Beycoolen Beyblade Club at Rocks Cafe

Whether you’re a pickleball addict, Netflix binge-watcher or matcha-crazed cafe hopper, we’ve all got our own ways of letting our hair down once we’re off the clock. But for folks of the Beycoolen Beyblade Club, they’re taking a page out of their childhood when it comes to destressing.

As their name suggests, they’re a group of Beyblade enthusiasts – yes, those plastic tops we’d use to fiddle with in days of yore – that congregate occasionally to battle it out. Long story short, one Instagram reel led to another, and a few DMs later, we found ourselves stopping by to partake in one of their weekly tournaments; here’s what went down.

Heading to their usual meet-up spot at Rocks Cafe

The time was 5.30pm, and it was business as usual on this Thursday evening. An air of restlessness was just about to set in around the office, but thankfully, we had places to be. We set out for Rocks Cafe, an eccentric cafe tucked away in the recesses of Arab Street that’s roughly a 10-minute walk from Bugis MRT station.

Not gonna lie, it wasn’t exactly the easiest to track down the cafe’s entrance. After turning left on the corner past Sultan Mosque, it’s located in the back alley of the first shophouse you come across. Before you head in, the cafe’s exterior is adorned with a collage of posters and concave mirrors, making it quite the spot for your fit check snaps.

After climbing a flight of stairs, Rocks Cafe didn’t look a beat out of place from its contemporaries along Haji Lane, except for one thing – in the middle of it all, a couple of Beyblade stadiums were already set up for the night ahead. Dusk was settling in, and rightfully, we had to quell our rumbling stomachs.

Clearly, the pizzas were so enticing that my colleagues took a chunk out of them before I could capture them whole. 

The cafe prides itself on whipping up refreshing cups of matcha and sinful servings of pizza, and after placing our order with the cafe’s owner, Mikey, we were in for a treat. The hearty 8-inch Burrata Caprese ( $18) and Pepperoni Pizzas ($14) were more than enough to fill us up, and the earthy tinge of their Ube Matcha Latte ($7) was just the thing to wash everything down.

Address: 98 Arab Street, Level 2, Singapore 199794
Opening hours: 2pm-11pm, Daily
Contact: Rocks Cafe Instagram

Getting up to speed with the current Beyblade X generation

Syahid inspecting the Beys of a blader before a match.

Most of Beycoolen Beyblade Club’s events are held weekly at Rocks Cafe on Thursdays from 7.30pm onwards, and pretty soon, the crowd started pouring in. We were then introduced to Syahid, 24, one of the club’s core members and a Game Master who’ll be officiating some of the matches for today.

He gave us a quick rundown of the events going on today – a G3 tournament and a community event – and very kindly offered to show us the ropes in the art of Beyblading. I don’t know about you, but it’s been a while since we’ve picked up one of these, so guidance of any sort was golden. He showed us how to hold the launchers, the right timing to release our Beys, and explained the rules of the game.

Launched in 2023, Beyblade X is the current generation of Takara Tomy’s Beyblade toyline, and the tops of today are quite different from the ones we might be familiar with. For starters, Beyblades, or Beys, of today are mostly made out of metal, making them much more robust than their archaic, plastic counterparts.

The stadiums are also equipped with a nifty gimmick. They house a rail-like ring near the perimeter, which meshes with the Beyblades’ grooves found on their tips to produce extreme speed. You need a total of 3 Beys to form a “deck” to compete, and there’s also a scoring system used for matches. Based on how you knock out or outlast your opponent’s Bey, you are awarded points – first to 4 wins.

We had some practice launches right after Syahid’s impromptu tutorial, and soon enough, the G3 tournament was underway. 30-odd people turned up, which was noted by Syahid to be one of the larger turnouts for one of Beycoolen Beyblade Club’s events. BTW, entry to the tournament is free, so there’s really no harm in heading down to have a go yourself.

Taking part in an official G3 tournament

Once the tournament commenced, the cafe roared with a cacophony of ripcords being yanked and the clang of cold steel.

With the way some of these Beyblade players AKA bladers were going at it, these whirling hunks of metal could very well cause some serious damage on an errant launch. Everyone was throwing their entire strength and weight into their launches, and we were warned on multiple occasions to stand clear of bladers who were about to let it rip.

In between the intense matches, we also had the chance to speak with Dhanie, 23, the founder of the Beycoolen Beyblade Club. The club was formed about a year and a half ago, in the classrooms of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), which served as the proving grounds for their first bladers.

Members of the Beycoolen Beyblade Club: Syahid, Dhanie, and Airi.

“A bunch of us would all be bored after class, and there would be an empty classroom which wouldn’t be occupied at all until late at night, so we decided, y’know, let’s just host a Beyblade tournament here,” recounted Dhanie. With the help of Syahid, they were able to migrate from the confines of the classrooms to hold tournaments at Kult Yard, a bar in Chinatown.

The club then moved their base of operations to Rocks Cafe in late 2026. “We also wanted to cater to the Muslim crowd, because they can’t go into the bar right,” Dhanie mused. “We moved here because it’s right next to the mosque and near cheap food, so it’s accessible for more people.”

We had to cut our chat short, as it would soon be our turn to take to the stadium. While we were observing matches – warily, and at a distance – our names were called out. In all honesty, it was pretty exciting yet overwhelming being in the heat of it all, and I understand why these guys go at it with so much gusto.

The tactile satisfaction you get from a successful launch scratched an itch I didn’t know I had, and watching the Beys clash and zip about the stadium is hypnotic. And then comes the exhilaration of scoring knock outs – also called an Xtreme Finish – on your opponent’s Bey, which will no doubt elicit flabbergasted gasps and boisterous cheers alike.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to experience any of those myself. In a series of anticlimactic bouts, 2 of us were knocked out in the first round, while the other fared slightly better, making it to the second round before being promptly dispatched. As we learnt, there are indeed levels to Beyblading, and it’s not purely a game of chance.

For starters, there are 4 types of Beyblades, namely attack, defence, stamina, and balance, and each type plays differently. Dhanie goes on to explain that, depending on the Bey’s bit, which is the tip that comes into contact with the stadium, bladers vary their launches by tilting their hands to “guide” their Beys.

A fist bump is customary at the end of each Beyblade match.  

“But at the end of the day, even casual players who don’t know all these tactics still stand a chance to win, because there’s still an element of luck in Beyblade,” quipped Dhanie. “It’s all part and parcel of the game, so you just have to congratulate your opponent for a good game and that’s that.”

The prizes of the G3 tournament were doled out once all matches had concluded, which consisted of rare Beyblade parts that you can’t typically buy from the stores. But for the bladers of Beycoolen Beyblade Club, the tournament was just a precursor for what was coming up next: the community event.

Learning more about the local Beyblading scene

Entry to Beycoolen Beyblade Club’s community events typically costs $6, plus a minimum of 1 item purchased at Rocks Cafe. 

A short intermission later, the Beyblading action picked up where it left off. Matches were electric, and the vibes were immaculate. The community event Beycoolen Beyblade Club had in store was the football-themed Kaki Ayam Cup, where bladers who turned up in their favourite football team’s jersey enjoyed a couple of perks such as extra lives in the cup.

They host these themed events every week alongside their G3 tournaments, and that week’s prizes were extra attractive. Winners walked away with a trophy, exclusive Beyblades, and jerseys from local football teams. We didn’t take part in this one ourselves, but instead went around to speak with some of the regular attendees of these events.

Ark in action.

And so, we thought, who better to ask than the winner of the earlier G3 tournament? We caught up with Ark, 29, who comes down almost every week to see what the club has cooked up. His initial interest in Beyblades stemmed from a chance encounter with the game when he walked past a huge tournament held in Funan in 2024, and the rest, as they say, is history.

He now heads the Easties Beyblade X team and hosts occasional tournaments under his HDB block in Tampines. But when they’re not celebrating podium finishes at events in their neighbourhood, Ark and his crew make the trip to Beycoolen Beyblade Club to mingle with like-minded, Beyblade-loving folks. “Apart from trying your best to win, it’s also about making friends,” Ark remarked. “We’re not the only team in Singapore, so it’s nice to meet others in the scene.”

For YH, 30, a member of the Easties Beyblade X team, he managed to reconnect with a long-lost secondary school friend at a Beyblade event hosted at a hobby shop. “I’ve not met this guy in 15 years, but we reunited at this tournament, and we’re still keeping in touch,” said YH. “It’s interesting how such a hobby can bring us back together.”

I could tell the duo was more than passionate about the hobby, and their moxie was almost infectious. Despite my constant flurry of questions, they were more than willing to entertain me and even offered to extend the same hospitality to newbies to the hobby. “Don’t be shy, Beycoolen is a very nice environment to start with, everyone is very friendly,” YH reassured.

In fact, Mikey, the owner of Rocks Cafe, will be more than happy to indulge you in a round of Beyblade. Dhanie and friends have roped him into the game, and he is now as huge a fan as the rest of the Beycoolen Beyblade Club. “When he’s not making pizzas, Mikey’s pretty open with playing with anyone who comes into his store,” Dhanie remarks excitedly. “We provide free Beys to use at the cafe, because we want to be as inviting as possible.”

Mikey, on the right, giving his all in a Beyblade match. 

And when you get families strolling in from time to time to participate in tournaments, you can’t get any more welcoming than that. The club gets its fair share of parents bringing their kids to Rocks Cafe to spend some quality time together, and it’s “not uncommon for the grown-ups to become more invested than the kids”, Syahid added.

Pick up a new hobby & give Beyblade a try

I’ve always thought of Beyblade to be, quite literally, child’s play, but after spending an evening with Beycoolen Beyblade Club, consider my perspective changed. After all, it’s got the competitiveness of any sport, and a “kampung spirit” surrounding the local community that turns strangers and rivals into friends for the long haul.

Take part in one of Beycoolen Beyblade Club’s events

For more hobby-related reads:

• Pottery classes in Singapore
• Trading card collecting in Singapore
• Art workshops to sign up for with your SG Culture Pass credits

Photography by Khoo Yong Hao.