Emmanuel Rodriguez, known as Master within the community is hosting D.i.D 10, June 7th. The longest running DOA tournament will be located at the anime convention -- AKON, like it has for several years. Today Manny is going to explain his vision for this tournament, and perhaps some future plans among other DOA related things.
DOAN: Master, you have been on quite the DOA hiatus, the community has been wondering what you have been up to. Have you thought of possibly quitting Dead or Alive, or are you just taking a break?
Master: I have been a little busy with other things recently. Work, Youtube videos, bead making and other small projects for this year but I still do what I can to squeeze in some DOA Training for the fans. They keep me going and I’ve had a lot of Hayabusa support as of recent saying that they want to see the Super Ninja in action with the latest tech.
Without giving too much away, what are some of your plans to recapture your crown for this specific tournament?
My current plan is to try to continue my offline training with locals or by myself. Most of the time I do that anyway and it has worked fairly well for several years. I do have a goal though and that is to beat Sweet Revenge (nothing personal). Something about this tournament tells me I’m bringing him down.
D.i.D 10 is a part of the “Road to TFC.” How exactly does this benefit the community?
This benefits the community in a huge way. For one it provides good incentive for competitive players to come out and win a big tournament and then get a full paid trip to another tournament that guarantees even more money. For Casual players, it is a good way to meet the superstars of the game and maybe learn from them and support them as they play. Offline experiences like these are rare so its good to support it because it keeps everyone excited on the event and all of the fun that takes place afterwards.
D.i.D 9 had a few surprises when it came to appearances. Will there be any this time around?
Haha, I try to do what I can to bring or convince some heavy hitters or stars to come to the event. There might be one or two players you hadn't seen since the last D.I.D. Tournament but I’ll leave it at that. The key thing here is to have fun with everyone that makes it and where DOA is the main event.
What are your thoughts on character DLC, and who do you hope is the next character to be revealed if not a completely new character?
I love character DLC especially when it’s a highly requested character. I believe the fans and competitors of the series enjoy something new to the game every now and then. Plus it brings life to the game even months or years after its release. Personally though, I’m not a big fan of the paid DLC Characters. I don’t mind paid DLC Stage packs though *Hint hint Team NINJA*
Being a Hayabusa specialist, what kind of possible buffs are you hoping your character receives for the next patch, and what are your thoughts in general pertaining to Hayabusa in DOA5: Ultimate?
Hmm, I’m hoping he becomes a slightly safer character. There are some things with Hayabusa’s Ninpo stance that sometimes has me wondering why certain moves were not improved or expanded upon after 50% alpha build of DOA5 Vanilla (With the exception of the 8p teleport guard break correction and 6P elbow nerf). I still would like Hayabusa’s 1K to be in ninpo stance and have it replace the ninja slide. This way he has another move that would keep him in the stance and maybe have that move give a light stun of +5 or something minor with the move being 20 frames inside the stance compared to 17 frames outside of stance but no stun. Most importantly though I just want to avoid, In my opinion, unnecessary nerfs like 33P4 recently.
What’s your typical training regime for Hayabusa before going into a tournament as big as D.i.D or TFC?
I usually try to put in 1-2 hours a day a few weeks before the event and then about 3 days before the event i put in any available time i have, rather it be 1 hour or 8 hours. Mainly to fine tune the fundamentals.
Regardless of what could happen at D.i.D 10, will you be attending TFC this year?
I spoke with Team NINJA about this very same question earlier and I said absolutely! I’m a player that can respect the hard work and sacrifice a development team has to go through to make community events like these happen and I will strongly support it even if the day does come where MASTER cannot compete. If they can put forth the effort to do these event, then I can at least show appreciation by supporting them and by pushing the community to do the same. Hats down to them for the hard work they do.
Manny, as always, thank you for your time. I think I can speak for the community as a whole when I say we can’t for your offline return this June.
