WBO Organized Play Updates November 2022: Staffing Update, Burst GT Ranked, and More!

Hey World Bladers!

Outlined below are several important new ruling additions, updates, and clarifications to some WBO Organized Play rulebooks and the Organizers' Guide. View all WBO Organized Play Rules & Resources here, and a summary of the changes below:



Updates Overview
  • [IMPORTANT] Staffing Update: Zektor joins the team!
  • [IMPORTANT] Burst GT: Going ranked starting Monday 5th December 2022!
  • Burst GT: Sparking Layers removed from format.
  • All Rulebooks: Relaunching Restrictions & Clarification
  • Organizer's Guide: Deck now legal as a First-Stage match type!
  • Organizer's Guide: Introducing the Match Types Guide!


Organizational Updates

Zektor joins the team!

It's been a while since we last expanded the Organized Play team, so this is long overdue! But we're pleased to announce that Zektor has recently joined the Organized Play team!

While Zektor will be dipping his toes in everything as he gets warmed up, his primary focus for the immediate future will be in event documentation and match processing. So if you're an Organizer, expect to hear from him following your events soon!

We ask everyone to give him a warm welcome to the team!





All Rulebook Updates

Burst GT goes Ranked starting Monday 5th December!

Following an extensive Experimental period, we are pleased to confirm that Burst GT will be promoted to a ranked format starting Monday 5th December 2022!

This change has been a long time coming, and we had hoped to make this change alongside the release of a large ranking update this year, hence the long wait. However, with the latter being delayed, it makes no sense to further delay the legalisation of GT, so we will bring this forward.


Burst GT: Sparking Layers removed from format

Alongside this Ranked legalisation, we have decided to make some final changes to the Restriction List for GT, largely targeting Sparking Layer System Layers. Up until now, a selection of these have been legal for use in the format, though we have heard extremely mixed feedback on this from the community: some Bladers enjoying them being available, and others feeling that the mixed legalisation creates an accessibility nightmare and is often unclear to those learning the format.

Accessibility is a huge consideration for us and, as a result, we have made the decision to remove the permitted Sparking Layer System Layers from the format. We appreciate that this will be a positive change to some players and a controversial one to others, but we will continue to monitor the format going forward to ensure this change is for the better long-term, and evaluate our options for Sparking Layers in the future.


All Rulebooks: Relaunching Restrictions & Clarification

Relaunching has been a hot topic within the Organized Play team in recent weeks. On one note, it has been noted that we lack a limit on relaunch requests, which has been causing matches within some communities to run for extreme lengths of time. On another note, we have also heard that some communities are often permitting relaunch requests for reasons that are not defined within the relaunching guidelines.

While these issues aren't frequent, we are taking the opportunity to add the following limit to the relaunching guidelines:

Format Rulebook - Relaunching Wrote:The primary reasons you’d want to request a relaunch are:
  • Your launcher malfunctions in a way that causes your launch to be underpowered.
  • You are accidentally hit or shoved by the opposing player or a spectator.
Bladers are entitled to a single relaunch per battle, though judges may freely invoke relaunches for Bladers outside of their allocation if they have a valid concern.

Bladers must request a relaunch during the countdown or immediately afterwards. The judge may deny the request if they determine that you were at fault or the reason given is invalid.

With this change, Bladers are expected to ensure their equipment is up-to-date and functional before starting a match to avoid the risk of excessive relaunches. If your launcher continues to malfunction, we encourage Bladers to request to replace their faulty launcher with an identical replacement per our "Breakage During Play" rules to avoid unintentionally conceding points within a match.

We would also like to remind all Bladers that relaunches are intended for the reasons outlined above, which are often out of Blader's control, and not for launches which are perhaps not how a Blader envisioned, such as missing a flower pattern or self KO'ing into a pocket. Judges are expected and reminded to deny relaunch requests if they note that the reason given is invalid.




Organizer’s Guide Updates

[Image: WBO-Organizers-Guide.png]

Deck now legal as a First Stage match type

In past iterations of the Organizer’s Guide, the Deck Match Type was exclusively reserved for the Final Stages of events. However, with the addition of 3v3 and P3C1 in recent months, we feel that this could also be an exciting Match Type to allow for the first-stage in events.

And that's precisely what we're going to do! Starting today, Organizers may now create events featuring the Deck Format Match Type in the First Stage!
 
Prior to this update, the Deck Match Type was a bit more of an exclusive experience, locked behind the Final Stage barrier, so for some Bladers this may be one of the first times they’ll encounter the Match Type at all! We encourage all Bladers to take the opportunity to give this a try, especially if they haven't been able to before!

However, as experienced Bladers may be aware, Deck can often be one of the deeper and more time-consuming Match Types, depending on the format, individual Bladers and their deck compositions. As a result, we believe that Deck will be best suited to smaller events, and we encourage all Organizers to keep this in consideration when choosing a Match Type for their event.


Introducing the Match Types Guide!

Alongside the addition of Deck for First Stage, we will also be releasing the Match Types Guide, a new resource to help Organizers identify the best Match Type for their event. Particularly as we expand the repetoire of match types, we expect this to become a key resource for Organizers going forward.

This also offloads some of the information found in the Organizer’s Guide and provides Organizers with a single, clean and concise document that outlines all potential Match Types available to you during a WBO event, including the specific rules catering to each one and their point values. This means that the following information has updated:
  • The existing "Match Types" section in the Organizer's Guide now links to the seperated Match Types Guide.
  • The completely seperate "Deck Match Type" section has been moved to the Match Types Guide.
  • Club Format has moved from the Match Type section to the Tournament Systems section.
We encourage all Organizers to give this guide a read when considering a Match Type for their next event!




Feedback?
If you have any feedback on these particular changes, or any questions or suggestions for further adjustments or additions, please post your thoughts below or in the WBO Organized Play Rules thread.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support of WBO Organized Play! We appreciate any and all feedback and are always looking to improve and clarify things where possible.
Love the updates. For the deck format, is it still first to five points for the first stage or is it possible to make it first to three to speed things up?
It is an honor to serve the community and I will do my very best. Thank you for the opportunity.
Congrats to Zektor on staff!

Happy to see Sparking removed for now maybe when Pro Series does releases it can be considered to make some sense, and GT being ranked is awesome so very happy with work by the team with all these changes very beneficial and a positive update to the future of WBO.
Deck format in first stage eh? I'm a fan.

Grats Zektor!
(Nov. 08, 2022  8:10 PM)Mike.Nightwing Wrote: Love the updates. For the deck format, is it still first to five points for the first stage or is it possible to make it first to three to speed things up?

The current intention is still first to five, though we are considering our options with first to three. We'd like to make it happen, but want to carefully consider point values if this were to be the case, as games could end a bit too quickly for our liking with the current point values. Burst Classic and Limited have 2 point KOs and Bursts under Deck rules for example, so that may need to be reviewed to prevent games from potentially feeling like a waste of time, haha.

Not to say that couldn't happen in 1v1 anyway, with 2 point Bursts. But that's less likely to happen than a KO (theoretically!), and tends to be a quicker-paced ruleset that doesn't feel quite as bad if a match quickly ends.
(Nov. 08, 2022  11:11 PM)~Mana~ Wrote:
(Nov. 08, 2022  8:10 PM)Mike.Nightwing Wrote: Love the updates. For the deck format, is it still first to five points for the first stage or is it possible to make it first to three to speed things up?

The current intention is still first to five, though we are considering our options with first to three. We'd like to make it happen, but want to carefully consider point values if this were to be the case, as games could end a bit too quickly for our liking with the current point values. Burst Classic and Limited have 2 point KOs and Bursts under Deck rules for example, so that may need to be reviewed to prevent games from potentially feeling like a waste of time, haha.

Not to say that couldn't happen in 1v1 anyway, with 2 point Bursts. But that's less likely to happen than a KO (theoretically!), and tends to be a quicker-paced ruleset that doesn't feel quite as bad if a match quickly ends.

Makes sense to me, no one wants to get destroyed that quickly. I just put in a proposal for a ranked Burst Standard deck format so if you all want to use this as a tester, I'm game. I can make a point to time matches to see how swiftly (or slowly) they go with the three-point value.
Congrats on getting Staff Zektor! I was one of the first to know 😈 Man, you guys are just spamming us with cool new stuff for the Burst Format! I’m loving the new update!
(Nov. 08, 2022  8:21 PM)Zektor Wrote: It is an honor to serve the community and I will do my very best. Thank you for the opportunity.

Welcome to the team mate, much deserved for all of your hard work and creativity with your scene - can't wait to see what you're gonna bring to the table for Organized Play!
Hey all so I was reading through the match type document and noticed some things that are not fully adding up and just wanted to get some clarification or to let you guys know incase you overlooked it.

The first thing I wanted to point out is in the P3C1 it states…

“After both players have their Beyblades ready, they turn around and present their combinations to their opponent.  At this point spin directions or modes on parts which require disassembly can no longer be changed.”

Correct me if I am wrong, but from my understanding of the recent disassemble mode change rule change, the bladers should be allowed to mode change after they both reveal which of their 3 beyblades have been chosen correct?


The next thing I saw was in the 3on3 advanced rules section it says…

“If there is a draw in any battle, the battle will be replayed using the same two Beyblades. This may continue for up to three consecutive battles. After the third consecutive draw, reference the "Consecutive Draws" ruling in the Gameplay Appendix of the applicable rulebook.”

This one I was able to go back and check in the rulebook for burst format and it is only suppose to be 2 consecutive draws, and not 3.

Other than that this was a really great idea and a lot better resource in my opinion!