This past weekend we hosted a BIGMOON BASH in Beastieball, where coaches could challenge one another in fierce contests of sport! In light of the recent balance patch, we opened this Bash up to every Beastie and team out there to see how things are shaping up!

But first: here are the coaches who achieved the highest Bash Scores in this event!

1. Satoros (The Diamond Ducks) | Bash Score: 3208
   
2. Bolimar (The Crimson Waves) | Bash Score: 3088
   
3. Kesephim (The Dazzling Lovers) | Bash Score: 2992
   
4. AshleyETA (The Musical Girls) | Bash Score: 2904
   
5. Rosery (The Roaring Knights) | Bash Score: 2896
   
6. MochaTeehee (The Hello Fishes) | Bash Score: 2796
   
7. Kyyg (The Wacky Worms) | Bash Score: 2760
   
8. • Ket (The Lonesome Lovers) | Bash Score: 2744
     
   • Arc Tech (The Arcane Machines) | Bash Score: 2744
9. N/A
   
10. Vega (The Dancing Dragons) | Bash Score: 2740

Honorable Mention: Kim (The Happy Hearts) | Bash Score: 2820
(We initially reported kim among the top Bash Scores but we later realized she hadn't actually played enough matches to certify the score.)

NOTE: During the first few hours of the event, Mac and PC players were mistakenly treated as though they were on different balance patches, preventing them from matching up. Everyone was still able to play, but this did have an effect on the available pool of opponents and likely had an effect on early Bash Score calculations. We apologize for this tech issue!

Thanks primarily to the efforts of kim, we've got mini-interviews with some of these top-ranking players here:
You can read more interviews like this in kim's official sheet![docs.google.com]

I also want to acknowledge that there are tons of amazing players in our community, including many who have made huge contributions to the game's competitive exploration but don't happen to appear in the top Bash Scores. If you're enjoying the game and want to meet friendly like-minded players, our official Discord[discord.gg] is always humming with Beastieball chatter and fan tournaments!

As has become tradition, we've collected a ton of data on Beastie usage during this event and we're happy to share that data with you for further investigation!

I'm sure players will have their own discourse about the stats from this Bash, but here are my own thoughts on what we're seeing.

• This is the first Bash where Bandicraft was legal but not the most-used Beastie! That crown was taken by Hopra, a different starter Beastie.
  • I think this moment represents a major inflection point in the developing meta of Beastieball. Beasties' relative popularity with casual players has always been a major driving force in what gets used, and that's what we've seen reflected in usage with Bandicraft being the most popular Beastie both casually and competitively. But we're seeing more and more players start to optimize their team building, and that means usage is shifting more towards the Beasties that provide greater utility.
  • Bandicraft might have incredible offensive passing utility with Captain, but with a diverse array of support and offensive capabilities, Hopra is easy to fit onto any team whether they're gearing more for an offensive or defensive playstyle.
• Illugus, Surgus and Bongus still dominate the usage near the very top and still in that precise order.
  • Illugus has been through some finicky tweaks to their moveset and trait balance as we try to get them in line with other offensive tools. It's nice to see that despite their setbacks, players are still using Illugus and finding success with them.
  • We hope the recent changes have made Illugus more fun to play against, too!
• Rally-focused teams are still popular. Roughly 7 or the top 10 Beasties all like to play in Rally. Despite the recent addition of Demolish, a powerful Body-type play which clears field effects, we're not seeing Body-focused Beasties make a meaningful dent in Rally's control of the meta.
  • We'll definitely be thinking about how much we need to intervene with balance chnages here VS. giving the community space to find answers for Rally with the tools already in the game.
• If we turn our eyes to the bottom of the usage list, there's a few regular suspects, but Platypulse is a surprise last-place contender!
  • Platypulse has amazing utility to shutting down mind-style offense, but players may be overlooking it due to Rally being prevalent in usage right now.
  • However, if Platypulse isn't seeing use, that just means mind-type offense has a greater opportunity to shine without its scariest counter to stop it...
• Broadly, we're seeing the meta continue to diversify. There were (almost)* no fully-grown Beasties with 1% or less usage, which is pretty exceptional when there are so many different Beasties to choose from.
  • It's exciting to see players exploring all the possibilities offered by so many different Beasties. I'm sure there are tons of scary combos still waiting to be discovered out there and keep our balance team** up all night!

*Sorry Grazada.
**(Damian and I)
Many high-ranking players have felt anecdotally like it's more difficult to play from the side that gets the first serve in a match. During this Bash we put some extra analytics towards measuring this dis/advantage! Here are the results from 2,300 matches played.

• Winrate when NOT serving: 52.2%
  
• Winrate when NOT serving (for players in the top 50% Bash Score range): 53.5%

So: The anecdotes are true! The player who gets the first serve is playing with a very minor disadvantage right now. We'll continue to collect data on this over a larger sample size to see whether this holds true. With a disadvantage so small, and which disproportionately impacts high-ranked games rather than casual players, it may be hard to find a balance adjustment that makes these odds even more fair, but we'll be thinking about it. In looking for stats to compare these numbers with, we found that these numbers are very comparable to what was observed in Hearthstone for the player who goes first[www.hearthpwn.com]. It's a smaller advantage than you typically see in Chess.

For now, if you're worried about the serve disadvantage, you should factor it into your team building; having a strong serve option that can disrupt your opponent's first turn should be a very important part of any strong team. Bolimar said as much eloquently in their mini-interview above; and notably, even with their jaw-dropping 3088 Bash Score, they happened to be the serving player in the vast majority of their matches, so there's provable ways to put that advice into practice and see results!

I'm grateful every day that this gets to be my job. I love seeing the competitive game grow and change in the hands of players! We'll keep working hard on balance changes and other things. Stay tuned!