Tala

Tala (ユーリ・イヴァーノフ Yuriy Ivanov) is a character in the Original Series, consisting of Beyblade and Beyblade: G-Revolution. He is the captain of the Blitzkrieg Boys. His Bit-Beast and Beyblade is Wolborg.

Appearance
Tala is a young man of average height and a lean build. He is depicted with fiery red hair with two strands hanging lose from a widow's peak and icy blue eyes. His skin color is very pale to connect him with a snowy climate, as he hails from Russia.

His clothes have the same colors of the Russian flag.

Personality
Tala had been trained from a young age to be a Beyblader, even so far as being genetically enhanced to ensure victory. Overall he has a very sarcastic and fiery personality, and is quite easy to anger. He is also shown to be highly intelligent and intuitive, as he figured out Barthez' plan and how he was connected to Boris early on. Tala has also been shown to be quite prideful of his abilities as he tends to underestimate his opponents (such as Kenny and Daichi) but also shows a clear insecurity of his own abilities as well based on his jealousy of Kai. In the first season of the anime, Tala becomes very angry due to jealousy of Boris' clear favoritism of Kai over himself.

Despite Tala's displays of sarcasm and overall antagonistic attitude towards other he is actually very caring of his fellow beybladers in G-Revolution. He expresses a genuine happiness of bumping into Tyson in the woods while Tyson and Co. searched for Hiro, as well as showing an extreme drive to protect other beybladers from Boris, claiming he won't let Boris ruin the hopes and dreams of anyone else. While Kai and Tala seemed to have a distant and indifferent relationship, Tala sheds tears for Kai after he collapses in the hallway after his fight with Brooklyn, showing that Tala is actually very kind and selfless.

Manga
In the manga, he is considerably more vicious, destroying many beyblades for Boris and treating beyblade like it is war.
 * Tala's Background Story (In Japanese)
 * Tala's Background Story (English Translation)

Skills
Tala has 2 routines when using Novae Rog, and even used them both in the same episode and in the same battle.

Spin Gear System

 * Wolborg (Manga Only)
 * Wolborg 2

Engine Gear System

 * Wolborg 4

Hard Metal System

 * Wolborg MS (Manga Only)

Beyblade
Tala first appeared with Ian when the Bladebreakers attempted to enter Boris' abbey to find Kai, knowing that Balkov would attempt to recruit Kai, using Black Dranzer.

In the Demolition Boys' first battle in the World Championships, Tala beats the All Starz in seconds. His victory is overshadowed, however, when Kai defects to the Demolition Boys after Boris offers him Black Dranzer. Kai beats all four members of the All Starz at once, and takes their bit beasts. Tala doesn't like Kai in the Demolition Boys team, as Kai gets more attention from Boris and successfully beats 3 members of the White Tigers by himself without Tala and the remaining Demolition Boys.

When Kai returns to the Bladebreakers, Tala, Ian, Spencer and Bryan destroy Black Dranzer and add the stolen bit beasts to their own bit beasts. Before the match, the group ambushes the Bladebreaker's bus, as Bryan and Spencer defeat Max and take Draciel.

At the World Championship in the final match, Tala faces Tyson. Tyson wins the first round despite Tala using Draciel and Dranzer's power. In the second round Tala transports himself and Tyson to an other dimension inside a giant iceberg. Combining all the bit beasts BIOVOLT captured, Tala easily beats Tyson. In the final round Tyson beats him and Tala shakes hands with Tyson after the match, ending Boris and Voltaire's ambition for World Domination.

After the World Championships, Tala and the Demolition Boys leave Balkov Abbey and begin training in a base in Russia.

Beyblade: G-Revolution
Tala reappears in G-Revolution, beating Spencer to qualify for the Tag Team World Championships, and picks Spencer and Bryan as members of the Blitzkrieg Boys. Kai, wanting to face Tyson, leaves the BBA Revolution and makes a deal with Tala to become his partner (in the manga, Kai defeats Ian for this chance). In the Blitzkrieg Boys first match, they face F-Dynasty where Tala beats Julia and Kai beats Raul, earning the teams first victory in America.

In Rome, they face the BBA Revolution. Due to their coach Hiro, Tyson wasn't selected for the match leading to Kai deliberately losing to Daichi. Tala however has trouble against Kenny but eventually wins. In the tie breaker, Tala loses to Daichi after Kenny discovers the weakness of Wolborg 4.

In Spain, the team faces the PPB All Starz. Tala loses to Rick, who was angered by Max's loss to Kai, however Kai beats Rick in the tie breaker.

In Egypt, Tala faces the Barthez Battalion's Aaron. Barthez equipped Aaron's blade with thread that allowed to ensnare Wolborg however Aaron grew tired of cheating and didn't use the blade Barthez gave to him, choosing to blade fair and his own. However he still lost to Tala. Kai would also beat Miguel.

In the 5th round in Australia, the team faces White Tiger X. Tala beats Lee and is shocked by the new technique Kai displays against Ray due to him not being told by Kai about it. Despite this, due to this win, the Blitzkrieg Boys enter the finals with 4 wins and 1 loss. Before the BBA Revolution's match with the PPB All Starz, Tala asks Daichi to win because he wants to avenge his loss to Daichi in Rome.

Due to the BBA Revolution and F-Dynasty tying for the 2nd spot in the finals, Tala, along with the coach of each team, agrees to the two teams facing each other to determine who faces the Blitzkrieg Boys in the finals. The BBA Revolution wins and makes it to the finals.

While Kai, Spencer and Bryan go to practice for Kai's battle with Tyson Tala faces Daichi. Daichi stalls for time while Kenny fixes Dragoon. Tala realizes this during the battle and attempts to end the battle before Kenny fixes Tyson's blade. However, Kenny is able to fix the blade in time and Daichi begins to attack Tala. The battle ends in a draw and Wolborg and Strata Dragoon are too damaged to have a rematch. Kai faces Tyson in an intense battle, which Tyson ultimately wins, giving the BBA Revolution the championship and Tyson's third consecutive title as World Champion.

A while later, Boris returns and forms BEGA. After Tala discovers this, he along with Spencer and Bryan return to end the BEGA League. Along the way, they reunite with Tyson and state their intentions. At BEGA headquarters, the three beat members of the training squad. However, Bryan and Spencer face one of the top bladers in BEGA named Garland and lose, both collapsing from withstanding all of that power. Tala faces Garland and loses so badly that he is injured and rushed to hospital. Before this, he inspires Tyson to face Boris and BEGA, especially when he tells them that Boris was working with his agent and Miguel's former coach: Jean-Paul Barthez. Mr. Dickenson looks after Tala while he is in the hospital and while visiting him Tyson leaves Dranzer MS on Tala's side. Soon Kai, who also lost badly to a BEGA blader named Brooklyn, visits Tala and finds Dranzer MS and begins to practice to face Brooklyn. Although still unconscious, Tala sheds a tear after Kai's victory against Brooklyn tapped out his strength and destroyed Dranzer (Japanese version only). In Tyson's final battle with Brooklyn, Tala awakens and gives Tyson Wolborg's power. This is noticed by Max when Draciel's water attack turns to ice. Tala is last seen with Mr. Dickenson watching the friendly battle between Tyson and Brooklyn, where he shares a friendly smile with Kai.

In the Japanese exclusive ending, Tala is seen fully recovered walking along the Red Square in Russia with his teammates: Bryan, Spencer, and Ian.

Manga
He faces Tyson and his Dragoon S and destroys the beyblade. However there is a crack in Wolborg so he goes back for revenge. He faces Tyson with his Wolborg 2 against his Dragoon F. Dragoon breaks but reforms due to the special part it contains and forms Dragoon V and defeats him.

Later on he is seen preparing for a rematch but he is beaten by Ozuma and his bit beast is taken.

He next appears in G Revolution saga of the manga with Wolborg 4. He generally plays the same role as in the anime but destroys Strata Dragoon V. He later gains Wolborg MS but the outcome of the series is the same.

Relationship
=Kai Hiwatari= Tala and Kai work together but When they first encountered one another in the Russia, they disliked each other intensely. It is only in G-Revolution that Kai begins to be a little warmer to him, though, until Tala's fall at the hands of Garland, Kai claims that Tala is not his friend. However, after both suffer painfully at the hands of BEGA, they develop a sense of understanding that many see to be a form of friendship. Tala even sheds a tear at the end of the Japanese version of Kai's disputed 'death' scene.

Trivia

 * In manga, Tala was not only feared by the other Beybladers, but also by his teammates, this can be seen when he scolds Spencer and Ian in Russian after both of them were arguing each other to battle against Ray.
 * Tala's childhood backstory is originally planned to be one of the chapters in the manga. However, the editor forced the creator Takao Aoki to remove it due of general dark concept. Even though not in manga, it was novelized in Aoki's official website.
 * Tala's Wolfborg bit-beast is based on the Silver Wolf.