A Dead or Alive 5: Last Round community tournament was produced for CEO 2023 by dedicated players doing their very best to keep our game alive and well in the FGC's everchanging space. Free Step Dodge posted the results after the tournament concluded, but we also wanted to complete this tournament experience with a short and sweet write-up for Top 4 that includes the near-complete Top 4 VOD.
11Frames takes Leifang into combat against Nero's finely tuned Marie Rose. While his damage in this bout is not as maximized as Black Moon Rising's Leifang, 11Frames clearly understands her tools and has no problems commencing an attack on a back-turned foe.
Nero switches to Honoka for the second fight after a big loss with Marie Rose at the slope infested desert and is immediately showing better patience and skill against Leifang at the circus. That being said, Leifang is beginning to maximize damage like Black Moon Rising with no slopes in play. With each passing round Nero becomes better at zoning 11Frames and seems to become more comfortable fighting Leifang despite losing at the circus as well.
We finally begin to see a real momentum shift in this set at 'Lost World' where Nero begins to add offense to his zoning techniques, and it pays off here. Honoka is stunning Leifang hard and baiting for holds and parries with Leifang falling into enough of these traps for Nero to come back into the game much stronger while also showcasing the more advanced moves of Honoka.
11Frames decides it's time to take the gloves off and finishes this entire Winners set against Nero at the rooftops. Leifang turns up the aggression 100% against Honoka with excellent decision making from her 4P string and a stun setup that just couldn't be done in DOA6 to this degree due to break holds. 11Frames shakes off the pressure and takes the set advancing to the Grand Finals.
Nerro (not to be confused with Nero) is using Momiji to fight Kemetbrotha's Honoka. Kemetbrotha had the fundamentals of Honoka down from what we can observe of this set. Nerro wasn't slouching in this match either showing a carefully planned, but powerful offense. They seemed dead even, but after both players won a fight, they switched to the next players fighting at this CEO tournament. Seemed strange to me, but they could have been limited with stream time so we report and enjoy the fights that we can.
Nerro continued to fight with Momiji against Nero's Honoka at the bottom tier of the DOA3 fan favorite Gothic castle stage 'Lorelei.' They both played with a lot of patience and had plenty of room to do so with lots of back-and-forth pokes plus a few complete input throws to add to the spectacle of the fights. Honoka wins round one with a final jab after Nerro chokes on his defense.
Their second fight was at the 'Crimson' stage, and it was a similar fight to the first, but this time Nerro getting the upper hand with the jab and the victory. Nero must have felt downloaded because the loss was enough for him to switch back to Marie Rose (his starting character in the Winners Final). The switch to Marie Rose proved to be a polarizing swap for Nerro with him failing to keep up with the nimble manipulative servant of Helena. These wins were a lot more convincing against Nerro, but when fighting 11Frames, selecting Marie Rose told a different story.
With the situation now being a Grand Final, Nero thinks his next move should be with Tina and the first round likely surprised 11Frames, but 11Frames quickly downloaded and destroyed Nero for his selection. BT stun launches, sit-down stuns, parries, advanced holds; I mean everything came out of that Leifang in the finals. Nero mysteriously (in comparison to his other character selections) chose Tina for the final match of Grand Finals and was destroyed by Leifang again.
11Frames probably would have won regardless of the selection, sure, but it would have been a more entertaining Grand Final had Nero went with his original selections of Marie Rose and Honoka while noting mistakes in 11Frame's gameplay as the bouts continued. The experience clearly wasn't there with his Tina for the power level of 11Frames and that vicious Leifang.
Photo Banner by Well-Known Member @Lorenzo Buti - Follow him for more DOA content on Twitter.
11Frames takes Leifang into combat against Nero's finely tuned Marie Rose. While his damage in this bout is not as maximized as Black Moon Rising's Leifang, 11Frames clearly understands her tools and has no problems commencing an attack on a back-turned foe.
Nero switches to Honoka for the second fight after a big loss with Marie Rose at the slope infested desert and is immediately showing better patience and skill against Leifang at the circus. That being said, Leifang is beginning to maximize damage like Black Moon Rising with no slopes in play. With each passing round Nero becomes better at zoning 11Frames and seems to become more comfortable fighting Leifang despite losing at the circus as well.
We finally begin to see a real momentum shift in this set at 'Lost World' where Nero begins to add offense to his zoning techniques, and it pays off here. Honoka is stunning Leifang hard and baiting for holds and parries with Leifang falling into enough of these traps for Nero to come back into the game much stronger while also showcasing the more advanced moves of Honoka.
11Frames decides it's time to take the gloves off and finishes this entire Winners set against Nero at the rooftops. Leifang turns up the aggression 100% against Honoka with excellent decision making from her 4P string and a stun setup that just couldn't be done in DOA6 to this degree due to break holds. 11Frames shakes off the pressure and takes the set advancing to the Grand Finals.
Nerro (not to be confused with Nero) is using Momiji to fight Kemetbrotha's Honoka. Kemetbrotha had the fundamentals of Honoka down from what we can observe of this set. Nerro wasn't slouching in this match either showing a carefully planned, but powerful offense. They seemed dead even, but after both players won a fight, they switched to the next players fighting at this CEO tournament. Seemed strange to me, but they could have been limited with stream time so we report and enjoy the fights that we can.
Nerro continued to fight with Momiji against Nero's Honoka at the bottom tier of the DOA3 fan favorite Gothic castle stage 'Lorelei.' They both played with a lot of patience and had plenty of room to do so with lots of back-and-forth pokes plus a few complete input throws to add to the spectacle of the fights. Honoka wins round one with a final jab after Nerro chokes on his defense.
Their second fight was at the 'Crimson' stage, and it was a similar fight to the first, but this time Nerro getting the upper hand with the jab and the victory. Nero must have felt downloaded because the loss was enough for him to switch back to Marie Rose (his starting character in the Winners Final). The switch to Marie Rose proved to be a polarizing swap for Nerro with him failing to keep up with the nimble manipulative servant of Helena. These wins were a lot more convincing against Nerro, but when fighting 11Frames, selecting Marie Rose told a different story.
With the situation now being a Grand Final, Nero thinks his next move should be with Tina and the first round likely surprised 11Frames, but 11Frames quickly downloaded and destroyed Nero for his selection. BT stun launches, sit-down stuns, parries, advanced holds; I mean everything came out of that Leifang in the finals. Nero mysteriously (in comparison to his other character selections) chose Tina for the final match of Grand Finals and was destroyed by Leifang again.
11Frames probably would have won regardless of the selection, sure, but it would have been a more entertaining Grand Final had Nero went with his original selections of Marie Rose and Honoka while noting mistakes in 11Frame's gameplay as the bouts continued. The experience clearly wasn't there with his Tina for the power level of 11Frames and that vicious Leifang.
Photo Banner by Well-Known Member @Lorenzo Buti - Follow him for more DOA content on Twitter.
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