What is the Beyblade Metagame? How do I understand it? – #1 Ranked Beyblade Player Answers Your Questions (Part 4)

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Answering Questions from BeyBase Newsletter Subscribers – Part 4

This is part four of my Q&A series with BeyBase newsletter subscribers in celebration of the first anniversary of BeyBase!

This part focuses on questions I received pertaining to “What is the Beyblade Metagame? How do I understand it?”.

Read my answers below!

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What’s the best way to keep up with the Beyblade metagame?

What is the best way to keep up with the metagame the wbo burst tier list seems very outdated these days. – Michael

BeyBase.com is a good source. 😉

WBO Organized Play Winning Combinations Thread

But also, I would say that in terms of the WBO Beyblade Burst metagame, another good way to keep up with it is by looking at the WBO Organized Play Winning Combinations thread.

Organizers are required to post the winning combinations from the top three players at their tournaments here.

If you evaluate these lists as they come in over a short time period to see what is popping up the most, you can get a good idea of what the best combinations are.

WBO Public Tournament Data Archive

I’d also highly recommend checking out the WBO Public Tournament Data Archive. It contains spreadsheets covering all of the winning combos from all WBO tournaments to date.

It tends to be updated in batches so it likely won’t be 100% up to date when you look, but it can still be useful for historical data.

You can use it to track usage statistics for certain parts over different periods of time through the “Explore” function of Google Sheets which will generate different types of drafts based on the data you’ve selected.

For example, I could:

1. Go to the “Winning Combos: BST” sheet
2. Scroll down to Row 2004 where 2019 tournaments start
3. Highlight the Layer Column F down to the end of 2019 (Row 2659)
4. Click “Explore” in the bottom right
5. See the charts generated to get an understanding for what the most popular Layer was among tournament winners that year (Perfect Phoenix).

This information can help you to make decisions about what is good, what isn’t, and what you are most statistically likely to run in to on a macro level when playing in a Beyblade tournament.

Stay Engaged With the Game & Community

Other than that, you really just need to stay engaged with the game by doing things like:

1. Pay attention to what people are saying online, especially on forums like worldbeyblade.org or the WBO Discord.
2. Watch videos, especially from channels which focus on competitive play (like Papabey and Mack the Burst)
3. Buy all of the newest Beyblade products, if you can. The more you can test with first-hand experience, the better.
4. Attend tournaments and see what people are using in your area. The above resources can give you a high level overview of what is generally good at a specific moment in time, but it is perhaps even more vital to understand what local players are using. The more events you host or attend, the great you’ll be able to understand this and understand the tendencies of specific players.
5. Create a battle history spreadsheet by keeping a list of each battle and the combinations used (by you and your opponent) for any tournament battles you play in. Over time, this can become an extremely valuable resource for yourself. I may talk about this more in a future article; I’ve been tracking my own battle data privately since not long after Beyblade Burst began.

… it does take some effort!

The more you do this, the greater your intuitive understanding of what makes a Beyblade part or combination competitive will increase as well.

And even if there is a tier list that is 100% up to date at any given time, that doesn’t exempt you from the individual effort required.

A list can tell you what is “good”, but if you really want to be successful, you need to understand why they are on the list, how they feel to use, how they actually interact with different parts, what works for you, and what your local metagame is like.

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Is the current Beyblade metagame too repetitive?

Do you think the current meta is too repetitive? – Void

I don’t think so. In a mature metagame, there is almost always going to be a certain amount of repetitiveness in terms of the Beyblade combos and parts being used.

That’s because people who like to win like to use the best combinations.

Right now for example, Tempest Xtend+ and Rage combinations are among the best in the game. They’re used a lot.

But I don’t feel the metagame itself is “too repetitive” because there is so much more nuance to it than the fact that a certain selection of parts is used far more than others.

Things like player skill, Driver matchups, part wear, tournament format, and more all contribute to keeping things engaging strategically and competitively despite the fact that yes, there are parts which are used quite repetitively.

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How do I stay up-to-date with what the best Beyblade parts are?

How is it possible to keep up with what parts are good with WBO drafts being slow to be made and accepted? – Foxfisher159

Thanks for the question, Foxfisher159! I’d really recommend the same things that I suggested to Michael above. There are several places you can look, but ultimately it comes down to staying engaged with the hobby on both a community and personal level.

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How do I choose what Beyblade combos to test against?

I know it changes based on new releases, but can you give some insight into how you choose which combos to test against? For example, I know you remember that back in the MFB/ Zero G era, we had certain benchmark combos we would test against (i.e. Reviser*2 BD145 RDF, Duo 230D, Flash 145RF, etc) to see if a new combo would even be worth trying in a tournament. Do you have certain, current benchmarks you use, and if so, what are a few? – KainHighwind

I would say my framework for conceiving Beyblade combo testing benchmarks is based primarily on three things:

1. Combos which I lose to at tournaments

I hate making the same mistake twice.

That’s why my number one priority after every tournament is to do what I can to understand and put myself in a position to correct my mistakes the next time I have a chance to do so.

The most recent example of this is from BE A HIRO, where I lost to Zankye’s Tempest Solomon (MCC) Xtend+ 2A and Rage Diabolos Destroy’ 3A in the finals. It exposed a gap in my knowledge and collection (since I did not own Solomon or Diabolos).

After this tournament, I honed in on these two combinations and all aspects of my match with Zankye to understand what went wrong.

The result of this introspection was a purchase of Abyss Diabolos, testing to gain a better understanding of how to defeat Tempest on Xtend+/Rage on Destroy’, new customizations, and some strategic adjustments. I brought all of this with me into the next tournament: Justin TC’s Birthday Bash.

I was fortunate to meet Zankye in the finals once again and was able to prevail. I went 8-0 in that tournament.

I turned my loss into motivation and new benchmarks to test myself against.

Ultimately, the testing benchmarks that should matter the most to competitive Beyblade players are the ones which have affected you directly.

Anything else doesn’t matter as much because they are just conceptual.

What matters is what you win and lose against personally in tournaments, particularly in local tournaments where your chances of playing the same players again in the future is high.

Ultimately, the testing benchmarks that should matter the most to competitive Beyblade players are the ones which have affected you directly.

2. Combos which currently are winning tournaments

That being said, it is important to keep an eye on what Beyblade combos are winning tournaments. Particularly in your local area if tournaments exist.

Even if you haven’t personally faced them in the past, it’s important to consider the possibility that you will come up against them.

3. Combos which contain the highest and/or lowest level of a particular attribute

This one is a bit more complicated.

It refers to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of Beyblade combos which have at least one attribute that is at or close to the highest or lowest possible level it can currently be in the metagame. Alongside any additional attributes that might sit somewhere in between being the highest or lowest.

You can break these down into as many sub-categories as you feel are currently relevant competitively.

Here’s some examples:

Rage Diabolos Xtreme’ 3A

Combo Categories/Qualities

• Left-Spin
• Rubber
• Fast
• Medium Controllability
• Great Burst Resistance
• Attack Type

Brave Lucifer Evolution’ (Worn Down) 2A

• Right-Spin
• Rubber
• Ultra Fast
• Low Controllability
• Great Burst Resistance
• Attack Type

Tempest Diabolos Wheel Xtend+ 1S

• Right-Spin
• Opposite Spin Optimized
• Good Same-Spin Stamina
• Good Burst Resistance Combo

World Diabolos Paradox Rise 1S

• Left-Spin
• Opposite Spin Optimized
• Bad Same-Spin Stamina
• Decent Opposite Spin Defense
• Bad Burst Resistance

You can read more about this combo in my World Spriggan review.

These categories aren’t set in stone and I might not necessarily think of them all at once, but the longer I test with a combo the more clearly they come into focus and begin playing a role in me understanding their total strength or lack thereof in certain areas relative to other combos.

To be able to label combos in this way, you need to have an understanding of everything else available too.

For example, in the standard WBO Burst Format I am very confident that I do so the combos I end up using at tournaments are generally benchmark worthy when all is said and done (unless I’m purposely trying to push the envelope).

But in WBO Burst Classic Format for instance, I don’t have the same level of confidence because I haven’t made the same investment financially to collect all of the available parts, or time-wise to test everything thoroughly enough to have an intuitive understanding of how the available parts are interacting with each other in general.

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What do I think of Beyblade Burst Sparking making Burst Finishes even more uncommon?

2. What do you think of the sparking generation and double chassis creating combos that are significantly harder to burst? – SwimminginBeyblades

It was inevitable that this would happen. In fact, Beyblade Burst has been slowly progressing towards lowered burst rates for years now.

It began even before Beyblade Burst Sparking through the inclusion of things like burst stoppers on Cho-Z Spriggan or the Judgement Layer Base and the introduction of Dash Drivers with stronger springs to increase burst resistance.

It does raise the fair question about whether the bursting gimmick was actually worth it, but it’s a complicated one to answer.

From a marketing perspective, I believe it absolutely is/was.

Competitively, it does lend further depth to the game when it can actually be a factor in top level matches (which it often isn’t right now in the standard Burst Format).

It’s clear to me that Takara-Tomy has been learning as they have progressed through the series.

In retrospect, Dash Drivers should have been a thing since the beginning of this generation given the self-bursting problems that attack types early in the series faced. And the teeth wear issues that plagued early Layers should not have existed.

But it was cool to see them do things like giving Bearing a much weaker spring or the idea that you could increase your Layer Base’s burst resistance by using the rubber Gen Weight, or you could use a metal Weight increase other attributes. Design decisions like this which have a meaningful effect on balancing a piece competitively are great.

It will be interesting to see how the burst mechanic is remembered once Beyblade Burst ends.

I believe the game can safely exist without it, and I’m perfectly fine with the fact that Beyblade Burst Sparking has continued to diminish its role. Beyblade Burst is the longest running generation now, so change is inevitable.

But there is actually a part of me that would like to see how Takara-Tomy would approach it again if given the chance to do so from the beginning of a new generation. There is enough potential in the mechanic to make it worth it competitively.

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Should 3D printed Beyblades be legal in WBO tournaments?

Should 3d printed beys be legal in wbo tournaments? – Kai edits

The simple answer is no, but there’s a bit more nuance to it than that:

3D printed Beyblades do not personally interest me for a lot of reasons, but the increase in popularity and affordability of them has been quite interesting to witness over the past few years. I can definitely see some type of community growing from the proliferation of 3D printed Beyblades as we move into the future.

I don’t think that they will ever be part of the standard ranked WBO tournaments mixed with regular Beyblades, but it is possible that they could be permitted in some fashion for unranked or for events unrelated to the main WBO global Beyblade rankings in the future.

However, if it does happen it will be far into the future. It just depends how deeply (or not) we want to veer into supporting not only Beyblade, but spinning top games in general.

This ties into a bit of the philosophy of Project AIDA, which should be revealed further as time goes on.

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How do you keep up with the Beyblade metagame? Comment below.

Thanks again to all of my BeyBase newsletter subscribers who submitted questions for this article!

I’d love to know how you guys keep up with the Beyblade metagame and if you have any tips you can share for others who are looking to do the same.