfortunately. But things definitely improved thereafter - Beyblade Wiki became a WBO project and merged with Beywiki, the two teams got to know and respect each other, and I eventually became Committee to oversee this partnership - so I can't really say it's a bad memory anymore; more like it was a stepping stone towards a better future and partnership between the two of us! It's in the past, and it's something that eventually lead to a united Beyblade community, rather than the somewhat divisive one we had before!

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
Attending my first Beyblade tournament! May 2016, the BeyDays event in London. I was horribly nervous attending the event as I really wasn't sure what to expect. Admittedly, I'd even considered refunding my train ticket and completely bailing on going, but I took the plunge and decided to see how things were. Absolutely no regrets, the community was fantastic. It was a very small community, but in the short few hours I'd gotten to know them, they already felt like a second family. We laughed together, cried together, completely Ragnarekt our opponents, and began a "Damn Samuel!" meme that would go on to last a solid seven months of constant referencing.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
...I've been informed by the London community that the only acceptable answer to this question is Spriggan Oval Quake. Apparently there's some UK Beyblade team called Team Oval Quake as well, who rep this combination everywhere they go? They sound like cool guys anyway. Should probably get an invite to a World Championship or something to show off this ungodly power...

What are you up to these days?
I'm still here! But you knew that one, right? :P

I've had a busy year personally. I've been travelling a lot; Denmark, Canada and the Netherlands this year, hopefully more next year for sure, finances permitting!

I've also graduated from university with a Bachelors' Degree in Applied Computing this year, so there's been a lot going on recently to immediately try to apply that in a relevant career ASAP, which I've happily started last week and enjoying a tonne!

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
The WBO has had a drastic impact on my day-to-day life since actively returning to the site in 2015, and especially in recent years with Committee responsibilities on top of everything else! The WBO has become a central part of my day-to-day life, including checking up to make sure everything is running smoothly, managing our various Contributor teams, joining in on some of the juicy conversations, and sending messages over to some on-site friends as well.

I've also had the opportunity to meet some fantastic people, - including many who will definitely stick around as lifelong friends - and I hope that continuing to work with the WBO and Beyblade in general will continue to encourage me to take on new experiences and meet new people! Ask me again on our 15th Anniversary and hopefully I'll have a lot more to share! :P

Naijalak Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I originally got into Beyblade when my oldest son was 6-years-old, back in 2011. He's on the Autism spectrum and loved spinning things. I remember reading an article on GeekDad about Beyblade and figured it would be perfect to play with him!

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
I love the customizability of the game, and that it's something I can still enjoy with my children.

How did you find the WBO?
Being a geeky kinda guy I had to do as much in-depth research into Beyblade as I could once my kids really started getting into it. That led me to the WBO, and eventually organizing tournaments of my own!

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
Man, the oldest thing I can remember was asking on the forums how to make a good custom-built stadium. Stadium prices were crazy-expensive at the time if you wanted a good import. US stadiums just weren't up to snuff when I knew there were better ones out there.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
I loved the local community we had in Connecticut. I ran tournaments for about 2 years and both my kids and I made some great friends during that time. Both parents and kids would attend, help out, and have a great time around a bunch of spinning tops.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
My favorite? That's a tough one. I tried all sorts of crazy things back in the day. I loved Dragoon combinations in the Zero-G days. As far as burst goes, I don't play as seriously as I used to, so I just throw things together and enjoy the time playing with my younger kids.

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
I made some great friends, helped kids with similar interests connect and have fun together, and just generally enjoyed the hobby more than if I hadn't found the WBO.

What are you up to these days?
These days I'm crazy busy. I've got 4 kids, a full time job, and I also run A Pawn's Perspective, a tabletop gaming review site. There's not much time for much else!

LMAO Wrote:Hello ?

My name is Shuaib but I am known in the WBO community as “LMAO”. I have been with this wonderful community for approximately 6 years.

How did you originally get into Beyblade?
I got into beyblade when I was around 6 or 7, however my sisters actually played with them and I’d watch as the names Dragoon and Driger were instilled into my memory. A couple years after that, Metal Fusion had come out and my interest in Beyblade only skyrocketed. Found out about the World Beyblade Organization on Google and the rest is history.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
Definitely the competitive side. I loved how knowledge meant more than luck in Beyblade, and that’s what made the game so much more fun for me. Although I am retired now, I will randomly watch videos on competitive Beyblade to see how it’s doing and what’s new with the meta.

How did you find the WBO?
Was playing Beyblade with my brother and comparing launches with each other, then the thought of Beyblade tournaments came to mind. We searched it up on google and found the Frozen Hands tournament being hosted in Toronto, and we couldn’t be happier ?

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
The oldest WBO memory I have is when we went to our first tournament, and we were unsure of where it was being held. Then we saw Pockyx3 [Note from Kei: His username is now “Priscient”] and I was scared to ask if it was the Beyblade tournament, and so my little brother asked instead, and it turned out to be the most fun (and cold) tournament I’ve ever been to.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
The best moments have definitely been when the Toronto scene hosts big events like Anime North, since it’s great to see so many people gathering to play Beyblade, especially seeing people from across the globe coming to the events.

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
Wyvang Dragoon BD145RDF is my all time favourite combination due to how dominating it was in competitive Beyblade :)))

What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
My time with the WBO has definitely impacted my life as I met a lot of good friends playing Beyblade, as well as brought out a competitive drive in me ?

What are you up to these days?
Nowadays I am studying Social Sciences at the University of Toronto and currently in my 2nd year ? Not much going on but school has taken up most of my time. Honestly hope to get back into coming to Beyblade tournaments again ?

cadney Wrote:How did you originally get into Beyblade?
Through Bey Brad! My friends in Elementary school were very into the game while I was growing up, but at that time, I was more of a Pokémon gal—so I listened to their stories about competing in YTV sponsored Beyblade tournaments from afar. When I met Brad, I was surprised to learn that the game still had a healthy community hosting volunteer-run tournaments! He talked a lot about the strategy involved in the game, and that piqued my interest.

What is your favourite aspect of Beyblade?
I love that there are so many ways to do well, even if you’re not the most physically strong. When I first started playing, I felt at a disadvantage. My upper arm strength was nowhere near most of my friends'. But I started to learn, by practicing a whole lot, that if I nailed down my shooting technique it would be possible for me to compete with them. I ended up having some great matches with some of strongest members of the community!

How did you find the WBO?
I have Brad to thank for that as well. When Burst was released, he encouraged me to come with him to its first official WBO tournament in Toronto. I had a great time and made lots of friends right away. The rest is history, I guess!

What is your first memory of your time with the WBO? The oldest thing you can remember.
I remember using Kerbeus at "Beyblade Bursts Onto the Scene: Toronto" and lovingly referring to it as "Strong Green."

What are some of your fondest memories of your time with the WBO? On-site in the community, at our events, or working on projects.
The friends I've made over the years are incredibly important to me. Even though real life circumstances have made it difficult for me to continue participating in tournaments, I'm still in touch with all the Beyblade friends I've made around the world, and they're all such wonderful people I never want to lose contact with!

What is your favourite Beyblade combination and why?
I think my favourite is still Valkyrie Heavy Accel. When we all first started playing Burst in Toronto, I found this one of the most exciting combos to use. It hit heavily and contributed to our most dramatic finishes. Attack was intimidating for me to use as a new player, but I learned how to shoot Attack types by practicing with this combo, so it has some nostalgic value for me. I know the meta has changed a great deal since then, but I still love all the beautiful colour combinations that you can create with this combo. The pink and white Valkyrie layers are especially beautiful!

What are you up to these days?
I've been suffering from a back injury since January, so my main focus right now is staying active! As a result, I play a ton of Pokemon GO. It requires me to walk long distances and always keep moving. If you're interested in that game too, check out my Twitter! I do my best to keep track of my Pokemon adventures there: @Cadn3y
https://twitter.com/cadn3y


What impact did your time with the WBO have on your life?
It made me appreciate the value of volunteer work and admire those who dedicate themselves to building volunteer-run organizations. Putting time and effort into growing a community can be challenging, especially when you have full time work and other projects on the go. But seeing the results of your hard work and how it changes the community for the better is super fulfilling and motivating!